Sermon Tone Analysis

What miracles are performed in Luke chapter 7?

-Healing of the centurion’s servant- 7:10.

The leaders of the Jews said this man was worthy of this.

He loved the nation and built the synagogue.

7:15- the raising of the widow’s son.

7:21- Jesus healed sicknesses, diseases, evil spirits and gave sight to the blind.

7:22-Jesus list of what he did: the blind see, the lame walk, leporsy is cleansed the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.

7:48-your sins are forgiven

Outline

Miracles Overview

Why are there so many miracles in the Bible?

Why are there so many miracles in the ministry of Jesus?

, a testcase.

I.

God has power to work miracles.

A miracle has been defined to be a suspension of the laws of nature.

A universal suspension is manifestly not intended in this definition; but such a suspension only as relates to the particular event.

According to the course of nature, a dead man remains dead, and his body gradually becomes decomposed.

The laws of nature which determine these sequences become suspended or inoperative if the dead man is restored to life; and the restoration is therefore a miraculous event.

A miracle exists whenever the laws of nature become inoperative, that is, whenever a sequence occurs which they do not determine.

this is an important point, because things that may appear miracolous if one is not acquainted with all the laws of nature.

For instance, if one did not understand magnets, it may appear miracolous to someone if a piece of metal were attracted to the magnet.

I. Jesus Christ wrought miracles for the express purpose of establishing his divine mission and authority.

When about to heal a paralytic, he explained the design with which he performed the miracle: “That ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy) I say unto thee, arise, take up thy bed, and go thy way unto thine house.”

He frequently referred to his miracles for proof that he came from God, and operated by the power of God.

II.

Miraculous powers were conferred by Christ on his apostles, for the purpose of confirming their testimony, and establishing the divine authority of their ministry.

III.

The apostles appealed to their miracles for proof of their mission and apostolic authority.

They themselves wrought miracles, and, by the laying on of their hands, conferred miraculous powers on others.

Paul claimed that these signs of an apostle had been exhibited by him, and from them he argued the divine authority of the gospel which he preached.

IV.

Miracles were a suitable attestation of the new religion.

It had been predicted that the Messiah would perform miracles, and that they would accompany the revelation of gospel times.

This fact rendered them particularly suitable; but besides this, there is a general suitableness in the proof which they furnish, that the power of God is manifested in the works.

Miracles are a suspension of the laws of nature, and therefore require a power superior to these laws, a power which no one but the author of nature possesses.

The manner in which miracles were wrought showed clearly that the supernatural power was not exerted accidentally, but such words preceded them as fully indicated the design of the operator, and his design could have effected nothing, if God had not co-operated with him.

It is in this way precisely that the Scriptures explain the attestation which miracles gave to the ministry of the apostles.

“The Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.”2

“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 witness both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost?”

A miracle affixed a divine attestation to whatever it was intended to confirm.

In the case of the paralytic before referred to, Christ did not work the miracle to prove that the sick man’s sins were forgiven, but to prove that the Son of man had power on earth to forgive sins.

It is worth noting that after the enlightenment, especially with the rise of modern liberalism and Friderich Schliermacher, many tried to hold onto Christianity while at the same time dismissing the miracolous in Scripture.

“Divine watchmaker”

Philosophy is guilty of something worse than arrogance if it affirms that miracles are impossible.

To affirm that nature’s laws cannot be suspended is to deny the existence of nature’s God.

We the less readily believe in miracles because we have never witnessed them ourselves; but it does not accord with philosophy or common sense to disbelieve everything that lies beyond the range of our own personal experience.

The antiquity of the gospel miracles is no valid objection to their credibility.

The facts were committed to record soon after they occurred, and while the proofs of them were fresh and accessible to all.

This permanent record annihilates the interval of time, and carries is back to the first age, to study the facts and judge of he agency which produced them.

If the facts make less impression on our minds, at this remote period, the disadvantage in this respect is more than compensated by the increased means which we possess to form a just judgment concerning them.

The history contained in the four Gospels affirms that Christ wrought numerous works which were deemed miraculous, and particularly notices the following: 1. Water turned into wine at Cana. 2. A nobleman’s son healed at Capernaum.2 3. Miraculous draught of fishes.

4. A demoniac healed in the synagogue.4 5. Peter’s wife’s mother healed.

6.

A leper healed.6 7. A paralytic healed.

8.

An infirm man healed at the pool of Bethesda.8

9. A withered hand healed.

10.

A centurion’s servant healed.10

11.

A widow’s son raised.

12.

A demoniac healed.12

13.

Tempest stilled.

14.

Two demoniacs of Gadara dispossessed.14

15.

A diseased woman healed.

16.

Jairus’ daughter raised.16

17.

Two blind men healed.

18.

A dumb spirit cast out.

19.

Five thousand fed.2 20.

Jesus walked on the water.

21.

A Syro-Phœnician woman’s daughter healed.4

22.

A deaf and dumb man healed.

23.

Four thousand fed.6 24.

A blind man healed.

25.

A demoniac healed.8

26.

Tribute-money miraculously provided.

27.

Ten lepers cleansed.10

28.

A man born blind healed.

29.

Lazarus raised.12

30.

An infirm woman healed.

31.

Two blind men healed.14

32.

Fig-tree cursed.

33.

Miraculous draught of fishes.16

Besides these miracles which the evangelists have particularly noticed, they inform us that Christ wrought many others.

Thus, on the same evening on which he healed Peter’s wife’s mother, it is said, “At even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils.

And all the city was gathered together at the door.

And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him.”

On

-Refer to the list of miracles in

It is rather impossible to separate the life and ministry of Jesus, as well as a general reading of our Bible, from the attestation that miracles are taking place.

The account of works deemed miraculous forms so large a part of the history, and is so interwoven with the rest, that the credibility of the whole must stand or fall together.

Many of the discourses recorded grow out of the miracles, and many of the actions of both friends and foes are occasioned by them.

Above all, if the miracle of the resurrection is not true, the preaching and faith of Christians, as Paul has decided, are vain, and the apostles were false witnesses.

But if this one miracle be admitted, the admission involves the credibility of the other miracles

=There are aa few things I want to focus on in Luke 7l Miracles in the Bible, the recipients of the miracles and the types of miracles

I Miracles in the Bible

I grew up in a Christian family.

I heard about Jesus from my earliest days and believed in him when I was a young boy.

In my first years of college, however, I began to have some doubts about Jesus and the Bible.

Was Jesus really who I thought he was?

Was he the Lord of glory or just a good man?

Our own doubts can force us to dig for answers.

I didn’t want the pat answers I had accepted up until then.