They say that Jesus walked on water.  Okay … walking on water, that’s one thing. But walking on water during a storm when the rest of us are terrified, walking in on that water and saving us … that’s another thing entirely.

Last week on the program we kicked off a series of messages that I called Signs, Wonders and Miracles. Not because I’m overly focused on the supernatural but simply because the reality for most of us is that we tend to bumble our way through life kind of ignoring the powerful reality of the supernatural, the spiritual realm if you will.

There are two equal and opposite mistakes that we can in fact make when it comes to the supernatural. One is as I just said to completely ignore it, to behave as though God isn’t still doing powerful amazing things in our lives and perhaps even worse still to pretend that somehow the devil, satan and all his legions don’t exist when all along he’s prowling around like a lion looking for someone to devour.

The second mistake and again we looked at this last week on the program is to have an unhealthy fixation on the spiritual. You’ve probably met one of those super spiritual swami’s who sees a devil under every bed and a miracle around every corner, these people over spiritualise everything and they lose grip, quite frankly, on reality.

I’m in neither of those camps, I just know that my God, the one who sent Jesus to this earth to pay for my sins and give me a new life, my God’s real, He’s powerful. He hasn’t stopped wanting to make a powerful difference in my life, in your life and in the life of anyone who decides that they’re going to believe in Jesus and follow Jesus wherever He may lead.

Call me simple, call me crazy, call me what you will, Jesus died for us, He rose again, He sits at the right hand of God on His throne and He is ready, willing and able to make a powerful difference in your life and my life if only we’d let Him.

It’s why last week and again this week on the program we’re stepping our way through the eight miracles that the Apostle John records in his Gospel account of Jesus life and ministry. Interesting, Jesus performed so many miracles in the three and a half years of His public ministry but John chooses to reveal only eight of them to us and he calls them signs and here’s why. John actually gives us the reason why he tells us about these signs and wonders, John chapter 20, verses 30 and 31:

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book but these that are written are written so you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that by believing in him you may have life in his name.

The whole point of these miracles and the reason John constantly refers to them as signs is that they point to the power and the authenticity of Jesus. They verify His claim that He was and is the Son of the one true God and that He came to die for us to pay for our sins and to rise again from the dead to give us a new life.

John recorded these miracles to point to Jesus so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, your Saviour, the Son of God. And here’s the crunch, here’s what this means to you and me here and now and that by believing you may have life in His name, a fresh new powerful life, here and now, filled with the power of God with His joy and peace and grace and mercy and an eternal life in His presence. That’s what these signs are all about, that’s what these miracles are all about. They’re about your life and that’s why they’re so important.

The next one in our series is the time that Jesus walks on water. That’s a pretty neat trick if you can get away with it. Let’s have a listen:

‘When evening came his disciples went down to the sea, got in the boat and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was dark now and Jesus hadn’t come to them yet. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat and they were frightened but he said to them, ‘it is I don’t be afraid’. Then they were glad to take him into the boat and immediately the boat was at the land which they were going to.’ (John chapter 6, verses 16 to 21)

So Jesus had just been doing the powerful miracle of feeding the five thousand with a couple of little fish and five barley loaves. When the people saw this they thought to themselves, ‘wow, the Messiah, this is really the guy sent to us by God, we can see it through the miracles, the signs. He’s got what it takes so let’s make Him king and He can boot the Romans out of Israel and get rid of the terrible occupying force and set us free and be our king just like great King David of old.’

See here they were, they were missing the whole spiritual point of what Jesus was doing. He was there to usher in the Kingdom of God not some physical kingdom; this was much, much bigger than just being about Israel and their lives. God was moving in a supernatural power and they didn’t get it, they missed the point completely and Jesus response to being drafted as king?

‘Perceiving them they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.’

So He wouldn’t have a bar of it, He sent His disciples out onto the Sea of Galilee, not unreasonable, a few of them were experienced fishermen, they knew these waters, they had fished them for years. But if you’ve ever been on an ocean or as in the case of these disciples on a large inland body of water, you’ll know that no amount of experience can compensate for the ferocious power of wind and water.

That’s what happened to these men in the boat. One minute everything’s going along just fine and dandy, they had the skills to get across the sea, everything was great. Next minute a massive storm blows in, we all know what that feels like, it’s confusing first up, why does God let this happen? They must have been thinking that to themselves in the tiny boat pitching on the angry sea. Why did Jesus let us go out in this stupid boat, surely He must have known?

