Miracles of Jesus-

Introduction: Jesus preformed 37 miracles in the gospel, some were the same but with different details depending on which gospel you are reading and studying.

While you turn to Matthew 15:29-31, I would like to share with you a miracle that occurred in my life in August of 2014. I had brain surgery for a colloid cyst in April of that year and the surgery went well and I had no problems until six months later in August while attending a men’s conference at my church, I had a mini stroke, seizure and I went into cardiac arrest and had to be shocked with a defibrillator to get my heart back into rhythm. I was in the hospital for ten days and my kidney started to shut down and I had to go on dialysis for three days to get my kidneys to start functioning properly. My doctor who came to see me on the following Monday morning after I had been in the hospital for the weekend on the stroke floor recovering. My doctor looked at me and called me a miracle man based on my medical notes that he had read. He said that a small portion of my brain was dead from the stroke and I told him that no one would believe me and he proceeded to go out of my room and he printed a copy of my CT Scan and give it to me to show everyone. I told him that my hope and faith in Jesus Christ played a big part of my recovery.

Before we look at the verses 9-31 In Matthew 15:21-28 Jesus heals a Gentile woman’s demon-possessed daughter in the area of Sidon and Tyre and Jesus tells her that her faith is great and we can see that even though she was a Gentile she knew that Jesus was the Messiah.

Healing the Crowds

29 Departing from there, Jesus went along by the Sea of Galilee, and having gone up on the mountain, He was sitting there. 30 And [a]large crowds came to Him, bringing with them those who were lame, crippled, blind, mute, and many others, and they laid them down at His feet; and He healed them. 31 So the crowd marveled as they saw the mute speaking, the crippled [b]restored, and the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.

Main Theme: Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God and Son of Man and he proved it by preforming miracles because of his love for people, his divine nature, his fulfillment of prophesies of the Old Testament that no one could explain or deny.

Verse 29 notice that Jesus goes up to a mountain and sits down. Some Biblical scholars think he sat down because he was tired, especially if he had walked from Tyre and Sidon to the Decapolis (ten cities) Gentile inhabited area which would have been around 41 miles (Mark 7:31-37) Other references believe Jesus sat down on the mountain to be with his disciples or to teach them and also the crowd, which is what I think since he sat down on a mountain when he gave his Sermon on the Mound and the Beatitudes for people to live by in life. (Matthew 5-7) Just a side note one commentary that I read said that mountains are significant when talking about Jesus. and God. In the Old Testament, some scholars believe that the Garden of Eden was located on a mountain. Abraham went on a mountain to sacrifice his son Issac. Moses went up a mountain to receive the 10 commandments of God as well as the specification for God’s Tabernacle. In the New Testament Jesus was transfigured on a mountain in front of Peter, John and James and his true glory was revealed. Jesus was on a mountain when he gave the Great Commission and ascended back to heaven. Just something to think about when you see a mountain in the Bible and that it is significant to God.

In Verse 30, notice that a large crowd begins bringing to him those that were physically afflicted in some way or fashion and placing them at the feet of Jesus. Let us look at the types of people that were brought to Jesus. First, there were those who were lame and who were unable to walk without difficulty as a result of an injury or illness. Second there were those who were crippled who were also unable to walk because of an illness; such as modern day muscular dystrophy or cerebral palsy or an injury such as a stroke or a spinal cord injury which would left a person crippled. Third there were those who were blind either by birth or by some type of accident that they may have suffered in their lives. Fourth, there were those who were mute and could not speak or hear due to a birth defect when they were born. (Mark 7:31-37)(Healing of deaf and mute man) In the NKJV of the Bible, it mention a fifth type of person who was afflicted that were the maimed. Those who had suffered a wound or injury to a part of their body and it was permanently damaged. Jesus healed them all.

In Verse 31, we see that Jesus healed them all who brought to him were healed the mute speaking, the crippled restored, the lame walking and the blind seeing and they glorified the God of Isreal.

First point that I would like to share with you is that as Jesus was sitting on the mountain when the afflicted were brought to him by others. First point, those that are afflicted need others to help bring them to Jesus for him to heal them and have faith and hope that Jesus will do what he says he will do. The crowd brought their loved ones and or friends to Jesus. Notice that the blind needed to be lead by someone to Jesus and the lame and crippled had to be carried to Jesus, those who were afflicted could not get to Jesus without the help of their family or friends. The people in the crowd had to have hope and faith that Jesus could heal them. Like the man who was paralytic (paralyzed) and his four friends lowered him down in front of Jesus through the roof showing their faith in Jesus (Mark 2:1-12)

Second point I would like to share is that Jesus is a man of his word. In the gospel of Luke:16-21 Jesus reads the scroll of the Old Testament Isaiah 61:1 “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners;” and Jesus fulfills the Old Testament prophecy also the disciples of John question Jesus if he is the Messiah or should they look for another Matthew 11:2-6 and Jesus tells them because of the miracles he does shows that he is the Christ the Messiah the one who was predicted to come and save the world

Third point, Those who recognize the power of Jesus came to Him, brought those in need, saw those who were healed, marveled at the miracles that Jesus performed, praised and worshipped the God of Isreal. When Jesus shows up, people give glory to God. It is interesting that the crowd was amazed and they praised the God of Isreal showing that the people in the crowd were Gentiles and they accepted who Jesus was while the religious leaders of Isreal rejected Jesus and his miracles because of their strict adherence to the Law and their rules of no working on the Sabbath which included healing people.

In these verses, we see that Jesus is the promised Messiah and he had compassionate and cared about those who were suffering physical, mentally and or spiritually. He was never too busy to listen to people, loved people and just like to hanging out with people and getting to know them.

We can know that once Jesus heals that it is not for a moment but it is permanent and not only did the healings give those who were healed more hope and faith in Jesus but also those who witnessed the miracles ,After Jesus healed the crowds, he went on to feed 4,000 mean not including the women and children with seven loaves of bread and two fish which shows that the crowd of people in verses 29-31 was large and shows the ones that were healed were many. At the end of the gospel of John