The Fire of False Miracles
Jesus said that he came to fill the earth with fire. And some people may be deceived by this and think that they're seeing miraculous fire from God when they're not.
Look at Revelation 13. John is having this great vision of the end times and he sees two beasts. The second one climbs out of the earth and starts to exercise all authority on the earth and make the people of earth worship the first beast.
But then in verse 13, he says this: “And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people.” And this fiery miracle deceives people. They see this and they think, this must be somebody of God. And so they run after the beasts instead of staying on track with Jesus.
Jesus’ Miracles
When Jesus was on earth, he did great miracles. But it was never for the sake of flashiness. It was never for the sake of ‘wowing’ people to try and prove himself. Jesus did miracles that helped, that healed, that drew people to God.
And when people said to Him “show us a sign that you are from God,” he said “no. If you don't believe, after all the things I've already done, you're not going to believe because of some great miracle.”
Thirsting for Miracles
But so many of us are thirsting for miracles, and so many churches I've seen get into this - “Come to us and you'll see miracles. And that is a sign of God's working. If it's a miracle, then it's of God.”
And I want to caution us. Not every miracle is of God. In fact, sometimes great signs and wonders can be from those who are anti-God to try to draw us away.
Be Not Led Astray
We need to be careful. We need to be so fixed on Jesus that no showy, miraculous signs pull our sight from him. But it's him. It's him, it's not the miracles. It's him that is our joy.
Let's not be led astray by antichrists, who will do great things to impress us. Let's be most impressed by Jesus Christ himself. The Lamb of God who died on the cross and rose again and connected us back to God.
The fire of false miracles can’t sway those who have their eyes fixed on Jesus Christ.
