If God became a man, we would expect Him to have a unique and miraculous entrance into this world. Jesus did. If God became man, we would expect Him to be sinless and live a godly life. Jesus did.
God became a man, we would expect Him to have power over death. Jesus had that. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.
I'm your host, Phil Johnson. You may dig into the Bible every day, using commentaries and other books to help deepen your knowledge. Even so, there is always more to see as you look into God's Word. For example, the passage is about Jesus' miracles. Today, John MacArthur focuses on several of those miracles, showing you some lessons to take away from them that you may never have considered. John is continuing his series called, Is the Bible Good?
Is the Bible Reliable? Follow along in your Bible if you're able as John begins today's lesson. First of all, point one, His miraculous birth, His miraculous birth.
Turn in your Bible to Matthew and we'll get to Christmas a little early. Matthew 1. Now this is the testimony of a man named Matthew, a credible man, a responsible man, a historian who records this testimony.
Matthew 1. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was in this way. When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, that is they had never had a sexual relationship at all, she was found with child.
Notice, of the Holy Spirit. She was pregnant, not by Joseph, by the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privately. He had two choices. He could bring her out in the middle of the street and they could stone her to death. Or he could put her away quietly.
He just assumed that the terrible tragedy had happened. She'd had sexual relationships with another man. Even though they were pledged, espoused doesn't mean they were married, they were just pledged to be married. And his heart must have been broken beyond belief because I'm sure Mary was the kind of woman where he would absolutely be totally shocked that this would ever be a possibility.
And so he decided rather than stone her, he'd put her away privately. But while he thought on these things, an angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife. For that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she shall bring forth a son and thou shall call his name Jesus, which means savior, for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, Isaiah 7.14. Behold, the virgin shall be with child shall bring forth a son, they shall call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted as God with us. Who was Jesus then? God with us.
You can't argue that. Well, what a marvelous promise. In history did a woman have a seed and that woman was Mary and the Spirit of God created a seed in her.
What a marvelous prophecy. Unlike all other men, listen, he did not begin his life at the time he was born. John 6.38, Jesus said, The Word was God and the same was in the beginning with God. That verse 2 says that Jesus Christ existed before He was born. He was in the beginning with God. In fact, all things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made. He was the Creator. Verse 14 says, The Word was made flesh.
It already existed, became flesh. And, of course, verse 15, John bore witness of Him and cried, This was He of whom I spoke, He that cometh after me is present. He referred before me because He was before me. Did you know that John was born first? Elizabeth had John before Mary had Jesus, but John says, He was before me. He existed before he was born. Well, that's a theme of the gospel of John repeatedly. If you were to look, for example, at chapter 8, verse 56, you would hear some interesting words. Jesus says, Your father, Abraham, rejoiced to see My day. He saw it and was glad.
And they said to him, Listen, you're not even 50 years old. You haven't seen Abraham. Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
Yes, he was before he was born. John 16, 28, I came forth from the Father and am come into the world again. I leave the world and go to the Father. I came from God, I'm going back to God, He says. In chapter 17, He says, Father, I finish the work you gave Me to do, now glorify Me in heaven with the glory that I had with you before the world began.
And so it goes. Hebrews chapter 10 says that God prepared a body for Christ who already existed. What a miraculous birth, friends. It was special creation. God didn't need a man to impregnate Mary. God just created an embryo, instant fiat creation.
It was dirt. But He did that and it was biologically impossible to create Eve out of the sight of Adam and He did that. But biological impossibilities mean nothing to God.
He is not natural, He is supernatural. You know something amazing about the virgin birth? All the historical evidence agrees that the early church believed it completely. People said, Ah, they just made that up. That can't be true because the Jews never believed their Messiah would be born this way, so why would they invent something they never entered? Why would they have anticipated? Why would they invent a deal that they never even believed in? People say, Oh, the Jewish Christians just invented that virgin birth. Why would they invent a virgin birth when they never even anticipated one? They were shocked.
