The Story: How a King won my Heart

Jesus: The Teacher, The Preacher & The Healer

Ice Breaker Game: WHY? How far can you explain certain topics…

Jesus, after moving into Capernaum, remember the city that dwells in darkness saw a great light, begins to really do reveal WHY He is such a HUGE deal!

Let’s read what Matthew experienced:

Matthew 4:23–25 ESV

And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.

1. Jesus was Concerned for ALL People

The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to Matthew B. The First Disciples and the First Teaching, 4:18–25

He went about in all Galilee, which points to a wandering ministry where all makes it clear that Jesus did not confine himself to any particular area: he was active throughout the region. Bonnard detects a marked difference from the rabbis (who set themselves to instruct a small group of disciples) and from the men of Qumran (who withdrew the pure into the desert). Jesus’ concern was for all the people in all the country.

There is a big difference between this idea that you must come to Jesus here, and that Jesus is going to meet you there.

When you live your life knowing that Jesus isnt coming to us like the punishment police but rather He comes to ALL of us for a relationship. To talk, to hang out, to give us things to do, to fill us with Purpose and shows us who we really are..because again He made us!

There isn’t a person on this planet that Jesus isn’t after and concerned for! Think of your worst enemy, or even the worse person you can think of…and yes even them, Jesus is concerned for and loves!

2. Jesus is a Teacher

Matthew 4:23 ESV

And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

Matthew

Why would people need to be taught?

Because what Jesus understood about them and about you today is that there are things about God that you don’t know yet, or fully understand.

Teaching is defined as to give an instruction, to encourage someone to accept something as a fact or opinion.

Jesus has ideas and principles about living and eternity that he taught and still teaches today through his word, through pastors, and leaders in the church.

3. Jesus is a Preacher

Can anyone tell me the difference between teaching and preaching?

Who here likes chocolate? I want two volunteers one to explain to me what Im going to give you and the other to taste it and tell me why I should eat it too.

It is a very matter of fact whether people want to “take notice of it or not”

Jesus preached- but why? Because people will take noticed and listen and even change the direction of their lives when someone is preaching good-news with conviction, passion, and authority. Jesus did just that!

4. Jesus is a Healer

Matthew 4:23 ESV

And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

Jesus didn’t just want to lead people to salvation and right living by teaching

Jesus didn’t just want to lead people to salvation and right living by preaching

Jesus Also dealt with and deals with physical needs.

The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to Matthew B. The First Disciples and the First Teaching, 4:18–25

Matthew does not say how Jesus healed, only that he did, and this puts him in contrast with various “healers” of antiquity. Whatever their therapeutic merits such people normally made a great fuss of their techniques. In contrast “the mode of healing practised by Jesus is infinitely simple, externally unimpressive, but inwardly so much the more powerful.

The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to Matthew B. The First Disciples and the First Teaching, 4:18–25

What Jesus was doing could not remain unnoticed, and the report went out about him.

THE YOUNG BOY WHO THOUGHT HE DIDN’T DESERVE EARS

A baby was born in a western state. He was the first child born to the mother and father. It was a precious little boy. But, the pastor was called in because the father wanted him there when the doctor explained to his wife, the mom, that the baby was healthy and well except for one obviously very concerning thing. The baby had no outer fleshly ears. The auditory wiring for hearing was there. Thus, the child was going to be able to hear. So the doctor tried to console the young mother who was obviously distressed as she looked at her precious little baby who was a bit of a freak with no outward ears. The doctor tried to assure her that there surely would be someone who would donate the outer forms of their ears. After all, the child already had the auditory wiring and could hear, it would just be an appearance thing.

So, of course, the mom and dad took the precious little boy home and when he was a little tiny baby he had no idea that he looked different from everyone else. When he hit pre-school people began to kid him. They called him mean names like little kids do, “you’re the freak kid who doesn’t have ears.” One day, the little boy was curled up in a ball in his bedroom. For awhile, his mom couldn’t get him to talk. Finally, through his tears, he said “I don’t deserve to have ears. I’m bad. I’ve done bad things. I don’t deserve to have ears, that’s why I don’t have them. God knows I’ve been a bad boy. That’s why I’m like this.” The mom took the little boy in her arms and tried to assure him that it was not because he had done something bad. It was a small mistake in his chromosomes. He was a good little boy. “No, no,” the little boy insisted, “I’m bad. I tell lies sometimes. I get mad at my friends, especially when they tease me. I’m bad sometimes. I am.” And the mom kept saying, “I know, but no little boy is perfect.” You see every parent always sees way past the junk in their child’s life and loves far more than the junk could ever know.

By third grade the teasing and mocking of the little boy had gotten so bad that one day he came home and he said to his mother, “I can’t go back anymore. I can’t have one more of them calling me a freak.” The mom, broken hearted over the little boy, sent him off that weekend to be with his grandma on the farm, hoping to get his mind off of it. When the dad came to pick him up on Sunday night, he told him that he didn’t have to go back to school because something wonderful had happened. He was to go to the hospital for they had found a donor for the outer lobes of the ears. It was before the days of plastic surgery. Obviously now they could be fashioned out of synthetic products but it was before that and a real donor had to be found who was willing to give away their ear lobes. The little boy was ecstatic. And he said to his daddy again, “I don’t deserve anybody’s ears. Are you sure God didn’t let this happen because I had done bad things?” The dad assured the little boy again, “There is not a little boy in the world who hasn’t done bad things. That’s not how a Heavenly Father would work.” And so the next morning, the third grade little boy wasn’t even scared when the needle went in for the IV to put him to sleep, because he knew he would wake up with ears.

You can figure out the end of the story. Within a couple of week’s time, complete with bandages, he went back to school...so proud of even the bandages. It was awesome! He went through fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade, middle school, high school and even on to college. While he was in his junior year of college, the phone rang in his dorm, and his dad on the other end said, “Son, you need to get home quickly, your mom has had a heart attack. I don’t know if she is going to make it.” The junior in college quickly boarded a plane for home but by the time he got there his mother had already passed away. A day or so later, he and the dad went to the funeral home to do what those of us who have deceased people in our lives have done. You are the first to go to the funeral home and see the person you love...you’re alone with them first with the casket. The father walked the young man to the casket and said, “She would never let me tell you, but there is something you need to know.” He pushed back her long brown hair and showed him where those ear lobes had come from.

our lives have done. You are the first to go to the funeral home and see the person you love...you’re alone with them first with the casket. The father walked the young man to the casket and said, “She would never let me tell you, but there is something you need to know.” He pushed back her long brown hair and showed him where those ear lobes had come from.

I have great news for you tonight. If the Enemy has whispered in your head that you have done stuff too wrong, you’re used goods or are tarnished, Christ’s love is bigger than that. You don’t have to be Jack Baurer to hear that kind of hope tonight. He has given you more than His ears, He’s given you His heart and His life.