DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE
DO YOU SEE MIRACLES?
DR. JIM DIXON
LUKE 1:26-30
DECEMBER 20, 2009
Moses brought ten plagues upon the land of Egypt. He parted the Red Sea, walked across it as if on dry land, and the Egyptians, when they tried to do the same, drowned. Moses struck the rock at Meribah and water gushed forth by the power of God. Elijah called down fire from heaven, by which he consumed his adversaries, the 450 prophets of Baal. He caused the heavens to rain in a time of drought. He descended into heaven in a whirlwind and a fiery chariot. Elisha asked for a double portion of Elijah’s anointing and with that double portion he raised the dead. Daniel interpreted dreams by the power of God and by that same power he stilled the mouths of liars. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego walked through fire unscathed. Miracles. Miracles and miracle workers.
So, we come to Christmas, the greatest miracle of all. God with us, Jesus born in Bethlehem, the God-man and the greatest miracle worker this world has ever seen. Do you see what I see? Do you see miracles?
Today as we look at Christmas, I want us to take a look at three words used in the New Testament, three Greek words that describe miracles. I want us to see Christmas and miracles through these words. The first word is “teras.” This Greek word is used throughout the New Testament for miracles. The word literally means “wonder.” Miracles in the Bible are called wonders because they cause us to marvel, they cause us to stand back in awe. They cause us to wonder.
Now, we’re looking at another Christmas movie today, briefly, and that’s Miracle on 34th Street, which won three Academy Awards and was nominated for Best Motion Picture. It’s a classic, much loved and much watched. It’s about Santa Claus and Macy’s Department Store and the claim of the Macy’s Santa Claus that he’s the real Santa. Macy’s is on 34th street in New York City, Manhattan, and it’s still there today. Every year they put on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the wonder is that it has nothing to do with Thanksgiving. It’s all about Christmas. But that’s what we’re all about today, too.
So, I want you to see this clip from Miracle on 34th Street. Kids come up to sit on Santa’s lap and Susan, who is really the star of the movie (she’s a very young Natalie Wood) is not sure that Santa is real. But she sees something and she marvels. She sees a young Dutch girl who doesn’t speak English come up to Santa Claus, and the lady with the Dutch girl tells Santa Claus that she doesn’t speak English and that she told the little girl he wouldn’t be able to speak to her. But suddenly, Santa Claus begins to speak to the little girl in Dutch! A multilingual Santa Claus. And the movie presents it as a wonder, a miracle, and that’s certainly how Susan, standing off to the side, was viewing it as she marveled, she wondered, at this apparent miracle.
In our new members classes, which we call Discovery Class (and we have them on many Saturdays throughout the year), there is a story I always tell. It’s a story about the great fire in the city of London, 1666. That fire started in a bakery shop on Pudding Lane and they could not stop it. The fire raged day after day. Four to five days it raged and ravished the city of London, which at that time was constructed mostly of wood. 1,300 buildings burned to the ground. The city of London would not be the same for a long, long time. Eighty-seven churches burned to the ground in the great fire of 1666, including St. Paul’s Cathedral. But it was Sir Christopher Wren, one of the greatest architects in the history of the world, who redesigned 55 of those 87 churches, including St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Now, when they began to rebuild St. Paul’s, the year was 1675 and Sir Christopher Wren was relatively young. By the time St. Paul’s was completed it was 1710. So, it was many years later and Sir Christopher Wren was over 70 years of age by the time St. Paul’s was completed. He would live to 90. When St. Paul’s was done, he stood there after all these years. I mean, 35 years it took to build it. He invited Queen Anne, the first queen of the united monarchy, to come and see it, and she stood at his side and Sir Christopher Wren said, “Well, what do you think?” Of course, her response is famous and known to many of you. She said, “I think it is artificial. I think it is amusing. I think it is awful.”
Of course, Sir Christopher Wren smiled because in 1710 those were highest words of praise. I cannot explain this. A philologist might be able to explain the evolution of word meanings, but those three words have all done a 180 in our time. So, today, those words are not words of praise, but in 1710 they were highest words of praise. Artificial meant beautifully artistic, and amusing meant amazing, and most of all, the word awful was a highest word of praise in 1710 because it meant full of awe, which makes sense. Awful meant full of awe very much like our word wonderful means full of wonder.
