Matthew Chapter 8
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Matthew Chapter 8 (The Living Word)
Matthew Chapter 8 (The Living Word)
Intro: We’ve been reading through the last couple of chapters in Matthew, studying and learning about Jesus’s sermon on the mount,
As James wrapped up our study in chapter 7 last Sunday we saw the importance of the golden rule. Treat others how you want to be treated, and not being hypocritical.
Overall, Christ is speaking and teaching over proper ethics, character, and overall guidance and traits for the outline we should all have as children of the kingdom of God.
We see how Christ’s sermon on the mount wasn’t simply giving us a list of laws to abide by to enter the kingdom of heaven.
It’s more so a cause and effect type of teaching, We kept seeing Christ give us contrasting causes and outcomes.
“if you abide by this law, this is the outcome, if you don't, THIS is the outcome.”
It is important to remember that God gives us free will to choose on our own, and He sent Christ to teach and guide us on the cause and effect of the laws in the old testament and further expand on them.
James covered this last Sunday, there is NO neutral ground when it comes to being a Christian.
Either you bring forth good fruit or you don’t. Not bringing forth any fruit is the same just as bad as the bad fruit
Matthew 7:19 “Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”
Very important to remember this verse.
Anyway, sermon on the mount, cause and effect, seeing contrasting ideas and giving us characteristics on being children of God and our relationship with Him.
When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him.
So after Christ gives His sermon on the mount, Great multitudes followed him.
Naturally, “GREAT MULTITUDES” followed him.
We saw John the Baptist preaching this gospel, and how people sort of flocked to him,
Now we see Christ not only preaching the gospel, but being that living word, being THE gospel,
great multitudes followed because they heard the truth.
And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
Just for clarification, leprosy is a chronic infectious disease that causes skin problems, nervous system problems, eyesight all kinds of things.
Leprosy is TERRIBLE.
But take a look at what this leper says, “If thou wilt”
He comes up to Christ, gives him worship first, the proceeds to say, “if thou wilt” could you make me clean.
In other words, this leper has heard Christs Gospel, he knows Jesus has the ability to, he worships him first, then lets him know he knows Christ can cleanse him, and asks him to in a way of faith.
“i know you have the power and ability to make me clean if you choose to”
This leper showing faith in Christ, not directly asking him, but worshiping first, and then showing his faith in Christ and Christ’s ability and willpower.
When we pray for something, use this leper here as an example. Don’t pray with emptiness, We shouldn’t pray just out of habit,
Think about what your praying for, worship God in your prayers, and just like the leper here, have faith in God’s WILL not just for an outcome,
And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
We are going to see in Leviticus, that a leper or someone with leprosy refers to that infectious disease we talked about, typically cause from someone being ritually unclean.
People didn’t have showers like we do today, and like James covered in the book of Daniel.
Daniel went through a period of time where he didn't anoint himself from his anxiety over his visions.
Anointing wasn’t just the use of oils, it was a 2 part process of cleansing with water, and using oils, ointments, fragrance items and such, to represent cleansing and consecration.
Normally, touching a leper would make that person unclean, the spreading of that disease, but here, we see when Jesus touches the leper, it heals him immediately.
This verse is a great example of proof that Christianity is not a religion, it is a reality.
This man didn’t practice religion, he didn’t wash and anoint himself regularly and out of habit therefore, he was unclean, had bacteria and disease.
Christ heals him Immediately.
Not from the man performing a practice out of habit, but by acknowledging that Christ has the ability and the power to cleanse him, and he has faith and knows WHO CHRIST IS.
In the words of Pastor Arnold Murray, Christ gets things done.
He’s not a religious practice, He is REAL. Reality, truth.
And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.
Christ tells this healed man, don’t share your testimony yet, but go and offer the priests what Moses commanded for cleansing for your testimony unto them.
What Christ is referring to here is Leviticus chapter 14 on what a priest was to perform with God’s help on curing leprosy.
And the priest shall go forth out of the camp; and the priest shall look, and, behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper;
Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop:
And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water:
As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water:
And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open field.
Were not going to break this down right now, but this practice was also a representation of a foreshadow of Christ to shed His blood for an overall cleansing.
But anyway, Christ tells the cleansed man not to share his testimony yet, but to go unto the priests, and perform this practice as his testimony to show them.
Notice the man never questioned why Christ didn’t want him to share his TRUE testimony of cleansing. He abide by Christs commandment.
Again showing how faithful he was unto Christ.
Like we talk about and have seen all the time. God has bigger plans in our lives than we can even imagine, just focus on following His commandments and he will take care of the rest,
It’s not always for us to know the Why, but to have faith and trust in Him and His decisions.
