Jesus Amazed the Disciples Scripture Matthew 14:22-33

This month we are studying about the miracles Jesus performed and why they were important to us today. Our short little story today actually contains three miracles performed by Jesus. The setting is just after the feeding of the 5000 on the mountain after Jesus had preached. That separate story had its own miracle. After Jesus was done preaching, he was tired, dismissed the crowd, and asked the disciples to take the boat and travel across the lake and He would meet them later. He needed time alone to pray. The disciples got in the boat and after about a mile travelling, they were not making progress due to a heavy wind and waves against them. About 3 A.M., Jesus came down from the mountain and began walking across the water to meet the disciples. They saw a man walking on the water and thought it was a ghost. Jesus calmed them, saying it is I. Do not fear. Peter said, if it is you master, command me to come to you. So Jesus said come and Peter began walking on the waves toward Him. When Peter looked down, he began to sink and said Lord save me. Jesus reached out His hand and Peter did not sink. Jesus questioned why Peter had such little faith. The disciples were amazed and said, truly You are the Son of God. Jesus did not perform miracles to show off. He performed them to send a message that provides reason to believe. Can we have enough faith from what we have learned about the truth about God, Jesus, and the Bible, to believe in spite of what critics say and in spite of not seeing any miracles ourselves? If you seek God in prayer and believe, you can. Apologetics lesson (answering tough questions and criticisms about Christianity) Are miracles possible? Many scientists and non-believers refuse to believe in the Bible, God and Jesus because they say miracles are not possible. Lets examine the evidence. First, if God exists, then by definition miracles are possible because God is all-powerful. How do we know God exists? Lets simplify and mention just one proof by using the statements below: Anything that begins to exist had a Beginner. The universe began to exist. Therefore the universe had a Beginner.

By definition, a miracle is a disruption of nature and the laws of physics. Science says that natural laws are regular occurrences of nature. They say miracles cannot occur because they are an irregular occurrence of nature. But this is not logical because all events are either natural or unnatural. In fact, we already know some have occurred: 1. The creation of the universe was an unnatural event. Scientists admit that before the universe was created there was nothing. But creation of something out of nothing is possible. So that is an unnatural event yet we know it occurred. Science has yet to provide a satisfactory explanation for how you can create something out of nothing. They prefer to call it a singularity. Whatever they call it, it is a miracle to create something out of nothing and it is not a regular occurrence to create something out of nothing. They just dont want to admit that God is responsible. The creation of life. Science cannot explain how first life occurred. Evolution cannot explain how it first started. We know that a random mixture of non-living chemicals coming together to form a living organism is beyond the probability of chance. Mathematician Leonard Horowitz in 1967 calculated it at 1 in 10 to the 120 billionth power. This is virtually zero. Miracles in the Bible, particularly the NT. Because we know the NT is historically reliable and written by eyewitnesses to events, it is a record of many miracles. The eyewitnesses were known to be honest men and the miracles were witnessed by thousands. If the miracles were not true, then why did no one come forward to deny they occurred from the thousands who were present? Why did Christianity spread if the resurrection did not happen? Who would believe based on a lie?

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The most powerful argument against miracles came from Scottish skeptic David Hume in the 1700s. His argument simplified goes like this: 1. 2. 3. 4. A miracle by definition is a rare occurrence. Natural law is by definition a description of regular occurrence. The evidence for the regular is always greater than that for the rare. Wise individuals always base belief on the greater evidence.

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Therefore, wise individuals should never believe in miracles.

But by his argument we should never believe in a miracle even if we see one. So the fallacy in his argument is partly that he tries to prove too much. But also point 3 is not necessarily true. The universe was created out of nothing and that is not a regular occurrence but also is great evidence for the rare. And his point 4 then is invalid otherwise he would be saying we should not believe that the universe was created out of nothing, yet the vast majority of scientists do believe it.

So, indeed miracles are possible because God exists and miracles have occurred that have no scientific explanation, and eyewitnesses to the miracles were never denied their testimony from recorded history in the Biblical events.