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Hey everybody, we're in Matthew chapter 8 today, continuing our study in the book of Matthew. This is Pastor Josiah from Witton Baptist Church, and this is Sunday night Bible study. Let's get back into it.
So I'm gonna read the first four verses of Matthew chapter 8. Jesus has just finished the Sermon on the Mount and this is what happens. When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.
And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, I will be clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, see that you say nothing to anyone, but go show yourself to the priests and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a proof to them.
So Jesus comes down from the Sermon on the Mount, he comes down from that mountain, and a leper approaches him and says, Lord, if you're willing, you can make me clean. Even with all these crowds following him, Jesus notices the one.
Jesus stretched out his hand and said, I'm willing to be clean. And immediately he was clean. He told him not to go tell anybody and to go show that he, according to Leviticus, show that he has been ceremonially cleansed.
First off, before we dive into what exactly all that entails, I forgot to start with our Greek of the week. So our Greek of the week is exousia. Exousia, and it means authority. You'll see it in just a little bit.
Used a hundred and two times in the New Testament. It means authority, a right to rule, control, power. Exousia, the authority, the right. You'll see that more in a minute. So I like this section. I think it's a beautiful section, Matthew 8, 1 -4.
Crowds are following him down this mountain, but Jesus notices the one, as he does so often. He notices the one. And I know Jesus is tired, because let me tell you something, after preaching for so long and teaching all day long, you're tired.
But Jesus notices the faith of this leper and says, Lord, if you're willing, you can make me clean. And Jesus touched him. And don't miss this. Jesus touched him. That leper has not been touched by another human being since he contracted leprosy.
According to Levitical law, according to the Bible, he was ceremonially unclean, and so that germs would not spread. Excommunicated, he would be quarantined, and if it kept getting worse, he'd be quarantined longer and longer and longer, to where he could never integrate back into society, until that was healed.
Well, Jesus touched that leper, man, and he's immediately healed. The Lord of Glory touched the man, that all the crowds were probably running away from when they saw him. That shows the intimacy and the intimate love of our Lord for us.
And of course, he commands him to go, like Leviticus 14 tells us to do, commands him to go back and offer the sacrifice to the priest, so that he can be integrated back in society. Now, something to keep in mind with what we're reading in Matthew chapter 8, some of these events happened actually before the Sermon on the Mount took place.
Remember, Matthew is not written in a chronological time order. It's thematic. We have the five sermons, the discourses of Jesus, that others, A .T. Robertson, John MacArthur and his study Bible, others have organized for us.
So with that being said, Matthew is not really chronological. Mark and Luke are much more chronological than Matthew. Matthew organizes his gospel around those five preaching sermons of Jesus. So some of the events we're reading actually happened before the Sermon on the Mount.
So he then enters Capernaum, where he has moved his headquarters, where he's doing his ministry now. He obviously has a house in Capernaum. We've already discovered that before. And a centurion approaches him.
And says, Lord, now that centurion just called him Courier. Lord, that is an act of faith already, because only Caesar was Lord. My servant is paralyzed at home, suffering terribly, and Jesus said, I'll come heal him.
Listen to the centurion's response. But the centurion replied, Lord, again, Courier, I'm not worthy to have you come under my roof. Only say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under exousion, under authority.
With soldiers under me. And I say one go, and he goes, another come, and he comes. And to my servant do this, and he does it. So listen to this faith. Jesus is about to marvel at it. When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who follow, truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.
What did the centurion say that was so impactful that Jesus said, I found no one in Israel that has that much faith? He said, Lord, only say the word and my servant will be healed. So you don't have to come touch him.
Just say it and he'll be healed. But watch what he says. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. What he's recognizing, what I think the centurion is recognizing is this, that he has a system of authority, where he's under others, and he's over others.
He commands people to go, and they go, and he says come, and he comes. But he doesn't recognize the true, his life is not ordered around the authority of the true Lord. He's calling Jesus Lord because he recognizes he's the one whose authority his life should be devoted to, but his life is set up right now under, under, other, under other man-made authorities.
And I think the centurion's recognizing for the first time in his life there's a true authority that he has not submitted himself under yet, and it's the Lord he's speaking to now. The centurion also knows that if Jesus enters a Gentile's home, he will be ceremonially unclean.
