Jesus: Better Than Expected - [Matthew 8:14-17]

If you'd like to read Puritans about Jesus, the easiest Puritan to read is Thomas Watson. And I like Thomas Watson because although easy, he doesn't dumb things down. Sometimes easy means dumbed down, but not for Thomas Watson.

And Thomas Watson said,. No one has yet discovered the word Jesus ought to have said. None suggested the better word he might have said. When you read the Gospels, oh, if he just would have said this better, if he only would have said something else.

No one has ever said that about Jesus. And Jesus says of himself, I and my father are one. No man comes to the father, but by me. He that has seen me has seen the father. Before Abraham was, I am. Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this unto you, but my father, which is in heaven.

But not only does Jesus say great things, he does great things. Watson goes on. No action of his has shocked our moral sense. None has fallen short of the idea. He is full of surprises, Jesus is, but they are all surprises of perfection.

You are never amazed one day by his greatness and the next day by his littleness. I'm going to say that again. You are never amazed one day by Jesus's greatness and the next day by his littleness. You are quite amazed that he is incomparably better than what you could have expected.

He is tender without being weak, strong without being coarse, lowly without being servile. He has conviction without intolerance, enthusiasm without fanaticism, holiness without Pharisee-ism, and passion without prejudice.

Christ's Continuing Authority Over Disease in Matthew 8

Let's turn our Bibles to Matthew chapter 9 and see these deeds of Jesus continue as Jesus and Matthew, I didn't mean Matthew 9, did I say Matthew 9? Matthew 8, close enough. In Matthew chapter 8 and 9, Jesus continues to show his powerful credentials.

He says he's a Messiah and now he backs it up. Anybody can run around and say they're Jesus, Sun Yung Moon said he's Jesus, but only Jesus can do the things that the Messiah can do. Matthew chapter 8, Jesus cleanses a leper, the first four verses, that leper was a second class citizen in the minds of the people.

Jesus heals the Gentile servant of a centurion, that person was a second class citizen in the mind of the people. And now he's going to clean a woman, he's going to cleanse her rather, he's going to heal her.

And for many back in those days, sadly, women were second class citizens. And Jesus is going to stoop low to save and heal and you are going to be encouraged and I think you're going to be amazed. Jesus's healing ministry confirms that he is actually the Messiah.

You see his healings and here's what you should be asking yourself, what do they signify? And you might say, well, that he's compassionate, that's true, that he fulfills Old Testament scriptures, that's true.

But his healing ministries promote that he is Jesus Christ, the God-man. Quick note before we get into the passage. Why is it when you turn on the TV when there's a healing ministry, they're never talking about Jesus and preaching Jesus, they're always preaching healing?

Healing isn't the end game. Healing is good and kind and prophetic and wonderful, but healing points to something and it points to only Jesus can heal. Why don't healing ministries preach Jesus all the time?

So let's look at this great passage in Matthew 8 and we're going to look at verses 14 through 17, Jesus continuing to heal people to show that he in fact is the King of kings. You know I love Matthew because it talks about Jesus as king.

Think about Matthew big picture. Why is there a genealogy in Matthew? You go, ah, genealogy, I can't stand genealogies. Listen, kings have to have the right pedigree, don't they? You just can't have a king just show up.

He's got to have the right lineage and if you go to thefamilytree .com and look at a king, it's got to go back to the royal genealogy. Why do you think Herod is trying to kill the babies? Why is that placed here in Matthew and not the other gospels?

Well Herod is trying to kill the babies of course because he wants to be the only king so kill King Jesus, but you can imagine the treachery that's involved behind the scenes in royalty. You've got to kill the baby because I don't want the usurper coming along and taking over my territory.

Kings have forerunners, John the Baptist is a forerunner. There's a challenge to the throne, Satan challenges Jesus' throne. And now we're going to see the power of the king in Matthew chapter 8. Let's read the verses, verses 14 through 17, Christ's continuing authority over disease.

And when Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw his mother-in-law, that is Peter's mother-in-law, lying sick with a fever. He touched her hand, Jesus touched her hand, and the fever left her and she rose and began to serve him.

That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons and he cast out the spirits with the word and healed all who were sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah, he took our illnesses and bore our diseases.

Jesus heals a leper, Jesus heals the servant, and now Jesus does a third kind of healing, some kind of fever. Let's take a look at this in more detail, I think you'll find it fascinating. Verse 14, he enters Peter's house, he saw his mother-in-law, so Jesus goes directly over to the Pope's mother-in-law.

