His Miracles Promoted His Ministry

CTV News

His miracles alone promoted his ministry. But the promotion was incidental. The real intention was to help people get out of spiritual captivity. Jesus said miracles were really meant to convict people and help them repent. That was first in the agenda. Second was promotion.

"Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes." [Mat.11]

Don't use miracles and signs and wonders mainly to promote your ministry. Lots of ministries fall into this trap. Because miracles astound people they're easily lured to these ministries. And the latter are often tempted to squeeze out financial support from them. The support are used more to turn ministries into empires and buy properties and build mansions.

Miracles are designed to convict people of sin. It happened to Peter. Because of Jesus' miracle of abundant catch of fish, Peter realized his sin. "When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, 'Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!'" [lk. 5.7]. Isaiah felt the same when he saw the glory of God with his angels. "I'm a man of unclean lips," [Isaiah 6].

Incidentally, Jesus' miracles promoted his ministries to other places so that people from all over sought desperately for him. It was a bonus given. An add-on. He didn't focus on miracles for promotion---so more people would join him and up his membership and church income. That would've been greed. It was an evangelism tool and accreditation from God himself. It proved he had God's full backing.

Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. [Acts 2.22]

And because Jesus is 100 percent in us, we have the same full backing. We can be accredited by God with signs and wonders if we want to. Problem is, we ignore this truth and prefer to get accreditation from other sources, even mundane or secular ones. Getting local government support, for instance, is good. But it's wrong when it's all the support we look for. We even derive our confidence from it. We brag about getting the mayor's or the barangay chairman's support. Why don't we seriously get supernatural support from God?

Jesus had zero support from local authorities. In fact, they despised him. We should get a hint from this. This was not incidental---God pre-planned it to turn out this way. Why? So we'd see that what we should get is heaven's full backing---never mind about other support. Why not conduct supernatural healing missions? But these things are not planned by man. We must be led by the Holy Spirit to do them.

We cannot sit down to meet and decide to do miracles. Even if we pray for them. The thing is to be led. To be sensitive to God's leading, to sense the Lord's healing presence [Lk.5.17]. And the healing presence depends on our faith. We should have the faith of Jesus, which often we lack because of the way the modern church has become too secular. We believe more in what the world can provide us than what God can provide supernaturally.

Of course, what we find in the world are also God's provisions, but they're provision designed to be used and appreciated by those of the flesh---those whose spirits are dead and cannot recognize the spiritual unless their flesh benefits from the experience. In ministry, God provides his supernatural supplies, tools and equipment. Through ministry, spiritual provisions are given flesh in us (like the Word that was made flesh and dwelt among men) so those of the flesh can relate and understand the value system of the Spirit.

Miracles were important to Jesus as he preached the Gospel. Everywhere he went, he performed them along with preaching and teaching. And the astonished people who witnessed God's power in him went everywhere to spread the word. They came (they didn't need to be invited), desperately looking for him with their sick and those possessed by demons, and Jesus healed them ALL.

I don't know if anyone looks for pastors "desperately" these days when they're sick or diabolically pestered with stress. Even some pastors skip church when they don't feel well. In Jesus' days, the sick went out of their houses to seek Jesus. Today, even sick church folks go to hospitals to be cured and skip church.

So, how about it? Church should start being promoted as God leads it to do signs and wonders and miracles.