The Man With Leprosy

    ¹When he came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. ²A man with leprosy^[a] came and knelt before him and said, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean."

    ³Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately he was cured^[b] of his leprosy. ⁴Then Jesus said to him, "See that you don't tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."

The Faith of the Centurion

    ⁵When Jesus had entered Capernaum , a centurion came to him, asking for help. ⁶"Lord," he said, "my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering."

    ⁷Jesus said to him, "I will go and heal him."

    ⁸The centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. ⁹For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."

    ¹⁰When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, "I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. ¹¹I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. ¹²But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

    ¹³Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go! It will be done just as you believed it would." And his servant was healed at that very hour.

Jesus Heals Many

    ¹⁴When Jesus came into Peter's house, he saw Peter's mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. ¹⁵He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him.

    ¹⁶When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. ¹⁷This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
   "He took up our infirmities
      and carried our diseases."

Let me begin by asking you this:  How many in here believe that I am, as your pastor, a man of faith?  This is not a test and I won’t be waiting at the back of the sanctuary afterwards to thump you if you don’t raise your hand.  But seriously, how many?  I am a man of faith, by the way, and I have strong convictions and beliefs in the power of God here and now.  I have witnessed and been a part of prayers for healing and have seen God move. I have watched other people ask for God to move in their life and seen signs and wonders. But on the other hand, I visit the hospitals regularly and see people that we all know, who we all deeply love and care for but I have yet to pray for anyone of them and have them, “get up and take their mat” and walk out of the hospital.  How about you?  The harsh reality is that I have prayed for people, even in my own family, who have finished walking their journey of faith and died.  I have also prayed for rain, and the rains have come.  I have prayed for good finances, a wonderful wife, a blessed child, and opportunities to bring God’s Kingdom here on earth and wow, I have been abundantly blessed.  I have prayed and spoken God’s word and seen both something and absolutely nothing.  How about you?  Miracles.  We are talking about miracles and we ask for them.  There are times in our lives where we wish, desire, and many times desperately need a miracle from God.  Admit it, you and I, ask for miracles and sometimes we receive them and sometimes we don’t.  I want you to know that I have no answer for that mystery in our faith.  What I do know is that the fallacy of our faith is that it is results oriented.  And the more we move into the future of our society, the worse that fallacy becomes.

In the full ministry of Jesus Christ there are only about 30 recorded miracles which Jesus performed.  We don’t even have a good word to describe the actions of Jesus other than “performed”.  But I firmly believe that Jesus carried out this power of God in this world to do more than just change the lives of those who were touched, or who touched him, but to point people to something greater, the coming of the Kingdom of God .  In the simplest of ideas, Jesus himself was a part of that very proclamation. But consider this; Most of the time Jesus told those who received the miracle to, “go and not tell anyone.”  WHY WOULD HE DO THAT?

Because he knew that the faith of everyone around him would suddenly become results oriented!  And we have. Jesus knew that the miracles would become the focal point of his ministry and not the message that God had sent him to proclaim.  There were times when people received the miracle and went and told everyone despite their instructions and it kept him from preaching and teaching because of the crowds that were waiting to mob him. Jesus wanted people to see the miracle as pointing to something more, something to come, a foretaste of the Kingdom. 

We have to look beyond our own definition of miracle, which Webster defines as an event that appears inexplicable by the laws of nature.  But looking beyond the English definition we look to the Latin root word “miraculum” meaning “something wonderful” and then to the Greek translation, where it really counts, where we find that miracle means “ a sign.”

Jesus’ miracles portray Him as He is described by John the Baptist: the mighty one – mightier than John – who acts in power of the Spirit. With this power Jesus silences and expels demons since He has overpowered and bound Satan.  The wind and the sea obey Him and power proceeds from him and immediately cures a woman who has been beyond the help of the doctors just  by her touch of his garment! 

Jesus used miracles of healing to demonstrate his compassion and his concern to break down social barriers.  They challenged the Jewish Sabbath Laws and exposed Israel ’s faithfulness.  They showed that he was God’s unique Son.

Jesus did it all because it pointed to the power of God the Father and it also fulfilled prophesy:

¹⁶When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. ¹⁷This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
   "He took up our infirmities
      and carried our diseases."

