Monthly Archives: January 2012

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

The Miracles of Jesus (continued; part x)

A careful reading of the Book of Acts sheds much light on the wisdom and the courage of the Apostle Paul. From the moment of his conversion through his encounter with the Christ, Paul is a changed man and one who is likely risking his life on both sides of the  divide. The Jews seek to kill him because he has converted and speaks very harshly of them when they choose to confront him although he makes every effort to convert everyone of them and many of the Christians do not trust him as he had prior spent so much energy on finding and persecuting them. As we said yesterday, Paul’s conversion is rather instant; from the moment that Jesus appears to him in his vision on the road to Damascus, he takes up the new mantle and is Christ’s. There is no thought given to the matter insofar as we can know but, for the sake of the Great Plan of God there is another incident that serves to ensure that Paul is convinced. Luke tells us, and Paul later confirms that he is made blind by the brightness of the Light in which Jesus appears to him. Luke relates the story thus:

“And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus” (Acts 9:3-8).

The blindness here is but a part of the story and it is likely that Paul attributes the blindness to the brightness of the Light. The intervention of God works out in this scene as both Paul and another man, Ananius, come together. Ananius sees a vision of the Lord telling him to go to Paul and telling him that Paul has seen a vision of Ananius coming to him to heal his blindness. And so it works out that after three days Paul’s vision is restored by Ananius who, putting his hands on Paul to heal him, tells him also of what has happened. Nothing left to chance and every effort made to ensure the working out of the Great Plan of God. Paul is thoroughly convinced and goes forth as an Apostle of Christ and spends the rest of his life preaching the Kingdom of God and teaching the people. The reports in the Book of Acts of Paul’s healing are few and, like with Peter, there is one incident where Paul brings someone who is deceased back to the living. Let’s look as a few.

• Of individual healing we have this: “And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother’s womb, who never had walked:The same heard Paul speak: who stedfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet.  And he leaped and walked. And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men” (Acts 14:8-11). We should note here the similarity as regards the reported healing of Peter; like the healing of the man blind from birth by the Master, Paul and Peter both heal men who had never walked. There are few acts of healing itemized other than those by the Master and some others in generalities and it is interesting that these instances with Peter and Paul both involve persons who were born with their malady which one should acknowledge is seen as of greater effect.
• Of healing en masse we have two; this first is an interesting measure that did not even require the presence of Paul to accomplish. “And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them” (Acts 19:11-12). We are told that the handkerchiefs, or napkins as the word is alternatively translated, are just that; cloths that were carried to wipe perspiration. Of apron it is alluded that this is what it was, much like the aprons that one uses today. It is assumed that these are Paul’s handkerchiefs and the aprons of his trade but it is just as likely that, since we have no other information, these were brought into Paul’s presence on behalf of one needing healing and then returned to that person who was then healed. We can assume that this was a rather steady practice and that this is the way that Paul desired to heal but we cannot know for sure from the information that we have.
• The second incidence of en masse healing occurs near the end of Paul’s journey, on the island of Melita where he was shipwrecked. The explanation is brief and one can only assume what took place; we will assume that Paul healed them all and not by his personal intervention with each. “And it came to pass , that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and of a bloody flux: to whom Paul entered in , and prayed, and laid his hands on him, and healed him. So when this was done, others also, which had diseases in the island, came, and were healed” (Acts 28:8-9).
• Last we have Paul’s raising of the dead and this is a case where one could joke that Paul was responsible for this young man’s demise due to his long, long sermon. “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight. And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together. And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching , he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead. And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him. When he therefore was come up again , and had broken bread, and eaten , and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed. And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted” (Acts 20:7-12).

We have then individual healings and what we consider to be en masse healings and we have Paul raising young Eutychus from the dead. The same trilogy of healing that we saw in our discussion of Peter and which is very much a part of the ministry of the Christ. We should see here again the reality of the Master’s teaching which is the second of our four points at the beginning of this talk on the Miracles of Jesus and which we repeat here again as it is likely that the more we see and read these, the more that they can mean to us.

1. “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith” (Mark 11:23).
2. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do ; because I go unto my Father” (John 14:12).
3. “All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him” (Matthew 11:27).
4. “…for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove ; and nothing shall be impossible unto you” (Matthew 17:20).

