The Wonder of a Miracle

So we're going to be in Acts, the book of Acts, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John acts. That's the first five books of the New Testament, acts, chap 3. If you have your Bibles, it'll also be on the screens. Last week what we did was we discussed a situation where a man was healed.

Now, this man, he was lame from birth.

So he- he- he sat down at the Gate of the temple, called beautiful, and he would beg for money- let's just say money- and Peter and John on their way into the temple look at him and Peter fixes his Gaze on him and he says: get up and walk. And then he gets to walk. And then this man goes into the temple, when he hadn't been able to beforehand, and he Praises God inside the temple, likely for the first time in his life, and in verse 10. Here's what it tells us in chapter 3: 10.

It says verse 9 and 10, sorry.

When all the people saw him walking in praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the Temple Gate, called beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. Look at your neighbor, say you're the same. Look at your other neighbor and said, but God can make you different. I know that's longer, it's harder, it's harder.

I want to talk to you today about The Wonder of a miracle.

The Wonder of a miracle cuz. How many of you know, if Jesus were here today and he healed someone who was lame from birth, in front of you, how many of you know you would be wondering and amazed? No one, nobody. Okay, yeah, we, we're practicing here.

Yeah, yeah, you would be amazed.

And they were amazed too. This man's hopping around, he's praising God, he's not asking for money anymore. They are filled with wonder and amazement, but often it's not just excitement when people are wondering. Sometimes people are wondering with annoyance or frustration.

Some people will look on what God does in your life with excitement.

Some people will look on what God does in your life and see how it might negatively impact them. They'll be disturbed. That is The Wonder of a miracle, and the funny thing about this passage is that the man is healed. People are in awe and wonder.

They're amazed.

If Jesus were to perform a miracle, they'd used the Greek word th Mato, which means, they would Marvel at it. They were equally excited and confused and Disturbed and Confused whenever a miracle occurred. And so for the latter half of chapter 3, Peter preaches a message that is amazing and some people respond well to it, but there's another group who doesn't respond well to it. In fact, right after this amazing work of God, the majority of content is about how people were Disturbed, Ed, by the miracle, not how they were excited about the miracle.

Let me give you an example.

Anyone agree with me? Just say Amen. If child birth. You consider it a miracle.

It took you a second.

But, yeah, amen, child birth is a miracle. When a kid comes out and you look at him, you're like that's a, that's a kid, like, that is a, like a full-blown baby. And I was in awe and wonder of my. They showed it already: this is my kid.

Y'all are so much better than the first service.

You know what they did. They laughed at him and it proved my point. This time, y'all were like: perfect with your response and my. My point is: when my kid came out, he didn't look like he does now at 7 years old.

There are a lot of things they didn't tell me about child birth.

It's my first kid. Any husband's in here might be with me on this. You stand in the room and you're just like, oh, she's here, she's given birth. I barely woke up for the second one, like it's this, this is craziness.

And then my first Kid Lucas, 10. 5 or 10 lb, 5 O, came out normal birth and the doctor holds him.

And I looked at him- 10B, 5 O, - and I'm like I was wondering- you know, and some of y'all, if you're honest with yourselves, it's a beautiful miracle of God and you're wondering and awe and amazement about child birth. But some of you look like, oh, he's fat. That was a first thought. That don't of yourself like.

That was a first thought you had, I, they didn't tell me.

They didn't tell me that, their head's not ready to be like. They don't look normal in their head when they come out, did, if you don't know this, and you're like about to have a kid, maybe, maybe your spouse is pregnant, you're about to have a kid, if you don't know this already. When they come out, they have a cone-shaped head. And they didn't tell me that.

And so I'm sitting here.

I know it's a miracle. I was lightly Disturbed- I'm just being honest with you cuz I there were jelly rolls. I wasn't expecting. I was on a diet, you know, and then he had a cone-shaped head.

I looked at the doctor who does this all the time and I felt the Judgment from her.

I felt it. I said, hey, is, is that? Is that going to go away? Talking about his cone shape is, is he going to thin out a little bit like this is?

Oh, it's, it's crazy.

Show a couple more. Look at that kid. I thought about bringing him in here but I didn't want to give him a complex. Look at that Titanic POS and everything.

He's got got it down anyways, like it was a miracle.

And obviously I as a parent started posting pictures. My wife started posting pictures and we're like, oh, he's so cute. We have tons of pictures we didn't show because we know what they really look like now, but then we were like we're excited about it and he's beautiful, he's from God, he's a miracle. And we were in awe and wonder, on the positive end, but now that I look back at some of the pictures, I'm like we, he thought that was cute and I'm sure everybody else was just being super polite.

