The Authority to Heal

Good morning!

It is always such a pleasure to worship together and to open up God’s word together

If you are a guest, my name is Stefan Wilson and I am the pastor of preaching here at Harvest Bible Church

And this Sunday I am excited to get back into the gospel of Matthew

So let’s open up our Bibles to Matthew 8

Hopefully you saw the email this last week to make sure to bring your Matthew scripture journal...

If you do not have one, hopefully you grabbed one during the break earlier

If you didn’t, feel free to get up and grab one now…

Those journals are a great way to interact with the text and take notes in ways that you might otherwise not and so those are a gift to you and we hope that you will use them

And if you started attending Harvest over the summer or over the last month or so,

the fact that we have been going through the gospel of Matthew may be news to you

The last time we were in Matthew was back in may when we finished the sermon on the mount.

We took a break for the summer and now we are back for part III of Matthew’s Gospel

And part three of Matthew’s gospel covers chapters 8-10

And it is worth remembering what has happened so far in Matthew’s Gospel

Jesus arrives in ch. 1-3 as the promised King who would reign over God’s people

Then in ch. 4 he preaches that the kingdom of Heaven is at hand and that you must repent, you must change your mind and go a different way from the world

Then in ch. 5-7, he teaches what it looks like to live as a part of his kingdom

And he showed us how living for his kingdom will necessarily mean that you cannot live for the world

Now, in part 3, We are going to see what it looks like for his kingdom to begin to impact the world around him

And we will encounter the authority of Jesus as he ushers in his kingdom on earth

Now, the way that chapters 8-9 work is that there are triplets of healings with a teaching that follows

So there are three healings and then a teaching

Then three more healings and then another teaching

And the triplets of healings, the sets of three healings, are in and of themselves meant to teach us something thing about Jesus

Each set of three healings highlights an important truth about the authority of Jesus

And so the way that we’re gonna preach these chapters is we’re going to preach all three healings together and the main point will be the truth about Jesus that those three healings highlight

Make sense?

And Matt. 8:1-17 is a set of three healings

And the single truth about Jesus that these three healings highlight is that he has the authority to heal

That is the title of the sermon this morning - The Authority to Heal

We are all very aware that things are broken in our lives and our world.

The events of this past week proved that fact

We know the world is broken and that we are broken

And we see the fallout all around us

And we long for healing

And Matthew is going to show us the healing that we truly need

So we need to give these words our full attention.

Matthew 8:1–5 “When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, ‘Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to 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 this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment. 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.””

These are God’s words for us as his people - May we have ears to hear them and hearts to obey them.

Big Idea: Only Jesus has the authority to truly heal what is broken. [9:00]

There are things in life that remind us so vividly how broken our world truly is

Diseases, suffering, evil actions, brokenness of all kinds

And when we are confronted with these things, we are immediately confronted with our inability to heal ourselves

What we need desperately is for the one who has authority to bring healing to heal us of what is truly broken

And in this narrative of these three healings, Jesus is going to heal people of various visible issues, but in healing them of the visible issues, we are going to see the deeper issues that need true healing.

And we are going to see how Jesus is the only one who has the authority to heal what is truly broken.

And as we encounter them, we will see how Jesus can bring the same healing in us

[Bridge Question] What is broken in us that we need Jesus to heal? And how does Jesus have authority over those things so that he can bring healing?

Jesus has authority over…

Impurity, restoring the unclean (1-4) [11:00]

Chapter 8 opens with Jesus coming down from the mountain from which he taught his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount

And Matthew tells us that a leper comes to him

Now, we need to do a little background here to set the scene.

In the ancient world, “leprosy” was a word that covered all kinds of skin diseases.

And if you had leprosy, you outcast - No one would come near you because they didn’t want to contract it from you.

And in Leviticus 13, we read that if you had leprosy, you were unclean and anyone who touched you would also become unclean.

You couldn’t go near the temple, you couldn’t be around your family, you couldn’t be in the community. You had to live outside the camp, alone.

Leviticus 13 says it this way:

“The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’ He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp.”

