I invite your attention to the
gospel according to Matthew chapter 8, and we're going to be looking
at somewhat extensive passages in Matthew chapters 8 and 9,
and the subject is the healing ministry of Jesus Christ. You
have an outline of the lesson inside your bulletin, so you
can follow along with me today. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 8. But before I begin reading in
chapter 8, I'm going to direct your attention to chapter 4,
verse 23. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 4,
verse 23. Now in this fourth chapter of
the gospel according to Matthew, Jesus Christ begins his ministry. We find the details concerning
his birth and his early years in the first two chapters. We found John the Baptist preparing
the way for Jesus when Jesus was about 30 years of age in
the first part of chapter three. we read of John the Baptist baptizing
Jesus in the latter part of Matthew's Gospel, chapter three. In the
first part of Matthew's Gospel, chapter four, we read of Satan
tempting Jesus Christ, and then in verse 12 of Matthew four,
we read when Jesus heard that John had been put in prison he
departed to Galilee and leaving Nazareth he came and dwelt in
Capernaum the city of Nahum which is by the sea in the regions
of Zebulun and Naphtali and it was here that he began his ministry
it was in Galilee and he particularly began it in the city of Capernaum
on the Sea of Galilee. In verses 18 through 22 of Matthew's
Gospel, chapter 4, we read of Jesus calling his first disciples. These were the fishermen whom
he called and said, come follow me and I will make you fishers
of men. And then in verse 23, and observe
that this is early in the ministry of Jesus Christ, we read, now
Jesus went about all Galilee. That was the northern portion
of the land. It was Galilee to the north,
mostly Gentile area around the Sea of Galilee, and then south
of that, immediately to the south, was Samaria, and then south of
that was Jerusalem and Judea. So he began going about Galilee. He did this at least thrice. He went about in what we call
teaching ministries. He went from village to village
and town to town and preaching and conducting his ministry for
three and a half years. And we read that he was teaching
in their synagogues. Notice the three things he did.
That was the first. Teaching in their synagogues.
And second, preaching the gospel of the kingdom. And third, healing
all kinds of sicknesses and all kinds of disease among the people. We're going to be looking at
this healing ministry of Jesus Christ in today's lesson. In
verse 24, we read that his fame or the report concerning him
went throughout all Syria. which was even north of Galilee. And they brought to him all sick
people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments,
and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics and paralytics, and
he healed them. and great multitudes followed
him from Galilee, that's the area around the Sea of Galilee,
Galilee of the Gentiles, and then from Decapolis. Decapolis means quite literally
10 cities. And this was the area on the
east bank of the Jordan River to the north, bordering to the
southeast of Galilee. So there are multitudes from
Galilee, from Decapolis, from Jerusalem, and Judea, and beyond
the Jordan. So there were people following
Jesus Christ, evidently from Syria because we just read about
that, from Galilee, Decapolis, over toward the east from Galilee
on the other side of the Jordan, and then in the area of Perea,
which was south of Decapolis, or the Ten Cities, and then also
people from Jerusalem and Judea. A great host of people were following
Jesus Christ, in particular because of his healing ministry. We read
in chapter 5 that seeing the multitudes, he went up on a mountain
and when he was seated, his disciples came to him. Then he opened his
mouth and taught them. And here commences the Sermon
on the Mount that will go from chapters 5, 6, and 7. Now go
to chapter 8. Chapter 8. Jesus has concluded this Sermon
on the Mount, and remember that he had commenced his healing
ministry just before he preached that Sermon on the Mount. And
then we read in chapter 8, when he had come down from the mountain,
great multitudes followed him. Now, I'm going to read this extensive
passage, and then we're going to go back and look at it phrase
by phrase and example by example, but I want to set this introduction
to you and give you some idea as to the direction we're gonna
be following, and we're not gonna finish this lesson today, so
just bear that in mind. Verse two, chapter eight. And to behold, a leper came and
worshipped him, saying, Lord, if you are willing, you can make
me clean. Then Jesus put out his hand and
touched him. The untouchable. This man was
an untouchable. A leper. Jesus just reached out
and touched him. Asked to let him know, yeah,
I'm willing, I'm willing. And he said, I am willing, be
cleansed. And immediately his leprosy was
cleansed. And Jesus said to him, see that
you tell no one, but go your way, show yourself to the priest