And what was exciting to me?

They were like: can he just stop posting pictures and some of y I me. We all think our kids cuter than everybody else thinks our kid is. I get it and I don't want you to leave here thinking mad, don't care about kids. I love my kids.

I'm just showing you that in something that is so clear, a miracle from God, there can be various responses to that very clear and obvious miracle.

And with you, maybe, maybe you recently trusted in Jesus. Maybe you're coming back to church. I talked to someone who hadn't been to church in over three years last last service is the first time they came to church out here. Maybe you're coming back to church.

Maybe you're coming to church as a family for the first time, together.

Maybe you're ready to take a next step in your walk with God. Maybe God is pulling you in a direction and you know that it's the miraculous work of God. Maybe you didn't come from being lame from birth, but maybe spiritually you were in a bad, deficient spot, but God lifted you out of your, your myy pit and enabled you to walk and stand on Solid Ground on the Firm Foundation of the Gospel of Jesus. Right, I don't sorry, I just went there and so like I don't know where you find yourself, but here's.

Here's the thing.

If it's full of wonder and amazement, th might so marvelous, you're excited and pumped about it because God's doing something in you. There is a level where- and here's my first point- there is a wonder that disturbs. There is a wonder that disturbs as excited as you are. Some of you are going to leave here today and be ready to just give your life over to God.

It's like I've been walking a different direction.

I'm going to turn around a b face and I'm going to walk straight toward God. I'm going to start revolving my Netflix cue Around Jesus. I'm going to start revolving my marriage and my parenting Around Jesus. I'm going to start revolving my commute Around Jesus.

I'm going to change every aspect of my life.

That's a miracle. It's a miracle. I'm excited for you. I'm in awe and wonder of what God did through a little bit of worship, a little bit of teaching from God's word and a little bit of your consistency and showing.

I'm pumped.

But there are others who are disturbed by what God is doing in your life. You're going to go home and there's going to. When I trusted in Jesus, I went home and there were some family members who looked at me and said: did you really do what you think you just did? It's family members who said: you don't have to go to church every week.

I didn't, of course you don't have to go to church every week.

But there there were people who had an agenda that wasn't necessarily a bad agenda, but it was agenda that would be disturbed by my new agenda, and they were disturbed by It. In this passage I'm going to take you to chapter 4:1. In this passage it says this: after he preaches the, the Gospel to people, there's a group of people called the Pharisees and Sadducees. It says this in verse one: the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people after they had healed this man.

They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the PE people proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

So let me paint this picture for you: A man is healed physically. He was lame from birth and he now can walk. When Jesus healed people, he always did it not just for the physical purpose, but he did it for the spiritual value, because when you can heal someone like that, it also proves that what you say spiritually matters. And so Jesus would always heal people so that he could draw them closer and closer to himself to say: not only can I heal you physically, but I can bring you back into connection with God.

So when Peter and John see this man, lame from birth, start walking, what they communicate to people is: we're just Mere Men.

But what God did with that man physically, he can do for you spiritually. And the Pharisees and Sadducees? They don't like this. The Sadducees specifically, they were the ruling sect in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago.

They had cozied up to the Roman Empire and they were hanging out.

They enjoyed what they got to do. They got to be superficial, they got to be materialistic and they didn't believe in what they call a resurrection from the dead. So they were just living their good life, cozy, comfortable, hanging out with the Romans. That's how they got to lead.

But then Peter and John come and they start preaching about a resurrection from the dead.

They start healing people and that disturbs them because what it signifies for them is a change in their comfort level. They are Disturbed greatly by what they're seeing and in the same way, you might go back home today said, hey, I want to. I want to connect further with this church. You might go home after trusting in Jesus and say: my life's different.

You might choose to get baptized today and as a symbol of your, your faith, that that happened before, right now.

And then you go and you tell people about it and they're like, all right. Or it might be worse. You might have close family members who look at you and they are frustrated by the change that God's doing in your life. I'm not calling them bad people.

Don't hear me the wrong way.

Don't go home and say you're a bad person. My pastor said it. I'm not saying that. But what I am saying is when you've lived life a certain way for a certain amount of time and then you radically shift it by Nature, when you come back to those very people you live that life with, it disturbs the stasis or the stability of what you were walking in, and when you trust in Jesus, that is foundational.

When you say I'm going to prioritize Jesus before my spouse, I'm going to prioritize Jesus before my job, I'm going to prioritize Jesus.

