Ten Reasons Why I Believe in Jesus

Reason 3 - Miracles

 

Early in the ministry of Jesus the Gospel of Mark records the following story.

 

^NLT Mark 2:1-4  Several days later Jesus returned to Capernaum, and the news of his arrival spread quickly through the town.  Soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors that there wasn't room for one more person, not even outside the door. And he preached the word to them.  Four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. They couldn't get to Jesus through the crowd, so they dug through the clay roof above his head. Then they lowered the sick man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus. 

 

Isn't this an exciting scene?  Right in the middle of Jesus' sermon the roof opens and a guy - bam - comes down right in front of Jesus.  Everything in the sermon now just hung there waiting for what Jesus would do with this paralyzed man.  How Jesus handled this mega-interruption would affect how the crowd would respond to his teachings.  What Jesus preached was on the line.

 

^NLT Mark 2:5  Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, "My son, your sins are forgiven." 

 

The four guys on the roof looking down through the hole all simultaneously said, "What?"  We didn't bring him here to have his sins forgiven we brought him here to be healed.  Yet, because of their amazing faith, they kept their mouths closed and just watched to see what happened next.  But some others in the house didn't have that kind of faith.

 

^NLT Mark 2:6-7  But some of the teachers of religious law who were sitting there said to themselves,  "What? This is blasphemy! Who but God can forgive sins!" 

 

Why was this blasphemy?  If you sin against me, I can forgive you because I am the one who was hurt.  But who can forgive all of a person's sins?  These teachers of the law were right; only God can forgive sins.  So, Jesus, by saying he could forgive sins, IS claiming to be God.  Jesus has just doubled down.  If you heard last week's sermon, you may remember I talked about paying a nickel and making a choice?  We double that this morning.  Jesus has just made it a dime.  Now, not only are the words of his sermon hanging in the air waiting to see if those words are true, his claim to forgive sins is hanging in the balance as well.

 

^NLT Mark 2:8-9  Jesus knew what they were discussing among themselves, so he said to them, "Why do you think this is blasphemy?  Is it easier to say to the paralyzed man, 'Your sins are forgiven' or 'Get up, pick up your mat, and walk'?" 

 

Is it easier to say you are forgiven or to prove it with a miracle?  Here comes the climax of this encounter.  The tension in the story is about to be resolved one way or another.  We are about to discover Reason #3 in our series within a series;  "Ten Reasons Why I believe in Jesus."

 

^NLT Mark 2:10-12  " I will prove that I, the Son of Man, (wait that's Daniel 7) have the authority on earth to forgive sins." Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said,  "Stand up, take your mat, and go on home, because you are healed!"  The man jumped up, took the mat, and pushed his way through the stunned onlookers. Then they all praised God. "We've never seen anything like this before!" they exclaimed.

 

Jesus' miracles force us to pay a dime and make a choice.  These miracles were God's way of affirming Jesus was in fact his Son, the Messiah, and the one with authority on earth to forgive sins!

 

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"During Jesus’ ministry, He was repeatedly affirmed by the Father, on occasion by audible voices from heaven or by glorious transfiguration, and more frequently through miraculous signs.  Thirty-five separate miracles done by Christ are recorded in the gospels.  In the course of His ministry, Jesus healed diseases cast out demons, calmed storms, raised the dead, fed thousands at one time, walked on water, turned water into wine, and even controlled the whereabouts of fish.  Because His miracles were so well-known, Jesus Himself appealed to them as verification that He came from God."

                                                                                                      - Nathan Busenitz -

 

If Jesus did the miracles, which were credited to him in the Gospels, what does that mean?   Jesus answers that question himself.

 

John 10:27-33, 37-39 "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.  I and the Father are one."  Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, "I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?"   "We are not stoning you for any of these," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God."  ³⁷ Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does.  But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father."  Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.

 

Wow, could it be any clearer?  We are forced to pay our dime and make a choice because of the miracles!  If Jesus did the miracles, he is who he said he was.  The miracles of Jesus force me to acknowledge who Jesus is or say, "It's all a hoax.  I can't believe all these ridiculous things.  Miracles just don't happen and Jesus didn't do them!"  So, how do I pay my dime and make a choice?  How can I know Jesus really did miracles? 

 

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Here is why I believe in the miracles of Jesus.  I wasn't there.  I didn't see them.  I can only look at the record and pay my dime.  Here are 4 arguments that lead me to believe in Jesus' miracles.

 

Argument 1

The nature of the miracles are wonderful and amazing and convincing.  When I listen to the story of Mark 2 where the guys drop their paralyzed buddy down through the roof, it has the ring of credibility.  It is one of those things where the truth is stranger than fiction.  Does that story have the ring of make-believe to it?  The details, the tension between Jesus and the teachers, his claims, all sound like something real to me.  Is this iron-clad proof?  No, but it sounds too good to be false.  And you stack up all the 35 stories over and over again.  It all has the ring of truth!  It would be hard for me to say, "All that is just non-sense."  It doesn't sound like nonsense.

