Signs & Wonders

SERMON: 2010-10-31--ac1056--signs-wonders-part-1 SOURCE DURATION: 00:41:04.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 0.98 APPROVED: false REASON: Candidate 6 concludes the theological exposition (the sermon) regarding signs and wonders in the 21st century. Candidate 7 marks a clear transition into structured music/hymn material ('He is the Lord...'), making candidate 6 the last segment of the main sermon content. Acoustic segmentation found sustained music at the end edge and moved the boundary to the adjacent transcript segment. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: 00:38:18.040-00:40:54.960 ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: yes ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: end Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- Well the year was 1981. John Wimber, musician, founder of the Vineyard family of churches, was invited to give a lecture at the prestigious Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California on the topic "Signs, Wonders, and Church Growth." And in his presentation, he made the case that if the church was going to fulfill the great commission in our generation, we had to do more than talk about Jesus. He said he believed that we needed to be able to demonstrate to the world the power of Jesus with signs and wonders. Well the speech was received amazingly well actually, so much so that he was invited to teach a course at Fuller Theological Seminary. And that's no small feat because Fuller Theological Seminary, headed up for many years if I recall correctly by somebody from the Christian Reformed Church just for the record, Richard Mao, is the largest independent seminary in all of the world. And so from 1982 to 1985, John Wimber taught a course entitled "The Miraculous and Church Growth." And quite a course it was because rather than just lecture and discussion format, the class really took the form of a laboratory where the students and Wimber engaged each other and engaged the Lord, inviting the Lord to perform signs and wonders in their midst, which indeed is what he did. I had the privilege one time of attending John Wimber's home church, the Master Vineyard congregation if you will, in Anaheim, California, and watching Wimber operate in the gifts of the Spirit and leading his community of faith and experiencing signs and wonders was indeed something to behold because I believe he was truly called and equipped of the Lord to move the church forward in those areas. So he taught that course as I said from 1982 to 1985, but not surprisingly before long the backlash began to build up. A course like that some people said has no place in an established academic institution. Signs and wonders others argued ceased at the end of the apostolic age when the canon of scripture was closed. And still others said signs and wonders minimize the importance of the preached word of God. And so the controversy built up. And while today that controversy has significantly toned down signs and wonders and their place in the church continues to be a significant bone of contention. It significantly divides the church because the extremes range all the way from sort of an uncritical acceptance of whatever is supernatural as being attributed to God to a radical writing off of everything that doesn't make sense as either a psychological aberration or even a demonic deception. As always I suspect the truth probably lies somewheres in between. But here in the text that we're looking at this morning, Acts chapter 4 verse 30, we have the early church unapologetically crying out to the Lord, "Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus." And as we take some time this morning to look at that verse, we're going to try to answer three basic questions. The first question is, what are signs and wonders and why are they important? The second question is, why don't we in our own day and age and in our own culture see more of them? And then thirdly, what are the implications for us today? Beginning then with what are they and why are they important? Well to understand the significance of signs and wonders and why the church here prays for the Lord to stretch out his hand and do them, you have to place them in the context of the Great Commission. The Great Commission is recorded for us of course at the end of Matthew's gospel and the Great Commission says, "I want you to go out to all nations and make disciples of them. Bring them to faith in Jesus and teach them to live the way that I want them to live." Now, I don't know if you ever had opportunity to lead somebody to Jesus. I don't know if you've ever taken the Great Commission seriously in your own life with your own family, friends and neighbors, but if you have, I can pretty well guarantee you that it's harder than it looks, isn't it? Because whenever you try to bring somebody to faith in Jesus, you run up against a whole series of obstacles. First obstacle is people are inherently selfish. Why should I bow before God's authority? Second obstacle that you run into is people have their own belief systems and by the time most people are 20 or 25, that world and life view is pretty much established. If Jesus isn't a part of it, why should they believe you? And why should they believe Jesus when there are so many voices out there, all of whom are promising the whole world on a platter? And so what happens therefore is that frequently words alone are not enough to bring somebody to faith. And that is why throughout scripture and throughout history, God not only equips the church to speak his word with power, but also to demonstrate his power in