“JESUS
CHRIST - A MAN APPROVED OF GOD (Acts 2:22)”
Miracle #11-
Luke
7:11-14,15-17
CHRIST
(GOD) VISITS HIS PEOPLE … WITH POWER
OVER DEATH
Israel
has a history of people being raised from the
dead, with a few examples as follows …
1.
Elijah raises
the son of the
widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:17–24).
3.
A dead Elisha raises
a man by default (2 Kings 13:20-21), when grave diggers throw a man’s
body into
Elisha’s sepulchre, such that “when the body touched Elisha’s
bones, the man
came to life and stood up on his feet”. (2Kings 13:21)
Now
the first recording of a dead person’s
resurrection in the New Testament person, comes with Christ raising the
only
son of the widow at Nain … and it came a complete surprise to
the
funeral attendees, that Christ had such power over death (Luke 7:16).
The
account is as follows:
“And
it came to pass the day after, that he (Christ)
went into a city called Nain; and many of his disciples went
with
him, and much people. Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city,
behold,
there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother,
and she
was a widow: and much people of the city was with her. And when
the Lord
saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not. And he
came and
touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And he
said, Young
man, I say unto thee, Arise. And he that was dead sat up, and
began to
speak. And he delivered him to his mother. And there came a fear on
all:
and they glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen
up among
us; and, That God hath visited his people. And this rumour of
him went
forth throughout all Judaea, and throughout all the region round
about.” (Luke
7:11-14,15-17)
JEHOVAH
NOT KNOWN
From
the beginning, God, in talking about Israel, says “…
by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.” (Exodus 6:3),
and so
God begins to reveal himself to Israel through various acts and
victories, in
order they might know his character.
For
some examples … as Jehovah Jireh, it is the
God who provides the lamb instead of his son Isaac (Genesis
22:14); as
Jehovah Nissi, it is the God of the banner when Moses
experiences
physical and spiritual victory in raising God’s standard over his
enemies
(Exodus 17:15); as Jehovah Shalom it is the God that gives peace
to
Gideon (Judges 6:24) … and many more.
CHRIST
ALSO NOT KNOWN
The
devils knew who Christ was (Mark 1:34) but Israel
didn’t (John 1:10;
1 Corinthians 2:8).
Mirroring
Jehovah in the Old Testament, Jesus Christ
repeats this on-going ‘revealing’ process as well, and as Jehovah
manifest
in the flesh, Christ reveals his character with power over creation
(miracle
#1); power over fever (miracle #2); power over devils (miracle
#3) and so on … until we come to the ‘big one’ … miracle #11
where
Christ has power over death in raising the widow’s son.
ISRAEL
…
ALWAYS A FLESHY
PEOPLE NEEDING PROOF
We
must remember, unlike today, people believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ without needing physical miracles. Israel
has never
been like that. In the Old Testament, Israel needed physical
acts of
deliverance of sight and sound … but as Christ says, prophecy must
be
fulfilled as follows …
“And
in them is fulfilled the prophecy of
Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not
understand;
and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:” (Matthew
13:14)
Israel
hears and sees the acts of God, but does not grasp
the intended spiritual messages.
Similarly,
when Christ was on earth, Israel again needs
physical acts in the form of miracles, but again they have Christ
‘tearing out
his hair’ (Matthew 13:13) by being blind and deaf.
Israel,
being Christ’s people (Matthew 1:21), mirror
Christ … the was, is and is to come (Revelation
4:8) … but
in the wrong way … by being the were, are and always
will be nation.
Israel
were, are and always will be a
fleshy people, that cannot even be convinced through the five
senses …
either for good or bad. A hundred stripes or a hundred miracles? …
neither has
any effect on Israel (Isaiah 1:2; Proverbs 17:10). Only God can, and
will,
miraculously rescue them (Zechariah 12:10) … such is their lost state
as a
completely helpless and disease-ridden sheep nation … filthy, wet and
wandering
in desolation (Ezekiel 16:2-5,6; Ezekiel 19:13).
IN
SUMMARY …
1.
As
most funerals are sad and heart wrenching affairs for the
surviving friends and relatives, they need not be … as Christ provides
proof at
Nain … such that people will fear and glorify God (Luke
7:16).
2.
Christ
performing the widow’s son miracle is demonstrating
through the physical, that alive or dead, Christ is life (John
1:4; John
3:36; John 4:14)
3.
Christ
provides indisputable proof that he is God in that “ … God
hath visited his people”
(Luke 7:16; 1 Timothy 3:16).
4.
For
we Christians, we are already in heaven, being
in Christ (Hebrews 10:12) … passing through physical death, as
being a
veil of no obstacle.
Alive
on the earth? … dead on the earth? …
it does not matter … it’s all the same for Christians (Philippians
1:20)
Dead
in Christ means life in Christ
(1 Thessalonians 4:16; Colossians 3:3).
Harley
Hitchcock
April
2023
www.
AustralianBibleMinistries
.com
In this case, Christ’s miracle of healing the dumb and blind man with a devil, causes the scribes and the Pharisees to accuse Jesus Christ of blasphemy. Little did they know that the blind and dumb man before them represented themselves …
