Portraits of Power Matthew 8:1-17

Intro:

If you were to take a tour of the White House you would be taken by the portraits of all the past presidents

Each portrait is meant to portray power and confidence

Contrast that with the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland

As you walk down the hallway to get on the ride you walk by portraits of previous owners of the Mansion

These are holograms, where the eyes follow you, are meant to scare you and make you laugh

Both walls of portraits are meant to convey a message

Matthew does the same thing with chapter 8

Today we are going to look at three portraits of Jesus’ power

Each portrait is a picture of the of healing of an unlikely person

Thru these portraits you will not only see the power of Jesus but you will sense His touch, experience His Openness, and see His compassion,

That power is still at work today and you can experience His touch and compassion through your faith

Read Matthew 8:1-4

Transition:

It is important to remember that the Gospel of Matthew is not written on a linear timeline

He is trying to establish Jesus’ claim of being the Messiah to the Jewish reader

In establishing Jesus’ messiahship Matthew demonstrated His legal qualification through His genealogy,

His prophetic qualification through the fulfillment of prophecy by His birth and infancy,

His divine qualification by the Father’s own attestation at His baptism,

His spiritual qualification by His perfect resistance to Satan’s temptations

His theological qualification through the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount.

In chapters 8 and 9 Matthew dramatically sets forth still another qualification: Jesus’ divine power.

Jesus’ miracles were the supreme proof of His divinity and the irrefutable credentials of His messiahship

Jesus’ authority over sickness, demons and nature summons people to recognize his authority over their lives

What makes these portraits so relatable is who he touched and how he went about it

In all three miracles Jesus ministered to the needs of someone who was most loathed by society, a leper, a gentile, and a woman

Our Lord showed special compassion toward those for whom society had special disdain.

Power thru Touch vs. 1-4

The first portrait we look at is one of power thru touch

The first healing we look at is Jesus touching a leper

In New Testament times disease was rampant and medical science as we know it did not exist.

Sufferers were often left scarred, deformed, crippled, or otherwise debilitated for the rest of their lives.

Plagues would sometimes wipe out entire villages

For those of us who live in a society where basic good health is accepted largely as a matter of course, it is difficult to appreciate the impact Jesus’ healing ministry had in Palestine.

When Jesus healed, He did so with a word or a touch

He healed instantaneously

He healed totally, not partially, no matter how serious the disease or deformity

That’s going to be tested right after the sermon on the mount

As Jesus comes down from the mountain he encounters a leper

Leprosy was the most feared disease of the ancient world, and even today it cannot be totally cured

Spongy, tumor like swellings would eventually grow on the face and body, and the bacillus would become systemic and affect internal organs, while the bones would begin to deteriorate.

Anyone who had leprosy was pronounced unclean by the priests and became a social pariah

Among the sixty-one defilements of ancient Judaism, leprosy was second only to a dead body in seriousness. The Talmud forbade a Jew from coming closer than six feet to a leper

The first sign of social distancing

As hideous as this disease was he was the first to be healed by Jesus in this sequence

Even more scandalous was that Jesus touched him

Vs. 3 makes it very clear that Jesus reached for him and touched him

Jesus wanted to make him clean

The first portrait of power is the power of Jesus’ touch

When you have been touched by Jesus through healing it changes you

When our oldest daughter was healed it changed more than us

The doctors were still talking about it a month later

Jesus has the power to touch you

That’s why I am amazed that people won’t come up to the altar for prayer

James 5:14 ESV

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

Power thru Faith vs. 5-13

The second portrait we look at is one of power thru faith

Next Jesus deals with a Gentile soldier

He was the commander of 100 soldiers

Many commentators believe that the first three miracles of Matthew 8 occurred on the same day.

If so, Jesus entered Capernaum only a short while after healing the leper.

It was a lovely town in Jesus’ day and He spent considerable time there, much of it perhaps in Peter’s home

Most Roman soldiers were hated by the Jews, but this one was loved

He was held in great esteem by the Jews of Capernaum, because, as they told Jesus, “He is worthy for You to grant this to him; for he loves our nation, and it was he who built us our synagogue”

Luke 7:3–4 ESV

When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy to have you do this for him,

Like Cornelius (Acts 10:2), this centurion was undoubtedly a God-fearing Gentile.

The fact that the centurion cared so much for his servant set him apart from the typical Roman soldier, who could be brutally heartless

vs. 7 Jesus was willing to come and heal the servant

Here we see Jesus’ heart for the world

Jews didn’t enter the homes of Gentiles

It made them unclean

vs. 8 The Centurion didn’t consider himself worthy of having the Messiah coming to him

He tells Jesus to “Say the word” and my servant will be made well

Jesus marvels at this faith

In fact, he remarks to those with him that he hadn’t encountered faith like this in Israel

Israel is a picture of the church today

They have the power at their fingertips but they don’t possess the faith

2 Corinthians 5:7 ESV

for we walk by faith, not by sight.

We need to be reminded by people like the Roman Centurion that faith can move God to act

Hebrews 11:1 ESV

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Faith also leans on the Word of God and trusts for it to be true

Matthew 21:21 ESV

And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen.

Jesus told the Centurion “Let it be done.”

Power thru Compassion vs. 14-17

The final portrait we look at is power thru compassion

We see two acts of compassion in the passage

First, Peter’s mother-in-law was sick in a bed with a fever

Second, that evening he healed all who were sick

Jesus doesn’t look at any illness as too small

She could’ve rode the fever out and been fine the next day

Jesus touched her because it was killing her to be ill with guests in the house who she couldn’t serve

In some cultures it is a great humiliation to leave guests unserved

As soon as she was made well she got up and began to serve

Jesus showed compassion by helping her save face

That evening Peter’s house and surrounding area was filled with demon oppressed and the sick

He healed all of them

Jesus has compassion on everyone

Lamentations 3:22–23 ESV

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.