Coincidences And Miracles

Well, hey friends, good morning and welcome.

If we haven't met yet, my name is Grant.

Now, if you've been attending Keystone for a couple of weeks, you might have noticed that Brady keeps talking about his journey of growing a beard for the first time.

So I figured if he's gonna take my thing, I would remove the top and take his thing.

No, you can't tell us apart now.

No, no, kidding.

Hey friends, it is such a blessing and an honor to spend Sunday morning with you.

If you're here regularly, you probably hear me say that on any given Sunday, but I want to take a minute to make sure that you know that I mean it when I say it.

I want people to hear me say that I have the coolest job in the world, that I love my job.

And I want people to hear that I love getting the opportunity to be a part of such an incredible staff.

It is so life-giving.

But even more so, I love getting to be a part of an incredible community that's loving, that's humble, that's caring, that's supportive, because it's that community which has helped me transform over the past several years.

And don't take my word for it, find somebody who knew me a decade ago, and they'd be like, Yeah, Grant was a piece of work.

And I still am, right?

But we're getting better, we're trending in the right direction.

So thank you for allowing me to be a part of your community from the bottom of my heart.

It is a blessing and an honor to spend Sunday morning with you.

That being said, you should also know that over the past several weeks, we've been in a series called That You May Believe.

A series in which we examine the gospel according to John.

More specifically, each week we examine one of the seven miracles that John has organized his gospel around.

John doesn't call them just miracles, though.

John refers to them as signs.

Because it's through documenting these specific miracles, John wants the audience to know who Jesus is.

He doesn't want to just record random displays of power.

John wants to understand with the reader who Jesus is.

In fact, near the end of his gospel, he writes as much, where he writes, Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.

So why has he made this specific selection?

Well, we keep reading that these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

You see, John's goal is not to just create authentic and trust and belief in someone's heart, but it's that that belief then manifests itself in their outward behavior, that they become reflections of the love of Jesus through the trust and belief that they have in their hearts for him.

With that being said, today what we get to examine is the sixth of the seven signs that John records in his gospel.

Now, I need to be a little honest with you.

Every time I hear or see this word signs, I get in a little bit of trouble.

You see, I have this condition known as um squirrely brains.

You guys ever heard of that one?

Um so anytime I see or hear the word signs, my brain immediately goes to thinking about the movie signs.

Well, and I think this happens because I have such a strong reaction to this movie.

This movie actually made a really big impact on me.

I remember the first time I saw it, I was like 12 or 13 years old.

I went and saw it with my stepbrother.

And we still talk about its importance to this day.

If you've seen it or maybe you haven't, you should know that you that kind of has something to do with like crop circles and aliens, but that's not the real message in the movie.

You see, near the end of the movie, we get an idea of what the real message is when we watch a conversation take place between the two main characters.

Each of them holds a different explanation for why things occur.

One of them maintains that everything that happens is just chance.

It's just a matter of circumstance and is coincidence.

The other maintains that everything happens for a reason, that everything is happening by design.

So as the audience, we become invested in trying to determine whether everything happening in not just the movie, but our own life is a coincidence or a miracle.

Now, near the end of the movie, the director pushes the audience to invest more in the idea that everything is a miracle and that everything is happening for a reason.

Now, I gotta be honest with you, this movie messed me up.

As a teenager, this movie messed me up in two ways.

First way, aliens.

I uh I cannot tell you how big my fear of aliens became after watching this movie.

Well, other teenagers had normal fears like like heights, public speaking, or talking to their crush.

No, not your boy.

You know what I was afraid of?

E.T.

I was afraid that this freaky dude and his friends were gonna pluck me out of bed and do science on me.

I you can't even make that up to this day.

I'm still kind of scared of it.

Just thinking about those dudes freak me out.

I can't.

That's not the real reason that science messed me up.

The real reason that science messed me up is that as a teenager, I started seeing everything as a sign.

