Matthew 8 14:17
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good morning everyone. It is a real joy to be with you as we continue our study in the gospel of Matthew. Hello to everyone watching online and everyone at the cove campus this morning.
If you have your Bibles go ahead and open up to Matthew 8 and in a moment we will read verse 14-17.
and this morning we are going to conclude this section on the healing ministry of Jesus.
We’ve seen him cleanse the phyusically unlean, we see him he the ethincally outcast and now mattehw gives us a picture of Jesus restoring the culturally marginzlized
as we’ve looked at the healing ministry of Jesus we are confronted the reason they needed healing. It’s becasue there was a sickness that was beyond them. Beyond the normal ways people would be treated for sickness in Jesus’ day.
and as I have seen the compassion Jesus has had on each sick person he encouraters it’s made me think a lot about sickness.
in Jesus day and even in our day sickness impacts so much about life.
it impacts our schedule, our hopes, our dreams, our finices, our worries and anxiety. As soon as someone gets sick we know there is something wrong
and the sickness becomes the very focus of so much covernsation
It can be as small as a kid having a cold/you cancel plans and your friend ask you later how are they feeling?
It can something which feels even wieghter.
It’s the loss of vision
the loss of hearing
the sickness that won’t go away
it’s the mental illness
it’s the cancer diagnosies
and it’s in those seasonds we can feel pretty hoepless.
It’s these very things that become the dominate story in our lives. If someone talks to us they might start by asking
How ____ is doing?
Any updates on the sickness?
Is there any hope
and all of sudden sicnkness becomes who we are and what we do.
and in our passage today we see Jesus once again moving towards the sick and brining healing.
Let’s read Matthew 8:14-17
And when Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him. That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.”
Jesus enteres peters house and we are told by Matthew he “saw peters moter in law”
Jesus teaching from the sermon on the mount has been lfowing into ministry
and once again his ministry is at center stage here.
before he heals he sees. and something different is haping in this passage then the previous 2 healings.
with the leaper we see the leaper ask Jesus if he is willing he can heal him.
we see Jesus reach out. Touch the untcouable and say I will. Immediatly the leporsy leaves
With the roman solider Jesus sees this mans faith and marvouls at it. He tells the solider becasue of his faith his servant is held
but this time it’s different. Matthew doesn’t record a request. He doesnt picture peter or peters wife pleading with Jesus to heal.
No what’s different is Jesus enters the room. He sees someone who is deeply loved by her family and who has a fever.
know we can read that and dismiss that. We think a fever isn’t that big of a deal. but in this day and age it was a much bigger deal.
As Jesus sees her. He extends his mercy, his willingness. His compasssion and we are told he touched her hand.
This is a big deal by itself. We know Jesus didn’t have to touch her. Jeuss dind’t have to enter the room for her to be healed. Jesus didn’t have to lay eyes on her.
Yet we are reminded Jesus sees her, moves towards her and he touches her hand.
For him to touch a person with a fever was forbidden even in Jewish tradion.
Yet Jesus is not defiled as he touches peters MIL hand. Instead the healer heals the defiled.
and the result is really special. Matthew tells us she get’s up and begans to serve him.
she returns to what is normal. It isn’t a specatle. There isn’t a bunch of fan fare around this healing. No real crowds see it. She dones’t leeave and tell everyone. She Just begans to serve Jesus. If Matthew dind’t record this we wouldn’t know she was ever sick.
it was a personal it was private and it changed her completly. She could go back to doing what she loved to do. She was in her house, in her kitichen and she was serving the Lord.
It’s porablby what most people who are sick or have someone who are sick long for.
They long for life to return to the way it was. To just the normal every day routine. and for Peters mother in Law Jesus came and he restored her back to her normal life.
it’s a good reminder to us that Jesus does come to the sick, he does come to the hurting, he does come to the broken and when he comes he sees us in that state and longs for something better for us.
There are moments of grace where he comes and he minsters to us in special and secret ways. Ways that no one else sees. But it’s his grace, his mercy, his compassion, his seeing of us and his tender touch that changes everything for us.
and in return we gladly rise up and we serve him. My hope today is as we see this part of the narritive we are reminded of Who Jesus is and what he can do.
What happens next isn’t suprising. verse 16 tells us that many are brough to Jesus
Some spressed by demons
some who were sick
and Matthew says Just with a word he healed all who were sick.
with Just a word he healed showing oncea gain his amazing authority
and then matthew adds a bit of commentary on why these things had taken place. Look at verse 17 again. Matthew was Jesus did this to fullfill what had been spoken in prophecy.
the prophecy was this “He took our illness and bore our diseases.”
and this little verse is where we will spend the rest of our time this morning.