Let us not forget that miracles are more than just healing though.  Jesus turned water into wine, he walked on water, he calmed a storm on the open sea, he fed 5000 and then 4000, withered a fig tree, pointed to a catch of fish, and yes also healed many.  Why did he do all of this?  To point to the Kingdom. 

Why do I want a miracle today when I pray for it?  Because usually I want to make sure I stop or reverse something that is taking place. When there is sickness I want health.  Where there is drought I want a bountiful harvest.  Where there is a troubled relationship I want unity.  Where there is famine I want food.  Not once have I said, “Please God, just do something so we can glorify you.”  Oh sure I say we will give him the credit.  But only after he gives the miracle. That’s not what Jesus is about.  That’s not his message.  That is not this life we are supposed to be living as Christians. I want to read this passage about the Centurion again:

The Faith of the Centurion

    ⁵When Jesus had entered Capernaum , a centurion came to him, asking for help. ⁶"Lord," he said, "my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering."

    ⁷Jesus said to him, "I will go and heal him."

    ⁸The centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. ⁹For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."

    ¹⁰When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, "I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. ¹¹I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. ¹²But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

    ¹³Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go! It will be done just as you believed it would." And his servant was healed at that very hour.

It is my opinion that there is no dependent correlation between faith and God’s movement in your life.  Faith and Miracles are not totally dependent upon one another.  I say that because I promise you that God has moved in the lives of those who had faith as well as those who did not.  Sometimes the movement of the power of God is in response to faith and sometimes it is to instill faith.

There are the stories of the miracles received as a direct result of their faith or the faith of their loved ones. And if you only look at these models then the logic would be that if you could just produce enough faith then God would move in your life. That is ridiculous.  John even explains that he wrote his gospel so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name. Jesus heals the official’s son at Capernaum and then the official believed as did his whole household. So it is logical to me that some miracles are designed to produce faith.  There is the fact that some people just refuse to believe and unbelief can be a blockade for Jesus. 

The Bible states that their unbelief sometimes kept him from performing miracles.  I have not worked all of this out in my head yet, but I understand it was not that they did not have enough faith, it is that they had no faith and did not believe.  There is a difference. I find instances where again, Jesus does not want to be the Medicine Man and just be recognized for miracles.  One reason Jesus would not perform miracles when tempted by Satan was because the message and mission He was about was so much more! How many times dos the Bible convey this message about miracles and how many times does it have to be said before we get it?

In my own personality I despise the fact that sometimes we just have to accept the fact that we live in a broken and fallen world and we are stuck with the consequences of it. I despise the process of death.  Not death itself, but the varying avenues by which we all travel towards it.  I abhor pain, poverty, famine and starvation.  I detest the injustice of this world.  My heart is way bigger than my mind and this matter of fact statement that I just have to accept all of this does not give me a good enough answer and it does not make our plight any easier, but it is a reality I know I will never comprehend this side of heaven.  You see when I saw that I believe I am not saying that I fully understand.  AMEN?

That’s why everything Jesus did and said, and everything done through the work of the Holy Spirit today, points to the Kingdom of Heaven where God reigns forever and ever. He knew that he could not fix us in this world, in our bodies, in our current state because we are not meant to be this way forever. He knew that we could not ever fully understand the message of eternity because we had no reference point and that is why some miracles were and are performed, to help give us a reference. I know this is hard. We want what we want now because this world is all we know. We want everything to be right and normal, we want health and a decent life, we want better for our children than we had for ourselves but Jesus wants you to look beyond what you are asking for today and look to the future of the Kingdom!  The Kingdom of which you will be a part of.

What is it all about?  The Kingdom – paradise, glory, our Father’s house with streets of gold and the foundation made of jewels.  "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City , the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the Throne saying, 'Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be his people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.' He who was seated on the Throne said, 'I am making everything new!'"  More important than anything else is the fact that we will be with our Lord forever. From His throne flows the River of Life . It will be perfect, clear as crystal. And we will see Him face to face (Revelation 22:4). We shall worship Him and be His people and He will be our God.

A miracle in itself is this act of Holy Communion.  There is a miraculous transformation that can take place inside of you through this representative act of becoming one with the body and blood of Christ.  This is what it is all about.  The process of becoming more like him and less like the world and until when….until we feast with Him in final victory.

Hallelujah, that’s the miracle!  That’s the miracle!  That’s the miracle.

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