miracles

R.C. Sproul in The Invisible Hand, "Christianity is a faith that is based upon and rooted in miracles. Take away miracles, and you take away Christianity."

miracles

As a lover of the Word of God and a continuationist, I very much appreciate this post by John Piper on the relationship between faith and miracles.

Did Jesus teach that miracles are useless for those who reject the word? Here’s the story he told: From hades the rich man implored Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his five brothers not to come to that place of torment.

But Abraham said, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.”

The rich man said, “No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.”

Abraham disagreed: “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” (LUKE 16:31)

God Must Open Eyes

Does this mean that miracles are useless among people who have biblical truth, but don’t believe it? Sounds like it: If the prophets haven’t converted them, a miracle won’t either.

But think of it this way. Thousands of people first learn what the Bible says and only later come to believe it. So for a season they “hear Moses and the Prophets” and don’t believe.

Then something happens. God touches the eyes of their hearts and they can see the truth and beauty of what they once rejected (2 CORINTHIANS 4:6).

Eye-Opening Agencies

What agencies — what means — does God employ to do this? Peter says that one agency is always the word of God: “You have been born again through the living and abiding word of God” (1 PETER 1:23).

But other agents can have their part to play. Jesus said that our good works may so shine that people “give glory to our Father in heaven” (MATTHEW 5:16). He also said his miracles may have a role to play: “Believe on account of the works themselves.” (JOHN 14:11).

So the point of LUKE 16:31 (“If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead”) is not that God never uses miracles to convert sinners.

The point is that the person who remains blind to the word will remain blind to the miracle. But the person who sees the true meaning of the miracle will also see the true meaning of the word.

Some are awakened by the word alone. Others are awakened by the word confirmed by a miracle (HEBREWS 2:4; ACTS 14:3).

The Same Change of Heart

The key in making sense of LUKE 16:31 is that the same change of heart that opens a person to the true meaning of a miracle also opens him to the true meaning of the word. So it is totally true that a person who rejects the divine meaning of the word will reject the divine meaning of the miracle.

And the test of any person who claims to believe because of a miracle will be that their heart embraces the truth of the word of God. If they love miracles and don’t love the word, they are in love with the mere power, not the purpose, of the miracle. They are what Jesus calls adulterous sign seekers (MATTHEW 12:39; JOHN 6:2; 26; 7:3-5).

Always by Word, Often by Wonder

Therefore, Jesus would not discourage us from praying the way the early church did concerning the divine words and divine works:

Lord, . . . grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus. (ACTS 4:29–30).

God always quickens by his word (1 PETER 1:23), and often by the concomitant agency of works.

before and after pentecost

From Jared Wilson:

The Spirit Before and After Pentecost Did the Spirit not prowl the earth, seeking whom he may save before his coming at Pentecost? Is God's Spirit not omnipresent? How did people love and obey God before Pentecost if we believe, as Jesus said, he would be sent after the Lord's ascension?

John Piper explains with a neat illustration:

Now let me suggest an analogy to illustrate the experience of the Spirit before and after Pentecost. Picture a huge dam for hydroelectric power under construction, like the Aswan High Dam on the Nile, 375 feet high and 11,000 feet across. Egypt's President Nasser announced the plan for construction in 1953. The dam was completed in 1970 and in 1971 there was a grand dedication ceremony and the 12 turbines with their ten billion kilowatt-hour capacity were unleashed with enough power to light every city in Egypt. During the long period of construction the Nile River wasn't completely stopped. Even as the reservoir was filling, part of the river was allowed to flow past. The country folk downstream depended on it. They drank it, they washed in it, it watered their crops and turned their mill-wheels. They sailed on it in the moonlight and wrote songs about it. It was their life. But on the day when the reservoir poured through the turbines a power was unleashed that spread far beyond the few folk down river and brought possibilities they had only dreamed of.

Well, Pentecost is like the dedicatory opening of the Aswan High Dam. Before Pentecost the river of God's Spirit blessed the people of Israel and was their very life. But after Pentecost the power of the Spirit spread out to light the whole world. None of the benefits enjoyed in the pre-Pentecostal days were taken away. But ten billion kilowatts were added to enable the church to take the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ to every tongue and tribe and nation.

shadow puppets

"The disciples had to admit that even at shadow puppets Jesus was clearly the best." Should I laugh or be offended? I laughed ...

kingdom power

Scot McKnight nails it. The work Kingdom has become a flabby term in our current usage ... read his article. I can only add that this is one of my frustrations with the perceived social gospel - it simply isn't the Gospel at all.

. . Too many today have abstracted the ethical ideals from Jesus’ kingdom vision, all but cut Jesus out of the picture, and then called anything that is just, peace, good and loving the “kingdom.” The result is this equation: kingdom means goodness, goodness means kingdom. Regardless of who does it. My contention would be that kingdom goodness is done by kingdom people who live under King Jesus. I applaud goodness at large. This is not a question of either or but whether or not all goodness is kingdom goodness. Some say Yes, I say No.

He continues ...

Get out your Bible and find the references to kingdom and you will discover that it refers to a society in which God’s will is done, with Jesus as the King, where the Story of Israel finds its completion in the Story of Jesus and where that same Story of Jesus shapes everyone. Kingdom refers to that Davidic hope for the earthly world where God sets up his rule in the Messiah and where people live under that Messiah as God’s redeemed and liberated and healed and loving and peaceful and just people.

Yes, feeding the poor is good and it is God’s will for this world, whoever does it. But “kingdom” refers to that special society that does good under Jesus, that society that is buried in his death and raised in his resurrection and lives that Story out in our world today. It makes no sense to me to take this word of Jesus that he used to refer to what God was doing in and through him at that crucial new juncture in time and history and use it for something else.

Very good ... and I'll add that it contains a power beyond human means. For example, Jesus didn't have fund raiser to feed the masses. He didn't recommend occupying Rome to get some government funding to feed them. He didn't send the disciples Costco with a pile of coupons. He just did a God thing ...

miracles of jesus

Well, I still like a good miracle ...