The Spirit-Empowered Messiah Series

Opening illustration: You might not see the literal ‘Red Sea’ miracle in today’s context but will surely see one parallel to it. The issue is, as the Israelites waited before the ‘Red Sea,’ they didn’t contemplate or pursue to build a bridge across it. They waited on God for His Salvation. Apparently God defied all the natural laws and did what was not possible and comprehendible by man. They saw God doing the impossible. Did they have self-reliance and not look to God for a miracle? OR Did they learn to be patient to wait on Him and not build the bridge with their abased, intellectual minds to over-rule God by stepping on His toes?

Let us check out a contemporary story about what we have become when it comes to experiencing His miracles …

A man was putting tin roof on his barn when all the sudden he slipped and began to slide down the roof. He cried out to God to save him when no sooner he got the words out of his mouth a nail caught his pants and stopped him. When he stopped he said, “never mind God I took care of it”. The problem isn’t that God doesn’t perform miracles anymore the problem is we’re not looking for God to perform miracles. We want to do stuff on our own so that we can give credit to ourselves (hungry for self-recognition) and absolutely no glory to God.

Jesus never said that you all have seen God’s power in the OT times but hereafter ‘NO.’ Apparently He said the opposite - that you all will do greater things than what He would be doing. Let us turn to John and to the Acts of the Apostles to understand how Christ was empowered for Miracle Ministry.

Introduction: The miracles of Jesus range from changing water into wine to healing the lame, the blind, delivering the demonically possessed and raising the dead which apparently triggered His own death on the cross and His ascension three days later. How do we know He did these things? We have the eyewitness testimony of four gospel writers, who record at least 35 miracles of Jesus. While there are many explanations for what a miracle is, we can probably all agree that the word "miracle" describes an event that occurs outside the bounds of natural law, and which is beneficial in its result. During the course of His three-year public ministry, Jesus performed miracles that demonstrated His ability to heal, to master the elements, to affect the outcome of our endeavors, and even to raise the dead. Every one of His miracles occurred outside the bounds of natural law, and all of them had beneficial results.

How did the miracle ministry of Christ shape out?

1. Unfair Advantage

Apparently Jesus did not have an ‘unfair advantage’ during his earthy miracle-ministry. Jesus shared the very nature of God – He was ‘God with skin on.’ But we are merely human, so …

• His command to obey ‘everything’ – which includes healing and driving out evil spirits – sounds impossible.

• His promise that believers would do ‘even greater things’ seems mind-boggling and unbelievable.

We need to take seriously the fact that, when Jesus the Eternal Word of God became incarnate, there was sacrifice involved as He surrendered any ‘unfair advantage:’

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. (Philippians 2: 5-7)

He made the sacrifice of:

• Changing from the ‘very nature’ of God to ‘very nature’ of man.

• Relinquishing, not clinging to, equality with God.

• Making Himself nothing (literally ‘emptying’ Himself)

2. Advent of the Holy Spirit

Mary’s pregnancy was not due to sexual relationships with her fiancé, but due to the activity of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1: 35).

The shaping of Jesus’ character (Hebrews 5: 8-10) and His awareness of His relationship with the Father (Luke 2: 48-52) are the fruit of the ‘internal’ work of the Spirit in His life.

The Holy Spirit existed from time infinity as a third person of the ‘Triune God.’

Jesus had no sin, wrong thinking, or impure motives that gave Satan legal access to His life. Satan could find nothing in Jesus - not even one square inch of territory - to which he could lay claim and thus gain access to Jesus’s heart. The enemy continually seeks occasions where he can obtain a legal entry point in our lives. Sin and spiritual ignorance open the door and invite his hold over us. This is the reason why there was prominence and profound manifestation of the Holy Spirit and His works through the life of Christ. This is one of the major essentials of power ministry.