Sun Inspiration

Morning Inspiration with Pastor Merritt

The first purpose of miracles is authentication. Jesus performed miracles to authenticate what He said and who He was. One of the favorite terms used for miracles in the Gospels is the word “sign.” A sign is something that points to or indicates something else. The miracles of Jesus were signs to point to the fact that He was God and that what He said was true.

Here is a great example. There is a story in the Gospels about four men who let a paralytic down through a roof of a house so that Jesus would heal him. When they brought the man to Jesus, the first thing Jesus said to him was, “Your sins are forgiven you.” The Pharisees got upset, because they said, “Only God can forgive sins. What gives you the authority to forgive sins?”

Jesus realized they were really saying, “Put up or shut-up” so Jesus said to them, “Which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you’ or ‘Take up your bed and walk?’” Obviously it is easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven you”, because no one can prove whether that happened or not. Jesus performs a miracle. He says, “Take up your bed and walk.” For the first time in his life, a paralyzed man walked home. That miracle was not primarily to heal a man’s legs, but it was primarily to touch people’s hearts with the truth that Jesus was God and what He said was true.