Because of his uncleanness, he could not be in the temple where the presence of God was and he could not be with God’s people

His impurity left him completely alone.

Can you imagine what that must have been like?

To walk around labeled with your impurity, treated according to your impurity, seeing yourself according to your imputiy?

And for many in this room, you can imagine.

Some of you have been labeled by others as a result of the impure things that you have done

And some of you, though no one else knows, have labeled yourselves with the impure things that you have done and that have been done to you.

And for all of us, we all have sin and impurity that has made us unclean before God

And though we might not walk around yelling “Unclean, unclean”

The Satan loves to whisper in your ear “Unclean, unclean”

And, just like this poor man, we feel unable to do anything to change it.

You cannot change your past

You cannot change your sin

You cannot heal yourself of the impurity that has defiled you.

But there is one place you can go

Straight to the feet of Jesus.

Matthew 8:2 “[He] knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.’”

Two things I want you to see:

First, he knows his need for healing

He doesn’t try to hide it.

He doesn’t excuse it.

He doesn’t ask everyone around him to accommodate it

He goes straight to Jesus because he knows only Jesus has the authority to heal him.

And the same must be true for you and I

We don’t excuse our sin and impurity

We don’t ask people to accommodate it

We have to run straight to Jesus because he is the only one with authority to heal

Second, he seeks the heart of Jesus

He says “Lord, if you will…”

That word in the original language is a word for desire

He is saying, “Lord, if you want to, you can make me clean.”

Too often, we misunderstand the heart of Jesus.

We think, “Because of what I have done, because of my past, because of this label, Jesus doesn’t want me.”

“Jesus would never accept me”

We think that Jesus is reluctant to do anything because he is so disgusted with us.

But you have to see the way that Jesus responds…

Matthew 8:3 “And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will…”

Its the same word that the man used

The man says, “Lord, if you want to, you can make me clean”

And Jesus responds by saying, “I want to.”

Church family - Hear those words!

Jesus wants to heal you of all impurity

You may have lived for years thinking that no one wants to draw near to you because of what you have done

But Jesus stands right here telling the very person that society rejected that he wants to heal him and make him clean.

And friends he wants the same thing for you.

And he does it in the most beautiful way…

Notice in verse three that Jesus stretched out his hand and touched the man

Under the Old Testament law, if you touched someone with leprosy, the uncleanness transferred to you

But when Jesus touches this man, the uncleanness does not transfer from the man to Jesus, but the purity transfers from Jesus to the man

“And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.”

Jesus heals the man by doing the thing that no one else could do.

By reaching out, touching him, and transferring his purity to the impure, unclean man.

Friends, that is the message of the Gospel in a single image.

Jesus Christ was perfectly pure

And his perfect life and perfect death paid for our impurity

At the cross, he shed his blood to pay for our sin

And when we come to him by faith, receiving his life and death on our behalf,

he touches our uncleanness.

And instead of our sin staining him, his righteousness covered us.

And he does it because he wants to

There has never been a person who came to Jesus saying, “If you want to, you can make me clean,” and heard him say, “I don’t want to.”

His answer is always the same: “I want to. Be clean.”

So run to him daily - Confess your sin to him regularly, ask for his forgiveness constantly, and receive the perfectly cleansing gift of grace eternally.

Man, what a beautiful and instructive moment that Matthew captures in his Gospel.

But we have to be careful here, because we can’t think that we just get to be healed and then live however we want

Look at v. 4

Matthew 8:4 “And Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.””

The Old Testament law requires that once someone has been cleansed of their leprosy, once it has gone away, they are to go to the priest and bring an offering and then the priest will pronounce them as clean.

And Jesus is telling him to walk in obedience to God’s command now that he has been healed.

Jesus does not tell this man because he’s been cleansed he can live however he wants.

He actually says that because this man has been cleansed his response should be obedience to God’s word

Too often people take the forgiveness of sins as a license to go on sinning

But when you and I have been restored to purity by the healing authority of Jesus, the last place that we should go is back to the impurity we were just healed from.

