Episode 953: Stranger Things | Part 3

miracles are supernatural, and we couldn't talk about the with this unmistakable presence. And when God intervenes in the world, that's what we call it. We call it a miracle. And miracles are more than just temporary solutions to a temporary problem. Actually, miracles are the very expression of the character of God. It's a foretaste of what's to come in heaven, where everything will be perfect. They are an evidence of the power of God. So it's more than just an interruption of the natural order. I love how Pastor Tim Keller said it. We modern people think of miracles as a suspension of the natural order, but Jesus meant them to be the restoration of the natural order. The Bible tells us that God did not originally make the world to have disease, hunger, and death in it. Jesus has come to redeem where it is wrong and heal the world where it is broken. His miracles are not just proofs that he has power, but also wonderful foretaste of what he is going to do with that power. It's a foretaste of what is to come. And by the way, if you're looking for a bridge to share the gospel with your friends and neighbors, this is a great bridge to simply pose the question, do you believe in miracles? I mean, even secular media has done a survey, look at this survey by NPR of all things. The vast majority of Americans, nearly 80% believe in miracles. Now, whether the answer is yes or no, I believe the bones of this message, I said last week of year here, that the message last week about the armor of God in Ephesians 6 is one of the most foundational messages I could share. But this message today, I believe, is one of the most foundational when it comes to sharing your faith with people who are skeptics, people who are not sure about these things. And so miracles is such a great topic because some people do struggle with that idea. But what I want to suggest to you is even if your friend says no, they don't believe in miracles, is that this belief of not believing miracles are true is when they struggle with that, it really is more about who God is than miracles themselves. Obviously, if God created the world out of nothing, which is a foundational doctrine of Christianity, then certainly he can do all these other miracles that we're going to talk about today. I love what Nancy Gibbs said. She said, "For the truly faithful, no miracles necessary. For those who must doubt, no miracle is sufficient." And it didn't that true. So let's ask the question around, can we still believe in miracles? Some people believe that miracles are just impossible. You might remember when you were in high school, your English teacher may have taught you about syllogism. Syligism, where you take two propositions and you presuppositions rather, and then you have a third statement where there is a conclusion that is drawn. It's a basic idea and logic. And so here, a couple that are given by skeptics or unbelievers. The first one is this, natural laws are immutable. A miracles of violation of natural law, therefore miracles are impossible. Now, the problem with this syllogism is that natural laws are not immutable. Natural laws are not prescriptions as much as they are descriptions. In other words, a natural law doesn't cause anything. It just describes things. Secondly, to say that a miracle is a violation of that law is really overstating it, because it doesn't have to violate a natural law as much as it transcends a natural law. For example, if I had a piece of metal and a magnet, and I weighed the magnet over that metal, that metal is going to jump up. Now, is that a violation of the law? The law of gravity in particular? No, it's just a transcendence of that law. So when there is a miracle, we can just say there's a greater power at work in that moment transcending the law. Now, some people would say that miracles are incredible. And by incredible, I don't mean fantastic. I mean not credible. For example, there's an atheist philosopher, David Hume, and his syllogism is this. A natural law is something that is highly probable. A miracle is built on the lowest degree of probability. Therefore, the wise man should never believe in miracles. So he's arguing that a wise man should always basis belief on the highest degree of probability. And that's why it's conclusions that if you're wise person, you should never believe in miracles. But here's the thing. Remember the argument against the possibility of miracles is much different than the probability. So possibility, yes. Probability, well, listen, we just don't know. Let me get where it hits on to most people that live in Grandbury. Where do the odds of hitting a hole in one and golf, amen? Well, the odds are against it, but it doesn't mean we should ignore the evidence when we see it. And so for those of you looking for something very practical this morning, here it is. Odds for an average golfer on a 200 yard par three, 150,000 a one. So all you got to do statistically, hit 150,000 times, you might get a hole in one. So that's just an encouragement to you as your pastor who deeply loves you. Now, I've