MIRACLES
INTRODUCTION TO MIRACLES
DR. JIM DIXON
HEBREWS 1:1-14
APRIL 17, 1983
Powers, wonders and signs. Those are three titles given in the scriptures to the miracles of Jesus Christ. First, then, the miracles of Christ are called “powers” from the Greek word “dunimous,” from which we get the word “dynamite.” It’s not possible for us in our finiteness to fully comprehend the power that is and that was manifested in the miracles of Christ.
On June 30, 1908, in Tunguska in Central Siberia there was an incredible explosion, an incredible release of power. Sometime earlier, shortly after dawn, travelers across the Gobi Desert saw what they described as a giant fireball racing northward in the sky. Villagers in Siberia saw what they called a great light, a heavenly light, which they said was so bright that it was like 1, 000 suns, and this great light, this heavenly light. This giant fireball fell to earth in a remote region of Siberia called Tunguska on June 30, 1908, and the earth shook. More than 100 miles away, men, horses and reindeer were thrown from their feet. Boats were turned over and capsized. At the point of impact, there was a great mushroom cloud that rose from the earth according to the testimony of eyewitnesses and from that point of impact, there radiated outward a searing heat that literally destroyed villages. From 500 miles away in broad daylight people could see the explosion and seismographs around the world went crazy. Shock waves had circled the earth two times. That evening throughout Siberia and throughout much of Eastern Europe, it was like an eerie light existed all through the night. They said it was like a never-ending sunset with silvery clouds mixed with colors of yellow and orange. It was 20 years later that the Russians were able to send scientific equipment to the site—1928, and they found 40 and 50 miles from the site of the blast—40 and 50 miles from the epicenter, they found an entire forest which had been leveled. Trees were laying on the ground strung outward from the point of the blast. Entire forest and trees that were stripped bare like matchsticks, and as they came closer to the site of the blast, they found ashes on the earth, and they found the remains of dead animals that had died 20 years before. They found a heightened count of radioactivity according to early reports, but they found no crater. Whatever had exploded there exploded before it impacted the earth.
For 55 years the Soviet Union has continued to examine the site at Tunguska and they examine that site today. They’re not sure what happened there. Of course, there are some very strange theories as there always are Some people think that perhaps an extraterrestrial spacecraft exploded there. Some people think that there was a nuclear explosion, somehow—more than 40 years before the nuclear age. Most scientists believe that it was a great comet that penetrated our atmosphere. Some believe that it was a giant meteor that exploded just before it impacted with the earth. Some scientists believe that it came from particles of anti-gravity that somehow penetrated our atmosphere. The simple truth is that they don’t know but the blast was awesome. Scientists say that that blast as Tunguska was the equivalent of a 30-megaton bomb. It was the equivalent of 30,000,000 tons of TNT. Now the bomb that fell at Hiroshima was the equivalent of 20,000 tons of TNT. This would have been the equivalent of 30,000,000 tons of TNT. Some scientists have said that it was probably the greatest single release of power this world has ever known but you see, that is not true. The greatest release of power this world has ever known was the power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead. The greatest release of power this world has ever seen was the power manifested in the miracles of Christ.
What kind of power would it take to change water into wine? You see all the power of Tunguska could not change water to wine. Nuclear physicists tell us that changing water to wine would have involved a rearrangement of atomic structure in such a way that it should have created an atomic blast that would have destroyed Palestine. What kind of power did Christ possess? What kind of power would it take to raise people from the dead? What kind of power did Christ have that He was able to raise from the dead the daughter of Jarius? That he was able to raise from the dead the widow’s son at the Village of Nain? That he was able to raise from the dead Lazarus who had been in the tomb for three days? What kind of power did He have that He was able to reach forth His hand and touch the ulcerated skin of a hideous leper and make him whole in an instant in time by the mere command of His voice. His power is beyond our ability to comprehend. Therefore, His miracles are simply called “dunimous.” They are called “powers.”
More than 50 years ago in the 1920’s at Durham, North Carolina at Duke University, scientists began to study what today is called parapsychological phenomena. At Duke University, they began to study mental telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis. They’ve tried to find people who can read the back of cards without even looking at them. They’ve tried to find people who can move objects by the energy of their mind. They’ve tried to find people who had extrasensory perceptions, but over 55 years of studies at Duke University, they’ve not been able to conclusively prove that these psychic abilities exist, but what data they do have, what evidence they do have they refer to as psychic powers. Whatever psychic powers exist in the mind of man, they are infinitesimal. They are nothing. They are laughable compared to the power that is in the psyche, in the mind of Christ.