Before I make big picture decisions, I'm going to put Jesus first. What does that do? By nature of what you're doing, you are wrecking, or at least disturbing, every aspect of your life. Picture this man who was lame from birth.

This is not scriptural.

I want to be very clear with you, but I think it fits within how people work. But don't go home and say: Matt, Matt, preach something that wasn't in Scripture. I know it's not in Scripture, but picture this man. He is healed, he starts walking, he goes into the temple when he could have gone home and hung out with family.

He goes into the temple, he's leaping, he's praising God, he's hanging out with Peter and John, and I'm willing to bet Peter's like: hey, dude, you can hang out with us for a little while.

We want to keep talking about this thing that God just did in you. We, we want, we want you to be a good symbol of what God can do by the power of His spirit. And then he goes home and let's just, maybe he's married. I mean, he couldn't walk at that point, beforehand.

So maybe he's got extended family at home who were used to helping him with every aspect of his life.

And he gets there and now he's walking. He wakes up the next morning. He says. He says hey, sweetie, hey, hey, guys, I'm going back to the temple.

I'm going to praise God with Peter and John at 3:00 pm.

His just to be honest with you. I bet someone's going to look at him and be like: hold up you, un, walked your entire life I've been waiting on you, serving you hand and foot and now I need you to take out out the trash. Amen, now. I need you to do some dishes.

Now.

I need you to use your feet. That now work and go, get a job. I need you to go. I'm not saying any of that's bad, but what I am saying is, when you go back and the priority for this man is, at the like, Jesus at the center of his life, and he's probably going to go back to the temple.

He's probably going to figure out a way to get a job that enables him to serve God still, and other people are going to be disturbed.

It was a miracle and they could admit it, but at the same time, their priorities are not in the same place and so, in the midst of that difficulty, many people find themselves incapable of following Jesus the way that God would call them to, because others are Disturbed. He's thinking man. It was encouraging last week. I felt like going and working out at the gym after last week's sermon, .

But this week he's saying it's disturbing.

I could have called the message it's disturbing, but no one would watch it on YouTube afterwards. And so, like it is like the fundamental aspects of your faith should disturb your way of living. What does Jesus call you into anyways? He says: call, come to me all who are weary, and I will give you rest for your souls.

That's an amazing benefit.

But you know what he also says. He says: anyone who will come after me must take up his cross and follow me. You must bear burdens, you must disturb aspects of your life in order to put me at the center. There will be people in your life who are Disturbed, and I want to encourage you with this.

The benefits far outweigh the consequences.

You really can't have peace for your soul. That surpasses all understanding. He will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. You will see with a new and reinvigorated perspective your entire life as you follow Jesus.

It doesn't happen immediately, it happens over time, and so, as you consistently follow Jesus and disturb your formal way of living, you're going to see that the benefits far outweigh the consequences.

But it's not just other people like. One of the biggest things that my faith Disturbed with me was my schedule. I mean, if everything around Jesus now, what I'm not saying is you need to show up at the church every single day. I mean, again, I've told people this before: this is a school.

It would not work out well for you if you showed up here every day, but what does it look like for you to start like disturbing aspects of your life so that look at your neighbor, say so that we don't disturb it just because we feel like doing it?

We don't disturb it just because, like the Bible says that it's going to disturb aspects of our life. We do it because we know that the benefits outweigh the consequences, and my schedule had to shift. There were things that I was doing. Maybe they weren't even wrong, but they weren't prioritizing Jesus.

How many of you are busy?

Anyone not raising their hand is either a student or unrealistic. Here today we're all busy: my kids, seven and four, and they both. She got gymnastics, my son Lucas has baseball and it's just. They're just teaching them how to pitch.

But it's two, three days a week and we're just getting started.

Life is busy, but what does it look like for us to say: I'm going to choose what I do in and put it in line with what I believe, or at least what I say? I believe it never made sense to me that people would say that Jesus is their priority. They'd say, hey, Jesus at the center. I followed him since I was young.

It never made never made sense to me- maybe it's just because I'm not that smart, that someone could say that Jesus was the priority in their life, but never put him in any aspect of their life.

It just didn't make sense to me. I know people do it all the time. We all know people do that all the time, like I. Probably do it at certain levels too.

It just doesn't make logical sense for me.

If you say that a dude died 2,000 years ago, Rose from the grave and somehow that gives you life abundantly and eternally with God in heaven, wouldn't you think that it would adjust every aspect of our lives? This is what it did for Peter. This is what it did for John. This is what it did for Paul later in the book of Acts.

This is what it did for this man: he steps up and he walks into the temple for the first time.

