The New Testament records 37 miracles that Jesus performed during His earthly ministry.
These include sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, life to the dead, health to the sick – and many other tremendous miracles supernaturally performed by Christ.
Which one was the greatest? If you analyze them they were wonderful but ALL were only temporary.
o The paralyzed, lame, mute, and blind that Jesus gave back eyes, fingers, toes, and skin eventually lost them all again when they got sick and died some years later.
o Peter’s mother-in-law was miraculously set free from a fever but years later died of other causes which may also involve a fever.
o The food miraculously created by Jesus was consumed by the five and four thousand, and used up – and hunger returned the next day.
o The eyes restored to blind Bartimaeus were used, worn out, and dimmed by the time he died.
o The hearing that the deaf received was subject to the natural downward slide of the human body and faded most likely by their death.
o Those dancing feet after Christ’s touch that the lame possessed, soon turned to a shuffle and then stopped working altogether as they lay in bed awaiting death many years later.
o Lepers who found fresh new skin and limbs saw them again return to wrinkles, weakness, and finally, immobility as circulation, respiration, and digestion all slowly was assaulted by the weight of many years.
o So yes, Jesus performed many miracles – but all of them but one were TEMPORARY.
So, which was the greatest of all Christ’s miracles?
The answer is the one that never faded, never aged, never ended. It was the miracle unfaded by time, untouched by health, unaffected by circumstances. That miracle, the greatest miracle, is the one that Jesus Christ is still doing in our midst today. It is a miracle that I have personally experienced. It is the miracle that most of us in this room have also experienced. It is the greatest of all Christ’s miracles – the miracle of complete forgiveness.
This morning we turn again to the greatest verse in the entire Bible for anyone who has ever sinned – and that is all of us.
As we open to Mark 3.20-30 we come to the place where Jesus pronounced the greatest doom of all. In verse 29 Jesus said: never has forgiveness. But this morning, side by side with the most gloomy, hopeless verse in the Bible – is the most hope filled, comforting verse in the Bible. Five words that should ring in your heart if you have ever feared the grave, if you have ever feared the judgment, if you ever fear not making it to Heaven. In verse 28 Jesus said: all sins will be forgiven. Those are the brightest words of the Bible —
Side by side in two verses in the Gospel by Mark are the three darkest words of the Bible, and the five brightest words. And there is a message for each of us from those two verses. Mark 3.28-30.
• JESUS DECLARES ALL SINS ARE FORGIVEABLE. 3:28 “Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter.” NRSV
FORGIVENESS IS ABSOLUTE: The drunkenness of Noah, the lies of Abraham, the deceit of Jacob, the murder by Moses, the doubting of Gideon, the adultery of David, and the denials of Peter – they ALL are forgivable, and so is ANYTHING THAT YOU HAVE EVER DONE OR WILL DO! “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18).
“The doctrine here laid down is the crown and glory of the Gospel. The first thing it proposes to man is free pardon, full forgiveness, and complete remission, without money or price. Let us take hold of this doctrine without delay, if we never received it before. It is for us, as well as for others. We too, this very day, if we come to Christ, may be completely forgiven. Let us cling firmly to this doctrine, if we have received it already. We may sometimes feel faint, and unworthy, and cast down. But if we have really come to Jesus by faith, our sins are completely forgiven. They have been thrown behind God’s back— sunk into the depths of the sea. Let us believe and not be afraid.”
• JESUS DECLARED THAT DAMNATION IS ETERNAL. 3.29 A Soul Can Be Lost Forever in Hell. He speaks of someone who is “guilty of an eternal sin” (verse 29). Never be ashamed of what Jesus said. Jesus declares much to the moderate and liberal dismay — that there is an eternal God—an eternal heaven—and an eternal hell. Sin is an infinite evil. Sin needed an atonement of infinite value to deliver an infinite soul from its infinite damnation. Sin produces an infinite loss on the unbeliever who rejects the remedy provided for it. And that remedy is Christ’s blood poured out upon the altar of God’s wrath against sin on Christ’s Cross.
(WWJ-44; 040222AM)
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