All right, so glad you're here this weekend.

Welcome Rancho, welcome Westco, welcome San Dimas.

Just quickly, the text is gonna be Acts chapter three.

We talked about the first sermon, we're talking about the first miracle.

But before we do that, just one last time, I wanna let you know, we mentioned this last week.

So College Press has published my new book and it's available to our church first.

And then once we do that, it'll go on Amazon and all that, but you can get it by just...

going onto the barcode there with your camera.

It'll take you right to the website.

Let me say what I said again.

Pastor Jeff doesn't make money off this book.

This is a book that I wrote on church time and it will be available everywhere in the bookstore, but primarily it'll be available here and you can get a copy of it.

And hey, hopefully you'll get one for your friend too, that's struggling with God, struggling with pain and suffering.

This is a culmination of study over the course of my life about this issue.

And I hope it'll be an encouragement to you.

Okay.

Now, Acts chapter 3, verse 2 through 8, I'm going to read the text, and I want to talk to you about miracles and hope.

Here's the passage, Acts chapter 3.

Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts.

When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money.

Peter looked straight at him as did John.

Then Peter said, look at us.

Now every time I read that, I think, look at us.

Do we look like we have money?

Verse five, that's what I mean.

It could have worked.

So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.

Then Peter said, silver or gold, I do not have.

But what I do have, I give you.

In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, walk.

Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong.

He jumped to his feet and began to walk.

Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping and praising God.

How many of you sang that song, walking and leaping and praising God when you were in Sunday school?

None of you went to Sunday school, that's why.

That explains a lot right there.

So as I walk through the book of Acts, I see persecution, martyrdom, death, pain, and torture.

That's what I see in the history of the first church.

In fact, the emperor Nero would actually set Christians on fire and use them as lights for his debaucherous parties.

But as I read the book of Acts, and I want us to be very honest, I also see miracles.

I see the blind see, the lame walk, paralytics rise up, take up their mat and walk.

But how many of you long to see more?

There have been times in the course of my ministry that I have prayed so hard for somebody that I've actually bargained with God for a little child, or for a wife, or a husband, while the children are standing by.

My friend Brett Mullen, I...

I've prayed so hard for him when he was first diagnosed with Parkinson's.

Here's a friend of mine that taught me the game of golf.

That's been just a great friend.

He won the 1975 US Amateur. Great golfer, great man.

At 45, at 45, diagnosed with Parkinson's and almost immediately started to lose function.

Things that you and I take for granted.

And as I saw him get worse to the point where he couldn't even walk.

Can't even walk now.

Now he's losing his speech.

And I pray so hard.

I've actually prayed, God, if I only get one miracle in my life, this will be the one I choose.

But nothing.

I grew up in a church where we prayed, we were devoted to prayer.

Say what you want about them.

And I've said many things, but they were devoted to praying.

And I never saw one miracle.

We prayed for people who had cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's.

We prayed.

And I know that people will tell me, well, life itself is a miracle.

And I've seen God do amazing things.

I've seen God do amazing things around here.

I've seen people get healed from addiction.

I've seen reconciliation between the worst of enemies.

I've seen God soften the heart of the most hardened person.

And I've seen him bring beauty and pattern and design out of the chaos of so many lives.

So I realize that, but I'd like to see more of the stuff that happened in Acts, wouldn't you?

Wouldn't it be cool if we could pray in prayer meetings on Monday night?

Wouldn't it be great if we ended every service with a time and then the spirit of the living God moved and the lame would walk and the blind would see and the deaf would hear?

It just seems like over the course of my ministry that I...

I almost have to reconcile this idea that God is powerful and miraculous and he has done great and mighty things, but I just don't get to see a lot of them.

I see some, yeah, but not like the book of Acts.

Last prayer meeting, we had a friend of mine, Ryan Otteson, we prayed for his wife, Tracy, who's in a wheelchair now.

Something's going on with her.

Doctors can't figure it out.

So you have this healthy person suddenly.

She starts losing the function of her legs and her limbs, and they don't know what's going on.

They're trying to figure it out.

So I go down and I just kneel beside her and I began to pray.

And man, it's been a long time since I prayed that hard.

