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THE MIRACLES OF JESUS
Continuation of the Series on “The Life of Christ.”
TEXT—“The blind receive their sight,
and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed,
and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up,
and the poor have the Gospel preached to
them.”— Matt. 11:5.
E come this morning to consider
the miracles of Jesus as they at
test His Messiahship. The story
of this text is a perfectly famil
iar one, and I would not take the
time to go over it but for the
fact that I desire from it to gath
er a few lessons.
John has been proclaiming
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throughout the wilderness region of Judea
the Messiashship of Jesus. He has been go
ing up and down the land calling attention
to the fact that there is to come after him
One whose shoe latchets he is not worthy
to unloose and now this Messiah, this prom
ised One, this One for whom the world had
been led to look, has come. John has since
been arrested and put in prison and while he
is in prison this promised Messiah, this One
for whom He had been looking, and about
■whom he had been speaking, is preaching
in Judea, and John perhaps thought
that when Jesus learned of his imprison
ment, He would stop everything else and
come to him to minister to him, and per
haps release him from his bondage. He had
been loyal to Jesus and it was perfectly nat
ural for him to expect that one act of loyalty
deserved another, and that Jesus would
come and minister to him in this hour of
his need. Why Jesus did not do this is
something we are not told, but there is un
questionably a reason for it. John finally
sent to Jesus messengers charged with . a
message of great significance to John; in
deed a message of great significance to all
the world. The message was this: “Art
thou he that should come, or look we for
another?” “Have I been disappointed about
this matter? Am I to understand by your
failure to respond to my call and my need
that you are not the Messiah, that you are
not the one I held you to be; that you are
not the one I have presented to the world?
Art thou he thatshould come, or look we for
another?” I want you to observe the an
swer that Jesus gives. First of all, I want
you to observe what He did not say to John;
what He did not say is as full of significance
as what He said. He did not go into any the
ological argument whatever with those mes
sengers to vindicate His Messiahship. He
did not go into any great scientific line of
reasoning. He did not even refer to the pro
phetic Scripture, which He might easily
have done. He could have gone back in pro
phecy and shown from the teaching of the
prophets that He was the identical One pro
phesied by them during all the ages past,
that He was the very Messiah; but He did
not do that. What Jesus did is expressed
in our text. He simply said to these mes
sengers of John: “Go back and tell John the
things that you have seen, and the things
that you have heard; that the sick are*heal
ed; the lepers are cleansed; the deaf have
their ears unstopped; blind eyes are opened;
the dead are raised up and the poor have the
Gospel preached unto them.” That is
to say: “Go back and tell John that I am
working miracles; that is sufficient to at
test my Messiahship.” That is all there was
in His message. And those disciples went
back and told John what He said, and so
far as we know this was sufficient, for we
do not find coming from him after this any
expressioin of doubt concerning the Mes
siahship of Jesus.
This brings me to what I want us to con-
Tabernacle Sermon by Rev. Len G. Broughton, D.D.
8 * Stenogi'aphically reported for The Golden Age.—Copyright applied for.
The Golden Age for June 22,1911.
sider this morning—the miracles of Jesus
as they attest His Messiahship. And first I
want to ask and answer this question: What
is a miracle? We are confronted often with
miracles in our Bible study and teaching.
Now, what is a miracle? The word comes
from a Latin word which means won
der. There are four words in New Tes
tament Scriptures to describe miracles. They
are called wonders, powers, works, signs.
The miracles of the New Testament are all
described by one or the other of these ex
pressions and in fact every miracle in the
Bible, from the first miracle that was
wrought until the last miracle embraced
these four elements. They are wonders;
they are powers; they are works; they are
signs; and there is no miracle that does not
contain these four elements. They are won
ders in that they aroused wonder; powers
in that they manifested the power that is
above the power of tne world; they are works
in that they are always intended for a benefi
cent result, or for beneficent results. They
are signs in that they attest a worthy mes
sage or a worthy messenger, or both. It
takes all these four elements to make a mir
acle. It is not a wonder alone. It is not
only a wonder wrought by extraordinary
powers; the devil can do that; the devil can
work wonders; the devil can work wonders
by extraordinary power; but the devil can
not work a miracle; a miracle must be for
the accomplishment of a beneficent result
and also for the purpose of attesting a benefi
cent or worthy message, and a worthy mes
senger.