Of course He knew but He wanted them to experience the reality of His power amidst the overwhelming circumstances of their fragile lives. They’re three, four miles out, they might as well be three or four hundred miles out because once you’re out there in a storm in a small fishing boat nothing is going to save you.

You’ve been there right? Perhaps not on a boat on an angry sea although I have a friend Arnie Cole the CEO of Back To The Bible in the US who met Jesus in exactly that place, on the deck of a boat in the middle of a storm when he thought it was all going to be over.

But in our lives we’ve all been there when the storm has blown in and we wonder how are we going to survive? This miracle, this sign speaks the reality of the supernatural power of God into our lives. This power of God, it’s not a theory, it’s real and it’s something that you and I are meant to experience for ourselves. Out there on the stormy waters walks Jesus, completely impossible right? I mean totally, totally impossible and that lies at the heart of what God’s saying to you and me in this short, simple account that’s written up by John in such an understated way.

The seas rough, they see Jesus walking out across the water and they were seriously frightened, that’s putting it mildly and then Jesus tells them, ‘don’t worry, stop being afraid, it’s me, I’m here, I can do the impossible, don’t you get that?’ They kind of already knew that, they’d seen Him do the impossible in other people’s lives but never in their own, never when they were in peril.

The whole point of this miracle for them is that they should believe that the power of God is real in their lives through Jesus. And the whole point of this miracle for us is that we should believe that the power of God is real in our lives through Jesus. When next you have a storm raging in your life remember that, remember that the Holy Spirit had John the Apostle record this miracle, remember he was one of the guys in that pitching boat afraid that he was going to drown, even more afraid when he saw Jesus walking on the water.

God had him record this story so that you and I would know that Jesus’ power is real and through that we could have the life that He came to bring us. It’s that simple, Jesus is for real.

Imagine you were born blind. You don’t know what anything looks like – you’ve never seen anything. Colours mean nothing to you. Then one day, Jesus walks up and heals you. He hands you your sight. How would you react? How would you want others to react?

Okay so you’re blind from birth, just imagine that, you have no sense of what anything looks like, you only understand texture by touching, you identify people and places by smells and sounds rather than by sight. When people talk about red or blue or the colour of a sunset you have completely no idea what they’re talking about, none and then Jesus walks into your life and gives you your sight for the very first time. Come on, what would that feel like? Totally incredible right?

Let’s have a read of this beautiful powerful story; Jesus gives sight to the blind man, John’s Gospel chapter 9:

‘Jesus passed by he saw a man who had been blind from birth and his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?’ And Jesus answered, ‘it wasn’t that man who sinned nor his parents but that the works of God might be seen and displayed in him.’

‘We must work the works of him who has sent me while it is day for night is coming when no work can be done. As long as I’m in the world I am the light of the world. Having said these things he spat on the ground and made mud with his saliva. He anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, ‘go wash in the pool of Siloam’ which means sent. So he went and washed and came back seeing.’

‘The neighbours and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, ‘is this not the man who used to sit and beg?’ Someone said, ‘yes it’s him’. No it can’t be, maybe it’s someone who looks like him but he kept saying ‘I am the man’. So they said to him then, ‘how were your eyes opened?’ and he answered, ‘this man called Jesus made mud and rubbed it in my eyes and said ‘go to Siloam and wash’ so I went and I washed and I received my sight’ and they said to him, ‘where is he?’  He said, ‘I don’t know.’

‘They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus had made the mud and opened his eyes so the Pharisees again asked him how did he receive his sight and he said to them, ‘he put mud on my eyes and I washed it and now I can see’.’

‘Some of the Pharisee’s said, ‘this man isn’t from God for he doesn’t keep the Sabbath’ but others said, ‘how can a man who’s a sinner do such signs?’ and there was division among them so they said again to the blind man, ‘what do you say about him since he was the one who opened your eyes?’ He said, ‘the man is a prophet.’

‘The Jews didn’t believe that he’d been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who’d received his sight and they asked them, ‘is this your son who they say was born blind? How then does he see?’ His parents answered, ‘we know that it is our son, we know that he was born blind but as to how he sees we have no idea nor do we know who opened his eyes? Ask him he’s of age, he’ll speak for himself.’

‘His parents had said those things because they were afraid of the Jews for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be the Christ that person was to be put out of the Synagogue. Therefore his parents said, ‘ask him, he’s of age’.’