God, it might've been because I'm studying the book of Acts.

God, I know you did it before.

I mean, I know you can.

What's the problem?

And I started talking to God.

God, is it me?

Is it my faith is not strong?

Help me in my unbelief.

What's the problem?

I believe that...

Tracy can stand and walk and everything just be healed instantly.

I do believe that, God.

Look at my heart.

I believe it, but it's not happening.

Why?

When modern people read the Bible and they come across stories like in Acts 3, they say, well, the Bible is a good moral book with good moral principles, but you have to understand primitive people place these stories in the Bible because it's mere legend or superstition.

We should look for a higher meaning.

But Peter won't allow you to do that.

That's not an option.

Because in verse 16 of Acts 3, he says, By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong.

It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you all can see.

So Peter says the miracle has happened in real space and real time.

And the purpose of it has been to validate, to suggest to you, or to affirm to you.

that these men are the disciples of Jesus who did the same type of miracles.

They are from God, a God who is capable of miracles, and that the message that they are preaching is true.

So that as you go through Acts 3 and the entire book of Acts, you see miracle after miracle.

And in most settings, they are to validate or vindicate or accredit the messenger.

To say that we operate just like Jesus did.

We do as he did.

We proclaim what he proclaimed.

And God is validating that we are speakers and messengers of truth by this supernatural power.

In fact, in John 5, Jesus begged the religious leaders who rejected him.

If they're going to reject him.

To at least know that the signs he's doing are from God.

I have testimony, Jesus says, weightier than that of John.

For the works that the Father has given me to finish, the very works that I'm doing, testify that the Father has sent me.

And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me.

So he says, if you doubt my word, don't doubt my works.

For only a man sent from God can do the works I've been doing.

When I lived in New Zealand, There was a radio host, Leighton Smith, who hosted a religious-type show on public radio.

And he was asking people to call in and say whether or not they believed in miracles.

And people kept calling in, one after the next.

And I was listening, and I kept thinking, dude, this is not what he's talking about.

So they would go on and say, I believe in miracles.

Yeah, I believe in them.

And Leighton Smith would say, well, go on.

And they would say, well, the miracle of birth, or the miracle of the sunset, or the miracle of a dog warning its owner of the coming earthquake.

And finally, Leighton Smith got frustrated and he said, those are not miracles.

That's nature doing what nature was designed to do.

A miracle is an event beyond the laws of nature.

A supernatural event in the natural world for which there is no plausible explanation.

Forty years ago, people began claiming I just can't believe that the laws of nature can be broken.

This is why I can't believe in the Bible.

Now, I'm going to go off on a little rabbit trail, but I won't stay long.

But we said that we were going to deal with some difficult issues in this series, right?

Well, Dr.

John Lennox, who holds three master's and three PhDs from Oxford, Cambridge, and Cardiff, said, hold on a second.

Since God is the creator of the universe, he's not constrained by its laws.

in the way natural processes are.

Natural laws describe for us how nature normally behaves.

But God, by definition, is able to force them to behave however He wants them to behave.

And He gives the example of natural laws like gravity or thermodynamics.

He said those laws describe what normally happens under given conditions.

But they don't cause events.

or enforced behavior.

And the example is Newton's law of gravity describes how objects attract each other, but it does not force every object to move this way if another object from the outside intervenes.

And then he says, if something unusual happens, the law of gravity isn't broken.

It usually means there's outside intervention.

And he says, it's like a person lifting a book off of a table.

When you lift the book off the table and it doesn't drop, it's not because the law of gravity has been violated or broken.

Gravity still operates, but additional forces override what normally happens.

And he says, likewise, a miracle then is when God introduces a new causal input into the system, not suspending or destroying the natural order.

So when people say, you know, I don't believe in the Bible because the Bible talks about miracles, and I just don't believe that natural law can be broken.

The reality is, if you believe in God and all, If you believe in God at all, it is unreasonable to not believe in miracles.

Because the Bible says that God sustains everything by the word of His power.

That He not only created everything, He sustains it.

In fact, that's one of the most powerful passages about the deity of Christ in Colossians 1.

