This scripture in Isaiah is always thought of during the Christmas season and well it should be, as it is one of many that refer to Jesus Christ. While I was reading this passage I decided to look deeper into it. I discovered that I found myself concentrating and reflecting on one word: Wonderful. As I looked into a concordance, I found that the word ?wonderful? meant more than just a marvelous thing or a wonder. The word ?wonderful? meant: miracle.

In thinking about it, from the very beginning everything about Jesus was a miracle. In the Garden when God breathed life into Adam and then formed Eve, God said to them they could eat from any tree in the garden except from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If they were to eat from that tree, they would die. When Adam and Eve disobeyed, they lost their relationship with God, their fellowship with God, and lost all the blessings of God. But God said: "I have a plan! A ?miracle? is coming!" God announced "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel." (Genesis 3:15 NRSV) God set the plan for redemption in motion. For four thousands years, God kept speaking out every aspect concerning Jesus Christ; His birth, His life, His ministry, His death, His burial and His resurrection. "Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, cursed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole and by his bruises we are healed." (Isaiah 53:4-5 NRSV) God, through the prophets, declared how Jesus would redeem mankind - spirit, soul, and body, and revealed a healing ministry that would last through the ages.

Then suddenly everything God had said came to pass. "And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen the glory, the glory as of the Father?s only son full of grace and truth." (John 1:14 NRSV) Jesus Christ was born of a virgin - a miracle! "But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from old, from ancient days." (Micah 5:2 NRSV) It has been said that Jesus Christ was born and had to be born in Bethlehem because that was where the Passover lambs were born. When Jesus was thirty years old and approaching the beginning of His ministry He went to the Jordan River and there was baptized by his cousin, John the Baptist. As he came up out of the water while praying, Heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit, in the physical form of a dove, descended upon Him. Suddenly he began to walk in the miraculous. The Holy Spirit came upon Jesus. God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. "(Acts 10:38 NRSV) The a voice from heaven called out, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with You I am well pleased." "Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and he was praying, the heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came form heaven. 'You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.'"(Luke 3:21-22 NRSV) If one begins to consider that if any one of us were there on that day to be baptized by John the Baptist and sees this Jesus of Nazareth coming to be baptized, hearing John wavering at the very idea of such an act and then Jesus urging him to do it so that all righteousness would be fulfilled, and then witnessing with our eyes the descending dove and hearing the voice from heaven with such affirming and confirming words, one would have to conclude that what just took place was a miracle. Jesus being a miracle would also entail that Jesus would be miraculous. Throughout Scripture there are many acts of miracles done by Jesus Christ. Changing water into wine (John 2:1-11), feeding five thousand people with several loaves of bread a few fish (Matthew 14:13-12, Mark 6:32-44, Luke 9:10b-17, John 6:1-15), healings of various diseases (Matthew 8:16-17, Mark 1:32-34, Luke 4:40-41), raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-44). Even by this small example the miraculous is a natural part of who Jesus Christ was. The miracles done by Jesus Christ were evidences of His Divinity and His Authority.

The first coming of Jesus Christ was marked by a continual flow of the miraculous.

Jesus? death on the cross was a miracle. Jesus? life was not taken from Him as was thought by the Apostles who followed and served Him up until the night of his betrayal, but Jesus laid down His life. The Good Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep. The blood of Jesus Christ was not spilled; He shed His blood - it was intentional, God?s plan for the restoration of mankind. Jesus? death on the cross for our sins was an act out of obedience to God?s will and God?s plan for Him who came to this earth demonstrating the unfathomable love that God has for us.

On the third day, God raised Jesus from the dead. This is another miracle. "See, we are going up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him and flog him, and kill him and after three days he will rise again." (Mark 10:33 NRSV)

"But the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed by this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen. Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again?" (Luke 24:1-7 NRSV)

The first coming of Jesus was marked by a continual flow of the miraculous with three main ingredients or keys, if you will.

1. In order for Jesus to come the first time, the Holy Spirit had to come upon humanity. In the first chapter of Luke, the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, a young maiden and told her that she would have a child, whose name would be Jesus. Mary said: "How could this be since I am a virgin?" and the angel replied "The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will over- shadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God "(Luke 1:35 NRSV) The Holy Spirit came upon mankind to facili- tate the first coming of Jesus.

2. Another key concerning the first coming of Jesus was angelic activity. Around the time when Jesus was to be born there was a sudden great flurry of angelic activity manifesting on a seemingly reg- ular basis. One of the first being the visit from Gabriel to Mary informing her about the Child Jesus. (Luke 1:26-38) The second being that Joseph knowing that Mary was pregnant. "Joseph being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said 'Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.'" (Matthew 1:19-20 NRSV)

When the Magi, having sought out the child and not reported it to Herod, he ordered the children two years old and under to be killed. Another angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream telling him to "get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him." (Matthew 2:13b NRSV) There was supernatural protection through angelic intervention.

3. The glory of God came into manifestation. "But the angel said to them 'Do not be afraid for I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.'" (Luke 2:9-11) The shepherds quickly went to Bethlehem to find the child and when they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them.

Jesus? name was miracle. Everything that Jesus did was miraculous. It took miracles to get Him on the earth, it took miracles to sustain Him while on the earth, and it took a miracle to take Him from the earth. He also walked in the miraculous all through His life and ministry. Jesus Christ was not only a miracle but He did miracles. He healed the sick, raised the dead, the wounded were made whole, thousands were fed, storms were stilled. There was no disease, no circumstance, no situation or problem too big for Jesus Christ because He was...a miracle.

As Jesus walked in the miraculous, so should we - The Church, The Body of Christ - walk in the miraculous. We are connected to the Head of the Church, and because His name is miracle, our name is miracle. The ministry of Jesus Christ started out with the miraculous and it will end up with the miraculous - the miraculous Bride of Christ.

Whatever it took to get Jesus to get to the earth the first time, it will get Jesus to the earth the next time - His glorious return!

If what took place before Jesus came to the earth the first time will take place before He comes again, then what can we expect to see? First, the Holy Spirit coming upon us so that everything born of the Church will be called born of God.

"In the last days I will pour out my Spirit on all people" (Acts 2:17). The Holy Spirit will come upon us, the power of the Almighty God will overshadow us and people will come to know the reality of the love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord.

What else will be coming? Finally, the Church will see the glory of God shining all about us and this time Jesus is not coming to one location but to all the world and all will see Him in triumph and victory.