1 00:00:01,120 --> 00:00:04,760 Thank you, Dwight, it is good to be with you guys this morning. 2 00:00:05,120 --> 00:00:08,560 Our passage this morning is going to be Matthew chapter 8 3 00:00:08,600 --> 00:00:12,560 verses 14 to 17. So you I invite you to turn 4 00:00:12,560 --> 00:00:16,120 there in your Bibles. If you don't have a Bible, we do 5 00:00:16,120 --> 00:00:18,760 have some there in the back. We would love for you to take 6 00:00:18,760 --> 00:00:21,920 one of those. That is just a free gift from 7 00:00:21,920 --> 00:00:24,480 us, no cost to you. We would invite you to grab one 8 00:00:24,480 --> 00:00:27,440 of those if you don't have one. Like I said, we'll be in Matthew 9 00:00:27,960 --> 00:00:30,560 chapter 8. While you're turning there, 10 00:00:30,720 --> 00:00:33,760 let's catch up for a moment on where we're at in Matthew. 11 00:00:33,760 --> 00:00:36,720 So Matthew has the first book in the New Testament. 12 00:00:37,520 --> 00:00:41,600 It is one of the four gospels. And one of the keys to the book 13 00:00:41,600 --> 00:00:46,880 of Matthew is that the author, Matthew, is really speaking to 14 00:00:46,880 --> 00:00:49,640 an audience familiar with the Old Testament, a Jewish 15 00:00:49,640 --> 00:00:52,200 audience. And throughout the book, he is 16 00:00:52,200 --> 00:00:58,320 taking special care to show us where Jesus is the Messiah 17 00:00:58,320 --> 00:01:01,440 foretold in the Old Testament and, and connecting those dots 18 00:01:01,440 --> 00:01:06,040 for us so that we can see very clearly that, yes, Jesus is in 19 00:01:06,040 --> 00:01:09,000 fact the Messiah. That yes, the message that he 20 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:12,960 has for us is important, a matter of life and death for us 21 00:01:12,960 --> 00:01:16,160 to understand what it is that Jesus is teaching. 22 00:01:16,160 --> 00:01:19,640 And so that's the angle that that or the perspective really 23 00:01:19,640 --> 00:01:22,040 that Matthew has as we're going through this book. 24 00:01:22,040 --> 00:01:24,640 And that'll come in for us very key today. 25 00:01:25,320 --> 00:01:29,160 So a few weeks ago, we finished the Sermon on the Mount, a very 26 00:01:29,160 --> 00:01:32,720 famous sermon that Jesus gives. And in large part, what's 27 00:01:32,720 --> 00:01:36,560 happening here in the Sermon on the Mount is that Jesus is 28 00:01:36,560 --> 00:01:41,400 showing us what the Kingdom of God looks like, especially in 29 00:01:41,400 --> 00:01:43,600 opposition to the Kingdom of man. 30 00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:47,920 Those that are listening and we as we read those passages are 31 00:01:47,920 --> 00:01:50,840 very familiar with what the Kingdom of man looks like. 32 00:01:50,840 --> 00:01:53,960 But as we go to the Kingdom of God, we talk about things in the 33 00:01:53,960 --> 00:01:56,840 Sermon of the Mount, like those in the Kingdom of God are poor 34 00:01:56,840 --> 00:02:01,160 in spirit, they are meek, they thirst for righteousness, they 35 00:02:01,160 --> 00:02:05,600 are merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, they endure 36 00:02:05,600 --> 00:02:08,600 persecution. There's also a boldness that 37 00:02:08,600 --> 00:02:11,800 comes in being salt and light in the world. 38 00:02:12,440 --> 00:02:15,360 There's a key that that we're we're not to be like the 39 00:02:15,360 --> 00:02:19,640 Pharisees who go and follow the law just for the law's sake, but 40 00:02:19,640 --> 00:02:22,840 that we go to the law. We see the heart of the law, 41 00:02:22,840 --> 00:02:26,320 what God is doing for his people and we we follow the heart and 42 00:02:26,320 --> 00:02:28,840 the righteousness found in the law. 43 00:02:29,400 --> 00:02:34,480 Jesus summarizes this, the law, as love God and love neighbor. 44 00:02:34,640 --> 00:02:37,600 And he at the end of the sermon in the Mount makes very clear 45 00:02:38,120 --> 00:02:41,480 that it's very important whether one chooses to be of the Kingdom 46 00:02:41,480 --> 00:02:45,920 of man or of the Kingdom of God, and that not many will do this, 47 00:02:45,920 --> 00:02:50,680 that there is a narrow gate that one must enter and walk by the 48 00:02:50,680 --> 00:02:53,640 narrow path. So Jesus is teaching this. 49 00:02:53,680 --> 00:02:55,760 He's showing us what the Kingdom of God looks like. 50 00:02:56,040 --> 00:02:58,600 Then he comes down from the mountain. 51 00:02:59,320 --> 00:03:02,520 When we get into this next section of Scripture in chapters 52 00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:05,320 8 and 9, where we're highlighting these miracles that 53 00:03:05,360 --> 00:03:08,000 Jesus is doing, so he comes down from the mountain, he starts to 54 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:12,200 do these tangible acts. We talked two weeks ago about 55 00:03:12,600 --> 00:03:16,160 the leper being healed and how much of that shows us that 56 00:03:16,160 --> 00:03:20,120 there's cleansing of sin, that Jesus has power over sin to 57 00:03:20,120 --> 00:03:23,080 forgive sins. There was also the servant and 58 00:03:23,080 --> 00:03:25,880 the centurion that we talked about last week, which was this 59 00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:30,640 great sign of what faithfulness looks like in an individual that 60 00:03:30,640 --> 00:03:34,160 we see in the centurion. And Jesus marvels at the faith 61 00:03:34,560 --> 00:03:36,480 found there. So there are lessons in these 62 00:03:36,480 --> 00:03:38,920 healings if we pay careful attention. 63 00:03:39,200 --> 00:03:43,240 But this short passage that we have today really goes to a core 64 00:03:43,240 --> 00:03:46,880 question for us, which is what is the purpose of these 65 00:03:46,880 --> 00:03:49,200 miracles? What is it that Jesus is is 66 00:03:49,200 --> 00:03:50,760 teaching? What is the overarching thing 67 00:03:50,760 --> 00:03:54,720 that he is teaching as he is doing these miracles? 68 00:03:54,720 --> 00:04:00,160 And today's passage really serves as a key or an important 69 00:04:00,160 --> 00:04:03,840 clue for us to to see that. I think of something like an 70 00:04:03,840 --> 00:04:06,640 escape room. I find it interesting that our 71 00:04:06,640 --> 00:04:09,760 culture has this idea that we like lock ourselves in a room 72 00:04:09,760 --> 00:04:11,680 and there's a lot of intricate clues and that's a good way to 73 00:04:11,680 --> 00:04:14,240 have fun. But I think that it's pretty 74 00:04:14,240 --> 00:04:15,760 fun. So I should make fun of that. 75 00:04:16,040 --> 00:04:18,959 But so so you're in a room and you start to figure out the 76 00:04:18,959 --> 00:04:20,279 clues. And of course, after you're all 77 00:04:20,279 --> 00:04:23,280 done, you can look back and it all seems quite simple, how all 78 00:04:23,280 --> 00:04:26,240 the pieces fit together. But in the moment, it might have 79 00:04:26,240 --> 00:04:29,000 been a little bit difficult, maybe too difficult, and we 80 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:30,960 didn't figure it out. And then you feel all the shame 81 00:04:30,960 --> 00:04:33,800 that comes with happened to be let out, you know, not figuring 82 00:04:33,800 --> 00:04:36,320 it out yourself. But in this passage, we're 83 00:04:36,320 --> 00:04:39,360 fortunate that that Matthew makes this very clear what this 84 00:04:39,360 --> 00:04:41,480 clue is. This would be like a level 1 85 00:04:41,480 --> 00:04:45,320 escape room because the clue is right there in front of us. 86 00:04:45,360 --> 00:04:49,440 So with that, let us go to our passage this morning. 87 00:04:49,440 --> 00:04:55,000 Matthew chapter 8, verses 14 to 17 says. 88 00:04:55,000 --> 00:04:58,840 And when Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw his mother-in-law 89 00:04:58,840 --> 00:05:02,600 lying sick with a fever, and he touched her hand, and the fever 90 00:05:02,600 --> 00:05:05,560 left her, and she rose and began to serve him. 91 00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:09,200 That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by 92 00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:13,360 demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed 93 00:05:13,360 --> 00:05:16,800 all who were sick. This was to fulfill what was 94 00:05:16,800 --> 00:05:21,280 spoken by the prophet Isaiah. He took our illnesses and bore 95 00:05:21,480 --> 00:05:26,160 our diseases. Now, first thing I wanted to to 96 00:05:26,160 --> 00:05:29,640 point out in this passage really has nothing to do with the rest 97 00:05:29,760 --> 00:05:31,680 of our our conversation this morning. 98 00:05:32,200 --> 00:05:33,600 But I do think it's in the passage. 