I started seeing everything as a sign, as having a reason, as having a purpose, as having an intent, of being of a design.

Now, this is good and dandy when good things happen to us, right?

Oh, thank you, God.

Thank you for the blessing.

God is good.

But that story changes a lot when the bad things occur.

When we start associating the bad events of our life with God's will, we start traveling down the path of resentment.

And eventually, like many others, we start leaning towards disassociating ourselves from having a relationship with God at all.

Friends, I think we as responsible believers owe it to ourselves and our neighbors to develop the means to discern between when these two things occur.

To understand when something might just be coincidence, and to understand when something might be a miracle, to know if something was chance, or to know if something was planned.

Because if we don't, we ourselves might find ourselves resenting God as well.

Now, through the sign that we get to examine today, I think that we get an opportunity to develop a framework for how we can understand and separate these two things from one another.

And today our sign is going to take place in John chapter 6.

John 6 · chapter mention

Now, this is going to occur immediately after Jesus has fed the 5,000.

If you recall, Jesus feeds the 5,000, and the crowd tries to force him to be their king.

Not because of what he can do through them, but because of what he can do for them.

And as a result, Jesus sends his disciples into a boat, removes himself from the situation to the mountainside.

And it's there in John chapter 6 where we start reading about today's sign.

John 6 · chapter mention

It's there we read, When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum.

It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.

The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing.

And it's here that we have to stop for a minute.

Stop for a minute and appreciate and respect the picture that's being painted.

You see, the entire story that John includes about Jesus walking on water, it's only five short verses.

He doesn't include a lot of detail.

That means that the detail he does include is worth our focus and attention because it's in the detail we find why he included this particular sign.

Notice with me how he mentioned that the water was rough and that it was dark outside.

Now, John's original audience would have picked up on these things as context clues.

They would have noticed that this story being told is quite parallel to another story that they were familiar with.

The story that they found in the beginning of their Bible.

Check out how parallel this story becomes to early creation account.

The first couple sentences in Genesis, we read, In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.

Now, in this early account, what we get is an introduction to the two primary cosmic entities responsible for how events unfold in the universe at the beginning of time.

In ancient Israel, large bodies of water typically represented chaos.

So in this early creation account, the reader is introduced to God and chaos as the forces which create the unfolding of events at the beginning of time.

Now, John, in his telling of Jesus walking on the water, is intentionally including details to ensure that the reader notices how parallel these stories are.

Recall, John is using this sign as a means to help the reader understand who Jesus is.

He continues telling his story about Jesus walking on the water.

When we read, when they, the disciples, had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified.

Why were they terrified?

Because they knew exactly what they were witnessing.

They knew exactly that they were in the presence of the single most powerful entity in the universe.

There was no doubt about it.

Only one thing in the universe was ever more powerful than the force of chaos, and that was God.

And by walking on the water, Jesus was reset representing himself as such.

But that's not the last context clue John includes while describing this sign.

We continue reading that they were terrified, but Jesus said to them, It is I, do not be afraid.

Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.

Notice the language Jesus uses here.

He doesn't say, Hey, it's me, Jesus.

Chill out, dudes.

He says, It is I.

And John wants to ensure that you understand that the language Jesus is using is designed to perfectly mirror and reflect the language that God uses when he reveals himself and his name to Moses in Exodus.

You might recall that God says, I am who I am.

Thus you shall say to the Israelites, I am has sent me to you.

So when we go back to the story that John is told telling, he wants the reader to understand when Jesus says, It is I, he is using the same self-declaration that God used when he announced himself and his name to early ancient Israel and Moses.

And it's there, it's there that John concludes the story.

That's the last detail that John includes when telling the story of walking on water.

Notice with me, John doesn't say anything about a disciple getting out of the boat.

John doesn't say anything.

John doesn't even mention if the waters became calm or not when Jesus arrived.

Why doesn't John give us any more detail?