Sorry, did I just say that? I just wanted to see if you were listening. And she's lying sick. Now here's the good news about studying Greek, and you can pick up a Greek interlinear online for free. Who can tell me what a Greek interlinear is?

What's an interlinear? Inter-liner. Between the lines. So it's got the Greek words up here, and then underneath it has the what? English words. And so you can just look down at the words and you can put your cursor over it if it's a study Bible.

I know I recommended this a few weeks ago, but some of you have been disobedient and you haven't looked at it. The Net Bible, N-E-T. The Net Bible, you type in Matthew chapter 8, verse 14, put your cursor over this lying sick and you're going to see the word lying is thrown.

She's thrown sick. She is really sick. Luke says she's got a great fever. We don't know really what kind of fever it is. Some say it's malaria. She's bedridden. Some say burning hot skin with sweatings and shiverings.

Strong's Concordance says it appears that we have here the medically sound definition of a feverish dysentery. Mark says Simon's mother-in-law was lying sick with a fever and immediately they spoke to Jesus about her.

Jesus, help, you're here, you have to help. She's detained with a great fever, Luke says. Now, just stop for a second. For us, you get an infection and you go to the doctor, he cleans it, she cleans it, you get some antibiotics, no antibiotics then.

Simple infections could be life-threatening back in those days. And so what do you do if you get sick? No Tylenol, no Tylenol gel caps. The Jewish Talmud says this is how you deal with a fever. Are you ready?

You're going to be glad you live in today's society. Here's how you deal with a fever. A knife made of iron was tied to a braid of hair, tied to a thorn bush. So you're really sick or you've got dysentery and you're hot.

You can just feel people. I remember my father would come over to me and he would always take his wrist and he'd put his wrist to my forehead and he would say to my mother, Mike's what, burning up. So, you know what, let's get the knife made of iron, let's get the hair and tie it to a thorn bush.

See, that's the way I am, that's why I am the way I am. And then you were supposed to read these verses from the Bible because you've got to make it kind of biblical. Remember, knife made of iron, braid of hair tied to a thorn bush.

And then you would read these verses on successive days. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in the blazing fire from the midst of the bush and he looked and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed.

See, you're burning with a fever, but it's not going to consume you. You should see your faces. So Moses said, I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up. When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses, here I am, do not come near here, remove your sandals from your feet for the place which you are standing is holy ground.

And the thing about it is, that way to heal people was ten times better than some of the other wild medical quackery that was going on. Simon's wife's mother was sick and needed help. And here the Messiah is in the house.

You say, well, how does this work when Peter was married? 1 Corinthians 9 .5, Do we not have a right to take along a believing wife even as the rest of the apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?

Peter had a wife, it's fine, it's normal. You talk to Jewish people and they would say, oh yeah, it's just normal to get married. Normal to get married. So what does Jesus do? Verse 15. He touched her hand and the fever left her and she rose and began to serve him.

S. Lewis Johnson, in one of his lighter moments said, he didn't do what we might imagine him to do when someone came to the Lord Jesus about his mother-in-law. He might have said, well, let's leave well enough alone for the moment.

He touched her hand. Mark says he took her hand. Jesus and Luke rebukes the fever. And immediately cured. Jesus touches the leper, cured. Touches the mother-in-law of Peter, cured. Jesus heals instantaneously with great power, fully, completely, with compassion.

And he heals people that others thought were low on the totem pole, whether that was a leper, a Gentile, or a lady. Extending his grace to people that other folks in the Jewish day ignored or thought were unimportant.

Promptly, graciously. Mark says he took, taking her by the hand, the fever left her. Luke says he rebuked the fever and it left her. Kindly, with great love and affection, a little warmth and touch. I don't know about you, but I've met a lot of doctors who don't have a good bedside manner.

And frankly, if I get an awesome doctor and he's got a bad or she's got a bad bedside manner, I don't really care that much. What would you rather have? If you could only pick one, good bedside manner, but really bad doctoring, or great bedside manner, which way is it?

Where is Bruce Bolivar when I need him? Here Jesus has both. He's all powerful, He's the great physician, and He's kind and loving to her. Now, think just for a second. She rose and began to serve Him.

Now, after I get done with my fever, I need to rest. I need to have Kim wait on me for at least nine days. But this is in the text so you know He heals her right away and she's good to go. You've heard of the slogan before, save to serve?

