That's pretty good. Lord our God, we are about to study your mighty works through the hand of our Lord Jesus Christ today. And I pray that as we do so, we would feel again their power even if we have studied these stories and read them or heard them told, even over and over since we were little children. We pray, Lord, that we would regain or retain that awe before your mighty hand and appreciate that all of your works in Christ are loving and redeeming and restoring. We pray, Lord, that we would have our confidence and our affection for you rekindled through our time together. Lord, let us remember two, that these are not magical things that change a heart just by eyes seeing them. I pray, Lord, that we would remember the lessons that we'll see tonight that many people saw but did not believe and did not take the heart what was there. I pray that we would be eager to share with those whom we know who do not yet believe and that we ourselves would be careful to respond in full faith as you enable us. We pray in Christ's name, Amen. I pray that we are indeed looking at the miracles of Christ, the miracles of Christ and we're going to take, as we have for our course, the starting point from the Gospel of Matthew and especially in chapter 8 of Matthew. If you study the miracles, one of the first questions that people want to know is what did these all mean? Why did Jesus perform miracles? What does there significance in his ministry? Is he simply out to show these powerful? Are there many answers given to that question? One answer that people give is that Jesus performed miracles in order to instill faith and to give people confidence in him, to believe in his deity, to show his deity. But that answer doesn't quite do. And the reason it doesn't is because if Jesus miracles proved his deity, what did Moses miracles prove? Well, they didn't prove Moses was divine, so then miracles by themselves don't prove that someone is divine. They may prove that someone is an agent of God and that God is using them, but they don't prove that they are divine. Peter's miracles, Paul's miracles, were taken by some to mean they were divine and they were horrified by it. Remember in the book of Acts? So that's on it. Some people say, well, maybe they are given to increase faith. And that may be true, but it's also true that Jesus miracles sometimes made people's hearts get hard. Some people say it was a reward for faith, but the truth is that many people who receive miracles were not believers at all. Do you think everyone who received the bread when Jesus fed 5,000 was a believer? So that can't be it either. Maybe part of it, but it's not the whole story. People say in America, actions speak louder than words. And in some ways, any of that applies to Jesus' ministry. His actions speak. The question is, what are his actions saying? Well, first of all, if you look at Matthew itself, he actually gives you a couple of answers to that question. One answer comes in a structural device, which I will label for you. You know, when you take a course, when you pay good money, you've got to get a few big words, right? So the big word is inclusio. It's kind of like our word inclusion. The idea is a bracket, a repeated phrase that brackets off a large section of a book. And there are quite a few inclusios in the gospels, a few in the rest of the New Testament, but one of the most important of the inclusios is found in Matthew 4.23 and 9.35. Listen to what 4.23 says. And then some of which you notice when I read 9.35, Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people, okay? Summary of his activities, 9.35. Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every sickness, every disease, and sickness. What do you notice? They're the same. In the Greek, there's exactly one word that's different between those two. Now, what that saying is, 4.23 is beginning a section. You see what he does, threefold activity. He preaches the kingdom. Sorry, he teaches in synagogues. He preaches the good news. He heals every disease. 9.35, same thing. Chapter 5, 6 and 7, which we call the sermon on the Mount, is Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom. It's probably very close to what he taught, at least so what he taught in synagogues. He's proclaiming kingdom life. It's his proclamation. Then, chapters 8 and 9 are the rest of the story that's summarized here, namely, he is healing every disease and sickness among the people. It is a twofold ministry. His words and his works is preaching and teaching, and his healing cohere. They make one whole picture of Jesus' activity. And all of that activity is related to the presence of the kingdom of God. The sermon on the Mount often describe life in the kingdom. The kingdom and its righteousness will be a good summary of what the sermon on the Mount was all about. Chapters 8 and 9 of Matthew are the works of the kingdom. The kingdom, work of Christ embraces body and soul. It embraces the spirit and the flesh. Therefore, it is proven by words and by works. Jesus' miracles are one proof that the kingdom has indeed come. The kingdom has arrived as we saw a couple of classes ago. Now, this idea is shown in Matthew chapter 7 and take a look perhaps with me at verses 24 and following. And then in chapter 8, the two parts work together. Miracles approve the kingdom has come. They prove the power of God is breaking in. When he performs miracles, he sometimes says that this proves that the power of Satan has been broken. He heals people and says this woman has been released from her bondage to Satan. That is Luke 13 verse 16. Prove the kingdom is here. Now, the words and the works do that together. 