The Gospel Five

Five Fundamental Truths About Jesus

2. The Earthly Ministry
Jesus' earthly ministry was one of signs and wonders, and the gospels unashamedly record them for us. I went through the Gospel According to Matthew and made this simple list of what he healed during his earthly ministry:

Chapter 4 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

Chapter 8 Leprosy; palsy; fever; they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick, rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm; cast out demons.

Chapter 9 Palsy and forgiveness; raised a dead girl; gave sight to the blind; cast out a demon and made the mute to speak; And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.

Chapter 11 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.

Chapter 12 Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spoke and saw.

Chapter 14 And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick; fed about five thousand men, beside women and children with five loaves and two fish; walked on water; And when the men of that place had knowledge of him, they sent out into all that country round about, and brought unto him all that were diseased; And besought him that they might only touch the hem of his garment: and as many as touched were made perfectly whole; cast out a demon; And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet; and he healed them; fed four thousand men beside women and children with seven loaves of bread and a few little fish.

Chapter 17 A man brought his son to Jesus and said, Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatic, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water... And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.

Chapter 20 Restored sight to two blind men

This is amazing! This is how Jesus began his public ministry:

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.’ 
And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, ‘This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.’ (Luke 4:16-21)

When Peter was preaching the gospel to Cornelius he summarized the ministry of Jesus: How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. (Acts 10:38)

I began by saying Jesus' earthly ministry was one of signs and wonders. Why should he have a ministry of signs and wonders?

† He did them because of his compassion for the people

† His miracles were fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies of what Messiah would do and were therefore signs of him being the Messiah

† The miracles were demonstrations of the kingdom of God; by his ministry he demonstrated that the kingdom had come

From his ministry of signs and wonders we see the kingdom comes with power:

Power over sin - he forgave it

Power over Satan - he cast out demons

Power over sickness, disease, infirmity - he healed the sick and suffering

Power over death - he raised the dead

Finally, John tells us the goal of his ministry of signs and wonders:

And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. (John 20:30-31)

The earthly ministry of Jesus is a fundamental part of the gospel!