99 00:05:33,600 --> 00:05:38,000 So we shouldn't go over it. And that is how many of us 100 00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:41,600 realize that Peter was married. I think that that seems like 101 00:05:41,600 --> 00:05:45,800 kind of an obscure Bible trivia fact that you would find, you 102 00:05:45,800 --> 00:05:49,440 know, in some church Jeopardy tournament that Pastor Mike 103 00:05:49,440 --> 00:05:54,160 would definitely win. So with that, that is in this 104 00:05:54,160 --> 00:05:56,840 passage, we see that Peter has a mother-in-law. 105 00:05:56,840 --> 00:05:59,960 And so that is in this passage. I think one of the reasons why 106 00:05:59,960 --> 00:06:02,920 this is something, at least for me that I think is not common 107 00:06:02,920 --> 00:06:06,440 knowledge is that throughout church history there has been an 108 00:06:06,440 --> 00:06:10,160 emphasis placed on priests not being married. 109 00:06:10,680 --> 00:06:13,120 And we as Protestants would look at that and say, no, that's 110 00:06:13,120 --> 00:06:16,160 something that that has been added in and not something that 111 00:06:16,520 --> 00:06:18,160 that should be held to you in Scripture. 112 00:06:18,480 --> 00:06:20,760 And the reason that's kind of challenging is, you know, the 113 00:06:20,760 --> 00:06:23,560 Catholic Church would say that Peter is really the the first 114 00:06:23,560 --> 00:06:25,560 Pope or the one that the church was built upon. 115 00:06:25,560 --> 00:06:27,920 And so it becomes a challenging fact to deal with. 116 00:06:28,280 --> 00:06:31,280 What's up with the fact that Peter was actually married? 117 00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:35,040 One might say, well, that happened before all of all of 118 00:06:35,040 --> 00:06:37,760 this, before Jesus called him to be a disciple. 119 00:06:38,600 --> 00:06:40,000 Anyhow, we're not going to go more into that. 120 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:42,240 I just wanted to point that out. It's food for thought, maybe 121 00:06:42,240 --> 00:06:44,760 something to talk about at lunch or something like that. 122 00:06:45,760 --> 00:06:48,320 But it is an interesting point in this passage. 123 00:06:48,600 --> 00:06:52,200 Now as we continue in in our passage, we're going to start 124 00:06:52,200 --> 00:06:55,960 with our first point here, which is how Jesus heals. 125 00:06:55,960 --> 00:07:01,200 We see this in the passage as we go to verses 14 and 15. 126 00:07:01,560 --> 00:07:04,960 It says And when Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw his 127 00:07:04,960 --> 00:07:08,960 mother-in-law lying sick with a fever, and he touched her hand 128 00:07:08,960 --> 00:07:12,480 and the fever left her and she rose and began to serve him. 129 00:07:12,480 --> 00:07:18,560 I think as we put ourselves in this scene, we can see, you 130 00:07:18,560 --> 00:07:20,920 know, there's a lot here that maybe we wouldn't realize at 131 00:07:20,920 --> 00:07:22,120 first. I find it, you know, we could 132 00:07:22,120 --> 00:07:25,240 kind of put ourselves here from the perspective of Peter and. 133 00:07:25,240 --> 00:07:28,320 And Jesus enters his home and of course, Peter's seen all of 134 00:07:28,320 --> 00:07:29,840 these things that Jesus is doing. 135 00:07:29,840 --> 00:07:31,360 Yeah. He enters his own house and his 136 00:07:31,360 --> 00:07:35,400 mother-in-law is lying sick. Somebody close to him is in a 137 00:07:35,400 --> 00:07:39,280 tough situation. Now, we don't know how severe 138 00:07:39,280 --> 00:07:42,600 this fever was, if she was at death's door or if this was a 139 00:07:42,600 --> 00:07:47,000 somewhat common ailment. I would say I think from our 140 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:49,640 modern perspective, we're probably tempted to look at 141 00:07:49,640 --> 00:07:51,840 something like that, go, OK, you know, there's a fever, He just 142 00:07:51,840 --> 00:07:53,840 takes medicine and you can get on with your life. 143 00:07:54,720 --> 00:07:58,520 However, at this point in time and history, even a small 144 00:07:58,520 --> 00:08:00,600 ailment could be a serious situation. 145 00:08:00,600 --> 00:08:05,480 So I'm sure there was a lot of fear, uncertainty, trepidation 146 00:08:05,480 --> 00:08:11,560 that's happening here. And yet Jesus comes in, reaches 147 00:08:11,560 --> 00:08:16,360 out and touches her person close to Peter's heart, somebody that 148 00:08:16,360 --> 00:08:20,320 he loved. He sees his Savior reach out and 149 00:08:20,320 --> 00:08:22,400 heal her. I think we have to stop for a 150 00:08:22,400 --> 00:08:25,520 moment there as we go on in this passage and just recognize the 151 00:08:25,520 --> 00:08:28,480 kindness and compassion of our Savior. 152 00:08:30,280 --> 00:08:36,600 I'm reminded of Jeremiah 2324. This in the NIV passage I grew 153 00:08:36,600 --> 00:08:40,559 up with, says, This is what the Lord says, Let not the wise 154 00:08:40,559 --> 00:08:44,480 boast in their wisdom, or the strong boast of their strength, 155 00:08:44,680 --> 00:08:49,520 or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who 156 00:08:49,520 --> 00:08:53,640 boast boast about this, that they have the understanding to 157 00:08:53,640 --> 00:08:59,640 know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice, and 158 00:08:59,640 --> 00:09:04,400 righteousness on earth. For in these I delight, declares 159 00:09:04,400 --> 00:09:07,600 the Lord, this is the God that we worship. 160 00:09:07,600 --> 00:09:10,320 This is the God that we have sung about this morning that we 161 00:09:10,320 --> 00:09:14,200 read about, that we pray to. This is a God that that is 162 00:09:14,400 --> 00:09:18,880 defined in his kindness and His justice, in his righteousness. 163 00:09:19,480 --> 00:09:22,640 It can be so easy, I think, for us to forget that as in the 164 00:09:22,640 --> 00:09:25,760 busyness of life or even in the challenging circumstances of 165 00:09:25,760 --> 00:09:30,960 life, that this is such a key part of who God is, that he is 166 00:09:31,120 --> 00:09:35,520 kind towards us. He has a loving kindness towards 167 00:09:35,520 --> 00:09:38,360 us. As we look at the passage we see 168 00:09:38,360 --> 00:09:42,880 a couple of key details and how it is that Jesus heals. 169 00:09:42,880 --> 00:09:46,480 The first of these is that he heals with a touch. 170 00:09:47,680 --> 00:09:51,120 We know that God is spirit. We see this in John chapter 4. 171 00:09:51,120 --> 00:09:55,200 It says God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in 172 00:09:55,200 --> 00:09:59,320 spirit and truth. We also see in John one that the 173 00:09:59,320 --> 00:10:02,280 Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His 174 00:10:02,280 --> 00:10:06,480 glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace 175 00:10:06,480 --> 00:10:10,160 and truth. So God is spirit, yet through 176 00:10:10,160 --> 00:10:14,000 Jesus spirit became flesh. And then we see here in this 177 00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:19,920 passage that Jesus then reaches out to touch and to heal Peter's 178 00:10:19,920 --> 00:10:22,720 mother-in-law. And we can know through our own 179 00:10:22,720 --> 00:10:26,080 salvation that Jesus reaches out, touches us, and heals us. 180 00:10:27,560 --> 00:10:32,560 It's an amazing thing that the Creator of the universe has come 181 00:10:33,120 --> 00:10:38,760 to this earth for us. We can see in the past through 182 00:10:38,760 --> 00:10:42,040 his birth and His death. We talk about that often as we 183 00:10:42,040 --> 00:10:44,720 go through narrative passages of Scripture like Matthew that we 184 00:10:44,720 --> 00:10:47,320 see in his coming. We celebrate that every year at 185 00:10:47,320 --> 00:10:50,320 Christmas, this coming of Jesus, the kindness and compassion, the 186 00:10:50,320 --> 00:10:53,960 glory found there. And then we see it again in his 187 00:10:53,960 --> 00:10:57,760 death on the cross, that he died for our sins, that He's reaching 188 00:10:57,760 --> 00:11:00,440 out and touching us in that, but it doesn't in there. 189 00:11:00,440 --> 00:11:04,280 It's something that is ongoing. We can look to Hebrews chapter 190 00:11:04,280 --> 00:11:08,480 10 verses 19 to 25. It says their four brothers. 