Mark 1:21-28
King Nebudchadnezzar threw three men into a fire so hot the soldiers who threw Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego into the furnace were killed by the heat of the flames. (Daniel 3:24–25)
Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, “Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?”
They replied, “Certainly, O king.”
25 He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”
King Nebuchadnezzar was amazed.
Jesus went into a house followed by two blind men. He healed them and when he came out (Matthew 9:32–33)
a man who was demon-possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus. 33 And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”
Jesus healed and cast out demons and people were amazed.
My oldest sister told me this story about a friend of hers who was in her Bible Study.
Babs was in my Bible Study years ago and was in the end stages for MS. She was sent home from the hospital to die; there was nothing else they could do. She had been wheelchair bound for the previous 5 years. Her muscles were so contracted that her fingers touched her forearms and she was more or less permanently in a fetal position. She was blind, had a tracheostomy in her neck for breathing, had a Foley catheter to empty her bladder and an ileostomy for her bowels. All she could do was pray. On June 7, 1981 she was in bed and friends had come over to read to her some cards she had received. She heard a male voice over her left shoulder say, “My child, get up and walk!” She took out her oxygen tube, took off her arm brace, and jumped out of bed! She saw herself in the mirror. She stood and the muscles in her arms and legs were filled out. Her mother came up the ramp, lifted her nightgown and said “Barbara, you have calves again!” She had some surgeries to remove the various tubes but her doctors were amazed and said it was truly a miracle. They found no signs of MS. She was made whole.
Babs was 31 years old at the time and later she married a pastor with three children and raised them as her own. She continues to testify to what God has done in her life. She says that when she gets to heaven she has two questions to ask Jesus, “Why me?” and “Why not everyone else?”
That is an amazing story. Blind, unable to walk, her central nervous system shutting down and then she could see, she could stand, and she could walk. Her muscles and nerves were rejuvenated. Amazing!
My sister talks about her reaction the first time Babs returned to their Bible Study.
I remember having lunch with her and feeling an almost confusing sense of awe. Here I was, a strong believing Christian who is supposed to expect miracles, and I could hardly believe what was right in front of my eyes. It actually helped me understand why not everyone believed in Jesus during Biblical times and some of the statements Jesus made about faith and miracles.
I have never seen anything so amazing. This past Monday I watched two women pray for a knee to be healed and I watched with faith, believing this could happen. I waited for the knee to be healed but it was not. If it had been healed, that would have been amazing.
I read or hear these stories and think, “That’s really amazing,” and then I wonder what is amazing in my experience with Jesus. I hear amazing stories others have experienced, but is there anything amazing in my experience with Jesus?
This led me to look at the incidents in the Bible that amazed people to see if I could find what they have in common. How can we identify amazing experiences?
King Nebuchadnezzar was amazed. The three men he threw in the fire were not consumed by the fire. That is amazing in itself, but then he observed a fourth man in the fire with them. He knew this fourth man had not been thrown into the fire, he was like a son of the gods. He was clearly not a mere mortal. This was definitely a supernatural appearance.
The day before Joshua led Israel across the Jordan River into Canaan, he told them: (Joshua 3:5)
“Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.”
The next day when the priests carrying the ark of the covenant stepped into the waters of the Jordan, the river stopped flowing and all of Israel passed over into the promised land. This was a supernatural act and the people were amazed.
When Jesus was twelve and went to the Passover feast in Jerusalem, he made his way to the Temple and began to talk with the teachers. How did this happen? This was a busy time for them and they were not likely to pay a lot of attention to a young boy, newly arrived at the age when the transition to being a man was made.
I imagine Jesus came up to one of the teachers and asked him a question. Perhaps this was a question he had asked the rabbi in his synagogue in Nazareth but that rabbi was not skilled enough to answer it to Jesus’ satisfaction. The teacher heard this question and paid closer attention to the young boy asking the question.
Or perhaps Jesus stood around a group discussing some issue, debating the meaning of some text from the Torah and then Jesus, standing at the fringe of the circle, made an observation that caused the whole group to turn and look at the young boy who had spoken so profoundly.
The teachers were amazed because Jesus’ questions and observations were so full of wisdom and understanding that they would have been highly respected if a sixty year old rabbi had spoken them. What was so amazing was that these words were spoken by a twelve year old boy.
There was a supernatural insight in the words and questions of Jesus that amazed them.
We read in Matthew 7:28–29
28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
Itinerant rabbis who traveled the roads of Palestine, taught in the traditional style. They read from the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, and then commented on what they had read. They acted as modern day commentaries, pointing out what this respected rabbi had said and what that respected rabbi had said about a certain passage. But Jesus did not do this. He did not lean on Rabbi Gamaliel or any other respected rabbi. He spoke for himself, making declarations with authority and power.
There was something supernatural about his teaching.
