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University SDA Church- East Lansing

The Miracle Worker

David Shin

The Miracle Worker- Part 1

Today we're beginning a new series of messages entitled the Miracle Worker.

It's going to be a five-part series of messages extending through the middle of February to our evangelistic series.

There's actually 37 miracles recorded in the gospel account regarding Jesus Christ.

Unfortunately, we're not able to go through all 37, as you may understand.

So I've handpicked 5 of them, and I encourage you to join us each and every Sabbath.

If you're unable to come, for whatever reason, you can catch them online at our website, www.universitysda.com.

So this is gonna be an exciting series for me in my personal study and I'd like to invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to our scripture reading if you have not already.

In your pew Bible it's 1184 Luke chapter 5 verses 1 through 11 be reading from the New King James Version you can follow along in whatever version you have there Luke chapter 5 verses 1 through 11 this is the sixth miracle of Jesus and we catch up right in Luke chapter 5 verse 1.

So it was as the multitude pressed about him to hear the word of God that he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, otherwise known as the lake or the Sea of Galilee in other translations according to scholars, and saw 2 boats standing by the lake, but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets.

Then he got into 1 of the boats which was Simon's and asked him to put out a little from the land and he sat Down and taught the multitudes from the boat Jesus by the Sea of Galilee the crowd is pressing about him He wants to teach them but because of the crowd he's not able to get in a place where he can project and everyone's able to see him.

So he gets into Simon Peter's boat, asks him to launch out a little bit into the lake, and from there he sits down, what a beautiful scene this must have been, and starts teaching the people, and the people are there in rapt attention.

Now the point of this passage is not the material of his sermon, but it is just setting the stage for what is about to take place in verse 4.

Verse 4, and when he had stopped speaking, he has finished his sermon, his discourse to the people, he said to Simon, launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.

Have you ever been given advice on a topic on which you are an expert by someone who you perceive not to be an expert?

Jay Crawford advice on how to do an implant.

Or giving legal advice to Stephen Burlingame.

This is a situation because Jesus by profession is a carpenter.

Peter by profession, as long as he can remember, is a fisherman.

Jesus turns to him casually after his discourse and says, look, launch out into the deep, cast down your nets for a catch.

And in the mind of Simon, he's going through this and experiencing a little bit of an awkward moment, if it were, with Jesus, because of the command that is given in verse 5.

But Simon answered and said to him, "'Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing.

"'Nevertheless, at your word, I will let down your net.'" Now, I wanna just look at the implications of the first part of Peter's statement here.

Master, we have toiled all night in the Sea of Galilee, it's clear water.

And fishermen knew during the time of Jesus that Nets do not work in catching fish in clear water during the daytime, that's why they went at night.

He says we've toiled all night, implication, we have been trying.

We are experienced all night, hint, hint, that is the time that you catch fish.

Then he says, and we have caught nothing.

We are experts, we've been trying all night, and we caught absolutely nothing.

Then he goes on, nevertheless at your word I will let down the net.

Many times Jesus asks us to do things that goes against everything that we've experienced up to that point.

This is a moment of faith, And you can imagine what Peter's going through at this moment.

You ever done something in which in your mind you're like, all right, I'm gonna do it, but really I know this is not gonna work, but I'm just gonna do it just to show my respect for your request.

In verse 6, And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their net was breaking.

When I was a child, 1 of my fond memories was waking up early in the morning.

My dad hated fishing, but out of love for his son, he would get up and he would strap that inflatable raft to our station wagon and we would go off in the morning and there was nothing more exhilarating in the morning than when you cast your line, I didn't do net fishing, but I did with the rod, and then the line goes tight and you get up and you're reeling that thing in, oh just fond memories as a boy.

And then there's the 1 that got away, it was huge.

And this is the experience that's taking place.

So Peter, he's a fisherman, he's an angler, and suddenly he throws the net into the water and immediately those nets are tight.

And then you can hear the ripping of the net.

It's like a thousand fish in the Sea of Galilee.

I don't know what sonar or whatever it is, just get into the net and it's ripping and then you see what's taking place here.