191 00:11:08,800 --> 00:11:11,840 Since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the 192 00:11:11,840 --> 00:11:15,280 blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us 193 00:11:15,280 --> 00:11:18,360 through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we 194 00:11:18,360 --> 00:11:21,840 have a great priest over the House of God, let us draw near 195 00:11:21,840 --> 00:11:25,320 with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our 196 00:11:25,320 --> 00:11:28,400 hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies 197 00:11:28,400 --> 00:11:31,880 washed with pure water. I'll just stop there for a 198 00:11:31,880 --> 00:11:33,760 moment. You know, this would have been 199 00:11:33,760 --> 00:11:37,120 the situation that that the that the Jews found himself in the 200 00:11:37,120 --> 00:11:40,040 time you had this holy of holies, this set apart place 201 00:11:40,040 --> 00:11:43,520 where God resided. And in order to go in, there was 202 00:11:43,520 --> 00:11:46,880 just one time a year that the high priest would first offer a 203 00:11:46,880 --> 00:11:51,320 sacrifice for himself just to purify him of any lingering sins 204 00:11:51,320 --> 00:11:55,280 that he could go into the holy of holies and be near God. 205 00:11:56,080 --> 00:12:00,760 But now as Jesus has come, God become flesh has come reached 206 00:12:00,760 --> 00:12:05,520 out to us, healed us. Now we through the sacrifice of 207 00:12:05,560 --> 00:12:08,640 Jesus in the blood that he provided that the purity through 208 00:12:08,640 --> 00:12:11,560 that blood we now can can approach God. 209 00:12:12,520 --> 00:12:14,040 We don't have to go through a high priest. 210 00:12:14,040 --> 00:12:16,320 We don't have to wait for there to be one time a year at which 211 00:12:16,320 --> 00:12:19,680 this can happen. We can enter into the presence 212 00:12:19,680 --> 00:12:23,040 of God through Jesus as he mediates on our behalf. 213 00:12:23,560 --> 00:12:26,320 Verse 23 continuing, it says, Let us hold fast the confession 214 00:12:26,320 --> 00:12:30,720 of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 215 00:12:30,720 --> 00:12:32,440 We know the faithfulness of Jesus. 216 00:12:32,560 --> 00:12:37,200 Verse 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love 217 00:12:37,200 --> 00:12:40,920 and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit 218 00:12:40,920 --> 00:12:43,360 of some, but encouraging one another. 219 00:12:43,400 --> 00:12:46,200 And all the more as you see the day drawing near. 220 00:12:47,160 --> 00:12:49,240 It seems kind of interesting that we would go right from 221 00:12:49,480 --> 00:12:51,520 those first few verses into the second part. 222 00:12:51,800 --> 00:12:53,920 I think what the author of Hebrews is really getting at 223 00:12:53,920 --> 00:12:57,640 here is that when we look at this closeness that we have with 224 00:12:57,640 --> 00:13:02,400 God, how he has reached out to us as we see in our passage, we 225 00:13:02,400 --> 00:13:06,000 can be reminded that He continues to do that for us 226 00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:09,680 today through His church and through the gathering of 227 00:13:09,680 --> 00:13:11,720 believers. So when we gather here on a 228 00:13:11,720 --> 00:13:14,960 Sunday morning, just as we're doing now when we sing together, 229 00:13:14,960 --> 00:13:18,880 when we pray together, when we listen to the teaching of God's 230 00:13:18,880 --> 00:13:22,640 Word together, Jesus is continuing to reach out to us 231 00:13:22,640 --> 00:13:25,200 through that. During the week, as we gather in 232 00:13:25,200 --> 00:13:28,120 smaller groups of believers, as we worship with our families, as 233 00:13:28,120 --> 00:13:31,600 we worship with those around us in a small group or a community 234 00:13:31,600 --> 00:13:35,800 group, Jesus is working through that to continue to to touch us, 235 00:13:35,800 --> 00:13:40,320 to continue to show his loving kindness to us so we can be 236 00:13:40,320 --> 00:13:42,400 reminded that he reaches out to us. 237 00:13:42,400 --> 00:13:47,520 In the past when he came to this earth and died the death on the 238 00:13:47,520 --> 00:13:49,040 cross. In the present, he is still 239 00:13:49,040 --> 00:13:52,120 mediating for us. He is still working through his 240 00:13:52,120 --> 00:13:56,160 church and other believers. And then we know that Jesus will 241 00:13:56,160 --> 00:13:59,520 come again. We can be reminded of that. 242 00:13:59,720 --> 00:14:03,280 We can count on that, that Jesus is coming back and there will be 243 00:14:03,560 --> 00:14:05,960 a finality to this. That's something that we can 244 00:14:05,960 --> 00:14:09,760 know and trust in continuing on the past. 245 00:14:09,760 --> 00:14:12,480 I think the second thing that we see, we see Him reaching out and 246 00:14:12,480 --> 00:14:15,040 touching. We also see that there is 247 00:14:15,040 --> 00:14:19,360 immense power in His healing. In verse 15 it says He touched 248 00:14:19,360 --> 00:14:24,120 her hands and the fever left her and she rose and began to serve 249 00:14:24,120 --> 00:14:26,120 him. A couple of things here. 250 00:14:26,120 --> 00:14:29,880 First off, we note that there is no delay in this healing. 251 00:14:29,880 --> 00:14:32,680 There are are some who could say, well, maybe Jesus had some 252 00:14:32,680 --> 00:14:36,000 special knowledge or you know, advanced knowledge. 253 00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:39,440 So he he knew the right, you know, medicinal herbs to give 254 00:14:40,040 --> 00:14:42,280 her or something like that. No, there's no room for that in 255 00:14:42,280 --> 00:14:44,800 this passage because she rose immediately. 256 00:14:45,120 --> 00:14:47,920 This was not a long term healing situation. 257 00:14:49,480 --> 00:14:54,440 It's not something that was drawn out to take time after one 258 00:14:54,440 --> 00:14:58,120 showed enough faithfulness. I think that's a key here. 259 00:14:58,880 --> 00:15:04,640 There is a a prevalent theology throughout the world that we 260 00:15:04,640 --> 00:15:07,320 would maybe call prosperity gospel that would say that if 261 00:15:07,320 --> 00:15:11,320 one is faithful enough and that faithfulness measured through 262 00:15:11,320 --> 00:15:14,840 various ways, whether that's they do enough things, they come 263 00:15:14,840 --> 00:15:19,360 to enough things, they pray enough, or often times they give 264 00:15:19,560 --> 00:15:23,480 enough financially. If they do those things, then 265 00:15:23,480 --> 00:15:25,600 healing will come. That's not what we see in this 266 00:15:25,600 --> 00:15:27,760 passage. It's immediate. 267 00:15:27,760 --> 00:15:30,200 He touched her and the fever left her and she immediately 268 00:15:30,680 --> 00:15:33,120 rose. Now that's not to say that God 269 00:15:33,120 --> 00:15:37,360 cannot use long term faithful prayer in order to heal 270 00:15:37,360 --> 00:15:40,320 somebody. In fact, we see this in 271 00:15:40,320 --> 00:15:42,680 Scripture instructed for us to do. 272 00:15:42,680 --> 00:15:47,920 We see this in James chapter 5 verses 14 to 15 says is anyone 273 00:15:47,920 --> 00:15:50,720 among you sick? Claim call for the elders of the 274 00:15:50,720 --> 00:15:54,920 church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in 275 00:15:54,920 --> 00:15:57,880 the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will 276 00:15:57,880 --> 00:16:00,720 save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. 277 00:16:01,480 --> 00:16:04,360 And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 278 00:16:04,360 --> 00:16:08,560 So we see that there is long term prayer that may come before 279 00:16:08,560 --> 00:16:10,120 healing. But there's an important key 280 00:16:10,440 --> 00:16:13,920 here, which is this is not healing coming from somebody who 281 00:16:13,920 --> 00:16:18,320 is claiming to have the same healing abilities as Christ. 282 00:16:18,600 --> 00:16:22,840 This is faithful Christians calling upon God to act. 283 00:16:23,640 --> 00:16:27,520 There's a big difference there. So before we continue on, I just 284 00:16:27,640 --> 00:16:31,680 want to issue that as a clear warning, a warning for US 285 00:16:31,680 --> 00:16:36,280 against those who tie healing to some sort of specific 286 00:16:36,280 --> 00:16:41,000 faithfulness often measured in giving or in giving of time and 287 00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:44,920 especially giving of finances. We don't see that in Scripture. 288 00:16:45,240 --> 00:16:48,520 I do not believe that to be an application of this passage, 289 00:16:48,520 --> 00:16:51,240 that the most faithful of Christians would be able to then 290 00:16:51,240 --> 00:16:55,080 go do exactly as Jesus did in this passage, to touch somebody 291 00:16:55,080 --> 00:16:58,160 or to again ask for money and for there to be healing 292 00:16:58,680 --> 00:17:03,280 associated with that as we continue on in our passage. 293 00:17:03,760 --> 00:17:07,040 Our next point is why Jesus heals. 294 00:17:09,560 --> 00:17:12,920 Let's start in verse 16, verses 16 and 17. 295 00:17:12,920 --> 00:17:16,960 Here it says that evening they brought to him many who were 296 00:17:16,960 --> 00:17:21,200 oppressed by demons and he cast out the spirits with the word 297 00:17:21,480 --> 00:17:25,000 and healed all who were sick. This was to fulfill what was 298 00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:29,200 spoken by the prophet Isaiah. He took our illnesses and bore 299 00:17:29,200 --> 00:17:32,280 our disease. Now this is interesting. 