‘So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, ‘give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner’ and he answered, ‘whether he’s a sinner I don’t know but one thing I do know that though I was blind now I see.’ And they said to him, ‘what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?’ He answered, ‘I’ve already told you but you wouldn’t listen, why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become one of his disciples?’

‘And they reviled him saying, ‘you are his disciple but we’re disciples of Moses. We know that God’s spoken through Moses but as for this man we do not know where he comes from.’ The man answered, ‘so why, this is an amazing thing. You don’t know where he comes from and yet he opened my eyes.

We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners but if anyone is a worshipper of God and does His will God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard of that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God he couldn’t do a thing’. They answered him, ‘you were born in utter sin and you will teach us’ and they cast him out.’

‘Jesus heard that they’d cast him out and having found him he said, ‘do you believe in the Son of man?’ The man answered, ‘and who is he sir that I may believe’ and Jesus said to him, ‘you’ve seen him and it’s he who is speaking to you’. So the man answered, ‘Lord I believe’ and he worshipped him.’

‘Jesus said, ‘for judgement I came into this world, that those who do not see may see and those who see may become blind.’ Some of the Pharisee’s near him they heard him saying these things and said to him, ‘are we also blind?’ And Jesus said to them, ‘if you’re blind you would have no guilt but now that you say we see your guilt remains.’

Here’s what blows me totally away, a blind man has just been healed and this isn’t one of these televangelist claiming a healing miracle when you have no idea of the person in the wheelchair on your TV screen was disabled in the first place or the person who was blind or deaf who’d been given their sight or hearing was indeed blind or deaf in the first place.

Come on this guy’s been blind from birth, everybody knows him, everybody knows that. This is a serious, real, authenticated, verifiable miracle that no one has ever seen before. And the religious leaders, the Pharisees are worried about the fact that Jesus healed the guy on a Sabbath, the day when no work is to be done.

They grill the guy, they put him through the third degree, this man who’s just received his sight gives it back to them with both barrels, he states the blindingly, glimpsingly obvious:

‘Why this is the amazing thing, you don’t know where he comes from and yet He opened my eyes. We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners but if anyone is a worshipper of God and does his will God listens to them. Ever since the world began has it been heard of that anyone who was blind from birth has their eyes opened? If this man were not from God he could do nothing.’

In other words, guys the evidence speaks for itself. You may not know where He comes from, you may not like Him, He may well be upsetting your religious apple cart but I used to be blind, you all know that but now I can see. Do you see the sharp contrast between this man’s new found vision which comes from the power of God through Jesus and the spiritual blindness of the religious leaders and Jesus sums it all up for them. He tells them you’re the guys who are really blind here because you missed it completely. The spiritual leaders, those who should have had the wisdom and insight and knowledge, those who claim to have sight were in fact blind.

I remember sitting in a meeting being told by a very respectable Christian leader and teacher, a man who was heard by millions of people through the media around the world, that miracles didn’t take place anymore. I was only a young Christian at the time but I remember my blood boiling.

I didn’t know much but I knew that the power of God is real. God found me on the eighth floor balcony of a hotel room about to take my own life. He pulled me back from the brink through a Gideon’s Bible I’d been reading the night before and saved me. He transformed my life and here I am all these years later telling millions of people around the world about this very same powerful loving miracle-working Jesus.

That man, that religious leader was just like these Pharisees and Sadducees in this story, he was denying the power of God. What he didn’t realise was he was talking to me and I, I have to tell you, am a walking, living, breathing miracle. My life was saved by Jesus, my spiritual blindness was cured by Jesus and I’m here to tell you that the transformative power of Jesus Christ is real. I tell you that because I read it here in the Bible, I tell you that because I’ve experienced it in the most powerful and dramatic way in my life.

Jesus is real and He wants to make the most powerful difference, the most amazing, the most transformative difference in your life too and my friend don’t let anyone, ANYONE no matter how plausible they sound tell you any different.

Okay, walking on water, healing blind men … great tricks … as far as they go. But then there’s the biggie.  Miracle amongst miracles. Raising a man from the dead. When he’s already 4 days gone and on the nose. Now that’s what you call … a neat trick. Or do you?

Have you ever seen someone physically raised from the dead? I haven’t, not yet, I’ve seen Jesus do some amazing things in people’s lives both in terms of physical healing and emotional and spiritual healing but to this point I haven’t seen anyone brought back physically from the dead.