The Son is the image of the invisible God, for in Him all things were created.

things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible.

He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

So God not only creates everything, He sustains it.

He holds everything together.

So that the so-called laws of nature, those are God's customary ways of sustaining His creation.

So that when God does a miracle, He is doing what He always does, but not in the way He usually does it.

So to believe in God but not the possibility of miracles is illogical.

Because God, if He exists, can do anything He wants.

I mean, that's a lot of words to say that simple phrase.

And a lot of you wish I'd have just said that and stopped.

But I say all this to simply say that if God exists, miracles are no problem.

So in Acts chapter 3, I start to look at the first miracle.

And as I look closely at the miracle and then Peter's subsequent sermon concerning the miracle, I began to understand something crucial about miracles and perhaps even why I don't see them more often.

In verse 6 of Acts 3, Peter said, in response to the request for money, he says, silver or gold, I do not have, but what I have, I give to you.

In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth walk Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong.

He jumped up to his feet and began to walk.

Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping and praising God.

And when all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

Now I want you to notice something in verse 8.

He didn't just walk, he leapt.

Walking and jumping and praising God.

Why?

Because Isaiah 35 said this is exactly what would happen when Messiah came.

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

Then will the lame leap like a deer and the mute tongue shout for joy.

This is a prophecy of what will happen when the true Messiah comes.

He will come and he will be validated by miracles.

Peter understands this completely, which is why in verse 12, when Peter saw this, the Bible says, he said to them, fellow Israelites, fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you?

Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we made this man walk?

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers has glorified his servant Jesus.

By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong.

It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can see.

So that we learn that the purpose of miracles, all through Jesus' ministry, all through Jesus' ministry in the early church and the apostles, is to validate this is a man from God.

These men are from God.

This day of Pentecost is from God.

God is doing something new.

Now, here's what I notice as well.

You never find in the Bible naked displays of power.

Think about it.

Why didn't the disciples say, hey, you want to know I'm from God?

Watch me write my name in the sky.

Let's see this.

I'm going to write my name in clouds.

My name is Peter and John.

That's cool, isn't it?

Or let's play hide and seek.

You hide.

I'll tell you where you are.

Or watch me see through walls.

You go over there and hold up how many fingers and I'll tell you how many you hold up.

Why do we see no naked displays of power?

The purpose of the miracles is always to alleviate suffering or overcome some human tragedy.

Never just to show that you have some kind of power.

to demonstrate the Messiah has come.

And the prophets like Isaiah and Ezekiel and Jeremiah, they spoke of a day that you would know the Messiah has come when the blind see, the lame walk, and the deaf hear, that a Messiah would come.

There would be many who would claim to be that Messiah, but only one would usher in the kingdom of God.

Not this earthly power, not this power-hungry political kingdom where the people of God would rule the earth, but a kingdom where the Messiah would come.

And everything that we have lost would be returned to us.

That the king would restore all things to its original design.

In other words, God does not invent blindness, lameness, suffering, death.

This is not the way things were supposed to be.

Now here's the hard part.

But when we turned away from God, when we chose to go our own way, suffering, poverty, injustice.

sickness, disease, death.

Now this is where it gets tough.

It's not only the Christian worldview that has to give an explanation for pain and suffering.

Every worldview has to.

What does the atheist say about pain and suffering?

It's natural selection.

Nature has to discard the weak so the strong can survive.

Now, is that going to encourage you when you're told you have a debilitating disease?

Well, don't worry.

You're just weak and you're not going to survive, but it's good for the rest of us.

Eastern religions tell you that it's karma.

They'll tell you, well, you were weak in a previous life and you couldn't do what needed to be done.

You didn't do the right thing, so now you're going to pay for it in this life.

Is that going to encourage you?

You can't even remember what it is you did wrong in the previous life, and now you're being punished.

Buddhism, what does Buddhism tell you?

Pain is an illusion.

Oh, an illusion.

Only the weak feel pain.

Only Jesus gives you a satisfactory answer and explanation.

for suffering.

He neither denies the reality of pain like a Buddhist, nor does he proclaim that all pain is punishment for personal sin, nor does Jesus say that pain is purposeless and meaningless.

