Sunday - 04/21/13 RWJ/Pottersville
UMC
Sermon: “Signs,
Wonders, and Miracles” The Early Church Series, Part 3 of 6
Scripture Lesson: Acts 9:36-43
Gospel Lesson: John 10:22-30
Good morning brothers and sisters! It’s
a pleasure to be here worshiping with you this morning, on this the Fourth
Sunday of Easter. In this season we celebrate the death and the resurrection of
our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. While Jesus was raised to new life almost
2,000 years ago in the spring, this time of the year for many of us bears signs
of new life. Many of us awake at this time of the year to song birds, budding
flowers, and newness. We see brown lawns begin to turn green, we see neighbors
cleaning whatever the winter has left on their property, as they allow the new
life of spring to come forth. In this Easter season then, we celebrate new
life.
In doing this sermon series that I am
doing on the early Christian Church, we have already talked about how the early
Christian Church, and even some of the present day Christian Churches are
persecuted. Last Sunday, we talked about how the early church was resilient.
How they grew rapidly and how they kept the faith in the toughest of
circumstances. How our ancestors made great sacrifices to build these very
church buildings that we are sitting here this morning. We talked about men and
women who had such a drive to serve Christ that we are the largest faith today,
in the entire world. When you attack us, like the recent Boston attacks, we
respond, we come together. We are resilient, are we not?
In continuing with talking about the
early Christian Church though, today I want to talk about the power of the
early Christian Church. For the early Christian Church was full of “Signs,
wonders, and miracles”. Well you might be saying to yourself, just what are
“Signs, wonders, and miracles?” These visions from God, these things that we
see that are unbelievably incredible, and miracles of healing and power, that
we cannot explain. To provide a good example of this, let us look at the
scripture that was read from the Book of Acts from this morning. Once again,
the Book of Acts, or the Books of the Acts of the Apostles are the many things
that the apostles did after Jesus was crucified and resurrected. This includes
the 40-days that Jesus appeared to the apostles before his ascension into
heaven. In this morning’s scripture from Act 9, it discussed a female disciple
name Tabitha, or Dorcas in Greek. There were many founding mothers and female
disciples in the early Christian Church, in fact. In this scripture, it talked about how Tabitha
was “devoted to good works and acts of charity”. Yet the scripture tells us
that, “At that time she became ill and died”. Tabitha or Dorcas was then washed
and “they laid her in a room upstairs”. At this point another believer Lydda
had heard that the apostle Peter was near Joppa, where she was, and sent for
him.
Peter then showed up, went to that
room upstairs, to find a room of weeping people, and the late Tabitha laying
there. The Apostle Peter then did something amazing. He said, regarding all of
those mourners in the room, “put all of them outside, and then he knelt down
and prayed. He turned to the body of Tabitha and said, “Tabitha, get up”. After
he had said this, “she opened her eyes, seeing Peter, she sat up. He gave her
his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her
to be alive”.
So as I starting to explain a little
while ago, what are “Signs, wonders, and miracles?” The answer is this kind of
stuff! The answer is an apostle of Jesus Christ, raising Tabitha from the dead
with the power of God. The early Christian Church was full of these types of
“Signs, wonders, and miracles.” According to the Book of Acts scripture from
this morning, this miracle became well known around the area of Joppa and many came
to believe.
In fact, I am talking about “Signs,
wonders, and miracles” occurring that where so big, that sometimes full towns
converted. Sometimes when this happened, hundreds or even thousands were
baptized into our faith in one day’s time. While many people prefer the old
method of baptism “down at the river” or in a lake, in some instances the early
Christian Church baptized so many people, that only had the ability to sprinkle
water on converts heads, due to the sheer number of people. This method also
developed out of the need to baptize people in an “anywhere, anytime fashion,”
as not everyone always has a river or a lake down the road.
One definition of a miracle that I
found for this morning, is “an event not ascribable to human power or the laws of nature
and consequently attributed to a supernatural, especially divine, agency”.
So thing happening that have no scientific explanation, like people living when
they are told they will not. People who have stage four cancer and are told
they will die soon, yet they fully recover. People who lived in the era of the
early church, who witnessed the blind being made to see, the lame walking, the
Holy Spirit being powerful, and seeing the majesty of God in abundance!