We see it a few times in Scripture, not many, just a few. We see that Jesus brings back a little girl to life in Luke’s Gospel in the New Testament chapter 8. Of course we see the resurrection of Jesus, that’s the real big one, can’t miss that. And then we see the story of Lazarus, a good friend of Jesus who dies and then Jesus brings him back to life again. That’s the one we’re going to have a look at today.

I guess the point I want to get across first though is this, do I believe that Jesus can bring people back to life physically from the dead? Sure I do, absolutely but it’s not something that happens every day, it was quite rare in Scripture and it’s equally rare today. Why? Well we live in a world where it’s an absolute certainty that each one of us is going to die either that or Jesus is going to come back beforehand. That’s it, two sure things in life death and taxes is what they say and they’re pretty much right.

But every now and then God does bring people physically back to life, so here’s the thing, if we’re all going to die and physical resurrections are as rare as hens teeth, that’s a reasonable summary, what’s the point of this miracle? And what does it say to you and me today about the power of God in our lives.

Well first up let’s have a listen to what transpires, John chapter 9:

‘Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair whose brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent for Jesus saying, ‘Lord he who you love is ill’ but when Jesus heard of it he said, ‘this illness does not lead to death, it is for the glory of God so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.’

‘Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus so when he heard that Lazarus was ill he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Then after this he said to his disciples, ‘let’s go to Judea again’. The disciples said to him, ‘Rabbi the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, are you going there again? And Jesus answered, ‘are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day he doesn’t stumble because he sees the light of this world but if anyone walks in the night he stumbles because the light is not in him.’

‘After saying these things he said to them, ‘our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep but I go to wake him up’. The disciples said to him, ‘Lord if he’s fallen asleep he will recover’. Now Jesus had spoken of his death but they thought literally that he was taking a rest. Then Jesus told them plainly, ‘Lazarus has died and for your sake I am glad that I was not there so that you may believe but let’s go to him’. So Thomas called the twins, said to the fellow disciples, ‘let us also go that we may die with him.’

‘Now when Jesus came he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off and many of the Jews had come to Martha and to Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming she went and met him but Mary remained seated in the house.’

‘Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord if you’d been here my brother wouldn’t have died but even now I know whatever you ask for from God, God will give you’. Jesus said to her, ‘your brother will rise again’. And Martha said to Jesus, ‘I know that he’ll rise again in the resurrection of the last day’ but Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life, whoever believes in me though he dies yet shall he live and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.’

‘Do you believe this?’ She said, ‘yes Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God who is coming into the world’. When she had said this she went and called her sister Mary saying in private, ‘the teacher is here and he’s calling for you’ and when she heard it she rose up quickly and went to Jesus.’

‘Now Jesus hadn’t yet come into the village but was still in the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw Mary rise quickly and go out they followed her supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him she fell at his feet saying, ‘Lord if you had been there my brother wouldn’t have died.’

‘When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come were also weeping he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled and he said, ‘where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord come and see’ and Jesus wept so the Jews said, ‘see how he loved him’ but some of them said, ‘could not he who opened the eyes of a blind man also have kept this man from dying?’

‘Then Jesus deeply moved again came to the tomb, it was a cave that had a stone laid against it. Jesus said, ‘take the stone away’. Martha the sister of the dead man said, ‘but Lord by this time there will be an odour for he has been dead for four days’.  Jesus said to her, ‘did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?’

‘So they took away the stone and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, ‘Father I thank you that you have heard me, I knew that you would always hear me but I said this on account of the people standing here that they may believe that you sent me.’ When he’d said these things he cried out in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus come out’.’

‘The man who had died came out, his face and hands bound with linen strips and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘unbind him and let him go.’

Isn’t it interesting, the first thing that Jesus does when He hears that His good friend Lazarus is on his death bed is nothing, nothing. Hey when I have a crisis going on, a matter of life or death I want Jesus to spring into action right now, don’t you? Well nothing’s perhaps not exactly right, He executes a phase of deliberate delay, He stays where He is for another two days.

Come on Jesus! Let’s get going there, it’s urgent, you have to act now! But Jesus deliberately delayed because the point of what He’s going to be doing, the point of what’s going to transpire is that this illness doesn’t lead to death, it is for the glory of God so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.