 

Argument 2

All the historical accounts of Jesus include miracles.  Let's set aside our belief that the Bible is God's word.  Let's just say the Bible is a collection of old documents.  These documents affirm the stories of Jesus' miracles.  The miracle reports through the Scriptures take up so much space that it is hard, for me, to believe they were all made up.  It is why Jesus caused such a stir.  It is why Jesus drew so much attention.  It is why the crowds followed him.  It is why the crucified Jesus.  He was popular because of the miracles and the expectation of his being the Messiah; because of his miracles!  If you reject the miracles of Jesus you don't have a story left; you have no explanation as to why Jesus made such a big splash.  If you deny the miracles of Jesus you deny all the evidence that was written about Jesus! 

 

Argument 3

Argument 3 is related to Argument 2, only it looks at what was written outside the Bible.  Do sources outside the Bible report Jesus as a miracle worker?  3 examples:

 

Reporting on Emperor Nero's decision to blame the Christians for the fire that had destroyed Rome in A.D. 64, the Roman historian Tacitus wrote:

 

"Nero fastened the guilt . . . on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of . . . Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome. . . ."

 

Note three things: Christus  (Christ) existed, he was crucified, and did mischievous superstition like miracles.

 

The letters of Pliny the Younger to Emperor Trajan. Pliny was the Roman governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor.  In one of his letters, dated around A.D. 112, he asks Trajan's advice about the appropriate way to conduct legal proceedings against those accused of being Christians.  Pliny says that he needed to consult the emperor about this issue because a great multitude of every age, class, and sex stood accused of Christianity.  At one point in his letter, Pliny relates some of the information he has learned about these Christians:

 

"They were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food--but food of an ordinary and innocent kind."

 

Pliny reported that the Christians believed Christ was a God; why could it be the miracles? 

 

In the writings of Josephus, a first century Jewish historian, on two occasions, in his Jewish Antiquities, he mentions Jesus.   Here is one.

 

"About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he . . . wrought surprising feats. . . . He was the Christ. When Pilate . . .condemned him to be crucified, those who had . . . come to love him did not give up their affection for him. On the third day he appeared . . . restored to life. . . . And the tribe of Christians . . . has . . . not disappeared."

 

Did Josephus really write this?  Most scholars think the core of the passage originated with Josephus, but that it was later altered by a Christian editor, possibly between the third and fourth century A.D.  Josephus was not a Christian, and it is difficult to believe that anyone but a Christian would have made some of these statements about Jesus being the Christ or was resurrected.

 

But even if we disregard the questionable parts of this passage, we are still left with a good deal of corroborating information about the biblical Jesus. We read that he was a wise man who performed surprising feats.  And although He was crucified under Pilate, His followers continued their discipleship and became known as Christians. When we combine these statements with Josephus' later reference to Jesus as "the so-called Christ," a rather detailed picture emerges which harmonizes quite well with the biblical record. Jesus historically did miracles!

 

Argument 4

This one is just me.  Jesus never asked for a miracle.  Jesus doesn't pray for a miracle; he does them.  Jesus did miracles in his own name.  I may pray for a miracle, "God please heal so-in-so."  But that is not how Jesus did it.  To me this is where I place my dime.

 

Mark 5:38-42  When they came to the home of the synagogue ruler, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly.  He went in and said to them, "Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep."  But they laughed at him. After he put them all out, he took the child's father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was.  He took her by the hand and said to her, "Talitha koum!" (which means, "Little girl, I say to you, get up!"). Immediately the girl stood up and walked around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished.

 

Jesus did miracles, he didn't ask for miracles.  That is too significant a detail for humans to have made up.  Jesus did miracles as if he was God, because he was! 

 

These 4 arguments move me to believe that Jesus did miracles.  And because I believe in the miracles of Jesus, I believe he is who he said he was, the one who has authority to forgive sins!

 

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Jesus Body List - Reason 3.  Miracles go on the muscle of Jesus.  Tying the two together; we have Jesus claiming to be the Son of Man of Daniel 7 and then doing miracles to affirm that claim.  The evidence is building and we still have 8 more Reasons to go! 

 

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The Pharisees understood the meaning of the miracles.  Listen to where they put their dime.

 

^NLT Mark 3:1-6  Jesus went into the synagogue again and noticed a man with a deformed hand.  Since it was the Sabbath, Jesus' enemies watched him closely. Would he heal the man's hand on the Sabbath? If he did, they planned to condemn him.  Jesus said to the man, "Come and stand in front of everyone."  Then he turned to his critics and asked, "Is it legal to do good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing harm? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?" But they wouldn't answer him. He looked around at them angrily, because he was deeply disturbed by their hard hearts. Then he said to the man, "Reach out your hand." The man reached out his hand, and it became normal again!  At once the Pharisees went away and met with the supporters of Herod to discuss plans for killing Jesus.

 

Kill or believe; where do you place your dime?

 

Los Alamos Church of Christ

February 14, 2010