The Authentication of Christ's Minstry

Q: What does the Bible say about the miracles of Jesus?

The miracles of Jesus served as signs that authenticated His ministry and proclaimed the glory of God. In Mark 1:27, the response of the crowd reveals their amazement at Jesus' authority demonstrated through His miracles. They recognized that these acts were not merely displays of power, but significant signs pointing to His divine authority and unique teaching, which was unlike that of the scribes. The purpose of miracles in Jesus' ministry was both to support His proclamation of the gospel and to reveal His identity as the promised Messiah. As John 2:11 states, His first miracle at Cana manifested His glory and lead to belief among His disciples.

Q: How do we know Jesus' authority is true?

Jesus' authority is authenticated through His miracles, teachings, and fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. The authority of Jesus is evidenced by the miracles He performed, which served as divine validation of His message and teaching. As seen in Mark 1:27, both His command over spiritual forces and public reaction affirm that He speaks with divine authority. Furthermore, the miracles fulfilled Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah, confirming that Jesus is indeed the one who was promised. Hebrews 2:3-4 further highlights that God bore witness to the authenticity of His ministry through signs and wonders, demonstrating that His words were not only powerful but life-giving.

Q: Why is the ministry of Jesus important for Christians?

Jesus' ministry is crucial because it embodies the fulfillment of God's promise through His teachings, miracles, and sacrificial death. The ministry of Jesus Christ is foundational for Christians, as it reveals the complete revelation of God in human form. His teachings declared the kingdom of God and called for repentance and faith, which are essential for salvation. His miracles not only demonstrated compassion but authenticated His role as the Messiah. As Hebrews 1:1-2 states, God spoke through the prophets in the past, but in these last days, He has spoken through His Son. Understanding Jesus’ authority and the nature of His ministry is critical for the faith of believers, as His entire life pointed toward redemption and the glory of God, fulfilling both law and prophecy.

Q: What is the significance of Jesus performing miracles?

Jesus' miracles are significant as they authenticate His divine mission and lead people to glorify God. The significance of Jesus performing miracles lies in their role as signs that showcase the power of God and fulfill prophecy. The crowds were amazed and questioned, not just out of curiosity, but because these miracles confirmed His message and inspired belief in His identity as the Son of God. In Matthew 15:31, the people glorified the God of Israel after witnessing the miracles, emphasizing that all acts of healing and restoration point to God's glory. Thus, miracles were not ends in themselves, but instruments that directed admiration toward God and served the manifestation of Christ's divine nature and authority.

Let us turn to God's Word in this portion that we've just read, the opening verses of Mark's Gospel, and I want to direct you for a while to the words that we find at verse 27. In Mark 1, verse 27, we read, And they were all amazed in so much that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? What new doctrine is this?

For with authority commandeth He even the unclean spirits, and they do obey Him." We are then in Mark chapter 1 and verse 27, the Lord Jesus in the synagogue in Capernaum as performed a miracle, casting the unclean spirit out of one who was possessed. that we just read is the reaction of those who were present on that occasion.

And as we look at this verse, I want simply to say something with regards to the authentication of Christ's ministry. How his ministry is here seen to be authenticated by the performance of the miracle. And so, dealing with some three points, first of all to say something with regards to the point and the purpose of the miracles, then secondly to say something with regards to the place and the end of the miracles, and then in conclusion to make some remarks concerning the person of the Lord Jesus and his authority in his ministry. Firstly then, the point and the purpose of the miracles. The significance is clear enough in the words that we've read as our text, how they were all amazed and began to question amongst themselves. What was the point? Well, what thing is this? What new doctrine? What new teaching is this?

For with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him." We know that the miracles are but signs. Of course, that's the word that's repeatedly used in John's Gospel. rendered in our authorized version as miracle but literally a sign and we have those words again at the beginning of John chapter 2 and verse 11.

This beginning of miracles or signs did Jesus in Cana of Galilee and manifested forth his glory and his disciples believed in him. we see that there is a place for miracles here in Holy Scripture. Whenever there was any significant giving of the Word of God, there would be miracles to authenticate the message that was being proclaimed.

