Jesus’ miracles of healing and feeding were motivated by His deep compassion (Matthew 14:14; 15:32-38). They also had a deeper meaning. God had laid the groundwork for this meaning long before, through His servant Moses. God had given miracles to Moses as His “signs” to certify that Moses was His inspired spokesman—His prophet (Exodus 4:1-9). Through Moses, God foretold the coming of a new Mediator who would be like Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15). Acts 3:22 shows that this was fulfilled by God’s greatest prophet, Jesus Christ. He was like Moses in many ways, including the mighty powers that proved His authority (Matthew 9:6-8; Mark 2:17; Acts 2:22 cf. Deuteronomy 34:12). Where Moses’ miracles expressed God’s judgment and caused terror, Jesus’ miracles expressed God’s love and caused rejoicing. Jesus gave powerful “authority” to His apostles. Their miracles “confirmed” or endorsed their role as Jesus’ Spirit-inspired spokesmen (Matthew 10:1,19-20).
“These signs will accompany those who believe: in My name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” So then the Lord Jesus, after He had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs (Mark 16:17-20).
So [Paul and Barnabas] remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands (Acts 14:3).
How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will (Hebrews 2:3-4).
These passages show the special purpose of miracles. By them God “bore witness” to His message when it was being revealed for the “first” time (Ephesians 3:5). He used these powers to prove that the Lord Jesus and those to whom He gave miraculous gifts were His true messengers.
What does that mean for today? If a person claims to perform miracles today, he or she would seem also to be claiming authority to lead us—for that is a major purpose of miracles. “Signs” have a purpose. They point, and these are God’s “signs” pointing to His prophets. Are you ready to accept wonder-workers’ messages as inspired and infallible? When they claim the Spirit speaks through them, are you ready to treat their words as the very word of God like that delivered by Jesus and His apostles? Is their word equivalent to the Bible itself since that too was God-breathed? (See 2 Timothy 3:15-16 and 2 Peter 1:19-21.) Those who claim miraculous powers are making great claims indeed. If they are God’s inspired and accredited leaders for us today, to obey them is to obey God, and to reject them is to reject God. These are matters of life and death—the highest stakes possible. These are matters in which we should be very careful because of warnings that our Lord gives us.