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Hi everyone, this is Pastor Tom and I want to welcome you to our 10th week of
looking through the book of Matthew because we've taken longer in some chapters,
we're actually in chapter 8 today and all this week. Day 1, chapter 8, the book
of Matthew. As we go into chapter 8, Jesus has just finished teaching the Sermon
on the Mount in chapters And now in this chapter, we're going to see the
ministry of Jesus, the miracles of Jesus throughout this chapter.

In the first part of chapter 8, we see Jesus as the healer. He heals a man with
leprosy. He heals a centurion or heals for a centurion, his servant, and he
heals Peter's mother-in-law.

Let me read for you the first healing that happens in verses 1 to verse 4. Now
as we walk through these healings that happen at the beginning of this chapter,
we're going to see some lessons about faith, some deeper lessons about faith,
but before that, before we get into that, there's a big question that comes out
when you hear this man saying to Jesus, if you're willing, one of the questions
is why isn't God always willing or why isn't everyone always healed? Because the
fact that everyone isn't healed every time we pray makes us feel like maybe God
isn't always willing.

Is it because God isn't willing? Is it because I don't have enough faith? Now
this could actually take many hours to talk about, but let me just give you a
few minutes of a theology of healing.

As you look through the healing ministry of Jesus, did Jesus heal everyone that
needed healing that he passed by? No. There were many people that needed
healing, but he didn't stop to heal every single person.

Did he heal everyone who asked? Everyone that we see in the scripture that asked
for healing, the answer is yes, Jesus healed those people. So that teaches you
and I some things about healing.

That teaches us that we should ask Jesus. We should ask him for healing when
we're facing physical or emotional or mental sickness in our lives. We ask him
for healing.

Now the question behind that is, does Jesus heal everyone who asks today? Is it
always God's will to heal? In one sense, let me before talking through this, in
one sense, let me say that when you're 130 years old, if you lived to be that
long and you had a lot of sickness, you'd probably be hoping more that it's
God's will to take you to be with him forever in heaven.

We look at the truth of this world and the fact that there is sickness in this
world which God never wanted, and the reality of healing and the need for
healing. In order to understand healing, you have to understand it in the light
of eternity. The answer to, does God always heal?

The answer to everyone who puts their faith in Jesus is yes, but he chooses how
and he chooses when. Sometimes he chooses to heal on this earth, sometimes he
chooses to heal in eternity. Now I know for a lot of people that answer sounds
not fair, like well, you're cheating, you're saying when we get to heaven we're
going to be healed, but really it's a matter of perspective.

It's a miracle that we're going to be in heaven and have perfect bodies forever.
We're going to be completely healed forever, and from our perspective on this
earth, it feels like so long to wait for healing, but from God's perspective,
our time on this earth, it's but an instant. Depending on our faith, our need
for healing can cause us to lose eternal perspective or can cause us to sharpen
the focus of our eternal perspective.

As you wait for healing, whether it comes on this earth or it comes in eternity,
God is going to be faithful. As you look at the ministry of Jesus, every time
Jesus heals, he actually downplays the healing. You heard him do this here,
we'll talk about this in a minute.

He said to the man, "Don't tell anyone," and he amplifies the person and the
reason behind the healing. Sometimes we do the exact opposite. We amplify the
miracle, but we forget the person in it and forget the person who was doing it.

We forget to glorify God in it in some way because we're so excited that some
miracle happened. Now, really understand what's happening in these verses, and I
know that's a very brief talk about healing and why and who God is working with.
We'll talk about that more as we walk through the book of Matthew.

But for these verses, as we walk through these three healings that Jesus does at
the beginning of chapter 8, I also want us to look today at what we can learn
about faith. What do we learn about faith? Three things we're going to learn.

First, faith is accepting God's will. Second, faith is trusting God's authority.
And third, faith is recognizing God's plan, his eternal plan.

First, faith, part of faith is accepting God's will. This man who is suffering
with leprosy comes and says, "If you are willing," he expresses a kind of faith
that's without demand, not you have to be willing, but if you are willing. Faith
is saying, "Thy will be done.

" This man comes and immediately looks to Jesus and what his will would be.
Faith is not working up enough spiritual energy or credits or ability to get God
to do what you want. Faith is believing God for what he wants to do.

Now, some people say this phrase, "If you are willing. " God, if you are
willing, will you heal this person? If you are willing, will you do this?

It's actually giving God an out. It's not really having faith. I believe the
opposite is true.

I believe it's reminding yourself that it's God you are trusting, not you. It's
not your faith you're trusting, it's God that you're trusting. So if you're
willing, says, "God, I'm trusting you even more than I'm trusting my ability to
figure out what should happen in this circumstance.

" Now, Jesus doesn't let this man who is cured, healed of leprosy say anything
about it. Why not? Well, the reason is he knew it would force the religious
leaders, if these miracles were known, it would force them to begin to condemn
him before the right time.