Now, again, here's the difficulty.

Jeff, I hear what you're saying, but I don't want to know what the reason for pain and suffering is not.

I want to know what the reason for pain and suffering is.

What does Jesus say is the root cause?

And I've had people say to me, Jeff, you tell me, I've heard you say that God the Father created the heavens and the earth as well as all humankind.

Adam and Eve sinned against God.

They disobeyed.

As a result, I've got to suffer the kind of world that has blindness, lameness, pain, and suffering, and evil for something somebody else did.

How does God's revelation explain that?

Okay.

You ask, and you're going to get it.

Romans chapter 5.

Oh yeah, we're going there.

Verse 12.

Paul said, Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people because all sinned.

Paul says, you're not responsible for Adam's sin.

You're responsible for your own sin.

But I guarantee, he says, you will sin.

And when you sin, it brings in death.

Yes, Jeff.

Yeah.

But you say that sin entered the world through Adam and that I inherited his nature.

That doesn't seem fair that I would have in my DNA a propensity towards sin.

Now, the reason you and I struggle with this idea is because we are individualistic.

We do not think in terms of community as did the ancient cultures.

Let's think about this.

Let me tell you something that you do like.

Because I like it as well.

The Apostle Paul explains the gospel through covenantal eyes.

He says, you and I are in Christ.

It's one of Paul's favorite expressions and a biblical one of that.

He says, we are in covenant with Christ, not because we are related biologically, but through faith.

So that what Christ has done in history has been credited to our account.

Right?

Right?

Verse 21, for since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.

For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.

So when Paul says that we are saved in Christ, he's saying that Christians have a covenantal, federal relationship with Jesus.

Which means that what Jesus did in history is credited to our account.

You've heard us say this numerous times.

He represents us legally.

He is our legal representative.

We love it, right?

Because that means we're saved by grace.

We're not held responsible for our sin in the sense that Christ died for our sins and what he did now is attributed or accredited to our account.

We like that part, right?

However, in the same sentence, Paul says that all human beings are similarly in Adam.

In other words, Adam was our covenantal representative for the whole human race.

What he did in history is attributed or laid to our account.

And suddenly when we hear that, we don't like it.

We want justice.

You don't want justice.

I know this isn't easy, but how many of you appreciate that what Jesus did is credited to your account?

Love it.

Had nothing to do with you, but I love it.

But how many of you appreciate what Adam did has been credited to your account?

I don't.

No matter how you understand this covenant, that is not Paul's primary point though.

In verse 12, therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, Adam, and death through sin, Adam, and in this way death came to all people because all sinned.

In other words, if you go back to last week, We die not because we were preordained to sin, but God knew we would sin, which is why he established before the foundations of the world a place of redemption.

But we do have a propensity to sin because we are descendants of Adam.

There's something that happened to us in the genetic pool in our past where we have that propensity.

But Paul doesn't get stuck on this.

What do you get stuck on?

And the whole point of Romans 5 begins in verse 15.

But the gift is not like the trespass.

For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to many.

Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man's sin.

The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.

For if by the trespass of one man, death reigned through that one man, Adam, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

That's it.

That's Paul's point.

Whatever happened in Adam has been undone completely and even more so by the one man, Jesus Christ.

The overarching point is this sin causes disintegration.

And we are all sinners.

How does the atheist or the agnostic explain the disintegration of this planet?

Think about it.

I thought evolution discards the weak so the strong can survive.

But the reality about the planet is it's dying.

It's not going from strength to strength.

Second law of thermodynamics, it is disintegrating.

Why?

The Bible is the only book that gives me a satisfactory answer to this question.

And it tells me that sin is the real problem.

Think about poverty in America.

Why do we have poverty?

Well, all the research that we've done over year and year begins with a broken family.

Children in unstable family environments experience lower academic achievement, drop out of school earlier, experience higher psychological stress, develop more slowly.

The loss of income due to separation or divorce increases poverty risk immediately.

We forget that the reason marriage is sacred and not to be entered into lightly is because God loves us and knows the damage unfaithfulness or selfishness brings.

What kind of selfishness?

