Miracle Anatomy | Ps. Nate Capshaw

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Good morning, church.

How are we doing?

Doing well?

Glad to be here this morning.

Sean and El Kivia are glad to be here this morning.

You guys glad to be here this morning or what?

All right.

So thankful that you're here.

I want to extend a special welcome to you.

If this is your first time here this morning, welcome.

My name is Nate.

I'm one of the pastors here, and just so grateful that you decided to join us.

Staff walked in this morning and the AC wasn't working properly.

And so maybe you've got the email.

It seems like things are working a little bit more, but you know, we figured if people around the world were running for their lives in order to worship God, we could do it with the AC off.

What do you say?

Amen to that.

So uh so we're so glad that we're able to gather in this facility.

I want to give it up also to the OMA staff.

They've been working so hard to get this thing back on for us.

So thank you guys so much for that.

If you're with us online, uh in the comfort of your AC home, welcome.

So glad that you're here.

Uh we meet at the Orlando Museum of Art at 9 and 10:30 each Sunday.

And so we'd love to have you, if you're in the Orlando area, come join us for one of those Sundays.

I'm extending my welcome to everybody, also on behalf of behalf of our lead pastors, Pastor Keith and Pastor Megan.

And they are back next week.

Anyone ready to have your pastors back in the house next week?

We're looking forward to having them back.

Also thankful for uh the opportunity that they've had to be able to uh spend some time and some rest.

So if if you're kind of new here, uh this isn't our normal setting.

We're actually kind of a bittersweet day.

We're concluding our summer school series.

And what we've tried to do over the course of this month is to create a little bit more of a classroom as opposed to a sanctuary, uh perhaps a little bit more educational than uh inspirational as well.

Uh still hope that you're inspired, obviously, by God's word.

But uh yeah, just switch things up and talk about some topics or some different um aspects of theology and the church and God.

And so today we're we're concluding that.

But uh in the first week we talked about soteriology or another, the order of salvation.

In week two, Vinny uh was uh unpacking the the name of God and how that is relevant to not only the people in the scriptures, but to us as well.

And then in the third week, Pastor Chris from Jacksonville came down and talked to us about the soul and uh what the soul craves and how we are able to take care of our souls.

And then last week, perhaps uh my personal favorite uh of the bunch was uh a message that Pastor Lindsay spoke on worship history, which was incredible.

And so if you missed any of that stuff, I encourage you to go back on the YouTube channel or the podcast and check that out.

Uh also we had the opportunity to do uh After the Message Live.

Anyone was at After the Message Live in here?

Okay, a couple people were there.

So After the Message is just a segment on our podcast, and it helps us continue the conversation from typically the Sunday sermon.

Um, but uh we were able to have a little bit more of a QA uh during that time, and so we had some people from the congregation join us as a live studio audience, if you will.

And so that's also available on our YouTube channel and our podcast for you to enjoy.

So I I hope that this has series has been helpful for you.

I know it's been fun for us to kind of dive into the extra resources and the extra things that are available to us.

And so I figured we'd go out with a bang, as they say, and cover a really easy topic, the topic of miracles.

Um, obviously, I say that with some tongue-in-cheek because miracles are incredibly mysterious and they present us with a lot of difficulties in our faith, right?

And so, but I I thought it would be fun to uh to challenge myself and to challenge us and look at this topic together as a church.

Does that sound okay with everyone?

Okay, great.

Before I do that, let's go ahead and bow our heads and let's pray.

Lord God, uh, we recognize your goodness.

We recognize your grace and uh your presence here this morning with us.

We got we we thank you so much for this opportunity to gather, Lord.

We ask your your blessing on our time together.

We ask that you would by your power of your spirit speak to us individually and corporately.

And we also Lord just want to take a moment to thank you for your word and that you preserved it for us and that we can have a little bit more of a glimpse into who you are and who you've created us to be.

It's in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.

So, in in terms of miracles, my today's concern isn't necessarily with um the debate on the whether miracles are still happening, whether they're not happening, whether they were for a certain time period, whether they're not.