Our own points here remain the same; first that we can do as the Master did so long as we believe on Him which is the first step in one’s quest to be His disciple. To believe on Him must be seen in the proper light and not just as an understanding that we are saved by Faith in Jesus; we have a participatory role in our own salvation which is seen in the right understanding of His words. To believe on is, according to Vincent, to believe on the Master is to accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life⁴. We add to this our own simple understanding which tells us that to believe on Him is to follow Him and to keep His words; all this should give us the right idea of the Master’s intent. The second idea here that we must understand is that the following Him and the keeping His word is but the start; we can say that it is that point that we come to when we assess to ourselves the role of aspiring disciple. It is here that the apostles and likely the original disciples start; at their moment of revelation they are brought this point of following and keeping and we know this because this is what they do. We must also remember our fundamental understanding that nothing in the Great Drama and Plan of God happened by accident but that all the parts were carefully choreographed to ensure the success of the Mission of the Master; all played out their parts and played them well including the infamous Apostle Judas who betrayed Jesus.

Before we move on to the other miracles of Jesus we should look at the healing power of some of the other apostles and disciples of the Master in the gospels and in the book of Acts. A few posts back we discussed the Master’s sending out of the disciples, the twelve and then the seventy (or the seventy two). These all went out under the Master’s instructions which are, as Luke tells us: “and he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick” (Luke 9:2). As we read from Matthew, the Master sent them saying: “And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:7). There is not much by way of actual report on what it was that the apostles and disciples did but there are some reports that in their generality tell us of the success of their mission:

• Of the twelve that the Master sent we read: “And they went out, and preached that men should repent. And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them” (Mark 6:12-13). We can see here the report of success in their mission in general terms. Mark here relates that the healing that was done was done through the anointing with oil which, except it be a secret teaching, is not mentioned as the way to heal up to this point. The Master, as we know, needed no tools; neither did Peter and, from our understanding, neither Paul. John Gill, in his Exposition of the Bible⁸ suggests that: this they were doubtless directed to by Christ, as an outward sign of healing; but not as a medicine; otherwise there would have been no miracle in the cure⁸. While there is no evidence that this is the case, the wording is there and perhaps we will uncover the Truth elsewhere.
• Of the return of the twelve we read: “And the apostles, when they were returned, told him all that they had done. And he took them, and went aside privately into a desert place belonging to the city called Bethsaida” (Luke 9:10). In this we are just left to assume that all was successful.
• Of the return of the seventy (or seventy two) we read: “And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name” (Luke 10:17). Again a general statement of success is found in their joy.

We read much here in relation to demons mistranslated as in the verse above as devils and we should remember here that these are rather undefined in our scripture. For us we should see them both as the powers of the carnal world that motivate carnal man emotionally and mentally as complexes and psychosis; afflictions that today we heal through psychology and psychiatry and which in previous times was little understood but was, for the healer, curable as an affliction. This is discussed more fully in In the Words of Jesus part 153. The twelve and the seventy return with their degree of success as regards what they were sent forth to do; They believe on the Master, they follow Him and they keep His words and to this we must add that, by degree, they also follow in this other of the Master’s points in that they: “shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass“. The twelve and the seventy believe that they can heal and that they can cure and that they can cast out and so they do, predictably and without undo effort.

This is the ever the great dividing line between the Christ and His disciples and those today who claim to be  disciples of the Master. These men, the twelve and the seventy healed through their KNOWING that they could do so; for them the healing and the cures are predictable, there is no question and it is done in an instant, a miracle. There are others who have this same ability to heal and cure in scripture and whom we will briefly note. In the early church, in order to free up the twelve to do what they thought they should, another seven are appointed to their ranks to take care of the daily business: “Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word. And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch: Whom they set before the apostles: and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them” (Acts 6:2-6).

From this group we read again of Stephen and of Phillip:

• Of Stephen we read that before he was martyred that “.…Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people” (Acts 6:8).
• And of Phillip we read: “Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed” (Acts 8:5-7).

This then is the healing of the Apostles and of the disciples of the Master as recorded in the gospels and the Book of Acts. From this we should realize our points and here repeat again that the twelve and the seventy and Philip and Stephen believe on the Master, they follow Him and they keep His words and to this we must add that, by degree, they also follow the other of the Master’s criteria saying that if one: “shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass“. All those that we have discussed KNOW that they can heal and that they can cure and that they can cast out and so they do, predictably and without undo effort.

We will look at some of the other types of miracles in the next post.

Note on the Quote of the Day