Exodus 4:1-5 & Matthew 11:2-6 * January 14, 2007 * Epiphany 2 * Pastor Pagels

In the name of Christ Jesus, dear friends:

Last month when I was doing some Christmas shopping at a local mall I stopped by a store with all kinds of sports memorabilia. The price tag for an official game day autographed Brett Favre jersey was $200. I thought that was a little high until I saw the asking price for a basketball signed by Michael Jordan. The salesperson tried to convince me that $800 was a good deal.

I didn’t have the money or the desire to purchase either item, but I did ask the salesperson a couple questions. I wanted to know how he could assure me that those autographs were real. I asked him to prove that he didn’t sign “Michael Jordan” on the ball and then jack up the price.

He left me for a moment, and when he came back he had an envelope in his hand. He pulled out a piece of paper and immediately my eyes were drawn to three words printed in big, bold letters at the top of the page: “Certificate of Authenticity.” That very official looking piece of paper with appropriately placed signatures and seals confirmed (or at least it was supposed to confirm) that the autograph was authentic.

The Bible is filled with some pretty amazing claims. For example, God told Moses that he would be the one to lead his chosen people out of Egypt. God told John the Baptist that his cousin was the long-awaited Messiah. God’s Word tells us that Jesus lived a perfect life and died a horrible death and rose from the dead three days later to take away our sins.

There were those rare instances when God’s people simply took God at his Word (like when the Lord told Abram to leave his home and travel hundreds of miles to a foreign land, and he did, no questions asked), but those were the exceptions. Far more often God’s people were plagued by doubts. They needed more. They needed proof. And sometimes, so do we.

Instead of condemning them for their lack of faith, God was patient with his people. Instead of giving up on them, God gave them the proof they needed, and that proof often came in the form of miracles.

Miracles are tangible evidence of God’s almighty power, but they are more than that. The amazing things God did confirmed the amazing promises God made. Every miraculous work of God was connected with God’s work of salvation.

And so miracles are not just awesome displays of God’s power. Miracles are not reserved for occasions when the Lord decides to flex his divine muscles. The Scripture texts before us today will help us to see that miracles are really…

CERTIFICATES OF GOD’S SAVING ACTIVITY

I. For Moses

II. For John the Baptist

III. For me

Moses had been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, or at least it had been placed there shortly after he had been born. Even though his fellow Jews were slaves in Egypt, Moses grew up in the court of the Pharaoh. He was well-educated. He was well-off. He didn’t have a worry in the world…until the day he killed an Egyptian who was beating a Jewish slave.

Faced with the choice of fleeing or dying, Moses fled to Midian. There he became a shepherd. For the better part of forty years Moses followed sheep around the wilderness. It wasn’t the most glamorous work, but it was honest work. And Moses probably planned to be a shepherd for the rest of his life. Little did he know that God had other plans.

One day the Lord appeared to Moses in a burning bush. He called this herder of sheep to be the leader of his people. He wanted Moses to go back to Egypt. He wanted Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. And Moses said: “Sounds like a plan. When do we leave?”

Actually, he didn’t say that. These are his actual words: “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt” (Exodus 3:11). Moses remembered the circumstances when he left Egypt. He was a fugitive. He was a wanted man. And even if the Egyptians had forgotten about the sins of his past, the Israelites probably had forgotten about Moses too. Why would they listen to him, much less follow him?

As Moses assessed the situation, going back to Egypt didn’t sound like a very good idea. And so he came up with another excuse: “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them” (Exodus 3:13)?

Even though God spoke to Moses in a burning bush, God’s anger didn’t burn against Moses. Instead the Lord said to him: “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you’” (Exodus 3:14).

God gave Moses his word that he would go with him. God gave Moses a promise that the Israelites would listen when he invoked the Lord’s covenant name. But just in case that wasn’t enough, in order to remove any doubts that still lingered in his mind, God gave Moses one more thing:

“The Lord said to him, ‘What is that in your hand?’ ‘A staff,’ he replied. The Lord said, ‘Throw it on the ground.’ Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the Lord said to him, ‘Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.’ So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand” (Exodus 4:1-4).

