Miracles of Christ

Subject:

        JESUS CHRIST'S MIRACLES‑by Bertrand L. Comparet #15

   Date:

        Mon, 5 Nov 2001 08:35:06 ‑0800

   From:

        "Bob Jones" <[email protected]>

     To:

        "dragonslayer" <[email protected]>

                 JESUS CHRIST'S MIRACLES

                        by Bertrand L. Comparet

                    A little more than 1,900 years ago, the best and kindest

person who ever walked this earth in human form spent three

years intensively doing nothing but good. On

many occasions He displayed the power of God to work miracles.

In an age when superstition was strong, and most people expected

a display of miracles to convince them of great power, there would

naturally be a great temptation to impress the multitude by a show

of supernatural power. The Jews were constantly demanding that

Jesus Christ should work some miracle as a "sign" that He was

more than just a man. All four Gospels record this: Matthew

12:38‑40; Mark 18:11‑12; Luke 11:16, 29‑32; and John 6:30. But He

always refused to do this: He had not come as a

mountebank, to amuse people of that character with a spectacular

show. Just as He refused to perform miracles for Satan, as is

recorded in the 4th chapter of Matthew, He also refused to perform

them at the demand of the Jews.

                    First of all, He did only those miracles which the

prophets of the Old Testament had prophesied the Messiah would

do. This was for a definite purpose: those who knew and believed

the Old Testament (which was all of the Bible which was in

existence at that time) would by this recognize Him as the Messiah,

the Christ. When John the Baptist sent some of his disciples to

inquire if Jesus was the Christ, as we read in Luke 7:19‑22, Jesus

reminded them of the miracles which 'He had performed‑‑‑these

being the very miracles which Isaiah had prophesied; this would be

proof enough for John. But those who could not or would not see

this, also could not understand His true character when He told

them that He was the Christ, as He

told the Jews in John 10:24‑25.

                    What was the nature of these miracles? They were all

connected with the great Gospel He preached: that of the Kingdom

of God, to be established on this Earth.

In the Kingdom of God, the defects of the present age will not exist;

and Jesus had come to set men free from the crushing burdens we

carry in this evil age.

                    The great majority of His miracles were the healing of

the sick, the deformed the paralyzed and the blind, and He also

freed them from possession by demons.

The Jews well knew that leprosy was incurable, as far as all human

skill of that day could do; yet on several occasions Jesus Christ

healed it with only a spoken word.

Those who otherwise were condemned to the living death of a

disease under which their flesh rotted away while yet they lived,

and because of this they were outcasts from all human

society‑these people He restored to full health and useful, happy

life. Twice He restored strength and activity to those who for years

had lain hopelessly paralyzed. One woman who had for 18 years of

misery been deformed as

a hunchback, He restored to perfect form with but the touch of His

hand. Many who lived in the hopeless despair of blindness He

blessed with renewed vision, giving them not only the beauty of

the world about them but also the usefulness which enabled them

to earn their living, instead of being dependent upon charity. Those

who lay in pain and weakness upon their beds, too sick to rise,

more of these than could be counted He healed with only a spoken

word. Many who were dumb came to Him for help, and to them He

gave the power to speak.

                     God did not intend that we should be tormented by

sicknesses, which also shorten our lives. He meant for us to live

under the glorious conditions of His kingdom, free from crime and

sin, free from sickness and death. But instead of this, men chose to

live under the rule of Satan, despite the terrible price we have paid

for this all during the course of human history. It was to set us free

from this that Jesus Christ came: as He said in John 10:10, "I am

come that they might have life, and that they might have it more

abundantly." Therefore, these miracles of healing were a

demonstration to us of the perfection of His kingdom, as well as the

proof of His identity.

                    Again, He fed multitudes‑4,000 at one time, and 5,000 at

another‑‑out in the desert where no food was to be found: for this

purpose, He made a few fishes and loaves

of bread sufficient to feed thousands, and even the scraps left over

were more than the food they had in the beginning. But note that

He did this, not for the benefit of the merely lazy: He did it for

whose who had followed Him to listen to His teachings, and who

would not leave Him even to go back to the towns where they

could eat. Only when there was a hunger of the soul for His truth

did He also feed their bodies.

                    He calmed the storm at sea, to save the lives of His

disciples who were threatened by it. He cast out devils from those

whose lives had been ruined by them. Here was the power of God

plainly displayed: and yet the unbelieving Jews only scoffed, and

said that He could only cast out devils by the help of Beelzebub,

the prince of

devils. But the Jews well knew that, by the laws of God in the Old

Testament to which they gave insincere lip‑service, their High

Priests should have been able to cast out devils‑‑‑yet they could

not; so Jesus reminded them, "If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by

whom do your children cast them out? Therefore, they shall be

your judges. But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the

Kingdom of God is come unto you." Matthew 12:22‑29

                    Finally, as the greatest miracle of all, He several times

restored the dead to life. Surely here was the power of God beyond

any possibility of doubt; but also, here was the demonstration of

the goodness of God, who does not want us to suffer death, and

has set us free from it through Jesus Christ. In the Kingdom of God,

the reign of death is ended.

                    In all of these we see His consistent policy. When Satan

asked Him, to turn stones Into bread, and to show that He could

safely jump from the topmost pinnacle of the Temple, as

demonstrations of His supreme power over nature, He refused; yet

He produced food in plenty to feed those who believed in Him; and

He calmed the storm to save the lives of His disciples. In a world

where God's economic laws were mocked, at the cost of

ever‑widening poverty among the people; where the moral laws of

God were mocked, at the cost of general depravity; where the sick

became more numerous with each generation, and they had lost

the power to restore to sanity the wretched ones who raved and

fought; in that world, with only a word or the gentlest touch of His

hand, He stopped pain and sorrow, restored the sick to strength

and usefulness, and reminded them that only God is the source of

all good. As He said in John 5:12, "Verily, verily I say unto you, the

Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for

what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise."

These miracles were not to display His power for the admiration of

the fickle mob: they were to show the power of God, and what it

would be like in the Kingdom of God, for which the faithful few

waited.

                    How glaring was the contrast between the world as He

found it and the Kingdom of God which He taught them! But let us

not forget‑ that our world of today is little better than that which

rejected Him nineteen centuries ago. We also have our sick, our

cripples, our paralyzed, many of whom we know not how to heal;

we also have our poor, but we have not learned how to feed them

except at the cost of excessive taxes which again create the very

evil they were supposed to remedy; we also have our storms and

natural calamities bringing death and destruction, but we are

powerless before them; and we also face the bitter sorrow of

families separated by death. All our vaunted civilization, our

education, our science, has not relieved us of these evils. How long

will it take us to see that man's materialism, however good his

intentions, can never furnish the answer to our needs? It is just as

true today as it was then, that in Jesus Christ alone is the answer:

His power, His mercy, His goodness and generosity afford the only

possible way for us to secure the good things which can come only

in the Kingdom of God.