The selfishness that says my own personal satisfaction matters more to me than the happiness and well-being of my spouse and children.

As you look over history, the kingdoms that have begun to reign, It was always a decline in objective moral values that ultimately caused the destruction of society.

Sin is one of the most objective two realities.

Objective two realities.

yet overwhelmingly empirically verifiable.

So you can complain about the reality of sin in the world.

You can complain about the covenant we had in Adam, but the reality of sin is the primary cause of pain, no matter how you look at it.

And we've not even begun our discussion on large corporations, political leaders, and the arrogant oligarchs around the world who bring pain and suffering into our lives.

Now, when the miracles occur, as they did in Acts 3, They're supposed to remind you and me that God is no happier about pain and suffering than you and I are.

It's not his invention, and that soon he will rectify it.

And the miracles that we see in the beginnings of the church are a deposit guaranteeing what is yet to come.

People will often say miracles are the suspension of the natural order.

I beg to differ.

The Bible miracles are actually the restoration of the natural order.

It's the way things are supposed to be.

When a dead person is raised, when the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the natural order is being restored.

That's the way God created the world to be in the first place.

And deep inside you know this, which is why you're so discontent.

Think about it.

When you see a lame man, you don't say, oh, too bad, bummer.

Unless you're just heartless.

You see a blind man, you don't say, oh, too bad, can't see.

When you see someone with Parkinson's, you don't say, cool, he gets to ride in a motorized cart.

No, it hurts us.

When we see people close to us hurting in pain, it hurts.

And it hurts because we know something's amiss, something's skewed, something's not right.

Jesus and the apostles' healings are the only natural things in an unnatural, demonized, wounded world.

And that's why last week we said that one day God is going to drop the hammer on all this pain and suffering.

That's why in verse 17 of Romans 5, 4, if by the trespass of one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man?

Now, just quickly before I get back to the big question, what kind of hope does that give us?

If we believe this to be true, Charles Wesley took Isaiah 35 and he wrote a hymn.

And he said, hear him, you deaf, praise him, you dumb, your loosened tongues employ, you blind behold your savior come, leap you lame for joy.

The first miracle points to the day that is coming when there will be no suffering.

It will all end.

But here's the thing.

Have you noticed that even though we've gone through this philosophical argument of pain, suffering, and evil, it hasn't really helped you that much.

Have you noticed that?

You think I don't know that?

We had to go there, but you know, somebody's really in the midst of pain and suffering, and I give them the philosophical argument where you know there's God, and there's evil, and there's moral.

That doesn't help you.

You need more than intellectual enlightenment.

Joni Eareckson Tata, I don't know, maybe we're in a generation that most of us have forgotten.

Bright, beautiful, gifted.

When she was 17 years old, she dove into shallow water near Chesapeake Bay, instantly paralyzed, confined to a wheelchair at age 17.

How do you face life knowing that you'll never walk again?

And the answer is, only if you know that one day you'll leap for joy.

Do you know Joni Eareckson-Todd has said, sometimes God allows what He hates to accomplish what He loves.

And then she said, I would rather be in this wheelchair knowing God than on my feet without Him.

First Thessalonians, brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind who have no hope.

For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep.

Man, if you're going to claim to be from God, and you're going to claim there's a heaven, and you're going to claim that one day all pain and suffering and evil will be wiped out, you better give me a demonstration now.

And that's the book of Acts.

To give you a deposit, guaranteeing what is yet to come.

But here's the question.

Oh man, as I said before last week, I love getting older.

You're more transparent, you're more vulnerable, and you're not afraid of people.

Except for maybe Michael.

I'm afraid of Michael.

Why do we not see more miracles like this in the church then?

Revivals come to our church.

I've seen it.

I've seen remarkable things.

We have prayed for people and cancer has gone.

Relationships have been restored.

Eyes have been opened.

People far from God, I mean a long way from God, suddenly their eyes are open and they come near.

But wouldn't it be great if every weekend we had leaping and praising God?

Wouldn't it be great?

See, I've lived in Africa, and I've heard a thousand African evangelists claim that it happens all the time, but when I go and investigate, I never find it.

I see televangelists on the television claiming to have this power.

And all these miracles are happening.