signs and wonders. Listen, for example, to how the apostle Paul puts it in Romans chapter 15, 18, and 19. He says, "I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done, by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ." And I would argue that when he says, "I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ," he says, "I have not only talked about Jesus, I have also demonstrated the power of Jesus." Many years ago, the organization, the Full Gospel Businessmen's Association would have embraced that kind of emphasis. It's not only enough to speak about Jesus, we need to be able to demonstrate Jesus. Hebrews chapter 2, the verses 3 and 4, same thing. This salvation, the message of Jesus, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders, and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. Repeatedly, therefore, in scripture, the Church is called to proclaim Christ boldly but the Church is also to demonstrate the power of Christ boldly. And that is why then here in Acts 4 verse 30, we have this prayer, "Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant, Jesus." God knows how hard it is for people to come to faith. And so for those who are truly seeking, not the rebellious heart who says to God, "Prove it," because God is never interested in proving himself, but for curious hearts who don't know any better, there is a willingness on the part of God to demonstrate the reality of Jesus by signs and by wonders and by miraculous acts. And you'll notice that in this particular verse before us here, we have two broad categories of what happens in terms of what these manifestations look like. The first is, "Stretch out your hand to heal." And all through scripture, whenever the kingdom of God comes, there is healing on a physical or emotional and certainly on a spiritual level. And the reason for that is not hard to figure out because the brokenness in the world, the Bible says, is clearly the result of sin, not always our own individual sin, but certainly the collective sin of all the world. And so when the good news of the kingdom comes and people are restored in relationship with God, then one of the characteristics of that is that the lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear, and the poor have good news proclaimed to them. That is why Jesus, when he is confronted in Matthew's gospel by the representatives of John the Baptist who are questioning, "Are you the one that is to come?" He sends them back and he says, "Go and report to John what you hear and see. The blind receive the sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor." And so one of the first signs of the kingdom is God's willingness and God's power to restore people physically, emotionally, and spiritually. It draws attention to Jesus and to the power of Jesus. And a good example of that is, of course, early on in this chapter where Peter and John are going to the temple, there is this man who has been crippled since birth. He is over 40 years of age and Peter looks at him and he says, "Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have I give you in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk." And throughout history, therefore, when the gospel has come, there has often been a breaking out of restoration, both physical and emotional and spiritual. Then, as they pray, the second broad category here is this. Not only stretch out your hand to heal, but perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant, Jesus. Now, signs and wonders in scripture are a demonstration of God's power to demonstrate His character and His purposes. The miraculous means that it cannot always be explained in terms of the natural. You will recall in Hebrews, the category is signs and wonders and miracles. Here they combine some of these. We have healings, but we have miraculous signs and we have wonders. And the purpose of signs and wonders, again, is to demonstrate Jesus is who He says that He is. He is the one ordained of God to deliver. And as His kingdom comes and the darkness is driven back, then sometimes that will be accompanied by signs and wonders. And a good example of that is the Exodus in the Old Testament when Israel comes out of Egypt and God sends, what, 10 plagues over the nation of Egypt, each one of which is aimed at one of the gods of Egypt. And so the Bible says that by signs and wonders, Deuteronomy 26, 8, the first reference to signs and wonders, God delivered His people out of Pharaoh's hand. And so very often as the gospel makes its way around the world, God will demonstrate the power of Jesus in signs and wonders. Don't know how many of you have ever read Watchmanee's little book Sit Walk Stand. Watchmanee, as you know, was an evangelist in China, instrumental through his books in God's wisdom to help me preserve my spiritual life and sanity when I went through a very difficult time. Sit Walk Stand is a study in the book of Ephesians. It refers to sitting in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, learning how to walk out of that position of victory and then learning how to stand. And he tells, in his little book, towards the end, one of the most fascinating examples in relative modern history of how God uses signs and wonders to break the power of Satan and to announce the coming of His kingdom. He tells the story here of going on a mission trip with six colleagues to one of the islands off the coast of China. At the last moment, a 16-year-old young man who had been expelled from school but had recently been converted joins the team. And so during the New Year's holiday, which in China runs for about 15 days at the first of the year, they go to this little island to evangelize. But preach as they do and pray as they might, not much is happening. And that's where I just want to pick up the story and read it in his own words. He says, "On January 9, we were outside preaching. Brother Wu, who is this young man, with some others, was in one part of the village, and he suddenly asked publicly, 'Why will none of you believe?' Someone in the crowd replied at once, 'We have a God, one God. His name is Tawang, and He has never failed us. He is an effective God. How do you know that you can trust Him?' asked Wu. 