And so we see as the story unfolds everyone is so distressed, if only you’d come sooner Lazarus wouldn’t have died. It’s not an unreasonable statement but it’s all about perspective. Our perspective in a crisis is our pain, our problem, our circumstance, our need, our timetable. We see it from where we sit but as we’ve observed previously in this series John calls these miracles signs with good reason. Because they’re all about pointing to Jesus, authenticating who He is, the Son of the living God. They’re all about bringing glory to God.

There is many a man, many a woman, many a child dead in their sins, dead in their rebellion to God, heading for a certain eternity without God, apart from Him, suffering in that place we call hell. They might be living, breathing, walking around right now but they are just as dead as Lazarus was, dead men walking if you will.

Some of you have been praying for years for a loved one to come to know Christ and still nothing. Come on Jesus, get going, make it happen, don’t you know that time is running out? Isn’t that how we often pray but Jesus is waiting just for the right time, just the right set of circumstances, just the right heart attitude in that person for Him to step in and bring new life, bring that person back to life in relationship with God.

He’s waiting for the time that’s right, the time that God will get the glory. We all see things from where we sit, from our perspective but God sees them from a different perspective. The whole point of the supernatural miraculous intervention of God in our lives is that God gets the glory, that’s the point.

Sometimes we feel completely alone –it’s like nobody understands us. But hang on, Jesus is someone who understands us better than we even understand ourselves. Jesus speaks to fishermen by giving them a miraculously huge catch of fish. So … how does He speak to the likes of thee and me?

Of course the fishing that I’m thinking of is quite different to the sort of fishing that Jesus was thinking of. I’m thinking of one guy at the end of a wharf dangling a line into the water, sitting around doing nothing, waiting for fish to bite. It’s a very 20th century western view of fishing.

But when Jesus spoke to His disciples about fishing He had a different picture all together in mind. A few of them were professional fishermen. Now early on when Jesus was deciding who His twelve disciples would be He went out and called them to follow Him, quite different to the usual Rabbi. People would apply to follow Rabbi’s, a bit like applying to study at a university. Some would be accepted others wouldn’t.

But no, Jesus called people to follow Him and right there down on the shores of the Sea of Galilee is where He called the first of them, a little later He performed His first fishing miracle. Let’s have a look, Luke chapter 5, verses 1 to 11;

‘On one occasion while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret and he saw two boats by the lake but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats which was Simon’s he asked him to put out from the land a little and he sat down and taught the people from the boat.’

‘And when he had finished speaking he said to Simon, ‘put out your net into the deep and let your nets down for a catch’ and Simon answered, ‘master we toiled all night and didn’t catch anything but at your word I’ll let down the nets’ and when they’d done this they enclosed a large number of fish and their nets were breaking.’

‘They signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them and they came and filled both boats so they began to sink but when Simon Peter saw it he fell down at Jesus’ knees saying, ‘depart from me for I am a sinful man Lord’. For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken and so also was James and John, sons of Zebedee who were partners with Simon.’

‘And Jesus said to Simon, ‘don’t be afraid, from now on you’ll be catching men’ and when they brought their boats to land these fishermen left everything and followed Jesus.’

If you’re a fisherman that’s a pretty powerful miracle right? We could talk about that one until the cows came home as fishermen but His second fishing miracle that I really want to focus on today. Because it speaks to His disciples and to you and me in quite a different way, it comes after Jesus resurrection.

The disciples have headed out from Jerusalem from the tumultuous happenings of the Passover and the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus back to what they know, back to Galilee, back to fishing. Let’s pick it up, John chapter 21;

‘After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas called the twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee and the two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, ‘I am going fishing’ and they said, ‘we’ll come out with you.’

‘They went out and go into the boat but that night they caught nothing. Just as day was breaking Jesus stood on the shore yet the disciples didn’t know it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, ‘children do you have any fish?’ And they answered him, ‘no’, so he said to them, ‘cast the net to the right side of the boat and you’ll find some.’ So they did, they cast the net to the right side of the boat and now they were not able to haul it in because of the quantity of fish.’

‘That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, ‘it’s the Lord’. When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord he put on his outer garment for he was stripped for work and he threw himself into the sea. The other disciples came in the boat dragging the full net of fish for they were not far from the land, about a hundred yards.’

‘When they’d got onto the land they saw a charcoal fire in place with fish laid out on it and bread. Jesus said to them, ‘bring some of the fish that you’ve just caught’ so Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three of them and although there was so many the net was not torn.’

‘Jesus said to them, ‘come and have breakfast with me’. Now none of the disciples dared to ask him who are you? They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he’d been raised from the dead.’