It was the case, of course, with Moses. Moses associated very much with the coming of the law, and the great miracles that were done in the land of Egypt as God demonstrates his power in bringing the children of Israel out of that bondage. And then when we think of the prophetic ministry We read of men like Elijah and Elisha as those who were able to do miraculous works, signs, and wonders. That was authenticating, as it were, the prophetic ministry. We're told, aren't we, with Elijah and with Moses also.

They are there in the New Testament when it comes to the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's reported in the Gospels. He takes those favored three into the mount, and before them he is transfigured, and then they witness these two men speaking with the Lord Jesus, Elijah or Elias as it is in the Greek, and Moses, and they're talking with him of his decease that he would accomplish at Jerusalem. And so not surprisingly, when we think of the New Testament and not only the ministry of Christ, but also the ministry of his apostles, we again see that miracles are associated with their ministry.

Miracles authenticate their preaching and their teaching. We're reminded of that in the second chapter of Hebrews. Remember what we have there at verses 3 and 4. Paul writes, How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him?

God also bearing them witnessed both His signs and wonders and with diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to His own will." With an emphasis very much upon what was spoken, spoken by the Lord. His ministry was a verbal ministry in that sense and it was confirmed by them. They went about everywhere preaching the good news, the gospel. But God also bears witness, just as he had borne witness in the Old Testament at the giving of the law and also the ministry of the prophets. So we see the significance of these miracles, the point, the purpose of them.

The Lord Jesus is that one who is clearly marked out as the great prophet of the Lord. That was the promise that God had given to Moses back in Deuteronomy 18, and twice in that chapter, verses 15 and 18, we read of one whom God will raise up like unto Moses, but one who is really greater than Moses. And so, in the course of the Lord's own ministry, when he performs a miracle, in the rising of the widow of Nain's son, for example, what is the reaction of the multitudes? There, in Luke chapter 7, in verse 11, and the following verses, we read of that miracle, carrying the body, But the Lord goes to the buyer and touches the young man, and he is raised again to life. And we are told how fear came on all, and they glorified God, saying, God hath visited his people, and a great prophet, a great prophet is risen amongst us. So the miracle is confirming as that one who was indeed promised. back in Deuteronomy 18, but he's not only the great prophet, he is in fact the promised Messiah. He is that one who is the Christ. And again, we see it in Matthew's Gospel, for example, and there in chapter 12, and verses 22 and 23.

We're told, then, was brought unto him, possessed with the devil, blind and dumb, and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw, and all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David? The son of David, of course, they're referring there to the fact that this is the promised Messiah. He is the seed of the woman, He is the seed of Abraham, He is the seed of David, He is the Son of David. Made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead.

This is how the Apostle speaks of him there in the opening verses of Romans as he defines the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who is this one? Who is the promised Messiah? He is of the seed of David. But how he is marked out as the Son of God by the great miracle of the resurrection from the dead. Where is the point then and purpose of the miracles? How they point to him. They are signs.

This is that one, the promised prophet. The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. And with his coming, of course, as we're told in Daniel, he has sealed the vision and the prophecy. No more prophet after him, because he is not only the prophet, he is the Messiah, the promised Christ.

But really, ultimately, these miracles, the point, the purpose of them is that they lead to the glory of God. All is for the glory of God. Look at the language in Matthew 15, 31. where we read, the multitude wondered when they saw the dumb to speak, the lame to behold, the lame to walk, and the blind to see, and they glorified the God of Israel. They glorified the God of Israel, all to the glory of God. When the devils are cast out and the dumb speak, we're told how the multitude marveled, saying it was never so seen in Israel.

Oh, this is the glory of God, then the point and the purpose of the miracles, the manifestation of God, really, in Him who is the image of the invisible God. But then, turning in the second place to the place of the miracles and the end of the miracles, what is the end of them? Well, we are continually reminded, really, of the primacy of the Word, the preaching of the Word of God. This must have the preeminent place always and it has the preeminent place here with regards to the Lord's ministry when He is first manifested. Remember how this Gospel opens with reference to the message of John the Baptist who is the great forerunner of Christ and when John has done his work What do we read?