724, Jesus is wrapping up the sermon on the Mount and he says, therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine. You see that? Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them in the practice is like a wise man to build his house in the rock. Now, that is a fine translation from the NIV, but literally from the Greek, what we actually read, word by word, is everyone who hears me these words. Now, what Jesus is doing is he is saying, when you heard the sermon on the Mount, you weren't just hearing words, you were hearing me. Now, you may say, well, of course, every time I hear some of these words, I hear them, but not quite so fast. What Jesus is saying is, you have heard me in a way that I think is different from the way you all right now are hearing me or any other lecture here, each other. An illustration hasn't come up yet in this class, but I guarantee you that it will eventually and it happens in every class. I start to get away from my notes. I look at my notes and I'm talking to you, but meanwhile, I'm having a little internal dialogue. I'm saying, that's not the way I want to say that. I can say that better. And so I ignore what I'm supposed to be speaking from and I start at living and I'm pretty happy with it and I say, you know, there's either four points and I go through the four points and then after class or to break, somebody will walk up and they'll say, you know, you gave those four points. I was interested, but those weren't in the syllabus and so could you state those again? And I will respond, wish I could. I don't really know what I said. I like it too. If you find somebody who got down what I said, bring it to me and I'll put it in my notes for next time because that is the way I want it to say it. How do your teachers have had the same thing happen to you? Fair number of people. Okay. That's one way in which I and my words are not really one. I say things, but they're not exactly mine. They just sort of come to me. It gets stronger than that. If you listen to a teacher maybe over and over again over span of years, maybe your pastor, you may love them very much and hang in his words, but occasionally pastors change their minds and really sharp people in the church will say, now pastor, I like what you said, but that sounds kind of different from what you said four years ago on the same scene. And the pastor can say, well, you know, I was only, you know, I was only explaining part of my views or something, but one thing pastors will say is, you know, I changed my mind. Or my favorite of all from a friend of mind is that is a stage in my intellectual development, which I have now superseded. And if you still think that then you're behind me because I've gone past that. Well, that's distancing our words from ourselves, right? Jesus doesn't do that. He doesn't change his mind. He doesn't forget point three. He doesn't say I've surpassed that level of development. When you hear his words, you hear him. There is a unity that doesn't hold for any human being, flawed mortal ordinary human being like us. There is a unity in his words to his person that is qualitatively different from all other connections that we have with our words. Jesus' words are his spirit. Now, furthermore, when Jesus speaks in the servant amount, we notice that he sounds awfully authoritative, doesn't he? Chapter 728, which is barely touched, I believe last time. When he finished these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching because he taught us one who had authority and not like the scribes. What was it? What was the way in which he taught that made people amazed at his authority? You know what the phrase was? It used over and over? John? Right. You've heard it was said, but I said you. In fact, on 14 different occasions in the servant amount, Jesus says, I say to you, doesn't quote anybody, doesn't have any authority that he's interested in. He doesn't need an authority. See, when I say something that's radical, I want to say, and not only do I believe this, but there's just great scholar. He believes it too. And then you say, well, you know, I wouldn't trust Dr. Durianne as far as I can throw a stick, but that scholar he quoted, you know, I'll believe that. See, Jesus doesn't need any scholars to back him up. In fact, all they could do would be detract because he's the real authority. So he says, truly, I say to you, but some people might say, where do you get the right to speak that way? You know, somebody doesn't see him as Lord and maybe just sees him as kind of an arrogant upstart who never really went to rabbinic school anyway. They might very well say, who gives you the right? Where did you get the right to speak? So differently from the prophets who said to us, says, Lord, or the rabbis who say, the rabbi so-and-so agrees with me. Well, chapter eight and nine, in a sense, are a long answer to that. And the answer is that his word has power. Chapter eight verses one through four, Jesus heals a leper. We'll talk about this, of course, in detail. He heals the leper with a word, verse three. Jesus says, be clean and he was immediately cleansed, eight three, eight five through thirteen. As Centurion asked, Jesus to heal his servant. Jesus says, I'll come. He says, oh, no, you don't need to. Just say the word and my servant will be healed. And he says the word and the servant is healed. Chapter eight, verse 16, many came to Jesus who were demon possessed and he drove out the spirits with a word. All I need to do is tell them. He didn't have to go into any more activity than that. I'm going to read you something from antiquity, just by way of contrast. This is from Josephus. Remember Josephus?