always said the craziest thing about lakeside hiring me as a pastor 18 years goes, I don't play golf. And so therefore I have to give you, I have to give you some stuff about it. I have to tell you a joke. Here's my joke for the day. You ready? Pastor calls in sick on a Sunday to play golf. The angel see this and they go to God and they said that there ought to be consequences to pass your Bob lying about being sick and going to play golf on a Sunday. Well, right after they complain to God, Bob sinks a hole in one. And the angel complains, you call that a consequence and God said, who's he going to tell? Thank you. I'll be here all week. So the problem with this syllogism of David Humus that it doesn't differentiate between odds and evidence. By the way, this was one of our class assignments when I was in seminary in the early 90s. I was in systematic theology. Systematic theology is the hardest course you'll ever take at seminarians. So it was the proudest A ever got because I had also had the toughest professor. Some of you know, pastor Malcolm is a systematic theology professor at Southwestern now, but his mentor was James Leo Garrett. And he was the toughest teacher that you could ever have at Southwestern. So I took his class and we called him machine gun Garrett because he spoke fast. Some of you complain that I speak fast? Machine gun Garrett couldn't top him. And so he divided his systematic theology book and two sections. One was the transcendence of God. In other words, the goodness of God. And if you ever look at any of the numbers about the goodness of God, you realize pretty early on in your study that there has to be a creator for this big universe. And God transcends this universe. And then the second part of his systematic theology was the eminence of God, the closeness of God. And remember we used to sing this song. He came from heaven to earth to show the way. Remember that song, that chorus? Because that's exactly what he did. And so the eminence of God or the closeness of God is this great miracle that we talk about. And so that's the central miracle of Christianity. As we can look at number two in our outline. And that's Christmas. And you're like, Pastor, how in the world can you talk about Christmas in June? Well, it really is an important event. What is Christmas all about? Well, it originally had a name different from Christmas. It was the feast of the incarnation. And sometimes people will complain when they read things like Mary, Xmas or things like that. But in all actuality, this is a very biblical way of describing Christmas because X is actually from the Greek letter, "Kai" that begins the word for Christ. And so you can see it there. That is the Greek rendition that we translate as Christ. And so ultimately it is about the incarnation. And as we look for bridges, rather than barriers to share the gospel, we again ask the question, do you believe in miracles? And if so, what do you think is the greatest miracle? And you could have these debates. And you could talk about the parting of the red sea. And those being delivered from the fiery furnace, walking a water, turning water into wine, the blind that see the deaf here. And all those things, I believe the Christmas miracle is central to what we learn in Scripture. I want to read to you a couple of theologians. Let's start with J.I. Packery said the supreme mystery with which the gospel confronts us, lies in the Christmas message of incarnation. And then C.S. Lewis and his book miracles says the central miracle asserted by Christians is the incarnation. They say that God became man. Every other miracle prepares for this or exhibits this or results from this. See, God stepped down from the supernatural realm into our present reality in the person of Jesus Christ. And God became humanity without in any way ceasing to be deity. And if you believe this, you'll have no problem believing the other miracles. And the word that is best used to describe Christmas is a manual. You may have heard this in some Christmas carols over the years, but it simply means God with us. And it only occurs in two places in the Bible. And what I've always loved about Scripture is how the Old Testament is assigned post to Jesus. It is really one gigantic prophecy, the Old Testament. And we only see this word a manual used twice in Scripture, one in the Old Testament, one in the New Testament. The first mentioned 800 years before Jesus came as Isaiah 7, 14. Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign. The Virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and will call him a manual. And then we see the connection to Matthew, chapter 1, where it says the Virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and that will call him a manual, which means God with us. So Matthew's invoking this 800-year-old prophecy from Isaiah and he applies it to Jesus. In the theological word for this is Hippostatic Union. It means this, that he was as much God as if he had never been man and as much man as if he had never been God. One of my professors said he was the only 200% man that ever lived, 100% God and 100% man. CS Lewis goes on to say the eternal being, who knows everything and who created the whole universe, became not only a man, but before that a baby and before that a fetus inside a woman's body. If you want to get the hang of it, think how you would like to become a slug. See, God didn't just serve a humanity from a distance, free from the toxicity of sin, but rather, Jesus came to the earth and experienced exactly what we experienced. I think one of the greatest descriptions of that is the shortest verse in the Bible that we all memorize as kids because it was the shortest one in the Bible. What was it? Jesus? What? Yeah. And we see that in the story of Lazarus, that who is to say which is more amazing? A man who can raise the dead or a God who weeps because in Christ I think we have given this glimpse in that story of Lazarus and the raising Lazarus of his humanity that he weeps for us and his deity that he raises us from the dead all in one story. And Paul writes how important this is in Colossians 2 when he says, "For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily." And so let's talk about the Christmas story like maybe you've never heard it before. You know, most of the time when we are in the Christmas season, we hear from Matthew about Mary and Joseph and how she became pregnant and the visit of the wise men and we hear about Luke and the census and everyone's on the move and there's no room at the end. He's born in a manger but the gospel of John. He wants to be sure, he gives us the theological reasoning. He tells us who Jesus is and what Christmas is all about. And he talks mainly about the glory of God. This is a major theme in Scripture. We think about his glory as his splendor and his majesty and it is about those things. But first and foremost, his glory is about his presence. In fact, the Hebrews had a word for this, the word is "Shakina." The "Shakina" glory of God, it simply means his presence glory. And this is about how God literally manifests himself among his people. And we learn from Scripture that we serve a God who wants to be known. What better way to be known than to reveal himself coming to the earth. See, we remember in the garden way back in Genesis, he wanted to walk with Adam and Eve in the garden but then sin occurs and it breaks their union and their communion with God. And then God makes himself known amongst a particular people, the Jewish people, not so that Israel would claim an exclusive right to God, but that Israel would be this conduit of hope and healing to the nations that they would let the nations know who God is and that he wants to live among his people. And then you know the story, God delivers Israel out of Egypt and he manifests his presence as he leads them. Remember how he did that? He did it with a cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night. It was the literal manifestation of the presence of God. And then at Mount Sinai, God is giving the law. And so God said in this cloud, this chicana glory will descend on the mountain. It's His presence. And then they build a house for God. It's called a tabernacle. It's kind of like a tent. And they all build their own tents around the tabernacle. We see a rendition of that on the screen. And the cloud would envelop that place by the day. And at night this fire from heaven would fill it and it would glow from the inside out because God's presence was there. Eventually they built a more permanent structure. They called it the temple. And you see another rendition of the temple. And the Bible assures us that once again, the presence or the chicana glory of God will fill the temple. And if you've ever been to Jerusalem, you know that it's built on a hill. And as people would approach Jerusalem, they would see the temple. And it was literally glowing with the chicana presence of God. But then the saddest thing you'll ever see in Scripture happen. Ezekiel's given us this list of indictments against Israel. They're idolatrous, they're murderers, they're liars. They're the antithesis of the people of God. And they're going to be taken away into captivity, into Babylon. And then God gives them another vision of His glory, leaving the temple. And that's why I say it's the saddest thing you'll ever eat. And Ezekiel 10, the glory of the Lord went out from the threshold of God. And they didn't even notice. They didn't even notice that the glory of God had left. And so the word used to describe this as ikabad. Kabad means the glory of God in the Hebrew language. And you put an "I" in front of it. It's the negative version. So ikabad means the glory is not. And the glory of God does not return. He was not the center of their life. And they were not the center of His. And for years, that temple was a vacant shell of a building. It was ikabad. But Isaiah, who also prophesied about this Babylonian captivity, has given a vision of hope that the glory of God would return. And here's that vision. Here's that prophecy in Isaiah 40, a voice cries. And the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up. And every mountain and