I mean, that's not necessarily our concern today.

I'm more concerned with a little bit of just the makeup or the anatomy of them, if you will, a little bit more concerned with the theology of a miracle.

I think sometimes too that conversation can kind of get in the way of what's important, uh, and that is uh the good news of the gospel and and Jesus Christ and putting our eyes and attention and focus on Him.

So today we're just gonna talk a little bit about the anatomy of a miracle.

And as I as I mentioned, being concerned with the theology of it.

Does anybody remember the definition of the theology from week one?

The study of God as he has revealed himself in what?

The study of God as he has revealed himself in what?

Jesus.

Okay.

That's gonna fall.

Oh gosh.

The study of God as he has revealed himself in Jesus Christ and the scriptures.

Very good.

Okay, so that's theology.

Please don't fall.

So that's what we're gonna do when we're looking at a miracle.

And it's a miracle if this thing stays up.

So um we we use this term a lot, right, in our in our common vernacular.

Miracle.

Even if you're not a believer necessarily, you can you can use the term a miracle.

We we hear that a lot.

You know, it's a miracle if I get out of this situation, or if you watch sports, it's a miracle if they're able to win this game, right?

So so we hear we hear that term a lot.

A lot of times, even in our church when or in the faith um circles, when we're talking about miracles, sometimes we're just talking about the providence of God.

And a providence definition is God's interaction with the world and people, often involving divine care, direction, or intervention.

So if I'm longing for God to be a part of a situation, to help direct me in a situation, perhaps I'm not necessarily asking for a miracle as much as I'm asking for his intervention.

I'm asking for him to get involved with it, right?

So some renderings of that word miracle from the original language help us more narrow in on what the focus of a miracle is, what its anatomy is.

Some renderings are power or sign or wonder or an extraordinary event.

Okay?

So today when we sang the song Million Little Miracles, a lot of that is pointing to the providence of God.

It's pointing to God's involvement, right?

There are some instances in that song where we do sing about the miraculous.

But when we sing famous for, you know, shut the mouths of lions, bring dry bones to life, like we're talking about incredible miraculous signs, right?

So there's a little bit of a distinction there.

However, I am not the theology police, so if you use the term miracle or the term providence and you interchange that, that's okay.

I'm not gonna come after you, okay?

So let let's let's just all uh take a deep breath on that.

So are miracles even possible?

We have to we have to be able to appease that question before we can move forward.

And there are two standard or two primary worldviews, and so we have to understand our worldview in order to understand if this can even take place.

So the two worldviews are the natural worldview and the supernatural worldview.

Okay, so a natural, a naturalist would say that nothing exists outside of what exists.

Okay, they would basically say that anything that is in existence is a derivative of what has existed.

So to reduce that down, there's nothing outside of time and space.

That's what a naturalist would say.

Now, that argument tends to break down when you get to the lowest common denominator or when you get to a point of origin, because if nothing exists outside of that point of origin, then how can that point of origin exist?

Are you tracking with me on that?

So a supernaturalist would say that there is, in fact, something that exists beyond time and space.

There's something that is transcendent, okay?

And we would ascribe that to God.

Just like how in week two, Vinny pointed out the fact that everything that we see exists, but God is, right?

And so, by definition, if something outside of time and space exists, then therefore there can be interaction with the natural.

And by the fact that you're sitting in here this morning, um, I would I would assume that the majority of us in here ascribe to or at least are interested in the supernatural.

Am I correct on that?

That most of us would likely lean to a supernatural perspective, right?

Okay, good.

Because I don't have a sermon for natural, and so this would be a really short sermon.

Okay, so what's a miracle then?

If they can take place, if they are possible, what's a miracle?

A broad definition is an interference with nature by a supernatural power.

An interference with nature by a supernatural power.

That could also be an interference with nature by a supernatural power, could also kind of lie in that providential aspect as well, and not necessarily a miracle, but again, what we're seeing here is that the supernatural interacts with the natural.

So something outside of time and space interacts with something in time and space.

A more narrow definition, and this is really wordy, so hang on with me, okay?