Peter's, it turns from exhilaration and amazement to panic and when Peter, verse 6, So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them.

And when they came and filled both the boats, so they began to sink.

Peter, James, and John, he's like, come on over.

You know, he said, come, we're going to lose all this catch, this is the biggest catch of our lives.

And you can just imagine in your mind's eye, the boats are like this far away from the edge of the water because it is so heavy.

In this moment, there is something that happens within Peter that is the universal reaction of every person that has just seen a revelation of God.

He turns his attention from the miracle to the revelation of Jesus Christ that has just been seen because This speaks to a fisherman.

He knows that this is not a regular happenstance that you, in the middle of the day, you throw out your net and you catch thousands of fish or hundreds of fish.

And look at the universal reaction in verse 8.

When Simon's Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, oh Lord.

In Isaiah Chapter 6, he sees God and he says, woe is me from a man of unclean lips.

And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the king.

Desire of Ages tells us that even though he said depart from me, he was clinging to Jesus.

It was rather an indication of his own inadequacy in this moment.

Verse 9, for he and all that were with him were astonished in the catch of fish which they had taken.

And so also were James and John the son of Zebedee and were partners with Simon.

And Jesus said to Simon, do not be afraid from now on you will catch men.

So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed him.

There's a lot of things that we can bring out of this story.

I'd just like to focus in on a few simple observations of this experience that's known as the call by the sea.

And 1 of the observations is regarding the nature of this miracle.

This miracle is what I would call an illustrative miracle.

It's a miracle that Jesus performed not to meet a particular physical need.

Peter, James, and John were not hungry, and were not in need of a boatload of fish.

There were other instances in the Bible where a person is hungry, or people are hungry, such as the feeding of the 5, 000, or a person is blind, there's a physical need.

But in this case, the purpose of Jesus in performing this miracle is to illustrate something or to give an analogy or to show or impress upon the hearts of Peter, James, and John regarding something in reference to his character.

It's really in the punchline in verse 10.

Then Jesus said to Simon, don't be afraid from now on you will fish for people.

That is the thrust in which Jesus is going.

It is to illustrate that the same God that guided in those thousands of fish into the net, this same Jesus will help them in fishing for people.

He's illustrating so that when the disciples are carrying forward the gospel commission, they will remember that experience by the sea.

In a moment of discouragement, they will have this reference point, this indelibly etched illustration in their minds to help them to recognize that the same God that helped them catch the fish would help them in soul winning.

The point was The same God that helped them in fishing would help them in soul winning.

You can see that later because they left the fish behind.

The Miracle Worker- Part 2

Our Father in Heaven, we thank You for this Sabbath, for this memorial of creation and redemption.

We thank You for this opportunity that we have to remember our Creator, our Redeemer, and our Friend.

And We pray that as we pause for a few moments here this morning in the quietness of this sanctuary, as we open Your Word, we pray that we would get a glimpse of Jesus Christ, that our hearts would be warmed and touched and drawn closer and closer to You.

We pray that You would hide me behind the cross, that Christ would be uplifted and seen.

We're continuing in our series of messages entitled The Miracle Worker.

There are 37 miracles recorded in the New Testament and we only have time for 5 of them.

And so this is part 2 in our series of 5 messages on the miracles of Christ that we've chosen from the New Testament.

And I'd like to invite you this morning to turn with me in your Bibles, if you have not already, to our Scripture reading found in Mark 2, verses 1-12.

It's page 1152 and 1153 in the pew that is in front of you, or in the Bible that is in the pew that is in front of you.

And what I'm going to do here this morning is I'm going to read through this passage, Make a few comments as we go through it and then make some observations and go to the thesis of our Presentation this morning mark chapter 2 verse 1.

I'm reading from the New King James Version You can follow along in whatever version you have there And again, he entered Capernaum after some days and it was heard that he was in the house.

Jesus had just crossed over the lake and gone into Capernaum and the Bible says that it was heard, it was noised about that Jesus was in the house of this particular individual.

Evidently, he had done many miracles prior to this point and the people wanted to see Jesus.

