Look at what Isaiah has written about that coming glorious “thousand year” stretch of time, when Jesus rules the earth. “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing.” Isaiah 35:5-6
Yes, that would be Jesus, all right! The Messiah will have returned! He has already been on earth for a Season, when He died for our sins … but will yet come again in the same miracle-working Power!
He was loving and compassionate the first Time, and so will be again the second Time.
Blind men seeing!
Deaf men hearing!
Lame men leaping!
Mute men singing!
A duplication (or intensification) of Jesus’ Ministry, but for such a longer time! (Three years, maybe a little over … in comparison to a thousand years!)
We can’t count our Lord’s total healing episodes, not definitely, because of summary verses like these: “And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils. And ALL THE CITY was gathered together at the door. And he healed MANY that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils.” Mark 1:32-34
These miracles thus become “signs” (in the Gospel of John Jesus’ miracles are almost always referred to as just that, “signs”) as to the identity of our Lord.
An imprisoned John the Baptist one day (for unexplained reasons) sent a delegation to ask Jesus if He was really the Messiah! “Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?”
Then immediately … “Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” Matthew 11:4-5, at least an allusion to Isaiah’s great promises above.
Someone will now say to me, “Where are such miracles today?” To which question I will answer: “Jesus is coming again!”
And when He does, not only will humanity again meet the “Divine Physician,” even the planet (the earth) will be revitalized! Like this, the rest of our Text this morning, Isaiah 35:6 … “In the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.” Jesus blessing the whole earth, the very Presence of God being here again. That noun “wilderness” too literally means “desert!”
But, don’t let me be misunderstood. Jesus is still working miracles today. The greatest of which is … the “salvation of a lost soul!”
A man or woman being “born again!”
Becoming a “new creature!”
The costliest miracle of all … the Price being Jesus’ incorruptible Blood shed on the old rugged Cross.
Hallelujah!
Are you saved?
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
Jesus words: “And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, GOD BE MERCIFUL TO ME A SINNER. I tell you, this man went down to his house JUSTIFIED.” And He surely knew how to describe salvation!
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