John 4:47-48 "When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him, and besought Him that He would come down, and heal his son: for he was at the point of death. (now verse 48. There’s more here than meets the eye. Look what Jesus said) 48. Then said Jesus to him, Except you see signs and wonders, you will not believe." Now that’s what Jesus told them. You see, we think we’ve got some reasoning to do here. We want to remember that at the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry there is as yet no New Testament written. The only thing that they had was the Old Testament, so they didn’t have the advantage that we’ve got. See, we’ve got the advantage of having a whole New Testament now in front of us but they didn’t. Now that may be part of it, as we're trying to cover for them a little bit, because we don’t want to come down too hard on those Hebrew people of Christ’s day, but nevertheless this is what He said. Not only of Christ's day but of our day, there are many who believe that we're to do as Jesus did. What they fail to understand is that we're to walk by faith and not by sight (not by simply trusting in the Faithfulness of God or dependency on our five senses, we're not to focus on the material word as they did, we're to focus on the Better things of promise sworn to by an Oath, we're to trust God just as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and those who were before them did), that was all the Hebrews had to depend upon. That is why Jesus had to do physical manifestations of spiritual realities. They were NOT a spiritually awakened people except for a few exceptions and besides their priesthood was based on the external, and material world or of works of self sufficiency. None of which pleased God nor was it His Will for man.
John 4:48-50a "Then said Jesus to him, Except you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. 49. The nobleman said to him, Sir, come down ere my child die. 50. Jesus said to him, Go your way; your son lives…" And we know the fever left, and the son lived, but the part we wanted to see is in verse 54.
John 4:54a "This is again the second miracle…" Now our own idea is that when the Scripture makes a reference to a particular chronological order, that is telling us, that if this is the second, then what should we look for? The third, the fourth, the fifth, and that’s the admonition.
John 4:54 "This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judea into Galilee." Well if we do follow that through, we’ll see that there are seven of these miracles in John that were all signs. These signs were teaching the Hebrews something. In other words, when He turned the water into wine, it was a miraculous sign that He was the only remedy for their lack of joy. They had a lot of heavy legalism in their religion, but still they were in Spiritually in darkness or dead (separated from God is what that means), and He had come to give them Grace, Truth, Life, and Joy. And so that’s what turning the water into wine showed them. He came to bring us all out of spiritual darkness by renting the veil, not only of the temple, but also His flesh as the way into the presence of God, as the veil was soon to be removed and that not only to the Temple but the one over mans eyes and ears of the heart, which remains even unto today for many, by their own choice. God desired to given man a New heart through which He could have intimacy and fellowship with His creation again established.
Now, when He healed the nobleman’s son, it’s another spiritual lesson for the Hebrews, because spiritually they were sick, and He alone could bring them Spiritual health (1Peter 2:24). And all the way through John’s gospel we have those seven signs and miracles. Then when we get to the last chapter we think it is, come on over to chapter 21 we now come to the 8th miracle or sign. This is so interesting, and here is where we tell people, "How can they scoff at this Book, when it is so intricately put together? Now here is just another good example. Seven of these signs and miracles that had a direct application to the physical, external and the material or natural life of the Hebrews were all registered before He was crucified and resurrected.
This one in chapter 21 then becomes the 8th one and it was after his resurrection. Now when we have an understanding of numbers in Scripture, 7 is the number of completions, and 8 is the number for new beginnings. So this final sign miracle in John’s gospel was a reference to the Nation of Israel’s remnant who will all be saved, the 1/3 of the populace at that time, when Christ returns. So we’ll begin at verse 10.
John 21:10-11 "Jesus said to them, bring of fish which you have now caught, 11. Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, and hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many yet was not the net broken." Now in every other case in His earthly ministry, when they had a net full of fish, what happened? The net broke. But this time it doesn’t. Well what’s the miracle part? It was an indication that the remnant of the Hebrews that God keeps during the last 3 ½ years of the Tribulation, that when Christ returns at His second coming, not a single one will be lost, they will all be kept for God’s purposes an allotted number from each tribe. Such as the one hundred forty-four thousand who will be witness and evangelists for Jesus Christ, twelve thousand from each of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Now to come in once again to our miracles, signs and wonders, come with us to Acts chapter 2, and this is just to show how the Book of Hebrews says, that we cannot neglect so great a salvation, that begin with the Lord’s ministry, was witnessed by the Twelve, and others, and the Apostle Paul, who of course we still feel is the writer of Hebrews, and then it was all confirmed by the miracles and signs and wonders that Jesus performed. But not only Jesus, it carries on now after He’s ascension back to Glory by the disciples now become His Apostles, and we’re going to see, to a smaller extent to the Apostle Paul himself.
Now for Acts chapter 2 verse 22. This is the other verse where all three of these are mentioned in one place. Here Peter is preaching that sermon at Pentecost, and look what he says:
Acts 2:22a "You men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth…." Remember this is what we’re stressing in the Epistle of Hebrews, Jesus of Nazareth, was Who? The Son! And we’re going to be seeing throughout the Epistle of Hebrews how the Son was higher than the host of angels, how that the Son has a greater priesthood than Aaron, so here again this is where we want to see the correlation, that now Peter is proclaiming that:
Acts 2:22b "…Jesus of Nazareth a man approved of God among you (how?) by miracles and wonders and signs,…" Just like we have covered, but in the reverse order. Peter said, He did the dunamis, the miracles, showing the power of God. He did wonders that were to have an impact and an effect upon the people, and He also performed the signs which also had a particular subject to teach the Nation of Israel. So reading the verse again.
Acts 2:22b "…Jesus of Nazareth a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know:" Here again we have a word that is skipped over by allot of people and this word is “approved” of God. Jesus in our humanity did nothing that was NOT approved of God first, He was lead by the Holy Spirit the same as we are all now to be as He is our example and Leader, Chief and forerunner. So all the way through now then, we’re going to see that even the Twelve are going to continue on this using the signs and miracles to convince the Hebrew people now, not that Jesus of Nazareth is walking up and down the dusty of roads of the land of Israel as the Messiah, but now the subject is, "The crucified One, not the ascended one." The One that was crucified, and was buried, had been risen from the dead and had ascended back to the Father, NO. But rather since He was risen from the dead, He could still fulfill all those Old Testament covenant promises, because He now lives a Glorified Eternal Life. So look what happens. Peter is just sort of picking up the mantle more or less like Elisha did from Elijah. And Peter continues on with the same ministry.
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