Name of Jesus Works Miracles

Old Testament Expectation of Miracles for the Messiah

Ken

The miraculous is to be expected whenever God must make a statement to arrest the attention of His intended audience, which serves His purpose, when ordinary means would not be sufficient. This must be so, since He alone determines when the ordinary must be replaced by the extraordinary. Even our day to day obedience, though ordinary, He has promised to inspire and confirm through His New Covenant giving of the Holy Spirit. “And I will put My Spirit in you and move you to follow My decrees and be careful to keep My laws” (Ezekiel 36:27 NIV). But, if the Spirit of God can so captivate His children, “If you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, Go, throw yourself into the sea, and it will be done” (Matthew 21:21). O faith, be inspired to this, and more! 

OT: Messiah would perform miracles, but references to vengeance refer to Christ’s cleansing of the Temple at His First Coming (John 2), as well as pointing to His Second Coming. 

“4 say to those with fearful hearts, Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, He will come with vengeance; with divine retribution He will come to save you. 5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 6 Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert” (Isaiah 35:4-6 NIV).  

NT: Jesus performed miracles, as proof of His messiahship, even to John the Baptist. 

“2 When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples 3 to ask Him, Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else? 4 Jesus replied, Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. 6 Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of Me.” (Matthew 11:2-6). 

OT: Messiah would perform miracles with His First Coming, but also vengeance at His Second Coming.

“1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn” (Isaiah 61:1-2). 

NT: Jesus worked miracles in His First Coming; but notice, He stopped short of mentioning vengeance to His hearers at Nazareth, since that would be for His Second Coming.

“18 The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19). 

Significance of Christ’s Miracles 

“37 Do not believe Me unless I do the works of My Father. 38 But if I do them, even though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father” (John 10:37-38). 

“After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world” (John 6:14). 

“Still, many in the crowd believed in Him. They said, When the Messiah comes, will He perform more signs than this man?” (John 7:31). 

Though Christ had ample reason to perform miracles, He did not perform His first miracle until He created wine from water at Cana of Galilee (John 2). This indicated His divine authority and messiahship. Miracles serve the purpose of arresting our attention to gain God the opportunity of hearing His Word and establishing or reestablishing His relationship to us. 

May we seek Him for more than His miracles!

“23 Now while He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs He was performing and believed in His name. 24 But Jesus would not entrust Himself to them, for He knew all people. 25 He did not need any testimony about mankind, for He knew what was in each person” (John 2:23-25). 

Synopsis of John 2

Ken

In our survey of the Gospel of John, I was asked to speak on John, chapter 2.  

But first, let us pray. 

Father, anoint me that I may reveal the truth as it is in Jesus (Ephesians 4:21). Cause us to be satisfied with nothing less than a faith in Jesus requiring total commitment to You. In Jesus’ name, amen. 

In our survey of John 2, Jesus was just beginning His earthly ministry, when He and His disciples were invited to attend a wedding. 

Evidently, the addition of the extra guests caused a shortage of wine. 

He consented to his mother’s request to remedy the situation by creating wine from mere water (about 180 gallons of the Good Stuff). 

This was His very first miracle (John 2:11), which was an indicator of both His divinity and His messiahship to His disciples. 

The OT predicted the Messiah would work miracles, even as Jesus did. 

“4 Say to those with fearful hearts, Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, He will come with vengeance; with divine retribution He will come to save you. 5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 6 Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert” (Isaiah 35:4-6 NIV). 

If we were alive at that time, would we be as spiritually attentive and receptive to understand the part of Isaiah’s prophecy speaking of healing referred to Messiah’s First Coming, and the part speaking of vengeance pointed to His cleansing of the Temple, as well as Messiah’s Second Coming? Would we have identified Jesus as the Messiah? And, that the Messiah was Yahweh? (Compare Jesus’ rejection at Nazareth, Luke 4:18; Isaiah 61:1-2). 

Reflecting back on the birth of Jesus, there was a devout Jew by the name of Simeon, “waiting for the consolation of Israel” (Luke 2:25), who was ready for the Messiah; as well as a devout, prophetess Anna, who “worshipped night and day fasting and praying” (2:36), who recognized Jesus as the Messiah. They both were ready. 

But again, are we ready for the Lord’s soon return and appearing as Simeon and Anna were?

In John 2, Jesus then proceeded on to Jerusalem, where He cleansed the Temple, in keeping with the Psalmist: “For zeal for Your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult You fall on me” (Psalm 69:9 NIV). 

Then again, wouldn’t the cleansing of the Temple agree with the portion of Isaiah’s prophecy that cryptically referred to “your God will come, He will come with vengeance; with divine retribution He will come to save you” (Isaiah 35:4)? No doubt Messiah has plenty left to fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy at His Second Coming! 

Before we rightly condemn the Jews of Christ’s day, would we have had enough spirituality to have known better about His messiahship? And, His divinity? 

Finally, the most profound portion of John 2 is in verses 23 and 24, the last part of the chapter. 

“23 Now while He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs He was performing and believed [Greek, pisteuō] in His name. 24 But Jesus would not entrust [Greek, pisteuō] Himself to them, for He knew all people” (John 2:23-24 NIV). 

Let us pause the narrative for one moment and consider this, that many people believed on the name of Jesus. This believing was the Greek word pisteuō. But also, notice very carefully, “Jesus would not entrust [Greek, pisteuō] Himself to them” (2:24). Entrust was also from the Greek word pisteuō. Both “believed in His name” and “would not entrust Himself to them” are translated from the same Greek word, pisteuō.

Why was that?  

Because “He knew all people” (2:24), He knew their faith was insincere and insufficient for Him to entrust Himself to them, to commit to them, and to believe in them. This provides us with the realization that our faith is not enough for Jesus to commit Himself to us, unless we have genuinely committed ourselves to Him. 