Josephus is a scribing exorcist whom he heard about. It goes like this. As I've seen a certain man of my own country, his name is Eliezer, releasing people that were demoniacal in the presence of emperor of the Spasian. In the whole multitude of the soldiers were there. He put a ring that had a root into the nostril of the demoniac. So he gets a tuber, he puts a ring on it and he stuffs it up somebody's nose. Listen, if you've got a demon, you can't be choosy. Thought your remedies here, for the camera, somebody said, ow, so that's my response. He put that ring to the nostril of the demoniac after which he drew out the demon through his nostrils and when the man fell down, immediately, he adjured him to return into him no more, making mention of Solomon and of reciting the incantations which he had composed. He said a little way off a copper basin full of water and commanded the demon as it went out of the man to turn it over and thereby to let the spectators know that he had left the man. Now that's one of several accounts that would be available in antiquity of the way other people did it. Very, very often there were people who tried to claim the right to perform miracles cast out demons and they always did it with a ritual, with incantations, with spells, with lengthy prayers. Maybe in the middle of the night by candlelight with clouds of incense, Jesus says a word and it's done. Luke chapter 4 shows the same thing if you have any doubts about this and would like to have it confirmed by two witnesses. Luke chapter 4 verses 31 to 38. It says Jesus went down to Capernum, town in Galilee, was teaching the people. In the synagogue, by the way, there's the synagogue of Capernum right there. Tossed it up there for you. It's going to come up, that synagogue is going to come up twice tonight and have another picture over for you as well. So in the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice. Ha! What do you want with us? Jesus' son of Nazareth, have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. Jesus said, be quiet. Come out of him, the demon threw the man down and came out without injuring him. All the people were amazed and said to each other, now again you have to trust me. I brought my Greek New Testament here tonight. If you want to look it up, if you know Greek, it says in your translation, what is this teaching? But in the Greek, it is, what is this word? What is this word that he speaks? He speaks a word and it happens. What is this word with authority and power? He gives orders to evil spirits and they go out and the report spread. So by his word, he speaks authoritatively on life and the kingdom on the life of righteousness and by words, it performs muddy deeds. Both manifest the kingdom, both manifest as authority and his power. Now that's the connection, that's the big picture in Luke, sorry, in Matthew 5-9 and also in Luke chapter 4, Luke develops the same idea in different ways, but it is in both gospels. Let me just stop right there if anybody has a question and would like to raise about that. What I said, what I was really saying at the beginning was that it, you know, what it does, what they don't do. They don't prove Jesus deity by themselves. You got all that. You got the don'ts. The do's are, they prove that the kingdom has come and they show the connection between Jesus's word and his work. That's been the theme for last few minutes. Well, okay, the question is, is that the answer to the question, where does Jesus get the authority to speak? That's the start of an answer. The truth is it's going to come up again in class number 22. If you're willing to wait that long. There are more answers than that, but one of the answers is that he proves the right to do that by his power. It also demonstrates, in general, we'll talk about that later today, that he is an agent of God and it's also going to turn up eventually that he has the right to say that because he is God, that'll be the final point, which we've kind of hinted at already tonight. Well, Matthew chapter 8, then let's look at a few miracles maybe in just a little more care. First miracle I'd like to look at is the first one recorded, namely the healing of a leper. It says in 8-1, Jesus came down from a mountain and as he did, a leper, mammoth leper, see, came and knelt before him and said, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. That's a kind of picture this maybe for a moment. He comes to Jesus and he kneels before Jesus, which is a way of doing two things. One, it's a way of showing the reverence in which he holds Jesus. I don't know if it's exactly worship, we might call it obescence, which is some close to worship, but not quite, it might be what you would do to a king or a great man and in antiquity many people believe that great people had a spark of the divine, bow before them.