So he knows that Jesus has the faith to not even come under. I am not worthy, I'm not worthy to have you come under my roof. Beautiful saying. When Jesus heard this, he marveled. He marveled, and said, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.
I think the centurion recognized the authority Jesus has even better than his disciples do at this point, because he says no one in Israel's had that much faith. Now Jesus says something's gonna make some people mad.
Jesus says, I will tell you many will come from east and west and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the While the sons of the kingdom will be thrown out of darkness in that place, they'll be weeping and gnashing teeth.
So there's gonna be many Gentiles from the east and west that will be sitting with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the patriarchs in heaven. But there will be sons of the kingdom, physical Jews. There will be sons of the kingdom that will be going to hell in outer darkness where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth.
That's a repetitive theme. And to this man, the crowds probably got mad when he said that. And the centurion Jesus said, go, let it be done for you as you have believed. And the servant was healed at that very moment.
Beautiful. All right. Now, here's what happens next. Jesus goes into Peter's house, and his mother-in-law is lying sick with fever. He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him.
So Peter's mother-in-law is sick. Jesus goes in and heals her. He touched her hand. I want you to notice what she does immediately, though. She doesn't say, oh, wow, I've been sick for so long. I need some time to recover.
As soon as he heals her, her fever leaves, she gets up and begins to serve him. Now, I told you before, Jesus may have had a house. I think it's not unreasonable to say he might be living with Peter. They didn't say that, but I think it's possible.
But at any rate, this mother-in-law of Peter's, Peter's wife's mother, when the moment she's healed, she rises up and begins serving Jesus. Let this be a lesson for all of us. Our goal is to pour ourself out, to be wringed out like a rag for the kingdom of God, to have Jesus revive us so that we can rise again and begin to serve him again.
The moment she is able to, she gets back up and starts serving him. That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons. He cast them out. 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. Of course, there is a spiritual way he did that. He spiritually bore our diseases and illnesses and physically by healing people.
Now, Jesus, when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go to the other side. So that's the other side of the Sea of Galilee. When a scribe came up to him and said to him, Teacher, I'll follow you wherever you go.
Now keep in mind, Jesus knows the heart of this person. And Jesus goes, Oh, you want to follow me, huh? Well, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.
So even though the Bible says Jesus had a house, he's on the go so much. And even there, it's not stable because he's driven out here and there. So he has to travel a lot and he has nowhere to lay his head.
He has to find places to go. So this is not comfortable living. So the scribe who says with his words, I will follow you wherever you go. Jesus is questioning whether or not that's true. Another disciple said to him, Lord, another of the disciples said, so not of the twelve, Lord, let me first go bury my father.
Now, these crowds have been following him this whole time. But now it's time to go to the other side and all of a sudden this guy has an excuse of why he can't follow him. So, he didn't have this emergency to go bury his father on the Sermon on the Mount or when watching the leper be healed or when watching the demons be thrown out.
And we don't know that he was there the whole time. But since he's called one of the disciples, not of the twelve, that means he's been following him for at least a little bit. And all of a sudden, he's got to go do something before he can follow Jesus.
And I think Jesus sees through this pretend excuse. And Jesus said to him, follow me and leave the dead to bury their own dead. Now he gets in the boat and his disciples, the ones he's picked, follow him.
And behold, a great storm on the sea so that the boat was being swamped by the waves, but he was asleep. And they went and woke him saying, save us, Lord, we are perishing. And he said to them, why are you afraid, O you of little faith?
And he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, what sort of man is this that even the winds and the seas obey him? I think it's worth pointing out.
Mark says it this way, that when he calmed them, so that says they were afraid, right here, they were afraid. Well, Mark puts it saying this, and after he calmed the winds and the waves, they were more afraid.
They were more afraid of the man who calmed the winds and the waves than they were of the actual storm. It has been correctly said, actually, R .C. Sproul in Holiness of God, one of one of Grant's books, R .C. Sproul commenting on this passage said, it's as if the winds and the waves remembered the voice of their Creator.
Because remember, God has always existed in triune fashion, Father, Son, and Spirit, but Jesus was the agent of creation. Jesus was the member of the Godhead that actively spoke the world to existence.