They wanted to hear him because of the things that he had done.

Verse 2, immediately many gathered together so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door, and he preached the word to them." Incidentally, Jesus believed in the preaching of the word.

He recognized that in order to transform mankind, it came from the preaching of the word of God.

Verse 3, then they came to him bringing a paralytic who was carried by 4 men.

This individual was physically incapacitated.

He was a paraplegic or possibly even a quadriplegic.

He was unable to come to Jesus of his own volition.

He was dependent upon 4 individuals to bring him to Jesus.

He was not able to come to Jesus on his own.

His connection to Jesus came from these 4 friends who had to literally carry him to Jesus.

By the way, this makes us think, what are we willing to do to bring our friend to Jesus?

You may be the only connection that someone has, the only access, because they are not physically incapacitated, they may be morally incapacitated.

Verse 4, and when they could not come near to him because of the crowd, They uncovered the roof where he was.

So they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying.

Jesus is preaching a sermon and this is the classic or I should say the nightmare interruption to a sermon.

He's preaching and suddenly they look up, there's perhaps dust falling from the roof and there's skylight, a skylight that should not be there and suddenly in the midst of the room comes down this stretcher and there is this physically incapacitated paralytic that is looking into the eyes of Jesus.

The crowd is wondering what is happening and what follows is a fascinating exchange between the paralytic and Jesus.

Now in 3 of the gospels in which this account is recorded, there is no dialogue between Jesus and the paralytic.

Meaning that Jesus is the only person speaking.

Now I don't know why, but I would guess that it's probable that This paralytic could not express himself possibly because of his palsy.

Nothing is stated or nothing is recorded as being stated in this miracle.

The stretcher comes down and something happens.

Jesus looks into the eyes of the paralytic in verse 5, Jesus, the Bible says, when Jesus saw their faith, by the way, you can have faith for somebody else.

Did not say When Jesus saw his faith, when Jesus saw their faith, plural, when you intercede on behalf of someone else, you are having faith for someone else.

And in this case, Jesus did not only see the individual faith of the paralytic, he saw the collective faith of the people that brought the person to Jesus.

The Bible says when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, without a word being recorded as being uttered, son, what beautiful words, son, your sins are forgiven you.

Verse 6, and some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts.

Meaning that this was not something that they had vocalized or verbalized.

It was not something that was made audible to the people that were there.

This was the thoughts that were in the inner consciousness of the scribes and Pharisees that were in the room as this miracle of forgiveness was taking place.

Verse 7, and this is what they were thinking according to the Bible.

Who alone, or who can forgive sins but God alone?

By the way, the claim to forgive sins is only an attribute that can be given by God.

God is the only person that can forgive sins.

And Jesus, of course, was not guilty of blasphemy because he was indeed God.

But when a man claims to forgive sins, the Bible considers it as blasphemy.

Verse 8, but immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, he said to them, by the way, Jesus knows what we're thinking.

This is a particular case because all along Jesus could read the thoughts of the individuals, but in this case, the thoughts that these individuals were thinking was so bothersome, if I could use that word in regards to Jesus Christ, it just did not sit well with him.

They're thinking this in their hearts about this concept of blasphemy.

And Jesus decides, look, this is inappropriate, so inappropriate that I'm going to call these individuals out.

He said to them, Why do you reason about these things?

In other words, I know what you are thinking.

I know what you're processing in your inner sanctum of your hearts and your mind.

In verse 9, which is it easier to say to the paralytic?

Or to say, arise, take up your bed, and walk.

In verse 10, here comes the punchline, here's the point.

But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins.

He said to the paralytic, I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.

Jesus performed the second miracle so that they would know that he had the authority to forgive sins.

Verse 12, immediately he arose, took up his bed, and went out into the presence of them all so that they all were amazed and glorifying God saying, we never saw anything like this.

There are so many lessons that we can bring out of this story.

We could probably do a series on it, just this account.

But I want to make a few observations before we get to the thesis that we have chosen.

In this story, there is a particular exchange that takes place between Jesus and the paralytic.

When you observe this miracle, There are actually 2 miracles that take place in Mark chapter 2.