It's a way of showing his reverence. It's also a way of keeping his distance because after all he is a he's a leper and so he speaks his piece. Now, the next thing that happens in this little episode is very interesting and I'm going to borrow what's your name? Chuck. Chuck, I'm going to borrow Chuck just for a moment here. Chuck, if you're willing to play the leper, just pretend you're leper for a moment. You kept your distance. All right. Jesus said, I am willing to clean. What happened next? What does it say? He reached out and I'll pretend you're in the first century idea. You're there as this is happening. What is leprosy? It's a curable disease of the skin, right? What do you defile and you become unclean? If you're all watching, what are you all thinking? Right now, Jesus reaches out. In fact, Chuck played his part already and grew back because Chuck wants to be nice because he doesn't want me to catch his uncleanness and be defiled and maybe Jesus will be viling the law. But Jesus reaches out and touches the man and says, I'm willing to be clean. What do you think that would be like for the man who has touched? It would be the first time you've been touched by a non leper since you were known to have the disease, right? It would probably be in some ways horrifying and in some ways deeply healing, deeply comforting, profoundly moving that Jesus, whom he might know even as Savior, would actually reach out and touch him. And this interesting thing happened. Instead of Jesus catching the man's uncleanness, the man caught Jesus cleanness. I am willing to touch, be cleansed and he was cleansed from his leprosy. Entirely so, he was cured. Like Jesus says, then go and show yourself to the priest. This would be, the touch would be almost sacramental. It would be a sign that something was about to happen. It shows Jesus power. It also suggests that Jesus power is not just abstract, shall we say, if you were a leper living in that time, when you contracted leper seed, it was shown that you had the disease. You were, as you know, excluded from society. You had to leave your home, your city, your family, your friends, your job, and live with other lepers outside the cities. So when Jesus touched this man, it wasn't just an act of healing him physically. It was an act of healing him socially. It was an act of restoring him to society. That's the first miracle that Jesus records. Second miracle that Jesus records, that Matthew records describing the power of Christ, is that of the healing of a centurion or a centurion servant to be more accurate. Again, we're in cappernum at the north end of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus' base of operations. Let me just show you here in the map, here's cappernum way at the northern end of the Sea of Galilee, and I've had this particular picture of the synagogue up, and I'm going to show you another picture of the same synagogue, this one taken from I level. This is obviously from an aerial photograph of all the tourists removed, and by retouching, because they're always tourists there, I guarantee you. If you can take a photograph, they're tourists there, and this is a horizontal picture, and that would be at about five foot height, and the building is really pretty high. I bring this up because this miracle also has a connection to the synagogue cappernum, and here it is. A centurion comes with a request. Nationality is Roman. Some people say that everybody hated the Romans. And that it was nothing but warfare and strife everywhere you turn. Other people aren't so sure, and they might point to this particular episode, because here's a man that seems to have lived at peace with the people around, and he comes to Jesus. The gospel of Luke tells us something that isn't here. Luke chapter 7 points out that actually some Jewish leaders interceded on his behalf, and said, Jesus, you ought to do this for the man, because he has built our synagogue. Luke chapter 7 verses 1 to 10, record that he loves our nation, so maybe it wasn't all strife after all. And in fact, if I can just break into the story already, the very idea that the second miracle that Jesus performs is not for a Jew, but for a Roman centurion, already gives us some hints about the diversity of Jesus' ministry. Think about who receives Jesus' miracles. Certainly a Jewish male, like the leper, the paralytic, that we read about for today. Gentiles like the centurion, and like the gathering demoniac that we'll talk about later. Women will briefly allude to the woman who had the hemorrhage for over a decade and to a little girl who died. To the rulers and to the rich, like a centurion, like a royal official who's mentioned in John chapter 4, and also to the poor, the outcast, like the leper, like people who are demon possessed, people from all over Galilee. And we can also see that Jesus' miracles cover every realm, every range of