THE MIRACLES OF
JESUS
MIRACLE 34.
WONDERS AT
Bible Reading: Isaiah
53:1-12.
1. “Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of
the Lord been revealed?
2. For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry
ground.
He has no form or comeliness.
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we
should desire Him.
3. He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our
faces from Him.
He was despised, and we did
not esteem Him.
4. Surely, He has borne our
griefs
And carried our sorrows.
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God and afflicted.
5. But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement for our
peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are
healed.
6. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We have turned, everyone, to
his own way.
And the Lord has laid on Him
the iniquity of us all.
7. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth.
He was led as a lamb to the
slaughter,
And as a sheep before its
shearers is silent,
So, He opened not His mouth.
8. He was taken from prison and from judgment,
And who will declare His
generation?
For He was cut off from the
land of the living.
For
the transgressions of My people He was stricken.
9. And they made His grave with the wicked--
But with the rich at His
death,
Because He had done no
violence,
Nor was any deceit in His mouth.
10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him.
He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an
offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He
shall prolong His days,
And the pleasure of the Lord
shall prosper in His hand.
11.
He shall see the labour of His soul and be satisfied.
By His knowledge, My
righteous Servant shall justify many,
For He shall bear their
iniquities.
12. Therefore I will divide Him a
portion with the great,
And He shall divide the spoil
with the strong,
Because He poured out His
soul unto death,
And He was numbered with the
transgressors,
And He bore the sin of many,
And made intercession for the
transgressors.”
Here is the 34TH
recorded miracle of Jesus. Jesus performed no miracle while on the cross, but His
death was accompanied by wonders.
It is fitting to note several
wonders associated with the death of Jesus on the cross. These, like His
miracles, were extraordinary events with a religious purpose caused by God.
1.
The
cross is one focus of fulfilled prophecy.
It is a wonder indeed that
hundreds of years before Jesus came to earth; His crucifixion was described in detail.
Psalm 22 was acknowledged to be messianic long before Christ was
born. It contains the following verses:
“My God, My God, why have
You have forsaken Me” verse 1.
“They shoot out the lip, they shake
the head, saying,
“He trusted in the Lord, let
Him
rescue Him.
Let Him deliver Him, since He
delights in Him” verses 7-8.
“They pierced My hands and My feet” verse 16.
“They divide My garments among them,
And for My clothing they cast lots” verse 18.
As we read the Gospels, we
discover that each of these verses describes something that was said or
something that happened at
1. Isaiah
describes Jesus’ death in the company of criminals (Isaiah 53:9, 12).
2. Isaiah
predicting that He would be buried in a rich man’s tomb (Isaiah 53:9).
3. Psalm 34:20 predicts that none of
Jesus’ bones would be broken. This is a striking prediction, for the legs of
the thieves with whom He died were broken to hasten their deaths (John 19:32-33).
These and other prophecies
fulfilled at
To find the meaning of the Cross,
we must understand it not as a tragedy, but as the key to God’s triumph over
Satan, sin, and death.
2.
The
wonder of the torn veil.
Matthew reports that now of
Jesus’ death the veil of the temple was “torn
in two from top to bottom” Matthew 27:51. The same event is reported in Mark 15:38 and Luke 23:45.
The veil that hung between the
The veil was also spiritually important.
Only once a year could the high priest go behind this veil, and then he carried
sacrificial blood to sprinkle on the cover of the sacred Ark of the Covenant as
atonement for
The writer of the book of Hebrews
reveals that the veil which separated the two inner rooms of the temple
indicated that “the way into the Holiest
of All was not yet made manifest” Hebrews 9:8. The veil cut off not only
the people but even the priests from direct access to God. It was a symbol of
the reality that no avenue of approach to God existed in Old Testament times.
But with the death of Christ, a
radical change took place. He took our sins upon Himself and opened the way to
God through His sacrifice. And so, the writer of Hebrews declares, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne
of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need”
Hebrews 4:16.
The wonder of the torn veil
symbolizes the end of one age and the beginning of another. In this new age,
all believers can enter the holiest of all boldly and with confidence, knowing
that God’s throne is a throne of grace for all.
3. The wonder of the opened graves Matthew
27:52-53.
“And the graves
were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and
coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city
and appeared to many.”
Matthew
alone reports this extraordinary event. He indicates that an earthquake struck
the area now of Jesus’ death, opening several graves. Many of the saints were
restored to life and seen in
The implications of this wonder
are clear. Jesus’ death brought life to some who had been dead. What a symbol
of victory over death and of the resurrection life that Jesus offers to all who
trust him as Saviour.
4.
EASTER MIRACLES, AND BEYOND.
Each Gospel devotes much of its
space to the story of Jesus’ trial and crucifixion. Yet each Gospel account
ends on a note of triumph.
Jesus has been falsely accused
and disgustingly murdered. Yet death cannot hold Jesus. In an unmatched
exercise of the power of God, Jesus is raised from the dead!
The account of events on and
beyond the first Easter focus our attention on several wonders associated with
the Resurrection, which is the greatest wonder of all. As we look first at the
associated wonders and then at the Resurrection itself, we realize how utterly
central the bodily resurrection of our Lord is to authentic Christian faith.
5.
WONDERS
ASSOCIATED WITH THE RESURRECTION.