What is the history of miracles then? The
Bible covers only about sixteen centuries of
the active history of this world. During
these sixteen centuries there were various
and sundry miracles wrought, but not con
tinuously. They can be divided into four
separate and distinct periods. For example,
there is the Mosaic period; then there is the
period of Elijah and Elisha; then the period
of Daniel; then the period of Christ and his
Apostles. Around these ur periods in tne
history of the world all the miracles that
were wrought can be found and explained,
and each one of them is related to a special
message, a message that is needful at the
time of the miracle. For example, there is
the period of Moses; the children of Israel
are in bondage; the cruel heel of Pharoah is
upon their necks, and God has promised to
release them, and make them His own pe
culiar people; to lead them out of Egypt
into a land of their own.
And there is a great deal necessary for
such a stupendous task as that. In the first
place they must have a leader, for no move
ment was ever inaugurated and carried to
success that did not have a leader. When
the people lead themselves, each man hav
ing equal authority in planning and leader
ship, there is no movement. There may be
an agitation, but there is no movement. So
a leader must be selected for accomplishing
this task, and Moses is selected as that lead
er, but there is something beyond and more
essential. Moses himself must be convinced,
and so God works for the convincing of
Moses a series of miracles, such, for exam
ple, as the burning bush and the stick turned
into a serpent, and the serpent turned back
into a stick. These miracles were for the
purpose of convincing the mind of Moses of
his call of God to the leadership of the chil
dren of Israel, a great and mighty task.
Another thing is necessary. The people
that are to be led must be convinced of
God’s dealings with Moses, else they are not
willing to follow him, so God performs a
number of miracles; such, for example, as
the turning of the water into blood; the
plague of lice and locusts and frogs, culmi
nating in that great and most wonderful of
all miracles, the miracle of the Passover.
These things are performed to convince the
children of Israel of the fact that God has
called Moses, and that He does propose to
release them from their state of bondage,
and also to convince Pharoah himself and
the enemies of God of the fact that God is
with them and planning their deliverance.
But there is still another necessity as they
come forth in the accomplishment of their
task. There is need of encouragement. So
God performs a series of miracles in the line
of the march of the Children of Israel, such
as that miracle wrought at the Jordan, and
other miracles along the line of march and
even on into the land of Canaan. These are
the lines of miracles connected with the ear
ly history of the Children of Israel and
group themselves entirely around Moses as
their leader.
In all of these miracles that I have enu
merated, there are these four elements of
which I spoke in the outset, and you will
easily see how they present themselves.
They are wonders in that they evoke won
der and amazement. They are powers in
that they are wrought by a supernatural
pow’er. They are works of beneficence, for
they were all accomplished for the good
of the people, and they are to attest a
worthy messenger and a worthy message.
What is the message that they teach? The
message is the deliverance of God for a down
trodden and abused race; and the messenger
here is Moses, the servant of God.
After that there follows a long period of
history in which there is no miracle per
formed; the world moves on without any
miraculous exhibition of power, until finally
we come to the period of Elijah and Elisha.
The King of Israel has married and a heathen
queen is on the throne, and by reason of this
there has been set up a false system of wor
ship. Baal has been declared to be the God
of the people, whereas heretofore the great
God Jehovah has been the God of the people,
and there is therefore presented the neces
sity of a new and fresh revelation of the
power of God, and so the miracles of Elijah
and Elisha were given. These miracles, like
those that preceded them, are made up of
these same four elements; wonders, in that
they evoked amazement and wonder among
the people; powers, in that they were
wrought by the power supernatural; works
of beneficence in that they accomplished a
beneficent result; they are for the purpose
of attesting a worthy message and a worthy
messenger. What is the message? It is
the revelation of the power of God, that
though Israel’s king has formed an alliance
with a heathen woman, established a false
form of worship, and set up an idol, yet the
God of Israel, the God that led them from
the bondage of Egypt, is still the same that
He was in the day of their deliverance.
Then there follows another period of his
tory in which there is found no miracles.
The world moves on without it until finally
we come to the period of Daniel. What is
the history or the condition of the world at
the time of Daniel? In substance it is this:
Israel has been taken captive. She has been
scattered to the uttermost parts of the
earth. Her sons and her daughters have
been captured by the enemy, an enemy that
knows not God. But that does not mean
that God has been changed. It does not
argue that the same God of Israel is not run
ning the universe and that He is still direct
ing the cause of His people. And to show
(Concluded on Page 14.)
