Teachings and Miracles
.... In the course of reading the Bible, you may have noticed a correlation between teachings and miracles. Together they promote a testimony of who God is, and of what He is like. For example, Jesus fed 5,000 men (plus women and children, about 20,000 people in all), with just five loaves of bread and a few small fish. Then He followed up by teaching:
.... "I am the bread of life . . . the living bread which came down from heaven."
(John 6:48,51)
.... When He fed so many people with just five loaves, then claimed to be the Bread of Life, we had to stop and think about this seriously! A Person who can perform such a miracle certainly knows what He's talking about when it comes to bread! Maybe He is the Bread of Life! And that's an illustration of the miracle's purpose. For the kingdom of God is not in word only, but in power, and the miracle contained a testimony to verify that the word was true (1 Corinthians 4:20). It was a God-given ‘proof’ of the teaching's validity.
.... Other examples could be sited very easily. "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world," said Jesus; and suddenly a man who was born blind was able to see very clearly (John 9:5). The correlation in this case is obvious; for in addition to granting sight to the blind man, Jesus opened our own eyes in revealed a deeper truth about Himself.
.... Or again Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life" and in conjunction with His word, Lazarus, who had been dead for four days, came forth from the grave (John 11:25). Can you see the correlation, and the life that is contained in this testimony? For the teaching and the miracle complement each other again, to show us who Jesus is.
.... The LORD is known by the judgment He executes; the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Meditation. Selah.
(Psalm 9:16; see Psalm 75:1)
.... Every time God performed a miracle, something of His character was being expressed -- even if it was His sense of equity in judgment. The Hebrew word 'Selah', used above, means 'Let's think about this!' For by His miracles and His judgments we may know and understand Him better:
.... "But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight," says the LORD. '
(Jeremiah 9:24)
.... Jesus uses miracles to confirm the words He gave (Psalm 75:1; 1 Corinthians 4:20). In each case, the underlying concept of the miracle matched the essence of the teaching, making the miracle a ‘proof’ that the teaching was true (John 14:10-11). The signs that follow the gospel are no exception for they confirm the truth of the gospel, and we will discuss them in our next posting.
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Daily Bible Reading: Mark 9
posted by loren at 11:39 AM
2 Comments:
It is important to understand the correlation between teachings and miracles, but it is necessary to prove them by Scripture as well, for both positive and negative reasons. God uses miracles to testify of truth, but the devil can do some low-level miracles of his own, for the purpose of deception, and he likes to pair them up with teachings as well:
“Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons”
(1 Tim 4:1)
God warned that false prophets may give signs that would actually came to pass; yet they would be used to entice His people away from serving Him (Deut 13:1-5). He allows this to happen as a test, to see if we love Him with all our heart and soul (v 3).
So when we see a miracle, we are actually to consider three dimensions: the teaching, the miracle that confirms the teaching, and the verification from Scripture. And no matter how powerful the miracles may be, the Scriptural verification is the most vital element of the three (see 2 Pet 1:17-19). If it disagrees with Scripture, it doesn’t mean nothing really happened; but it does mean some other explanation must be sought for it.
By
loren, at 6/20/2005 11:49 AM
In a similar way, have you ever been to a seminar where someone preaches on, let’s say, finances, and then someone gets ‘healed’?
Huh? They don’t match, so I don’t get it (it leads me to doubt that the miracle was genuine). Or as a better example, someone preaches on prosperity and someone hears the message and gets ‘saved’.
Huh? Where’s the connection? Because the Bible says that the gospel is the power of God to salvation for the one who believes (Rom 1:16), and this ‘sign’ doesn’t flow from that sort of message.
By
loren, at 6/20/2005 11:49 AM
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