The Power Of The Lord Jesus (part 1) - [Matthew 8]

Showing Christ in Every Sermon

I have been asked over the years, have you changed theologically over the last 23 years since you've been a pastor? And if so, has the church changed with you theologically? And I tell people when they ask that question, maybe I could summarize the change over the last 20 years as simply making sure that when anyone steps up in this pulpit, including myself, that we do show you Christ.

That's the main thing. I don't know what my legacy will be one day when I die and I'm gone, but I would hope it would be. It's my prayer that when that man stood up in the pulpit, sinful and frail though he may be, he talked about the Lord Jesus Christ every single week.

And I want to make sure I do that for lots of reasons because I'm commanded to do that, but also that's your model as well, is it not? If you're a mom and you want to teach your children the Bible, there's nothing wrong with going to the book of Proverbs and instructing them, but it needs to be in light of the risen Savior.

If you say, well, I like to evangelize. Well, how does showing people Christ help you evangelize? Because you're teaching them about the object of their faith or who they should believe in. And so that's really the main emphasis here at Bethlehem Bible Church.

No matter what book we're preaching from, this is a Christian book, all 66 books, and we want to show you the Lord Jesus Christ. And I trust that's why you're here. I have certain books of the Bible and certain passages that I go to regularly.

I have books that help me when I need encouragement, help me when I need to be reminded who my joy is in, and certain chapters that just regularly beckon me and call me to read them. Remember Spurgeon used to say, certain passages shout out, read me, preach me, study me.

When I get up in the morning, I have a cup of coffee and I sit down with my Bible. And if it's the 17th or the 18th, I read Proverbs 17 or 18. I'll usually read Exodus chapter eight or whatever I'm supposed to be reading.

And then I like to read something from the gospels, something that reminds me of the good news of who Jesus is and how he's conquered death. And so today we're going to go to a passage that has regularly and often, even to this day, comforted me and helped me in my walk.

It's one of my go-to passages where if I had to put like a crease in my Bible, maybe Romans five would be a crease, but also this chapter would be one of those chapters where I just regularly, I mean regularly read, every month at least, sometimes every day for a month.

And that is Matthew chapter eight. Please turn your Bibles to the gospel of Jesus Christ, according to Matthew. And we are going to look at Matthew chapter eight and nine this week and next to get a good focused picture of who Jesus is, the compassionate, powerful savior.

Matthew as the Gospel of the King

Here's my strategy over the next few weeks. We've just finished the book of James, which was excellent to work through, 54 imperatives, lots of law, of course. And then now before we get into the next book, which I think will be in several weeks, I think we'll go through the book of Nahum chapter by chapter.

I want to just kind of come back and look at a passage here. That's one of those passages that just kind of, it almost like settles you. It makes you think, you know what? Okay, that's right. I'm thinking rightly.

I'm worshiping the right one. I'm trusting in the risen savior. Yes, this is in fact the Messiah. And this chapter is going to highlight Jesus's divinity. He's the son of God and he's the son of man. It will highlight his humanity and you'll see the significance of the power of the almighty God, Jesus.

And also that the incarnation is significant in his compassion as he deals with sinful people. Tozer said decades ago, it is my opinion that the Christian conception of God current in these middle years of the 20th century is so decadent as to be utterly beneath the dignity of the most high God and actually to constitute for professed believers something amounting to a moral calamity.

Tozer said the heaviest obligation lying upon the Christian church today is to purify and elevate her concept of God until it is once more worthy of him and her. And that's exactly what Matthew chapter 8 does.

It just resets everything. Every single Saturday night, I take my iPad and I turn it off to reboot it so it doesn't go crazy on Sunday morning because I might be off preaching second assumptions or something if this messes up.

So this is one of those good reboots. And reboots are important because when it comes to the gospel, the only way we get the gospel is through revelation. You get the law in lots of ways. You don't even need scripture to know the law.