And then you go and you read a journal article where there's a setback.

And the people who they say were healed actually were not.

And then I've seen televangelists hold in their hands as if they had the power.

And they were wielding the power to give it to whom they decide to give it to.

As I was down on the floor praying for Tracy Otteson.

I was down there for a while.

And as I was praying, I'm being very honest with you here, God spoke to me.

Now, not audible, but I felt, I sensed God saying this, Pastor Jeff, why do you want her to stand up and walk?

Well, what do you mean?

Is it because you're building your kingdom and not mine?

Is it because you want word to get out that healings happen here?

Why do you really want her to stand up and walk?

Can we think about something for a moment?

If I prayed for Tracy and she stood up and walked, what would happen?

I want you to think.

What would happen?

Would there not be people?

Would that word not get around and people would be coming here from everywhere to get what?

Who gets glorified?

Now stay with me.

I'm not saying that God doesn't do miracles.

Just sit with me for a minute on this.

Peter said, silver or gold I do not have, but what I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ.

I'm just not sure we can handle it.

I am not sure.

I am not sure that if God moved this way that we would not explain it away somehow.

I am not sure that if God moved this way, that we would be glorified.

Our church would be glorified, but God would get very little of it.

I am not sure that if God did this, that it wouldn't put me in a place that is unhealthy and vulnerable, or the rest of our leadership.

Now what I find in it, stay with me now, I'll get back to that.

What I find is that when Peter says this, he says to the lame man, I know you think you know what you want, and it's money, but I'm not going to give you the money, because there's actually something you need more than the money.

Now, when he says that, it reminds me of what happened all the way back in Luke chapter 4, Mark 2.

Do you remember when the paralytic had his friends carry him and lower him through the roof so that Jesus would heal him?

Now, you imagine what life would have been for this paralytic.

He lives his life on a six-foot-by-four-foot mat.

His whole world is right here.

Somebody else has to carry him, clothe him, clean him.

No sense of independence, no medical hope of anything changing.

No surgeries, no rehab, no treatment centers, nothing.

And worse yet, he's got no purpose, no security, no significance.

He doesn't matter.

And you can imagine a guy like that spending all his life on a mat, dreaming of what life could be if he could just walk.

Then he could run, then he could play, then he might have marriage, then he might have a wife and children.

All the things that really matter to him.

In fact, some people, when they're diagnosed like this, suicide becomes an attractive option.

Now, thank goodness this guy has some friends who really love him, and they're going to help him.

So they carry his mat.

I'm assuming four friends.

They get there, and there's SRO, standing room only.

So one guy's an out-of-the-box thinker.

He thinks, hey, let's go up on the roof.

They get him up on the roof, they lower him down.

And when they lower him down, Jesus sees him.

And do you know what Jesus says to him?

Mark chapter 2, verse 5.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, Son, your sins are forgiven.

Now, if you're the paralyzed dude, you're going to say, Great, good, but that's not why I'm here.

Right?

Why would Jesus even say something like that?

Jesus is saying to him, I know you're suffering.

I know that you've been a victim of things that have nothing to do with you, not your fault.

But you've got a deeper issue.

By coming to me and asking me to heal you, you're not going deep enough.

Jesus is saying, you've got to understand the depth.

Now listen, this is going to help so many of us.

You've got to understand the depths of human longings.

Walking has become everything to you, sir.

You think if you can just walk, all is going to be well.

If I just had my legs, I'd be mobile, I could get off this mat, and I'd have no more problems.

Sound familiar?

If I could only get married, man, my life would be restored.

Hey, dude, your problems are just beginning when you get married.

If only I had children, oh my goodness, college, you know, if I could just get that job, if I could just get that promotion, if I could get a little bit more money, if I could find a husband, if I could find a wife, if I could just get out of debt, all would be well, and I'd never complain again.

Jesus says, young man, if I heal you, you're going to have an euphoria for a little bit of time.

There's going to be dancing and singing and shouting and leaping, but give it two, three, four months, it'll be something else.

There's always discontent.

It runs deep in the human heart.

And all the miracles that Jesus performed, beginning with the first one in Acts 3.