A miracle is an event that's palpable to the senses, produced for a religious purpose by the immediate agency of God.

An event, therefore, which, though not contravening or violating any law of nature, the laws of nature, if fully known, would not without this agency of God be competent to explain.

Okay, so the first thing I want to show is, he gives us a little bit more of a narrow, it's it's palpable to the senses.

Okay, I may I'm able to recognize it with the senses that I have been given.

It has a purpose.

There's a reason behind it.

It isn't arbitrary, right?

And it's the immediate agency of God.

Okay, that that would be the biblical miracle.

It's palpable, it's got purpose, and God's the one behind it.

Now at the end, it goes on to say uh, if fully known, we would not be able without the agency of God to be competent to explain this.

So if I knew all the laws of nature and I knew how all of the laws of nature worked, which a naturalist would even suggest that we don't know at all, we're still discovering, right?

We do that with science all the time.

Like we read, we discover new things, the new frontiers, okay?

If I knew all of that stuff, if I had knowledge of all that stuff, I still wouldn't be able to explain it unless it was I had the agency of God to explain it.

Does that make sense as well?

Okay, cool.

So that shows us that if we're believing in that, we have a supernatural worldview.

Now, what do the both of these definitions and both of the characterizations of a miracle and God's promise and God's providence show us?

It shows us that God wants to be involved.

Shows us that God wants to be involved with the creation.

It shows us that he is not distant.

He's near.

He wants to be involved in that which he has created.

Amen to that?

Amen to that.

So let's let's look at the frequency of these then.

Oftentimes when we read the scriptures, it can seem as though these happen on a regular basis.

They're always happening.

It seems almost too good to be true how many miracles are taking place or how many extraordinary things are taking place.

But if we back up a little bit and really think about it, what we're seeing is a blessing of the fullness of scripture that we have the grace to behold, right?

We're seeing a synopsis of history put down and condensed for us.

And so when we're reading it, it just seems over and over and over again.

When in reality, a lot of these events and a lot of these miraculous events took place over long periods of time, over hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years.

However, there is concentration to them, and that's for a reason.

We'll talk about that in a little bit.

But some instances you'll see is in the in the narrative of Moses, in uh Elijah's time period, and obviously in the main character, in Jesus's, we see a concentration of a lot of miracles taking place, right?

So we've defined it, we have looked at the frequency of it.

So now, what are some types of miracles?

And I'll ask the class today, what are some types of miracles that take place?

Healing of sickness?

Healing of a marriage, amen to that.

Anything?

Water to wine, that's a great one.

So what is it?

Provision, absolutely.

Some other things that I wrote down here was a celestial omen.

So we think about uh the star uh in the in the birth of Jesus, right?

And the star and the wise men being able to follow that to find the Messiah, extraordinary natural events, just like this gentleman uh told us about the turning the water into wine, or extraordinary performances by people because of the agency of God.

So, what does this exactly tell us, the types of miracles?

I think what these tell us is that miracles are personifications of spiritual truths.

Miracles are personifications of spiritual truths.

In other words, a miracle points to a truth about God.

If God opens blind eyes, right, he wants us to be able to see.

If God uh parts the Red Sea, he's a deliverer.

If God uh has the children of Israel walk through the wilderness uh a cloud by day and a fire by night, he's a director, right?

These are all just trying to inform us because the spiritual and the natural do coexist together.

And so they're just informing us of those spiritual truths that are very evident, not only in the physical, but in the spiritual realm as well.

Are you tracking with me on that?

Okay, great.

So, what's the purpose of miracles then?

What are the purpose?

And this isn't an exhaustive list, but I think that these are are the main reasons.

The first one is authority.

I think miracles indicate authority.

Exodus chapter 4.

Exodus 4 · chapter mention

Then Moses and Aaron returned to Egypt and called all the elders of Israel together.

Aaron told them everything the Lord had told Moses, and Moses performed the miraculous signs as they watched.

Then the people of Israel, Israel were convinced that the Lord had sent Moses and Aaron.