'Well,' they said, 'we have held His festival procession every January for 286 years. The chosen day is revealed by divination beforehand, and every year without fail, His day is a perfect one without rain or cloud,' was the reply. 'When is the procession this year?' asked Wu. 'Well,' they said, 'it's fixed for January the 11th at eight in the morning.' 'Then,' said Brother Wu, 'impetuously,' remember he's only sixteen, 'I promise you that it will certainly rain on the 11th.' At once there was an outburst of cries from the crowd. 'That is enough. We don't want to hear any more preaching. If there is rain on the 11th, then your God is God.' Watchman eagles on to say, 'I was elsewhere in the village when this occurred. As soon as I heard of it, I saw that it was most serious. The news spread like wildfire, and before long, over 20,000 people would know about it. What were we to do? We stopped our preaching at once, gave ourselves to prayer. We asked the Lord to forgive us if we had overstepped ourselves. I tell you, we were in deadly earnest. What had we done? Had we made a terrible mistake? Or dare we ask God for a miracle?' He goes on to talk about it some more, recognizing that if they were wrong, they would have to leave it once. And he said, 'Up until this point we had feared to pray for rain. Then, like a flash, there came to me the word, 'Where is the God of Elijah?' It came with such clarity and power that I knew it was from God. Confidently I announced to the brothers, 'I have the answer. The Lord will send rain on the 11th.' Together we thanked him, and then full of praise, we went out, all seven of us, and we told everybody we would accept the devil's challenge in the name of the Lord, and we would broadcast our acceptance.' Well, the story goes on. They have a couple of really good sunny days for preaching. And then comes the morning of the 11th. He says, 'I was awakened by the direct rays of the sun through the single window of our attic.' 'This isn't rain,' he said. 'It was already past seven o'clock. I got up, knelt down, and prayed, 'Lord,' I said, 'please send the rain.' But once again, ringing in my ears came the word, 'Where is the God of Elijah?' Humbled, I walked downstairs before God in silence. We sat down to breakfast, eight of us together, including our host, all very quiet. I can picture this. There was not a cloud in the sky, but we knew God was committed. And as we bowed to say grace before the food, I said, 'I think the time is up. Rain must come now.' We can bring it to the Lord's remembrance, and quietly we did so. And this time the answer came with no hint whatever of rebuke. Where is the God of Elijah?' Even before our amen, we heard a few drops on the tiles. There was a steady shower as we ate our rice and were served with a second bowl. 'Let us give thanks again,' I said, 'and now we ask God for heavier rain.' As we began on that second bowl of rice, the rain was coming down in buckets full. By the time we had finished, the street outside was already deep in water, and the three steps at the door of the house were covered. While soon we heard what had happened in the village already at the first drop of rain, a few of the younger generation had begun to say openly, 'There is God. There is no more Toang. He is kept in by the rain.' But he wasn't. They carried him out on a sedan chair. Surely he would stop the shower. Then came the downpour. After only some ten or twelve yards, three of the coolies stumbled and fell. So reminiscent of Bible stories, they down went the chair and Toang with it, fracturing his jaw and his left arm. Still determined, they carried out emergency repairs, put him back in the chair, and somehow slipping and stumbling, they dragged or carried him halfway around the village. And then the floods defeated them. Some of the village elders, old men of sixty to eighty years, bareheaded and without umbrellas as their faith in Toang's weather required, had fallen and were in serious difficulties. The procession was stopped and the idol taken into a house. Now you would think, would you not, that with that kind of demonstration of God's power, the whole city would fall on its knees and worship the Lord. But you know your own heart and you know the Bible stories and you know that it seldom that easy. So the story goes on, divination was made and what did they discover? Today was the wrong day. We are brilliant. Today was the wrong day came the answer. The festival is to be on the fourteenth with a procession at six in the evening. Immediately we heard this. There came the assurance in our hearts, God will send rain on the fourteenth. We went to prayer. Lord send rain on the fourteenth at six p.m. and give us four good days until then. That afternoon the sky cleared and now we had a good hearing for the gospel. The Lord gave us over thirty converts, real ones, in the village and in the island during those three short days. The fourteenth broke, another perfect day and we had good meetings. As the evening approached we met and again at the appointed hour we quietly