No. We know this, too, that it didn't come later on. The early church from the very beginning believed in this. Why did they believe it? Because they made it up?
No, because it was true. Aristides said, and I quote, with the belief that at that period the virginity of Mary was a part of the formulated Christian belief. They believed it. And when people argue against the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, that's a product of prejudice and a product of hatred usually toward Christ, a denial of His deity. It's not a product of historical fact because the fact says the people believed it from the very beginning.
And when you've got that many people attesting to the validity of it, you've got enough evidence to support its truth. In that genealogical table, Jesus is listed as the bastard son of a wedded wife. Other records early from the rabbis call Jesus the son of an adulteress, and even the earliest rabbis tell us that His father was Pantera, a Roman legionnaire. Even the Jewish skeptic, Hugh Schoenfeld, says there would be no object in making such a claim for Jesus as an illegitimate child unless the Christian original made some claim that the birth of Jesus was not normal.
Even the skeptics know that they wouldn't have said that about Jesus except they were angry over something else that was being claimed about Him. So from the very beginning, the church believed He was born of a virgin. He was born by a direct creative act of God and that's how God bypassed the sin problem, isn't it? Because whatever is born of the flesh is what?
Flesh. God just bypassed it. Strong testimony. Oh, the greatest proof of His virgin birth is not the historical evidence. That's good, but you know what the greatest proof of His virgin birth is?
His life. Anybody who lived like He lived had to be born like He was born. That takes us to point two, His sinless life. The miraculous Jesus, born miraculously, living miraculously.
What a life He lived, unbelievable. Hebrews 4.15, listen. In Hebrews chapter 7 and verse 26, we have an High Priest, holy, harmless, undefiled, separated from sinners, higher than the heavens. He never sinned. I personally do not believe that He could sin. I don't believe that God can sin. Therefore Christ could not.
You say that makes the temptation illegitimate. No, it just means that temptation always ran to the farthest possible extremity because He never gave in. And so He knew temptation to the limits without ever giving in. You know, even Judas with such a sick and twisted mind recognized this in Matthew 27, 3 and 4. He said, I have sinned in that I have betrayed...what?...innocent blood. Unbeliever and He made that judgment. Do you know He wasn't the only unbeliever that made that judgment? Pilate said five times, I find no fault in Him. The thief on the cross said, we indeed suffer justly but this man has done nothing. Jesus lived a sinless life. People, that's historical fact.
The evidence is in on it. There is nothing in history to corroborate that Jesus ever sinned. Oh, what a marvel He was. Shaf said, the historian, in vain do we look through the entire biography of Jesus for a single stain or the slightest shadow on His moral character.
End quote. In vain, there aren't any. The Romans centurion saw Him faultless. John the Baptist could find no sin in Jesus to be confessed. The sinless life of Christ was just the natural result of a supernatural birth. It was a teaching.
Beloved, you can't take the New Testament and read it and not conclude that you are a teacher...what?...from God. It was obvious, the testimony of skeptic, they were supernatural. Fourthly, His supernatural works.
Back to Nicodemus in John 3, what happened? It says to us that God is with you because of what you're doing. Listen, the supernatural works of Christ are absolutely staggering. I mean, there are eyewitnesses, hundreds and thousands of them.
And the records of history are there. Miracles of all kinds. I think it's interesting that the people who do the miracles of healing today exclusively do that.
Not so Jesus and not so the apostles. They weren't selective. And have you ever noticed that all the miracles of Jesus were never partial, no partial healings, no partial miracles, never temporary and never trivial. Christ's miracles were never selective. They weren't just certain kinds. They never were partial.
They never were temporary and they never were trivial. And there were witnesses plenty. He never did, incidentally, do miracles. He didn't do miracles to satisfy curiosity.