Jesus was asleep in a boat with his disciples when they woke him up because they were afraid of sinking in a terrible storm. Jesus stood up, rebuked the winds and the waves, and the sea became calm. (Matthew 8:27)
27 The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”
The power Jesus had over nature was supernatural.
Jesus healed lepers, gave sight to the blind, made the lame walk and people were amazed because of the power of Jesus to do such great miracles.
Jesus cast out demons, freeing people who had been held captive and the people were amazed. (Mark 1:27)
The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him.”
In his greatest demonstration of the supernatural, Jesus appeared to his disciples after his resurrection. (Luke 24:37–43)
37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 38 He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”
40 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. 41 And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate it in their presence.
When we see wonderful things we are delighted. But when we grasp the presence of the supernatural intruding into our world, we are amazed. We can explain the natural wonders of the world but the supernatural experiences in this life defy understanding. They work against the laws of nature. They are mysteries revealing a world beyond this world.
So when I ask myself what amazes me in my life with Jesus, I have to clarify what it is I am looking for. A good questions to ask is: In what way do I observe the supernatural intruding into my world?
The reason this is an important question is that if I sit waiting for a dramatic healing so that I can be amazed, I will miss out on all the amazing things God is doing right now in my life. It is not my place to dictate to God what kind of supernatural intervention I want to see. It is not God’s responsibility to provide me with miracles that I want to see. If I expect to see someone be healed, raised from the dead or some other miracle of Jesus, I risk being in the camp of Herod who I mentioned in last Sunday’s sermon. Herod wanted Jesus to entertain him with a miracle and I do not want to demean Jesus by demanding he entertain me.
The reality is that there are supernatural miracles taking place in our lives all the time. The kingdom of God is consistently advancing in us and in the people around us. All we have to do is pay attention. In fact, it is not possible for us to avoid the miraculous when the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives. Where is it we see God’s kingdom supernaturally moving into our world?
Let me suggest some ways we experience God’s supernatural movement in our lives.
I asked people in the adult Sunday School class what amazed them in their relationship with Jesus and one woman said that when she went through difficult times, she was amazed to see how present God was with her in those times.
Paul wrote to the church in Philippi: (Philippians 4:4–7)
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
The peace of God that comes to us in difficult times is beyond our understanding. This is supernatural work in our lives. It is not simply our philosophical understanding that enables us to be at peace. There is a spiritual presence in us that enables us to be at peace in the midst of difficulty and tragedy.
Juliet shared this in the adult Sunday School class and gave me permission to share her story. In 1981 one of her brothers committed suicide. This was a devastating experience and she grieved his death. She felt great guilt about his death. It was a very difficult time in her life. Eighteen years later a second brother committed suicide and once again this was a devastating experience. She grieved his death. But in the intervening years, she had renewed her faith in Jesus and drawn closer to him and what was amazing to her was how much better she was able to cope with the pain of her brother’s death. It still hurt but she had an inner strength that enabled her to carry that pain.
God’s peace in our lives is amazing!
God’s orchestration in our lives is amazing. Nicky Gumbel tells this story in the Alpha Course.
Michael Bourdeaux is head of Keston College, a research unit devoted to helping believers in what were communist countries. Years ago his Russian teacher sent him a letter which he had received. It detailed how Christians in the USSR were being beaten by the KGB and subjected to inhuman medical experiments. The letter was signed “Varavva and Pronina”.
In August 1964, Michael Bourdeaux went on a trip to Moscow, and on his first evening met up with friends who explained that the persecutions were getting worse; in particular they mentioned an old church that had been demolished. They suggested he go and see for himself.
So he took a taxi. When he came to the square he saw two women. They asked him, “Who are you”? He replied, “I am a foreigner. I have come to find out what is happening here in the Soviet Union.”
They took him back to the house of another woman who asked him why he had come. He explained he had received a letter from the Ukraine via Paris. When she asked who it was from he replied, “Varavva and Pronina.” There was silence. He wondered if he had said something wrong. There followed a flood of uncontrolled sobbing. The woman pointed and said, “This is Varavva, and this is Pronina.”
The population of Russia at the time was over 140 million. The Ukraine, from where the letter was written, is 1,300 km from Moscow. Michael Bourdeaux had flown from England six months after the letter had been written. They would not have met had either party arrived at the demolished church an hour earlier or an hour later. That meeting was one of the ways God called Michael Bourdeaux to set up his life work.
That is an amazing story of God’s orchestration, God’s providence.
Last Sunday I was at a meeting with four women from South Africa who came to pray for people in Morocco. One of the women was born in France, was engaged to a young man and then broke off the engagement. The whole family of this man was angry with her. After she broke off the engagement she went to a prayer conference at a church in South Africa, met a young man there and married him. She travels now with these women in a prayer ministry.
