Why Do We See So Few Miracles Today?
00:00:00.000 | Well, it seems we see signs and wonders and miracles all over our Bibles.
00:00:09.960 | But for many of us, we see an absence of signs, wonders, and miracles in our own lives and
00:00:16.080 | in the world around us.
00:00:18.240 | So where did the wonders go?
00:00:20.620 | It's a question from a college student who writes in to ask us this.
00:00:23.560 | Pastor John, thank you for the wonderful podcast.
00:00:26.560 | I listen regularly.
00:00:28.520 | I'm a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania.
00:00:31.400 | My parents are missionaries in the Republic of Georgia.
00:00:34.640 | I have spent some time on the mission field with them as well.
00:00:38.400 | Living on a very secular campus now is obviously a night and day difference from the mission
00:00:43.460 | field.
00:00:44.460 | And as I talk to my classmates about faith, life, and Christianity in general, one question
00:00:49.800 | that my friends often ask me is this one.
00:00:52.680 | Why doesn't God work overt miracles today in 21st century America like He did in both
00:00:58.760 | the Old and New Testaments?
00:01:01.520 | Doesn't it seem convenient that God only worked miracles in the Bible?
00:01:06.400 | Pastor John, how would you answer this objection to the faith?
00:01:09.820 | My answer to this is fairly simple.
00:01:13.280 | It's this.
00:01:15.840 | There were fewer miracles in the Bible than you probably think.
00:01:20.320 | And there are more miracles today than you probably know.
00:01:25.800 | And there is a good biblical reason for why there would be a certain kind of prevalence
00:01:32.000 | of miracles in the Bible that is different from today.
00:01:38.240 | So let me say a word about each of those three observations.
00:01:42.640 | Think about the Old Testament.
00:01:44.880 | Here's a typical statement.
00:01:46.880 | The psalmist says in Psalm 77, verse 11, "I will remember the deeds of the Lord.
00:01:54.560 | Yes, I will remember your wonders of old."
00:02:00.880 | When you read the Old Testament, you realize most of the saints in most of those centuries
00:02:08.680 | would have talked like that.
00:02:11.840 | The wonders of old.
00:02:13.440 | Oh, remember the wonders of old.
00:02:16.140 | And they would have had the same question we do.
00:02:18.340 | Why were there more miracles in the days of Elijah, in the days of Moses, than there are
00:02:25.200 | today, in the days of the prophets, in the days of the kings?
00:02:30.640 | So it's simply a great mistake to think that there are miracles running all through the
00:02:35.400 | history of God's people as the Bible records it.
00:02:39.280 | They were not running all through the history of God's people.
00:02:43.300 | They sprung up around certain periods of time, like the Exodus and like the ministries of
00:02:48.360 | Elijah and Elisha.
00:02:50.920 | But most of the time, the saints of the Old Testament were living their lives by faith
00:02:57.320 | in the promises of God for the future, rooted in the past wonders of God that he had worked
00:03:04.120 | in the past, just the way we live our lives today, by faith in the promises of God for
00:03:09.800 | a kingdom that's yet to be consummated by looking back to the decisive work of Jesus
00:03:16.520 | Christ in the Bible.
00:03:20.400 | And when it comes to the New Testament, it is gloriously true that Jesus did miracles
00:03:25.520 | perfectly and consistently, though even he only raised three people from the dead and
00:03:32.560 | didn't heal people in many places where he traveled or where he didn't travel.
00:03:39.000 | The miracles of Jesus were clearly not to show that the kingdom had been consummated,
00:03:45.480 | but only to show that the kingdom had broken into the world, in part, pointing to a future
00:03:52.200 | day when everybody would be raised from the dead who believes in Christ and nobody would
00:03:56.480 | be sick anymore in the coming kingdom, because that's the way Jesus is, and he's showing
00:04:02.320 | some of that now.
00:04:04.720 | And not only that, but Jesus himself explains his own miracles as pointing to his divinity.
00:04:12.520 | In other words, something about these miracles attached to him, and you wouldn't expect them
00:04:19.760 | to attach to other people in the same way.
00:04:23.240 | For example, he said in John 10:37, "If I am not doing the works of my Father, then
00:04:30.240 | do not believe me."
00:04:32.920 | In other words, "Whoa, these works are good evidence that I am in the Father and the Father
00:04:39.800 | is in me.
00:04:41.040 | I'm unique, Son of God."
00:04:43.440 | And this is true, even though he gave his disciples authority to do miracles also.
00:04:49.560 | They knew that there was something utterly unique about this man and the way he did miracles,
00:04:56.040 | and that the authority and power uniquely resided in him as the very Son of God.