and offer the gift that Moses commanded as a testimony to them. Now, when Jesus had entered Capernaum,
Notice he came down from the mountain, he is back on his way
to Capernaum, and as he entered Capernaum, the city of Nahum
on the Sea of Galilee, a centurion, a Roman, came to him pleading
with him, saying, Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully
tormented. And Jesus said to him, I will
come and heal him. The centurion answered and said,
Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, but
only speak a word and my servant will be healed. For I also am
a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say
to this one, go, and he goes. And to another, come, and he
comes. And to my servant, do this, and he does it. When Jesus
heard it, he marveled and said to those who followed, assuredly,
I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in
Israel, as I have seen from this Roman centurion. And I say to
you that many will come from east and west and sit down with
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. but the
sons of the kingdom of a different kingdom, not the kingdom of heaven,
not the kingdom of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but the sons of the
kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be
weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then Jesus said to the centurion,
go your way, and as you have believed, so let it be done for
you. And his servant was healed that
same hour, so now we know how he believed. Now when Jesus had come into
Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother, Peter's mother-in-law,
lying sick with a fever, and he touched her hand, and the
fever left her. Then she arose and served them. He touched her hand, healed her
fever, and she got up and used that hand to serve Him. When the evening had come, they
brought to Him many who were demon-possessed, and He cast
out the spirits with the Word and healed all who were sick. I want you to observe here. This
is all in one day. All in one day. He's healing,
casting out demons, preaching a message, then he walks back
to Capernaum, and the centurion meets him there, and now it's
evening, he's tired, he's weary, and what does he do? He heals
another person. And then they brought him many
who were demon-possessed. And he cast out the spirits with
the word and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet. He himself took our
infirmities and bore our sicknesses. Now, we're going to skip from
verse 18 down to verse 28. Because there in those verses,
18 through 27, we read of Jesus' teaching regarding discipleship,
and we read of the winds and the waves obeying Him. I will
make one point concerning the winds and the waves obeying Him,
because this occurred on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus
had gotten into a boat, with his disciples, and they were
going eastward across the Sea of Galilee to the other side. And it was there that a storm
had risen on the sea. Jesus calmed the sea, and then
they landed on the other side. This would have been close to
the area of Decapolis, the 10 cities. Verse 28, Matthew chapter
8. When he had come to the other
sides, to the country of the Gergesenes, or to the country
of the Gadarenes, there met him two demon-possessed men, coming
out of the tombs, the place where the dead were, exceedingly fierce,
because no one could tame them, so that no one could pass that
way. And suddenly they cried out,
saying, What have we to do with you, Jesus, you son of God? How did they know whom he was?
Have you come here to torment us before the time? Why would
Jesus torment these men? Now a good way off from them
there was a herd of many swine feeding. So the demons in the
men begged him, saying, Don't you like it? Demons begging Jesus. If you cast us out, they knew
what was coming, permit us to go away into the herd of swine. Well, that's where they belong
in the first place. And he said to them, go. So when they had
come out, they went into the herd of swine. And suddenly the
whole herd of swine ran violent down the steep place into the
sea and perished in the water. I've heard my father preaching
from this passage, and he said, he said, did you notice that
even swine have good sense concerning demons? You think you're gonna
live in us? You got another thought coming.
They went and committed suicide. Then those who kept them, swine
herds, That's what the prodigal son became, a swineherd. Not a shepherd, a swineherd.
Then those who kept them fled. And they went away into the city
and told everything, including what had happened to the demon-possessed
men. And behold, the whole city came
out to meet Jesus. Oh, they must have been very
glad. No, that was not it. And when they saw him, they begged
him to depart from their region. So he got into a boat, chapter
nine, verse one, crossed over traveling westward and came to
his own city, Capernaum. And behold, they brought him,
boy, it didn't take long for the word to get out, did it?
