John 21:25
25 Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

After an 18,658 word book about the life of Jesus, John said that Jesus did so many things, that theres no way it could have all been written down.

There are 37 miracles listed in the Gospels, that we'll talk about in 3 categories.

• Casting out Demons
• Healing People or Raising people from the dead
• Signs and Wonders

Casting out Demons

There are 7 times in the Gospels where we see Jesus Casting Out Demons, 5 of which go hand in hand with healing.

Of these times that Jesus cast out demons, 5 are in The Gospel According to Luke.

OVERARCHING CONCEPT OF CASTING OUT DEMONS:

It’s about the people.  It's not like in the movies where you see a good guy fighting against an evil spirit. Jesus, and later the disciples of Jesus too, cast out demons when they get in the way of the ministry that they’re doing.

EXAMPLE:

Jesus Drives Out an Impure Spirit
Luke 4:31-37
31 Then he went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath he taught the people. 32 They were amazed at his teaching, because his words had authority.
33 In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an impure spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, 34 “Go away! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
35 “Be quiet!” Jesus said sternly. “Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him.
36 All the people were amazed and said to each other, “What words these are! With authority and power he gives orders to impure spirits and they come out!” 37 And the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area.

Jesus commands the demon to come out of the man, and all of the people were shocked by His authority. That lead to a synagogue full of people wanting to hear the Gospel, including the man who’s life was just transformed.

WHAT WE TAKE FROM IT:

Casting out demons is a right and Biblical thing to do, even for Christians today, but we should never “go after” the dark things in this world… We should go after Jesus, and be prepared to handle the demonic forces of this world when they hit us in the middle of doing ministry.

In Acts 19:13-16, we see the aftermath of people doing this wrong:
13 Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” 16 Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.

James 4:7
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Go after God, and when the enemy comes after you, resist him in the name and authority of Jesus.

Healing People

There are 26 times in the Gospels where we see Jesus Healing People, 5 of which go hand in hand with casting out demons.

Of these times that Jesus healed people, 16 are in The Gospel According to Luke.

OVERARCHING CONCEPT OF HEALING:

The majority of miracles we see Jesus performing, are miracles of healing people, and we see it 16 times in the Gospels.  The majority of those accounts aren’t single people, they’re groups of people getting healed. We see this same thing throughout the rest of the New Testament.

• We were created to not have our bodies break down.
• But, sin entered the world, and now our bodies break down.
• So, ultimately physical issues are a result of sin entering the world
• God obviously wants to do away with all the results of sin, and He sent Jesus to pay the price for sin, so, why would he not also sometimes want to heal the physical side effects of sin?

When we read about healing, it’s always about the Gospel. Jesus wasn’t focusing on the healing, it was a means to a Gospel end.

EXAMPLE:

Jesus Heals Ten Men With Leprosy
Luke 17:11-19
11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”
14 When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.
15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.
17 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

WHAT WE TAKE FROM IT:

Praying for physical healing of people, is a great introduction to the Gospel that lines up with God’s heart, IF you are doing it for the Gospel. Healing is 100% about God himself, and ALL authority for healing comes from God himself.

In Luke 9:1-2, we see Jesus GIVE that authority to the 12 disciples:
When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

Signs and Wonders

There are 9 times in the Gospels where we see Jesus performing Signs and Wonders.

Of these, 3 are in The Gospel According to Luke.

OVERARCHING CONCEPT OF SIGNS AND WONDERS:

Similar to healing and casting out demons, these miracles are all about getting people’s attention, and getting them to look at the divinity and supremacy of Jesus.

EXAMPLE:

Feeding of the 5000
Luke 9:10-17
10 When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida, 11 but the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing.
12 Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.”
13 He replied, “You give them something to eat.”
They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” 14 (About five thousand men were there.)
But he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” 15 The disciples did so, and everyone sat down. 16 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. 17 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.

WHAT WE TAKE FROM IT:

Believe God for such HUGE things in your life, that when you tell the story, people can’t say much of anything except, "wow, yeah, GOD DID THAT!"

Like the rest of these things, it’s ALL for the Glory of God. When we start to treat it like great stories we have ourselves, we have missed the point, and we better believe God isn’t pulling through for us.

What does this all mean for us?

As Christians, we need to open our minds to more of the miraculous stuff of God! But, the #1 thing I see that keeps us from seeing them happen is when we think it’s only going to happen through someone else.

John 14:12
12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

At the same time, we don’t just naturally have these giftings in us. We don’t naturally have the authority that Jesus has, and it has to be given to us.

1 Corinthians 12:7-11
7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

So, be like the disciples, give your entire life for the Gospel, and see God do incredible things through you as you are going.