Here it's healed to serve. She doesn't have to take a nap. No lingering sickness, no weakness. Fully restored, full strength, no rest, no recuperation. I'm rid of the fever, I don't feel as hot, but I'm exhausted.

That's not what was said. Quickly, completely, Jesus heals her. And the whole time, you should be saying to yourself, this sounds like the Old Testament to me. When the Messiah comes, He's going to do things like this.

Isaiah 29, and in that day, shall the deaf hear the words of the book and the eyes of the blind shall see out of darkness. The meek shall also increase their joy in the Lord and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

Yeah, what Jesus is doing sounds just like the Old Testament. Isaiah 35, the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as a heart or a deer and the tongue of the dumb sing.

This sounds like Jesus in Isaiah 61. He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. Yes, this has to be Jesus. He says what Jesus should say, Sermon on the Mount.

Now He does what the Messiah should do. Legitimizing Christ's claims. Verse 16, there's more going on here though. That evening, the end of the Sabbath has come. Jews taught, can't heal on the Sabbath.

Of course, you could heal at the Sabbath, but the Jews had distorted that. That evening, they brought to Him many who were oppressed by demons. Uh-oh, you're not supposed to carry people on the Sabbath.

No burden bearing on the Sabbath. Don't pick up people and carry them on the Sabbath. But here they're bringing people. Mark says they're bearing the burden, bringing these people. If you're so sick, you can't walk.

Mark says they're bringing them. Steady stream of people, lots of people. Why? Lots of people sick. No antibiotics. Everybody's talking about Jesus. Luke says He's laying hands on every one of them and He was healing them.

And now they start to bring demon-oppressed people and cast out the spirits with the Word and heal those who are sick. Notice, not every person who's sick is demon-possessed. Demon-oppressed. There's a distinction between demon possession and physical disease.

Mark says the whole city gathered at His door, healing many. And how does He heal them? Verse 16, with incense, with incantations, with the eye of a frog and the hair of a wart. Hair of a wart. Eric, you just come up right now.

I think you get warts from frogs or toads. Hair of a toad. You know what? I'm not that good at the old ways to heal people medicinally. Look at the text, healed all. It wasn't just like these fakers on TV.

I've got a bad back, I need my leg lengthened. And He's casting out demons. Luke says, and demons were coming out of many, crying out, you're the Son of God. And rebuking them, He would not allow them to speak because they knew Him to be the Christ.

You will not be my messenger. If anybody wants to know that I'm the Messiah, it's not going to be you demons. And remember, these were real demons. The church, not so much lately, but 15 years ago especially, everybody blamed what they did on demons.

Remember the whole Neil Anderson thing? Who remembers Neil Anderson? I didn't say Neil Armstrong, the astronaut. Neil Anderson. If you've got a problem, it was a demon. I bet you Bruce remembers. Bondage Breaker, that's right.

Blamed demons for our sins. This goes all the way back to Origen and he had something that he talked about. They were called vice demons. They were people that arrested you. These are vice demons. Like I have a bad vice, I blame it on a demon.

Deliverance ministries, demon of lust, demon of murder, demon of envy, demon of tobacco, demon of foolishness. Neil Anderson said, anything bad which you cannot stop doing or anything good which you cannot make yourself do could be an area of demonic control.

Would that make your pastor demon possessed? What if you do make provision for the flesh by giving Satan an opportunity in your life through sin? Do we have a blanket immunity from Satan's invasion? No.

He says in the Bondage Breaker, page 14, are you one of those Christians who lives in quiet desperation of bondage to fear, anger, depression, habits you can't break, thoughts or voices you can't elude, or sinful behavior you can't escape?

Pretty much includes everybody here, I guess. I'm not saying that every spiritual problem is a direct result of demon activity, but you may be in bondage because you have overlooked or denied the reality of demonic powers that work in the world today.

It's my observation that no more than 15 of the evangelical Christian community is completely free from Satan's bondage. 85 of the church, in other words, is controlled by Satan. Last time I checked, it was the deeds of the flesh, Galatians 5, immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing.

Those are the deeds of the flesh, not the deeds of the demons. Pat was right when he talked about it last week. Jesus is on earth, so the demonic activity is at an all-time high. The Messiah is on earth healing and teaching, and so the floodgates of the demons are after Jesus.

We don't blame our sins on demons. How many people here would actually admit they watched Philip Wilson growing up? See, just if I can talk to you from a California to a New Englander, no wonder you're so scad.