Many people may think it's just 1 miracle, the healing of the paralytic, but there are actually 2 miracles.

The miracle of forgiveness and the miracle of the physical healing.

Both of these miracles happened because of the words of Jesus.

The Miracle Worker- Part 3

Let's bow our heads together as we pray this morning.

Our Father in Heaven, we thank you for the blood of Jesus that washes our sins away.

We thank you for this opportunity that we have to gather together in this warm sanctuary to fellowship, to open Your Word, to be changed and challenged by a glimpse of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

We pray that You'd bless us now as we enter into a study of Scripture.

May our hearts be warmed as we Look into the character and the face of Jesus Christ.

I invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to another reading of the story that Zoe just read here this morning, except it's going to be in the book of Mark.

We're continuing in our 3, our part 3 of our five-part series of messages on the miracles of Jesus Christ.

We're going all the way through into the middle of February, right up to our prophecy seminar.

And I want to encourage you to come week by week as we continue in our series of messages.

And we're going to be looking this morning at Mark's account of this storm that the disciples and Jesus went through.

And it's found in Mark chapter 4, verses 35 through 41.

And I encourage you this morning to turn with me in your Bibles and follow along because I believe that there is a double blessing that you can get from reading it in your own Bibles as you interact with Scripture.

Mark 4, verses 35-41, Jesus has just in Mark 4 given a series of different parables.

The parable of the sower, the parable of the growing seed, and another parable that He spoke to them.

After these parables, Jesus in verse 35, on the same day, when evening had come, he said to them, let us cross over to the other side.

In my Bible, the words are in red, indicating that this is a command that Jesus spoke.

The disciples did not have the idea of crossing over the Sea of Galilee.

They were following Jesus' command, Jesus' direction.

Jesus said, let us cross over to the other side.

In verse 36, now when they had left the multitude, they took him along in the boat as he was, and other little boats were also with him.

Verse 37, the conflict, the plot thickens, and a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat so that it was already filling.

The Sea of Galilee is located in the Middle East.

It's a body of water that is 700 feet below sea level.

I found out that it's actually the lowest freshwater body of water on earth.

It's a humid area and it's surrounded by mountains, which is the ingredients for a perfect storm.

So what would happen is that the cold air from the mountains in the evening would descend down into the valley and mixed with the warmer air that was around the Sea of Galilee and great wind storms would often occur.

As this wind storm is occurring, now remember, Jesus told them to cross the lake, and so they're following Jesus' command, going across the lake in their boats, and as they're going across, they meet this huge storm.

I would dare say that it is probably the storm of the century.

I don't know if it was like this, but the Bible tells us that the disciples were scared.

They had gone through a series of storms during their lives and probably in the beginning, Peter especially was probably like, you know, I got this.

But as the storm started to ensue and Peter started to do the calculation, he started to do the math and the water was coming into the boat and they reached a critical point of desperation.

The Bible tells us that the waves were beating into the boat and the boat was filling up.

Verse 38, but He, Jesus, was in the stern of the boat, asleep on a pillow.

And they awoke him and said to him, teacher, do you not care?

Now there's a whole other sermon right there, which maybe I'll do on another day.

Many people, they go through a storm, they're following Jesus' leading, they're following Jesus, and they hit a rough patch, and they say, Jesus, Don't you care?

This is so classic and Mark got his account historically from Peter.

I think it's probably Peter that's saying this.

They wake Jesus up and say, don't you care that we are perishing.

Then he, Jesus, arose and rebuked the wind and the sea and said, peace be still.

And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.

Jesus gets up, and he doesn't help the disciples bail.

He gets up and talks to the wind and the sea, and he says, peace, be still.

You ever been in a room where there is a cacophony of noise just blaring?

There's all this type of noise taking place and suddenly Jesus gets up and speaks and it goes from this condition to this condition.

It's like someone hit the mute button all of a sudden.

The wind is howling, the waves are beating into the boat, Jesus gets up, peace be still.

And all you can probably hear is the breath of the disciples.

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The Miracle Worker

The Miracle Worker- Part 1

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