It's written on your heart. But to learn about the gospel, to learn about Jesus, we need external revelation. And that's exactly what happens in Matthew chapter 8. This is a book, by the way, Matthew, that talks about Jesus as king.

So whenever you read the book of Matthew, the gospel of Jesus, according to Matthew, you ought to think of king. Now here's the interesting part. I almost said cool part. It is cool. In chapter 1, does this king have the right blood?

Does he have the right bloodline? Does he have the right genealogy? And hence we get the genealogy of Jesus. He's the right king. He comes from a legitimate background. Well, when the king's young, there's lots of other people who want to be king and might want to murder this young king.

And we see that in chapter 2, do we not, with Herod after the king. Well, kings, when they're announced, they have somebody going in front of them. There's a convoy, as it were, some advanced team, and his name is John the Baptist.

That's Matthew chapter 3. Jesus comes to his ministry, and he's inaugurated into gospel ministry, and there are foes. There are people in the palace, of course, that would want to kill him. His name is Satan.

Of course, Jesus conquers Satan. And then the king opens his mouth in the Sermon on the Mount, the Manifesto of the King, Matthew 5, 6, and 7. So where does Matthew 8 lie? How does it frame itself in Jesus is the king?

Why is Matthew 8 and 9 there? Take a look at Matthew chapter 7. There's a hint in Matthew 7, verse 24 and verse 26. Matthew 7, 24, Jesus said, "...and everyone then who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.".

Verse 26, "...and everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who builds his house on the sand.". Who gave you that authority? How can you talk that way? Remember earlier in chapter 5, you have heard it said, but what I say to you.

Who has those credentials? If you're going to talk that way, you better have the person and work and their credentials and the authority to do that very thing. And so therefore, Matthew writes, it's probably not chronological, it's probably a topical section so that you say what Jesus says by His own authority without even quoting the Old Testament, it's true and right and good.

These are the credentials, the authenticating signs that Jesus is the right one to worship. I've often thought to myself, if I was there 2 ,000 years ago and there was a man, a real man, of course, Jesus is more than a man, but a man, what would it take for me to run up and get down on my face and worship Him?

What would it take for me to take some jar of perfume and break it over His head or onto His feet and wipe His feet with my hair? Just a guy that said, I'm the king? But Jesus here in Matthew 8 and 9, we're going to look at this week and next these seven powerful, compassionate displays so that you'll say to yourself, He is who He says He is.

And if I am not a Christian, I must worship Him. And if I am a Christian, I can keep trusting in Him. Matthew chapter 8. One last thing before I start preaching through these seven great, powerful demonstrations of the Lord Jesus, the Messiah.

I like Matthew 8 for this reason as well. It doesn't let me get myself into the passage. Where are you in Matthew 8? I'm not anywhere. Sometimes we can try to jam ourselves into a passage. Like Matthew 4, we jam ourselves in there and we're like, see, Jesus quoted Deuteronomy three times against Satan, hide God's word in your heart and therefore not sin against God, which is true.

But it has nothing to do with Matthew chapter 4. Matthew chapter 4, it's bigger. Which one is more grandiose or universal or more triumphant or more weighty? Remember Deuteronomy, study the Bible, say no to temptation, the devil will flee from you.

Or your eternal souls are riding on what Jesus does with Satan in the wilderness. Adam's tempted and failed, Eve's tempted and failed, Israel's tempted and failed, David's tempted and failed, we've been tempted and failed.

Unless somebody's going to be tempted and overcomes the temptation of Satan, everybody's going to hell. Will Jesus make it? Will the captain of our salvation be triumphant? We end up reading the Bible like we're everywhere.

Now, of course, we get to believe in this God. He wants you to believe in this God. But the focus isn't on us. When we learn about Jesus, yes, we will respond, but it's all about the Lord Jesus and that's why I love Matthew chapter 8, Jesus the King showing his credentials so that we trust in him.