Well, you see, he already accomplished what he had set out to do.

John could have included any number of signs.

So why did he choose this one?

Because it so clearly articulates who Jesus is.

You see, for John, the miracle isn't the event alone.

For John, the miracle is the message portrayed through the event.

For John, the miracle is the message of who Jesus is.

It's not just some random display of power.

It's the message that is carried by the events of the story, not just the events.

So how do we take this and use this to help us determine whether the events of our life were coincidence or miracle?

How do we determine if God was moving in our past?

Well, friends, if the real miracle is the message, and the message is that Jesus is God and that authentic belief transforms lives, then if we're trying to determine whether something was a coincidence or a miracle, we need to understand that it is what you make of it.

If the miracle is the message, then it's going to be what you make of it.

The event isn't coincidence or miracle.

The message that we carry with us afterwards is what's going to determine whether that was coincidence or design.

Let's use a funny little allegory to try to better understand this.

Say with me, a man daydreams for years about winning the lottery.

He plays every day, plays the same numbers, and eventually he wins.

An enormous jackpot, he wins, and he already knows exactly how he's gonna spend his money.

Gets a luxury house, a multi-star stall garage he fills with fancy cars, hires a personal chef, lives in every comfort that he daydreamed of years.

We would see an event like this, and we would say, Wow, lucky dog.

What a stroke of good fortune.

But the message, the message dies there.

There's no more to it.

Say two months later, another man wins the same lottery at the same amount, but instead of spending the money on himself, he donates the entirety of it to a charity that feeds and houses homeless children.

How different is the message that they portrayed through a similar event?

Because to those children, that man just became a miracle.

That a stranger, that a stranger who's who would spend his good fortune taking care of their needs over his comforts.

That would seem like a miracle.

Does that message sound familiar?

That a stranger would love you enough to put your needs above their comfort?

Let's change the scenario.

A young man spends his entire childhood watching his father use alcohol as a means to cope with stress daily.

And as a result, he grows up to cope in the same way.

And as his addiction gets worse and worse, his life starts crumbling around him until one day he decides it's time to make a change.

And after several attempts to quit, he finally does.

But he doesn't stop there.

Instead, he starts helping to facilitate a group designed to help mentor other people who are trying to quit their addictive habits.

How important is that message to those people?

That a stranger would ask them for nothing but come alongside them in their darkest moments to give them assistance, to give them support, to show them love and compassion and grace.

Well, to those people, that loving stranger is the miracle.

How incredible is the message that is portrayed and carried after the events that this person was forced to take part of.

They got to decide whether or not their events would be a coincidence or a miracle.

But the miracle wasn't for them.

Their coincidence became somebody else's miracle.

So what about our lives?

What do we do when we're examining our own life?

Trying to find God's fingerprint in our past.

What do we do when we're trying to decide if one of our events of our past was a coincidence or a miracle?

Friends, the question is not whether something in our past was a coincidence or a miracle by design.

As responsible believers, that question is not the one that we need to be asking.

The question is what message will you create from it?

Be the event good or bad, what message will you create and carry with you and project into the world as a result of the event occurring in the same place?

Because the event is neither coincidence or miracle.

The message that we project as a result determines the coincidence or miracle status.

Notice with me how John says that authentic belief, the goal is that through believing, one might have life in Jesus' name.

This isn't a life lived for one's own sake.

Being a Jesus follower is not a self-help movement.

The goal is authentic transformation, which presents itself in a drastically different manner, especially regarding the way that we love other people.

So the events of your life, be them good fortune or misfortune, every coincidence that we face has the potential to become somebody else's miracle.

It is up to us as Jesus followers to be the ambassadors of heaven, to pull it to the here and now, to intentionally seek out those at the lowest and be their miracle despite our coincidences.

It is our task to lift up whoever is at the bottom, to bring heaven to them.

And every single coincidence of our life truly has the opportunity for us to become somebody else's miracle.