And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him,
Capernaum, or “city of consolation”
This is where Jesus bases His ministry in Galilee.
North of Jeruselum and of the directly over the Jordan River.
Make note here because we are going to see this further along in the book of Matthew
A “centurion” is a high ranking captain.
This centurion was a high ranking captain in the Roman military.
The Roman’s were against Christ and Christianity.
They mainly were a Polytheistic believing in paganism.
Meaning they worshiped multiple gods or goddesses with different characteristics.
So put this verse into context here, this high ranking Roman captain, is searching for Christ, beseeching him, probably heard about His gospel from among the multitudes,
Pay attention to these next verses here.
And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.
Notice, this centurion is referring to Christ as Lord, “capital L”
His servant is bedridden at home. suffering
And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.
The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.
Again, he is referring to Christ as Lord properly.
There are two different ways I've seen this verse in commentaries
1. being this centurion is referring to his awareness that Jews couldn’t enter the homes of Gentiles. Remember, the Romans were mainly made up of Polytheistic beliefs at this time. And this man being a high ranking captain in Roman militia, he was probably seen as a role model by many Romans.
But like we always say, words mean something.
He says “i am not WORTHY”
To me that statement shows that this man is humbling himself before Jesus. Showing that trait of “submission” and “placement” unto Christ over him.
For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.
This man is telling Jesus that he has authority over some, but his authority is derived from those above him as well. Showing that chain of command.
But why would he be telling Jesus this?
This centurion is basically saying that he recognized that there is a similar situation of “chain of command” with Jesus.
Jesus has the authority over man, whose authority come from God.
Remember God limited himself to flesh which IS CHRIST,
Christ is preaching the Gospel of God.
This raises the question of “how does God have authority over Christ if they are one?”
God has no limits, God limited himself in the flesh which was Christ, in order to give man a living in the flesh example,
Christ is the living word, and this centurion recognized this.
When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.
Jesus HIMself was astonished, or marvelled.
Take note that this is the ONLY place in Jesus’s Gospel where He Himself is astonished.
He is using this moment to teach His followers what?
The power of faith.
Christ even notes that He hasn’t even seen this much faith in God’s supposedly chosen people. The Jews, The ones who from the beginning, God’s word and covenant has been passed down to.
But yet this Roman captain, who most likely was raised in a Polytheistic background, astonishes Jesus by his faith.
We saw a great example of the little faith that Christs disciples had back in chapter 6 where He keeps referring to them as “those with little faith”
And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.
This is Christ speaking to his followers here,
Referring to this day in time. Gentiles, non Jewish people, from all over the world will be His followers, and enter into the kingdom of heaven.
But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The children of the kingdom being cast out,
Christ Himself referring to the Jewish people who expect to be entered into the kingdom of heaven by inheritance alone.
The people who still believe that covenant in the beginning with Abraham.
We’ve covered this in the past, God divorced Israel and did away with that covenant already.
And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.
That covenant is void.
and to take it a step further,
Christ is also pointing to those who claim to believe in Him, but don’t follow his Gospel.
We have already learned last chapter about being hypocritical, will we fail? YES. We cant spread the light of Christ onto others when we ourselves are striving to live His word.
Faith Without Works IS Dead. Christ is showing us that here.
And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.
That Roman captain showed such great faith, that Jesus healed his servant the same hour.
He heard Jesus’s gospel, he prayed and asked from Christ’s help, and because he had faith and trusted in Christ’s ability and authority, Christ healed his servant the way he believed as a witness of the living word.
And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever.
This is Simon Peter here. He was one of Jesus’s first disciples.
And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them.
Her sickness was lifted by the simple touch of Christ. When she arose she started serving Him, most likely offering him food, drink, hospitality.
That word minister, translated is
“deeakoneho” which means to attend or wait upon.
Christ healed her.
We are gonna see this same thing documented from different points of view in the book of Mark and Luke.
When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick:
Even being afternoon.
A lot of different religions and people like to correlate sickness with possession.
Notice how Matthew writes this verse,
(Read it again)
The word “and” is a coordinating conjunction combining two phrases or words with equal importance.
in other words the word “and” substituted with a plus sign
This verse is written by Matthew to be two seperate but equal phrases.
Christ cast out the spirits out of those who were possessed, AND or PLUS, In addition too, He healed all that were sick.
Two separate actions of equal importance.
I haven't studied sickness and possession together to see if they are correlated, but in this particular verse, Matthew is describing two separate actions of Christ that are of equal importance,
Christ is casting out evil spirits, AND healing sickness and disease.