When they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.

So what God is doing here is God is saying, Hey guys, look, I'm endowing this guy with authority.

And here's here's a here's a practical representation of that in the form of these miraculous signs, right?

So Moses is getting authority straight from the source.

The second thing I think it points to is supremacy.

Supremacy.

In other words, God is supreme over all other powers, all other gods.

1 Kings chapter 18.

1 Kings 18 · chapter mention

Immediately the fire of the Lord flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust.

It even licked up all the water in the trench.

And when all the people saw it, they fell face down on the ground and cried out, The Lord, he is God.

Yes, the Lord is God.

If we're putting context clues together, this is the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, right?

And Elijah uh puts the prophets of Baal, challenges them actually, and just says, Hey, if your God's, we'll find out who the real God is today, basically, which God can call down fire to this altar.

And so Elijah does a bunch of stuff to make it really, really hard for God to be even able to do this.

And then he ultimately shows that God is what?

Supreme over all other dark powers and forces or all other false gods.

Okay?

So the first thing authority, then supremacy, and then the last thing I think, at least in my list here today, is benevolence.

Benevolence.

These miracles show God's benevolence.

1 Kings 18, immediate or sorry, Acts 9.

Meanwhile, Peter traveled from place to place and he came down to visit the believers in the town of Lydia.

There he met a man named Aeneas, who had been paralyzed and bedridden for eight years.

Peter said to him, Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you.

Get up and roll up your sleeping mat.

And he was healed instantly.

Then the whole population of Lydia and Sharon saw Aeneas walking around, and they what?

Turned to the Lord.

So again, this shows God's involvement.

This shows God's desire for us to be whole, for us to be healed, but it also shows his grace and his mercy and his love for us.

In all three of these instances, however, there is a common theme.

Did you catch this common theme?

Is they all render worship to God.

They all render worship to God.

If we're looking at a meaning of this word, a rendering of the word miracle to sign, it's a sign post to God.

It's pointing to God.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, these time periods are important here, and they're really important in Israel's history.

Because if we look at the first one with Moses, Moses is actually the beginning of a promise that is being fulfilled by God that he gave to Abraham generations earlier.

Because the children of Israel have been in bondage for so many years that he's about to take them to the promised land that he gave them, so he delivers them.

And so we see a lot of concentration in that.

We also, in Elijah's term, also with Elisha as well, the one to follow Elijah, the Israelites are in jeopardy of turning to false God, to worshiping a false God.

And so God, in his grace and his kindness, is trying to get their attention here, like, hey guys, I'm the one who saved you, I'm the one who delivered you, right?

And then obviously around the time of Jesus and after Jesus with his apostles showing all of the authority, supremacy, and benevolence.

You guys with me so far?

Okay, great.

So speaking of Jesus, I figured I'd talk about him today if that's okay with you guys.

Matthew chapter 12, verse 38 says, One day some teachers of religious law and Pharisees came to Jesus and said, Teacher, we want you to show us a miraculous sign to prove your authority.

Matthew 12:38

But Jesus replied, Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign, but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah.

For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.

What's Jesus saying here?

What's he trying to communicate to them?

He's trying to communicate, hey, the real reason why I'm here, the importance of me being here, is to help you realize that I'm here to turn you away from your sins, to save you from your sins, to bring you into the fullness of life, right?

To point you to the Father, just as was happening in the Old Testament.

But in reality, what the Pharisees are wanting is they're wanting credibility.

Show me that who you are, who you say you are.

And Jesus is like the only sign that I'm gonna go give you that should actually be the stamp of what is actually happening here is my death, burial, and resurrection.

Okay?

Mark chapter 8 is actually a similar account, or probably the same account, but it's written from a different perspective.

Mark 8 · chapter mention

And I think this is interesting.

Mark chapter 8 says, when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had arrived, they came and started to argue with him.

Mark 8 · chapter mention

Jesus gets in a boat, he goes to the other side of the lake, he shows up, and what do the Pharisees do?

They start to argue with him.

Instead of having a normal conversation.

