Jesus, the Amazing Son of God

Summary: Jesus Christ walked among the people, healing their sick, casting out devils, walking on water, calming the storms, doing things unmatched in the annals of history. In those days, and still today, the Son of God stirs amazement in the hearts of men and women. Let’s look today at this incomparable Jesus, the amazing Son of God.

Matthew 7:28-29  When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, [29] because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.

•• The Jews of Jesus’ day were under the instruction of Israel’s “teachers of the law”. Many of these men taught the Scriptures with a rigid lifelessness. And a good number of them failed to practice personally the very things that they taught (Matthew 23:2-4).

•• In stark contrast to this, Jesus came bringing teaching that was life-changing, that had impact, that had the compelling ring of authority. For so long the Jews had been subject to the rote repetitions of their teachers, that when Jesus began to teach with such surpassing power, the crowds “were amazed at his teaching”.

•• You can see the same reaction of amazement today — in the churches, at the workplace, on the streets, in your neighborhoods — as you share the life-giving, power-laden, high-impact teachings of the Bible about Jesus, the Son of God. Tell them about Jesus, and many will be amazed.

Matthew 8:24-27  Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat.... [26b] Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. [27] The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”

•• Even the professional fishermen(!) among the disciples were fearful of drowning in the tempest. Yet Jesus stood and calmly rebuked the winds and the waves, and a complete calm immediately replaced the raging storm. Understandably, the others in the boat were amazed at Jesus.

•• Jesus Christ “is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). He calmed the raging storms 2,000 years ago, and He is fully able to do similar miracles for His followers on earth today.

• Often the “furious storms” that we face are of a mental, emotional, or spiritual nature. Those storms, too, Jesus is thoroughly able and willing to calm in your life, to your great amazement. Be willing to call out to Him in your times of hurricane-force difficulties, and be amazed at His power to calm those storms in your life.

Matthew 9:32-33  While they were going out, a man who was demon-possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus. [33] And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”

•• While on earth, Jesus drove out demons all across the nation of Israel. In this Scripture portion, we see Him casting out a demon that had robbed a man of the ability to speak. Instantly the man spoke, and the crowd was understandably amazed.

•• Today Jesus is still amazing people by delivering people from demons through His followers who believe His words in the Great Commission: “In my name [believers] will drive out demons” (Mark 16:17).

•• Many years ago my wife and I were called to minister to a young adult woman who was demon-possessed and suicidal. Even as we began ministering deliverance to her in Jesus’ Name, she was making attempts to choke herself to death. But the Name of Jesus prevailed, and she was delivered from four demons. Then within mere minutes we were able to lead her to saving faith in Jesus Christ and to receiving the baptism with the Holy Spirit. She was speaking in tongues, crying for joy, and declaring, “This is what I’ve always wanted!” All because she had encountered the mighty power of Jesus, the awesome Son of God!

Matthew 13:54  Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?” they asked.

•• Those of Jesus’ own hometown were amazed at His wisdom and the miraculous powers He had been manifesting. They were totally mistaken in their assessment of Him, dismissing Him as merely “the carpenter’s son” (vs. 55).

•• The message for today that I draw from this episode is this: Jesus was looked down upon. He was (falsely) accused of being an illegitimate child of fornication. He was a working man, not a leader or an educated teacher. And yet they couldn’t help being amazed at His teaching and miracles. Apply that personally! You may be of the humblest circumstances, perhaps lacking in education. But if you know Jesus and His Word and the power of His name,  you too can do the amazing works that Jesus did, and even greater (John 14:12)!

Matthew 15:30-31  Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them. [31] The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing.

•• Again and again Jesus “healed all” the sick who were brought to Him (Matthew 8:16; 12:15). The people were rightly amazed.

•• Jesus is still healing the sick today. Part of His Great Commission to His followers then and now is: “...In my name ... [believers] will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well” (Mark 16:17-18).

• I personally believe that if another great revival is to break out in our time, it will resemble the ministry of Jesus in the Gospels, where the crowds were amazed at the matchless power of the Lord manifested in healing and other miraculous ways. The Word of God confirmed by the mighty power of God, to the world’s amazement.

John 7:14-16  Not until halfway through the Feast did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. [15] The Jews were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having studied?” [16] Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me.

•• As with Jesus, so also with us. It is not necessary to have degrees or seminary training to teach the word of the Lord with accuracy, insight, and authority. It simply takes the illumination that comes from the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

• The apostle Paul wrote, “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power” (1 Corinthians 2:4). Too many pulpits today are filled with “wise and persuasive words”, but are lacking the “Spirit’s power”.

• Paul wrote further, “This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words” (1 Corinthians 2:13). You today can be diligent students of God’s Word and, in an attitude of prayerful study, find yourself “taught by the Spirit”, and then in turn “expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words” that have a profound impact upon your hearers.

• Does this mean to ignore bible schools and anointed preachers and teachers? Absolutely not! But the point is that the Ultimate Teacher is the Holy Spirit, and He can more than make up for the lack of formal training at colleges or seminaries.

Acts 2:4-8  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. [5] Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. [6] When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. [7] Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? [8] Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?

•• All four Gospels say of Jesus that “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit...” (Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33). Jesus Christ is the Baptizer with the Holy Spirit.

•• When this happened in Acts (1:5; 2:4), the 120 disciples began to “speak in other tongues” (2:4), and the onlookers and hearers were “utterly amazed” (vs. 7).

•• I can candidly say that I personally was similarly “amazed” in April 1971 when, at a charismatic conference at Anchorage First Assembly, I was baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke in another language for about 45 minutes under the power and prompting of the Holy Spirit. I am still regularly speaking in tongues in my prayer times today, 37 years later.

•• The church world today needs its own fresh experience of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4). Every believer needs that mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit, with the initial evidence of speaking in tongues (vs. 4), and the resultant release of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in his or her life to be powerful witnesses of Jesus Christ (Acts 1:8). The power of Pentecost, poured out by Jesus Himself (Acts 2:33), will amaze the world today even as it did when the Son of God poured out that mighty Spirit baptism on His early Church.

Acts 13:12  When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord.

•• The message about Jesus, the Son of God, will create amazement today in the hearts of men and women of the 21st century, even as it did when declared by the disciples of the first-century church.

•• You have a treasure in your heart and on your lips — the Gospel, the Good News, about Jesus, the amazing Son of God. Speak that Christ-centered message to all who will hear. And watch many respond in amazement to the power of the Lord to change their lives forever!

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©2008, James H. Feeney.
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