It is true that you can look at certain buildings and edifices, you can look at certain cathedrals and there’s a certain awe there, right? I’ve been in St. Paul’s Cathedral, and I stood in awe, looking at its majesty. Just this morning over in the chapel (to a lesser degree) in our early service I was looking at the stained glass and looking at the beautiful ceiling and the stonework, and there was a certain wonder, a certain awe, that comes from certain things crafted even by men.
But of course, there is no wonder greater than the wonder that comes from things crafted by God, things done by God, the power of God. So, you look at Luke 1, in our passage of Scripture for today, and you see the angel Gabriel sent from heaven to earth. That’s a wonder. And you see the response of Mary and you know she was in awe—deeply troubled, deeply concerned, but the word in the Greek indicates she was in shock. The words of the angel to her, “You will conceive in your womb, you will bear a son, you will call his name Jesus and he shall be great. The Lord will give to him the throne of his father, David. He will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” An everlasting, eternal kingdom, and Mary was in awe and shock. “How can this be? How can this be since I am a virgin? How can this be since I have no husband?” And the words of the angel: “The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born shall be called Holy, the Son of God.” A miracle. And she could not help but wonder.
When the shepherds made their announcement in Bethlehem and reported all that they had seen and heard about the angelic visitations to them, it says that the people marveled at all that the shepherds told them. This is the wonder of Christmas, the wonder of this greatest of miracles, God with us. This is the wonder of Christmas, the wonder of this greatest of miracles: God with us.
There is a certain wonder that we could see even in the creation, certain wonders that we can see in the natural world. I don’t know how many of you have taken chemistry, but there’s a certain wonder to chemistry. I’m sure if you took a chemistry class you didn’t feel that way at the time, but think about water. Water is two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen. Hydrogen is extremely flammable. Oxygen is flammable. But you put them together and you have something that puts fire out. There’s a certain wonder to that, right? Water. And you think of salt: Sodium chloride. Sodium is poisonous to men, chloride is poisonous to men, but you combine them and you have something indispensable to the human body.
Have you heard of the alnico magnet? The alnico magnet is made of aluminum, nickel and cobalt. None of these elements are magnetic, but you combine them and you have the most powerful magnetic force on earth. A wonder. And yet it all pales, doesn’t it? It all pales to the wonder of a divine miracle, the wonder of Christmas. This Christmas, I hope, as you come to your family celebrations, you have the sense of wonder at the miracle of it all. I hope that you don’t doubt the virgin birth. I’d hope you don’t doubt it. I hope you don’t deny it. I hope you just marvel at it. I hope that when you think of the virgin birth you just wonder, that you stand in awe of the miraculous power of God and I hope you understand theologically the necessity that Jesus be born of a virgin because he’s not simply man. He is God. He’s the God man and it is the miracle of Christmas.
There’s a second word, and that is the word “dunamis.” The word dunamis is another biblical word that is used for miracles. What does dunamis mean? Well, we get the word dynamite from the word dunamis, but what did the word dunamis mean in biblical times, since dynamite had not been invented? Dunamis meant power. Miracles in the Bible are called powers, wonders and powers. And as you go through the pages of the Gospels you see this again and again and again where miracles are called wonders and powers. Dunamis. Powers. Now, in this movie Miracle on 34th Street, you have Susan approach Santa with a request—a Christmas request. She wants the gift from Santa and she doesn’t believe he has the power to pull it off. She thinks it is too great for him. She doesn’t really believe he has that power. But in the end, Susan sees that Santa had the power to pull it off. And of course, immediately after that scene they all see Santa’s cane that was left in the house, leaning against the wall, and they all knew Santa had worked a miracle.
Of course, that’s Hollywood, and that’s kind of a lot of sentiment. What about God? Does he have the power to pull stuff off? I don’t know what you’re going through. I don’t know what you’re facing; what you might be going through in terms of your health; what you might be going through in terms of relationships, broken relationships; what you might be going through financially; but I know that some of you are looking for a miracle and God wants you to know he has miraculous power.
There’s a passage in the Christmas account of John, chapter one, where you see this statement that Jesus came into the world and the world was made by him and the world knew him not. When you read something like that, do you just gloss over that? I mean, that’s an amazing statement. “He came into the world and the world was made by him and the world knew him not.” Now, the actual Greek word is cosmos. So, this passage literally says in the Greek, “He came into the cosmos and the cosmos was made by him and the world knew him not.” What an amazing declaration that Jesus, Son of God, joined his Father in creation of the cosmos. This child born in Bethlehem. What a wonder and what a power.
