Life Is Full of Miracles

St Timothy Presbyterian Church in Toronto: Sermons

Scripture Passage

John 11:1-45

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Worship Audio

Sermon Script

Grace and Miracles

Life is full of miracles. Miracles are not just supernatural events. Miracles are events where you experience God's grace.

Sun rises in the morning. Babies are born. As you lie down, you get a good sleep. People learn to cope with unbearable suffering. People overcome incredible challenges to live happy lives. These are all miracles we see. We all experience God's grace.

If you don't believe in miracles, you miss a big part of your life.

Why do people choose to serve instead of being served? Why do people choose to love instead of hating? Why do people choose to forgive instead of staying angry? They are all miracles to me. They do that because they see God's grace in their lives. Experiencing miracles and experiencing God's grace: They go together.

Last 7 weeks, we did a series of Knowing Christ from the 4 Gospels. It was a long journey for me. At first, I was very uncertain about this series. I was thinking about this series from last year but I didn't have a clear picture until the week before the series began. And just a week before, slowly all my studies started coming into shape one by one. It was all God's grace.

Last Tuesday, after the series was over for the KSM, we had a take out lunch from Mandarin. I was drained. I got my food and there was a fortune cookie on my table. I don't know who put it there. I opened it and it said this.

Your sparkling eyes shed a healing light on those you meet.

I was so glad to hear that. It rejuvenated me. It was almost like God's comforting words. To me, it was a miracle.

When you start seeing life as a miracle, you see a lot of good things happening in your life. Life is not all that bad, you realize. You can see the unlimited possibility of your life. You will feel that life is a dynamic experience. You can see life is a full of grace.

Look around you. I see a teenager who overcomes insurmountable challenges of emotional changes. I see a single mother who doesn't give up but fights to survive with her children. I see old people who do not give up on living a meaningful life in spite of their frail bodies. Life is full of grace and full of miracles.

Characterizing Life

Believing in Jesus Christ means believing in miracles. John used 7 miracles to compose his Gospel. Through these miracles, John described who Jesus was. Interestingly, John doesn't use the word, dunamis which means power. From that word, the word dynamite came from. Often, the Gospels used dunamis for miracles. Mark used 10 times. Matthew used 13 times. Luke used 15 times. But John never used it.

But John used, instead, Seimeion for miracles. It means sign. Sign points to something. Sign itself is not what is important. What it points to is what is important. These 7 miracles all pointed to Jesus.

He fed 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish and this miracle pointed to Jesus being the bread of life. He healed the born blind man which we reflected on last week. This miracle pointed to Jesus being the light of the world. Today, Jesus raised Lazarus who was dead. This miracle pointed to Jesus being the resurrection and the life.

So believing in Jesus means believing in miracles. Miracles characterized Jesus' life. I pray that miracles characterize your life.

Martha entered into a new world in today's story. She saw that life was a dynamic experience. Until then, Martha's life was pretty predictable. She lived her life, doing same things over again. But on that day, her life changed. She saw miracles. She experienced God's grace. Miracles and God's grace characterized her life from then on.

It all began with her faith.

Jesus said this to Martha.

I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this? (John 11:25, 26

This was what Martha said.

She said to him, Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.'(John 11:27)

Through her faith, she experienced something she never experienced before. When you have faith, you will see wonderful things in your life.

The Greatest Miracle

Before Nathanael met Jesus, he was pretty pessimistic about life. Philip first met Jesus and was quite inspired and told Nathanael about Jesus. And this was what Nathanael said to Philip.

Can anything good come out of Nazareth? (John 1:46)

Can anything good come out of my life? That is the attitude many people live with.

What happened to Nathanael after he met Jesus? He changed. He believed that yes, good things could come from Nazareth. Good things could come from his life.

This was what Jesus said to Nathanael.

Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. (John 1:51)

Today's miracle is the greatest miracle of the seven miracles in John. It is the last miracle of 7 and the ultimate miracle. Yes, overcoming death is the greatest miracle.

Life and Death

Death is the biggest problem we all have to deal with. Death is the biggest challenge we have to face. We all die and yet it is hard to accept it. We can never be comfortable with death.

Death causes so much pain and sorrow. When we face death of the loved ones, we become so emotional. When we face our own death, it is so hard to accept it. It is not easy to experience the loss of people whom you love.

These days, I do more funerals than weddings. It is always hard to do a funeral because there is so much emotion. We can see that in today's passage. Today's passage is filled with emotion. We don't see this kind of emotional scenes in all other gospels but today's passage is filled with deep emotion.

Even Jesus wept.

Jesus wept. (John 11:35)

It is the shortest verse in the bible. But it has so much meaning in it. Death was hard to take, even for Jesus. Jesus had compassion for all those who suffered the pain of death.

Death nakedly exposes our weaknesses. It makes us feel totally powerless. It doesn't matter how much money you have. It doesn't matter how much you know. It doesn't matter how good you are. When death hits you, everything becomes nothing.

Steve Jobs died a billionaire at the age of 56. But it doesn't matter whether you die a billionaire or without a penny. Death is death. So fear of death is the greatest fear. Because death makes everything meaningless.

Jesus showed us the greatest miracle and left this word to us.

I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this? (John 11:25, 26)

When we believe in this miracle, we will be empowered to live a victorious life.

This is what St. Paul said.

Death has been swallowed up in victory.

Where, O death, is your victory?

Where, O death, is your sting?'

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:54-57)

Life is more powerful than death. Life will win in the end. Life will live on but death will die. That is what I believe. And to me, that is the ultimate miracle.

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