There have been some who have wrongly read this verse and thought that if you are a Christian Gods will for you is to be healthy becuase Jesus has taken away all sickness
but if that’s the applicaiotn we run into major problems and quesitons about our fiath, our life an deven our God when we expierence suffering and sickness in this world
When the sickness isn’t cured. We wonder is it becasue I didn’t pray enough? Fast enough? Becasue maybe I’m not a christian
and that’s a natural way to think if we think to be in Christ is complete phyiscal health and no suffering in this life.
and while that is one way to think it’s not the correct way to think or apply this place in scritpure.
But Matthew is connecting Jesus healing authority to Isaish prophecy about the messiah
He is show the Power Jesus has to overcome all of our suffering.
He is helping us realize Jesus miricales are actaully pointing us to where he wants to take the world.
In some ways with Jesus healing ministry we are pointed back to a time before sin
before we had turned away from God
before everything was broken.
Jesus miricales are in scripture a restoration to the way things should be. Jesus is undoing the unatural things in the world, the demonic things in the world, the wounded things in the world
but they are not just pointing back
they are also pointing forward.
It’s what Matthew wrote about just in the ealier verses when he said
I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,
Jesus is letting us into something people in the Old testmant longed for all the way to the book of revaltion
that someday when God comes he will rule and reign and the world will be changed forever
when Christ comes back to rule and reigh he will heal evertynhign and it will be like a great feast. This is what Jesus healing ministry and miricales are pointing us to
there will be a day when there is
no more sickness
no more crime
no more fights
no more suffering
no more tears
no more death
When talking about this passage keller helped me think about this beutiful truth
The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive, 2012–2013 Healing the Sick
Jesus’ miracles prove he is no happier with the way things are than you and I. That means we have a radical agenda.
Jesus is given us a forsaste of what he’s going to do evenutally.
It gives us permission to care. to hope agaisnt hope. To long for things to be different
it let’s us look at suffering/sickness/death and pain and say this isn’t how it should be
it let’s us look at injustice and brokenss and long to do something about it
what Jesus miricales remind us of is this is not how the world is supposes to work.
and that realization allows us to pray more sincere prayers
it allows us to listen to correct teaching
and it allows us to minsiter form those prayers/teaching becasue we know that our heart is connected to the heart of Christ about these matters
and when matthew connects Jesus healing ministry to Isaiah 53 he is remending us of the ultiment work jesus came to do.
read it
Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.
HIs miricales form this sort of patter of how he comes to save us.
The fact that Jesus is a real person who lived at a real time in a real place in history reminds us that Jesus doesn’t just heal form a distance. He isn’t some superhero come to save the day
no he Is God with us
his miricales reminds us of his greatest miricale the miricale of the incarnation.
As John reminds us in
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Eugene peterson wrote about John 1:4 that “God moved into the nieghborhood”
and it’s this taking on flesh were we see the Son of God become vulnerable.
and in some ways it’s in his bearing our ilnness and sickness tha twe see Jesus dealing with our brokeness
Jesus came to become like us and to bear our brokness. Becasue he loves us.
that’s miraciouls pattern at work
it’s streght through weakness.
it’s what Paul wrote about in
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
and it’s in his death and work on the cross we see Jesus address our greatest problem. The root problem to all other problmes
the problem of sin
All suffering in the world today goes back to sin. Before the fall in gen 1-2 there was no suffering. But when sin entered the world suffering entred the world also
As we are well aware of we live in a world makred by sin, suffering, sickness and pain
and it’s great news for us today that Jesus didn’t just come to deal with sickness and pain.
He came to defeat our greatest enemy sin and death
He defeats this enemny and saves us by going to the cross and dying for us
Jesus provides the healing we need the most on the cross. The healing of our souls. That our souls would be complelty resotred. Ti’s what he continues to do in the world today.
The miracles in Matthew’s Gospel are intended to give us a picture of what is to come in the fullness of God’s kingdom, that is, when Christ fully and finally asserts His authority and reign over the earth.
but until that day we live in a world of suffering and pain. and it’s okay to ask the question what do we do with that?
I have suffering in my own life that I long for to end.
I have eye condition that I have prayed for healing, asked doctors to help with, had people pray for
and in so many ways I haven’t seen what I have hoped for. Fully restored vision.