It's just amazing to me. The devil made me buy that dress. It's kind of nice to point to the devil who would make me do things, the demon made me do it. It's not really, I'm not a drunkard, I just have the demon of alcohol.

So if I've got a demon of alcohol, now what do I do? Well, I guess I have to get rid of that demon. I wonder why the pastoral epistles don't have anything in them about casting demons out. Don't you think if anybody would have to know, they'd say, okay, boys, here's how you get rid of a demon, one, two, three, four.

Timothy, do this at Crete. Paul says to now Titus at Crete, Timothy at Ephesus, here's what you do. No, nothing said. I believe in demons. I believe they were real, and so what does Jesus do? He just gets rid of them all.

Everybody who came to Him, He healed them all. And what was the purpose of all this? Verse 17, Matthew 8, 17. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. It was foretold in the Old Testament.

It's a prophecy that's being fulfilled. And now he quotes from Isaiah. What chapter does he quote from? The only place in the New Testament where this verse is quoted, Isaiah 53, verse four, appealing to this prophecy.

He, he himself with some emphasis. Jesus took our illnesses. Matthew's seen in this text a warrant for healing ministries, Jesus Christ, the Messiah. He took our illnesses and bore our diseases. I think it'd only be right if you turn your Bible to Isaiah chapter 53, and let's just see that verse in context because Matthew appealed to that verse as a pointer to the Messiah and what he would do.

So go to Isaiah chapter 53, or we could probably pick it up in 52, but let's just go straight to 53. Isaiah 53. Won't say too much. We're going to celebrate the Lord's table. So we're almost done. Although Paul said in Philippians chapter three, verse one, finally, and then he did two more chapters.

So Isaiah 53, verse one, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Not many are going to get it. Not many are going to have eyes to see. A small number are going to figure this out.

On earth, Jesus has claimed a Messiahship was rejected when He hung on the cross. Who are you? Save yourself if you're the Son of God. Come down from the cross. He saved others. He can't save Himself.

If He's the King of Israel, let Him come down from the cross and then we'll believe in Him. He trusts in God. Let Him deliver Him. If He takes pleasure in Him. Verse two, for He grew up like a tender shoot before Him.

God saw this. Other people might have been saying no to Jesus, but the Father saw this. The lowly background of Jesus, the Messiah, like a tender shoot. It means a little bush. Gardeners sometimes snip off those little shoots that come out.

Jesus enters the world as a baby, not a king in the eyes of the people. And like a root out of parched ground, still lowly. He has no stately form or majesty that we should look on Him. You don't look at Jesus and say Marlboro man that we should look on Him.

Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. No one could look at Jesus and by His looks determine that He was the Messiah. You're going to need more than just eyes to see Jesus as Messiah. You're going to need spiritual eyes to see Jesus.

Spiritual discernment. Verse three, He was despised. That word there means considered worthless. Jesus is the kind of guy that shows up and people say I could care less about Him. You don't deserve two thoughts from me.

I'm gonna reject you. You mean nothing to me. And forsaken of men. Boy, if you were forsaken by men in the Old Testament, you were really forsaken, kicked out of the community. That was death to the Jews.

A man of sorrows acquainted with grief. He was despised. And we did not esteem Him. Scholar Mottner said when all that the human eye saw and the human mind apprehended was added up about Jesus, the result was zero.

And now we come to Matthew 8, verse Isaiah 53, verse four. Surely, surely they've erred in their view of the Messiah. Surely they've thought the wrong way. Surely their contempt and horror was wrong. Surely they weren't right.

Our griefs could be translated literally, our sicknesses. There we go. Why did Jesus heal sick people? Because Isaiah 53 talks about it. Surely our griefs He Himself bore. Healing people physically was fulfillment of the Old Testament, which also then made you think to the ultimate healing that will be in the atonement for our sins and then ultimate healing that will happen in the resurrection when we get new bodies.

When you see Jesus on earth, it's good for you to look backwards to say, huh, let's see, backwards, Genesis chapter two, chapter three, the fall. Sin is destroying people and every sickness is related to the sin of Adam.

And now Jesus has come to undo the curse. Jesus has come to fulfill prophecy. Jesus has come to show that He's the Messiah, that He's kind, that He stoops low to save people and that Jesus is going to then die for what caused all this sickness, sin, and then Jesus is going to go on that side of the cross.