brought the matter to the Lord's remembrance. Not a minute late his answer came with torrential rain and floods as before. That's a relatively modern day example of how the Lord will sometimes accompany his word with signs and wonders. And that's why the church here says stretch out your hand. Show us healings and show us signs and wonders. Remember not because I won't believe unless I see. God as I said earlier is never very interested in that. But if it is to confirm his word and if it is to lead people to saving faith in Jesus he is prepared to do whatever must be done to shatter the power of Satan and to deliver God's children for the glory of God. I don't know about you, I believe it with all my heart and I believe that God still wants to do that today. Which of course immediately brings us to question number two that we want to try to address in the time that we have this morning and that is why don't we see more signs and wonders in our own time and in our own generation? I mean how many of us here haven't thought to ourselves before the Lord it would be so much easier Lord for me to have faith if you could show me a miracle or two. Anybody honest enough to admit that here? How many of us in trying to do the work of the kingdom haven't sometimes kind of argued with the Lord and said Lord you could do a much better job publicizing the greatness of your name if you came along a little bit and did a mighty work. True? So why is it so blooming hard? In the time that remains I want to give you three quick answers to what I believe is the issue when it comes to signs and wonders in our day and age and remember not everything that passes as signs and wonders is the evidence of God's power it can easily be counterfeited but the counterfeit only proves the real must exist someplace. Three reasons then very quickly as to why I believe in our day and age we experience relatively few signs and wonders. The first and this is never a very pleasant one to talk about is simply a lack of faith. Mark's gospel has a fascinating verse concerning the ministry of Jesus in Nazareth it says he could not do any miracles there except lay his hands on a few sick people and healed them. I want you to look at that verse very closely doesn't say he wouldn't it says he couldn't. Now isn't that rather bizarre? Because Jesus has all authority and power he is filled with the fullness of God so he gets to Nazareth and he not only wouldn't do any mighty works he couldn't. Why not? Because in his miraculous dealings with the world God very often limits his power to our receptivity and our faith and while there are times God just blows us out of the water and he sovereignly does what he wants to do typically he begins by raising up the level of faith and the level of expectation and I know that's often abused in Christian circles where somebody gets prayed for and they don't get healed and somebody says well you don't have enough faith that can put a tremendous damper on people but at the same time we need to be truthful to scripture because repeatedly in the gospels when Jesus engages in ministry he says to people your faith has healed you is that not true? He says go on your way your faith that is to say the holy expectation that God is who he says that he is and that he will do what he said he would do is a prerequisite for God's healing virtue and God's healing power to flow. You know and I for one have no shame or no hesitation in saying Lord I believe but help my unbelief and I have never been intimidated by the fact that my faith is limited or that there are many situations where my doubts succeed my faith but I don't want that to define scripture for me I want scripture to be defined by scripture and I want to do everything that I can to grow in the gift of faith because faith isn't something you just drum up by you know just memorizing all the right Bible verses it's an important thing to do faith comes by hearing hearing comes by the preaching of the word of God but faith is a function of our union with Christ and if I'm joined to Jesus and I respond to his call and his spirit lives in me then God assigns to me a measure of faith and as I step out in that measure of faith that God has assigned to me then I discover that God meets me in those places and he accomplishes sometimes the things that I least expect him to do because God wants to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think and I find in scripture the Lord Jesus never rebukes anybody for expecting too much from God have you ever noticed that in scripture in the church we're often on each other's case because somebody will step out in faith and it doesn't work and we say well what an idiot he should have known better but in scripture God never rebukes his children for expecting too much from God but Jesus has a lot to say about those times in those places when our faith is too weak listen to what he says in Matthew 17 17 oh unbelieving and perverse generation Jesus replied how long shall I stay with you how long will I put up with you and that's in the context of having been on the Mount of Transfiguration and when he comes back there are his disciples trying to cast out this evil spirit from this boy and they've not been able so they ask him why can we not and Jesus says in one version or another this kind doesn't come out but by prayer and fasting so faith is a big issue particularly in the western world where we have technological answers to just about everything that ails us we need to grow in our knowledge of God and in our faith second reason is that we often have wrong expectations of what signs and wonders should look like I like