I've been trying to say this for a long time.

They are temporary fixes.

Right?

All the people that got healed died.

Eventually, all of us will be lame, blind, and deaf.

It's like the old guy who sneaks up behind his wife.

Because he's been trying to tell her she's losing her hearing.

And he says, honey, can you hear me?

Nothing.

Gets a little closer.

Honey, can you hear me?

Nothing.

Third time, honey, can you hear me?

And she says, for the third time, yes.

We're going to get to the age, all of us.

All of us.

Suffering is not our primary problem.

What's our primary problem?

We need Jesus.

Jesus is the only thing you can't live without.

Why?

Because your sin separates you from everything that is truly good.

Sin separates you from the source that fills your deepest longings.

As I've said before, you're not really after money.

You're after the security you think money brings, which is an illusion.

You're not after community.

You're really after belonging and companionship and love.

You're not even after luxury.

You're after perpetual wonder because you're bored.

No matter how much of all these things you have, the lame man will be lame again, unable to walk.

But with Jesus, he will leap forever.

And the miracles are the reminder of these things.

And at the moment you understand your deepest need, that Jesus can bridge the gap between you and God, and that if you will embrace his forgiveness.

that you will get to, you will, something will happen deep in your soul, deep in your soul.

It will change so many things that even when you're suffering, it will seem okay.

Joni Eareckson Tata said, I would rather be in this wheelchair knowing God than on my feet without him.

How does she know that?

Because her suffering is where she met him.

The God who gave her that for which she truly longed, the healing of her soul.

What does that mean?

We say that, but what does it mean when the pastor says that?

It means it is possible to connect with God on such a deep level that there is a peace that overwhelms you.

It's like the deep breath moment where you realize it's all going to be okay.

I'm going to be okay.

He leads me beside the still water.

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He restores my soul.

And even if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil.

Can I ask all of you?

What have you been chasing that you believe if you capture it, it's going to save you?

It will not.

It will not.

You're going to lose your sight again.

You're going to lose your ability to walk again.

You're going to lose your life again.

But when you discover Jesus, then your greatest need has been met.

And any loss you experience is temporary.

It's one thing to lose someone you love.

It's another thing to lose the primary source of all love.

It's one thing to go into a wheelchair for the rest of your life.

But if you don't have the certainty that you will one day leap for eternity, it will destroy you.

You know, I love Superman movies, and my favorite Superman was Christopher Reeves.

I love Christopher Reeves.

Handsome guy.

You know what happened to him, right?

Equestrian accident, paralyzed in a wheelchair.

And if you know anything, I followed his life because it was almost unbelievable.

He never stopped smiling.

And here's what he said, the only way I could go on is if I'm certain that one day I will walk again.

There's no comparison between walking for the remainder of your life here on earth and leaping for joy for all of eternity.

Most of the people that come to church, they come because they're looking for silver and gold in the beginning.

They need a blessing.

They feel lost.

They need inspiration.

They need hope.

They need healing.

They need the touch of the divine.

to somehow make sense out of all the chaos in their lives.

But what most don't realize is that any fix they receive is temporary at best.

What they need is the restoration of the soul to connect or reconnect with the Creator's moorings.

Do you realize what Peter says in verse 9?

Repent then and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.

He says, repent of thinking that something other than God can make things right for you.

Repent from thinking that pursuing everything else other than God will help you.

Repent from worshiping or giving ultimate worth to something else other than God.

And when you repent, stand back and watch what happens.

Because once you realize that you are no longer separated from God, and the Spirit of God descends upon you, something's going to happen in your soul, something that is unshakable, something that is more lasting than anything you could ever receive on planet Earth.

Miracles.

Yes, I want them.

Hey, by the way, I'll tell you in a minute, I'm not stopping praying for them.

And I'm going to keep praying for the Tracy Ottisons of the world.

And I'm going to keep believing that God can do immeasurably more.

And I'm going to continue to pray and to pray and to pray, but I'm going to trust.

And I'm always going to remind myself that the greatest miracle of all is the healing of the soul.

Now, there's one last thing.

One last thing.

I want you to notice that miracles always make the miracle worker vulnerable.