Resurrection bodies are going to happen one day. Don't just look at the cross, look both directions. What does the text say again? Our griefs, He Himself emphatically bore. You could just say He bore and we would know who it was.

Why does it say He Himself? Because it was Jesus who did it. Everybody's saying, you're the wrong Messiah, but He Himself is the one who is the Messiah. We turn our face from Him, but He's the one dying for sins and here dealing with sickness.

I can't stop myself, I have to finish the verse. I think Erica is going to read these verses, but I can't stop. And our sorrows He carried, yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.

Jewish believers get saved in the future, they're going to look back and this is exactly what they're going to say. He was the sin bearer, the substitutionary atoner, but we esteemed Him stricken. God is punishing Him for what He has done.

The Vulgate, Jerome translating the Vulgate, we esteemed Him as stricken. He translated this way, we thought He was a leper. God is punishing Him because He's a failure and He's a sinner and He got what He deserved, didn't He?

He deserves it. That's how we esteemed Him, that's how Israel esteemed Him. He got what was coming to Him. What does the verse say to wrap it up? Smitten of God and afflicted. Is there healing in the atonement?

Lots of people say, you shouldn't be sick if you believe in the atonement. Kenneth Hagin writes, the best method by which you can be healed is to know for yourself from our text scriptures like Matthew 8, that healing is in God's redemptive plan.

It belongs to you, by His stripes we are healed. We refuse to allow disease of sickness in our bodies because we are healed. We know that the pain, sickness, or disease that seems to be in our bodies was laid on Jesus.

He bore it, we do not need to bear it. What would you say to someone like that? What if you have a sick, what if you are sick? What if you have a sick family member? There is healing in the atonement.

Eventually, Paul couldn't heal Timothy's stomach. Paul couldn't heal Trophimus at Miletus. He left him there sick. Same thing with Epaphroditus. Paul had a bodily illness, Galatians chapter 4. Job had physical sickness.

Some sicknesses for the glory of God, John chapter 9, John chapter 11. But here's what you can't miss, that when Jesus came to heal, it was to confirm that He was the Messiah who would undo the curse of sin and eventually die on behalf of sinners and then be raised from the dead, demonstrating that He was the Messiah.

Seeing Jesus as the King, the Messiah, and the One Worth Following

We're going to get resurrected bodies that won't have any sickness, but it's gonna be later. So I guess the question would be this as I wrap this up. What's your view of the Messiah? Now, here's the great news.

As a pastor, I look around at you and I think you're here on a Sunday night and you wanna hear preaching, and many of you have been smiling during the message. Your view is that Jesus is the King. Your view is that Jesus is the Messiah.

So if you know that, it's by the grace of God, and then now you get to tell other people. I have to tell you that one of the ways I love to evangelize is after I've told them the gospel, sin, salvation, service, guilt, grace, gratitude, here's who Jesus is, I want them to read their Bibles.

Read your Bible, read Mark, read Matthew, because when you read Matthew and Mark, what happens? You just sit back when you read Luke and John as well, and just go, Jesus is amazing. Like Thomas Watson said, you can't find one thing that Jesus could have said better, should have said better, shouldn't have said because it was untoward.

You can't find one thing that Jesus did that he shouldn't have done or didn't do that he should have done. Over and over and over. I pretty much, every day it's the same for me. I get up in the morning, grind the coffee beans, make the coffee, four minutes in the French press, push that little lever down, pour the coffee in, sit down with my Bible, and open my Bible to the gospels.

Oh, I read other things, but I want to see Jesus in the gospels. He's the King, he's the Messiah, and I want to focus on someone who is perfect, who's the Messiah, who will never let me down, who is who he says he is, and who is my savior.

And by the way, who I will every morning, there won't be any morning in heaven. You want to know the center of heaven is Jesus, worthy as the lamb who was slain. Let's pray. Father, thank you for our time tonight.

We just now are getting prepared to think about your son's work on our behalf. Healing the atonement, yes. One day dealt with sin, yes. Mission accomplished, it is finished at Calvary. Father, I just pray now for these beloved Christian men and women.

I pray that their hearts would be stirred up wanting to study Jesus, wanting to learn his words, wanting to memorize his words. How kind he was, how gracious he was. And we're thankful that when he comes back, we're not going to be the receiving end of his displeasure.

We have so many family members who aren't saved, friends and neighbors. We'd like to be good ambassadors to tell people about the son. Father, would you help us open our mouths, express good news to those that we love?

I'd ask this in Jesus' name.