hill be made low. The uneven ground shall become level. And the rough place is a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. And all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. So he's saying that the sign to look for that God's glory would return, would be this voice crying in the wilderness. And when you see that, you know the glory of the Lord is about to return. So this is essential to the understanding of the first chapter of John, as John describes the Christmas story. And that's why he doesn't mention the manger or the wise men or the shepherds. And yet it really is the central message of Christmas. And so it's no accident that John picks up exactly where Isaiah left off in chapter one. And it says this, there was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light. He came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. So you're talking about the light. What's the light? Well the light is the chicana glory of God. It's returning. And he says this in verse 23, John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, "I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord." So John the Baptist is saying, "I am the fulfillment of Isaiah 40." And then it says in verse 14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And here's another amazing connection. Is that the original word here for dwelt is really the word tabernacle. So literally you could read it like this. The word became flesh and tabernacled among us. And it goes on to say we beheld his glory, the glory that one and only who came from the Father. So John came to tell us that Jesus is the living tabernacle of God, then his body is the tent where the living God dwells. God returned, his glory returned, not to light a building from within, but to light humanity from within. So the glory of God is in Jesus Christ. That's the incarnation. Hebrews 1 says it like this, "The sun is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word." See, in religion, religious people didn't think that it's all about figuring it out, being smarter than everybody else and they've purchased you sigged along line, don't they? Nobody in this service, they do it in their other two services, but they've purchased you sigged along. They want you to know that they figured out the mystery of life and whatever religion that it might be. And it's about doing the right things and giving up the wrong things. It God says, "No, no, I came to save you. I came to do in and through you, what you could never do on your own." And that's why this is the greatest love story because that's about the love that costs God everything. There was a song in pop music in the early 90s called "What if God was one of us written by Joan Osborne?" And I think it's a fascinating question because somebody in the service just before this service rode in the blank there and as an outline, "What if God was Jesus Christ?" And of course, that's the answer, isn't it? What if God was one of us? Well, he answered the question. William Lane Craig is a theologian who debates Muslims quite a bit around the world and he talks about how Muslims struggle with this concept of God becoming a human being. Well, Dr. Craig began to share an illustration from the movie "Avatar." Now, just to be up front with you, I've never seen the movie "Avatar," but I'm just sharing his particular illustration from the movie. He talks about how the character, Jack Sully, is a disabled human who can't walk but he is able to take on the nature of one of the natives called the Navi. And so now he's a man with two natures, much like Jesus. Sully can do in his Navi body what he can't do in his human body like run into walk. So in a very similar way. Jesus could do things in His divine nature that He couldn't do in His human nature. In other words, in His divine nature, He could raise people from the dead. He could calm the storms and of course this analogy is limited, but you can see how it might help somebody who struggles with an idea of two natures. And so if you accept the idea of the incarnation, then all the other aspects of Jesus' life fall into place, don't they? But if you do struggle, let me recommend a great resource, a book that I read in college, and just was such a huge impact on my life, evidence that demands a verdict. Now it's a fantastic book title, isn't it? I mean, that Josh McDowell, who was an atheist at the time, traveled the Israel to disprove the resurrection and the claims of Christ that he wanted to use his skills to research and study study so that he could finally bring Christianity tumbling down after 2000 years. Many people before him and many people after him had tried to do the same thing. Every one of them failed, including Josh McDowell, to the so much so that he became a believer. He became a Christian because the evidence was so overwhelming that it demanded a verdict. And so he poses the question, if God became a man, what would we expect to see if that were true? And so he had seven things in his book, I'm going to share with you very quickly. First, he said, we would expect him to have an unusual