When two powerful armies, of equal strength, face each other, generally speaking, victory is achieved through the skill of the soldiers or the genius of the generals.
The satellite images may reveal something in the geography of the enemy position, or the placement of the troops, which could give one army an advantage.
With that information, the leaders of the second army have to determine the best way to take advantage of the situation.
Have you noticed that we have not been reading about miracles lately in our study of the Book of Acts.
But here they are in vivid color. Why?
Humanly speaking, could it have been that Ephesus was so special, so critical, so pivotal, that the Lord chose to bring out some of his special weaponry to ensure success?
Could it be that only rarely did the Lord enable Paul to become a miracle worker, but those gifts were granted in this case in order to accomplish special goals?
Or, on the other hand, could it be that the Spirit had blessed Paul with miracles throughout his ministry,
But he only lead Luke to record the miracles of Ephesus,
because that leads us into the delightful story about the seven sons of Sceva and the burning of the Satanic books?
In other words, was this a special situation calling for special weapons,
or was it common for Paul to work miracles,
but the Holy Spirit didn’t want foolish Christians to put too much stress on the miraculous,
so He didn’t record them for us?
It is very important that we maintain a proper balance in our theology.
It’s important that we build a good foundation under the really heavy and important doctrines,
and then that we understand that some things are not that important.
This evening, let’s think about the mistakes which some people make about miracles.
They are included in the list of the things of God that really aren’t that important.
Yes, God can make a volcano of Rocky Road ice cream if He chose to do so.
Just as in Egypt the sky was dark and the candles refused to burn in the Egyptians homes,
But there was light in the houses of the Israelites,
The Lord could put a BMW roadster in the garage of every child of God,
But He hasn’t chosen to do that, and I am reasonably sure that He never will.
Ah, rats….
There have always been teachers and preachers who have emphasized the miraculous.
For example, there’s a current false doctrine called PROSPERITY THEOLOGY.
It’s basic tenet is that God has promised to make all Christians prosperous.
In actuality, it is designed to make the PREACHER of that doctrine very prosperous.
There is no evidence of that doctrine in the Bible.
God has never promised to put a chicken in every pot, or a Cadillac Escalade in every garage.
But that is a kind of hope to which 90% of Americans cling; it is a part of the American dream.
Poll takers have recently reported that 90 percent of Americans believe in the possibility of miracles.
Isn’t it strange that only a small segment of that number believe in God?
This reminds us that Satan is a miracle worker too.
Miracles are as much a part of the New Age Movement as they are in the ministry of Elisha.
And the Book of Revelation teaches us that mankind will be seeking Satan’s miracles up until the very last-minute, despite trying to spit in the face of the Lord.
This, from the outset, should tell us something about miracles.
They can be deceptive and are a part of the Devil’s manipulations.
Yet, Paul served a miracle-working God, with whom nothing is impossible.
He was not, and we should not, be ashamed to ask the Lord for specific miracles.
But there are only two miracles that I fully expect to see, and for which sincerely long:
The resurrection, and/or the translation of our bodies, are miracles of the highest order.
For example, the resurrection of Lazarus had the Lord’s enemies dumbfounded
There will be no child of God – none – who will not enjoy the miracle of resurrection or translation.
Even so come Lord Jesus.
The second miracle that I pray to see more often is the New Birth.
The Spiritual resurrection of a heart dead in trespasses and sins is as much a miracle as a physical resurrection.
The SALVATION of Lazarus was as much a miracle as the RESURRECTION of Lazarus.
It was certainly more important, and it was more miraculous.
It is not a sin to yearn to see the miracle of God’s salvation come upon the heart of a lost loved one.
And it is not a sin to earnestly yearn to be clothed upon with our house not made with hands, our new post-resurrection glorified bodies.
But Christians should be warned about having an obsession with any other kind of miracles.
Particularly the kinds of miracles of which we read here in Acts 19:
We still hear preachers telling people that they will be healed of their cancer or their heart disease through handkerchiefs that they would mail to them for $50 offerings.
Our Lord Jesus said, “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after these signs.”
Watch out for mistakes about miracles.
They aren’t all that they are crackedup to be.
Aren’t Miracles a form of the CONDESCENSION of God?
There has always been the tendency of man to ELEVATE himself and to MINIMIZE the Lord.
It’s in our nature to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think.
The Bible warns us of these dangers, even as Christians.
Even the godly Christian often tries to put the Lord into some kind of box.
Too many of us want the Lord to be like the genie in Aladdin’s magic lamp.
We want Him hanging on our belts, yearning to come out to do whatever we please.