They place the one who does the miracle in jeopardy all through the book of Acts.

So Peter and John, what happens to them next after this miracle?

They're thrown into prison.

What happened after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead?

That's a pretty good miracle.

John 11, 53, so from that day on, they plotted to take his life.

They're going to kill him.

Jesus could not put Lazarus out of the grave without putting himself in the grave.

And even in the miracles of the book of Acts, we see substitutionary sacrifice.

Remember the woman with the issue of blood?

She's walking through, she touches the hem of Jesus' garment because she believes there's healing in his wings and power goes out of him.

Jesus says there's a power that's gone out.

Jesus' strength goes into her.

Her weakness comes into him.

And people say that the Bible is just like any other book of myths.

That means you haven't read the Bible because in myths and legends and fiction, supernatural power makes you less vulnerable.

You become stronger and stronger and invincible.

You can stop bullets.

You can leap buildings in a single bound.

You know, you can do amazing things.

But the miracles of Jesus and the apostles, it makes them weaker and vulnerable.

In fact, look at verse 15 in Acts 3.

You kill the author of life, but God raised him from the dead.

Wow.

The greatest miracle in the world that has ever been witnessed is God becoming a man and making himself killable, spearable, nailable, mortal.

But had Jesus come in power and strength to destroy all the sources of evil, nothing would have been left.

Especially you and me, right?

If he'd come in strength, we'd all be dead.

But he came in weakness and he died on the cross to free us, to justify us, to bridge the gap between us and God, and to cure the only disease that can truly destroy us, which is separation from God.

You understand?

The miracles are a sign that one day...

They're going to be commonplace.

In fact, the natural order will be restored.

In the meantime, we continue to pray.

But our primary passion and our primary goal is the healing of the soul while continuing to pray for the healing of the physical body.

Can I tell you something?

I don't know where you are, but His power comes into your life only when you are willing to become weak, humble, vulnerable, and you surrender.

To go up, you must first come down.

His power does not come to you except through his weakness, but his power doesn't come to you except through your weakness.

Listen now, he may have to break you to save you.

Here's my conclusion then.

When I pray, and I do pray, I want to tell you, when we have those prayer meetings and I get a glimpse of what God is able to do in the lives of people, I pray so desperately that people who are in wheelchairs could stand up and walk, that the lame could walk, the blind could see, the deaf could hear.

I do.

I pray that.

I won't stop praying that because I believe in a God who can do whatever he wants to do, and that miracles are the way things should be.

They are the more natural order.

But I've come to believe this, the more that we humble ourselves and realize that the greatest illness we have is separation from God, I believe that the more we as a community and a group look for the soul healing and relationship with God, the more God will be willing to bring the physical.

The more we really value what should be valued, the more God will be willing.

And so I will never stop praying, James 5, 16, therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.

The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

I will never stop praying for healing.

I will never stop believing that God can do miraculous things.

And I want it.

Don't you?

Come on, don't you want it?

I want that.

But here's the thing.

I don't need it to believe in God.

I don't need it to believe in God because the greatest miracle has already been performed.

And let me say it one more time.

When you and I value the healing of the soul above and beyond everything else, I believe that God is more willing then to release the healing of the physical.

So help me.

Father, I thank you for the power of your word.

I thank you for the first miracle as I do the first sermon, and I pray that maybe our eyes would have been open to the reality that God is able to do, willing to do whatever He wants to do, immeasurably more than we could ever ask for imagined.

But can we make us into the people who love people so much that we want the healing of the soul to be the first and first priority?

That we would love people who are far from God so much around us, that we would look at them as not someone who is you a pagan or a heathen, but rather someone whose soul is sick and needs refreshing and peace.

And because we have the answer, we share it, we give it, and we pray.

And Father, if by doing miraculous works opens the eyes of the blind, if that's the way you intend, please don't let us stand in the way.

If it's our glory, We don't want our glory.

If it's our kingdom, we don't want it.

But help us because we're weak.

Help us in our unbelief.

Help us in our shallowness because we want to see revival move from where it is now to a place of greater strength, where when we pray, you release your divine energy and the healing comes.

In Christ's name, everybody said, amen.