entry into life, but we got that with Christmas, right? The Virgin Birth. Secondly, he said, we'd expect him to be morally perfect. Have you ever noticed that when you admire somebody in history, the more you dig into their life, the more flaws that you see? Well, that's true of every person's ever lived except for Jesus. The more you dig into his life, the more his luster grows. One professor said, all human greatness diminishes on closer inspection. But Christ's character grows more pure, sacred, and lovely, the better we know him. And in that true. Third, Josh McDowell said, we would expect him to perform astounding miracles. We read about many miracles. In fact, John says, there are many more miracles that I just didn't record in this gospel. In fact, I shared a book called Miracles where I talk about the different I.M. statements that Jesus makes. We'll get to that in a minute. I want to get ahead of myself. But we look at this and we would expect these miracles that many people testify. Fourth, he said, we would expect him to speak the greatest words ever spoken. A couple of times in John 7, it says this, how did this man get such learning without having been taught? And then no one ever spoke the way this man does. And our, our, his words just incredible. We've, I've studied them for all these years. And I find them more and more incredible. In fact, when you read God's Word, do you see things that you haven't seen in all your Christian life that you've never seen before? Just because you're seeing it from a different place in your maturity? His words are fantastic. Fifth, we would expect him to have a lasting and universal influence. Historian, Kenneth Scott Ladderett said, measured by his effect on history, Jesus is the most influential life ever lived. Now, people might debate that and come up with other names like the philosophers Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates. Now, if you took these three men who are revered in our history and you put their years of teaching together, it would equal about 130 years. Compare these three men's 130 years to Jesus' three years and see how his teaching impacted humanity far more than these three combined. And that's so true, isn't it? Sixth, we would expect him to satisfy the spiritual, hunger, and people. I know for most of us in this room that are believers, we would say that's our testimony. That my life was void of meaning. My life was void of anything that you would consider victorious until Christ came in my life. And so Christ changed my life for the better, not perfect but for the better. And then finally, we would expect him to have power over death. Do you realize that his resurrection has survived every test, including Josh McDowell, including who wrote the case for faith? Somebody helped me, the case for faith. - Thank you. - Strobel, thank you. I was having one of those moments. Least Strobel, there's a lot of them there. And so we see that he revealed himself to over 500 witnesses, simply put, as it says in John 149, Christ became a human being and lived here among us. So it answers the question of John Osborne's song, "What if God became one of us?" No other religious leader claimed this, not Moses, not Confucius, not Mohammed, not Buddha. And it was the only one who convinced the majority of the world that it was true. So what did Jesus claim exactly about himself? Well, let me give you three. First, his behavior was consistent with his claims. How a person behaves as a better indicator about who they are than what they say. Would you all agree with that? Certainly, what the way they live speaks volumes compared to what they say. And so if Jesus claimed to be God, how did he act like he was God? Well, first of all, he forgave sin. And it bothered people to know in. They said, "Who is this that can forgive sins? Only God can forgive sins." And of course, if someone sins against you, you can forgive that person. But if I were to come to you and say, "I've sinned against my children, will you forgive me?" And then you would reject that and you would say, "Well, I don't have the power to do that. Only God can do that." So he forgave sin. Secondly, he was the judge. He said, "People will stand before him one day and give account of their life." It says that in Matthew 7 and it says in Matthew 25. And do you know what the question will be? When you stand before God, do you know me? And his question for you will be, "Do I know you?" Next, his audience clearly understood that there were only two responses when Jesus claimed to be God. They either worshipped him or they were ready to stone him. When he said, "I and the Father are one." The Jews didn't say, "Well, that's an interesting viewpoint." No, they picked up rocks and they tried to kill him. And then thirdly, he said it directly. He said, "I and the Father are one." He said, "I am both David's son and David's Lord." He told Philip, "He who has seen me has seen the Father." And right before he was crucified, they brought him before the Sanhedrin court and Caiapus the high priest wants to know if Jesus is the Messiah. And