No, Jesus has authority over impurity, restoring the unclean…

And because he has that authority, the right response to his authority is to walk in obedience to his word

So if you have been made clean by Jesus, walk in obedience to his word today.

So that is the first way that we see that Jesus has the authority to truly heal what is broken

The second way is that Jesus has authority over…

Exclusion, welcoming the outsider (5-13) [21:00]

After healing the leper, Jesus enters Capernaum, and a centurion comes to him.

Now, a centurion is a Roman officer.

So already, we know a couple of things about this guy

He is not a Jew, he is a Roman

And he works for the government that is oppressing the jewish people

If there was anyone who didn’t belong among the people of God, it was him.

This guy is the definition of an outsider.

You see, the Jews thought of themselves as insiders

Chosen by God, children of Abraham.

They depended on their pedigree and their religious identity for their security.

And because of this, the last person they would expect God to help would be an outsider, like this.

And don’t we so often do the same thing?

We look at some people so often and think, “Oh, God would never save him.”

We too often make judgments about people based on where they are coming from

And we decide their fitness for the Gospel…

And when we do, we are just as wrong as anyone else who would exclude someone from the Gospel.

The centurion asks Jesus to heal his servant

And Jesus says he will come and heal the servant.

Which, would have been appalling to the original audience.

Jesus would have had to go into this guy’s house…

And that would have been unacceptable to the people at this time

But this centurion, though he is an outsider, will be welcomed in.

And it is in how the centurion responds that we see how he will be welcomed in..

Matthew 8:8–9 “But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.””

Do you see it?

He recognizes Jesus’ authority.

He says, “I know how authority works. I give orders, and people obey.

And you, Jesus, have a greater authority that I am not even worthy of. You don’t need to come into my house. All you need to do is speak, and it will be done.”

And what does Jesus say?

Matthew 8:10 “When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.”

We cannot miss this church family - Jesus just connected accepting his authority with faith.

Faith is not just believing that Jesus exists.

Faith is not just admiring Jesus as a teacher.

Faith is recognizing and submitting to the authority of Jesus.

The word faith means “to depend” on something

To have faith in Jesus is to accept his reign over us and to depend on his life, death, and resurrection to heal us

Faith is not doing all of the right things thinking that God will show you favor because of it

Faith is not attending church on Sundays and then living how you want during the week

Faith looks at Jesus and says, “You have authority and I will submit to you.”

There is no such thing as faith that does not submit to Jesus’ authority.

And so often, the one who displays this the best is the last one you would expect.

And Jesus welcomes them in.

Look at v. 11

Matthew 8:11 “I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,”

That is a way of referring to heaven, what Rev. 19 calls the wedding supper of the lamb

When all who are welcomed into the Kingdom of God get to be with him forever in paradise.

And Jesus is saying that the outsiders, the Gentiles, the ones nobody thought belonged, will be welcomed in to the wedding feast of the kingdom.

…while the insiders, the people who thought their religious identity was good enough, will be cast out.

Look at v. 12

Matthew 8:12 “while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.””

This is referring to hell

Jesus is saying, those who look to themselves, who think they are good and don’t need Jesus [and don’t submit to the authority of Jesus] will get exactly what they wanted…

Eternity apart from the grace of God because they rejected the son of God.

Jesus makes a shocking statement here that we must reckon with

There will be many religious people in hell.

People who thought that their life was good enough

People who thought that because they were raised in a Christian home, they are good

But your background doesn’t save you

It isn’t your works that save you

It isn’t your Sunday attendance or your involvement in small group that saves you

It is faith that saves you

And the kind of faith that transfers you from being outside the kingdom to being inside the Kingdom, is faith that submits to Jesus’ authority.

[Student asking me how they could know they were saved]

“Do you want to obey him?”

The desire is there, because the spirit is there

And that desire is the evidence of a heart submitted to Christ

And the beautiful truth is that anyone who is on the outside can be welcomed in

By faith in Jesus, embracing his authority.

Matthew 8:13 “And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment.”