Now, the Father, the Spirit, and the Son were all part in creation. We see that in Genesis 1. But Jesus is the one through whom all things were created, Colossians 1, John 1. So Jesus said, let there be, and there was winds and waves.
So, even though winds and waves can't actually hear, it's as if they heard the voice of their Creator all those thousands of years before. And when the voice of the Creator said, shut up, they obeyed.
Now, finishing up chapter 8, he goes to the other side in the country of the Gadarenes. I think I pronounced that right. Let's see what our little note here says. Yeah, I know, Gadarenes is how it's pronounced sometimes.
Okay. Okay, so he goes to the other side, and there's a town there, and he goes, and there's two demon-possessed men. Mark and Luke, or John, I can't remember, I think it's Mark and Luke, sometimes only mention one man because the one guy who calls himself Legion does all the talking.
So even though there were two guys there, they only mentioned the one because the one does all the talking. Coming out of the tomb, so furious no one could pass away, and behold, they cried out, What would you have to do with us, O son of God?
Have you come to torment us before the time? Let's just stop there. You see the authority that Jesus has, that he approaches them, and they beg him. They call him the Son of God. Remember, Satan believes Jesus is the Son of God.
Satan believes Jesus is God. Satan believes Jesus is the Messiah. He just doesn't submit to it. Intellectual knowledge is not the be-all and end-all of salvation. It is a heart and submission and obedience to what has been revealed to you.
Had you come to torment us before the time. Before the time. Prah, before the time. They know they will be tormented. They know, they've read the book of Revelation, in a sense. I know it happened, that was written after this, but you understand the point.
They know the end. They know what's coming. They know that they will be thrown into the abyss. They know they will be, their destiny is held. But he's asking, have you come to torment us before the time?
We thought we had more time than this before judgment. Jesus. Now a herd of many pigs was feeding at some distance from them and the demons begged him saying, if you cast us out, send us away in the herd of pigs.
And he said to them, go. So they came out and went to the pigs and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the waters. The herdsmen fled, going into the city and told everyone, especially what happened to the demon possessed men.
And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region. So, the demons recognize who Jesus is. They know that they're damned. They know their eternal destiny, but they thought they had more time.
So Jesus approaches them and they say, please let us go into the pigs. And Jesus says, okay, and they obey him. And at that, and the pigs are all thrown over the cliff. Obviously, it's a big financial loss for the city and the herdsmen.
The city asked Jesus to leave. Now, I ask you, is it because they cared more about monetary losses than Jesus? Probably. But I think it's because they knew the one in front of them would have, I'm sorry, I think it's because they knew who was in front of them and that they would have to change.
They didn't want to submit to the Lord of glory that was right in front of them. They had grown accustomed to the demonic activity in their land and would rather reject the Savior than change. They'd grown accustomed to the demonic activity in their land.
Pretty incredible. Guys, have you grown so accustomed with your sin that you know it's wrong, but you would rather stay in that sin than change and submit to Jesus? I challenge, I challenge you, I've challenged you this before, and we're a few chapters behind in-person Bible study, but that's okay.
We'll catch up. I challenge you this. Matthew 13, 44, we'll get to it in a few weeks, says a guy finds a treasure buried in a field and he goes and sells all he has and with joy he goes and buys the field.
The kingdom of heaven is a joyful submission to Jesus, not a, oh, I've got to give up all this. It's a joyful. What's beautiful about sanctification is you grow to love the things you used to hate and hate the things you used to love.
Whatever is so precious to you now will not be seen as precious to you when you come face to face with the preciousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a peace that cannot be bought. It can't be sold.
It is found in submission to the Lord of glory. Guys, let me tell you something. If you're still searching for that peace you've been looking for your whole life, it is only found in the finished work of Jesus Christ.
I encourage you to remember Jesus' model for how we show appreciation, gratitude, and love for that is through loving and serving our brothers and sisters in Christ so that the world can see that we're really of him.
So if you are not part of a local church where you're doing that, you're missing out on joys and blessings of what it is to be used as a tool in the hand of God. Guys, that's it for today's Sunday Night Bible Study.
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Love you guys very much. Until next time, see you later.