Pisteuō is used about 250 times in the NT. Pisteuō is translated as believe 240 times. Pisteuō is translated as commit eight times, in the KJV. 

John 3:16 is properly translated, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes [Greek, pisteuō, COMMITS] in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 NIV). 

Commit, as in commitment, is more of a long term investment for those who have counted the cost. 

Commitment is what God is waiting for from the Church; and, all this time, the Church was under the impression that declaring ourselves as having trusted in Jesus as our Savior was mission accomplished, the end purpose of evangelical faith. 

“To the Jews who had believed Him, Jesus said, If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples” (John 8:32 NIV). Small wonder Christ spoke to His disciples as those who believed on Him, and He emphasized those remaining, continuing, and enduring with Him are really His disciples. This is True Commitment! 

“By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain” (1Corinthians 15:2). This is a daunting statement about commitment until we recall the purpose for the giving of the Holy Spirit is to inspire and confirm us in obedience. “And I will put My Spirit in you and move you to follow My decrees and be careful to keep My laws” (Ezekiel 36:27). We have the power of the Almighty to succeed, so much more than the fear of failure the devil taunts us with in our dark moments. 

“Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son” (2John 1:8-9). Wouldn’t it be a strange thing, if the faith or commitment of a small child or the mustard seed faith of the youngest disciple was not sufficient for our Heavenly Father to overcome the enemy and the world for the benefit of His Little Ones? Of such are the Kingdom of God! 

Let us pray. 

Father, may we reform our understanding of faith from only an intellectual concept to a commitment of our all in all to Jesus for ever and ever. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen and amen. 

Name of Jesus

Ken

Why do Christians feel the need to quote Scripture, if the underlying truth can be brought out without citing chapter and verse? So those who are not familiar with the source and context of the truth can determine its veracity. “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11 KJV). In this way, we enable our hearers not simply to be one of our followers, but a follower of Jesus. “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ” (1Corinthians 11:1). And, sometimes the context of the truth is so obvious, chapter and verse are unnecessary. “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11). 

What is so special about the Name of Jesus? We who are so crude we realize not our earthiness in all of its limitations need God’s Spirit to teach us our lowness and His highness. “1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. 2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. 3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory. 4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. 6 Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: 7 And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. 8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me” (Isaiah 6:1-8).

The Name of Jesus is not a talisman or good luck charm. It represents the beginning of our understanding of the True God. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6). We take great delight in all of Scripture’s representations of Christ being different from but the same as the Father, since this is the Divine Mystery of the Godhead or the Trinity. Stumbling at such enigmas keeps the Kingdom of God from being filled with those who “having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away” (2Timothy 3:5). Cults famously misunderstand these things to their own detriment and often to their own damnation. “As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction” (2Peter 3:16). 

What is the significance of the Name of Jesus? 

First, it is the beginning of our relationship to God, because Jesus is the face of God. “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:38). 

Second, wealth and health are of less importance than the Name of Jesus. “Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk” (Acts 3:6).

Third, God focuses our need of salvation from sin and sinning by lifting up the Name of Jesus (Greek, Iēsous, Jehovah is salvation) through supernatural means, such as healing. “Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole” (Acts 4:10). 

A- From sins: “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). 

B- From sinning: “Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee” (John 5:14). 

Third, the Name of Jesus must represent the highest possible challenge to Organized Religion for it to be opposed by the Jews, who were the keepers of the Oracles of God (Scripture). “And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus” (Acts 4:18). 

Fourth, the Name of Jesus represents the leadership of those who have been accounted worthy to suffer with Jesus, for “if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him” (2Timothy 2:12). “And when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go” (Acts 5:40). 

Fifth, the Name of Jesus represents the greatest threat to the sorceries of the world, and baptism in the Name of Jesus represents the greatest call to loyalty away from the enemy and to the Living God. “But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women” (Acts 8:12). 

Sixth, the Name of Jesus is the authority to cast demons out of those possessed by the devil, when used by those filled by the Spirit of Christ. “And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour” (Acts 16:18). 

Seventh, the Name of Jesus identifies God’s called out assembly the Church, who have been set apart in Christ and called to walk holy as saints. “Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours” (1Corinthians 1:2). 

In conclusion, all that we seek to know about God can be found in the Name of Jesus because Jesus is not simply made in the image of God but “is the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15), for “in Him should all fulness dwell” (1:19). Our most potent weapon against the enemy of our souls is Jesus, who has given His Spirit (Acts 2:38) not just for forgiveness of our sins but to inspire us to walk in complete obedience. “And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them” (Ezekiel 36:27). 

“For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart [Pharaoh’s heart], and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like Me in all the earth” (Exodus 9:14). 

“And the angel of the LORD [Pre-Incarnate Christ] said unto him, Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret [literally, wonderful, incomprehensible]” (Judges 13:18). 

“For unto us a child [Messiah Jesus] is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). 

“Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon Him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered Him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am He. And Judas also, which betrayed Him, stood with them. As soon then as He had said unto them, I am He, they went backward [in other words, knocked to the ground by the Name of Jesus], and fell to the ground” (John 18:4-6).

Father, may the Name of Jesus be lifted up to glorify You. May Your power be witnessed and felt, when the Name of Jesus is used. May lives be transformed and demons flee, when all the power of the Almighty is displayed in the Name of Jesus. Cause us to be taught of Your Spirit that the opposition of the Wicked One may be brought to nothing. Magnify Yourself in an obedient, overcoming people. Grant us the inspiration to obey. Most of all, may there be the revelation of the face of God in the Name of Jesus. Lord Jesus, return quickly. In Your Name, we pray. Amen and amen.