That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.
But he was wounded for our transgressions,He was bruised for our iniquities:The chastisement of our peace was upon him;And with his stripes we are healed.
Again we see Isaiah’s prophecy coming to pass.
Isaiah prophesied this happening, Matthew is documenting it.
Brittani and I just had a conversation about this over the past week.
This is the type of examples that ground me in me faith.
As you read through it your like “wow this would make an awesome movie”
But remember, this isn't a movies script, this is HISTORICAL information, THIS REALLY HAPPENED.
What was first a divine prophecy, then documented from those who witnessed it.
Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he gave commandment to depart unto the other side.
That “depart unto the other side” is Jesus crossing over the sea of Galilee, leaving Capernaum.
There are multitudes that have witness and learned His gospel.
Christ is recognizing that and He and His disciples are moving on to the next area. Christ is physically spreading His gospel. Being that perfect example of how we should be. By living and teaching His word, physically spreading the true gospel.
And a certain scribe came, and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.
Scribe here being basically a legal expert, someone job is based on there ability to properly read or write.
And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.
Christ is telling the scribe, wild animals have places to settle at night, but the Son of man, Christ, himself is homeless at this time.
He left headed across the sea Galilee and on his journey so far he has no where to lay his head.
Showing us and Him explaining to the scribe who has just confessed to following Him, that Jesus’ ministry is traveling around and there is no permanent home
This is a big commitment.
And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
So a different one of the followers of Christ come and ask him before he follows Him, to let him go and bury his father,
Pastor Arnold Murray makes a note on this verse showing how the way it is written, is that the disciples father isn’t dead yet but most likely of old age or maybe sickly, but that he is asking Christ to wait until he passes for the follower to start this journey with Christ.
But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.
What Jesus is telling this man here is, Follow me, let those who are spiritually dead bury the dead body,
Follow Christ and be spiritually living follow his ministry.
Christ is not telling him to show disrespect to his dad, he isn’t telling him he can’t come back when they have a burial ceremony,
It’s important to take note here that when Christ lays it on our hearts, on our minds to follow him and spread his gospel to others
We can’t wait until WE feel we are ready,
When He calls us to something we should act NOW.
Don’t let the worldy things rule over you, let Christ be our guidance and focus on Him.
Not to disrespect others, but death in the flesh isn’t the end. Christ is calling on this man to be one of his disciples, DO NOT put your calling from God on the back burner.
Our calling from Christ comes FIRST.
And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him.
And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep.
Tempest being a great storm in the air arose.
And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish.
Christ and His disciples were on this ship in the water and this great storm came upon them.
Waves crashing over the ship
Christ was sound asleep, not a worry over the storm.
His disciples woke him up in a panic, worried this storm would take them out.
Keep in mind these men were following The Messiah on His mission for spreading His gospel which was THE GOSPEL.
Pay attention to what Christs tells them.
And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.
Christ is woken up from His sleep and I read this as a head shake from Christ. there is that statement again, He is speaking to HIS followers who have just witnessed all the miracles he has performed over the sick and the possessed people. “O ye of little faith?”
Notice that statement ends in a question mark,
Christ saying, “why are all of you fearful, is it from little faith”
hypothetical question, He knows there faith is showing here, and it isn’t showing as strong as the Roman centurion we saw earlier,
Christ calms the storm
But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!
They know Christs gospel, they have seen him perform great miracles already, and yet they are STILL astonished over his capability to calm the supernatural,
Taking Christ’s gospel yet another step further,
Remember the almighty God is supernatural meaning the most natural, and these men have witnessed firsthand Christ performing miracles over the supernatural, representing the power of God.
Showing firsthand Jesus’s placement of God.
And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.
The Gergesenes were the native people on the east side of the sea of Galilee.
So they have crossed the sea, and when they reached the land, there were 2 possessed men. Obviously not showing them hospitality.
and where it says out of the tombs, tombs being the graveyards basically.
Back in this time period, these graveyards were believed to be haunted by demons.
I read this as kind of these possessed men guarding the shores.
And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?
Jesus and His disciples were coming to this land to teach and spread His gospel, so His story hasn’t reached this region yet,
If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
These demon’s or semi divine evil beings recognize who Christ is upon His arrival, When they saw Him they recognized He is the Son of God.
And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding.
So some distance away.
So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine.
These demon’s who were possessing these men are basically asking for mercy from Christ, If He casts them out they ask Him to cast them into the swine instead.
Why pigs?
