Matthew Book Study: CH 8

Intro:

Hey guys! Welcome back to united! Reminder that next week we will not have United because it will be thanksgiving week, so go and enjoy the time with your family! This week we will cover Matthew 8 which is the first chapter in Matthew where Jesus begins his earthly ministry and begins doing miracles! We are going to focus on four things in this chapter but I mainly want to highlight the power and dominion of Jesus and how we should respond to that.

Up to this point we have seen Jesus give a large amount of teaching to his disciples on the proper way to follow him and love him. Therefore, in this chapter Jesus is going to go from teaching to now displaying what he has been teaching. So, let’s read all of Matthew chapter 8, then we will dive into our four main points.

Sermon:

Matthew 8 ESV

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.” Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.” And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?” And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way. And behold, they cried out, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” Now a herd of many pigs was feeding at some distance from them. And the demons begged him, saying, “If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs.” And he said to them, “Go.” So they came out and went into the pigs, and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the waters. The herdsmen fled, and going into the city they told everything, especially what had happened to the demon-possessed men. And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region.

Jesus’ Power over Sickness (vv. 1-17)

Healing of the Leper (vv. 1-4)

Healing of the Centurion’s Servant (vv. 5-13)

Healing of Many (vv. 14-17)

To begin tonight we are going to see Jesus’ Power over Sickness. In theses first 17 verses we are seeing how Jesus has full command and power over sickness and can easily cast it aside. However, these healings are not just to show Jesus’ power, which they do, more importantly they are used to express Christ’s power and love for his creation. Jesus sees those who are sick and hurting and does not cast them aside but rather seeks to heal them in powerful ways.

Firstly, let’s look at the Healing of the Leper. If you do not know what leprosy is, it is a bacterial infection that causes peoples bodies to rot from the inside out and was actually very common back in the biblical times. People with leprosy were considered unclean and disgusting and would often be exiled out and away from towns and populated areas. Thus most with leprosy either died early in their disease or would eventually rot away alone and scared.

Jesus comes down from the mountain, a holy place, and is immediately faced with a dilemma, would he as a righteous teacher of the law, come near a man with leprosy, one who in the minds of those around Jesus was being cursed by God? Well, Jesus sees this man and the man with leprosy comes to Jesus and states, if you WILL. He is asking if Jesus would heal him, not if he could heal him. He calls Jesus Lord and submits to him.

Jesus not only sees this man, but he touches him to heal him. This is a huge moment. This man had likely not felt the touch of another human being in so long, he had not felt compassion and care in so long. Yet, in moment with Jesus, he is made whole and healed and restored.

Not only does Jesus heal him, but he commands him to go and get his life back in many ways as if the leper will go and be ritually cleansed though he is free from sickness he can be allowed back into the fold with his people.

Secondly, we see Jesus and a gentile have an interaction in the Healing of the Centurion’s Servant. So we see Jesus interact with and heal and untouchable leper and now he is going to a gentile, a roman, one who has persecuted the Jewish people. Jesus quickly answers the man’s plea for his servant that he will come and heal him, but the centurion much like the interaction between Jesus and John the Baptist, understand his own wickedness and proclaims Jesus as Lord and himself as unworthy.

Jesus then makes and incredibly bold statement as he states that the faith of this centurion is greater than all those in the nation of Israel, the chosen people. It is this gentile sinner who understands the gravity of who he is speaking with and thus his faith exceeds the expectations of Jesus.

Along with this bold statement Jesus proclaims that the gentiles will actually be the ones sitting at the table of grace over the “Sons of the Kingdom,” which are the Israelites. Jesus is making it clear here that it is faith that he seeks not birthright. IT is faith that Jesus expects of us, not perfection, faith in his word, and in his power.

Finally, this section ends with the Healing of the Many. We see that the disciples go to the house of Peter and his own Mother-in-law is sick and Jesus touchers and heals her. She immediately goes to serving Jesus and then the word spreads and travels and boom, Jesus is now healing the many.

Notice how Matthew brings up once again the OT and how Jesus is doing all of these things in accordance with the OT prophecies about the Messiah. Remember Matthew’s goal is to prove that Jesus is the Messiah promised in the OT.

So notice here that we have three differing accounts of Jesus healing, he heals a leper, a gentile, a woman, and the crowds, all displaying that Jesus sees the least of these as more important than the prominent ones of society. Therefore, we should do the same, we should not only seek out those who are deemed as important but rather, seek out the lowly and those who are casted away and aside by society. We see the broken and beaten down as Jesus saw them, people in need!

2. Jesus’ Power over Nature (vv. 23-27)

I know I am skipping a section but we will come back to it in the end. In this section of verses 23-27 we see that Jesus has Power over Nature. This is a big deal, Jesus just displayed his power over sickness and now he is going to show that he has the power to control even the most violent forms of nature.