Jesus Christ was able to look at the woman at the well and know her past. He said to her, “You have had five husbands and the man with whom you now live is not your husband.” She said, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.” Jesus was able to look at Peter and know his future. He said, “When you are old, you will stretch forth your arms and you will be carried where you do not wish to go.” He said this to show by what manner of death Peter was to die. Jesus was able to look at a little man in a tree, a man whom He, as yet, had never met. He was able to call him by name, saying “Zacchaeus, come down. I want to have lunch with you today.” Jesus was able to call the fish of the sea into a fisherman’s net and He did that at Galilee. He was able to rebuke the wind, able to calm the sea. You see. He had power and that power was manifested in His miracles. Before He left this earth, He said “All power, in the heavens and on earth has been given to Me.” Before He went to the grave, He said “I have power to lay My life down and I have power to take it up again.” The Bible tells us that even now Jesus Christ sustains the universe by His word of power. He didst form the earth in the beginning in the heavens of the works of His hands. And SC, the Bible tells us that His miracles are simply “dunimous,” they are powers.
Secondly, the Bible tells us that the miracles of Christ were “terraus.” They were “wonders.” This is how we as people, respond to the miracles of God. They make us wonder. We are in awe when we see a miracle. When Jesus rebuked the wind and when He calmed the sea, how did the disciples respond? They said, “Who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” “Terraus”—wonder. You know, some people would love to take the wonder out of miracles. Some people have a hard time accepting wonderment. They want everything to be understandable—everything to be rational—everything to be perfectly in accordance with our understanding of natural laws. They have a hard time accepting miracles.
In 1891, there was a British whaling ship called the Star of the East and it sent some of its sailors, some of its seamen, overboard into the long boats to pull alongside a whale. In order to harpoon it, one of the seamen thrust his harpoon deep into the body of the whale and the whale dove into the ocean, went down deep into the depths of the sea, and the men in their icing boats waited for the whale to rise to the surface, and they waited, and finally, the whale came crashing back to the surface and surprised them and threw one of the long boats high into the air and the men were thrown into the sea. The other, long boats began to pull alongside and try to rescue the men and they found all the men but one man, a man named James Bartley, they could not find him. They searched and they searched, and they could not find a British seaman called James Bartley. Now it was only moments later, and the whale came back to the surface, 400 yards from the man ship. The whale was dead. Fifteen hours later they were carving the whale up. They cut into the belly of the whale and as soon as they cut into the whale’s belly, a foot popped out with a shoe on it. They found James Bartley. Now to their total surprise, he was alive, after 15 hours in the belly of a whale. He was alive and he was unconscious. In fact, he was in a coma, and he remained in a coma for two weeks. When he woke up he was a little wacko in the head for two more weeks, but under medical supervision, he came to the fullness of his faculties. James Bartley had his skin bleached white from the acid of the whale’s stomach. All the hair on his body was singed off and yet he lived for 18 more years, until 1909. He lived and he worked as a shoe cobbler in the town of Gloucester, England. Scientists from all over the world, in those 18 years, came to visit him there to interview the man who had been 15 hours in the belly of a whale. On his tombstone even today, it simply says “James Bartley, a modern-day Jonah.”
But you see, he is not a modern-day Jonah. Some people hear a story like that, and it makes the story of Jonah, the miracle to Jonah, somehow seem more acceptable—somehow seem more believable because they can find an example in the realm of natural events that seems to relate in some way to the miracle that in recorded in the Bible. But you see Jonah was in the belly of the whale not 15 hours but for 3 days and 3 nights. He was not cut out of the whale, but he was cast out of the whale. He did not have his skin bleached white. He did not have the hair singed from his body. He did not remain in a coma. He was not delirious. He was whole and it was a miracle and there is no way to take away the wonder from a miracle of God.
Some of you may have read some of William Barkley’s commentaries. I have William Barkley’s commentaries. William Barkley died some years back. He’s gone to be with the Lord I’m sure. He loved Jesus Christ. I would never deny that, and his commentaries have beautiful word studies, beautiful examination of the history that surrounds Biblical events and beautiful illustrations for practical living, but William Barkley had a couple of problems and one problem he had was that he had a very difficult time accepting the supernatural. He believed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and he believed in that fully, but any other miracle, he had a hard time with. He had a tendency, in his commentaries, to try to explain them away, and if you’ve read some of his commentaries, you’d know that’s true. He wants to take the wonder away. He suggests that instead of walking on the sea, what the Bible really meant to say was that Jesus walked by the sea—take the wonder away. Of course, the wonder then becomes why Peter tried to walk on the sea and why the disciples fell down on their faces to worship Christ when He got into the boat. All because He walked BY the boat? That doesn’t make a lot of sense.