And behold, they brought him a paralytic lying on a bed. And Jesus seeing their faith,
particularly the faith of the men who brought the paralytic,
and seeing their faith said to the paralytic, son, be of good
cheer. Your sins are forgiven you. Wait
a minute, I thought the man needed to be healed. Jesus says, I'm
forgiving you. And at once some of the scribes
said within themselves, this man blasphemes. But Jesus knowing
their thoughts, that's a scary thought. He knew their thoughts. I sometimes suspect that my wife
knows mine. And I sometimes suspect that
she plays ignorant of it. And she's smiling right now.
But of this I know, Jesus knows our thoughts and he knew their
thoughts. Can you imagine here they are
talking and they're probably talking among themselves. He's
speaking blasphemy. And Jesus looks at them and lets
them know that he knows their thoughts. He says, Why do you
think evil in your hearts? Well, there's a good reason for
that. Evil hearts have evil thoughts. Jesus continues, For which is
easier to say, Your sins are forgiven you, or to say, Arise
and walk? Which is the easier to say? Is
it easier to say to a man, your sins are forgiven, or is it easier
to say, arise and walk? Well, now the answer to that
question is easy. It is easier to say, your sins
are forgiven you, than it is to say, rise up and walk in the
eyes of men. And here's the reason why. You
can say, Your sins are forgiven you, but how can you tell by
looking at a man that it really happened? Anybody can say that. Oh, I can walk around and tell
people all day long, your sins are forgiven, your sins are forgiven.
Priests do it in confessional boots all day long. But here
Jesus He says, I'm going to do the harder thing. It is harder
to say, rise up and walk, because then he's got to do it. And therefore,
he is going to, we call it, arguing from the greater to the lesser.
If I can do the greater, then I can do the lesser. What is
the greater? The greater is rise up and walk. If you get up and walk, I have
done the greater thing. That proves, therefore, that
when I say that a man's sins are forgiven, they are forgiven. So he's going to argue from the
greater to the lesser with regards to this man. Verse six, Matthew's gospel chapter
nine, verse six. But that you may know that the
Son of Man, that's Jesus Christ, has power on earth to forgive
sins. Then he said to the paralytic,
arise, take up your bed, and go to your house. Do it. And he arose and departed to
his house. Here's the man, he has been brought
in on a stretcher because he cannot walk, he's paralyzed.
He cannot walk, cannot move. And Jesus looks down and He says,
get off of your bed and go home. What did he do? Got off of his
bed and went home. Remember that centurion? The
centurion said, I, like you, am a man under authority. I have
authority. I say to that man, go! And he
goes. I know something about that.
I was in the military, and we had commissioned officers, and
we had non-commissioned officers. A commissioned officer gives
you an order. It must be done. An order must
be done because it comes with a commission. But a non-commissioned
officer can give you a command. Now, I was a non-commissioned
officer. I was a sergeant. And if I told
a man, do that, he had to do it. He had to. Now, he could
always say, you told me to do the wrong thing, and I'm going
to report you. That's OK. I'll settle for that. I'll have
to answer for that. But in the military, when the
order is given, you do it. Well, the centurion said, you
are a man under authority, and I am. I tell that man go, and
he goes, and Jesus proves his authority here. He said, hey,
you paralytic, get off your bed and go home. And this man who
cannot move, cannot walk, got off his bed and walked home.
Now, everybody's watching. All these scribes are watching
as this man gets up off his bed and goes home. So what comes out of that? Verse
8, Matthew 9, verse 8. Now when the multitude saw it,
they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men. All right. If Jesus told this
man to get up from your bed and go home, that means he had done
The impossible! Therefore, since he had done
the greater deed, he had also done the lesser deed. This man
not only got off of his bed and went home, he went home a forgiven
sinner. Because Jesus had done the greater
to prove that he could do the lesser. Okay, in Matthew 9 verse
9 we read of Matthew the tax collector being called to follow
Jesus. Then in verse 14, chapter 9,
the disciples of John came to Jesus saying, why do we and the
Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast? Jesus'
disciples were not known for their fasting. And so there is
a discourse concerning that. Now we come down to verse number
18, and the healing continues. While he spoke these things to
them, that is regarding putting new wine into old wineskins in
verse 17, Behold, a ruler came. A ruler would be a man of the
Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was the ruling
council of the Jews. The Romans controlled the land. They were under the empire, Israel
was, but they were given permission to have their own government
to take care of lesser matters. And so there were 70 men under the high priest, and they
included the priests, who mainly were the Sadducees, and they
included the Pharisees, among them were lawyers and scribes.