Unfortunately, we are not stranger to storms here now. We have went through multiple hurricanes and have seen the power and destruction these storms can have on a community. So, when Jesus is able to completely halt a storm that should speak to us. I want ot discuss two angles here, the first is the most common and the second is one i hear not so often.

Firstly, this section can be taken with a metaphorical lesson. Jesus can calm the storms of life just as he can calm the literal storm in this section. Notice how Christ calls his disciples, ones of little faith. They are fearful of the situation around them even though Jesus in the boat with them. If they believe he truly is the son of God, then he won’t be taken out by a storm! therefore, if Jesus is with us and has called you and I to a purpose, is he going to fail?

We of all people should know that Jesus cannot and will not fail and therefore when storms and trials and difficult enter our lives, we should not simply shy away from the trial. But rather because we know Jesus is with us, we can endure the trial and testing of life.

The other analogy that goes with this section is more literal. Jesus has power over all the nature of the Earth. He has power over the sickness and now we are seeing he has power of the most powerful naturalistic events in the world. Storms are wild and chaotic, lightening can strike at any time and wind can blow anything not tied down into a house! Yet, Jesus calms this storm with merely his voice, he calms the raging storm, that scared the disciples so much they thought they may die, with his voice.

We serve a powerful God, who heal with the touch of his hand, and stop storms with the sound of his voice. Is there anything our God cannot do?

3. Jesus’ Power over Darkness (vv. 28-34)

The next section we are going to look at is famous and rounds out the idea of Jesus’ power as we see his Power over Darkness. By darkness here I mean the spiritual forces of darkness we war against within ourselves as well as within this world.

Notice how as Jesus approaches the demons are forced to answer him, they are forced to respond to the power and dominion of Jesus. So much so, that these demons actually believe Jesus is there to torment them. These demons are tormenting human kind and bringing chaos into the world.

Jesus here displays that the darkness has no dominion over Jesus and in face must seek his permission to move. It is Jesus whom they beg mercy on and whom they must wait on for a response. You an di must not fear the darkness of this world, but rather we must understand that the darkness is subject to Jesus and his power and therefore we can bring that darkness into submission under the power and Lord ship of Jesus.

The people see Jesus cast these demons aside, and yet rather than thanking him and proclaiming him with the glory due to such an act, they ask and beg him to leave. Jesus performs a wonderful miracle and yet the people are so wicked, they beg Christ to leave. It has been said that the world is so in love with its pigs (its sin) they cast Jesus aside. That’s exactly what happens here. Jesus saves these two men, and yet he is not praised for it.

So, these first three sections have all aimed to display the overwhelming power of Jesus. Jesus is powerful over all things and in all ways. Now, remember I said I would come back to a section that we skipped. I skipped that section because I wanted us to see Jesus’ power and then place ourselves with looking at

4. The Cost of Following Jesus (vv. 18-22)

a. What will you give up? (vv. 18-20)

b. Who will you give up? (vv. 21-22)

So, let’s look at the cost of following Jesus, Jesus states that there are two realities if you want to follow him. You will give material possessions and glory, and you will have to leave behind the people you love in some ways.

First, what will you give up? We all like things, we all enjoy our creature comforts. We all enjoy things in life, but Jesus here is stating that if you are going to follow him must be willing to have only Jesus and nothing else. Will you give up the cushiness of this life and all the creature comforts if he asked you to? Would you go and be homeless and travel around like he did during this time? Maybe a better modern example is what are you willing to give up of your desires and dreams for the ministry of Jesus?

Are you willing to give up your own way and own ideas and own comfortability, for the Kingdom? Will you pay such a cost to no longer be comfortable so that the message of Jesus can be heard by all those who need to hear it? Can you take up your cross daily and follow after him?

Along with the what there is also who are you willing to give up? Now I know this may seem odd, but the truth is Jesus told us that we must be ready to abandon even our father and mother for the sake of the kingdom if need be. However, I think for our context I want to challenge you differently. Are you willing to give up and move on from that friend group that constantly drags you into sin? I am not saying bash them and call them awful people and make yourself feel about yourself. What I am saying is are you willing to distance yourself rom sinful behavior even if it means you have to be alone? Can you separate from those who are constantly in sin and bringing you into sin with them, for the betterment of your spiritual walk?

IN conclusion, tonight has shown us that Jesus is all powerful. He has dominion over all things and he uses that power and dominion not for himself, not to usurp his power over others, but to minster to, care for, love, and bring people out of darkness. Therefore, if you say you are a follower of his, then are you counting the cost? Do you understand that we do not get to live just any way we seek to live but that we must seek his kingdom first. That takes sacrifice and that takes faith in Jesus.

Is your faith tonight in Christ, and in his word, or is your faith laid up in other things that need to be laid down. Christ has power over all things, therefore, we should be willing to sacrifice all things for his glory.