Miracles don’t Change the Heart of Non-Believers

(Matthew 11:20-24)

You would think that if miracles were performed in front of the eyes of people they would change. If you saw something totally amazing that could only have been done by the power of God, that you would listen to the one doing those things. Well man just doesn’t seem to be like that, as Jesus showed many times.

In this section of Matthew 11 we see Jesus upbraiding the towns and cities where he had performed many of the marvellous and mighty works God allowed him to do. In these cities and towns the sick were healed, lepers cleansed, demons exorcised, the dead raised and many other mighty works. While he did these he was preaching the word of God. But these cities on the whole did not turn around and repent and follow the truth. They were amazed at what was done, but not for the understanding of God’s word, but rather for the spectacle of the miracles. To them it was more like a show than a confirmation of the true Gospel of God, and a call to change their lives.

Jesus expected this to be the way things went anyway. He knew that some would follow but most would not, and he knew that even miracles would not turn people around. Jesus taught this in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16. Lazarus lived on the street in utter squalor and with nothing at the gate of the rich man who lived in the lap of luxury. Lazarus though was a good man despite his afflictions, whereas the rich man was proud and arrogant. They both died and Lazarus went to Paradise to be comforted with Abraham, while the rich man went down into Hades to be tormented in hell. A conversation ensued between the rich man and Abraham with the rich man first pleading arrogantly for Abraham to send Lazarus with water to quench his thirst. He was still arrogant and proud, thinking that Lazarus was nothing more than a slave to do his bidding. When Abraham said no, the rich man pleaded that he would send Lazarus back to earth to warn the rich mans five brothers so they would not suffer. In verses 28-31 we see Abrahams response.

28 “…for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’
29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’
30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if some one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’
31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead.’”

When Jesus upbraided the cities and towns for their lack of repentance, it was this same situation as Abraham spoke of with the rich man. Abraham said, “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead.” The words of Moses and the prophets were the words of God. Similarly the words of Jesus are the words of God. Unless a person listens to and acts upon the words of God when they hear them, then no amount of people rising from the dead, miracles or mighty works will change their minds and bring them to repentance.

Miracles will confirm the truth of the word to believers. They confirm that what they believe in is the truth and this is from God. But non-believers will not believe even if they see miracles. Consider the miracle of Creation today. Non-believers are seeking “scientific” explanations for the Creation of the heavens and the universe. They are looking for “scientific” ways that man was created, let alone all of the animals, insects, plants, fish and so on. They do not believe that God created the world and everything in it, and everything was made in their species and according to their kind from the beginning. Instead man chooses to accept evolution and the gradual changing of species over countless generations and eons until we get to where we are today.

To be honest, I doubt the earth has been around long enough for this to even occur. Science estimates the earth at about 4.6 billion years old (Source: https://www.extremescience.com/zoom/index.php/geologic-earth-history). But how old is the beginning of life? Again science suggests the first single cell organisms appeared some 3 billion years ago and did not change for another 2 billion years. Then these cells became multi cell organisms and began the process of evolution starting around 1 billion years ago. So in the past billion years we went from single cell organisms to complex life forms and rational, reasoning, thinking man. Is it rational and reasonable to think that all of that could happen in one billion years? And where in the fossil records are all of the crossover species? For years science has tried to locate the crossover between apes and man, but what about the crossovers for every other species as they all evolved according to science? The fossil record should be littered with crossover species if evolution is to be believed, but there is not a single crossover to be found.

Why is that? Because they don’t exist! Science cannot believe the miracle of creation and yet chooses to accept the fairy stories of evolution and call it fact when even a non-scientist can see it cannot hold water. Even using scientific method to look at the fossil records, as they do, is positive proof of the absurdity of evolution. They cannot show the existence of a single crossover species when there should be millions of such species in the fossil record if evolution were true.

This is exactly what Jesus was speaking of when he said that even if they saw miracles they would not believe and repent. And it is for such lack of belief and repentance that he upbraided the towns of Chora’zin, Beth-sa’ida and Caper’na-um where he did his mighty works. From this we must learn to listen to the Lord, regardless of miracles, and repent so that we can find the truth for ourselves and follow him.

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John

Hi! I’m John, the owner, author, and editor of this site. Over the past 50+ years as a Christian I have been teaching, preaching and writing about the Bible to help Christians gain a deeper insight into the scriptures that are easily understood. I also answer specific Bible related questions, so feel free to contact me.