You know, people wanted Him to do that. They would always say, Oh, do a trick for us, Jesus, do a trick for us. In Matthew 12, 38, certain of the scribes said, Master, we would see a sign, do a trick, do a trick. He said, An evil and a duller generation seeks a sign, there shall be no sign given it but the sign of Prophet Jonah. And then He tells them about His resurrection.
The only sign you're going to get is the resurrection. He didn't do miracles to satisfy curiosity. He didn't do miracles to satisfy carnality either. His miracles revealed His power. Just listen to this. There are several areas where His miracles can be catalogued.
Just give you three. Number one, He ordered nature and nature obeyed. Have you ever noticed that? I mean, He turned the water into wine and there were plenty of witnesses who corroborated. It's recorded right there as living testimony. He stood on the side of a hill at the Sea of Galilee and there were probably 20,000 people gathered, 5,000 men plus women and children, totals nearly 20,000 at least. And then He said there was one little boy there who had the loaves and the fish and He fed them all 20,000 witnesses of the miracle power of Jesus Christ, the testimonies and the pages of Scripture. How can you deny it?
And it isn't the lesson in sharing, despite what some say. He stilled the storm. He looked at the waves and He said, It's time for you to cease.
And they ceased. He did supernatural fishing on several occasions. He multiplied food. He walked on water. When it came time to pay His taxes, He found a fish with the water and lost fever in Mark 1. He healed the nobleman's son in John 4. He healed physical illness in John chapter 5.
He gave Him an ear. You know what amazes me is not that, but that the people went ahead and crucified Him. Another area of His miracles, not only did He order nature and nature obeyed and spoke to disease and disease fled, but He confronted death and death yielded up its prey. Jairus' daughter, Mark 5. The widow's son, Luke 7, and then the one I love the most, Lazarus. He came down there to the grave of Lazarus.
You remember the story? He looked at that grave and He says, Get that stone away. And Martha fell apart. And in classic King James English, she said, By this time He stinketh. You know, she thought He just wanted to roll the stone away to say goodbye.
She didn't understand it. And He says, Stay with it, Martha. You're going to see something. And He says, Father, I thank You for what's going to happen. And He looked in there and said, Lazarus, come out. And friends, that is really the test of power. And Lazarus came out.
Can you imagine that? And the people were so shocked that Jesus had to tell them to unwrap Him. He said, Well, lose Him and lose Him.
Let Him go. You want to hear in a marvelous testimony, Julian the apostate who was the Roman emperor from 361 to 363 was vehemently anti-Christian. Here is his comment. This is really interesting. Isaiah and Bethany, isn't that terrific? One of the great historic testimonies to the miracle power of Jesus Christ from an apostate. There's more. Why? Neither is there salvation, Acts 4 to 12, in what?
In any other. Philippians 2, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow. There's never been a person like Him. Even Renan, the French atheist, said, Whatever may be the surprises of the future, Jesus will never be surpassed. An atheist.
Napoleon, he said, I know what is going on. I know men and I tell you Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other man in the world, there is no possible term of comparison. Bernard Ram says, A historic person named Jesus gave certain men such an impact as to be unequaled by far in the entire annals of the human race. After nearly two thousand years, the impact is not at all spent, but daily there are people who have tremendous revolutionary experiences which they associate with Jesus Christ. Be He dead or risen in heaven. The personality of Jesus is without parallel. It is unique and He is incomparable. Is it not astounding that this very day somebody turned their life over to this historical person who lived two thousand years ago and knew an eternal transformation?
That's exciting. I'll tell you something, friends. You may think of Jesus as history, but He is as alive to me as you are and more so. Amen? He's a living God. In Christ He is master of hungry crowds and angry Pharisees, clever theologians and bitter sinners, stupid disciples and smart governors. He is master. He is master of His own self.
He struggles in the midnight of Olive. He fights sweat, blood and tears and comes forth victorious in complete dedication to God. In the terrible agony of the cross, He is master. All the people around Him are inferior.