And every once in a while we carefully call on his Name for some miracle.
But we do so with great economy, because we don’t want to wear out our welcome.
But every time God chooses to manifest Himself to us, He accepts limitations.
He “condescends” to be with us.
The word “condescension” means: “to descend to be with.”
And in many miracles that’s precisely what we see – a condescension.
In Moses’ burning bush the Lord confined himself to a small flame.
In the plagues of Egypt the Lord did battle with the gods of the Heathen.
The Lord became a hand and wrote on the wall of the Babylonian palace.
God dove to the bottom of the Jordan River to pick up an axe-head.
God guided a pebble into the forehead of Goliath.
The miraculous water that followed Israel in the wilderness was of Christ, if not actually Christ.
Several of the prophets, both Old and New Testament heard the voice of God.
And sometimes they were deafened by that voice.
But God was only whispering even when they were deafened.
Jehovah must greatly reduce Himself even to work mighty miracles among us.
The Lord’s majesty, His superiority, His Greatness are so great that it’s beyond our understanding.
And as much as we might long for, or need, some miracle, we need to remember who we are before Lord.
We are but tiny specs of dust on an insignificant dot of a planet in a universe whose ends are yet beyond our sight.
And we want the Creator of that universe to come and visit us.
And praise the Lord, that is exactly what He does from time to time.
Besides salvation, I am convinced that I have seen some of the Lord’s small miracles.
He has not forsaken us.
But generally speaking it should be our desire to see the Lord high and lifted up, not brought low to earth again.
It should be our desire to rise to glorify Him in HIS palace, not in OUR hovel.
As with the many of the miracles of the Lord Jesus . . . as we see Him change water and wine,
As we witness Him heal dozens of very sick people, or as we see Him raised the dead,
As we watch Him multiply food and silence storms, and as we see Him walk on the sea,
As we see Him marshal schools of fish and put coins in the mouths of specific cod fish . . .
We lift our voices and we praise His name.
But he is 100 times more glorified when He gives repentance and faith to a confused, sinful Ephesian- Diana worshiper, than He is in all of these other miracles.
The Lord is magnified more by our going to Him than He is in His coming to us.
The Lord is more glorified by the two denizens of Emmaus returning to Jerusalem to serve Him, than He was miraculously appearing and then disappearing from their sight.
He is more magnified by OUR serving Christ than in HIS service of us.
You may quarrel with this idea, but the Lord may be more glorified by the peaceful death of one of His children that he is by the healing of that child.
When you ask the Lord for another miracle, you need also to ask whether or not you are bringing glory to His name in your day-to-day life.
Aren’t miracles the reduction of God, aren’t they the putting of God in a nice gift-wrapped box?
Sometimes the Lord not only permits such treatment, but expects it.
In this, miracles are not bad, BUT they’re not the best.
No, miracles can actually create IDOLATRY in the nonbeliever.
The Bible speaks of miracles in the terms of “signs and wonders.”
Like the gift of speaking in tongues, for example, which we saw earlier in this chapter.
Glossolalia is the ability to speak or to be heard in a language that the speaker never learned.
As we saw last week, tongues were for a sign – primarily to the unbelieving Jew.
That is not my opinion; it is what the Bible says.
And it also says that upon the completion of the Word of God the gift of tongues would cease.
When Paul was talking about his ministry, he emphasized the importance of preaching the Word of God.
In I Corinthians 1, he said, “The Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom.
But we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness.”
While the Jews were looking for signs from God, the Greeks were watching the WONDERS.
But the Lord Jesus said that it’s the wicked and adulterous generation that seeks after signs and wonders.
In John 2 we have what may have been Jesus’ first miracle – in Cana of Galilee.
There the Lord Jesus turned water into wine.
Then Jesus went to Jerusalem and went into combat with the wicked religion that he found there.
Many of the people began to follow him when they saw the miracles which He did.
But v.24 says, “Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew what was in them.”
When most of the people of Jerusalem saw the miracles that Jesus performed they did not worship Him as the son of God,
They either worshiped Him as a miracle worker, or they worshiped the miracles themselves.
And later the people of Galilee followed the Lord, not for His grace, but for His miraculous food.
They were like a crowd of people at a Fourth of July celebration.
They are in the park laying on the blanket, looking up into the sky and watching the fireworks.
When there is a lull between explosions, they get restless.
And when the party is over and the last skyrocket has exploded, they have a feeling of disappointment.
Whether or not they ever say it, they think “more,” they want more, they want bigger and better.
But how many of them actually look for, and thank, the man who created the spectacle?
