The Ministry of Christ (Part 5)

Christ And Miracles - John 5:1-18

In every area of Christ's ministry here on earth, we will find Him teaching something of Himself or of the Kingdom that was promised to the nation of Israel. Everything Christ said or did was in fulfillment of the words of the Prophets. Because Israel required a "SIGN" (First Corinthians 1:22), Christ chose to teach about Himself and the coming Kingdom by using object lessons in the form of miracles which this nation should have understood.

There has been much speculation about why our Lord used miracles during His earth ministry. Some Christian leaders believe that miracles and healings are God's way of blessing His redeemed for their faithfulness. Other Christian leaders believe God will reward the Spiritually mature Saints today with the gift of super-human power so as to heal and these "gifts" should be sought after as the goal for the Christian life. You will never find these miracles and healings presented as the purpose for Christ's coming and never are these offered as rewards for Spiritual growth. Rather, you will always
find that healings and miracles were to be for SIGNS to Israel and they were used by Christ to teach Spiritual lessons. These miracles were used by Christ as a preview of what life would be like during the one thousand years of the Kingdom here on earth.

You will notice as you study the Gospel record, that Christ did not come to heal every sick person in Israel. If He had, His ministry was incomplete for there were many in Israel who were not healed. You will also note that it was only when Christ wanted to teach a particular lesson that He worked a miracle or healed someone. Let us consider some of the miracles in Christ's ministry and see if we can find the lesson to be learned by that miracle. We will not be able, in this one study, to look at all of the miracles Christ did, but in the Gospel of John we have SEVEN MIRACLES recorded which give an over-all view o of Christ's teaching by the use of miracles.

The Miracles In John's Gospel

As we look at the miracles performed by Christ, you will find that everyone who was healed was a JEW. You will also note that every miracle took place in a JEWISH SETTING. You will also find that in every miracle Christ was wanting the Jews to understand that He was GOD IN THE FLESH and that He had come to provide for them the Spiritual requirements they needed to be acceptable before God, but could not acquire by their own efforts.

You will find that the miracles in John's Gospel begin at a WEDDING and end at a GRAVE. This speaks of Israel being married to Jehovah which should have produced joy and blessings for Israel, but because of Israel's failure to be the faithful wife, she ended up being dead in trespasses and sins. Christ came to restore Israel to her place as the WIFE of Jehovah so she could be blessed and exalted in the Kingdom.

With the use of miracles, Christ was first of all proving that He was God, for only God could do the things He was doing. Even when the Jews recognized that only God could heal the sick, cleanse the leper and raise the dead, they would not give Christ the glory He demanded, but looked upon Him as a Prophet, JUST A MAN, unto whom God had given this power. Notice their attitude in Matthew 9:8, after Christ had just healed a man sick with the palsy: "BUT WHEN THE MULTITUDES SAW IT, THEY
MARVELED, AND GLORIFIED GOD, WHICH HAD -GIVEN SUCH POWER UNTO MEN."

It was this attitude that Christ was addressing when He used the miracles to meet the needs of individual Jews. Christ wanted these Jews to acknowledge that He was more than just a man. He wanted them to know that He was truly God manifest in flesh. Christ also wanted the Jews to recognize their true Spiritual condition and realize that they were helpless in their own strength
to correct that condition. He wanted them to realize that He had come to do for them what they could not do for themselves.

The Lessons Of The Miracles

The miracles of Christ are very much like the parables in that they seem only to have a surface meaning, but in reality there is a Spiritual truth being presented both by the subject involved and the action of the miracle. Let us look at one of the miracles recorded in the Gospel of John, examining it indepth to see if we can learn the lesson being taught by Christ.

THE MIRACLE:

In John 5:1-9, we have the record of Christ healing the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda. From time to time, an angel would come to the pool of Bethesda to stir the waters. At that time, the first person to step into the pool would be healed of whatever ailment was afflicting him. Many sick and
infirmed in Israel would come to be healed at these special times. On one occasion, Christ came to the pool of Bethesda when the angel was expected. Upon seeing a man who had been lame 38 years, Christ asked him if he wanted to be healed. This impotent man answered that he wanted very much to be healed, but because of his infirmity, and because he had no one to help him, someone else always entered the pool before him. Christ then heals this man and immediately he takes up his bed and walks. This miracle was performed on the Sabbath day.

THE LESSON:

From the record, this miracle took place on "A FEAST OF THE JEWS" (John 5:1). This was one of the feasts ordained by the Law of Moses, but because Israel had misused these feasts, they were, at Christ's time, known as "FEASTS OF THE JEWS." Not only was this miracle performed on a Jewish feast day, it was performed at the POOL OF BET- HESDA (the House of Mercy) which was at Jerusalem. The individual who was healed was a JEW. Thus, in all of this we see the miracle has a JEWISH SETTING.

The healing and strength was to come to the sick individual through the activity of an Angel stirring the water, but that healing could only be had by the strength of the individual getting into the pool first. The subject of this miracle had no strength in himself to receive the healing and blessing
offered by the Angel and he had no man to help him. His conditioned continued this way 38 years.

This was a true picture of Israel as a nation and of each individual Jew. God had given Israel the Law of Moses, which was ordained in the hand of Angels (Galatians 3:19) and would have given strength and blessing to this nation had they had the strength in the flesh to keep the Law. Israel failed to receive the blessings of the Law because of the weakness of the flesh. Notice this in Romans 8:3, "WHAT THE LAW COULD NOT DO, IN THAT 1T WAS WEAK THROUGH THE FLESH, GOD SENDING HIS OWN SON IN THE LIKENESS OF SINFUL FLESH, AND FOR SIN, CONDEMNED SIN IN THE FLESH.