Jesus Cleanses the Leper

Seven cameo appearances of Jesus, as it were, seven demonstrations of his authentic power, Matthew chapter 8. Verse 1 through 4, Jesus's power and authority over leprosy. Jesus's power and authority over leprosy.

When he came down from the mountain, verse 1, great crowds followed him. You can just imagine what that must have sounded like and looked like and smelled like. And behold, Matthew likes to say that to get your attention, so you pay stricter attention.

A leper came to him and knelt before him saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. Friends, everything about that passage is fascinating to me. Everything about this. What's going on here? You just almost have to kind of stop and let it sink in a little bit, kind of like say la when you read that in the Psalms.

I better just pause for a second. Behold, a leper came to him. By the way, lepers aren't supposed to go to anybody, especially in front of people. They're supposed to be yelling unclean, unclean. They're supposed to be far away.

And this leper goes up to Jesus, and he's a rabbi, he's a teacher, and he gets down on his knees. Lord, people say, oh, that's just sir. No, no, the next three words in English tell me that's not just sir.

If you will, you're the Lord, you can decide whatever you want or not, you can make me clean. What's also interesting to me about this, when's the last time a leper was healed? Last time a leper was healed was Naaman the Syrian about a thousand years before.

And of course, earlier than that, Miriam was leprous, and she was healed. He runs up, he knows that Jesus is the Lord, he doesn't care about social ceremonial stigmas or anything, and he gets down on his knees, and Lord, if you will, you've got the power, you can make me clean, but do you have the purpose?

You're Lord and sovereign. When I read that, by the way, as a side note, when people get on TV and start running their mouths about name it and claim it, and God's got to do stuff for you, and blab it and grab it, and all this prosperity gospel, you ought to think of this and go, this is not how you talk.

This is how you talk to Jesus. You're powerful, but will you? Will you? This man knew that what Jesus said, he had the power and compassion to back up. He, you can almost imagine, Matthew's wanting you to see this leper's faith and understand who the Messiah is, so you too, like the leper, go straight to Jesus.

And of course, our leprosy might not be skin, but it's a sinful state of leprosy. I don't know, maybe the leper heard Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7 ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you, for everyone who asks, Jesus says, receives, and the one who seeks finds, and the one who knocks, it will be opened.

He either heard that, or he heard of that, or he knew Jesus was this approachable Messiah. And here comes this leper. Mark says he was beseeching him. Say, well, what's leprosy? All kinds of studies, what leprosy was then, what it is now, was Hansen's disease, which we call it now, was it back then?

We don't really know, but it was incurable. That's what we do know. And it was a stigma that you'd have to be far away from people, and it did a lot of bad things to you. You couldn't be cured, did bad things.

If it was a kind of a Hansen's disease thing, it would affect your vocal cords and you could pretty much only gurgle. It would affect your smell. You would smell like rotten flesh. It would affect your nerve endings on your fingers.

Dr. Brand, in modern days, would always put cats in leprous hospitals because if a rat is eating your fingers, you say, ouch, and wake up at night, like last night, right? But if you can't feel your fingers and the rats are eating your fingers, you need to have a cat around.

So there are purposes for cats that I affirm. When I was in New York last week, I stayed with a family that had four cats and they actually were pretty cool at a distance. Leprosy means scaly. So whatever the disease was, Hansen's or something like it, here comes this man up to Jesus and he knows Jesus has the credentials of the king and the power, but does he have the will to do it?

Is this God's will for him to heal? Jesus is not yelling, unclean, unclean. What happens? This man just barges right up. He's not even sneaking around. He wasn't jumping out of a bush or hiding up in a sycamore tree or anything.

He just goes right up to Jesus. He knows Jesus has the power and he's confident that he could heal him. And Jesus, before I read this, is the incarnation significant? Here's the answer to that question.

And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him saying, I have the purpose, I will. And I have the power and just with a word and a touch, be clean. What kind of rabbi touches a leper? What kind of any person touches a leper?