He is calm and in control. All you have to do is listen to His words as He dies. He fulfills the last prophecy by saying, I thirst and in obedience to the Father's will yields to death. No one has ever been born like Him. No one has ever lived like Him. No one has ever died like Him.
There is none to compare. He has influenced the world. We see His tremendous, miraculous power lastly in His resurrection. I'm telling you, you can't look at the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus Christ without seeing it.
The power over death. Do you know He ordered His own death? Hanging there on the cross, according to John 19, 28, He just watched all the prophecy being fulfilled and it was time He fulfilled the last prophecy, said, I thirst, and then He died. From the grave He controlled His own burial, making sure that they got Him in the right place in the right time so that He would be sure to cover the space of time in the grave that He had promised He would cover. And then when the time came for Him to leave the grave, He left. You say, is that a proven fact?
Check it out. The tomb's empty. And it's been empty since three days after He was put there. And the history of the Scripture is absolutely loaded to support the resurrection of Christ.
If you have questions, we can provide you with some tapes on that very subject. He conquered death. Well, you shouldn't be surprised why death is a natural consequence and God is what?
Supernatural. Death isn't any big thing. But the marvelous thing is that He's conquered death, He not only conquered it for Himself, He conquered it for me.
Is that great? Because I live what? Ye shall live also. Listen, an interesting proposition has been posed that I think would be worth your consideration. What if God became man? Dropping all of the things that we've talked about in a sense, what if God became man?
What would we expect? One, if God became a man, we would expect Him to have a unique and miraculous entrance into this world, wouldn't we? Jesus did. Secondly, if God became man, we would expect Him to be sinless and live a godly life. Jesus did. If God became a man, we would anticipate His words to be the clearest, most authoritative, truest and purest words ever spoken.
Jesus' words were. If God became a man, we would expect Him to manifest supernatural power. Jesus did that. If God became a man, we would expect Him to have a universal and permanent influence on men's lives. Jesus did that.
If God became a man, we would expect Him to have power over death. Jesus had that. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary in the Los Angeles area. Today's lesson showed you how the miracles Jesus performed not only gave credibility to the Bible that you and I read, they demonstrate that Jesus is God in the flesh. John's current study is titled, Is the Bible Reliable? Well, I can imagine that some people would argue that it would be much easier to fear God, easier to stand in awe of the Bible, in awe of Christ, if Jesus were walking among us today and performing miracles as He did 2,000 years ago. Is that the case, John?
Would it be easier? That would be a rather simplistic view of history. When Jesus was on the earth 2,000 years ago, and He did do miracles every day, essentially, all over Israel for a period of three years, there were a handful of people, 120, who gathered in the south, and there were 500 in Galilee, and there was a bloodthirsty crowd led by the religious leaders who screamed for His death, turned Him over to the Romans to be crucified.
We don't want to forget that. If Jesus were to return today, the world would do the same thing. They could see miracles again. They could hear Him speak the truth. And because their hearts are so wretched, they would have the same response.
It would be the few, the remnant, who would follow Him faithfully. But still, without Him coming here, His complete story is available in the four Gospels. But sometimes it's hard to get the whole story reading four separate accounts.
So I want to tell you about a book called One Perfect Life. I take the four Gospels, blend them together into one story. You're reading everything that's in the four Gospels, only all blended together in the appropriate place where all the statements and all the events belong, side by side with the surrounding features. It's an incredibly fresh new way to read the story of Jesus. You're reading Mark, Matthew, Luke, John, all blended into one narrative. 480 pages, hardbound. This is a read for life. And at the bottom some notes to explain the things in the text that you might find hard to understand.
Post Office Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412. Thanks also for remembering that we are supported by listeners like you, people who are diligent to pray for our staff and the people we're reaching. We need your prayers. It's really the most important way you can partner with us in ministry. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace to You staff, I'm Phil Johnson with a question for you. How do you reconcile what seems to be contradictions between scripture and modern science? Do the Bible and science have anything in common? Consider that tomorrow when John returns with another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace to You.
