Advent Midweek Series on Miracles Part 2 December 13, 2017

Advent Midweek 2 – Miracles
John 9:1-41
December 13, 2017

“Miracles: On Skeptics and Faith”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

The text for the sermon tonight is John 9 that was just read. But also I’ll be talking much about Jesus’ resurrection and all those narratives about what happens after He rises. But that was way too much to read all of it. So I stuck with the whole story of John 9.

We’re dealing tonight with skeptics and with faith. Miracles will always produce skeptics. Folks who don’t believe it. And I think all of you, if you’re honest, have been skeptical at times of some of the miracles in the Bible. The one we did last week—maybe you’re skeptical that God talked through Balaam’s donkey. Maybe you’re skeptical that Jonah lived in a fish. Maybe you’ve been skeptical that Mary really had Jesus without an earthly father. Well, that’s okay. Because the wonderful thing about the miracles in the Bible is that they very often had skeptics. And the miracles stand up to scrutiny.

One of the most scrutinized of all the miracles is the healing of the blind man in John 9. And it should be. Because giving sight to someone who has been blind from birth is truly rare. It just doesn’t happen. Even today. Nowhere in the Old Testament was someone given sight who was born blind. The blind man himself in John 9 says that no one in the history of the world has even seen who was born blind. So this is a big miracle. It needs some scrutiny. And that’s exactly what they give.

Now very often you will hear this about the miracles in the Bible, “Oh, they just weren’t very smart back then. If they knew everything we know today, they could’ve disproved the miracles. If they had our scientific and medical knowledge today, they could’ve shown the miracles to be fake. Well, that’s just not true. That would only be true, of course, if the miracles were actually fake. But the fact is, they weren’t dumber than us. They knew how to test a miracle. And they used all the best knowledge available to them at the time to test the miracles. Someone could easily say the same about us 500 years from now, “Well, if they had our science today, they wouldn’t have believed any miracles.” It’s just an ignorant argument.

Now they tested this miracle in John 9. First they thought it was a case of mistaken identity. Maybe this guy really wasn’t the guy who was born blind. So first they interrogate him. Two times. First the general populace questions him and then they bring him to the Pharisees to question him. “He must be crazy,” or something like that. But he’s not.

They still don’t believe so they call in the parents. “Is this really your son?” Now the parents are scared of the Jews. But they at least verify that this is, indeed, their son and he was, indeed, born blind. That much is clear.

So back to the blind man himself again. They threaten him. They question the whole process. “How did he really give you sight?” It must be some trick, you see. But the blind man stands strong. His witness is true. “I’ve told you guys, and you don’t want to listen to me.”

Finally, when they can’t break him, they question the character of the miracle worker and of the witness. Jesus is a sinner because He did it on the Sabbath. So He can’t be trusted. And the blind man? “Oh, he’s just a sinner. The guy was born blind. Why would we listen to him?” And they kick him out of the synagogue.  Basically, in our terms, they excommunicate him.

See, the issue isn’t the evidence, is it? It’s their predetermined unbelief. “We will not believe in Him!!” Many atheists today have been very forward about that. When it comes down to it, the evidence really isn’t going to matter because they simply would never want to believe in the God of the Bible or in Jesus Christ. They don’t like Him!!

Have you ever thought, “Well, if only God did a big miracle today—then everybody would believe in Him?” Not so, right? Did everybody believe when Jesus did miracles? Not even close. After the feeding of the 5,000, many people left Jesus because they didn’t like what He was saying. After the raising of Lazarus from the dead, many plotted to kill Jesus. After casting out demons, many said Jesus did it by the power of the devil. Seeing a miracle is no guarantee at all of faith. Because, quite simply, many have decided they will not believe no matter what evidence is given.  If we don’t believe the Word of God, neither will we believe anything else.

Now no bigger miracle in the Holy Scripture stands up to scrutiny than the most important miracle—Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. For 2,000 years people have been trying to disprove Jesus’ resurrection and it simply will not be falsified.

From the first moment, the enemies of Jesus were claiming that the disciples had stolen His body. Well, that’s a good theory. The problem is that it would have been incredibly easy to prove. Again, it’s not like they were all ignorant in the first century. The guards would’ve seen the disciples steal the body. Even if the guards hadn’t, someone else would have. And a search could have easily been made for the remains if Jesus’ body had, in fact, been stolen. But the fact is that no one could ever produce His body.

Secondly, you have the overwhelming evidence of all the witnesses who saw Jesus alive. And these weren’t people claiming hundreds of years later that He had risen. They were immediately claiming it and writing about it. They saw Him alive many times. And saw the nail marks and the wound from the spear. They also staked their very lives on it, many of them dying for this one truth that Jesus had risen from the dead.

All four Gospels record the resurrection and Paul writes about it in his early Epistles. The evidence is just too good.

Have you ever watched any of the documentaries today that have been done exposing modern miracle workers as complete frauds? They’re pretty interesting to watch. You can find them on YouTube. It shows how easy it really is to expose fake miracles. Well, again I’d remind you that they weren’t just dumb, gullible country folks in Jesus’ day. They were intelligent enough to test and investigate and see if Jesus’ miracles were legitimate. And one thing set apart this Miracle Worker from all the rest of the miracle workers of the day. His miracles were truly miraculous.

There will always be skeptics. But Jesus doesn’t mind His miracles being tested. And neither should we. Because when it’s the truth, you have nothing to worry about. God has given you faith in Jesus through His Word. Not through miracles. The Holy Spirit has worked in your heart to open your eyes to the truth.

Now you can say with confidence, “God’s miracles are true. They were tested and found to be reliable. And the One who worked those miracles continues to do His work today in His Word and Sacraments. And like Luther says in His Catechism, “This is most certainly true.”

Amen.