When she came into our salon for the prayer session, she saw a couple visiting from France and recognized them as the aunt and uncle of the man she had been engaged to. Five years had passed and she did not know what to expect. The last time she had seen them, they were furious with her. But as she talked with them there was a healing reconciliation and she translated for them what was spoken in English. She prayed for them. It was beautiful.
She came from South Africa. They came from France. They were here at the same time, in the same room, and God was able to bring healing and reconciliation.
Amazing!
Creation is amazing.
Psalm 19 tell us:
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Psalm 8 looks at this amazing creation and reflects:
When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
I was once on a hiking trip in the mountains of the northeast of the US and lying by a waterfall, looking up at the stars. The more I looked, the more vast the expanse of the universe seemed to me and then I had a Psalm 8 experience as I reflected on the amazing wonder that the God who created all this had revealed himself to me as someone who loved me and wanted to be in a relationship with me. I was completely overwhelmed.
This is an amazing experience that has stayed with me all my life.
We observe nature and it speaks to us of God.
In his book, Scribbling in the Sand, Michael Card tells of meeting a Chinese woman who had grown up under communism where belief in God is shunned. But she said that from her childhood she found something in nature that she could not explain away. Michael Card writes, “First there was sunset that caused a deep stirring in her soul she could not put into word. Then there was a time when the simple beauty of the flowers in her mother’s garden spoke to her of a simplicity for which her heart yearned. Simply by observing the beauty in nature, she became convicted of an existence of not simply a benign God but a loving, caring father.” This Chinese woman testified, “Imagine the joy I experienced when I learned that he had a name and it was Jesus.”
God speaks to us through his creation.
This is amazing!
Proverbs 30:18–19 tells us:
18 “There are three things that are too amazing for me,
four that I do not understand:
19 the way of an eagle in the sky,
the way of a snake on a rock,
the way of a ship on the high seas,
and the way of a man with a maiden.
We have used our God-given minds to analyze the flight of eagles and to study the behavior of snakes and we understand the physics of boats traveling through water. We study human psychology and measure what part of the brain is stimulated by feelings of love. But there is still mystery to it all. If we glance up from our formulas and equations and look at an eagle soaring high in the sky or contemplate a man and a woman in love, we are amazed.
Let me share just a few more things I consider to be supernaturally amazing.
My daughters both had an English teacher when they were 12 years old. This teacher had a son, born the same year as our youngest daughter. A few years earlier, the teacher’s son had been killed by a drunk driver when he was walking on the sidewalk. The drunk came off the road, onto the sidewalk, hit and killed her son.
The teacher visited this man. This tragedy proved to be his last drunk and he experienced the forgiveness of this woman whose son he had killed. Every year he came to her classroom and talked about the evils of drinking and driving.
When someone forgives a great injustice, a great hurt, a great betrayal, this is truly amazing. This is clearly God’s supernatural intervention in the world.
I have been with people when they have prayed to be a follower of Jesus and while I am pleased that they are making this decision, a part of me is asking, “How long will this last?” But then when they experience difficulty, discover there is a cost to being a follower of Jesus, and still continue to follow, then I stand back in wonder and awe.
This is amazing!
I was talking this week with someone who told me about an Imam in a rural area who became a follower of Jesus. He had been prosperous, receiving income for being an imam as well as income from dispensing curses and blessings in the folk-Islam of the region. He went from all this income to no income. Despite the loss of his income and facing opposition because of his transformation, he has remained faithful to Jesus.
This is amazing!
I watched people being prayed for last Sunday by these women from South Africa and sensed the presence of God as they were bathed in prayer. Annie called what happened a prayer spa. I listened as these women prayed for people who were complete strangers and were able to focus in on critical issues being faced by the people there. It was clear that God spoke to them about the lives of those they prayed for.
This is amazing!
Our goal is not to be amazed and you do not need to feel guilty if you do not feel amazed at this moment in time. If I go outside tonight to look at the stars, I may or may not be amazed. Actually, with city lights, it is difficult to be amazed on any night. But I have seen the night sky in the middle of the Sonora Desert in the southwest of the US and in the desert here in the south of Morocco and while it is beautiful, I have not been amazed as I was that night in the northeast of the US.
If we were constantly amazed I think we might end up in a hospital bed somewhere, mentally and physically exhausted. We should always be thankful, always be grateful, but amazement is a work of God in us as we glimpse the supernatural and are encouraged in our faith.
Think through your life with Jesus. I am certain you have experienced amazing things. We live in a world that is constantly being invaded and overcome by the kingdom of God as Jesus works in each generation to rescue those who are lost. Men and women, girls and boys are drawn into his family. The Holy Spirit is at work in us to transform us. We were once God’s enemies but now we are his sons and daughters, en route to his eternal kingdom.
This is truly amazing!
