Lessons from Matthew 8: Proclaim God
Remember the leper from the last lesson? Do you remember what Jesus told him NOT to do?
The man did not obey Jesus’s command to not tell anyone. Because of that, Jesus was forced to avoid the city. Yet still the crowds sought after Him.
Unlike the leper who God told not to tell anyone and he did, God commands us to tell everyone and we do not!
Who is it that needs to hear from you about Jesus’s cleansing power and authority over their lives? Who in your life needs to be moved from death to life spiritually? Why do you hold back?
Well this next man, a Centurion, was a Gentile Roman soldier in charge of over 100 Roman soldiers. He came seeking Jesus’s healing power not for himself but for his servant. As he approached Jesus he began by rightly addressing Jesus as “Lord.” How he knew about Jesus we are not told. But one thing is for sure, he knew enough to know and to believe that Jesus was the answer to his problem. Therefore he told Jesus of his servant who was at home paralyzed and suffering terribly.
And Jesus, again moved by compassion, offered to go and heal the servant.
But the Centurion replied to Jesus’s offer by stating that he did not deserve for Jesus to come under his roof. As a man of power and authority himself, the Centurion believed that Jesus could just say the word and his servant could be healed.
This man had great faith in Jesus and His power and authority! He also displayed great love for his servant. And Jesus, we are told, was astonished by the Centurion’s words and actions. Jesus then told those present that He had not found in all of Israel anyone with such great faith.
The Centurion was commended by Jesus for his faith in action!
Jesus revealed in His words in verses 11-12 that many will come from the east and the west (meaning foreigners, those outside the Jewish Law and religion, Gentiles). They will come to know Christ for who He is, the Messiah and Savior. They will recognize Him as Lord of all and they will not stumble over Jesus as the Jews did. These will be included at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb of God.
You see, the Jews thought that they were a shoe-in for the kingdom of God. For it was through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that God had promised to those who would believe. But their faith was to include Jesus, the Savior, the Promised Messiah and they denied His authenticity and His authority. They denied His power to cleanse them from their sin and therefore without their recognition of Jesus they were dead in their transgressions and doomed for hell.
It’s the same today. Many people who call themselves Christians, who go to church, or are church members, or those who were brought up in Christian homes, have the truth. But like the Jewish leaders and the Jews, they refuse to act on it.
Others, like this Centurion, have had little opportunity to hear the Gospel and yet they respond with wholehearted devotion and deep commitment as soon as they meet Jesus Christ.
Verse 13 tells us that after Jesus commended the faith of the Centurion, He told him to “GO!” and it would done just as he believed it would be. And then Matthew says, “The Centurion’s servant was healed at that very hour.”
What does your faith say to others about God? Does your faith reveal that you are shallow in belief that God has the power to do as He says? Or does your faith draw others unto Jesus because they see what great things God has done for you and through you? Do they want to experience God and His power and authority in their own lives as you have?
At some point during the day Jesus, who was probably staying with Peter at this time, returned to Peter’s house. There He saw Peter’s mother in-law lying in bed very ill with a fever. He moved towards her at his own initiative and took her hand. Immediately the fever left her body and she got up and began to serve Jesus.
Truly another miracle of God! I don’t know of any of us who have been sick and suffering from a high fever and all its effects that would or could get up and immediately begin to serve anyone!
This shows us yet again that one word or touch from Jesus can make us whole! Jesus has power to cleanse and renew His peoples lives.
And if we have been saved, as I pray you have, we have been given new life in Christ. We are then to take that new life and use it for His glory and others’ good!
So it raises the question: What are you doing for Jesus after all He has done for you?
As the evening came, many people brought to Jesus those who were demon possessed and He drove out the evil spirits with a word and healed all the sick. And this, we are told, was to fulfill what the prophet Isaiah foretold in Isaiah 53:4 that, “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering.”
Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of Messiah as He dealt with our sin, the root of all suffering, on the cross.
We know that this verse in Isaiah does not mean that anyone can claim immediate physical healing. It does not mean we can command God to heal. But what we do know is that, ultimately, freedom from disease and death is ours through the cross.
We should live today by faith and apply Christ’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension to our present situations and circumstances. One day, God will separate every believer from sin and suffering. And while we wait, we can realize that we already have been given much. We continue to live by faith as we await the full deliverance that God promised!
Jesus’s healing miracles were a taste of what the whole world will one day experience!
Terri Hamman
Faith & Fitness Coach