Verse 14, Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching. He works miracles but he's not really a miracle worker. His great calling is preaching. Preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent ye and believe the gospel. And In Luke, of course, we have the account in chapter 4, how after he has been tempted of the devil, 40 days in the wilderness, and he returns in the power of the Spirit, and he goes into the synagogue at Nazareth on the Sabbath day, as was his custom, and the minister gives him the book of the prophet Isaiah, and he turns to the language of Isaiah 61. The Spirit of the Lord is upon them. for he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor." And the Lord reads those opening verses of Isaiah 61 there in Luke 4, and then we read how he said, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

He comes as that one who will preach the word of God. That is his great business, and the miracles are but signs. And they point to him, and they point to the truth of his ministry of the Word of God. And so we see it here. What do the people say? What thing is this? What new doctrine, what new teaching, literally, is this? For with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him."

It's interesting, in Luke's account of the same event, Luke 4.36, it says, what word is this? Or what a word is this? The primacy of the Word of God then. But then, I really want to say something with regards to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ in all of these things. We're told, aren't we, at the end of this 27th verse, with authority.

With authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits and they do obey him. It's interesting when we read through the Gospels because we have the manifestation of God now in human flesh. The person of the Lord Jesus Christ is that one who is God and man, two natures, and yet one glorious person, and we can never really separate those natures, though they're distinct natures. In everything that he does he is God and he's also man, the great mystery of godliness. Now God was manifest in the flesh and ultimately the one who is to be preached unto the Gentiles or the Lord Jesus Christ and now there's astonishment really at his ministry.

We see it, do we not, At the end of Matthew chapter 7, the authority, so different to that of the scribes, that people are amazed. He's just finished his sermon, chapters 5, 6 and 7. And then when we come to the end of that 7th chapter, they're amazed, just as we see it here, with regards to the miracles.

Because he seems to have such a remarkable authority. why he has a voice that can even raise the dead to life when he but speaks the word and he demonstrates that at the grave of Lazarus when he cried with a loud voice Lazarus come forth and he that was dead and was dead four days remember and his sister said concerning his corpse he stinketh but the Lord commands him to come forth and he comes forth in his great clothes and the Lord says loose him and let him go oh what authority a voice that can raise the dead and he can also raise to new life those who are spiritually dead those who are dead in trespasses and sins the language that we have in in John 5 and there at verse 25 verily Verily, 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. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He will." And he says later in the sixth chapter of John, in verse 63, "...the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."

Oh, this is the all-important thing then. It's his ministry. It's the fact that he exercises as the promised Messiah, the true prophet of the Lord, where the word of a king is, there is power. And the people recognize that. Those who were sent by the Pharisees to try to catch him in his teaching, what do they say as they report back? Never man spake like this man. Never man spake like this man. Now why was it? Why was it that his voice carried such authority?

Well, there is, of course, his commission. There is his commission. There is that office that he is exercising, the office of a priest. He comes as the fulfillment of that threefold office that we see in the Old Testament. those men who were to be the shepherds or the pastors of God's ancient covenant people, who were they? Well, there were to be princes, kings, and there were to be priests, and there were to be prophets. And we are principally concerned, of course, with the way in which he is the fulfillment of the prophetic office, with regard to his priestly office, which we read of so much in Hebrews, And there we're told, aren't we, no man taketh his honour to himself but he that is called of God. The Aaronic priests were called of God to that office, but here is one who is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. But he's also called to office as a prophet. He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God. He doesn't come to speak his own words. He has a commission. My doctrine, my teaching is not mine, he says, but his that sent me.

And so we read of God sending his own son. Sends him in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, but God sends him. And the He will fulfill all those offices, those three offices. We see him as that one who is the king, he is the priest, but he is also the great prophet of the Lord. And how shall they preach, except they be sent? It says in Romans 10, and he is sent.

Behold, my servant whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth, I have put my spirit upon him." We know the language there in Isaiah 42. He comes to serve, and he comes to serve the Lord God, and he comes to serve Him in this prophetic office.