300 00:17:32,280 --> 00:17:36,920 So we have now three stories here of of healing with the 301 00:17:36,920 --> 00:17:39,800 leper, with the centurion servant, Peter's mother-in-law. 302 00:17:39,800 --> 00:17:43,320 And then the floodgates open. There's healing, there's casting 303 00:17:43,320 --> 00:17:46,600 out of demons. Many people are coming and then 304 00:17:46,600 --> 00:17:49,200 Matthew tells us exactly why this is occurring. 305 00:17:49,200 --> 00:17:51,600 This is that clue that we talked about earlier. 306 00:17:51,840 --> 00:17:55,160 It was occurring to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet 307 00:17:55,160 --> 00:17:58,480 Isaiah. He took our illnesses and bore 308 00:17:58,480 --> 00:18:01,560 our diseases. Dwight read this passage for us 309 00:18:01,600 --> 00:18:06,200 earlier in in Isaiah 53. Really, Matthew here is 310 00:18:06,200 --> 00:18:09,280 summarizing off a big part of that passage. 311 00:18:09,280 --> 00:18:13,400 I think we're most familiar with going to Isaiah 53, maybe in a 312 00:18:13,400 --> 00:18:16,560 in a Good Friday service or something like that surrounding 313 00:18:16,560 --> 00:18:18,920 the crucifixion. But there are parts of that 314 00:18:18,920 --> 00:18:22,680 passage that speak not only of his death, but also of his time 315 00:18:22,680 --> 00:18:24,520 here on earth. And and Matthew's really 316 00:18:25,320 --> 00:18:29,080 summarizing that here. We see this most clearly in 317 00:18:29,080 --> 00:18:36,840 Isaiah 53 verse four in the ESV. It says yet he himself bore or 318 00:18:36,840 --> 00:18:37,840 sorry. I was reading the other one. 319 00:18:38,440 --> 00:18:41,320 The ESP says surely He has borne our griefs and carried our 320 00:18:41,320 --> 00:18:46,080 sorrows, yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God and 321 00:18:46,080 --> 00:18:48,360 afflicted. In the CSV. 322 00:18:48,360 --> 00:18:50,520 I think it's it's closer to the summary that we see here. 323 00:18:50,520 --> 00:18:55,960 It says, yet he himself bore our sicknesses and he carried our 324 00:18:55,960 --> 00:19:00,920 pains, but we in turn regarded Him stricken, struck down by God 325 00:19:00,960 --> 00:19:03,160 and afflicted. It's so interesting just in this 326 00:19:03,160 --> 00:19:06,760 one verse that we capture so much of this Kingdom of God 327 00:19:06,760 --> 00:19:11,800 versus the Kingdom of man. We see that that He has borne 328 00:19:11,800 --> 00:19:14,040 our sicknesses. This positive aspect on Christ 329 00:19:14,040 --> 00:19:16,920 of what he has done is He is showing us the Kingdom of God. 330 00:19:17,480 --> 00:19:20,320 But then what we know to have happened, which is the latter 331 00:19:20,320 --> 00:19:23,680 part of these verses, which is that we turn in turn regarded 332 00:19:23,680 --> 00:19:27,680 Him stricken, struck down by God and afflicted, that we rejected 333 00:19:27,680 --> 00:19:31,280 him. This reminds us of what the 334 00:19:31,280 --> 00:19:36,240 Kingdom of man looks like. That is where we all once were. 335 00:19:36,240 --> 00:19:40,080 Some of us may still be this Kingdom of man, as all the way 336 00:19:40,080 --> 00:19:43,920 from the garden we see in Genesis 317 says the ground is 337 00:19:43,920 --> 00:19:46,920 cursed because of you. You'll eat from it by means of 338 00:19:46,920 --> 00:19:48,960 painful labor all the days of your life. 339 00:19:49,520 --> 00:19:52,520 Isaiah 59 too. But your iniquities are 340 00:19:52,520 --> 00:19:56,520 separating you from your God, and your sins have hidden His 341 00:19:56,520 --> 00:20:00,200 face from you, so that He does not listen. 342 00:20:00,640 --> 00:20:03,560 Romans 623 For the wages of sin is death. 343 00:20:04,520 --> 00:20:08,760 Romans 512 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through 344 00:20:08,760 --> 00:20:13,480 one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all 345 00:20:13,480 --> 00:20:18,120 people, because all sin. This is the reality of the 346 00:20:18,120 --> 00:20:20,880 Kingdom of man. This is the reality of the 347 00:20:20,880 --> 00:20:24,040 world. The world is broken and evil. 348 00:20:24,920 --> 00:20:28,440 It is not redeemable apart from God as as many in our culture 349 00:20:28,440 --> 00:20:31,000 would hold to that. It's just a matter of a few 350 00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:33,640 people acting in a bad way or just our environment that 351 00:20:33,640 --> 00:20:35,360 corrupts us or these various things. 352 00:20:35,360 --> 00:20:36,800 Now this is what Scripture teaches. 353 00:20:36,800 --> 00:20:39,520 This is the reality of the curse of sin all the way from the 354 00:20:39,520 --> 00:20:43,160 garden, that there would be brokenness and evil. 355 00:20:44,320 --> 00:20:47,680 Yet on the other side of things, we have the Kingdom of God that 356 00:20:47,720 --> 00:20:50,400 Jesus has just taught us all about in the Sermon on the Mount 357 00:20:50,640 --> 00:20:54,160 and that He is now tangibly showing through His healing 358 00:20:54,160 --> 00:20:56,440 works. He's showing us that where there 359 00:20:56,440 --> 00:20:59,600 is sickness in the Kingdom of man, there is healing in the 360 00:20:59,600 --> 00:21:04,080 Kingdom of God. Where there are demons and evil 361 00:21:04,080 --> 00:21:08,760 things in the Kingdom of man, there is power and compassion in 362 00:21:08,760 --> 00:21:12,040 the Kingdom of God. Where there is death in the 363 00:21:12,040 --> 00:21:15,280 Kingdom of man, there is life in the Kingdom of God. 364 00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:20,360 And where there is separation from God in the Kingdom of man, 365 00:21:20,360 --> 00:21:26,320 the root of all of this, there is unity with God through Jesus 366 00:21:26,520 --> 00:21:30,160 in the Kingdom of God. So now as he's doing these 367 00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:33,160 healings and has, he's casting out demons. 368 00:21:33,720 --> 00:21:35,320 This doesn't just fall into a vacuum. 369 00:21:35,320 --> 00:21:36,960 This is exactly what he's showing us. 370 00:21:36,960 --> 00:21:40,760 He's showing us that this is the Kingdom of God. 371 00:21:40,760 --> 00:21:42,640 It has power over that Kingdom of man. 372 00:21:43,080 --> 00:21:45,200 It confirms his message as he's doing this. 373 00:21:45,200 --> 00:21:47,840 It's showing that there's something to what he is doing 374 00:21:47,840 --> 00:21:50,280 here. The message that he has is 375 00:21:50,280 --> 00:21:54,800 confirmed as he casts out these demons, as he heals people, and 376 00:21:54,800 --> 00:21:58,360 he does it with the word. The Word of God has power. 377 00:22:00,400 --> 00:22:02,800 We'll talk just a moment now about about demons. 378 00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:05,120 We're going to talk about this a little bit more in a couple of 379 00:22:05,120 --> 00:22:08,800 weeks as we get to the end of chapter 8, But just a quick 380 00:22:08,800 --> 00:22:12,400 overview here. Demons are fallen angels. 381 00:22:12,680 --> 00:22:15,880 They act in allegiance with Satan and in opposition to 382 00:22:15,880 --> 00:22:20,560 Christ in his Kingdom. We see in Scripture that demons 383 00:22:20,560 --> 00:22:25,840 often oppress or possess an individual and that causes them 384 00:22:26,120 --> 00:22:29,840 to to do things that are particularly evil or 385 00:22:29,840 --> 00:22:33,440 particularly crazy in the mannerisms that they're that 386 00:22:33,440 --> 00:22:37,520 they're living. That's not to say that everybody 387 00:22:37,520 --> 00:22:41,320 who does evil things or acts in odd ways is possessed by a 388 00:22:41,320 --> 00:22:45,360 demon, but some could be. I think there there's a spectrum 389 00:22:45,440 --> 00:22:48,960 here. And as we look at our response 390 00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:52,240 in the way that we think about demons and other things of this 391 00:22:52,240 --> 00:22:57,120 kind of cosmic scale that we see in Scripture, on one extreme of 392 00:22:57,120 --> 00:23:00,200 this, we could go and say that there is kind of a demon behind 393 00:23:00,200 --> 00:23:04,480 every problem. So every challenging situation, 394 00:23:04,680 --> 00:23:07,520 that's demonic activity. Every sickness that somebody 395 00:23:07,520 --> 00:23:09,760 might have, that must be demonic activity. 