Four Wonderful Miracles (The Messianic Miracles Of The Lord)

Four Wonderful Miracles

Pastor Eric J. Hanson

March 3rd 2024

This message is designed to give us a look at how Jesus revealed himself to be the Messiah (anointed one and coming King) of the Jews. In the process of this revelation, He revealed a great heart of love and compassion for the people. He also showed that God the Father has not forgotten us here in this World of suffering and hardship.

At the time that Jesus walked the Earth and conducted ministry among the people of Judea and other nearby areas, there existed a deeply settled set of expectations concerning what the Messiah would be like. One of the teachings which the leaders of the Jews held to, concerning the person of the Messiah, and which the people had also been taught, was this one:

The (Hebrew word) Messiah or (Greek word) the Christ would do certain miracles when He reveals Himself. These would be miracles which had never been done before by any of the prophets of old, such as Moses, Elijah, or Elisha.

Jesus indeed revealed His messiahship by doing these very miracles. Let’s look into this wonderful slice of history at this time, and let’s be blessed as we consider the greatness of our Lord.

Messianic Miracle One: Healing the Leper

Nobody, throughout the chronicles of Israel and Judah had ever been recorded as having received healing from the dread disease Leprosy. Even though the book of Leviticus chapters 13 & 14 goes into great detail about the procedure for a person suffering with leprosy to obtain healing and then to authenticate that healing through the priests, it never happened. The Pharisees taught clearly that when the Messiah comes, he will heal lepers.

Now let’s read Luke 5:12-16.

Let’s take note of a couple of things here.

First, Jesus indeed healed a man of advanced, fully spread leprosy. This man would not have lived much longer. Everyone in the vicinity know about him, and they kept their distance from him.

Next, Jesus instructed him to obey the instructions from Leviticus to go show himself to the priest and then offer the prescribed sacrifices for any Israelite who had been healed of leprosy.

Finally, word of this Messianic Miracle spread rapidly to many people.

Read verse 17.

The Sanhedrin, because of word of this Messianic Miracle now started officially observing Jesus to see whether he might indeed be the Messiah.

Read 18-21.

Jesus purposely forgave the man’s sins right away. This was to provoke the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law who were there into revealing their attitudes. They had taught that the Messiah would be both the Son of David and the Son of God, thus being the God-Man. They knew that the Messiah would be able to forgive sins. However, rather than completing a methodical investigation of Jesus, they jumped to condemning Him in their thoughts, accusing Him of blasphemy.

Read 22-26.

Jesus now addressed them directly concerning this, and then He proved his point by healing the paralyzed man. Notice that the common people were not having any problem with Jesus.

Wonderful Miracle Two: Casting out a Deaf and Dumb Demon

The Jewish Religious leaders did occasionally engage in deliverance ministry. They had a rigid series of steps to do this. One of the steps was to get the demon they wished to expel from someone, to identify itself by name or title. Therefore, if a demonized person could not speak, the Jewish priests or teachers of the Law could not help that person, but they taught that when the Anointed One would come, he would cast out dumb (not able to speak) demons, even from blind people. This sets the stage perfectly for the next Messianic Miracle performed by Jesus.

Read Matthew 12:22-23

Jesus delivered and healed this man instantly. Please note that the people knew immediately that this was specifically one of the 4 miracles that they had been taught that only the Messiah would do.

Read verse 24

The Pharisees immediately contradicted their own long standing teaching that only God’s own anointed one would ever perform such a miracle. They should have been still open heartedly investigating Jesus at this point, but they had already rejected him in their hearts after he showed them up by healing the man whose sins he had forgiven on an earlier occasion.

Read 25-29

Jesus demolished their reasoning; the excuses they were using to be against Him.

Read verses 30-32

The Leaders of the Jews, the Pharisees, and by extension, the Sanhedrin, had rejected Jesus as Messiah by this point in time. They had also attributed the unique miracle deliverances he was doing, to Satan, rather than to the Holy Spirit working in Jesus. This is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

Read verses 33-37