Testing him, they demanded that he show them a miraculous sign from heaven to prove his authority.

When he heard this, he sighed deeply in his spirit.

I can always tell when my wife's reading the Bible and she comes across a passage where Jesus is annoyed at other people because she literally laughs out loud.

It's pretty funny.

I'm like, You're reading about Jesus, aren't you?

She's like, Yeah.

When he heard this, he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, Why do these people keep demanding a miraculous sign?

I tell you the truth, I will not give this generation any such sign.

So he got back in the boat and left them.

And he crossed to the other side of the lake.

In other words, you guys are annoying me and I'm out of here, right?

What's interesting about this occurrence to me is that if the Pharisees were actually doing what Jesus had asked people to do to follow him, they would have realized what happened just a few moments earlier when he fed 4,000 people with the loaves of bread, right?

Because if you look in the previous chapter, we see this miraculous work being done by Jesus, where he feeds probably over 4,000 people with just a handful of food.

Okay?

But instead, they want to berate him, belittle him, and have him prove he is who he says he is.

But if we're just following him, we're able to see what he's doing and the miracles that he's doing, right?

It's curious also the fact that even in Mark's gospel, just close to this account, that there are things that people ask for from Jesus and they get.

Like the woman with the issue of blood is healed.

Or Jairus's daughter is healed.

But when the Pharisees come to ask, Jesus is like, I'm not doing anything for you guys.

What's the difference there?

What do you think is the difference in those scenarios?

They don't believe?

Demanded it?

Faith.

They don't believe.

They don't have faith.

And I r I wrestle with this sometimes, right?

And so when I when I started to wrestle with this concept of faith, I wrote something down the other day, and I hope it can try and explain it a little bit more.

Because oftentimes we look at faith as transactional.

So instead of acting as a means of trade, procuring an act of God in exchange for a payment of faith, faith, by definition, confesses who God is and what he is capable of.

In other words, faith in God is self-evident.

And as we talked about in week two, I am who I am.

I will be who I will be.

I was who I was.

So faith is not a sort of currency that we use to get what we want, right?

It's already recognizing who the person is.

The woman with the issue of blood noticed who Jesus was.

She recognized who he was, and she just said, if I can just touch his clothing, I believe this could happen to me.

Jairus ran to Jesus and humbled himself, and he even told him, like, I believe, but there's a part of me that doesn't believe.

But he had faith Jesus was who he said that he was, and he is capable of what he's capable of.

What did Jesus' miracles show for us?

They show for us authority.

It shows to us that God endowed upon his son authority.

Hey, listen to Moses, this guy knows what he's talking about.

Listen to Elijah, this guy's trying to help you.

Jesus, listen to this guy.

He has authority, and it's directly from me.

Supremacy.

The miracles of Jesus show supremacy as well.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

Jesus being the word of God in human flesh.

And the benevolence.

It shows his great care for us, his mercy, his desire for us to be whole, his goodness, his desire to interact with that which he created.

A little bit of a caution when it comes to this stuff.

Not always the most fun thing to talk about, but Exodus chapter 7.

Exodus 7 · chapter mention

So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did what the Lord had commanded them.

Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a serpent.

Then Pharaoh called in his own wise men and sorcerers, and these Egyptian magicians did the same thing with their magic.

They threw down their staffs, which also became serpents.

But then Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs.

So God kind of got the last laugh on that one, but this shows me that supernatural powers don't always constitute an act of God.

They don't always constitute an act of God.

And I think it's a I think it's a warning or a caution to us as believers, right?

And there's not necessarily a system or an order of operations for me to be able to say, if you see this, this, and that, then that's not a sign from God, or that's not that miraculous event isn't actually of God, it's evil.

I I don't know if there's that other than a discernment and walking with the Holy Spirit and being able to recognize and ask God that, right?

2 Thessalonians 2 tells us, then the man of lawlessness will be revealed, but the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by the splendor of his coming.

Then man will come to do the work of Satan, then this man will come to do the work of Satan with counterfeit power and signs and miracles.