396 00:23:09,760 --> 00:23:13,760 Every sin struggle that somebody is going through, that's a demon 397 00:23:13,760 --> 00:23:17,600 in that situation. On that end of the spectrum, we 398 00:23:17,600 --> 00:23:21,560 know that isn't completely true because we know that those who 399 00:23:21,560 --> 00:23:24,760 have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit would not be possessed by 400 00:23:25,080 --> 00:23:27,040 a demon. And we also know those of us 401 00:23:27,040 --> 00:23:29,520 that are believers that just because we are believers does 402 00:23:29,520 --> 00:23:31,720 not mean that we don't have challenging situations in our 403 00:23:31,720 --> 00:23:36,480 lives, sickness in our lives, sin struggles in our lives. 404 00:23:37,400 --> 00:23:40,000 At the other end of the spectrum, there could be those 405 00:23:40,000 --> 00:23:45,240 that pay no attention whatsoever to this cosmic scale battle of 406 00:23:45,240 --> 00:23:47,520 good and evil that we read about in Scripture. 407 00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:51,520 I think there's there's error on that side too, because we can 408 00:23:51,520 --> 00:23:57,120 know and be encouraged in the power of our Savior by knowing 409 00:23:57,120 --> 00:23:59,600 those things are going on. It can affect the way that we 410 00:23:59,600 --> 00:24:02,120 pray when we know that those things are going on. 411 00:24:02,120 --> 00:24:04,320 So there's a bit of a spectrum that we need to find ourselves 412 00:24:04,320 --> 00:24:07,320 in. I think of when I think about 413 00:24:07,320 --> 00:24:10,080 demons, something that immediately comes to mind for me 414 00:24:10,640 --> 00:24:13,120 was an experience that I had when I was in college. 415 00:24:13,120 --> 00:24:19,760 I had, I had the opportunity to spend a summer in India and we 416 00:24:19,760 --> 00:24:24,000 were there doing ministry. And at this one particular day, 417 00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:26,080 we were in this very rural community. 418 00:24:26,320 --> 00:24:28,320 And there was a big difference to how people dealt with 419 00:24:28,320 --> 00:24:31,440 spiritual things in the cities versus in the rural areas where 420 00:24:31,440 --> 00:24:34,320 things were maybe a little bit more real, a little bit darker 421 00:24:34,320 --> 00:24:36,800 in the way that they viewed as spirituality. 422 00:24:37,280 --> 00:24:41,520 And I was talking to a guy that was about my age and we had been 423 00:24:41,520 --> 00:24:45,880 talking about Scripture and we have been talking about the 424 00:24:45,880 --> 00:24:48,800 gospel and he is getting really interested. 425 00:24:48,800 --> 00:24:51,160 And it was exciting. The Lord was working in his 426 00:24:51,160 --> 00:24:52,720 heart. And for those of you that are 427 00:24:52,720 --> 00:24:55,520 familiar with Hinduism, which was the predominant religion 428 00:24:55,520 --> 00:24:58,720 there, it's a polytheistic religion, meaning that there are 429 00:24:58,720 --> 00:25:00,960 many gods. And so one has to be very 430 00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:03,360 careful when when sharing the gospel with somebody at a 431 00:25:03,360 --> 00:25:07,280 polytheistic religion that we truly teach that Jesus is the 432 00:25:07,280 --> 00:25:11,240 one true king, right? That there's not all of these 433 00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:13,200 other gods that you can just stick him next to. 434 00:25:13,200 --> 00:25:15,440 Because that was error that was made by the original 435 00:25:16,960 --> 00:25:19,920 missionaries that went into India in the 17 and 1800s. 436 00:25:19,920 --> 00:25:23,120 They, they brought in Jesus and people said that Jesus sounds 437 00:25:23,120 --> 00:25:24,880 really good. I'm going to stick him up on the 438 00:25:24,880 --> 00:25:26,480 shelf next to all of my other gods. 439 00:25:26,480 --> 00:25:30,800 And now there's a whole sect of Hinduism that that worships 440 00:25:30,800 --> 00:25:33,720 Jesus, that worships Mary alongside other gods. 441 00:25:33,720 --> 00:25:37,080 And it's, it's a false religion. So we started having this 442 00:25:37,080 --> 00:25:39,360 conversation. And I said we were sitting on 443 00:25:39,360 --> 00:25:41,440 the steps of this temple. And I turned around and looked. 444 00:25:41,440 --> 00:25:45,320 I said, you do understand that all of this is not real, that 445 00:25:45,320 --> 00:25:49,160 all of this is fake, that these are not real gods, that Jesus is 446 00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:51,760 the only God. And his response to me, I won't 447 00:25:51,760 --> 00:25:56,760 forget this was he said, yes, I understand that there are no 448 00:25:56,760 --> 00:25:59,560 gods in there. There are only demons in there. 449 00:26:00,520 --> 00:26:04,200 And he went on to talk about the fear in their community over 450 00:26:04,200 --> 00:26:07,720 this worship and that if they did not worship correctly, that 451 00:26:07,720 --> 00:26:10,520 there was fear that their crops would die, there was fear that 452 00:26:10,520 --> 00:26:13,400 their animals would would get diseases, all of these different 453 00:26:13,400 --> 00:26:16,080 things. And that kind of stuck with me. 454 00:26:17,840 --> 00:26:20,320 I don't have all of the answers here when it comes to this kind 455 00:26:20,320 --> 00:26:24,400 of stuff, but there is some mystery to what demonic activity 456 00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:28,000 really looks like today. But what we can know is that 457 00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:32,080 again, that there are spiritual battles going on. 458 00:26:32,080 --> 00:26:36,320 One we can also know too, that Jesus has power over those 459 00:26:36,320 --> 00:26:38,760 things. And we can know that in His time 460 00:26:38,760 --> 00:26:43,280 here on earth, Jesus displayed His power over those things to 461 00:26:43,280 --> 00:26:46,040 show that He truly was the Messiah, to show that the 462 00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:48,520 Kingdom of God was truly being ushered in. 463 00:26:48,760 --> 00:26:54,760 We see this in Luke 1120. It says, But if it is by the 464 00:26:54,760 --> 00:26:58,160 finger of God that I cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God 465 00:26:58,160 --> 00:27:01,920 has come upon you. So we know by the fact that 466 00:27:01,920 --> 00:27:05,080 Jesus is casting out demons that the Kingdom of God is being 467 00:27:05,080 --> 00:27:10,760 ushered in by Jesus. So let's go to our last point 468 00:27:11,120 --> 00:27:12,440 this morning. We're going to spend a little 469 00:27:12,440 --> 00:27:17,000 bit of time here as we look at 2 main areas of response. 470 00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:20,920 There's two applications I think that we really need to highlight 471 00:27:21,200 --> 00:27:25,360 in this passage. The first comes from the 1st 2 472 00:27:25,360 --> 00:27:28,160 verses, the healing of Peter's mother-in-law. 473 00:27:28,160 --> 00:27:31,000 And then we'll get to the second dealing with kind of this 474 00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:32,840 overall picture of Jesus healing. 475 00:27:33,520 --> 00:27:39,480 So as we go back to verses 14 and 15 says, and when Jesus 476 00:27:39,480 --> 00:27:42,080 entered Peter's house and he saw his mother-in-law lying sick 477 00:27:42,080 --> 00:27:44,200 with a fever, he touched her hand and the fever left her. 478 00:27:45,080 --> 00:27:48,840 And then what is her response? And she rose and began to serve 479 00:27:48,840 --> 00:27:53,160 him. That's such a big part of the 480 00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:55,440 healing of Jesus is what? What is our response? 481 00:27:55,440 --> 00:27:57,480 That our response is to serve him? 482 00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:01,200 Yeah, we see this. It's so important for us to 483 00:28:01,200 --> 00:28:05,440 properly understand when we're looking at salvation that we are 484 00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:10,600 not saved by our works, but that doesn't mean that works play no 485 00:28:10,600 --> 00:28:12,680 role in the life of the believer. 486 00:28:13,280 --> 00:28:18,520 I heard recently from a Christian historian, Wes Huff. 487 00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:20,000 Some of you may have heard of him. 488 00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:22,440 I would recommend his stuff he deals with, especially in the 489 00:28:22,440 --> 00:28:25,600 history of the Bible. But in an interview I heard him 490 00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:31,440 say this, that we are not saved by works, but we are saved for 491 00:28:31,440 --> 00:28:33,760 works. I think that's a helpful way for 492 00:28:33,760 --> 00:28:37,360 us to think about it. As we look at Ephesians chapter 493 00:28:37,360 --> 00:28:41,520 2 verses one through 10, a commonplace in Scripture to go 494 00:28:41,520 --> 00:28:46,600 and explain this, this glory of the gospel, we can see how clear 495 00:28:46,600 --> 00:28:49,760 this is starting out. It says, and you were dead in 496 00:28:49,760 --> 00:28:52,960 the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. 