action. Disease will see also nature, demons, evil spirits, and sin. Enormous range to Jesus' ministry. All kinds of people, male and female, rich and poor, Israelite and non-Israelite. Now here, the main stress is not so much on the drama, although it's so short, the little story of the leper being healed is really very dramatic. This one's not dramatic. This one actually focuses instead on Jesus' teaching. If you read the book by getting the message, this would be a report, not a full-blown narrative, but a report, and reports ordinarily lead to a very short description of the miracle, but then a theological discussion at the end that reveals what it's all about. So that's what happens here. The centurion approaches whether directly, Matthew 8, or indirectly through mediaries, emissaries, as Luke tells the story. And the request is that a servant is lying paralyzed. Jesus simply offers, I'll go and heal him. The centurion says, you know, that's really not necessary. First of all, I'm not worthy of it. And second, you don't need to. You don't need to be bothered, because all you have to do is say the word, and it'll be done. He uses an analogy. He says, I know the way it is in the military. When a commander gives an order, it's done. He doesn't have to watch it be done. If he gives an order, it's done. And that's the way it'll be with you. Jesus says, I've never seen such faith in Israel, which is praise to the centurion, but it's also an implicit condemnation to Israel. Many, verse 11 says, will come from east and west and take their places and feast with Abraham, but the subject of the kingdom will be thrown out. When he says, I've never seen such faith in Israel, it's a wonderful praise for the centurion, but it's also a hint that Israel is not as faithful as ought to be. Well, Israel isn't always missing the point though. Chapter 8 moves on and we come to 14 to 17. Jesus is teaching healing more people, including Peter's mother-in-law, and there are lots of people being healed, demon possessed, people, and all kinds of sick people, verse 16. And then Matthew says an interesting thing. He says, this happened to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah. He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases. Where's that come from? Don't say Isaiah. Come from Isaiah 53, 53, four. What is found in Isaiah 53? What is that chapter of the Bible? It's the suffering servant, right? And what's the theme of that? Somebody said it. The theme is the substitutionary atonement, Jesus bearing our sins. And in fact, this is, verse 4, is one of those that is ordinarily quoted along the line of this substitutionary atonement. He took our infirmities and carried our diseases. Now, do you remember from a week ago what you're supposed to do when you find a quotation from the Old Testament? You're supposed to go look it up. Shall we do it? Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53, and I'm not going to read the entire thing. It describes Jesus as one, the suffering servant is one despised, one from whom men hide their faces in verse 3. Then I'm just going to read 4, 5, and 6. Surely he took up our infirmities. He carried our sorrows. That's the verse that we just read in Matthew chapter 8. Yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for ouriquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. But the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all. Now, we read that through the lens, rightly so, of the substitutionary atonement. But Matthew was saying, not only is there substitution and removal of punishment through Jesus' death, but there is also healing in it. It's not just that we avoid judgment. We're brought not only into heaven, but you might say, we receive many other blessings besides. There's healing before the judgment seat of God, but there are other kinds of healing too. You can even see it here. By his wounds we are healed, right? Not by his wounds we're forgiven. That's true, but what he says actually is by his wounds we are healed, and he carried our sorrows and our infirmities. What he's saying is, what Matthew is saying here is, two things. One, to understand Jesus' ministry, we have to understand in its relationship to Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53 explains a lot of things about Jesus' ministry. He did not open his mouth, seems to explain his behavior at his trial. He was assigned a grave with a rich in his death, 53-9, Joseph of Eherimathia, bearing Jesus. 53-11, my righteous servant will justify the many. Jesus said, I give my life as a ransom for many. Isaiah 53 is in some ways the most important chapter, even in the whole Old Testament, to understand Jesus' ministry as portrayed in the Gospel of Matthew. But one of the things we should learn is that Jesus' entire healing ministry rests on his substitutionary death. When he gave himself for us, living a perfect life dying in the cross, rising again, he opened up entire realms of restoration for our life which should begin even now. It's also true that Matthew connected this idea of salvation and healing in quite a number of ways. For example, chapter 1, verse 23, Jesus shall be called Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. He will