Stretches out his hand and you think, okay, he's got the power to do it. The deity of Christ. He's got the compassion to do it. He touches him. Mark says he felt compassion. And it wasn't just a feeling of my bowels are aching for this person, and they were, but it's the touch of compassion as well.

Start seeing right away. Matthew shows this king. And this king is divine. He is omnipotent. He's also human. He's compassionate. He touches. When's the last time I wonder anybody touched a leper who wasn't a leper?

And here Jesus shows pity and touches. And immediately, what did the text say? His leprosy was cleansed. Nobody's going to walk around going, well, this could have been one of those guys on TV. You know, their legs lengthened, their back is better.

But two days later, maybe not. No, in Jesus, the God-man heals. It is instantaneous. It is organic. It is verifiable by cameras. If CNN was there, they would verify all this. I didn't know that would get a laugh.

The things that I want a laugh for, I don't get. Mark's point is, Matthew's point is, this is supernatural. This is the one that you can trust. If you saw this man on earth, this is the kind of thing where you'd go, I should worship him.

I should be up there on my knees. That's what Matthew's trying to get you to do. This is not an account. It's written like in 1 John, so that you may believe. Like John, so that you may believe. Power and compassion of Jesus.

And then he says, of course, Jesus knows the law. And he gives this warning, because there's all this kind of zealot mentality going on for the Messiah. And they want to have a special Jewish Messiah that's going to go after Rome.

It's not that time yet. It's not that kind of Messiah. See to it that you say nothing to anyone, but go show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded. Do what the Bible says, for a proof to them.

I love what S. Lewis Johnson says. Can you imagine if you're that priest? Here comes the leper. And you know there's something in the Bible about what do you do if a leper gets healed? But it never happens, right?

So you've got the standard operating procedure manual, and if nothing's ever happened in the last thousand years, why do you even bother looking it up? And all of a sudden, here comes the leper, and you're like, I know Leviticus someplace says, this is what you do with a leper.

Later in Matthew, how do you know it's the Messiah? Jesus said, go and tell John the Baptist what you hear and see. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, and lepers are cleansed. That's how you know he's the Messiah.

The Centurion’s Faith and Jesus’ Authority

But there's more. The second picture we have of God's power, the Son's power and compassion, is found in verses 5 through 13. Again, I just regularly go to Matthew and just let these words kind of pour over my soul because I need to be reminded of the one I'm believing in and the one that I'm trusting, and he's powerful and compassionate and more.

By the way, I don't know if you ever think this, maybe I'm the odd one, but on occasion, I'll have thoughts like this. Am I trusting in the right Savior? What if what the world says is really true? That Jesus isn't right, he's one way, he's a good man, he's not the God-man.

Christianity is as foolish as they say it is. Some guy dies on a tree 2 ,000 years ago, 10 ,000 other Jews died on trees too, but if I believe in this one, my eternal soul will be saved and I'll be completely forgiven.

And as 1 Corinthians says to the unbelievers, that's just really stupid and moronic and just an imbecilic thing. Am I believing in the right one? Am I trusting in the right one? Every one of us will stand before God on judgment day.

And what if my advocate is sinful and a hoax? What if the one who's going to be my defender and the one who said he loved me and gave himself for me, and he said, you know what, I'm going to love you and die for you and secure you and present you to the Father, and all of a sudden, guy's a liar.

He had no credentials at all. He was all talk. He was no different than David Koresh. He's no different than Jim Jones. He had no credentials except he just said, I'm the Messiah. Lots of people are going to say, even Jesus said, hey, I'm the Messiah.

So I love Matthew because it settles me. I'm trusting in the right one. And this is the one who's doing these things now, leading up to the cross, leading up to victory via the resurrection. The second credential is found with the centurion and his servant, verses 5 through 13.

This powerful authority, authenticating Jesus and authenticating his words. When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came up forward or came forward to him, appealing to him, like the leper, he comes up for the appeal.