William Barkley suggests that perhaps at the feeding of the 5,000, what really happened was not a multiplication of the loaves and the fish but what really happened was that little boy took out his lunch and all the other people who had been hiding their brown bags brought them out and they had a picnic. He suggests that in the crossing of the Red Sea, that it really wasn’t the Red Sea. It was the Sea of Reeds and it was kind of a low swampy land and the Israelites were able to cross it just by going through a shallow swamp. The miracle becomes “how the Egyptians drowned” it seems to me. William Barkley wanted to take the wonder away from a miracle, and you see, you cannot do that because all the miracles of God, the miracles of Christ, in every generation past, and today they are full of wonder.
Maybe some of you have seen a miracle in your life. Some people think that Bob and I being called to the ministry is a miracle, but certainly God has a sense of humor. But I have to believe that many of you have seen miracles. In my life I’ve seen a few, and one that I shared with some of you is when I was growing up, I had warts all over my hand. In fact, I don’t think I had a place on my hand that I didn’t have warts and it was a tremendous social embarrassment to me. I didn’t want anyone to see my hand so I would hide my hand in my right pocket as a kid because I just literally had warts all over it. My mother was kind of concerned about this and I remember one day she called a woman, a friend of hers, named Sister Smith from Angela’s Temple. Now at that time we went to the Presbyterian Church on Sunday mornings because my father was Presbyterian by background, but my mother was Pentecostal by background and we sometimes went to Angela’s Temple with Amy Simple McPherson on Sunday nights and sometimes on Wednesday nights, and it was kind of a wild group down there. But my mother called Sister Smith who had a healing ministry and asked her if she would come up to the house and lay hands on me and ask for God to remove the warts from my hand. I’ll never forget how Sister Smith handled that. She didn’t say “Sure, Nina. Sure Mrs. Dixon. I’ll come up to the house and we’ll lay hands on Jim. We’ll get him healed. We’ll name it and claim it.” She didn’t do that. She said, “Nina, let me pray about this. Let me pray about this and see what God is offering to do.” It was two days later when Sister Smith phoned my mother back and she said, “Nina, God is offering to heal your son’s hand” and she drove up to our house in La Quinada. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that night. I was just a kid. I remember it pretty clearly. I didn’t really believe, in fact I didn’t know what was going on. This woman seemed like a crazy woman to me, but I remember she laid hands and she prayed for me that my warts would go away. She prayed a prayer of faith because she knew what God had offered to do. I tell you, I went to bed that night. I woke up in the morning and I didn’t have a wart on my hand. You see, I know it because I was there. There was not a single wart on my hand in the morning, and that’s a miracle. remember the sense of wonder that I had, the sense of awe. thought “WOW, God can do anything!” and He CAN do anything. Of course, in subsequent years, I have learned that He doesn’t always do the things we want Him to do, but when He works a miracle, there is a sense of wonder.
I think the greatest miracle that God works in this generation or any other is when He brings us to new birth, when he brings us from death to life. Many of you in this room are living miracles because you have now become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ and your lives are a wonder. Some of you maybe were totally given over to drugs, or to alcohol, or to sexual promiscuity. Maybe you were not faithful to your families, and your children, and you came to know Jesus Christ and you accepted Him as Lord and Savior and there began to be this incredible change in your life as He’s given you eternal life and He’s given you abundant life, and people who knew you before wonder’ what happened to you. You see, the miracles of Christ, whatever they be, always create wonder. Before Jesus Christ was ever born, before He ever came into this world, the prophets said of Him that His name would be called ‘Peylah’ which means “wonderful,” “full of wonder,” and so the miracles of Christ are called “Wonders.” Thirdly and finally, the Bible tells us that the miracles of Christ—and I think this is more important than any other title given to the miracles of Christ. The Bible tells us that the miracles of Christ are called “simeon.” They are called “signs,” and this means that the miracles of Christ point. They point to a reality, to a truth, beyond the miracle itself. You see Jesus Christ never performed a miracle simply to display His power. He never performed a miracle simply to make men wonder. Every miracle He performed is a simeon! It is a sign and it points to His glory and it points to some mystery, some truth concerning His kingdom.