This was the first of many miracles God performed through Moses. He parted the Red Sea to deliver his people from the Egyptian armies. He brought forth water from a rock and rained down manna from heaven to preserve his people in the wilderness.

All of God’s miracles serve an important purpose, so what was the purpose of allowing Moses to change his staff into a snake? It was the Lord’s way of telling his reluctant leader: “Don’t doubt your abilities. Don’t worry about what other people say. Don’t be afraid to do what I tell you because I can do anything. And I have chosen you to do great things for me.”

In the case of Moses God used a miracle to eradicate self-doubt. But what happens when the doubts are about God? Is God powerful enough to help me? Can God really make good on all of his promises? Even the strongest, even the most devout believers, have asked questions like these. Even John the Baptist.

John was in prison. He had been locked up for speaking the truth. That didn’t bother John because he understood his role. The Lord had chosen him to prepare the way for Jesus. The Lord had called him to proclaim a message that was simple and clear: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near” (Matthew 3:2).

But as John languished in his prison cell, the kingdom of God appeared to be moving farther and farther away. He had heard what Jesus was doing, but in his mind perhaps that wasn’t enough. And so he sent his disciples to Jesus with this direct question: “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else” (Matthew 11:3)?

Some Bible scholars suggest that John sent his disciples to Jesus for their benefit. They were the ones who needed assurance, not him. This is a possibility, but it is just as likely (and probably more likely) that John was having some doubts of his own.

With all the time he had to think in prison, with the devil attacking his faith night and day, with so little happening on the surface, John the Baptist needed to hear that his words were true and that his work was not in vain.

Instead of declaring: “Yes, John. I am the one who was to come,” Jesus took a little bit different approach. He told John’s disciples: “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor” (Matthew 11:4, 5).

Jesus was the promised Messiah, and his miracles confirmed his message. Jesus was “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), and everything he did backed up everything he said. Only God has the power to heal the sick. Only God has the power to raise the dead. Only God has the power to forgive sins.

It isn’t difficult to identify the people who benefited directly from Jesus’ miracles. The ten lepers showed themselves to the priests, and they were allowed to go back to their families (Luke 17:11-19). Jairus rejoiced because his dead daughter was alive (Matthew 9:18-25). The paralytic picked up his mat and went home (Matthew 9:1-7).

But those people were not the only beneficiaries of Jesus’ miracles. These mighty acts fortified the faith of people like John the Baptist, people who desperately needed reassurance, people like you and me.

Sometimes we act like Moses. Sometimes we ask God: “Who am I?” We question ourselves. We doubt our abilities. We wonder if we have what it takes to do everything that needs to be done. We wonder if we will have enough strength just to make it through another day.

And there are other times when we act like John the Baptist. There are those times we ask God: “Who are you?” When the bills pile up and money runs low, when the doctor’s prognosis is not good, when it seems like the situation can’t get any worse, and then it does, we might be tempted to look up to the heavens and say: “Lord, why aren’t you doing anything? Maybe it’s because you can’t do anything.” We begin to question his power. We begin to doubt his love.

The good news is that our God is patient with us too. The good news is that God has the antidote for doubt, faith. Faith is a gift of God. Faith is a miracle that God works in our hearts. God gave Moses the faith to believe that he could lead God’s people. God gave John the Baptist the faith to believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah. God has given us the faith to believe the most unbelievable miracle of all: God’s Son was born into this world, lived a perfect life, died on the cross and three days later rose from the dead to take away our sins forever.

We don’t need an official looking piece of paper to prove that Jesus is our Savior. We don’t need God to produce a “certificate of authenticity” before we will believe in him…because he already has. God’s Word provides us with all the proof we need. Within the pages of Scripture we find ample evidence of God’s power and God’s love. We call them miracles. Amen.

Dear Lord, we believe the angel Gabriel’s words to Mary that “nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:37). You created this world out of nothing. You heal our sicknesses and cure our diseases. You even bring the dead back to life. And still there are those times when we are overcome by doubt. Forgive us, and give us a faith that trusts in your awesome power and embraces your saving love. Amen.