He will use every kind of evil deception to fool those on their way to destruction, because they what?

Like the Pharisees, refuse to love and accept the truth that would save them.

So again the not the most fun thing to talk about.

There may be things that look like they're the act of God, but they're actually not the act of God.

Okay.

And you know what, you know what kind of concerns me more than overt evil?

What kind of scares me more than evil, you look at it, you know that's evil, it's in your face.

It's covert evil.

And a lot of times that evil can be wielded by the powers of even spiritual figures, right?

Or or spiritual institutions.

And so the only thing that I would say to that is, what is the, to use a church word, what is the fruit of it?

Is this person trying to build their own brand?

Are they trying to produce a spectacular ministry and create a, accumulate a huge following, right?

That could be that could be a warning sign to me, okay?

Or is it doing is it doing what the word actually renders?

Is it a sign to God?

Is it pointing?

Is it, are people worshiping the one true God because of it, okay?

Um again, difficult to almost point out sometimes, but I believe it's in if it's in the scriptures, and my job is to share the scriptures with you.

I have a responsibility to lovingly let you know that.

And just because that there's a big church doesn't mean that, oh, that must be the devil.

You know what I mean?

Like let's not let's not jump to those conclusions.

We're celebration church is part of a massive church around the world.

We're not an evil church, but just something to be aware of.

Listen, I want it all.

I want to see all God has.

I want to see every sign and wonder that God has, everything he's got up his sleeve, right?

Well, maybe not everything, but I'm going to Africa tomorrow.

I want to see God do some incredible stuff.

I pray for God to do some incredible stuff.

But the greatest miracle that was ever performed was the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And you know the greatest evidence for that miracle?

It's the fact that we're still here today.

You mean to tell me that a bunch of misfit former fishermen started a conspiracy that their teacher raised back to life from the dead, and 2,000 later is that thing's still going on?

I don't know about that.

If the resurrection didn't happen, I don't think we're here.

Great man of faith wrote, The greatest miracle that I know of is that of my conversion I was dead and I live.

I was blind and I see.

I was a slave and I am free.

I was an enemy of God and now I love him.

Prayer, the Bible, the society of Christians, these were to me a source of profound ennui or disinterest.

While now it is the pleasures of the world that are wearisome to me.

Behold the miracle.

And if God has been able to work that one, there is none of which he is not capable.

My friends, if God can change your heart, he can heal you from cancer.

If God can change a human heart, he can strengthen you, strengthen you to overcome an addiction.

If God can change a human heart, he can walk on water, he can open blind eyes.

If God can change a human heart, he can resurrect his son from the dead.

That, my friends, is a miracle we're celebrating.

Will you bow your heads and prayer with me?

Lord, we're thankful.

We're so grateful, God, for who you are.

Thankful for the resurrection, the ability to, as we talked about last week, have unhindered relationship with you, to know you, to carry you wherever we go.

We celebrate that miracle today, Lord.

If you're in here and um perhaps you haven't had that change of heart that I just spoke about, you haven't experienced that, and you're looking for God, today's the day of salvation.

And so, Lord, I pray for all those either in this room or under the sound of my voice via a phone or a computer screen that you would save your sons and daughters.

It's in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

If you are one of those who is looking to begin following Jesus today, we just invite you to text follow or to scan this QR code.

We have some instructions for you.

Also, this journey, this process never ends, right?

So there's some groupings up there on the screen behind me that can what the church has to serve you.

And so you can identify where you are on your walk with Jesus and perhaps take a next step with that.

We have a family talk uh here today at the end of our service, and this is just a time for us to share a little bit of updates uh in the church.

But before we do that, I just want to take a few moments.

We're gonna sing another song of worship.

However, you want to respond, whether you want to stand and worship God or sit and reflect about all he's done right there in your seat, you're welcome to do that.

But let's just take a few moments and worship and surrender to God.

Thank you for joining us to learn more about Celebration Orlando, a church devoted to reaching the lost, equipping the found, and helping the hurting.

Follow us on social media using the handle at celebrationorl or visit our website, celebrationorl.org.