Of course, we’re told in Philippians chapter two in coming to this world Jesus emptied himself. The Greek word is “kenosis,” that though he was in the form of God he did not hold equality with God a thing to be held onto, but he emptied himself, taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man. What did he empty himself of? We don’t know. He still had the nature of God, but now he was man. The cosmos was made by him. Do you ever think of the wonder and the majesty and the power of the cosmos? Do you ever think about that?
I was reading recently about quasars. In fact, I was just looking at some stuff yesterday on quasars. Now, I don’t know whether you guys have any interest in quasars or if you know what they are. I can tell you this: Scientists aren’t sure. Scientists aren’t sure what quasars are and they know from their redshift that they are some of the most distant objects in space. They are 12 to 15 billion light years away at the very edge of the creation. The word quasar comes from two words, “quasi,” “stellar,” which means “star-like,” but now scientists know that quasars aren’t anything like stars. They are amazingly powerful. They give off the brightest light and the most energy of anything in the universe. Quasars emit energy and light 1 trillion times greater than our sun. Understand, our sun emits more energy in one second than human beings have used in human history. The sun emits more energy in one second than human beings have used in human history and yet a quasar has a trillion times more power. Some quasars have 2 trillion times more power. In fact, quasars emit a thousand times more energy and light than our galaxy we call the Milky Way. What are quasars? What are these things?
Well, there are a lot of theories, and most cosmologists and astrophysicists believe that quasars are galaxies in birth—new, young, active galaxies developing, galaxies in birth. And at the very heart of a quasar is a super black hole just sucking stellar material into the void but creating all this energy and power, power that is in the cosmos. It is incomprehensible that this child born in Bethlehem co-created all that, the Son of God and God with us.
You look at our passage for today and you see power. Mary said, “How can this be, since I’m a virgin? How can this be since I have no husband?” and the angel Gabriel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Most High will over shadow you.” It’s hard to comprehend the power of this miracle of Christmas and even the power exhibited by Jesus in the miracles he performed. Power to raise the dead as he walked among us. He raised from the dead the widow’s son. He raised from the dead the daughter of Jairus. He raised from the dead Lazarus of Bethany. Power. Power to heal the sick, the blind, the deaf, the dumb, the lame. Power. And all those miracles are called powers. Jesus said, “All authority, all power in heaven and on earth is mine. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” An amazing statement. An amazing claim.
Now, I was reading in the USA Today about a month ago about how the earth could end. I thought, now that’s an interesting headline, kind of an interesting article. And they gave 3 ways in which scientists believe this earth could come to an end. The first is an asteroid hit. They talk about the possibility of an asteroid hit. They say it could be much like the alleged asteroid hit that took place 65 million years ago and brought about the demise of the dinosaurs. An asteroid hit, called the crustaceous tertiary mass extinction theory. So, by this theory a great asteroid hit the Yucatan peninsula and it created this cloud canopy that enveloped the earth, blocked off the sun and stopped photosynthesis, killing plant life then animal life. And now scientists just this last year have found that at that same time that that one asteroid hit the Yucatan peninsula, they found new evidence that a much larger asteroid hit the earth off the coast of India near Mumbai and they can find the crater under the ocean. They found it this past year. They call it Shiva after the Hindu god of destruction. So, they believe this other asteroid, way bigger than the Yucatan asteroid, hit the earth off the coast off India near Mumbai and this just created this global event that destroyed life as we know it and they say it could happen again. They say there’s an asteroid heading towards us in 2029 and it may be close.
Then they mention the possibility of destruction of the earth by means of a super nova—that a star could go super nova. When a star goes super nova, it can destroy everything within 25 light years. Of course, we have stars that are only 4.1- 4.2 light years away—Alpha Centauri, Proxima Centauri. But see, a super nova can destroy everything within 25 light years. The good news is that they feel that the closest star that is about to go super nova is 250 light years away. Still, they say it could happen.
Finally, they say the earth could be destroyed by this third means, and that’s a gamma ray burst, which happens when a super star implodes, creating a black hole and gamma rays burst outward in a destructive manner destroying everything for 8,000 light years. So, there’s these different ways, according to scientists, according to USA Today, the earth could be destroyed.