In 1835 on an ancient roadway between Baghdad and Tehran in Biblical Persia, modern day Iran—on that ancient roadway in 1835, a British citizen named Sir Hilary Rollinson discovered what scientists today refer to as “the Behiston Inscription”—an inscription carved in solid rock, 900 feet above that ancient roadway. The Behiston Inscription was carved by command of Darius I who ruled much of the ancient world 2,500 years ago. You know, historians have longed to know the mysteries of the ancient world and the Behiston Inscription has been a key to understanding that ancient period of time. The Behiston Inscription simply reads “I am King Darius and by the will of God, I rule 23 lands including Egypt, Arabia, Sparta, and Babylonia.” And the inscription goes on to describe the glory of Darius and it goes on to describe some of the historical events of his kingdom. In more recent times, archeologists have found the exact same inscription, 2500 years old, in archeological ruins in Babylonia, in an archeological ruin on a Mediterranean island. It is evident that Darius I, 2,500 years ago, put this inscription, carved in stone, all over his kingdom, proclaiming his glory and proclaiming the accomplishments of his kingdom. For scientists today, it is an unveiling. It unveils some of the glory of Darius and his reign and it unveils some of the truths, some of the events of his ancient world. And you see, the miracles of Christ are just like that. His miracles proclaim His glory, and they proclaim, they unveil for us, some of the mysteries, some of the truths of His kingdom. Whenever Jesus Christ performs a miracle, it is as though He is saying “1 am Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, the Ruler of Heaven and Earth, and it’s as though that miracle goes on to point, as a sign, to some further truth, some further mystery concerning His kingdom. You see Jesus Christ healed the man born blind. I’m sure He had many reasons for doing that, but He did it as a sign, to point to the truth, to point to the mystery, to point to the reality that Jesus Christ is the light come into the darkness. He is the source of spiritual sight in the midst of a world of spiritual blindness. That healing of the man born blind became a sign to a deeper truth, a spiritual truth, that Jesus is the source of spiritual light and Jesus used that physical healing for that spiritual teaching—the physical healing being a sign.
Jesus Christ cursed the fig tree on a roadway between Jerusalem and Bethany, and the fig tree withered to the ground. Why did Jesus do it? it wasn’t as though He took some kind of twisted delight in blasting a tree. Why did He curse that tree? It was a sign. The fig tree was barren. The fig tree represented the barrenness of Israel and Jesus was giving a warning to Israel that for their barrenness they were near to be cursed if they did not begin to produce fruit.
Jesus Christ raised Lazarus from the dead. I’m sure he had many reasons. He loved Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus and He loved Lazarus himself, but you see, it was greater than simply that Raising Lazarus from the dead was a tremendous sign that pointed to a deeper truth, that Jesus Christ is the resurrection, the life—that He is the hope of the world—that He has conquered death itself.
Jesus Christ exorcised the demons from a man called Legion. Why did He do it? I’m sure again that He had many reasons but it was a sign pointing to the truth that Jesus Christ had power over the principalities and powers of darkness themself.
Jesus Christ fed 5,000 people with two fish and five loaves of bread, and it was a sign pointing to a spiritual truth and a spiritual reality that He is the bread of life and He is the source of spiritual food and He used it as an object lesson, pointing to that greater spiritual truth.
The miracles of Christ are powers. They are wonders. But most of all, they are signs and they point to mysteries of His kingdom. In the weeks ahead, as we examine the miracles of Jesus Christ, we want to not only be impressed by the power, not only respond in wonder, but we want to see the sign. We want to see the truth, the mystery, the teaching that that miracle points to.
You see, Abraham performed no miracles. He was the father of the faithful, the seed from which the Jewish race came, but he was not a miracle worker. The same is true of David. He was perhaps the greatest king in Israel’s history, and the Bible says that he had a heart “like unto the very heart of God” but he performed no miracles. Throughout the history of the world, the Bible reveals three great periods of miracles. There was the period of the establishment of the Jewish kingdom and nation under Moses and Joshua. They performed miracles and they were miracle workers. That was 3,500 years ago, and then 2,800 years ago there was the period of the kings and the scattering of the southern kingdom and the miracles of Elijah and Elisha, a great period of miracles and miracle workers. And then 1,900 years ago, there was, of course, the period of the establishment of the church of Jesus Christ and the great miracles that were performed by Christ and by His disciples.
Throughout every age of this world, throughout every generation of this world, God has performed miracles, but in these three periods, there was a particular manifestation of the power of God and the working of miracles. You see the Bible tells us that at the close of the age, just before Jesus Christ returns to the earth, there will come another great period of miracles, and miracle workers. Some people believe that we are about to enter into that period. Some people believe that we have already entered into it. Certainly we could not have a better time. I believe with all my heart for us to be examining the miracles of Jesus Christ. Shall we pray?