497 00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:56,360 Following the course of this world, following the Prince of 498 00:28:56,360 --> 00:28:59,320 the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons 499 00:28:59,320 --> 00:29:03,240 of disobedience among whom we've all once lived, and the passions 500 00:29:03,240 --> 00:29:05,600 of our flesh carrying out the desires of the body and of the 501 00:29:05,600 --> 00:29:08,360 mind. And we're by nature children of 502 00:29:08,360 --> 00:29:12,640 wrath like the rest of mankind. Pause there for a moment. 503 00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:14,680 That's the Kingdom of man right there. 504 00:29:14,680 --> 00:29:18,120 That is the reality of the situation that we have in this 505 00:29:18,120 --> 00:29:21,000 world. We, apart from Christ, are of 506 00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:24,040 the Kingdom of man. But then the passage goes on, it 507 00:29:24,040 --> 00:29:28,240 says, But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love 508 00:29:28,240 --> 00:29:33,080 with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our 509 00:29:33,080 --> 00:29:36,160 trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. 510 00:29:36,680 --> 00:29:40,320 By grace you have been saved and raised us up with Him and seated 511 00:29:40,320 --> 00:29:44,120 us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in 512 00:29:44,120 --> 00:29:47,080 the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of his 513 00:29:47,080 --> 00:29:50,080 grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. 514 00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:53,200 That's Jesus reaching out to us. You know, it's such an amazing 515 00:29:53,200 --> 00:29:57,680 thing as we think about salvation and how glorious it 516 00:29:57,680 --> 00:30:01,920 would be if we only saw the mercy of Jesus, if we recognize 517 00:30:01,920 --> 00:30:04,760 that we were completely dead in our trespasses. 518 00:30:06,080 --> 00:30:07,720 And then Jesus took away that sentence. 519 00:30:07,720 --> 00:30:10,760 What a glorious thing that would be, that we were a billion 520 00:30:10,760 --> 00:30:13,000 dollars in debt and that debt was erased. 521 00:30:13,480 --> 00:30:15,200 But that's not where the gospel ends. 522 00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:18,000 As Jesus reaches out to us, he raises this up into the heavenly 523 00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:20,520 places. We receive the righteousness won 524 00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:24,120 by Christ on the cross. So not only are we a billion 525 00:30:24,120 --> 00:30:27,760 dollars in debt and then we go to a 0 sum, we're credited that. 526 00:30:28,400 --> 00:30:32,560 And so we are raised up with Jesus says, for by grace you 527 00:30:32,560 --> 00:30:36,240 have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. 528 00:30:36,240 --> 00:30:38,880 It's the gift of God, not a result of work. 529 00:30:38,880 --> 00:30:43,600 So that no one may boast. There's that clarity that what 530 00:30:43,600 --> 00:30:47,200 we're talking about here is not being saved by works. 531 00:30:48,360 --> 00:30:49,400 But the passage doesn't end there. 532 00:30:49,400 --> 00:30:52,400 We have one more verse. We go to verse 10 and it says, 533 00:30:52,640 --> 00:30:57,680 for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good 534 00:30:57,720 --> 00:31:02,640 works which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk 535 00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:06,200 in them. So when we're saved, we then go 536 00:31:06,200 --> 00:31:10,360 and glorify God by going and doing the things that He has set 537 00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:14,400 beforehand for us to do. This is an important part of the 538 00:31:14,400 --> 00:31:18,560 walk of a believer. We have the example of Jesus in 539 00:31:18,560 --> 00:31:20,480 this. We have Matthew 2028 says even 540 00:31:20,480 --> 00:31:24,200 as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give 541 00:31:24,200 --> 00:31:27,480 his life as a ransom for many. This is part of our response to 542 00:31:27,480 --> 00:31:31,000 our salvation is that we go and do the works that God has set 543 00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:36,160 beforehand for us to do. So what does that look like? 544 00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:39,080 I think there are many things that that can look like, but 545 00:31:39,080 --> 00:31:43,200 let's let's work in in close to us and work our way out. 546 00:31:44,160 --> 00:31:50,240 We glorify God when we serve our families, we when we serve our 547 00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:53,760 spouses, when we serve our children, when we serve our 548 00:31:53,760 --> 00:31:57,720 parents. We glorify God in the way that 549 00:31:57,720 --> 00:32:01,280 we do that what a picture of the gospel. 550 00:32:01,560 --> 00:32:05,880 It is when we think about in our marriages that we serve one 551 00:32:05,880 --> 00:32:09,680 another for the glory of God that we aren't so concerned 552 00:32:09,800 --> 00:32:13,880 about everything being equal about if I do that this, then 553 00:32:13,880 --> 00:32:17,360 they're going to do this and and if they put in 50%, I'm going to 554 00:32:17,360 --> 00:32:20,040 put in 50%. If they put in 100%, then I'll 555 00:32:20,040 --> 00:32:23,560 put in 100%. The picture of the gospel is 556 00:32:23,560 --> 00:32:27,760 that we have been saved by grace through faith. 557 00:32:28,640 --> 00:32:30,280 Let us then go and do good works. 558 00:32:32,160 --> 00:32:35,960 Let us be a picture of what it looks like to serve our spouses 559 00:32:37,240 --> 00:32:39,080 and let God worry about the other stuff with his 560 00:32:39,080 --> 00:32:42,280 relationship and our spouses that we can show that example. 561 00:32:42,280 --> 00:32:45,600 And when we do that, that shows such an example to our children, 562 00:32:46,600 --> 00:32:50,960 children in the room as you obey your parents and you serve and 563 00:32:50,960 --> 00:32:53,960 your family that glorifies God as you do that. 564 00:32:55,760 --> 00:32:59,760 As we go out a little bit further, we glorify God when we 565 00:32:59,760 --> 00:33:04,360 serve our church family. And there are so many ways that 566 00:33:04,360 --> 00:33:08,560 we serve our church family. A few that just came to mind as 567 00:33:08,560 --> 00:33:11,840 I was thinking about this. One way that we serve our church 568 00:33:11,840 --> 00:33:15,040 family is by living transparent lives. 569 00:33:15,040 --> 00:33:17,400 It's on the sign over there, something that we hold to that 570 00:33:17,400 --> 00:33:22,240 we would live transparent lives. When we come to church in an 571 00:33:22,240 --> 00:33:28,360 authentic manner, when we live life together that encourages 572 00:33:28,360 --> 00:33:31,480 one another, that serves one another, that glorifies God. 573 00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:36,520 When we come to church, try to put on a perfect face all of 574 00:33:36,520 --> 00:33:38,400 that. All that that does is steal that 575 00:33:38,400 --> 00:33:40,840 encouragement from other people. All that does is make other 576 00:33:40,840 --> 00:33:43,120 people sit there and think, oh man, they have everything 577 00:33:43,120 --> 00:33:45,120 together. What is it that I'm doing? 578 00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:49,280 When we come authentically, we're then we can pray for one 579 00:33:49,280 --> 00:33:50,640 another. We can see what's going on in 580 00:33:50,640 --> 00:33:53,560 each other's lives. We're encouraged by that. 581 00:33:54,720 --> 00:33:58,320 We encourage one another through wise counsel. 582 00:33:59,160 --> 00:34:00,960 I've seen this happen multiple times. 583 00:34:00,960 --> 00:34:04,360 I think of a specific situation that I have in my mind in our 584 00:34:04,360 --> 00:34:07,120 hallway that I just walked past the conversation the other week 585 00:34:07,640 --> 00:34:10,920 where somebody in our church was struggling with a situation that 586 00:34:10,920 --> 00:34:13,360 somebody else in our church had already been through, and there 587 00:34:13,360 --> 00:34:16,360 was wise counsel given there, encouragement given there. 588 00:34:16,600 --> 00:34:19,080 In those situations, God is glorified. 