00:05:02.960 | And when you turn to the book of Acts and the rest of the New Testament, the epistles,
00:05:07.840 | it's obvious that the apostles did some astonishing miracles, but it's also true that they suffered
00:05:14.680 | much and their colleagues got sick.
00:05:18.320 | They needed—Paul carried a doctor around with him.
00:05:22.380 | But they got thrown into prison, that they got killed.
00:05:27.080 | And even though there were gifts of miracles and gifts of healing and gifts of exorcism
00:05:33.420 | that are spoken of in 1 Corinthians 12, it would be a huge stretch to think that the
00:05:39.880 | Christians with those gifts in the first century were performing miracles the way Jesus did.
00:05:47.380 | So already in the first century, outside the life of Jesus, things had changed.
00:05:53.560 | So my first observation is that we shouldn't think of the Bible times, either Old or New
00:06:00.480 | Testament, as times in which saints of God consistently did miracles.
00:06:05.540 | That would be a distortion of the biblical record.
00:06:10.020 | They were few and far between in the Old Testament.
00:06:13.960 | They were uniquely concentrated in Jesus in a very special Christ-exalting way, and his
00:06:21.840 | apostles, and they were shared in part through spiritual gifts with all the saints.
00:06:30.240 | And the second observation I would make is that there are probably more miracles happening
00:06:35.680 | today than we realize.
00:06:37.920 | If we could collect all the authentic stories all over the world from all the missionaries
00:06:46.940 | and all the saints in all the countries of the world, all the cultures of the world,
00:06:53.840 | all the millions of encounters between Christians and demons and Christians and sickness, and
00:07:00.380 | all the so-called coincidences of the world, we would be stunned and think we were living
00:07:10.040 | in a world of miracles, which we are.
00:07:13.760 | And the third observation I would make, and this is probably what I would say to the unbeliever
00:07:20.200 | who is challenging me, the heart of Christianity is not that the kingdom has fully come and
00:07:28.160 | all sin and evil is being overcome now in this age.
00:07:33.120 | The heart of Christianity is that Christ Jesus, the Son of God, came into the world at a point
00:07:38.840 | in history, in the past, to reveal what God is like and to accomplish salvation for all
00:07:45.200 | who believe in him by dying and rising again.
00:07:49.320 | Miracles clustered around that appearance in history, in Jesus, and in the life of the
00:07:54.800 | apostles to vindicate his claim and their writings.
00:07:59.800 | And Christianity is basically a life lived by looking back with confidence in the work
00:08:08.680 | of Christ and looking forward in hope because of that past to a consummation that's coming
00:08:14.440 | and being willing to suffer and love people now and call them to that faith.
00:08:21.240 | And so we live in a period of time precisely where suffering is normal.
00:08:26.000 | And nevertheless, God does continually here, now and then, sometimes regularly in periods
00:08:34.360 | of revival, use his power to perform, according to his sovereign will, miracles for his people.
00:08:44.120 | Why he doesn't do it more now than he does is partly perhaps owing to our lack of expectancy
00:08:51.320 | and faith, but is ultimately owing to his sovereign decree.
00:08:58.680 | When we call people to repent and believe, we're not calling them to do this on the basis
00:09:05.120 | of a miracle they saw yesterday, even if it happened, but on the basis of the glory of
00:09:10.440 | Jesus Christ revealed in his death and resurrection through Scripture.
00:09:18.200 | That's the basis.
00:09:19.760 | And even if miracles were happening more today, that's where the foundation of faith would
00:09:25.240 | need to lie.
00:09:26.240 | Amen.
00:09:27.240 | There's a lot to think about here, especially with how you led off this episode, that there
00:09:31.240 | were fewer miracles in the Bible than you probably think and more miracles today than
00:09:35.760 | you probably know.
00:09:36.760 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:09:37.760 | That's really thoughtful.
00:09:38.760 | I'll be thinking about that today.
00:09:40.240 | And thanks for making the Ask Pastor John podcast part of your day.
00:09:43.040 | You can stay current with our new episodes on your phone by subscribing through your
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00:09:52.000 | And to search our past episodes or browse our most popular episodes or to send us a
00:09:55.640 | question of your own, you can do those things through our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:10:03.480 | How do we not lose our faith when we lose our confidence in our local church?
00:10:09.840 | Or how do we not lose our faith when we feel neglected or pushed out of a local church
00:10:15.280 | community?
00:10:16.280 | It is a really sharp question from a listener and it's on the docket for next time on Wednesday.
00:10:24.200 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke, and we'll see you then.
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