save them and that word save is one of the commonest words Jesus uses actually for healing. The word heal, when you read somebody's heal, the word is often, the literal word in the Greek is often saved. There's an overlap. I think I'm getting nodding heads, which shows that a lot of you have been told that before. And one we're going to look at later tonight, the healing of the paralytic, before Jesus raises the man from his mat, he says, your sins are forgiven, which again connects the remission of sins with the healing of disease or the removal of troubles. And for one other thing, it also shows this two-fold connection, shows that in Jesus' ministry, the Messianic age has gone upon us. I want to read with you Isaiah chapter 29 verses 18 to 20. The Messianic age has two things going on in it. Freedom from sin but also physical well-being. Let me say that again. In the Messiah's age, there's freedom from sin and physical well-being. Notice how they're linked together in Isaiah 29 verse 18. In that day, that's the Messiah's day, the death will hear the words of the scroll and out of gloom and darkness. The eyes of the blind will see. Once more, the humble. Now you see how he moved from healing the death, the blind. He's now talking about the humble. The humble rejoicing the Lord, the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. The ruthless will vanquish. So there's the disappearance of sin. The mockers will disappear at all who have an eye for evil will be cut down. Physical healing? Spiritual healing. See the same thing in chapter 32 of Isaiah, chapter 32 verses 1 to 4. I'll just read part of it. See a king will reign in righteousness and rulers will rule with justice. Each man will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm like streams of water in desert, the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land. Then the eyes of those whose sea will no longer be closed, the ears of those who hear will listen. The mind of the rash will know and understand the stammering tongue will be fluent and clear. Again, you see the interplay or the interweaving of people who are physically harmed and those who are spiritually harmed, those who can't talk and those who talk foolishness, we might say, those who can't see at all and those who can't see spiritually, it's all going to be healed together. It's the age that we come to the age of the Messiah. Now, 18 to 22 show that this teaching together with these deeds call a response fourth, 18 and following. In a couple of verses, a short span, we get people coming up to Jesus who've been intrigued, we might say, or moved by what they've seen. I'm going to ask you what you think of this. A teacher of the law came to Jesus and said, teacher, I will follow you wherever you go. What do you think of that? Sound good or bad. Are you happy or are you suspicious? Why are you suspicious? Are you just suspicious people or what? Why would he offer that in the first place? Somebody else? Yes. Yeah, I'll just, wow, it's neat. I'll just do whatever you say. Okay, what else? Maybe a magician would do the same. Did I see a hand over here and left? Yes.
See it perhaps you see something better than the law? Okay. Does anybody suspicious of the fact that this is a scribe? They aren't usually good guys, are they? They're not always bad. But there's something else that kind of bothers me. How does somebody become a disciple of Jesus? Jesus chooses them. This is not a self-nomination process, is it? Hey, I'll be one of the 12. Look at me. I'm qualified. Well, you know, we can laugh. And it is maybe a little bit funny because it's so different from the way Jesus did operate. Actually, that is the way people did it in the ancient world and in Israel at the time, people sort of said to a rabbi, I want to be your disciple. You let me be your disciple. So he's basically seeing Jesus as a rabbi. What's the word that he uses? He uses the word teacher. What is the word teacher and rabbi are one and the same word. It's time to point out to you when you read that. So Jesus is approached by man. It seems to have a good intention, but he doesn't quite know what he's doing. He's a little bit bald. He's calling Jesus as a teacher. That's such a good sign. And Jesus seems to put them off a little bit. He says, well, you know, not so fast. Before you get involved in this, you need to know that foxes have holes and birds of the ear have nests, but they're better off than I am. That's my paraphrase. I mean, they've ever gone out in nature on a day like today and seen a bird in its nest. It's