It appears that my prayer and study focus continues to be the signs and wonders and their purpose in Jesus' ministry. This morning I am reading from Matthew 11:21, 23 NIV:
[21] “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes."
[23] "And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades. For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day."
These verses are an interesting study, for Jesus is speaking about the miracles He has worked and the impact they should have in one's life and in life of the greater community. It is important to think about miracles both individually and corporately, for they impact both, and are obviously meant to. Miracles are meant to drive people to relationship God, to confront their issues of unbelief, and to bring about repentance. Repentance means to change the way you think, and to change the way you act because of this new way of thinking.
When we are confronted by the miraculous, we must deal with it in some way, we must respond. We can deny it happened. We can nod our head and think 'how nice'. We can try to explain it away. We can realize that there really is a God and He is affecting someone's life right here on earth. We can have any of these responses or several others, but we must respond. These towns had responded, but had not repented or changed the way they thought about God, or acted towards Him.
I find it interesting that Jesus didn't mention the messages that He had preached in these towns. He didn't fault the people for their lack of response or repentance to His messages, but rather took them to task over their response to the miracles. The point is, anyone can talk and preach good messages, but it is miracles, signs and wonders, healings and deliverances that distinguished Jesus' ministry. As I have covered before, they were the proof that what Jesus said was from God, for only God could do those things. Jesus said in John 14:10-11 NIV: "Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. [11] Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves."
As I was thinking about these verses I was reminded of an earlier verse that speaks about the Kingdom advancing with power or violence (Matt 11:12). Jesus is the one who was advancing the Kingdom, and the violence was not evil, but rather the power of God defeating and banishing disease, sickness, woundedness, and the demonic. He was confronting these and unbelief with power and authority. We don't necessarily classify this as violence, but to the sickness and demons, it was very violent, for they were cast out an banished. The first definition of violence reads: "marked by extreme force or sudden intense activity" Websters Dictionary. That is exactly what Jesus was doing, exerting extreme (Divine) force or power. The force requires a response - that is a basic physics equation, but also true in the Spiritual realm.
This force requires or elicits response and that is one of the reasons I believe that He presented the Good News about the Kingdom of God and then demonstrated it with power. His words set the stage for a change in the way the people thought, and the miracles, signs and wonders, were the power that forced a response. It is our choice how we respond to things, and these people were no different. That is exactly what Jesus was commenting on, the response was not repentance, or changing the way they thought. He had provided the understanding and then the proof, and they had not changed.
I am more and more convinced that the Lord fully intended us to minister in the same way He demonstrated. What kind of a loving God would tell us to continue His work, and then not empower us to do the work effectively. We can choose how we go about the work, with power assist or not. I would choose the power assisted model. When sawing through a tree I can use a hand powered saw or I can use a gas powered chain saw. I choose the chainsaw, the one with power assist. In the same way, our ministry can make room for and expect the power assistance available to us through the Holy Spirit (chainsaw), as promised by Jesus, or we can slog away using just our words and logic (hand powered saw). I prefer the version that introduces divine force for change and repentance.
Lord, only You can provide the power.
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