Did you know that there are 35 recorded miracles in the Gospel accounts? John mentioned the least number of miracles – 8. Luke provided the most at 22; Matthew mentions 20; Mark refers to 16. This struck me as sort of odd with John mentioning the least number of miracles though he did say near the end of his book that Jesus performed countless miracles (Jn 20:30; cf. Jn 21:25). Apparently, for John’s purpose under inspiration, eight was enough (Jn 20:31). In other words, the Holy Spirit made that call, not John!
I based this peculiarity on two observations: (1) John in his Gospel is portraying Jesus as Deity [Matthew as King, Mark as Servant, and Luke as Man], and (2) The primary reason for the miracles as foretold by Messianic prophecies were to identify and validate that Jesus of Nazareth was Deity or the Son of God, the true Messiah.
The disciples had witnessed all 35 miracles recorded as well as all of the unrecorded ones. According to Jn 20:30,
And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book [emphasis mine].
Recall that while JB (John the Baptist) was in prison, he sent his disciples to see if Jesus was the Coming One. In Lk 7:22, Jesus told JB’s disciples,
Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them.
In other words, those Messianic prophecies by Isaiah (Isa 35:5-6; 61:1, c. 700-681 B.C.), were being fulfilled by Jesus ~700 years later in JB’s time! The signs validated Jesus as the true Messiah and the Son of God in contrast to all the false messiahs that had preceded Him and that would follow after Him.
Even Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews and the teacher of Israel, who was a member of the Sanhedrin, the judicial and religious authority of Israel, who came to Jesus under the cloak of darkness, told Jesus in Jn 3:2, Rabbi, we know (Gk., eido). This verb refers to an intellectual or academic assent by the Sanhedrin, not experiential or applicational knowledge.
What knowledge was Nick referring to? That You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him. What differentiated Jesus from all of the other teachers of Israel, including Nick? No one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him. In fact, this supports the idea that the clause, we know, was merely an intellectual or academic agreement at this juncture by the Sanhedrin.
Nick eventually moved beyond academic to the application of that truth through spiritual regeneration or being born again through faith during that night with Jesus (Jn 3:3) or at some later time (cf. Jn 7:50; 19:39) unlike the majority of his colleagues in the Sanhedrin who was stuck on mere intellectualism and politics and quickly shifted over to the idea that Jesus did not come from God but from Joseph (Jn 6:42) and ascribed His works to Beelzebub (Mk 3:22)!
If we believe that the Scriptures are the supreme and final authority in all matters of faith and practice, we have the luxury to read of these recorded miracles over and over again what the disciples had seen with their own eyes and believed, save for Judas Iscariot (there always seems to be a demon in every batch)!
Naturally, it is not the same as being there to witness these signs in person, but there is a purpose behind the inclusion of these miracles in Holy Writ. These (signs, 1 Jn 20:30) are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name (cf. Jn 20:31; cf. 1 Jn 5:13).
You remember that after Jesus’ bread discourse, we read in Jn 6:66, many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.
Jesus asked the twelve, Do you also want to go away (Jn 6:67)?
Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also, we have come to believe and know (Gk., ginosko, an acquired or experiential knowing) that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God (Jn 6:68-69).
Where do we go when we get the urge of going stupid and leaving Jesus? If Jesus has the words of eternal life, and He does, why would we go back to the darkness? There is no value there, no future, no hope, only futility, emptiness, temporality, and death!
Let’s fast forward ~30 years or so and look at Peter’s last recorded words in 2 Pet 3:18,
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.
What led to Peter’s death by crucifixion was following after Christ (cf. Jn 21:18-19), yes? At one time, he literally followed in the visual footsteps of Jesus wherever He went (granted, crucifixion time was an exception). After Jesus’ ascension, Peter followed in the grace and knowledge of Jesus, his Lord and Savior. Walking in His Word was tantamount to following the Shepherd of his soul.
Reading between the last recorded lines of Peter, he is suggesting to us that following Christ was worth every second of his life even though it would eventually lead to his death (ca. A.D. 67-68). Peter followed after Jesus anyway. I can imagine those post-resurrection meetings fueled and fired Peter up all the way to his demise years later; he never denied the Lord again.
Peter is not telling you and me to go and grab a weapon and attack the infidels! No, he is saying something entirely counterintuitive, but grow or increase in stature, enlarge, expand, in the One he followed to the cross by learning and walking in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
I am of the opinion but grow is one of the most neglected commands in all of Scripture in these latter times by the prevailing willful ignorance of believers today. The TVM (tense-voice-mood) is that we are to continually grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Have we forgotten that He is Sovereign and Savior?
According to William Hendricks, who wrote
“Too many of us are under the Word of God, but not in it for ourselves.”
In the flyleaf of my old Scofield KJV Bible are these words,
“This Book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this Book.”1
Maybe our lives resemble those unbelieving members of the Sanhedrin,
We know that You…come from God; for no one can do these signs…unless God is with him (Jn 3:2)?
They never bought into Jesus like Nicodemus. Maybe we haven’t?
This is what I know; if we are not in the Word, we are not following after Jesus (Jn 10:27; cf. Jn 8:47; 18:37)! How can we do what we don’t know, right? His Word is His voice. How do we know we are sheep? We follow after the Shepherd, and if we are following Jesus, our lifestyle will be according to His Word. Sinning in knowledge is not following Jesus. It is just that simple of a truth. We are following the Lord or following the beat of a different drummer.
I have quoted this repeatedly in M-G, but it is vital in our lives if we are to follow in the steps of Jesus: learn the Word, live the Word, love the Word. There is an unsourced quote that goes something like this, “There are four things necessary in studying the Bible: admit, submit, commit, and transmit.”
If you are not following Him as a believer, you have strayed from the Word of God, no ifs, ands, or buts! David shares a sobering thought in Psa 119:67,
Before I was afflicted I went astray, But now I keep Your word.
Do you happen to be a stray? Examine your steps, my friends! <><
O to grace how great a debtor
daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to Thee:
prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here’s my heart, O take and seal it;
seal it for Thy courts above.
Come, Thou Fount, by Robert Robinson (1758)
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Isa 53:6).
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1. The original quotation is from Dwight Lyman Moody, “The Bible will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from the Bible.”