a sad sight. But Jesus says, they're better off. Maybe at least got a nest. We've got a rock to lay our heads on. Willing, there's no uptake. You never find out what happened. He doesn't say, yeah, okay, gotcha. He just disappears. And so maybe we're a little bit discouraged. And maybe it looks doubtful. How about the next one? Another disciple said to him, Lord, first let me go and bury my father. How's that sound? I'll pay attention every word. The first guy called Jesus teacher. What does he do? What does the second person use? Lord, is that good? It's an improvement, okay? What else is there about? The first man was a scribe. What's this guy? He's a disciple. So that sounds good. He's a follower, right? Anything else to make you hopeful, or maybe unhopeful, is dedicated to his father. He's loyal. Of course, that's the problem, isn't it? Because we have to think carefully about what it might mean. Let me go and bury my father. In Israel, they didn't have the advantages of the services of an undertaker and the chemicals they can use to take care of things when a body is separated from the spirit. Somebody dies. You had to bury somebody within 24 hours, or else the problem with Lazarus would come as the King James says, Lord, he's thinketh and if you've ever had an animal die in your house and you try to find it, you know what that means. They had to bury somebody within 24 hours. I don't believe that man's father had died in the previous 24 hours. If his father had died in the previous 24 hours, he would not be out in public. It'd be take care of private arrangements. That's just the way it was. When he says, let me go bury my father. What he means is, my father is old. He might mean my father is really old. My father's death is foreseeable. Now, of course, we're not quite so sure of that kind of dedication to mom and dad is right. Jesus says to him, pretty bluntly, you follow me and let the dead bury their own dead. Now, what he means by that is certainly metaphorical because he can't mean let a dead corpse bury another dead corpse because that's the whole problem is that corpses can't do stuff and that's why you bury them. I mean they don't bury themselves. You have to do it for them. So the dead, the physically dead can't bury the physically dead but the spiritually dead can and what Jesus is doing is saying, you know, this concern with even the good duties, the sensible obligations of this life are inferior and have to be subordinated to the superior claims of Christ. When he says, follow me, he even uses a Greek way of giving command, meaning you follow me now and keep on following a present imperative. You continually follow me is Jesus command, follow me always. What happens to this fellow doesn't say. We don't find out what happened to either one. Isn't that interesting? Why do you think Matthew didn't tell us?
One answer might be it wasn't that important whether they followed or not. Another answer might be he didn't know. I doubt that. I think probably the best answer is if he had told us that would have made it too easy and we get and he didn't do it. See how bad he was. He's not like me I followed but by leaving it open ended it's got a character. You finish the story. What do you think is the right answer? Do you feel Jesus' words hang there and they still speak. They still speak to me in you. They still speak to me in you about subordinating the good duties of this life to the great duty of loyalty to Christ even at great cost. That I think is what he's up to. Paul and that's done. We get to another range of miracles and I call these miracles of Lordship. I'm going to go through some of them very fast and we'll slow it down and look at some of them some more. The first one is the calling of the storm and this shows that Jesus is Lord over nature. He says the word and the wind and the waves stop. He heals with the touch. He also heals with the word. He doesn't just hear heal bodies. Some people say well you know there's no doubt some skeptics say well you know there's no doubt that Jesus healed some people that's part of it but you know see it was the power I use chuck I guess. It was the power suggestion. He didn't really heal chuck. He just touching chuck made chuck feel so much better about himself that I mean this is actually said this is a serious teaching by major scholars. Jesus never healed anybody but he was such a magnetic person so popular that when he would touch people that had a healing effect on them and that would restore them to society. Now I'm sure it was encouraging to leper to be touched but I don't think a touch is going to make an objective disease go away. Something more needs to be said but okay maybe people explain away Jesus touch but you can't explain away commanding the wind and the waves can you.
Jesus talks to an animate objects and they obey you and I talked to an animate objects too don't we?
