Are we to assume that today’s ministry should display these same miracles? That is a legitimate question and to which I will try to reply this evening.
Spiritual Gifts.
By the King’s authority, the apostles were given certain very special abilities – spiritual gifts, if you like. For example, they would be able to heal the sick. Should we assume that would be like their Master’s healing of Peter’s mother-in-law? Among other things, they would be able to cure lepers of their terrible malady. Then they would be able to bring the dead back to life again. Another ability would be to cast out devils. The context raises an interesting question: can just anyone cast out demons? The context suggests that it would be miraculous to be able to order demons out of the possessed. Under those circumstances, I don’t know if I would recommend that any of us try to attack an obviously demon possessed person. Another special promise which may or may not have been miraculous was that of supply. “Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat.” This could go back to the days of Israel in the wilderness with the Lord supplying manna, water and even clothing?
These are the only miraculous signs mentioned by the Lord in this context. But there are other spiritual gifts mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament. In a couple of lists of gifts, there is the simple word “miracles.” I would assume this would be something like Jesus’ miraculous conversion of water to wine. It might have been the ability of the disciples to provide food for hungry people, after their attentive hearing of the gospel. Paul speaks about “prophecies” and “prophesying.” This may have been the sort of thing which John was given and described in the Book of Revelation. But it might have been lesser, short term prophecies given to specific individuals. And finally, there is the ever controversial gift of tongues and the interpretation of tongues. We see this for the first time on the day of Pentecost when the monolingual disciples were heard by visiting Jews in the languages spoken back home. “Glossolalia” – tongues – is the spiritual gift enabling people to speak in languages which they had never learned naturally. Sometimes, a reciprocal gift was given to another person – he could translate that foreign message so that yet others could understand it. The disciples were not given the gift of glossolalia in Matthew 10, because there was no need for it. Their commission was “Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” They had no problem conversing with other Jews in either Hebrew or more probably in Aramaic.
Now, let it be recognized right away that these gifts were not as important as Christ’s command to preach. How can I be so bold as to say that? How many times in the gospels, do we read of the apostles raising the dead to life again? How often did they multiply bread and fish, miraculously lift boulders which had pinned little boys? Did they cast demons out of sick hearts, and fevers out of sick bodies? I wouldn’t be surprised to eventually hear that they healed many sick people and that they raised a few. But the record of those miracles is not to be found in the gospels. In fact, of what we do read is the disciples’ inability to heal some and to cast out some demons. That the little boy at the foot of mountain during the transfiguration was not helped, suggests that many others had been blessed by the grace and power of God. But the point is, all those miracles were left unrecorded because they were not as important as other things – particularly the preaching of the Gospel and the preaching the Kingdom of God.
As the earthly ministry of Christ came to a close – after His crucifixion and just before His ascension – Jesus once again told His apostles that they would have the help of miraculous SIGNS. And I emphasize the word “signs,” because I’ll come back to that later. Mark 16:15-20 – “He said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these SIGNS shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.”
Early in the Book of Acts we can see the effect that these miracles had on the ministry. There were the miracles of the Day of Pentecost, followed by the conversion of thousands. Later Peter and John healed the crippled man in the Beautiful Gate of Temple which opened up a door to preaching which had never really be duplicated. In the Book of Acts, there is an accounts of a resurrection. And Paul was later attacked by a serpent, but it had no effect, and this opened the eyes of the spiritually blinded. Paul eventually looked back and on the ministry and said, “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?”
There is no doubt that Christ’s commission was carried out along with some signs and wonders.
And what was the purpose of those miraculous gifts?
They were not given in order to make the disciples proud of themselves. And they weren’t given for the simple purpose of blessing the recipients. They weren’t to make the Devil angry or the Pharisees jealous.
The purpose of those miracles for the Apostles was essentially the same as it was for the Saviour. When the Jews who knew God’s word, saw a man healing blind eyes and raising the dead, they had been taught to think – “Messiah. This is the Messiah.” Well, the Messiah had more than one purpose, and the most important would be to give His life a ransom for many. He will eventually leave earth after establishing a church to carry His message unto all the world. What better way to point out that these twelve men were His ambassadors than to give them the ability to do the same kinds of miracles that He Himself had performed? The purpose of these spiritual gifts was to prove that there was divine authority behind their message of grace and repentance.
I think that purpose is quite obvious even in the language of the disciple’s initial commission. “Go … to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.” The healing and cleansing, the raising and the casting out – perfectly blended with the preaching. But the miracles were all temporary while the effects of the gospel were eternal. The miracles were subservient to the primary purpose and the primary message. The purpose of these spiritual gifts were to prove the authority of the primary ministry. That purpose is no longer necessary in order to authenticate the ministry today. Miracles would be nice but they are not necessary.
And over the years, Satan has been trying his best to duplicate those spiritual gifts. In the process he has duped a great many people into listening to his many false gospels. The Catholics have had their miracle-workers; the Charismatics have their glossolalia. Cult after cult, from the Mormons to the Seventh Day Adventists have had their false prophets. Satan knows very well the power of the spiritual gift, so he has created imitations. But despite the Devil’s successes in replication, the original purpose was effective and God-blessed in the ministries of the Apostles.
So why don’t we look for these miracles in our ministry here at Calvary Baptist?
When I was preparing for the first part of this message, I checked my Thomson Chain Bible looking for a list of spiritual gifts. It provided me with several scriptures, but only one gave me what I was looking for at the time. All of them were in the Epistles and none of them listed, healing, raising, casting out, tongues and the rest. Let me show you what I mean.
The first was in Romans 12:6-9 – “Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be without dissimulation.”
Ephesians 4 is talking about the gifts of the spirit when it says, “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”
It appears to me that as Christianity developed the need for such miraculous gifts became less important. Remember, that in some verses they were specifically called “signs.” As there were more and more of the scriptures completed, the message of the Apostles became more and Biblically based, and special signs – miracles – were not needed. As more of the Apostles’ epistles were finished, there was less and less reference to spectacular miracles such as healings and resurrections. However the gifts of teaching, preaching and administration remained, and still remain today.
Although there is no complete agreement, most Biblical scholars believe that I Corinthians 13 prophesies the end of these special spiritual gifts. “Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” Clearly, the gifts of tongues and the gift of special prophecies were going to come to an end, according to verse 8. They will end when that which is “perfect” is come. What that is and when it will come has been debated for centuries, and it will continue to be debatable. But I have been told “that which is perfect” is neuter in the Greek language, and therefore doesn’t refer to Christ or His return. If, as I do, we interpret it to be the perfect Word of God, the context makes perfect sense. When we are able to hold the revelation of God in our hands, and preach with authority what God has said, then we will not need signs and wonders to authenticate our message. That, I believe, is what Paul was telling us by the inspiration of God.
But going back to the twelve…. they didn’t have what you and I have – the completed New Testament. They needed the ability to say that they had the authority of God. And they had that evidence in the signs and wonders which God granted to them.