Jesus says, "You have said it as so." And then Caiapus begins to rip his priestly robe and responds to Jesus saying that he's God, which is the proper response in their culture to blasphemy. Another time it says in John 8, "I tell you the truth, Jesus answered, before Abraham was born, I am." And there are those I am statements again that call them to pick up stones to stone him. So why is that? Why did it bother people so much that he said, "I am those seven times in the gospel of John?" We remember back in Moses' stories. He's before the burning bush and asked, "What shall I tell the people about who has sent me?" And God's response was a description of who he was. He said, "I am." Tell them, "I am has sent you." That's translated Yahweh. "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God in Revelation 1, "Who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty." By the way, he also says that in the last chapter of the book of Revelation, "I am the Alpha and the Omega." That's the message of Christmas. So the infinite became finite, the immortal became mortal, the creator became the creator. The omnipotent lived inside a young girl's womb. The Almighty became a helpless baby. The deity was wrapped in rags, the king of the universe was born and a stable. What we discover about the story of Jesus is that it's the greatest love story ever told. In fact, we love to read 1 Corinthians 13, don't we? And we read it at weddings. And what we understand about 1 Corinthians 13 is that every one of those descriptions of love is that they're action verbs. That you grow and you learn in your understanding that love has. It has to be an action. Love is more of a demonstration than a definition, isn't it? And Jesus gave us the perfect demonstration of His love for us. And that's why the incarnation was necessary. That God wants to dwell with His people. And when we trust in His sacrificial love for us on the cross, that takes away our sin. And when we believe in the resurrection because it proves that He was in His God, He sends His Holy Spirit to live in us. Again, tabernacle with us. Then He says, "Now you are the temple, and I live and walk with you every day just like I did in the beginning with Adam and Eve." He wants to be at the very center of who we are. So I want you to stand with me this morning as we have our time of invitation. I want to make sure that everyone who's listening right now has had that opportunity. Just like we saw in our beautiful baptism a moment ago that Andrew professes that he has made his reservation in heaven. Have you made that reservation? If you haven't, this is the time to do that. The invitation song of pastors here at Lakes that will be standing here before you to receive you if you've never been born again. And it's expressed in this very simple acrostic, the word gospel tells us that God wants and desires to have a relationship with us. He wants to tabernacle with us. But the problem is we have sin and our sin separates us from a holy God. So it creates this dilemma for all of humankind, the dilemma of wondering, "How can we be reconciled to God?" And so the world, everything outside of Christianity says, "Well, just do good things and it'll offset everything else." But that's not God's plan. God's plan is we've said throughout this message, "God the Father sent Jesus." to live a perfect life, to die on the cross for your sin. We know it paid for our sins because Jesus uttered this term, this phrase, it is finished. And he's talking about our sin, paying for our sin in that way. He didn't stay on the cross. He was resurrected as the first fruits, which reminds us that we can join him in that resurrection if we'll respond in the same way that those 84 children did at Vacation Bible School. If you will simply trust and Christ alone, not your good works. If you trust in Christ alone, it says He'll save you. That's God's plan. That's it. The great exchange, your sin for His righteousness. And what's amazing about this experience, this decision of trusting Christ alone, is it supernatural. He doesn't say, "Clean up your life first and then come to me." He says, "Come just as you are, and I will radically change your life." That's what God does for us. And He's giving that offer, that invitation, that invitation, everyone who still has breath. If you haven't made that decision, come take the hand of one of our pastors. And any other decision that's on your heart today, if you need prayer, we're honored to be your pastors and a pray for you. So let me pray for us, and then as we sing this song, let us have decisions made all over the Sautitorium. Father, thank you for the good news of the gospel. And we thank you that, as long as we have breath, we can turn to you. So Lord, I pray for those who have yet to make that decision of trusting Christ alone. And I pray for those who have, that they would walk out of these doors as missionaries in a hurting world to share the light of Christ, the Shekhanah glory, the Presence glory that you offer to us. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen, and let's sing together.