There were 70 of these men, and they were called the rulers of
the Jews. Nicodemus was one of them. There
was a man of the Jews named, a ruler of the Jews named Nicodemus
who came to Jesus by night. All right. Now I want you to
see an important person. This is an important person.
In that Roman centurion, one of the highest ranking men among
the Gentiles had come to Jesus. And now we find that one of the
highest ranking men of the Jews came to Jesus. A ruler came and
worshiped him saying, my daughter has just died, but come and lay
your hand on her and she will live. How in the world did he
know that? How? So Jesus arose. If you come to me and you say, my daughter is sick,
would you come and pray for her? Yep, I'll go. If you say to me,
my daughter has died, would you come and raise her from the dead?
No, I'm not going, I'm not going. Jesus just got up and went. And so did his disciples. They
went with him. Verse 19. Verse 20. And suddenly,
a woman who had a flow of blood for 12 years came from behind
and touched the hem of his garment. A woman with an issue of blood
for 12 years. Now, Jesus is on his way to the
ruler's house. It's, you know, they're going
to have to walk. Okay? And suddenly, Something that
was unexpected happened. This woman had been hemorrhaging. Probably some kind of a menstrual
flow or something like that 12 years nonstop. She came from behind and touched
the hem of his garment. He wears this garment. It's a
robe. If it was the same one in which he was crucified, it
was all one piece of cloth. It was evidently a big piece
of cloth, hole was cut in the middle, it went over his head
and that was his robe, all one piece of cloth. Probably there
were tassels hanging from it. These Jews wore those tassels
on their garments. Let me just take a moment, go
back to Numbers chapter 15. Numbers chapter 15. Now we are not told explicitly
that this was the case in Jesus Christ, but since it is said
that she touched the hem of his garment, it probably was. Numbers
chapter 15. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers.
Fourth book in the Old Testament. Numbers chapter 15. Verse 37. Again Jehovah spoke to Moses
saying, Speak to the children of Israel. Tell them to make
tassels. on the corners of their garments
throughout their generations, and to put a blue thread in the
tassels of the corners. And you shall have the tassel,
that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments
of the Lord, and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry
to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined. and that
you may remember to do all the commandments, my commandments,
and to be holy before your God. Tassels. See that? That's a tassel. They put them in the corners
of their garments. They're not just for decorations. Every time
you see it, you're supposed to remember something. What do you
remember? Jehovah is your God, and you
better quit a whoring after other gods. Get away from their harlotry. Just get away from it, okay?
These tassels were reminders. Now, it is likely that Jesus
wore these tassels, according to the law, on his garment. And this woman came by and she
says, if I can just reach up, just reach. I'm gonna stoop down
as he comes by and I'm gonna touch that tassel, or at least
the hem of his garment. I'm gonna touch the border of
his garment and I'm gonna be healed. How in the world could
she come up with such a wild idea as that? I'm just gonna
touch the hem of his garment and I'm gonna be healed. I mean,
12 years, this hemorrhaging and flow of blood. What made her
think she could be made well? Verse 21, for she said to herself,
if only I may touch his garment, I shall be made well. So she
did. But Jesus turned around. And when he saw her, he turned
around. Evidently, as he walked by, When
she thought he could no longer see her, she just reached down
and touched it. And he knew it, though he did
not see it. How could he know it, though
he had not seen it? When you read elsewhere of this
woman, You read that he turned around and he said, who touched
me? And this disciple says, what
do you mean who touched you? You're walking through a crowd
of people. Everybody in your pathway is touching you. They
can't help it. What do you mean? Somebody touched
you. What kind of a question is that?