Like the leper, he's not saying, sir, Lord. He's heard as well. My servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly. Now, I think centurions are mentioned in the New Testament five, six, seven times.

Every time they're commended. Up until even at the very end, remember the centurion looking at Jesus on the cross. Truly what? This is the Son of God. Centurion, what's a centurion? Well, the easy way to think about it is, how many cents in a dollar?

Kids, how many cents in a dollar? That's right, 100. See, I knew you knew that. How many years in a century? 100, okay, good. How many soldiers does a centurion oversee? Somebody just say 10. 100, that's right.

And we go, oh, he just was over 100 guys. No, no. Most writings will say, it took you 16 years to be an officer to command 100 men. This was not some kind of slouch thing. Hey, it's a government job. You know, I was G3, now I'm G4 just because I've been here for quite a while.

No, no. This is a class more than a rank. There's prestige here. There's honor here. Greek historian Polybius wrote, quote,. In choosing their centurions, the Romans looked not so much for the daring or fire-eating type, but rather for men who are natural leaders and possess a stable and imperturbable temperament.

Not men who will open the battle and launch attacks, but those who will stand their ground even when worsted or hard-pressed and will die in defense of their posts. This man analyzes and says, I've got to get help for my servant.

Now, I'm not going to spend the time to do it now, but you ought to read Luke 7 sometime because Luke 7 gives us the expanded account. Matthew gives us the condensed account. The expanded account is the centurion didn't actually go himself.

He sent people to represent him. Matthew condenses it, and as you read it, you'll think, oh, he was actually there, but he's actually sending through his messengers. And you can study Luke 7 on your own.

We ought not to get bogged down in the details when the big point is, does Jesus have the credentials and what are those credentials? Is He powerful? Is He compassionate? Verse 7,. And He, Jesus, said to him, the centurion through the messengers, to be technical, I will come and heal him.

I emphatically, I'll do it. Now, wait a second. Everything about this seems to be wrong. The Gentile Roman soldier is asking the Jewish rabbi to come and heal the servant. The centurion replied, verse 8, Lord, there it is again, Lord, I'm not worthy to have you come under my roof.

He, like the leper, knew who Jesus was, but only say the word. That's how much power you have, and my servant will be healed. And then, if you read too fast, you'll miss it, and this is one of the most fascinating accounts here.

The centurion knew a lot about Jesus. Now, look at this, verse 9, For I too, don't miss that, am a man under authority. With soldiers under me, I say to one, go, and he goes, and another comes, and he comes, and my servant do this, and he does it.

What if I were to read it differently? Verse 9, For I am a man under authority. But that's not what he said. He said, I too am a man under authority. What's going on? He, the centurion, recognizes Jesus was a man under what?

Authority. He's not a self-made Messiah. He just didn't promote Himself. You can think of the language of Hebrews. Here's what Spurgeon said. Here was the great point. Here was a man commissioned. A man authorized.

Girt with authority. And he looked upon Christ in the same manner. Sent of God, under divine authority, girt about with a heavenly commission. Now, I didn't ever think I'd have to say the word girt from this pulpit, but I just said it several times and last service.

But you know what I'm saying. How do I know He has the authority to be my representative and then my Savior? The leper knew it. Can't you see it? The centurion knew it. Can't you see it? Jesus didn't authorize Himself.

He was sent by the Father. Over and over and over. Pastor Steve, in the last years in John, the Father who sent me, the Father who sent me, even up at Gethsemane. It's not my will, but Your will be done.

I'm here. I'm under Your authority, Father, to do this. And that centurion knew, I'm under authority. I tell people what to do. He's under authority. The same thing happens. He's God. He can heal with His Word.

He's a Messiah. He's compassionate. When Jesus heard this, He what? He marveled. Jesus doesn't marvel much, by the way, in the New Testament. He marveled at the unbelief of Israel and now He's marveling at the belief of a Gentile soldier.