There has been sacrifice. prayer and encouragment but the full restoration of my eyes hasn’t happened
I’ve longed for Jesus to touch my eyes and restore my visoin.
I have had family memebers who have been sick and I’ve prayed for healing, I’ve trustsed Jesus could help them. yet the sickness dind’t go away and in some cases lead to death. Even sudden death. That left me asking more quesitons then I had answer for.
and their are still friends I have prayed for and even shed tears for longing for Jesus healing touch to happen in their lives
and maybe it’s something you and I have in common.
We’ve all been touched by pain, disappointments, sickness and suffering.
and while our souls have been restored by the work of Jesus on our behalf our hearts often are broken by what we see going on around us.
I’ll remind you of something I mentioned earlier.
Jesus coming to earth, taking on human flesh, bearing all our sickness and diseaea reminds us whevere sickness, injustice, pain touch our lives Jesus cares deeply about that
But just becasue we follow him doesn’t mean those things won’t touch our lives
it’s why even 2 chapters later Jesus would tell his disciples if you follow him you will be flooged, betrayed, hated and persuceated in the world for following him.
and this isn’t just isolated to Jesus teaching.
Paul would expand on this them in his writigns.
For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church,
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.
that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
and so many other verses thorughout scriputre speak to this. Nowhere in scritpure does it say becasue your soul is healed and you are saved from your sins you will overcome sickness.
instead the Bible gives us a greater hope, a greater promises
because Jesus has overcome the root of all fuerring-sin- we can know we don’t have to be afraid of any sickness, any illness, any disease that comes our way
no matter what we face, no matter how bad the world is going there is a day coming where death, mourning, crying and pain will be no more
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
and as we are in this in between space in the world. The not yet, but the hope for
we don’t have to turn away from our suffering, we don’t have to be ashamed of our suffering, we don’t have to run from our suffering
no instead in the midst of our suffering we can expierence real, rich and deep joy.
because it’s in the midst of our suffering we probably expiernce different parts of Jesus than we do outside of suffering.
i’ve never meet anyone who has had significant growth in their spirtual life who hasn’t suffered as part as that.
and let me just say this. For those of you in the middle of suffering or have someone you deeply love who is suffering. Their suffeering matters. If you’ve lost someone to sickness and disease it wasn’t wasted
as hard as it has been Jesus still comes near to you in the middle of that. He still enters the space/ taht private, quite space where no one else sees and in that space as he touches our hearts he does some of his very best work
because as much as we might think in the middle of suffering we need a healer the bible holds outs something better for us.
we don’t just need a healer, or a miricale worker
we need a saviour. Someone who can save our soul and help our broken heart
and so my hope for you is the hope of the gospel
that in the midst of suffering you could be encouraged by the words of Paul in Romans. these verse have meant so much to me over the last year and I pray they would minister to you
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
I’ll close with this story today. As many of you know a few months ago my dad passed suddenly. It was really tough. Right after he passed away I went down to guatamla on a mission trip.
My cousin who is a christian texted me to checkin on me and my heart.
she asked how I was doing and here was my response
Would you pray for me today and this week.
Anna and I are leaving for Guatemala tomorrow morning for her first mission trip. I’m excited about it but if I’m honest still feeling some numbness/confusion/grief with my dads death. Feeling a little inadequate to preach Sunday and be on mission. But I believe this is where the Lord wants us.
and it wasn’t just a little inadequate it was increadibly inadequate. I knew all the verses I shared with you in that moment but I just cooujlnd’t recive them as I read them.
Her response was exactly what I needed to hear:
Hey Steven. Absolutely. Brenton and I will pray together for you and Anna. I can’t imagine what you’re going through but I know this is very very hard.
The Lord is with you because He is close to the broken-hearted. And His power is make perfect when we feel weak. So don’t feel like you have to have it altogether.
Your obedience and heart for God is inspiring. You’re such a great dad and pastor Steven. We’re praying for you.
and It was such a precious word from a family memeber and my sister in christ.
to be reminded Jesus was close to my broken heart. It’s why he came
and to be remeinded power was perfected in weakness.
This morning I’d love to leave you with those thoughts also
If you are suffering, if you are in pain, if injustice has touched you. If it’s sickness that’s touched a family member
be encouraged
Jesus can and does heal
but he does more then that. He saves our soul and defeats death and sin on the cross once and for all
I pray this morning you would feel his closness if you heart is breaking
let’s pray
Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.