Now the first time they saw this particular miracle is the time that we read earlier in Luke chapter 5. That was early on in their relationship with Jesus, they barely knew Him and the power of that miracle convinced them to follow Him. They dropped their nets, they left their boats, they left their businesses, they left their livelihoods, they left their families because they were convinced by the power of that first fishing miracle, that there was something truly special and powerful about Jesus.

Maybe you’ve had that initial experience with Jesus, that time when you first came to believe in Him. Somehow He had a powerful impact on your life. Maybe you went to a meeting and heard about Him, maybe a friend told you about Him, maybe you heard about Him in the media, wherever, whatever that first initial powerful experience convinced you to follow Jesus.

But then, I’m not sure if you’ve noticed this, then the initial first blush and euphoria wears off, then it’s back to the grind, back to life, back to all the ups and downs that we travel through and then believing in Jesus takes on a whole new dimension. It’s all about believing in Him with your life, trusting Him with your life, following Him with your life and that entails determination, sacrifice, pain, persistence, all those things we wish it didn’t but does.

That’s where these disciples were the second time around, second fishing miracle. They’d seen their Jesus, this miracle-working preacher, pastor and Prophet Jesus arrested, tried, beaten and nailed to a cross. Okay they’d seen Him risen again too but truly that didn’t compute, it didn’t really make sense to them. They were reeling, they’d been through the emotional wringer and they were wrung out.

So Jesus speaks to them through this miracle they’d seen once before back in the early days when it was exciting instead of terrifying to follow Jesus. He reminds them, there they are out on the water and some guy on the shore who they don’t recognise tell them to throw the net out on the other side of the boat, they do, the catch is enormous and all of a sudden they realise, they remember this is Jesus.

Peter strips off, swims ashore, the rest of the guys get back as quickly as they can, what’s Jesus doing? Well He’s cooking them breakfast. I love that. Jesus tried, beaten, crucified, dead, risen. Jesus the Son of God, the creator of the universe speaks to these fishermen through the sign of this great catch and by cooking them a barbeque breakfast on the beach.

What’s that saying to us today? Quite simply this, that the risen Jesus is a Saviour both of power and of love. He reaches into our lives and speaks to us in ways that we can understand, to the fishermen he speaks through fish. He does it with miracle-working power and He does it with tender intimate love.

Imagine Jesus reaches out to you in this way, He calls you to the breakfast on the beach after you’ve been through the wringer over the last three and a half years with Him. Just imagine how deeply that would impact you for the rest of your life. Jesus the God of power, the God of love, the Saviour who reaches out and touches us in the most special tender way, in a way only He could.

My friend that’s exactly what Jesus is like, power and love equals Jesus and that’s the Jesus you and I can expect Him to be as we reach out to Him, expecting Him to be the same Jesus, the same Saviour, the same gentle teacher, shepherd, pastor, fisherman, miracle worker as the one we read about in the Bible. Here’s what we discover, we discover that He is the same only this time we learn the Bible truth about Jesus with our own life experience of Him and there’s no better way to learn that.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve looked at the eight miracles – signs the Apostle John calls them – recorded in John’s Gospel.  But did you know there’s a ninth miracle; a ninth sign; a ninth wonder? And it turns out – for you and me – it’s the greatest miracle of them all!!

So here we are almost at the end of the series on Signs, Wonders and Miracles of Jesus as they’re recorded in John’s Gospel in the New Testament. There are eight of them; here they are just in case you missed any of the programs. Firstly He turned water into wine at the Canaanite wedding. From that we discover how Jesus uses His power to bless us sometimes in the most amazing ways.

Then He healed the Nobleman’s son and we saw how despite all that was going on around him this man just focused on Jesus and believed in Him and so he received a miracle. The third sign was the healing of the paralytic by the pool of Bethesda, a man who was in a hopeless place without hope and Jesus demonstrated His love and His power by walking into that hopelessness and bringing not just hope but healing too.

Who can forget the feeding of the five thousand as Jesus took that little boy’s fishes and loaves, just showing how Jesus wants to grow the faith in His disciples through what He can do by the tiny offering of one small boy. Then there was the walking on water through which Jesus speaks the fact that His power and His love are just as good, just as affective, just as present during the storms in our lives as they are on the clear sunny days.