It wasn’t that he was deserving… Its that he saw the authority of Jesus to heal and he embraced it by faith [“as you have believed’]

And it is the same for us - When we see the authority of Jesus and we embrace him by faith…

Though we were once outsiders, he welcomed us in

Though we were not his people, he has made us his people

So, those are the first two ways that Jesus has the authority to heal

Lastly

Jesus has authority over…

Sickness, making us whole (14-17) [30:00]

After healing the leper and the centurion’s servant, Jesus goes to Peter’s house and we have another scene that on the surface looks like just more physical healings…

… but Matthew helps us to see that it is a picture of something far more significant.

Matthew 8:14–15 “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.”

It’s simple. Immediate. She’s sick—Jesus touches her—she’s healed completely, as is evident by the fact that she gets right up and starts serving as if she were never sick.

But then, look at v. 16

Matthew 8:16 “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.”

Multitudes come, physically sick and spiritually sick

Some have illnesses, others are possessed and oppressed by demons.

And he heals them all.

But Jesus authority to heal is not just to heal what is visibly wrong

Matthew shows us in v. 17 that Jesus’ authority to heal extends to what is truly broken

Matthew 8:17 “This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: ‘He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.’”

Matthew is saying that these healings fulfill a very specific section of Scripture in Isaiah 53

Now, to appreciate this, we need to turn there

So please turn to the left, to the book of Isaiah and find ch. 53

Isaiah 53 is referred to as the “Servant Song” - It is a description of what the coming savior, who is called the “Servant of the Lord” would do.

Isaiah 53:1–2 “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.”

The coming savior would look like an ordinary man, but he would have an authority that no ordinary man has - The authority to heal

Let’s continue to v. 3

Isaiah 53:3–5 “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…”

[There is the quotation in Matthew]… but notice the shift

“…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.”

Do you see the shift? It’s not talking about physical illness anymore.

It’s our sin.

Our transgressions.

Our iniquities.

Jesus didn’t come just to heal bodies. He came to heal souls.

He came to deal with the deepest sickness we have: the sickness of sin.

We must not miss this, because it is the whole point that Matthew is making

Healing is not ultimately about illness and infirmities

Healing is about being made whole before a holy and righteous God

That though we are broken and destitute, that we are by nature children of disobedience and the right recipients of God’s wrath

Yet God has made a way to be cleansed from all of our sin by the Savior who bore our sin on the cross

Look at Isaiah 53:6 “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.”

Jesus took your sin and my sin on himself as he suffered and died in our place

And because he rose from the grave, he can heal our dead hearts and give us life

The authority that Jesus has to heal goes well beyond physical healing - He will heal your heart

Some of you are carrying sickness right now.

Physical sickness. Emotional sickness. Spiritual sickness.

You know something is broken in you.

And maybe you’ve been praying for healing.

And yes, Jesus still heals.

He has the power and authority to heal any sickness.

And sometimes he does.

Sometimes he takes away the fever.

Sometimes he cures the cancer.

Sometimes he restores the body.

And when he does, we praise him for it.

But don’t miss the bigger picture:

Even if he heals you today, one day you will get sick again.

One day you will die.

Every one of us will face the moment when Jesus does not heal us physically and we come face-to-face with the death that is inevitable.

But if you are healed of your sin—if your iniquity is laid on him and you are clothed in his righteousness

Then though you die, you will live

When we are healed of the sickness of sin, we are truly restored and made whole.

So the question for every one of us today is this:

Have you come to Jesus with the sickness of your soul?

Have you admitted that you are sick with sin, and that you cannot heal yourself?

Have you put your faith in the one who who can make you whole?

If you have, then live today knowing that you are made whole

If you haven’t, then run to him now, knowing that he will truly heal you of the sin that has broken you.

[CONCLUSION]

This is the picture Matthew is giving us in Matt. 8:1-17.

And it is the truth that our world so desperately needs

Because Jesus has authority over impurity, he makes us clean

Because Jesus has authority over exclusion, he welcomes us in

Because Jesus has authority over sickness, he makes us whole as he cleanses us of sin

And we can be a people who know true healing

And we can take the message of true healing to a broken world…

Because only Jesus has the authority to truly heal what is broken.

Amen.

[40:00]