This will be a sign to you

When Jesus was born, an angel told the shepherds that, ‘a Saviour has been born to you, He is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find the baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger’ (Luke 2: 11 – 12).  Then, just in case an angel appearing with a message was not enough, suddenly the heavenly host appeared singing praises to God.  That got the shepherds on their way! Then when they saw that what the angel had said was true, they told everyone about it. 

The Bible is full of signs and wonders.  Noah was given the rainbow as a sign of the covenant that God would never again flood the earth and that the seasons would follow on one after another. Abraham was told to circumcise the men and this too would be a sign of the covenant.  Fearful Moses was given signs to help him persuade the Israelites that the God of their fathers had not forgotten them. Then both the Israelites and Egyptians wondered and marvelled at the signs God did as he released his people from bondage. No one was in any doubt who was the Lord.

Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Eli, Samuel, Saul, Hezekiah and many more were given signs to show God’s working.  Then Jesus came full of signs and wonders and taught his disciples to do likewise.  Signs can be incredible things and reveal marvellous miracles but signs are just that – signs.  They indicate or point to something else.  A road sign is not the destination – it points to the destination.  Even a town or city sign is not what people come to see but shows they have arrived.  They then look at the place and its attractions or find the person they have come to see.  No one goes to a place to look at a sign. 

There is a marvellous increase in signs, wonders and miracles today.  God is healing people, setting them free, releasing them from bondages and we must seek to be used by God increasingly in this area.  But the signs are only indications that God is at work.  They show that the Kingdom of Heaven is amongst us.  They are not the destination.  Jesus is. 

The religious people in Jesus’ day wanted more signs to help them believe but no matter how many signs they had, their hard hearts would never believe.  They didn’t need any more signs.  They had the one the signs pointed to standing before them but due to unbelief they could not see that.  Those that looked at the signs and saw the Messiah came to saving faith.  Those that looked at the signs and asked for more, never came to faith.

Let us eagerly pursue more signs, wonders and miracles not as a destination in themselves but as an indication that God is amongst us, loves us and wants to reveal himself increasingly to a hurt and broken world.  Let God use you today to show his love through signs and wonders that many will come to know that the Kingdom and the King is amongst us.