But there's not only his commission that is the true and the real source of his authority, but there's also his experience. There are remarkable words in Hebrews 5, who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayer and supplication with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared, though he were a son. Yet learned he obedience by the things that he suffered." He learned obedience as a man by the things that he suffered.

And there we see him as one who will suffer, even in this short portion that we read at the beginning of the Gospel. We're told, aren't we, after his baptizing there at verse 12, immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness. And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan, and was with the wild beast, and the angels ministered unto him. And then, the juxtaposition of that fourteenth verse, after John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom.

It is this that lends authority to his ministry, really. It's this that puts a backbone into his ministry, really, because it costs him. He suffers. It's interesting because when we have the account in Matthew, in chapter 4 of Matthew, we read of his temptations, and then it's immediately after that, chapters 5, 6, and 7, that we have the account of the Sermon on the Mount. And it's these experiences that put metal into the man's soul. He is a real man.

Tempted in all points like us, we are yet, it says, without sin. I was struck by this comment of J.C. Philpott, he says, an unexercised preacher is scarcely worthy of the name of a minister. An unexercised preacher is scarcely worth the name of a minister. All the Lords was very much an exercised man with regards to his experiences here upon the earth, real experiences. What was his life? He says to his disciples at the end of his ministry, you are they who have continued with me in my temptations. It wasn't just at the beginning of his ministry.

We're told, aren't we, how the devil left him for a season. But how often he was assaulted by that great adversary. There's so much satanic activity really as God is manifested in the flesh. Why was it that the Lord is continually in his ministry casting out demons? Because there was great demonic activity. As God was manifest in the flesh, so the devil is doing his work, hating the works of God, attacking the Lord Jesus Christ.

And what sort of a ministry then is that that the Lord is exercising? Oh, it's a faithful ministry. It was Luther, wasn't it, who said prayer and meditation and temptation or trials make a minister. And certainly the great Protestant reformer knew something of that. He was a man who meditated much in the Word of God. He was a man who prayed over the Word of God. But he was a man who was sorely tried and tested in all his experiences.

Well, if that was true of the Lord Jesus Christ, how much more so with regards to... If that was true of Luther, how much more so with regards to the Lord Jesus Christ? They would say of Martin Luther that at times he would preach as if he had been in the heart of a man, because of what he knew in the way of those trials. Well, if that was true of Luther, it was much, much more true of the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

We're told, aren't we, in the second chapter of John, he needed not that any should testify of man, he knew what was in the hearts of men. In a sense, of course, he knew what was in the hearts of men because he is God. But there we're dealing with him as God-man. He also knew what was in the hearts of men because of the man that he was. When he's dealing with the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman, and begins to speak to her and open up all her experience, remember what she says to her fellow citizens, come see a man, who told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? And of course the wonder for us is that the Lord knows us and He can minister to us.

He's touched with the feeling of all our infirmities. He was tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin and many ways His temptations were much more severe than ours. He says, the prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in thee. However much Satan might assault him and attack him, however severe he resists all the advances of that great adversary, here is one then that we can turn to and pray to.

The one that we read of here in the text, who comes to reveal to us the wonders of the grace of God. The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we're told of the amazement of the people as they witnessed all that he was able to do, and how God authenticated all that ministry that he exercised. They were all amazed in so much that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him.

Oh, let us then be those who would be looking to him. and trusting in Him and coming by and through His mediation and casting all our cares upon the God of mercy and the God of grace. May the Lord be pleased to bless to us His work. Let us now, before we pray, sing our second praise, the hymn number 51. It speaks to us of the glorious Gospel, what wisdom, majesty and grace through all the Gospels shine. It is God that speaks and we confess the doctrine most divine. Hymn number 51. The tune is St. Peter 227.

The Authentication of Christ's Minstry

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the miracles of Jesus?

How do we know Jesus' authority is true?

Why is the ministry of Jesus important for Christians?

What is the significance of Jesus performing miracles?

Sermon Transcript

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The Authentication of Christ's Minstry

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the miracles of Jesus?

How do we know Jesus' authority is true?

Why is the ministry of Jesus important for Christians?

What is the significance of Jesus performing miracles?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

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