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 the table with Jewish Abraham, Jewish Isaac, and Jewish Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom, lots of Jews, will be thrown into the outer darkness.

In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Where are the Jewish leaders who recognize the authority and power of the Messiah? Don't be like them. It's almost like Matthew saying, the Jews didn't get it.

Make sure you get it. What about this banquet stuff? What about this great feast that he's alluding to? Where they're Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob reclining at table. This is the marriage supper of the Lamb.

This is the end times. But what about the end times? I don't know if you know this from Isaiah 26. This describes this great marriage supper of the Lamb. This Messianic banquet at the end of all time.

Listen to this. On this mountain of the Lord of hosts we'll make for all peoples, Gentiles as well, here's this rich feast of rich food, a feast of well aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.

He will swallow up death forever and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces and the reproach of His people He will take away from all the earth. No wonder John said in Revelation, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

And they're the ones who faith in the Messiah are invited, not by any work of their own. And the ones who aren't invited, whether you're Jew or Gentile, when you will not believe in this Messiah. And so this whole book is written so that in fact you do believe.

Verse 13, 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. In other words, what that centurion thought of Jesus, He's the Lord God omnipotent.

It's true. And the reader should say, I believe that. And now we come to the third and final one for today. We'll do the next four next week. We come to Jesus's credentials as He has authority over disease, power and compassion, deity, humanity.

Jesus Heals Peter’s Mother-in-Law and Many Others

Verse 14, 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 arose 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. Of course, Isaiah 53, He took our illnesses and bore our diseases. How do you know Jesus is the Messiah? If somebody walks around and says, I'm the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but through me, how can you believe Him?

If Jesus says, I and the Father are one, why should you believe Him? Before Abraham was, I am, why should you believe Him? And, of course, then we're looking at a man. I mean, He's more than a man, but when you looked at Jesus, He was perfectly human.

When you look at miracles in the Bible, by the way, dear Christian, I don't want you to ever separate them from the focus, especially in the New Testament, on Christ. There's a Christological, a Christ-centered way you look at miracles.

Because these miracles confirm Jesus as a person and confirm Jesus what He did. Why did Moses do certain miracles? Why? Because he said things that needed to be confirmed and authenticated by miracles.

Why did Joshua say things? Why did Elijah say things? Elisha, the apostles, they were to confirm the message and the messenger. That's why when people say today, well, this guy does all these healings and he raises people from the dead and he does all this, that, and the other and healing ministries.

I don't need any of it, frankly, because A, I think it's a farce, and B, why are there, you know, there are iPhones, by the way, everywhere in this world. Right? Everything is almost filmed. Why can't you just give me one legitimate raising from the dead on an iPhone?

But that's another story. Jesus' miracles authenticate what He says, so you trust in Him. And when people are on TV healing people and doing this, that, and the other, I don't need them because I already have the authenticated truth now.

Here, Jesus shows His compassion as He goes into Peter's house and his mother-in-law was lying sick with a fever. By the way, we don't know. Some people think it's dysentery. Some people think it's malaria.

It's bad. This is not like you're kind of sick. Luke describes it because Luke is a physician in terms that she was suffering from a high fever. And so Peter, the pope, is married. He has a mother-in-law.

Oh, sorry, that's not in the text. Where is that? He enters Peter's house, the mother-in-law, she's lying sick with a fever. What did he do back in those days? No antibiotics, no acetaminophen. I found what one of the Jewish talmuds would say if you have one of these feverish dysentery type of things.

Here's what they ask that you do to get over this. I mean, you ever do those kind of homemade remedies? I remember when I was a kid, the homemade remedy at grandma's house because grandma was super poor.

If you had a stye in your eye, she would soak some bread in some milk and then put it on your eye and then like wrap some kind of T-shirt over your head. I just remember the hot milk going down. Or if you had a cough, what would she give you?

She'd get some of that nasty whiskey that grandpa drank and she'd get a teaspoon of sugar and pour some of the whiskey on it. Down the hatch it went. Well, if you had this back in those days, what do you think they did?

