Who Is This Man? Part 1 - Miracles

Who is Jesus? As the disciples reacted, “What sort of man is this, that the winds and the sea would obey him” (Matthew 8:27)? Here they were, fishermen caught in a storm and frightened for their lives and Jesus calms the waves and the winds. It provoked wonder, awe and soul searching.

It leads us to the most important question you can ask yourself, “who is the man Jesus?” Is He who He said He is, the Son of God and the Messiah? Or is he delusional or is he a liar?

These next weeks leading up to Easter, we will be studying the Life and Miracles of Jesus, the Crucifixion (why did Jesus have to die) and the Resurrection. We are taking an apologetic approach, meaning we will be exploring why we believe these accounts are true and not fiction. We, as Christians, have an evidentiary faith, not just a blind faith.

When we are asked to “prove that there is a God” we are left with the truthful response, “you cannot prove God, nor can you disprove God.” Asking for proof is the wrong question. Prove to me that Alexander the Great really lived? Can you? No, you cannot “prove” he lived, but you can give me evidence that points to his existence.

Proof is a scientific term for applying the scientific method to something. These questions belong in a laboratory. When it comes to the existence of God, to the life of Christ, and to people of history, we rely on evidence, which means this discussion belongs in the courtroom.

There are many who started off as atheists who sought to disprove Christianity, yet following the evidence led them to Christ. Not only did they turn to follow Christ but they became apologists for the faith. C.S. Lewis wrote “Mere Christianity” as a defense of the faith. Lee Strobel applied his investigative journalism methods to the story of Christ, found Christ and wrote the book “A Case for Christ.” Josh McDowell’s pursuit led him to write “Evidence that Demands a Verdict”. I could go on, but the point is made, when rigorous and honest pursuit of truth is sought, the evidence points to Jesus, the Son of God.

So we begin with the life and miracles of Jesus. Why did Jesus come?

“For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.” Romans 15:8–9

Here Paul demonstrates that Jesus came to testify of God’s truthfulness and confirm the promises made in the Old Testament. To simplify, Jesus came to show that God is who He says He is, and He does what He promises to do. In doing so, He opened the door for the Gentiles to see the glory of god and receive His mercy. Jesus came to provide salvation for all who believe, and that salvation is found in demonstrating that He is who He says He is and He does what He promises to do.

In this one post, I cannot begin to answer all these questions, but the apostle John points us in a great direction when He gives the purpose for the book of John:

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” John 20:30–31

We may quickly pass over one of his biggest clues here if we don’t stop and look at what he is pointing at. The key word we want to focus on is “signs”. All through the book, John uses the word “sign” instead of “miracle”. Miracle comes from the Greek word meaning a demonstration of power. Sign comes from the word meaning symbol, or pointing to something beyond the specific action.

The miracles/signs in the book of John are to point you to the fact that Jesus is the Son of God and that you may believe on His name.

John Piper encourages us to pause after reading a miraculous encounter with Jesus and ask “what is this telling me about Jesus” and “what is this telling me about the Father” and “what promises of God does this miracle fulfill”?

I believe those are great questions to ask as we look through some of the miracles of Jesus. C.S. Lewis identified that humanity has sought many ways to explain the problems of this world and developed many theories that fall short to explain the good and the bad. “The Christian view,” he says, “is that this is a good world that has gone wrong, but still retains the memory of what it ought to have been” (C. S. Lewis “Mere Christianity” pg 42).

Lewis points to the fact that God has made this world good, but sin has corrupted it. We have an innate knowledge that there is something more than just this life. Solomon said that God “has set eternity in the hearts of man” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). That has been described as the “God shaped vacuum” in all of us. We know that something is wrong with the world, we long for something more.

Tim Keller claims that the miracles of Christ bridge that gap.

“They (miracles) lead not simply to cognitive belief, but to worship, to awe and wonder. Jesus’ miracles in particular were never magic tricks, designed only to impress or coerce…We modern people think of miracles as the suspension of the natural order, but Jesus meant them to be the restoration of the natural order. The Bible tells us that God did not originally make the world to have disease, hunger, and death in it. Jesus has come to redeem where it is wrong and heal the world where it is broken. His miracles are not just proofs that he has power but also wonderful foretastes of what he is going to do with that power. Jesus’ miracles are not just a challenge to our minds, but a promise to our hearts, that the world we all want is coming” (Tim Keller, Reasons for God page 99).

Taking these thoughts that Lewis and Keller share, we can see that miracles answer the deepest longing of our hearts and demonstrate that Jesus is who He says He is, has done what He promised to do, and will continue to fulfill His promises for us. We can trust Him!

As an exercise look up John 5:1-15; John 6:1-15; 11:1-44 and ask, what are these miracles pointing to about Jesus? What about the Father? What promises do these fulfill?