Because the miracle is the message that we bring to them.

The miracle is the deed of love that reflects Christ's love.

So what will you choose to do with your events?

Will you let them be a coincidence?

Or will you transform yourself to move forward and carry a specific and particular message to other people who are still in the storm?

Because there are all kinds of storms causing all kinds of chaos in people's lives.

And the only thing more powerful than chaos in the universe is Jesus.

Will you bring them that comfort in the midst of their storm?

Before we leave today, I want to just give you a little bit of a more concrete application for how we might change our message moving forward.

Now, a lot of this comes from a series of books that me and other students were encouraged or assigned to read during our last semester.

In each of these books.

Was all about Paul's transformed vision of ministry and how one might embody those values in the modern era.

So if you're looking for some independent reading or group reading, let me throw you a couple suggestions.

The first is a title called Power and Weakness.

I think this is a really good independent read.

So if you're looking to better understand the meaning behind all the writings of Paul and how we might apply those values to our life as modern believers, power and weakness is a great pick.

But if you're looking for a group study tool, let me recommend Cruciformity.

This is going to be a great text that allows you as a group to slowly process all the information contained within Paul's letters and as a group dive into the heart of what Paul thought it meant to be a Jesus follower.

So if you're interested, I'll check those out.

I can give you links.

But the heart of these books was designed to help us as students to understand the heart of Paul's message.

You see, Paul was really invested in the values that Jesus displayed, not just in his ministry, but Paul was really invested in the values that Jesus displayed on his deeds on the cross.

So he was constantly trying to encourage other believers to replicate those same values.

And it's by understanding these values do we find something that we can part specifically and particularly invest ourselves in so that the message that we bring forward after our life's events is transformed in one more like Jesus.

So three values that we can focus on to transform the message we carry.

Number one, self-sacrificing love.

Jesus displayed this perfectly on the cross by dying for everybody.

Number two, humility, intentionally placing more value to people who we consider to be lower on the social hierarchy than us, intentionally seeing ourselves as less than them, taking an opportunity to intentionally lift them up to the place of highest respect and honor.

And number three, being vulnerable and honest about our weaknesses, so that our story can represent how Jesus has moved in it, so that we leave room for Jesus in our own story and that through our own brokenness his power shines and shows through.

I truly do believe that if we take time to invest in these three values after the events of our lives, we have the opportunity to transform any coincidence into somebody else's miracle.

Because when we become more invested in these values, we become more like Christ.

And inherently, we start becoming more loving.

Inherently, we start becoming more like him.

We start carrying his message that Jesus is God and a life with him is transformed, a life with him is fulfilled.

Will you challenge the chaos and storms of your own life?

Will you push yourself to stop seeing them as chance?

Will you stop letting yourself be bitter at God for the bad things that have happened?

Will you sink intentional growth and of Christ-like value and carry his message to the people who need it most?

Because, friends, the message that's the miracle.

And with that, we're gonna pick it up there next week when we close out our series.

Friends, it has been an honor and a blessing to spend Sunday morning with you.

If there's anyone in the room that needs somebody to talk to, that needs somebody to pray with, I'll be here.

But we'll also have some friends to my right, your left underneath the screen who are just going to be there to support and love on you.

For everyone else here in the room, I would love if you were able and willing to stand, and I'll close our time together in prayer.

Heavenly Father, you are good.

Thank you for being so, so, so, so good to us.

Father, thank you for every single beautiful and amazing and wonderful person among us.

Thank you for giving us the formula for how we might challenge any event in our life to bring your message of love to those in the storm, those who need it.

There is no life more fulfilled than carrying that message to the world.

Thank you for showing us how to love.

For that is the greatest joy that we could ever have.

Thank you for this day.

Bless our time throughout the week.

And we ask all these things, and we pray all these things, and your matchless son, Jesus' name.

And everybody said, Amen.

Friends, peace and blessings.

Thank you so much.