Intro: Partnering with Holy Spirit to see God's Kingdom come
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Handout
Jesus the Miracle worker
Jesus the Miracle worker
When you study the gospels, you can see story after story of Jesus doing things that a normal Human should not be capable of doing
Just skimming the book of Matthew we can see Jesus wasn’t an ordinary man
Here's a list:
Healing of the leper (Matthew 8:1-4)
Healing the centurion's servant (Matthew 8:5-13)
Healing Peter's mother-in-law (Matthew 8:14-15)
Calming the storm (Matthew 8:23-27)
Healing the Gadarene demoniacs (Matthew 8:28-34)
Healing a paralytic (Matthew 9:1-8)
Healing the woman with a hemorrhage (Matthew 9:20-22)
Raising Jairus' daughter from the dead (Matthew 9:23-26)
Healing two blind men (Matthew 9:27-31)
Healing a mute demon-possessed man (Matthew 9:32-33)
Feeding the 5,000 (Matthew 14:13-21)
Walking on water (Matthew 14:22-33)
Healing the Canaanite woman's daughter (Matthew 15:21-28)
Healing many people (Matthew 15:29-31)
Feeding the 4,000 (Matthew 15:32-39)
Healing a boy with a demon (Matthew 17:14-21)
Finding a coin in a fish's mouth (Matthew 17:24-27)
Healing a blind man near Jericho (Matthew 20:29-34)
Cursing the fig tree (Matthew 21:18-22)
Healing in the temple (Matthew 21:12-14)
That’s just the book of Matthew.
These are the miracles and healings specifically mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew.
There are additional miracles recorded in the other Gospels as well.
25 And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.
The NT just give us a snippet of Jesus’s amazing deeds.
too many to even mention.
How did Jesus perform these feets?
I know for many beleivers they can accept that Jesus did all these supernatural works because He was God in the Flesh
Yes He was 100% God
But He was also 100% Human
I know the math doesn’t add up, but its OK to beleive we can’t put God in the little box we call our intelligence
6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
The word used in verse 7 translated into english “emptied” is the greek word “Kenosis”
Kenosis comes for the root word “Kenoo” which means to “self-emptying”
There is debate on what this word actually is referring to.
Those who deny the active working of Holy Spirit today may say:
“Christ’s “emptying” of Himself as a laying aside of the privileges that were His in heaven. Rather than stay on His throne in heaven, Jesus “made himself nothing”
Where I would agree is that Jesus Never gave up His divinity,
But I would state it a little differently
Jesus Laid aside the usage of His divinty while on the earth,
But you might question
How did Jesus do all these supernatural acts if He laid aside the usage of His Divity?
That’s a great question, and that leads us where we need to go today
What what Jesus’s 1st recorded Miracle?
1 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there;
2 and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.
3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.”
4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come.”
5 His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”
6 Now there were six stone waterpots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each.
7 Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” So they filled them up to the brim.
8 And He said to them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” So they took it to him.
9 When the headwaiter tasted the water which had become wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom,
10 and said to him, “Every man serves the good wine first, and when the people have drunk freely, then he serves the poorer wine; but you have kept the good wine until now.”
11 This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.
John records this event in the 2 chapter of his Gospel writing
In the 1st chapter of John’s gospel he tells us this about John the baptist.
28 These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
29 The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
30 “This is He on behalf of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’
31 “I did not recognize Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water.”
32 John testified saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him.
33 “I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’
34 “I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.”
The way John the Baptist new Jesus was the son of God was because Jesus fulfilled the word that God spoke to John about who the Messiah would be.
What was that word?
33 “I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’
John knew Jesus was the son of God, because He saw the Holy Spirit decend upon Jesus and remain.
This is an important fact to consider.
In the Old testament the Holy Spirit would come upon people for a temporary time to accomplish a specific work.
Gideon
34 So the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon; and he blew a trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called together to follow him.
Jephthah
29 Now the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, so that he passed through Gilead and Manasseh; then he passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he went on to the sons of Ammon.
Samson
6 The Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily, so that he tore him as one tears a young goat though he had nothing in his hand; but he did not tell his father or mother what he had done.
19 Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of them and took their spoil and gave the changes of clothes to those who told the riddle. And his anger burned, and he went up to his father’s house.
Saul
6 “Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you mightily, and you shall prophesy with them and be changed into another man.
10 When they came to the hill there, behold, a group of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came upon him mightily, so that he prophesied among them.
Zechariah
20 Then the Spirit of God came on Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people and said to them, “Thus God has said, ‘Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord and do not prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, He has also forsaken you.’ ”
But for the revealed Messiah the Holy Spirit would descend and then remain upon Him.
The obvious question I have
Is if Jesus had full use of His divinity while on earth, why did He need to be filled with the Holy Spirit?
I suggest Jesus chose to lay aside the use of His divinity, so He could live a life like one of us, yet still demonstrating to His followers How they could operate in the supernatural by partnering with Holy Spirit.
12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.
How can any of Jesus’s followers do greater works than Jesus did?
The Same Spirit
The Same Spirit
10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Jesus had to leave so Holy Spirit could come
Jesus had to leave so Holy Spirit could come
7 “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.
Who is the Helper Jesus wanted to send.
4 Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me;
5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
6 So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”
7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority;
8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
Their is an amazing teaching strategy that experts today use to teach a variety of things.
Its simple yet profound
Explain to the student what you want them to do or know
Demonstrate to the student How to do it
Have them do it
Give Feed back on what they’ve done
Using this strategy you can teach anyone almost anything.
Its so modern, Jesus demonstrated it 2000 years ago.
Read Luke 10 and Matthew 10, to see this in action.
I know this is a divisive issue in the modern Church.
there are those, who don’t believe in any of Jesus superntural works
You have to through out a lot of the Bible to beleive that
there are those who beleive it was only for the Jesus and His apostles
You have to through out most of the early church fathers writing to beleive that
There are those who believe only certain Christian leaders get the supernatural abilties
You have to misundertand the purpose of the gifts to believe that
In closing Allow me speak my reasoning
We today have the same Spirit, Jesus and His disciples had
The mission is still the same.
The purpose and reason for Jesus sending the Holy Spirit has not changed
18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
If Jesus taught it to His dicsiples, They were to teach everything to the next generation, so on and so on.
That’s why I beleive like the 1st disciples, we need to Partner with Holy Spirit to carry out our assignment here on the earth,
Not one of us is capable on our own to do it.
Even working together do we have enough
Only when we engage and partner with Holy Spirit can we carry out our Mission.
Let me leave you with this
12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.
13 “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.
15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
16 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;
17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
Let’s Pray