Of Miracles and Misplaced Zeal

 


 

Introduction

After Jesus was resurrected, He revealed himself to His disciples, twice, and John the concludes chapter 20 with this statement, And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.  (John 20:30-31)

If the miracles, signs, and wonders that Jesus performed were so important, why didn’t John list the others? In this article, we look at the real purpose of the miracles.

 

To Confirm the Identity of The Christ

It’s easy for someone, anyone, to claim that they are The Messiah. We see a lot of that here in the 21st Century with zero proof to back it up. Even after the church was established there were some claiming to be The Christ. In Acts 5:34 and following; Gamaliel, a pharisee, speaks of two men; Theudas and a Judas of Galilee, both claiming to be someone important and were, ultimately slain.

Jesus could have been seen the same way but he proved himself when he healed the paralytic man in Matthew 9:2-8, Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.” And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, “This Man blasphemes!” But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins” --then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” And he arose and departed to his house. Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men.

If the miracles were the focus, then why did Jesus simply utter a single word and wipe away every disease, malady, and illness on the face of the earth? Even during His ministry, Jesus didn’t heal everyone. But those he did, were for the benefit of others. Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him” (John 9:1-3).

 

To Focus on the Message Preached

During the Limited Commission, Jesus sent them out with the power to cast out demons and heal many diseases. When they returned, they were excited but for the wrong reason. Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:17-20). He didn’t want them to rejoice about the miracles as they were just tools used to identify who they were. Rather, they were to focus on the more important matter at hand as they were doing the will of the Father (Mt. 7:21).

Before Jesus ascended back to the Father, He gave the great commission to His disciples, And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen (Mark 16:15-20).

Notice here, that first command was to preach the gospel. And the final statement in this passage was that the accompanying signs would confirm the message. They performed the miracles to prove that they were the “real deal”.

 

Conclusion

The focus should never be on the miracles as they were meant to be temporary (1 Cor. 13:8-10). As Paul writes, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. (Romans 1:16). The message preached is what saves man from his sins, not miracles.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

09. Number Your Days

Image
  God’s Bucket List for You, part 2   Introduction In Psalms 90:10-12, Moses prayed, The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knows the power of Your anger? For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath. So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom. We’re only give so much time here on Earth and it is up to us to make everyday count. Each day breaks down into just 1440 minutes and when you subtract to amount for school/work and sleep, it’s even less. We should appreciate the amount we have daily.   I’ve Got Plenty of Time How often have we said, or heard someone say, that they have plenty of years ahead of them to do this or that? Most young people believe that religion is for the older people; those headed into their twilight years that are “closer to death” than they were in their youth. Yet, they do...
Read more

06. Realize Your Self-worth

Image
  God’s Bucket List for You, part 5  Introduction to the series, click here Introduction One of the problems I suffer from, as do a lot of people, is a low self-esteem. We often make the mistake of basing our self-esteem on our family, friends, occupation, area we live in, and our home. Although all of that factor into our lives, they don’t have to be the main basis of our self-esteem. As part of His bucket list for us, God wants us to realize our self-worth by examining our lives according to His scriptures. If we are not following His word, as written, then we need to change and build up our self-esteem.   Moses’ lack of Self-worth In our previous article , we looked at Moses and the excuses he made to God as he didn’t want to lead his people out of Egypt. One of his excuses was a lack of eloquent speech. Here’s what he said in Exodus 4:10, Then Moses said to the LORD, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant;...
Read more

IMMORTAL (I’m Mortal)

Image
(from 2013) Introduction “Do No Try This at Home” is a phrase generally seen as a disclaimer on certain television shows that feature dangerous stunts or other things in which professionals have been training to do for many years. Teenagers and young adults will attempt to imitate these very same stunts themselves. Why? Because it’s the thrill of the stunt and an opportunity to gain approval of their peers. To them failure is not an option as well as death. It’s a certain level of immortality that young people feel because, to them, their whole life is ahead of them and death only happens to old people. But as a preacher once said, “The Old must die and the young do die.” Definitions of Immortal The dictionary definition for immortal is ‘Exempt from Death’ or ‘Imperishable’.   In other words, you can never die or you live forever. But this is not true and we all, eventually, will die. In addition, the dictionary also defines immortal on the basis of a noun in...
Read more