He says, no, no, no, no, no, no. Someone deliberately touched
me. How do you know that? Because
he says, I felt the power leave my body. I felt the power as
it left my body. It took power to heal. The power
came from Jesus. Now, do you wonder why it was
that from time to time, we read Jesus was weary. Every time he
healed someone, strength just left his body. Strength left
his body. He goes to the tomb of Lazarus. Lazarus is a dead man. He goes to the tomb of Lazarus and before he raises Lazarus
from the dead, can you imagine how much power that takes to
raise a dead man from the grave? He looks up to heaven and he
groans. Jesus groaned. Why? It's going to sap him of his
strength. He was going to be weary. This
healing, this healing, was nothing like you see in these tele-evangelists
and faith healers, you know, who walk, who prance around their
little stage and bing, you know, bing, you know. When Jesus healed,
strength left his body. He knew someone had touched him.
Verse 22, but Jesus turned around and when he saw her, he said,
be of good cheer, daughter. He earlier had said to a man,
son, Be of good cheer, daughter. Your faith has made you well."
And the woman was made well from that hour. And when Jesus came
into the ruler's house, he saw the flute players and the noisy
crowd wailing. And he said to them, make room
for the girl is not dead, but sleeping. And they laughed him
to scorn. But when the crowd was put outside,
he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose. And the report of this went out
into all the land. When Jesus departed from there,
two blind men followed him, cried out and sang, Son of David, have
mercy on us. And when he had come into the
house, the blind men came to him and Jesus said to them, Do
you believe that I'm able to do this? They said to him, yes,
Lord. Then he touched their eyes saying,
according to your faith, let it be to you. And their eyes
were opened. Now you know how much faith they
had. And their eyes were opened and Jesus sternly warned them
saying, see that no one knows it, do not tell anyone. But when
they had departed, they spread the news about him in all that
country. There were instances in which
people disobeyed the Lord, and we might excuse them for it,
okay? All right. And as they went out,
behold, they brought him a man, mutant demon possessed. And when
the demon was cast out, the mute spoke, and the multitudes marveled,
saying, It was never seen like this in Israel. And the Pharisee
said, He casts out demons by the ruler of the demons, or by
Beelzebub. Beelzebub was the lord of dung,
excrement. Put a pile of it out there, there's
going to be flies all over in just a few minutes. Well, the
biggest fly, he's beetles above, in the manner of this analogy.
That's who they said Jesus is, Lord of the flies, who eat on the dung. And Jesus went about all the
cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues. preaching
the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness, every
sickness, every sickness and every disease among the people. But when he saw the multitudes,
he was moved with compassion for them because they were weary. The word may mean harassed. weary
and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then he said to
his disciples, the harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers
are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the
harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. We're going to pause at that
point. Someone said, a preacher does
this, he tells you what he's going
to tell you. Then he tells you what he tells
you. Then he tells you what he just
told you. And there is truth to that, alright? In the introduction to a message,
I tell you what I'm going to tell you. In the message, I tell
you what I came to tell you. And in the conclusion, I make
application by telling you what I told you. All right? Well,
today, you got the introduction. I just told you what I'm going
to tell you. Now, you have the outline there
before you. Bring it back with you next time,
God willing. We'll continue the lesson at
that time. But go ahead and read the lesson
because there are two main points. that I want to stress in this
series of lessons, and that is this. You can see the first one
under Roman numeral number one, variations in Jesus Christ's
healings, and second, commonalities in Jesus Christ's healing. His healing had variations. Not
every instance was the same, and yet, In these healings of
every various kind you can imagine, there were common ideas throughout
them. Now, that's what I'm gonna be
telling you in the lessons to come. But today, I just wanted
to read this passage, give you somewhat of a running commentary
on it, and introduce you to Jesus Christ, the great physician. We sing, the great physician
now is here, the sympathizing Jesus. He speaks the drooping
heart to cheer. Oh, hear the voice of Jesus.
Well, this is our great physician, Jesus Christ. No one ever healed
like he could, and he spent his ministry in it. Oh God, our Father,
be pleased, we pray, to bless your word. Now, O Lord, we sit here before
you, just a bunch of sick and diseased
sinners, and we pray that your son heal us like he did then. To your glory in Jesus' name,
we humbly pray. Amen. You are dismissed.