Signs From God
Do you look for "signs" from God?
Have you used "signs" to guide your decisions? Shape your discernment?
When do you know that a "sign" you see is from God? How do you interpret that?
For Jesus, He constantly revealed the Father's heart through signs.
Watch Last Sunday's sermon in our Toward The Cross series: New Eyes by guest speaker, Jeremy Bouris
These signs came in the form of miracles of healing and deliverance, wisdom in teaching and storytelling, and moments of compassion and exhortation.
His miracles. His exorcisms. His wisdom. His touch.
All of the movement of His life became signs that pointed to His heart.
In fact, Jesus Himself could be described as a sign, an image of God, revealing the nature of our Heavenly Father.
As we journey with Jesus Toward the Cross, we'll see that His signs not only increase, but increase in revelatory power.
As He unveils the nature of God the Father, He also unveils the hearts of everyone around Him.
And what comes out is a mixed bag: faith, disbelief, anger, resentment, flattery, obsession and even murder:
So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me....
The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”
Jesus answered them..."Do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands." John 10:24-39
Jesus Himself says there is something revelatory in His signs and wonders.
Signs reveal the heart of the Father.
Signs reveal the nature of Jesus' identity.
Signs can take the unbelief into faith.
"Even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father." John 10:38
Jesus uses signs at the frontlines of His ministry.
And yet, for Jesus, signs don't avoid suffering....
He will follow the heart of the Father to the Cross.
And the signs and wonders will mark a turning point in history, and in our own stories.
His death--a cross that transforms all suffering and death.
The empty tomb--a beacon of hope, of life overcoming death
His blood--the payment that brought us peace.
His body--bore the wounds by which we're healed.
Jesus is the sign and the wonder that unveils our hearts, and in Him, our souls are healed and set free.
Let's prayerfully anticipate Him moving this Sunday as we study Jesus’ journey Toward the Cross in a sermon titled, "Potent - He Unveils Me."
See you Sunday!
Pastor Dave