I wouldn’t be so foolishness as to say that the miracles of God have never prompted an atheist to become interested in becoming a Christian.
But I have scriptural authority not to expect it.
In Luke 16 we have the account of the rich man and Lazarus.
After his death, the rich man plead with Abraham to send dead Lazarus back to his brothers.
He wanted a miraculous apparition to warn them of the judgment to come.
I would guess that his brothers knew Lazarus, because before his death he was often found sitting in the gate of the rich man’s house begging for money and food.
If this sick beggar could return from the dead, the man was sure that his unbelieving family would turn to Lord.
But Abraham assured him that this was not was not going to happen.
First of all, those men had the Word of God, which is the true revelation of the Lord.
They didn’t need any miracles to convict them of their need of Christ.
And if they didn’t listen to the revelation of God, they weren’t going to listen to a miracle either.
And secondly, the results of miracles are rarely what people think they will be.
Turn to I Corinthians 1:18-25.
“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:
But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”
It’s not miracles, but the preaching of the word of God that destroys idolatry.
“Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,” not by miracles.
Ideally, miracles are a wake up call from God.
Have you ever been in a hotel that had a wake-up call service?
They are usually done with a computer any more.
And sometimes, when you pick up the phone, there is no one there to talk to you.
Likewise, miracles are a wake-up call from God,
But more often than not, there is no one there to speak.
That miracle was just a tap on the noggin to get somebody out of bed.
The real message was already in their hands in the form of the Word of God.
Miracles often make even Christians more shallow than spiritual.
Like the exploding of fireworks in the dark July evening, our eyes may be dazzled by the beautiful light,
But we may in fact be blinded for the next few moments because of that light.
There once was a day when King Hezekiah was sick unto death,
but the Lord granted him healing and 15 more years of life.
Unfortunately those 15 years were not spent in a fashion worthy of the expression of the Lord’s grace and miracle.
I am not saying that every life blessed with the miraculous will end up like Hezekiah’s,
But that man soon began to rejoice in the beating of his heart more than in the will of the Lord.
Even the young Israelites, who by God’s grace were permitted to enter the promised land, for the most part saw and tasted the manna, but not the God who provided it.
Isn’t it true that when we have a headache we more often treat the pain rather than the thing that caused it?
When Jesus healed the nobleman’s son, and Peter’s mother-in-law, and the Centurian’s servant, the Lord was merely relieving symptoms.
The 9,000 people who ate Lord’s miraculous bread and fish got very hungry awaiting more miracles.
Generally speaking, it’s not faith that looks for miracles, more often than not it’s something else.
It’s selfishness that drives Hezekiah to plead for healing.
It’s fear of debt that makes the student prophet plead for the return of the fallen axe-head.
It’s love that makes a father plead for the restoration of his nearly dead little girl.
In some ways miraculous gifts are like social welfare:
The more we have the more we want and more we deteriorate inside.
And many kinds of deterioration end up in death.
And speaking of death, most of the people of this world have no concept of the cause of death.
They think that death is an anomaly, a freak of nature, an accident.
But the Bible tells us the death as a result of sin; there is little mystery about it.
“Wherefore as by one man’s sin death came into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all man, for all have sinned.”
“The whole creation groaneth and travaileth together until now waiting” for the end of the curse brought about through Adam’s sin.
If a hundred dying people selected at random each had 15 years miraculously added to their lives,
I would venture to guess that 90 of those people would continue to live as ungodly and sinfully as they ever had before.
And then at the end of their extended lives they would still die and be cast into Hell.
That the Lord restored the dead son to the widow of Nain was no indication that he is not in Hell today.
Death is merely the primary symptom of the larger problem: sin.
Except for the miracle of salvation all other miracles deal only with symptoms.
Other than our translation and from time to time some selfish specific miracles,
There is only one miracle that I long to see:
I’m talking about the miracle of the new birth and the forgiveness of the sins of sinners.
This is a miracle about which I can pray for you, but which I have no power to give to you.
This is a miracle of God’s grace that you must desire on your own.
And the fact that a sinner even desires it is a miracle in itself.
Because there is no sinner who seeketh after the Lord and his righteousness.
And despite that, this is the greatest of all God’s miracles, it is also the one He most frequently grants.
If you will humble your heart this evening with a hatred for your sins,
And if you will trust that the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross as your personal substitute for sin,
God has promised to give you a new heart and eternal life.
“For whosoever shall call upon the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved.”
There is no higher miracle than this one.
None.
This is the miracle that we should be yearning to see today.