I once had a toaster it was given to me when I got married somebody said you know we got some old stuff lying around the basement they said we hope it works for you didn't get a toaster for your wedding now we didn't get one it's 15 years old but you can have it it's worked great for us we just got tired of it we just got bored but looking at it so we got another one my wife and I kept it for 17 years and all during those years it was a very very faithful toaster occasionally however it decided that it wanted a long-term relationship with a bagel and it would embrace that bagel and it wouldn't let that bagel go and the smoke would curl up and I would smack that thing and I would talk to you I'd say you're such a faithful toaster why are you letting me down are you aging and you know it didn't listen in sports the same thing happens you know um play tennis hit a ball you know the second you hit it's either in or out by one inch say stay down was it stay down only if that's the way you hit it that's all if you're playing golf and you say stay out of the trees it's probably because you see it going to the trees and it probably is going to go into the trees the best place to see this is in bowling and bowling people don't just talk they you know they use body language as well they they urge that ball to get out of the alley does the ball obey a ball does not obey now we talk and nothing happens Jesus talks in nature obeys sets him apart Jesus also heals people with demon possession we'll talk about that later he heals people to reverse the effects of sin the healing of the paralytic again later he heals intractable intractable problems the woman bleeding for a year after a year a little girl who had died he can do it all but one sample that I'd like to look at is a demonstration of Jesus power in an encounter with a demon Matthew chapter 8 verses 28 to 34 now this incidentally we'll talk about this a little bit later this is incidentally is one of the small variations in the reporting between one gospel and the next with the centurion Matthew says he came and Luke says emissaries came in his behalf here we have in Matthew two demoniacs in market Luke and only records one demoniac I'm just going to I'm going to basically ignore that for now we'll get to that later these little variations let's just look at a description of the demoniac what seems to be the main demoniac and jump over to Luke chapter 8 to do that Luke chapter 8 and Luke chapter 8 we have the same story just told a little bit differently and some things are recorded there that I want to talk about verses 26 and following this is a severe case of demon possession I'm not going to read all this to you but we have a man who is apparently almost totally consumed and deranged by his demon possession he has no clothes he has no home he's driven into solitary places verse 29 no one can go there he lives among tombs an unclean place suggesting his total alienation from society cries out he falls he shouts chains can't hold him he seems to have a superhuman strength he has no name his only name is legion that's all his name is which maybe suggests alien powers like the Roman legions alien powers holding him gashed himself with stones mark says the episode also shows how foolish demons are don't give demons too much credit the demons did you notice approached Jesus and said stay away from me what they came up to Jesus and said stay away from me that doesn't make sense they also begged and pleaded but they also shouted and demanded they said you know what is there between me and you leave me alone have you come to torment us before the times please don't bother me they're sort of quivering before him please don't send us into the abyss but they're also saying leave me alone you have no business with me go away they seem to know who Jesus is the son of the most high they say there that's a title from Luke 132 maybe they have some knowledge but if they really know Jesus some of the most high what did they think they can manipulate him anyway are they trying to be able to use his name just to control him somehow that was what some people thought they say don't torture me before the time they know there is a time they just hope it isn't there yet they try to cut a deal don't throw us into the abyss the lake of fire where Satan and his demons will go according to the book of Revelation send us into the pigs so Jesus is all right I'll let you go into the pigs and then irony of ironies the pigs run into an abyss a watery abyss that's not the main point however that little bit of iron to the main point is that the Moniac is changed first 29 he is he was driven about but at the end when the demons are gone he is sitting he was naked but now he's dressed he was in the tombs now he's at Jesus feet he was so deranged even know his name but now he's in his right mind he's restored to normalcy he is saved he's made whole the people in that region couldn't even go near where he lived because it was too dangerous but when he's healed you suppose the people of that area come by to thank Jesus for for taking care of their problem and making it possible use that nice little shortcut no they're afraid and they ask Jesus to leave and they ask Jesus to leave because they understand something they got a point this demoniac was more powerful than us we couldn't control it Jesus could control it so Jesus must be even more powerful than the demoniac and there's no telling quite what he'll do I mean gee I heard a pig's down the drain well not down the drain but into the drink anyway and there's no telling what he may do next the demoniac beg to be a disciple Jesus said no what I want you to do is really be my first missionary almost the proto missionary go and tell all that God has done for you in some ways that's what the miracles are about demonstrating all that God has done demonstrating he has authority over all things and that he will use that authority that is there both in his word and in his works for the good for the healing of those who come under his you