A. The tomb’s
stone seal was rolled away Matthew 28:2; Mark 16:1-3; Luke 24:1-2.
The tombs of wealthy first
century Jews like Joseph of Arimathea, where Jesus’ body was placed, were cut into
rock cliffs. Such tombs generally had several places carved into the rock,
where the bones of several generations of the family could be stored. These
tombs were sealed by large stone “wheels,” which would be rolled along a track
cut into the rock to seal the tomb.
When on the first Easter morning
several women set out for Jesus’ tomb to wrap His body in linen strips
interwoven with sweet-smelling spices, they worried. How could they roll away
the heavy stone that sealed the tomb?
When they arrived at the tomb,
they discovered the tomb already opened! Matthew tells us that an earthquake
had jolted the stone from its track, and an angel had moved it away from the
tomb’s opening!
B. The guard
posted at the tomb was unconscious Matthew 28:4.
“And the guards
shook for fear of him and became like dead men.”
The Jewish leaders had asked
Pilate, the Roman governor, to put a military guard at the tomb. They
remembered that Jesus had promised a return to life, and while they did not
believe Him, they thought His disciples might try to steal the body.
But the appearance of the angel
and the earthquake shocked the military guard into unconsciousness. Later, when
they awakened, some of the guard reported what had happened to the chief
priests.
These religious leaders who had
conspired to see Jesus executed then bribed the soldiers with “a large sum of money” to say that the
disciples stole Jesus’ body while they were asleep. The leaders must also have
promised the soldiers protection, for the penalty for a Roman soldier who slept
while on guard was death.
And, of course, if the disciples
had stolen Christ’s body while the soldiers slept, the soldiers could hardly
have been credible witnesses.
How would they know what happened if they were asleep?
Like most political cover-ups, this attempt to confuse the population about
Christ’s resurrection was destined to fail.
C. Angels
informed visitors to the tomb that Jesus had risen from the dead Matthew 28:3;
Luke 24:4-7; John 20:12-13.
This is a third wonder associated
with the Resurrection. One or more angels appeared to groups of women who came
to the tomb and testified to Jesus’ resurrection. In each case the angels
appeared in their natural, radiant state, rather than as ordinary persons.
There could be no mistaking the supernatural character of these witnesses to
the raising of Jesus.
D. The
undisturbed grave clothes John 20:2–10.
When Peter and John heard that
Jesus’ tomb was empty, they ran to see for themselves. Peter stooped and
stepped into the tomb and was stunned by what he saw.
In biblical times bodies were
loosely wrapped in strips of linen, and a cloth was placed over the head of the
deceased. What Peter saw was the cloths in which Jesus had been wrapped, still
in the shape of the body around which they had been done up! But there was no
body inside! Jesus had somehow passed through the grave cloths, leaving them as
an empty husk!
The apostle John tells us that
when he saw this, he believed John 20:8
“Then the other disciple, who came to
the tomb first, went in also; and he saw and believed.”
E. Mary saw
Jesus Himself John 20:12-18.
Even after Mary had seen the
angels at the tomb, she wept uncontrollably. She was still convinced that “they” had taken Jesus away. Then
through her tears Mary saw a figure standing nearby.
Supposing him to be the gardener
she asked the figure where the body of Jesus had been placed. Jesus then spoke
only one word to Mary: her name. Immediately Mary recognized His voice.
F. Jesus
appeared unrecognized to two disciples on the Emmaus road Luke 24:13-35.
Another striking incident is
reported in Luke. As two disciples return to their home in Emmaus from
The man leads them through the
Old Testament prophets, showing from Scripture that it was foretold that the
Christ would suffer as Jesus had!
On arriving home, the two
travellers invited the stranger to take a meal with them. As the stranger broke
the bread and gave thanks for it, in the traditional Jewish table blessing,
they suddenly realized that their companion was Jesus Himself, raised from the
dead. Jesus then disappeared, and the two hurried back to
G. Jesus
appeared in a locked room (Luke 24:36–43; Mark 16:14).
The text tells us that Jesus came
to His disciples and spoke with them personally shortly after the Resurrection.
Luke adds a fascinating detail. The room where the disciples had gathered was a
locked room, where the disciples were hiding for fear of the religious leaders
who had controlled Jesus’ death.
The sudden appearance of Jesus in
the room is one of the proofs that the resurrection body is not limited in the
way our mortal bodies are limited. Jesus appeared and disappeared at will, most
likely freely crossing the barrier between the material and spiritual universes
which no mortal can cross.
H. Jesus’
resurrection body bore the marks of crucifixion in its hands and side John
20:24-31.
The disciple Thomas had not been
present the first time Jesus appeared to the gathered disciples. He would not
believe the report of the others that Christ had shown Himself to them, alive.
Thomas honestly stated that he would not believe unless he touched Jesus’ hands
and side and confirmed that the One who now lived was indeed the same One who
had been crucified.
Yet when Jesus did appear, and
invited Thomas to touch His wounds, Thomas found he did not need this
confirmation after all.
Thomas knew Jesus, and fell
before him, confessing “My Lord and my
God.”
These events, each intricately
linked to that first Easter morning, were wonders indeed. Yet they pale in
comparison to the event with which they are associated: the literal, bodily
resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Conclusion:
We have looked at one of the
recorded miracles of Jesus. Here was the 34th recorded miracle of
Jesus.
