The Gospel and the Kingdom - Matthew - Jesus and the Miracles - Part 1.

 

TEXT:  MATTHEW 8:1-15 - When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. ² And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” ³ Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. ⁴ 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.” ⁵ Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, ⁶ saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.” ⁷ And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” ⁸ 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. ⁹ 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.” ¹⁰ 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! ¹¹ 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. ¹² But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” ¹³ 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. ¹⁴ Now when Jesus had come into Peter’s house, He saw his wife’s mother lying sick with a fever. ¹⁵ So He touched her hand, and the fever left her. And she arose and served them.

Continuing our study in the Book of Matthew. We last looked at the Illustrations of Jesus. Now we are looking at the topic of the Kingdom and Jesus’ Miracles. Matthew is in this chapter giving us 4 miracles of healing and the miracle of calming the sea. We see Jesus healing a leper, a centurion’s servant, Peter’s mother-in-law, a number of demon-possessed people, and His calming the sea. Today we will look at the first 3 miracles, and we will finish tomorrow with the last 2 items.

Matthew is building his case that Jesus is the promised Messiah. Matthew is starting to show the power that Jesus has over all of Creation. We will start by seeing Jesus curing the sick. 

First, we see Jesus healing a leper in verses 1-4. Start by noticing the cry of the leper (vs. 1-2). Multitudes are now following Jesus everywhere. The beggar pleads with Jesus to heal him. In this passage we have the first use of the word Lord – Kurios – is applied to Jesus and He does not reject it. This is a title meaning “Master.” Is applied to the Messiah in the Scriptures. It says he worshipped Him. Kneeling prostrate.

We next see the compassion of Jesus. (vs. 3). He did something totally unthinkable in that day and time - He touched him. And then He went on from there - He healed him. Finish with the command (vs. 4). Leper is told not to tell anyone about this miracle. He was to go first to show the Priest and to get his validation of the cleansing.

The second case we have here is the Centurion’s Servant (verses 5-13). A Centurion was an Officer over 100 men in the Roman Army. Matthew now shows us the favor desired by the centurion (verses 5-7). He wants Jesus to come to his home and heal his servant. This centurion was a Roman, a Gentile, to go would make Jesus unclean. However, the servant was paralyzed and in great physical torture. Being a servant, he could have easily been put to death as useless.

So, Matthew then records the faith demonstrated by the centurion (verse 8-13). He demonstrates the confidence that Jesus could do this (verses 8-9). He believed that all Jesus had to do was speak a word. That opens up the question for us “Do we have that much confidence in Jesus?”

He receives a commendation from Jesus (verse10) – Jesus says that he has great faith. Matthew then shows the conclusion of this account (verses 11-13). Jesus is showing that many Gentiles will find eternal salvation, while at the same time many Jews will suffer eternal loss. This would not be a popular position for Him to take.

The third miracle Matthew records is with Peter’s mother-in-law (verses 14-15). We start with the suffering hostess (vs. 14). She is in bed with a high fever. Jesus touched her, healed her. She immediately started to serve Him. Another question – “Do we respond this way when Jesus works in our life?”

Today, pause and reflect on the two questions I have posed, and determine what you need to do to be like the examples today.