It changed everything about him, and so the vision that we have is not to say, hey, come, introduce Jesus into one small part of your life, to compartmentalize him. No, we say big or small. I'd love us to have tons of people in this church. I think we're doing okay so far.

This is phenomenal.

But, honestly, what's the point of having a big church if the people in that church are compartmentalizing Jesus to a small, small spot in their life? He's got to be at the center, he's got to be the most important thing, and if you're not Disturbed once in a while about something that God's calling you to do, I wonder how much you're following him. So there are people who are going to be disturbed: , your schedule, your thought processes. There's so many parts of you that are going to be disturbed as God calls you into what he's called you to.

I mean, I bet Jesus was Disturbed when his calling was being fulfilled, when someone handed him a cross one day, and they were like: hey, take this up to the hill called gatha, let me, let me put your hands in with two Nails.

Let me put your feet in with another nail, let me let you hang there and suffocate for a couple of hours. I bet he was Disturbed, but he did it for a greater purpose, because the benefits outweigh the consequences. Christ died for all of us. We got to be disturbed but, but praise the Lord, that there's a wonder that believes.

That's my second Point.

There's a wonder that believes. Let me read verse 4 in chapter 4 really quickly for you. I to take the passcode off of this thing. But many who heard the message- y'all say it with me- believed.

So the number of men who believe grew to about 5,000.

And the Lord wanted me to tell you this: that you're going to disturb other people in your faith, that your faith, by Nature, will disturb aspects of your life. But let me tell you there are more who are with you than those who are against you. This is clarified in the Old Testament in a very cool story. It's also clarified by Paul in Romans, where he said: if God is for me, who can be against me?

And there's a group of people in this room, people who have been prepping for you over this past year so that you would come to a saving knowledge of Jesus, so that you would start revolving every aspect of your life around Jesus, so that the pain that you're feeling, though it might not immediately go away, will be illuminated by the fact that Jesus died on the cross for you, that you'll have a better perspective on your pain and your problems, right?

We've been praying so long for that, and there's a large group of people here who are for you and with you, not against you. In fact, what God does in your life, it doesn't disturb Us in the slightest. It gets us pumped. We're amped that you're taking a step toward God today.

Those of you who are getting baptized after this service: woo, I am pumped for you.

I'm excited that you're willing to make your faith public, because I bet, when you told some people that you were stepping into the tank today, it's not a tank, it's a. It's a. It's a cattle trop. I just want you.

It's a, like it's not, we're not there yet.

We got stuff to work on. I mean, look at us right, like this is. This is something we're working on. But you stepped into that and you told someone you were going to do it and they're like what?

You're getting baptized, that's weird.

Or you told them, like God's doing something in me, they're like I do exist, or someone's like, hey, don't do that. That's a different type of church than we're familiar with. There was something that Disturbed people about your amazing news, but we are pumped for you and if you trust in Jesus at the end of this message today, we are pumped for you as well. If you take a Next Step, we're going to celebrate that.

In fact, there are so many people, who are taking next steps toward God, and we are not Disturbed in the slightest.

In fact, we're going to be the opposite of that. It's going to disturb us in our spirit when you take steps back toward your former way of living. It's it's going to cause us anguish in our prayers so that we- we want to pray on your behalf that God would draw you to himself, because we recognize the benefits outweigh the consequences, that God's blessing and his Gra on you is sufficient for you in any time of weakness, and we're believing that if you can live life with a perspective that puts Jesus at the center, then every problem you encounter will have a different color to it. Your life will be fundamentally, foundationally better because you're following Jesus.

And when you go backward from that, like picture Peter and John, if this man had just gone back home and never showed his face again, they'd be discouraged, and it's not so they could just Trump him up in front of everybody else.

Look what the spirit can do. It's because God did something spiritually and that man- he was praising God, and I'm believing he would continue. I'm believing you're going to continue, and so for anyone in this room who maybe you've been fearful of how this step toward God is going to disturb your way of living or maybe the people around you, I want you to, for a moment, silence the lies of the enemy. He's against you and he's going to use the people around around you in order to continue to pull him closer to himself.

But God does the same.

If you put yourself around, the people who are encouraging you, who are wondering toward believing, who are pumped for you about the steps that you're taking, and everyone in this room who hasn't can trust in Jesus right now. The Bible says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you can be saved. And so I want to take this moment. I'm going to do it every single week.

You're going to memorize this thing by the end of the month.

I want to pray a prayer, for those of you who are accepting Jesus for the first time into your life, and if that's you, I want to give you a brief instruction on how you can step closer and closer to God. So let's bow our heads.