Christ's Miracles

Pastor Chris Huff

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Jesus Christ came to the earth with a purpose. The way that we usually say it is that He came to die for our sins. But I want to express this same truth a different way this morning. Christ came to heal us of the curse of sin. Our sin plagues us like a disease, and Christ came to heal us of that disease. âAnd when Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him. That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: 'He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.' â (Mat 8:14-17) I'm not satisfied with the language we usually use when we talk about Christ's miracles. We say that He performed miracles. But He wasn't merely putting on a show. We say that He accomplished miracles. But this wasn't difficult for Him. Perhaps a better way to express His ability to do the miraculous would be to say that Jesus revealed Himself through miracles. This seems to be what Matthew was telling us in quoting Isaiah 53:4. In healing diseases, there's a picture of Christ healing us of the disease of sin. The fact that Jesus could and did perform miracles shouldn't surprise us. Jesus is God and He can do whatever He wants to do. Yet these miracles should give us a sense of awe about Christ. People often do not believe in miracles because they say that they are impossible. The Bible affirms that miracles are impossible. People were amazed that Jesus could do the impossible. And we should be amazed as well. Jesus often healed with merely a touch (v. 14-15). When Jesus saw Peter's mother in law, He had compassion for her. We need to learn to see people with spiritual eyes. We need to see people's needs and seek to help them where we're able. The effect from Christ's touch was immediate. The only right response to being healed by Jesus is to serve Him. Jesus often healed with merely a word spoken (v. 16). I wonder which word He chose. I hope it was something kind of cool. But the most coolest thing is that Jesus could even do this. And yet it shouldn't surprise us in the least. In fact, we should expect Christ to do these kinds of things. If you read this chapter and the one that follows it in their entirety, you will get a glimpse of Christ's power and compassion as He performs miracles in rapid succession. In these two chapters alone, we see Jesus heal a leper, heal a paralyzed person, heal the sick, cast out demons, calm the storms, heal a woman whose blood would not stop flowing, bring a girl back from the dead and restore sight to the blind. At the close of these two chapters, we read Christ's famous call to pray for workers to enter God's harvest field (Matthew 9:37-38). We usually understand this to refer to evangelism, that if we would just be faithful to go and tell people the gospel, we'd reap a harvest. I think that's true, but perhaps we need to understand it more in light of the miracles that we just saw Jesus perform. Jesus saw many people come to faith in Him in chapters 8 and 9, but it wasn't in response to his teaching. Being a laborer in God's harvest field means being compassionate towards the sick, bearing their burdens, providing for their needs, sharing the love of Christ with them not only with our words but with our actions. Our verbal witness will be infinitely more effective when our nonverbal witness also points to Jesus. I know many believers who give up witnessing because it only ever leads to arguments. This is usually due to neglecting your nonverbal witness. Christ came preaching and healing. We ought to go into the world with the message of the gospel, but also with compassionate hearts to help people through their circumstances. Because we still need Christ's touch as well.

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