Now, I don’t know how you feel sitting there. My guess is that most of you are just looking forward to lunch, but you know, my guess is most of you don’t take this stuff very seriously. And I don’t either. I know there are a lot of dangers. I mean that’s true cosmically and that’s also true globally. It’s true locally. Life itself is dangerous. But here’s the deal. Christmas tells us God loves this earth. Christmas tells us God so loved the world and God has power. I’m not worried because God has a plan for this planet. He has a plan for this planet, and he has a plan for a new heavens and a new earth and that is at the heart of Christmas. God so loved the world.
So, this miracle, this power took place and it shows God’s love for us that he would come and live with us. But also, it is a reminder of his power and the fact that we need not fear. So, I say, whatever you’re facing, you need not fear because his power is so great. I know he’s sovereign, but we trust his perfect will. We live out our days, we draw a breath, trusting his perfect will, knowing that he loves us and knowing that his power is sufficient. And so, we have this truth in this miracle of Christmas. Power.
Well, finally, one more word, and that’s the word “semeion.” This is the third word used in the Bible for miracles and the word semeion means signs. What are miracles called in the Bible? Signs, wonders, and powers. You’ve seen that phrase as you’ve gone through the Bible again and again. Signs, wonders, and powers, miracles all. So, this word semeion means a miracle. And understand, a miracle is, by the plan of God, meant to be a sign, something that points to a deeper reality.
Have you ever wondered why God sometimes does miracles and sometimes doesn’t? Have you ever wondered why sometimes God heals and sometimes he doesn’t? Have you ever wondered when you just see the body of Christ praying desperately and you see the power of God come, and then other times you don’t see anything? Have you ever noticed that throughout the history of the world there have been seasons of great miracle working? Have you ever noticed that in biblical history you see the same? I mean, the time of Moses was a time of miracle working. You then have this lull for hundreds of years, but then the time of Elijah and Elisha, miracle working, and then another lull of hundreds of years. In the time of Daniel and some the prophets were miracle working, and then a lull for hundreds of years. And Jesus comes: The miracle worker, the great miracle. And the Bible prophesies in the book of Joel that there’s going to be another great season of miracle working at the consummation, at the Eschaton, at the end of all things. “I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters will dream dreams and prophesy.” There will be this season of miracle working, the Bible says. And the Bible wants us to understand that God can do miracles at all times and in all places, but the Bible also indicates that there are these seasons when God pours out his power on the earth in signs and wonders.
Now, even the Antichrist, the Bible tells us, when he comes on the final stage of history, will be a miracle worker. It says in second Thessalonians chapter 2 that he will come with all pretended signs and wonders. And you say, what’s pretended? Now, the word is “pseudo,” and that’s a misrendering. It means signs and wonders that are intended to deceive: “pseudo” in the sense of leading to falsehood. So, these are real signs and wonders, but their intention is to deceive. That’s the Antichrist. But God’s intention, with his signs and wonders, is to bring truth.
So, Jesus feeds 5,000 people with a boy’s lunch. But it’s a sign; it’s not just a miracle. He’s not just flexing muscles. It’s not just power. He doesn’t want to just create wonder. It’s a sign. And so he says in the immediate aftermath, “I am the bread of life. I am food for your soul.” And they began to follow him because they liked this miracle worker. And he had to say, “Hey, wait a minute. You’re following me because I fed your stomachs. I came to feed your soul.” But it was a sign. His first miracle, he changed water to wine, in Cana of Galilee, 120 to 180 gallons of fine wine. It was a sign. He wasn’t wanting to get people drunk. It was a sign, and wine in Hebraic symbolism represents life and the joy of life, and he’s saying, “I come that you might have life and that you might have it abundantly.” It’s a sign, and I can’t take the mystery out of miracles.
I don’t know what miracles you’ve seen in your life. I know miracles I’ve seen in mine. I don’t always understand the sign. I don’t always get the message. But I understand that he always has a purpose and it’s not always just a wonder, it’s not just a power. In the course of my life, I’ve seen cancer cured. I’ve seen tumors eradicated by the power of Christ. I’ve also had times, many times, where I’ve prayed and saw nothing. But I have seen miracles and I know that when he does them, he has a purpose. And he loves us, but there’s a deeper purpose too, something greater that I think he would have us look for at those times.