589 00:34:20,199 --> 00:34:24,760 This may be a hobby horse for me, but when we sing for one 590 00:34:24,760 --> 00:34:27,719 another on a Sunday morning, we glorify God in that service 591 00:34:27,719 --> 00:34:30,560 towards each other. We're going to talk about this 592 00:34:30,760 --> 00:34:34,040 next week in Sunday school, and so if you would like to join us 593 00:34:34,040 --> 00:34:37,920 for that, we meet right in here at 9:15 for Sunday school and 594 00:34:37,920 --> 00:34:39,600 we've been talking through spiritual disciplines. 595 00:34:39,600 --> 00:34:42,600 We're talking about worship next week and one of the things we're 596 00:34:42,600 --> 00:34:45,480 going to talk about is that in worship there is a vertical 597 00:34:45,480 --> 00:34:48,880 component, absolutely, where we are singing praises to God and 598 00:34:48,880 --> 00:34:51,080 we are communing with God in that situation. 599 00:34:51,360 --> 00:34:55,040 There is also a horizontal aspect to worship where we are 600 00:34:55,040 --> 00:34:58,000 singing together, glorifying God together. 601 00:34:58,520 --> 00:35:01,680 When we raise our voices, whether it's in tune or out of 602 00:35:01,680 --> 00:35:03,400 tune. When we raise our voices 603 00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:06,800 together as a church and we sing the truths that we see in 604 00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:10,720 Scripture that are captured in the songs that we sing, that is 605 00:35:10,720 --> 00:35:13,480 service and encouragement to one another and that glorifies God. 606 00:35:15,000 --> 00:35:20,240 And yes, absolutely serving also can look like serving in formal 607 00:35:20,240 --> 00:35:22,720 ways. It is no secret to anybody that 608 00:35:22,720 --> 00:35:26,360 it takes a lot to do church together on a Sunday morning, 609 00:35:26,360 --> 00:35:29,800 especially in a in a setup and tear down church like we have in 610 00:35:29,800 --> 00:35:33,480 this current season. We can serve one another by 611 00:35:33,480 --> 00:35:36,400 being here early to set up chairs or staying late to take 612 00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:39,040 them down. We can serve one another by 613 00:35:39,040 --> 00:35:41,200 providing snacks with hospitality. 614 00:35:41,200 --> 00:35:43,960 We can serve one another absolutely. 615 00:35:43,960 --> 00:35:47,840 In the kids areas, there are kids there just now that are 616 00:35:48,960 --> 00:35:51,880 learning more and more about the gospel with their teachers back 617 00:35:51,880 --> 00:35:54,520 there. And I think it can be helpful 618 00:35:54,520 --> 00:35:58,640 for us as we think about this service, that really what's 619 00:35:58,640 --> 00:36:01,800 happening here is that we are recognizing that we have been 620 00:36:01,800 --> 00:36:05,560 saved, that we have been healed by Christ, and that that moves 621 00:36:05,560 --> 00:36:08,240 us to service. And when we serve one another, 622 00:36:08,240 --> 00:36:12,000 that provides more opportunities for others to feel that same 623 00:36:12,000 --> 00:36:15,200 love and kindness of Christ. That can be the perspective that 624 00:36:15,200 --> 00:36:18,400 we have as we serve one another, especially in some of those hard 625 00:36:18,400 --> 00:36:20,280 areas. Like, you know, sometimes kids 626 00:36:20,280 --> 00:36:22,800 area can be hard or sometimes, you know, it could be tough on 627 00:36:22,800 --> 00:36:25,160 the back setting up chairs and tearing them down every week. 628 00:36:25,320 --> 00:36:27,400 But when we're doing that, we're glorifying God. 629 00:36:27,680 --> 00:36:31,720 We're providing opportunities for others to hear his truth. 630 00:36:33,320 --> 00:36:36,680 And then as we go outward one more time to a large area, which 631 00:36:36,680 --> 00:36:39,920 is all of those around us that do not believe whether those be 632 00:36:39,920 --> 00:36:45,040 close to us, friends, neighbors, family, Co workers, or whether 633 00:36:45,040 --> 00:36:47,120 it's people that we have very little interaction with. 634 00:36:47,120 --> 00:36:50,360 Maybe it's the least of these people in difficult situations 635 00:36:51,760 --> 00:36:54,400 in that we glorify God by serving them. 636 00:36:54,840 --> 00:36:58,360 And yes, that absolutely sometimes looks like providing 637 00:36:58,360 --> 00:37:03,440 tangible needs, showing kindness, but even more so, it 638 00:37:03,440 --> 00:37:06,600 involves us sharing the truth of the gospel in those situations 639 00:37:06,600 --> 00:37:11,200 so that people can know the truth that we know in Scripture. 640 00:37:12,640 --> 00:37:16,760 Our second point of application comes from the last two verses 641 00:37:16,760 --> 00:37:20,680 as we talked about what is really going on here with Jesus 642 00:37:20,680 --> 00:37:27,480 healing, you know, is our is our application here to to say, OK, 643 00:37:27,960 --> 00:37:30,760 Jesus has healed these people with a touch. 644 00:37:31,280 --> 00:37:35,520 Now we are supposed to go and do that exact thing or point out 645 00:37:35,520 --> 00:37:38,200 that this is a descriptive passage of Scripture, which 646 00:37:38,200 --> 00:37:40,040 means it's telling us about what's happened. 647 00:37:40,040 --> 00:37:44,240 It's not necessarily prescribing that we go do that thing. 648 00:37:44,240 --> 00:37:47,040 However, there is something here in a descriptive passage. 649 00:37:47,040 --> 00:37:48,560 There is still a lesson to be learned. 650 00:37:49,800 --> 00:37:52,760 I think that there is, we have to find a little bit of a 651 00:37:52,760 --> 00:37:57,760 Goldilocks zone here as we look at a spectrum here of, you know, 652 00:37:57,760 --> 00:38:01,800 there is a danger on placing too much emphasis on these miracles 653 00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:06,080 and how we must see or play out these miracles in our church 654 00:38:06,080 --> 00:38:08,720 life in order for us to truly be faithful. 655 00:38:08,720 --> 00:38:11,760 There is danger there. There's also danger in too 656 00:38:11,760 --> 00:38:16,920 little where we say, you know, all of the supernatural things 657 00:38:16,920 --> 00:38:19,040 that were going on in Scripture, that was all just something that 658 00:38:19,040 --> 00:38:21,320 happened back then. We don't expect that God works 659 00:38:21,320 --> 00:38:25,680 in supernatural ways anymore. There's there's a danger here on 660 00:38:25,840 --> 00:38:29,200 either side, but the key here is faithfulness. 661 00:38:30,440 --> 00:38:34,800 I spent a lot of time in the last few weeks reading stories 662 00:38:34,800 --> 00:38:38,960 of people that came out of this kind of prosperity gospel we 663 00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:42,280 talked about earlier where, you know, your faithfulness as a 664 00:38:42,280 --> 00:38:47,960 believer is really judged by whether it be wealth, health or, 665 00:38:47,960 --> 00:38:51,160 or, or success that comes through believing the gospel. 666 00:38:53,160 --> 00:38:55,720 And I think that this fictional story here that I'm going to 667 00:38:55,720 --> 00:38:57,920 share in a moment kind of summarizes a lot of those 668 00:38:57,920 --> 00:39:00,840 details and, and really hit close to to my heart. 669 00:39:01,880 --> 00:39:04,640 So we have this individual, we'll call him Joshua. 670 00:39:05,080 --> 00:39:09,520 He considers himself spiritual, even a Christian, kind of a 671 00:39:09,520 --> 00:39:11,360 Christmas and Easter kind of Christian. 672 00:39:11,960 --> 00:39:14,880 That's that's how he grew up. That's how his life was until 673 00:39:14,880 --> 00:39:17,280 his life started to get complicated. 674 00:39:17,280 --> 00:39:20,360 As life does in that complication. 675 00:39:20,360 --> 00:39:23,160 He found himself on his knees before God and gave his life 676 00:39:23,160 --> 00:39:24,960 over to Christ. And for the sake of this story, 677 00:39:24,960 --> 00:39:27,120 let's just say this was a genuine salvation. 678 00:39:27,120 --> 00:39:30,640 He truly did turn over his life to Christ, but he's pretty 679 00:39:30,640 --> 00:39:32,760 immature now. He's a brand new baby believer 680 00:39:32,760 --> 00:39:35,600 with nobody around him. As he's reading his Bible, he 681 00:39:35,600 --> 00:39:38,920 starts to recognize that scripture calls people to get 682 00:39:38,920 --> 00:39:41,240 together and talk about the Bible, just like we talked about 683 00:39:41,240 --> 00:39:44,440 in Hebrews chapter 10. So he tries to find a church. 