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Homefront Family Services, here is this week’s Bible teaching clip, “What Jesus Was Really Doing.” Even the disciples struggled to believe the resurrection was real. But Jesus’ miracles weren’t about breaking the natural order - they were glimpses of the world as God intended it to be, and a preview of what is still to come.
Check out the clip below, or view the full message below the transcript!
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Clip transcript…
I want to look at verses 16 and 17 of Matthew, Chapter 28.
“Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him;—” now look at these last three words— “but some doubted.”
Okay, that right there, that statement, first of all, is a stunning admission for Matthew to make. You remember last week when I annoyed you by saying over and over and over, “This isn’t the way you would write a legend. This isn’t ‘legend writing.’ ”? Okay, that is not legend writing.
Think about what’s happening here: an author of an early Christian document telling us that the founders, some of the founders of Christianity themselves— people who are staring straight into the eyes of Jesus himself; people who have touched him with their own hands; who have eaten with him; who have spoken with him; those people that are face-to-face with him— still struggled to believe that it was all real.
First of all, do you know how reassuring this is to me? How reassuring it is to me to know that even them, they were sitting there saying, “Am I hallucinating? Can this really be real? Is this really happening?”
Again, let me go back to where we were last week, just real quick. Why would Matthew ever include that unless it was true? Why would he … If you’re writing a legend, you’re not going to put that down, that the early founders of Christianity, some of them doubted that this was even true. You’d only write that if that’s exactly what occurred.
But there’s something else here that I don’t want you to miss. Trouble believing in miracles is not a modern problem, and that’s what we typically think. We typically say, “Well, those people back then were a bunch of bucktooth morons, and they didn’t understand stuff— like, we’re super-smart today— so they just believed in miracles. But us? Yeah, we, we know better than all of that.”
No, they struggled with the miracles, too. It didn’t make sense to them because we’re all bound by those natural laws of the world around us. They didn’t get it. They didn’t understand it any more than we did. That’s what Matthew is revealing right here. That understanding and believing in miracles is a human problem. It’s not a modern problem. It’s because human beings understand the natural world, and when something happens outside of it, we can’t make sense of it. That is a human problem.
So for those of you who struggle with this, let me see if I can help you. Okay?
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the miracles that Jesus performs in the New Testament are never for shock value. Okay, I’ve always said that it’s to, it’s to give credence to his teaching. Like, he would forgive sins, and people would say, “Who are you to forgive sins?” and then he’d do something amazing that only God could do.
And then they’d be like, “All right, well, he’s obviously got authority; he can do something like that. Only God could do that.” And that’s true, but there’s something else here too.
They were never for shock value. You’ll never find a moment where Jesus says to his disciples, takes them out on the weekends, like, “Watch this, guys,” <points his finger and makes exploding noise> and blows up a tree.
That’s exactly what I would do if I had those powers: “Come on, boys, we’re blowing up trees tonight,” and that’s what we would go and do. And I would just impress people, and they’d be amazed.
And he never uses them to get back at people. Like the Pharisees, when they’re when they’re challenging him. He doesn’t say, “Hey, boys, look behind you,” and there’s like a swarm of hornets, and then they run away, and the hornets just kind of circle them and check them out.
That’s how I would use the powers, which is one of the reasons I wasn’t chosen to be the Messiah. <tongue-in-cheek> I know we’re shocked by this.
But that, that’s not what Jesus did. What does He do with His powers? Well, we know. Jesus healed people who were sick and and, and lame, and He raised people from the dead. And as Denny mentioned, he fed the 5000, the 4000; we know.
And so we always say, “Ah, look how nice Jesus is. That’s what you’d expect from a nice God. He’s doing nice things.” Holy cow. Holy cow!
We think of miracles as a suspension of the natural order of things, do we not? That this is the way things are supposed to function, and … A person’s supposed to die. They just die. That’s natural. And when Jesus raises someone, he’s violating the natural order of things. Nope.
This is what got me. Stop and realize what God is doing. In each of Jesus’s miracles, He is restoring the real, original order that God had made to begin with. Every single one of his miracles.
God did not make us to battle hunger as human beings. He did not make us to deal with sickness. He didn’t make us to have to endure injury, and he certainly didn’t make us to ever have to encounter death and the grief that comes from it. That was never part of the original design! That’s never what it was supposed to be.
God made eyes to see perfectly, and He made taste buds to always be freaking out and excited, and stomachs to always be full. And He made minds to never get tired or confused or stressed, and He made bodies to never run down and never to die.
We’re dealing with what we think is the natural order because of the fall, but what the fall brought about was never meant to be. That was not the original order. It’s the messed up order that has been screwed up by sin.
So what is Jesus doing?
Friends, when Jesus heals the sick, he’s not violating nature; he is healing nature to the way God always intended it to be, and he’s showing everyone that.
When, when, when Jesus feeds the hungry, the 5000, he’s not overriding the rules of creation. What is he doing? He’s restoring the abundance that God always …
Remember the Garden of Eden? “Eat freely from all of these trees, and you’ll never get, you’ll never be hungry. You’ll always be full.” And what happened with the 5000? They ate— from five loaves and two fish— they ate until every single one of them was … They were like Denny after a trip to Red Lobster and the biscuits, they were just so full, and then they had all of the baskets left over to take home! That is God’s abundance.
That’s what Jesus is doing! When Jesus raises the dead, he’s not breaking nature’s laws. What is he doing? He’s defeating an enemy that he says has “no authority in the world My Father made. That’s what I’m doing with all of this.”
Do you know what Jesus is doing with His miracles? He’s showing us what was always intended to be. He’s showing us what is to come.
Wow! I'd live to see and hear you in person. And God willing, Sandi and I will come for a visit. Insightful message! You're doing great Peter Heck! Great indeed!