A lot of people like to use this verse as a reason not to eat pork because the devils were cast into the swine, but keep in mind, the law of unclean meat were we are told not to eat swine was all the way back in Leviticus under the health laws of Moses.
And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you.
And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.
This verse shows just how powerful Christ is over the spiritual world.
I believe the correlation as to why Christ casts the demons into the herd of swine is because for 1 they are an unclean animal, and why would Christ cast demons into something that was clean or pure,
He also wasn’t honoring the demon’s request to cast them into the swine,
I think it was to give us and His disciples at this time a physical representation of just how powerful and fast evil can turn your mindset dark. and because of the swine being an unclean animal, that was an acceptable vessel or sacrifice for those animals in order to give us the image.
The swine were feeding, being normal pigs, and once the evil spirits were cast into their hear, they “violently ran down into the sea and drowned themselves.”
Kind of like what happens when we start knowingly giving in to sin.
This example shows us just how fast and of a slippery slope the sin and evil of this world can be and how it can take over your mindset if you allow it.
I hope I'm interpreting this correctly, because there is no exact reasoning for them to be cast into the swine other than we already know from Leviticus that swine is an unclean animal for unclean spirits.
There is nothing that says all swine are demon possessed, it clearly says that the swine ran deep into the sea of Galilee and perished. They were done away with, gone, they died off.
And we are gonna see towards the end of His ministry, Christ gives US the power to cast out evil spirits in His name.
And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
And they that kept them fled, and went their ways into the city, and told every thing, and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils.
The men who were originally possessed by these demons fled into the city and started teaching others about Christ and his ability to cast out devils.
These men who were literally demon driven, are now reflecting Christ and His story onto others,
If that is not a perfect example of your never to far gone to honor Christ IDK what is.
So many people believe they are too far gone and corrupted by sin to be saved. THAT IS FALSE.
Christ is the way, the ONLY way, the ONLY one who can clean you from that sin.
Are we all corrupted by sin YES, but the first step is understanding mankind IS corrupt, Calling unto Christ and submitting yourself, and Him cleansing us through His blood shed is exactly what we are seeing Him do here.
Men corrupted by evil, Christ casting out the evil, these men now witnessing to others of Christ.
Your never to far off the path where Christ can’t cleanse you and lead you right.
And, behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus: and when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts.
These people learned nothing from what they have just witnessed, they besought Christ,
They called Him to leave.
Im going to quote pastor Arnold Murray here. Its stern but the truth.
These people feared the unknowing. That didn’t understanding what has happened and didn’t take the time to learn it because they feared it.
Some people today even fear the unknowing which is a normal response for the flesh.
But it is important to take note that “fear of the unknown is due from being uneducated.”
Once we understand something, there's no reason to fear it because we learn how to handle it,
Great example is your at home at night, its dark, and you hear something in the kitchen, (give example) it was just the ice maker.
No reason to fear it anymore,
Christ performed this spiritual cleansing and out of being uneducated and stubborn, not willing to learn His ministry, they asked him to leave. Don't be these kind of people.
Conclusion,
There is so much to take away from this chapter, seeing Christ be the living word, but applying this chapter to our lives,
to start, when Christ calls you, and lays it on your heart, your mind to perform work unto Him, it is important to listen and commit, don't put your relationship and calling from Christ on the back burner, it should be FIRST. Just like we saw with Christ and his disciple who asked Him to wait on leaving until his elderly father died,
This shows how powerful God’s will to be done is. Don’t disrespect your worldly duties, but also you can’t put them over your duties to Christ. When you put your calling from Christ first in your life, you'll start to notice that your worldly duties begin to prosper. Keep your calling from Christ FIRST.
2nd thing from this chapter is, as Christians, children of God, our lives are just like being on that ship crossing the sea of Galilee, Will there be storms that come, Yes, will the waves cover the ship, Yes, but just like we learned here, Never have fear from doubt the way Christs disciples did, Keep Christ on your ship, Keep Him in your life, pray , trust, and KNOW that he WILL calm the storm.
Christ WILL protect His children, He will prosper over ALL evil and wickedness, We just have to follow Him and Keep His calling in our lives top priority.
What does disciple mean? Disciple means a student or follower of a teacher through discipline and education.
These disciples were students and followers unto Christ who where learning His word, His gospel, and disciplining themselves with it.
Now the 12 “apostles” were the “chief” disciples of Christ.
Again quoting pastor Murray, disciples are the students, Apostles were the graduates.
Discipline yourself in following and learning the word of God.
Matthew Chapter 8 (The Living Word)
Matthew Chapter 8 (The Living Word)