The question I
have for you then, is do Signs, wonders, and miracles” still occur today? I
believe they do. In fact, I remember being on a couple of Christian retreat
weekends, where I witnessed some. On one of these weekends, there was a man who
a Vietnam veteran. He took all sorts of medications, and told the group of
Christian men on that weekend that he has not slept the night through since he
left South Vietnam in 1975. This man was a well decorate United States soldier,
and his duty required him to see some pretty horrific things. One of the nights
on this weekend, this man felt the presence of the Holy Spirit during worship, and
during the church service he fell at the alter in the church. When this
happened all of the men in the room stopped what there were doing and placed
hands upon him and prayed, just as it says the early church did in the Book of
Acts. This man had fallen to the ground broken, but like in baptism, he was
raised to new life. The next morning when we all gathered in the chapel for
morning prayers, this man reported to us that it was the first time in over 30-years
that he had slept through the entire night. That he had made his peace with God
that night and he finally felt forgiven for what he had done. For the first
time over 30-years, he actually had peace. To me this was a miracle! Almighty
God, with the power of the Holy Spirit healed this man, and as Jesus said, “come
to me and I will give you rest”.
On another one
of these retreat weekends, a friend of mine who is a pastor of three churches
in this United Methodist Conference had been suffering for a few months with
some pain in his ribs. This made it hard for him to stand up and sit down, hard
to sleep, and even hard to walk. One night on this retreat weekend, we laid
hands on this pastor, this shepherd, this servant of the Lord, and we prayed
for him. We then anointed his head with oil. The next day he came into the room
walking fine, and informed us that his ribs no longer hurt, and that he slept
fine!
In the early
Christian Church brothers and sister, people saw signs from heaven, amazing wondrous
feats, and miracles of healing and power. The question is though do miracles
still happen today? Can a Christian Church in America that is seen by some as
getting small be revitalized? Can hearts be changed? Can people go from being
angry, hateful, jealous, and mean, to being kind, loving, generous, and
compassionate? I, Paul Winkelman who believe, say yes, yes they can! I say yes
these things can and still do happen! All around the world right now “Signs,
wonders, and miracles” are occurring, if we but believe and call upon the Holy
Spirit.
The early
church was powerful, and people saw amazing things. I as a pastor want to
recapture the power and the majesty of the early church. I want to see the
power of God healing, I want to see marriages that are nearly broken to be
mended, I want to see broken hearts healed, and I want to see people who
doctors say will die, live! Because while doctors treat, Jesus Christ heals! “Signs,
wonders, and miracles”. Do you believe this brothers and sisters? Is it possible
in the present day to experience “Signs, wonders, and miracles?” Not only do I
think it is possible, I have seen it!
I would like to close today’s message
with a story, before we move into the Sacrament of Baptism. This story is a true story, and it comes to us
from Chen Guangmei of China. A country where our
faith just so happens to be being heavily persecuted and oppressed right now.
Here is the story:
I
did not hear it coming. Suddenly a large goods vehicle hit me. Now as I fell to
the ground the wheels of the 8-tonne truck went right over my body. One wheel
after the other went over me as I lay there. But to my surprise, I felt no
pain! You see, going home that night it was very dark. So the driver of that
truck did not see me before his vehicle hit me. Now as I lay there, I wondered
if I could move my body. To my surprise, I found I could move my legs. Then I
found I could move my whole body. So slowly I began to move my body from under
the truck.
Now
as I did this, the driver of the truck appeared. He found it difficult to
believe what his eyes saw, when he saw me still alive. Then as I began to stand
on my two feet, his mouth dropped open in complete surprise. I said to him, “I
am not hurt!” But he pointed to the marks of the truck wheels on my shirt. Yes,
he could see the truck wheel marks on my shirt. The marks ran from my lower
back to my shoulder there on my shirt.
Now
when we reached home, my friends thought they must find I had suffered in some
way. But they found I had suffered no harm. As people began to hear what
happened, they came from far and near to see if it was true. Whenever they did
this I showed them the wheel marks on my shirt. I then told them why I was not
killed. I told them, “God wants to continue to use my life.”
So I
hung my shirt outside my house for everyone to see what God can do for us. I
told everyone, “You can also prove what the power of God can do for you.”
“Signs,
wonders, and miracles” brother and sisters.
The belief that God is powerful, and that he can move mountains. What a
miracle it is here this morning that we are baptizing 6-children into the
faith. What a miracle it is that we are even here worshiping on this morning.
So I close this message brothers and sisters by saying this one very simple
thing, “believe and be changed!” In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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