this verse in Matthew's gospel Jesus says a wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign but none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish so the son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth the context here is doubting religious leaders and they say before we're going to believe in you we want to have you show us a sign and as I've said before that's a game God will never play because he wants faith apart from signs and he will only give signs to those who are truly interested in knowing what the truth is because it is their hearts desire to follow the truth so the question in this passage then is what is the sign of Jonah well the sign of Jonah is that he was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights according to the story and Jesus says even so I am going to be in the heart of the earth for three days and for three nights and his point is this the ultimate sign of the kingship of Jesus that he is Lord over all that he's going to judge the living and the dead is not the fact that he can do mighty works and miracles because the Bible says that false prophets will arise and do miracles the astrologers around Pharaoh's throne duplicated many of Moses's miracles originally and throughout the course of history you've got false prophets who can pull off some amazing things by whatever power they operate by but there is one thing that nobody can duplicate you know that guess what it is the resurrection from the dead and the ultimate proof that Jesus is who Jesus said he was is that after being nailed to the cross and killed and put in the grave on the third day he arose from the dead that's why the enemies of the gospel for so many years try to come up with every possible reason or excuse to say that Jesus wasn't really dead he wasn't really raised from the dead he was merely comatose and he came back to life that's why the centurion drove the spear in his side or the soldier did and out came blood and water so there would be no mistake that Jesus truly was dead and without spending a lot of time on that this morning please understand this therefore what is the ultimate sign and wonder that we can expect to see when the gospel is preached and proclaimed the one thing you know for sure is a demonstration of the power of Jesus it is the power of a transformed life where somebody has risen from the dead so to speak spiritually and emotionally one day physically for the glory of God so don't get hung up on saying well I've never seen any signs and wonders if you seen God work in your life if you seen a prayer answered if you've watched God honor your word by speaking into somebody else's life then you will have experienced the power of God following along with you accomplishing the purposes do you understand what I'm trying to say it's not about fireworks it's not about liver shivers it's all about are the dead raised and at the end of the day I'm not impressed by people who can do all kinds of fancy things supposedly in the name of the Lord I'm impressed by people who can take people by the hand and demonstrate the power of God by seeing them arise spiritually from darkness into life because that is ultimately what it's about Paul puts it this way and on Corinthians nine the verses one and two he says are you not the result of my apostleship my work in the Lord even though I may not be an apostle to others surely I am to you for you are the seal of my apostleship so why don't we see more miracles in our own day and age first of all because our faith is limited secondly because we don't always recognize signs and wonders because we're looking for the wrong thing and then this third one I think I'll just introduce and we'll need to come back to it in more detail later on we fail to understand their redemptive purpose and I'll introduce it in this way that while miracles happen throughout the course of scripture and throughout the course of history if you look carefully at the Bible you'll see that the major periods of miracles are clustered together and when we come back to this topic we'll look at what those periods are and why that is the case and we'll be drawing some very significant and important lessons from that that will help us to understand how the signs and wonders business works and why sometimes they seem to abound in history and other times they seem to be very scarce indeed and one of your homework assignments then is to give this some thought yourself as you study the Bible see if you can identify the specific periods in Bible history when the bulk of miracles and signs and wonders take place you should be able to identify five of them and then ask yourself the question why is this and what are the lessons that we can learn from [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:38:18.040; remove through 00:41:04.000] this before [CUT] the face of God in the 21st century. He is the Lord, He reigns on high, He is the Lord, from Him to the darkest created the light, He is the Lord, spike unto Him never ending in days, He is the Lord, He comes in the hour when we call His name, He is the Lord, show your power, oh Lord our God, show your power, oh Lord our God, oh Lord our God. The gospel of God is the hope of our nation, you are the Lord, it's the powder of God for our salvation, you are the Lord, that's not for riches but look to the cross, you are the Lord, send your power, oh Lord our God, send your power, oh Lord our God, send your power, oh Lord our God, send your power, oh Lord our God, oh Lord our God. [applause] [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:41:04.000; resume after this marked segment]