684 00:39:44,440 --> 00:39:46,600 He goes to the the biggest one near him. 685 00:39:46,600 --> 00:39:48,400 He's seen a billboard or something like that. 686 00:39:48,400 --> 00:39:51,560 He starts going to this church. He likes that they're talking 687 00:39:51,560 --> 00:39:53,440 about the Bible. He finds it may be a little bit 688 00:39:53,440 --> 00:39:58,280 strange that they talk so much about money and giving, but as 689 00:39:58,280 --> 00:40:01,240 he starts to learn more about the Bible and he starts to apply 690 00:40:01,240 --> 00:40:05,240 those principles to his life. Things start to get better. 691 00:40:05,240 --> 00:40:07,560 His complicated life gets a little less complicated. 692 00:40:07,560 --> 00:40:11,000 He's finding some success in work as he applies biblical 693 00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:13,600 principles to his life. As you would hope, a lot of 694 00:40:13,600 --> 00:40:17,840 situations are improving. So all is well and good until 695 00:40:18,120 --> 00:40:21,320 it's his turn to get some some bad medical news. 696 00:40:21,480 --> 00:40:24,320 He gets a diagnosis. His life is going to be cut 697 00:40:24,320 --> 00:40:26,600 short. So what does he do? 698 00:40:26,600 --> 00:40:28,800 He immediately starts to think about what have I done to 699 00:40:28,800 --> 00:40:30,960 deserve this? In what way have I been 700 00:40:30,960 --> 00:40:33,160 unfaithful and I'm being punished in this way? 701 00:40:33,160 --> 00:40:36,800 So he starts looking for every sin that he could confess. 702 00:40:37,480 --> 00:40:41,240 He starts to do as much as he can at church to give more money 703 00:40:41,240 --> 00:40:45,400 than he is able to just to try to compensate for something 704 00:40:45,400 --> 00:40:48,520 going on in his life. He starts to seek counsel from 705 00:40:48,520 --> 00:40:51,160 other believers, but the only thing that he is getting from 706 00:40:51,160 --> 00:40:54,960 them is that his motives must not be right if he's still 707 00:40:54,960 --> 00:40:59,040 struggling with this. So he gets sicker and sicker, 708 00:40:59,120 --> 00:41:02,320 and meanwhile he's having more anxiety and more anxiety, 709 00:41:02,320 --> 00:41:06,400 feeling worthless as his health continues to deteriorate. 710 00:41:06,400 --> 00:41:09,600 He sits in a position where he thinks he must be a poor excuse 711 00:41:09,600 --> 00:41:12,880 for a Christian if he can't believe well enough to be 712 00:41:12,880 --> 00:41:16,720 healed. That ought to make us a little 713 00:41:16,720 --> 00:41:19,400 bit angry to think about that, the twisting of Scripture that 714 00:41:19,400 --> 00:41:23,680 leaves so many people in a situation like that or where 715 00:41:23,680 --> 00:41:26,640 there's too much emphasis placed on this. 716 00:41:28,960 --> 00:41:32,280 Another story comes to mind. When Taylor and I were in 717 00:41:32,280 --> 00:41:35,360 college, we were at a church in South Carolina and there was a 718 00:41:35,360 --> 00:41:39,600 family there that found out they were having a baby. 719 00:41:39,600 --> 00:41:41,760 There was all the excitement that comes with that. 720 00:41:42,280 --> 00:41:47,840 At the 20 week appointment they found out that that baby had a 721 00:41:47,840 --> 00:41:51,200 rare that condition and that the outlook was bad. 722 00:41:51,200 --> 00:41:54,360 The baby probably would not make it to birth, or if it did, it 723 00:41:54,360 --> 00:41:57,280 wouldn't make it much further. But to complicate the story, 724 00:41:57,280 --> 00:42:02,440 they also found that there was cancer in the placenta and so 725 00:42:03,040 --> 00:42:06,440 the doctor's advice was that this would be the textbook case 726 00:42:06,440 --> 00:42:09,680 for terminating a pregnancy. The baby had little chance of 727 00:42:09,680 --> 00:42:14,800 life and there was danger that the mother would would contract 728 00:42:14,800 --> 00:42:17,120 cancer throughout the process of the pregnancy. 729 00:42:18,320 --> 00:42:21,600 They felt no peace about that and they went to the Lord on 730 00:42:21,600 --> 00:42:23,480 their knees. Their church came around them. 731 00:42:23,480 --> 00:42:27,200 They continued on with that pregnancy and praise the Lord, 732 00:42:27,200 --> 00:42:29,360 the baby was born. The baby was fine. 733 00:42:29,360 --> 00:42:33,920 That baby is 13 years old today, and the mother did not contract 734 00:42:33,920 --> 00:42:35,760 cancer. The Lord worked a miracle in 735 00:42:35,760 --> 00:42:37,600 that situation. Praise the Lord. 736 00:42:39,000 --> 00:42:43,360 But we also know that sometimes that's not how that story ends. 737 00:42:43,560 --> 00:42:48,280 Sometimes people get sick, they reach out to the Lord in 738 00:42:48,280 --> 00:42:51,480 faithfulness, their church comes around them in faithful prayer, 739 00:42:53,240 --> 00:42:56,520 and they still die. And those are tough situations. 740 00:42:56,680 --> 00:42:59,160 Probably all of us have experienced that in some way or 741 00:42:59,160 --> 00:43:01,880 another. But what we can know is that 742 00:43:01,880 --> 00:43:05,880 through the faithful prayers of the believers that God is 743 00:43:05,880 --> 00:43:08,480 glorified. Through their endurance and 744 00:43:08,480 --> 00:43:12,960 suffering, God is glorified. And in his infinite wisdom and 745 00:43:12,960 --> 00:43:17,400 knowledge and sovereignty, God is over that situation and 746 00:43:17,400 --> 00:43:19,960 there's a reward in heaven. We know all of that to be true 747 00:43:23,400 --> 00:43:26,360 as we close here. Our main idea this morning as we 748 00:43:26,360 --> 00:43:27,840 summarize what we just talked about. 749 00:43:28,280 --> 00:43:32,000 An important aspect of Jesus's ministry on earth was to show us 750 00:43:32,360 --> 00:43:35,160 what his Kingdom, the Kingdom of God, looked like. 751 00:43:36,080 --> 00:43:39,960 By healing, by casting out demons, Jesus displayed how His 752 00:43:39,960 --> 00:43:43,240 Kingdom overcomes the curse of sin and darkness. 753 00:43:44,480 --> 00:43:46,480 Even more so than physical healing. 754 00:43:46,480 --> 00:43:50,440 We have witnessed Jesus power and salvation and should respond 755 00:43:50,440 --> 00:43:54,040 as Peter's mother-in-law did by serving our Savior. 756 00:43:54,880 --> 00:43:57,360 If you were here this morning and, and and you look at this 757 00:43:57,360 --> 00:44:04,360 and you say I definitely see myself in the Kingdom of man, I 758 00:44:04,360 --> 00:44:08,080 would invite you to consider the verses and Ephesians that we 759 00:44:08,080 --> 00:44:11,680 read. Jesus has already paid the price 760 00:44:13,040 --> 00:44:14,920 by believing in Him through grace and faith. 761 00:44:14,920 --> 00:44:20,160 You can't have life in Christ. I would urge you not to delay to 762 00:44:20,200 --> 00:44:23,280 do that. I would urge you to consider 763 00:44:23,280 --> 00:44:27,400 that today to talk to a Christian friend, to talk to one 764 00:44:27,400 --> 00:44:30,640 of the pastors here, to come to the Lord on your knees. 765 00:44:31,160 --> 00:44:33,480 For we know that he is faithful to save. 766 00:44:34,280 --> 00:44:36,680 And for those of us that can look and say we are in the 767 00:44:36,680 --> 00:44:42,600 Kingdom of God, let us be motivated as we look back to the 768 00:44:42,600 --> 00:44:44,600 healing that God has provided us in salvation. 769 00:44:44,600 --> 00:44:50,480 Let us be motivated to continue to serve him, to serve him by 770 00:44:50,480 --> 00:44:54,480 serving our families, by serving our church, by serving our 771 00:44:54,480 --> 00:44:58,640 communities, and by bringing the love of Christ to others. 772 00:44:58,920 --> 00:45:07,480 Would you join me now in prayer? Father, we love you, we praise 773 00:45:07,480 --> 00:45:11,480 you. We all know the realities of the 774 00:45:11,480 --> 00:45:15,640 Kingdom of man and the darkness and the struggle there. 775 00:45:16,840 --> 00:45:19,000 We pray that we would be encouraged by the Kingdom of 776 00:45:19,000 --> 00:45:21,800 God, knowing that you have victory over those things. 777 00:45:23,320 --> 00:45:26,280 And as we wait for you to come back and we live in this in 778 00:45:26,280 --> 00:45:29,520 between time where there is still the presence of sin and 779 00:45:29,520 --> 00:45:32,960 death, help us remember that there is no victory of sin and 780 00:45:32,960 --> 00:45:38,080 death. For those of us that look at our 781 00:45:38,080 --> 00:45:41,080 lives right now and see some of those hard situations where we 782 00:45:41,080 --> 00:45:44,960 are praying and praying and praying for healing and have not 783 00:45:44,960 --> 00:45:48,040 seen healing come first, we pray for encouragement. 784 00:45:48,040 --> 00:45:52,840 We pray for endurance. We also pray that ultimately we 785 00:45:52,840 --> 00:45:58,480 would be looking to you and what you have said to us and that we 786 00:45:58,480 --> 00:46:00,840 know you'll be glorified in whatever that outcome is. 787 00:46:01,120 --> 00:46:04,080 We praise you this morning and we pray. 788 00:46:04,320 --> 00:46:04,600 Amen.