Category: miracles

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day demanded He give them a miraculous sign from heaven to prove He was the Messiah:

Matthew 12 NKJV
³⁸Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.”
³⁹But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. ⁴⁰For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. ⁴¹The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. ⁴²The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.

The spectacle of miracles was not as important to Jesus as changed lives through the demonstration of God’s loving character.  Soul healing through the loving sign of physical healing was the goal of Jesus’ miracles for those who believed in God’s love.  Irrefutable proof of His divinity thrilled those who loved God and confounded those who did not.  His works of love proclaimed Him Messiah, Christ, the Son of God, God in the flesh.  Jesus said that those confounded would not be guilty if He had not come and done what no one else has ever done.

John 15 NKJV
²²If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. ²³He who hates Me hates My Father also. ²⁴If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. ²⁵But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’

Jesus told His followers that the works that He did they would do, and even greater:

John 14 NKJV
¹²“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. 

John 15 NKJV
²⁶“But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. ²⁷And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

 Control the wind and the waves?  Change water into wine?  Multiply bread and fish and feed thousands from one person’s small lunch?  Grow back missing limbs?  Heal the sick?  Raise the dead?  Greater than these?  I might think that impressing the masses with these spectacular miracles is Jesus goal. But Jesus’ ultimate purpose for doing miracles was to give Life to the spiritually dead and introduce them to a relationship with His Father who loved them.  This He could greater accomplish by loving multitudes of people through multitudes of His followers who love by the power of His Spirit living within them.  That is greater than any spectacle.

So what is the final proof that Jesus is God?  Ask one of His followers what He has done for them personally.