In the last chapter in Mark… if you go home today and you pick up your Bible and you look at Mark 16, you’ll see a beautiful chapter, but a very controversial chapter. When you go home, look at Mark 16. Maybe in your Bible, Mark 16 ends with verse 8, where the resurrection of Jesus is announced and the disciples marveled. Maybe when you go home and you look at Mark 16, your chapter won’t end at verse 8. Maybe it will end at verse 20 because, you see, verses 9-20 are not in many of the earliest manuscripts, and so some Bibles include them and some Bibles don’t. Some Bibles include 9-20 in a footnote. Some are included in the normal text but give you a footnote by way of explanation that this passage is probably not in the earliest manuscripts.
Now, that’s Mark 16:9-20 that’s not in the earliest manuscripts. What’s in that passage? Well, it says that the people who believe in Christ will work miracles. That’s what it says. The people who believe in Christ will work miracles. Of course, the apostles did work miracles and miracles are mentioned in many passages of the Bible, but in this passage it says that people who believe in Jesus Christ will speak in tongues, they’ll be able to handle snakes and not be harmed, they’ll be immune from poison, and they will cast out demons and perform exorcisms. That passage probably wasn’t in the original text of the Bible. However, all scholars agree that verse 20 is a beautiful explanation of why God performs miracles. Verse 20 says that he performs miracles to give the message of the gospel credibility. He performs miracles to give the message of the gospel credibility, and I know that is true and we talk to missionaries all over the world that come back to us from the nations and they give reports of miracles attending the proclamation of the gospel. I think here, in this culture, where we are so enlightened and so rich, God has stepped back. But he is still the miracle worker and the gospel is still preached.
As we conclude, I want to say one word about Hanukkah. Just this past week, the 8th day of Hanukkah, the Hanukkah celebration was completed. Hanukkah involves the lighting of candles in an eight-branched candelabra called a Menorah, and each day a different candle is lit as people celebrate Hanukkah, many of them Jewish. But each day a different candle is lit as you go through the 8 days of Hanukkah and it’s a time of worship and it’s a time of family and fun and feasting, a time of great meaning.
Do you know what’s behind Hanukkah? Do you know why Hanukkah, in a sense, should be very important to us a Christians? Did you know that Jesus—John chapter 10, verse 22—celebrated Hanukkah? He went into the temple for Hanukkah. Jesus went into the temple for the Feast of Dedication, which is just another name for Hanukkah. Hanukkah celebrates something that took place 168 years before the birth of Christ, and that was when Antiochus IV, called Antiochus Epiphanes, who was the king of the Seleucid Empire, which was one of the divisions that came out of the Greek empire from the north with his vast armies and conquered Israel, seized the temple mount, threw everything out of the temple, passed down the priesthood and desecrated the temple by putting up altars of foreign gods. By the grace of God, Judas Maccabeus raised an army amongst the people and they cast off the shackles of the Seleucids, the shackles of Antiochus IV. And they went into the temple and they took it again, and the Jews then purified the temple. They purified the temple and Hanukkah celebrates that. They relit the menorah. They relit the menorah and a miracle happened. Though they had virtually no oil, it burned and burned and burned because of a miracle of God. In John 10, when we’re told that Jesus went into the temple on Hanukkah, on the Feast of Dedication, we’re told that in that context he declared himself Messiah.
I tell you, Hanukkah points to Christ. It points to Christ and here’s the miracle of Christmas for all who believe: He’ll make you a temple. He’ll make our desecrated body a temple and he will purify your body from desecration, from sin. He will make your body a temple and he will purify that temple from sin and he will dwell within you. He will be born in you as he was born in Bethlehem. He will make you a child of God, a son or daughter of God, and he will bring his light into you, for he is the light of the world. And he will send you forth as light in the darkness. This is the miracle of Christmas. He is the fulfillment of Hanukkah, the Feast of Dedication, the Festival of Lights.
So, this Christmas, you come to him and you say, “I believe in you. I have doubts, but I believe and I commit my life to you. Be my Savior and my Lord,” and he will come in and your body will become his temple and he will send his Spirit within you and he will cleanse your temple from all sin and make you light in the darkness. This is Christmas. This is the real miracle. This is the miracle that never ends. This is the miracle that keeps happening all over the world, wherever the gospel is preached. So, as we close today, do you see what I see? Do you see miracles? And maybe today is the day that a miracle will happen for you. Let’s close with a word of prayer.