Mark 16:15-18 (NASB)
“And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved, but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name, they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
Today in this blog, I want to talk about how signs and wonders can lead people to salvation. Throughout the ministry of Jesus Christ, people witnessed all types of miracles. Scripture testifies of all the miraculous things that Christ performed. However, those signs happened so that people could believe that He was sent by God and believe in His name (John 10:38). God sent Jesus on the earth so that He could glorify the Father. We see this come to life in John 9 with the healing of the blind man.
John 9:1-7 (NASB)
As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents, but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.” When He had said this, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and applied the clay to his eyes, and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went away and washed, and came back seeing.
This passage is interesting to me because Jesus healed a blind man from his birth. Although this miracle happened, some people still doubted Him. Jesus came to give recovery of sight to the blind (Luke 4:18). The disciples tried to figure out why the man had been born this way. They thought it was due to his parents’ sin that had caused this condition. They also thought he was born blind because of sin in his life. Jewish tradition believed that a person could sin in the womb, and therefore they would be born with an illness or deformity because of it. Jesus wanted them to know that neither was to blame for this man’s condition.
The man had been born blind so that God’s works would be displayed in Him and be a testimony for others to believe in the Messiah (vs. 3). What I found interesting about this passage was after he was healed that he began to have faith in Christ as the Messiah. So I want to spend the rest of this blog highlighting those moments.
When asked by the people that knew him, how did his healing come forth? He replied, “A man named Jesus.” This indicates that this man did not know Jesus but heard of him, and I doubt very seriously he believed Jesus was the Messiah at this point (John 9:11). The man was then bought before the Pharisees because the healing happened on the Sabbath and was considered illegal in Jewish laws and customs.
After being interrogated about who and how the healing took place, the man referred to Jesus as a prophet. Prophets were known to perform mighty and miraculous deeds in front of the people (Luke 24:19). Jesus, even today by other religions, believe that He was a prophet. They are wrong on two accounts. Jesus never was, He is and exists for eternity. Secondly, He is more than a prophet. He is the Son of God. The man was growing in his faith because the miracle that took place began to work on his heart being healed (John 9:17).
The Pharisees kept inquiring and went and asked the man’s parents to make sure that he was born blind. They confirmed that he was, but they were afraid of the Jews and did not want any controversy to cause them to lose their status at the synagogue. They deferred the conversation to the son so he could answer the questions they had. The Pharisees called Jesus a sinner and wanted the man to give glory to God only. The man that formerly blind responded that he could not verify if Jesus were a sinner, but he could ascertain that he once was blind, but now he had received his sight. He went on further to testify in front of the Pharisees, and the Jews present that Jesus Christ must have come from God because, without God, no man could have opened his eyes. His faith in Jesus was growing to the point that he began to confess in front of others (John 9:25;33).
Lastly, after being put out of the synagogue, Jesus asked him, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” Christ had allowed the whole scenario just to get this man to come to make an eternal decision that would change this man’s destiny. The man believed and began to worship Him. The miracle of being healed from physical blindness led him to be recovered from spiritual blindness. (John 9:35-41)
The same thing hold’s true today as we go into all the world and make Christ known. God has given us His authority to heal the sick (Mark 16:18). It is not to draw attention to ourselves but to draw unbelievers to decide to know and follow Christ. We are the light of the world (Matt. 5:14). I wonder what would happen if we began to live up to the potential that we have by allowing God to use us? We could see a Great Awakening around this globe. Prodigal sons and daughters would come out of the darkness and come to know the Light of the World.
Dr. Kurt Lee 