Here's one. You get a knife wholly made of iron that was tied with a brand of hair, tied to a thorn bush. And then you would read Exodus 3 every day and pronounce a certain formula. Okay, I'd rather have the bread, juice, milk, eye.

Now remember, everything about this passage, you need a God-man to be your savior. You need somebody who's a man who can represent you and who lives the life you're supposed to live. And then you need a God who can give you just a perfect amount, an infinite amount, perfect righteousness.

You're going to need, like Job says, somebody to put his hand on God, as it were, and his hand on man, so you're going to need the God-man. Is Jesus the God-man? He is shown in this passage to be God because of His power, and He's shown to be man because of His compassion.

He touched her hand, verse 15. Fever left her. He didn't even say anything this time. And she rose and began to serve Him. Well, you know, she kind of got better. You know, her back was bad, and then it was kind of a little bit better, but then it reverted.

No, this idea here is so you'll go, it was done, and by the way, it's the Sabbath. It's a Sunday dinner. It's the big dinner. You've got to have somebody prepare the main meal. And up she goes, and she begins to serve.

Instant cure. I just think of Jesus. What great bedside manner does He have? You talk about tender. You talk about warm. You talk about personal touch. Instantaneous cure. Who does that? Answer, only the Messiah.

And there were some other people too, verse 16. He brought to many who were oppressed by demons, and He cast out the spirits with the Word and healed all who were sick. Lots of sick people. No antibiotics.

The news of Jesus spreads, and from demon-possessed people to sick people, He shows His deity. He shows His power. He shows His compassion. He shows His humanity. Why? What purpose was this? So that you would know this is the Messiah.

The Messiah was talked about in Isaiah 1. Come now, let us reason together. Let me tell you about this Messiah. He's holy, holy, holy, chapter 6. He's a servant, chapter 40 through 53. And He dies on behalf of sinners, chapter 53.

Therefore, chapter 55, won't you believe? Won't you come and buy water without price? This is that Messiah. Foretold in the Old Testament, verse 17, to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet. Even the Old Testament is pointing to this so that you are confirmed in your faith.

He took our illnesses and bore our diseases. Of course, ultimately in the resurrection, our resurrection body. But here too, Jesus, as one man said, the Son of God assumes the role of servant of God and ministers to Israel by restoring persons to health and freeing them from their afflictions.

So when I read Matthew, I just think, I have not thought about myself for 40 minutes now or 45 minutes. I'm thinking about who this Jesus is. And since Jesus is immutable, that is, He doesn't change or mutate for the better or for the worst, this is my Savior right here.

He's powerful enough to do anything and He's compassionate enough and that's shown in His incarnation. And by the way, Jesus now, He's not in your heart. He has a body and He's in heaven. But what's inside of you is the one He's promised to send you, the Holy Spirit.

The incarnation of Jesus never goes away. He doesn't become incarnate-less. And then it says in verse 18, now when Jesus saw the crowds around Him, He gave orders to go over to the other side. I love the book of Matthew.

Jesus is the King. This is the one in whom you should trust. My life is lived, sadly, often with selfishness, self-consumption, unholy trinity, me, myself, and I. And you take that telescope... What happens, kids, if you take a telescope and flip it around and look at the wrong lens?

What do you see? Well, yeah, what you see is farther away. But you know what I end up seeing when I do that? With the big lens here? I see my eyelashes. I don't think I have many eyelashes, but I see a lot of eyelashes when I do that.

I just see myself. But the Gospel does. It shows us. It flips it around and says, the just shall walk by faith. The just shall live by faith. This is the one I'm trusting. Dear Christian, with me, you are saying, I am trusting my eternal salvation to this God-man.

And I can trust Him because He can heal lepers. He can heal the centurion servants. He can raise Himself from the dead. I'm going to go to hell if Jesus is wrong. You better have the right Jesus. And Matthew says, this is the right Jesus.