Man is without strength (Romans 5:6), so what the Law could not do for man because of his weakness, Christ came to accomplish in his stead. For this weak and helpless man at the pool of Bethesda, Christ gave strength and healing which was demonstrated by this man taking up his bed and walking.

To see that Christ only healed as a teaching ministry, consider the fact that there were many sick and infirmed people at the pool of Bethesda on the day Christ healed this impotent man, but he was THE ONLY ONE HEALED by Christ. It is significant to note that the man chosen by Christ to be healed had been in his infirmed condition for 38 years. This is the same number of years Israel was shut up in the wilderness because of her sin. Even though Israel had the Law of Moses, she was unable in her own strength to change her helpless condition of bondage. It was only by God's intervention that Israel was delivered out of that wilderness bondage and taken into her promised
land. It will only be God's intervention, as with the impotent man at Bethesda, that Israel as a nation, or any individual, will be delivered from their bondage and helplessness due to sin.

The fact that this miracle took place on the Sabbath day is significant in that the Sabbath was a day of REST for Israel. This nation will truly experience her complete rest in the Kingdom. What this impotent man experienced on this Sabbath day is what Israel will experience when she enters her true Sabbath in the Kingdom. Like this man, Israel will be healed and strengthened so she can enjoy the fullness of Life during the Kingdom when Israel will be the head of all nations.

Israel should have recognized this miracle as an object lesson, for Israel was lame and helpless just as this man at Bethesda was. Israel should have recognized, as did this impotent man, that she needed someone to help her in her weakness, for she could not gain for herself the blessings offered
in the Law. Israel should have recognized from this miracle that Christ was God in the flesh and that He had come to do for them what they could not do for themselves.

A Look At Other Miracles In John's Gospel

In John 9:1-7, Christ heals a BLIND Jew. In this miracle, Christ sends this blind man to the pool of Siloam to wash the clay from his eyes. John 9:7 says, "HE WENT HIS WAY THEREFORE, AND WASHED, AND CAME SEEING." This miracle was also performed on the Sabbath day (Verse 14).

In this miracle we have a picture of Israel being BLIND. In John 3:3, Christ told Nicodemus, "EXCEPT A MAN BE BORN AGAIN, HE CANNOT SEE THE KINGDOM OF GOD." In John 9:39, Jesus said, "I AM COME INTO THIS WORLD, THAT THEY WHICH SEE NOT MIGHT SEE."

In this miracle of the blind man being healed, there was only one way this blind man could receive his sight. He had to go to the pool of SILOAM and wash. Christ could have healed this man on the spot, but there is a lesson Christ wanted Israel to learn by this man washing in the pool of Siloam. Siloam means SENT. The picture is that this blind nation was to go to THE SENT ONE, who is Christ, and wash in His Blood. Only then would they be able to SEE, Spiritually. Thus healing was done on the Sabbath day, which again speaks of Israel's Day of Rest, when, in the Kingdom, Israel will have
her Spiritual blindness taken away and she will receive Spiritual SIGHT to enable her to walk in God's righteousness.

In John 11:38-44 we have Christ raising Lazarus from the dead. In John 5:25, Christ said, "THE HOUR IS COMING, AND NOW IS, WHEN THE DEAD SHALL HEAR THE VOICE OF THE SON OF GOD: AND THEY THAT HEAR SHALL LIVE." Christ was telling Israel that the sinner in this nation was a DEAD MAN and He needed to be made alive. Christ also gives Israel the answer to that need, for in John 11:25 He says, "I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE; HE THAT BELIEVETH IN ME, THOUGH HE
WERE DEAD, YET SHALL HE LIVE." Christ then illustrates this truth by raising Lazarus, A DEAD MAN, from the tomb.

Israel should have seen the pictures being portrayed in these miracles, but their hardened heart prevented them from seeing these Spiritual truths. Israel would not respond to these object lessons and continued in her blindness, being without strength, and dead in her trespasses and sins. Israel would not receive the help Christ had come to give to her. Instead, Israel found fault with Christ for Healing on the Sabbath day (John 5:16 & John 9:16), showing that they were more interested in keeping the Law than in being submissive to the Word of God. They were trusting in their RELIGIOUS
WORKS and did not re- cognize that they were sinners who needed to be BORN AGAIN .

Conclusion

From this look at Christ's Ministry of Miracles, I trust we can see that these miracles were used by Christ to teach Israel Spiritual lessons about themselves and the blessings awaiting this nation in the Kingdom. Recognizing that miracles were for Israel, we should not be looking for miracles or
healings in this age of God's grace when Israel's program has been set aside. Just as the masses in Israel were not healed during Christ's earthly ministry, so we today should not be looking for physical healings just because we are believers. Nowhere in Scripture will you find that Salvation
promised perfect physical health to the believer.

Just because these miracles were teaching lessons for Israel, this does not mean that we can not learn Spiritual truths from them. It is true in every age that men are WITHOUT STRENGTH to save themselves. It is true that all men are Spiritually BLIND and are DEAD in trespasses and sins and need to be BORN AGAIN and given NEW LIFE. It is also true today that ONLY CHRIST can meet the Spiritual needs of men. Let us learn a lesson from Israel and not be trying to earn. God's approval through our religious works and efforts in the flesh. Christ has paid the full price for our sin, let us just TRUST HIM and receive the Salvation He has provided for mankind.

Pastor Marvin, Duncan Bible Treasures,
1 820 Drollinger Street, Wichita, Kansas 67218

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