The healing of the man who was blind from birth to show us that it’s not about religion, it’s about trusting in Jesus. Religion often blinds us, Jesus is the one who gives us sight, physical and spiritual. And who can forget the raising of Lazarus from the dead, a death that occurred precisely because Jesus delayed in going to His good friend so that the power and the glory of God would be evident to all. And then finally after His death and resurrection He appears again to His disciples and performs a miracle that they’ve seen once before.

He tells them to throw the net to the other side of the boat and after a night of fishing that yielded nothing they catch an amazing catch. To fishermen He speaks through the fish, to each one of us He speaks in terms and in a language that we can understand. Eight amazing miracles, signs as John calls them that point to the power and the love and the authenticity of Jesus as the very Son of the one true living God who is ready, willing and able to transform our lives.

And why does John record just these eight signs and wonders of so many Jesus performed in his Gospel account of the life and times of Jesus? Well John tells us that in chapter 20, verses 30 and 31. He says;

‘Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name.’

It’s all about helping us to believe because these signs point at the authenticity of Jesus and in believing that we might have real life, a vibrant life today and an eternal life tomorrow. Jesus is all about life, life for me, life for you and not the sort of life that Lazarus had when he came out of that tomb wrapped in his grave clothes. Can I just take you back to that picture again?

Jesus has come to Lazarus who is dead, has been for four days. By now his body is on the nose. He’s as dead physically as anybody who doesn’t get no Jesus is spiritually and he’s on the nose and Jesus commands they roll the stone away from the entrance to Lazarus’ tomb;

‘Jesus deeply moved again comes to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid against it. Jesus said, ‘take away the stone’. Martha the sister of the dead man said to him, ‘but Lord by this time there will be an odour for he has been dead for four days.’ Jesus said to her, ‘did I not tell you that if you believed you’d see the glory of God.’ So they took away the stone and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, ‘father I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you would always hear me but I said this on the account of the people standing around that they may believe that you sent me.’

‘When he said these things he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus come out’. The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘unbind him and let him go.’

Just look at that picture of Lazarus wandering out there, out of the tomb wrapped in his grave-clothes. His cheeks are pink underneath those grave-clothes, flushed with life because Jesus has breathed life into him but he’s wrapped in the uniform of death, the grave-clothes and no man could live their life in grave-clothes which is why Jesus said, mark these words;

‘Unbind him and let him go.’

Many a man’s life, many a woman’s life is depicted by that picture of Lazarus in his grave-clothes. They have life because Jesus gave it to them but they remain dressed in the old clothes of death, bound in the sin of the old man, the old woman the one who was before Jesus gave them life.

They’re wondering why is my faith not working for me? Why is Jesus falling short of my expectations of Him? Why is my life so much of a mess all the time not realising that it’s because they remain bound by their sin?

Now contrast that picture with the picture that John gives us of the greatest miracle of them all, the resurrection of Jesus and the empty tomb. Let’s go to John’s Gospel chapter 20 and verse 1;

‘Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the disciples, the one whom Jesus loved and said to them, ‘they’ve taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don’t know where they’ve laid him.’

‘So Peter went out with the other disciples and they were going towards the tomb. Both of them were running together but the other disciple out ran Peter and reached the tomb first and stooping to look in he saw the linen clothes lying there but he didn’t go in. Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb, he saw the linen cloths lying there and the face cloth which had been on Jesus’ head not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself.’

‘Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in and he saw and believed for as yet they did not understand the Scripture that he must rise from the dead then the disciples went back to their homes.’

Would you please notice with me this passage tells us about the grave-clothes, the clothes of death that Jesus had been wearing at His burial? The linen cloths lying there and the face cloth which had been on Jesus head not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. They were off, Jesus was risen, with the freedom of new life that He now wants to pass on to you and to me.

Friend, the whole point, the thing that Jesus is all about is bringing you new life through His resurrection. Freedom from sin, freedom from death, not walking around in some half-life bound up in the clothes of death in your sin but an abundant life. The Apostle Paul sums up this greatest miracle of them all in Romans chapter 6, verse 4;

‘We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father we too might walk in newness of life.’

The greatest miracle of them all is that through His death and resurrection Jesus has brought us forgiveness of sin, removal of the power of sin to destroy our lives and He’s replaced it with newness of life. The greatest miracle of them all is that Jesus died for you and rose again for you so that you could have this newness of life.

My friend do not go another day, not one more without embracing this Jesus as your Lord and your Saviour, without putting your trust in Him, without embracing this abundant newness of life.