It's not yet time for him to go to the cross. So he says to people, you'll see
this throughout the experiences he has with people, he says to them from time to
time, "Don't tell anyone," because he's aware of the timing of the cross. Faith,
number one, is accepting God's will.

There's a second lesson about faith at the beginning of this chapter, and that
is faith is trusting God's authority. We see that in the healing of the
centurion's servant. In verse 5 down through verse 10, let me read this for you.

When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him asking for help.
"Lord," he said, "my servant lies at home paralyzed and is in terrible
suffering. " Jesus said to him, "I will go and heal him.

" The centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof,
but just say the word and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under
authority and with soldiers under me. I tell this one go and he goes and that
one come and he comes.

And I say to my servant do this and he does it. " When Jesus heard this, he was
astonished. And he said to those following him, "I tell you the truth, I have
not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.

" Now notice in verse 10, Jesus was astonished. Jesus experienced human
emotions. Don't forget that.

That's why I hate most movies and TV shows that show the life of Jesus. They
take all the emotion out of him. Jesus wanders through life in some kind of a
mystical days.

That's not the true Jesus. He was filled with emotion. He's filled with life.

And here he is astonished by the great faith of the centurion. The centurion
knew that Jesus did not physically have to go to his home, that he had all the
authority that was needed to heal right from where he was. One day every knee is
going to bow.

Every tongue is going to confess that Jesus is Lord. And he knew that. He
understood that.

He trusted that. Now many in his day would have said that this Roman could have
never had a relationship with God because he had a pagan background. But Jesus
here teaches that a relationship with God has nothing to do with religious
background.

It has to do with having this kind of faith, the faith to trust Jesus for who he
really is. So he says in verses 11 to 13, "I say to you that many will come from
the east and the west and they'll take their places at the feast with Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob and the kingdom of heaven, but the subjects of the kingdom
will be thrown outside into the darkness where there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth. And then Jesus said to the centurion, 'Go.

It will be done just as you believed it would. ' And his servant was healed at
that very hour. " So Jesus is teaching that there are some who are very
religious here who are going to be thrown outside because they're not trusting
in God's authority.

They're trusting in their work or they're trusting in their religion. Faith is
trusting in God's authority that he's the one that's all-powerful. There's a
third lesson about faith and the healings that Jesus does in the first part of
this chapter, and that is that faith is recognizing God's plan.

It's seeing God's overall plan. In verses 14 to 17, "When Jesus came into
Peter's house, he saw Peter's mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He
touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on
them.

When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he
drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill
what was spoken to the prophet Isaiah. He took up our infirmities and he carried
our diseases.

" Now notice here he healed the demon-possessed. We're going to answer some of
the questions about what this is all about, the possession by demons and Jesus'
healing of that possession at the end of this week. Notice also here he healed a
woman who seems to be very close to him, Peter's mother-in-law.

She's about to prepare them a meal. She's sick. I don't know if Jesus wanted a
good meal and he wanted to make sure she prepared it and not Peter, but he comes
into the house and he heals her.

When you watch these healings, you realize that every healing, every healing
that God does, it's a personal blessing, but it's also important to see that
there's more than the personal blessing going on. There's the greatness of God
being revealed. Some get so caught up in the need for a personal blessing that
they miss what God is doing in his overall plan.

Now that's understandable. We need the blessing. But to have faith, we also have
to look beyond.

We have to look beyond the blessing to see the blesser, the God of all power who
is blessing us. We have to look beyond what is happening in the moment to see
how God is working in all of eternity. And Matthew, by God's Spirit, is inspired
to say here that he sees that Jesus is fulfilling prophecy even in this healing.

Beginning at the Sermon on the Mount, in the Sermon on the Mount, you remember
we talked Jesus said, "I came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. " And
here Matthew reminds us, even as he's healing, he is fulfilling prophecy. Notice
this phrase, "He took up our infirmities.

He carried our diseases. " Not just he healed them, but this is looking to what
Jesus is going to do for us on the cross. He took them up.

He carried them like he's going to take up our sins, like he's going to carry
our sins on the cross. So there's something greater than even the healing that's
going on here, and that's the healer. That's the purpose of God.

There's a lot to learn about faith, and there's a deeper lesson of faith in each
of these healings that Jesus does at the beginning of this chapter. As we end
today, I'd like to take a minute to pray with you, pray together, and ask God to
work on our hearts, to help us to deepen our faith, our understanding, our depth
of trust in him. Would you pray with me?

And just say this simple prayer, "Jesus, strengthen my faith. " I'm going to
learn to trust you, to trust your will, not my will, to trust your authority,
not my energy or strength, and to trust in your plan, because you see it all,
not the part that I see, but to trust that you, you can be trusted in your plan.
Deepen my faith as I trust in you, I pray, and I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

Tomorrow, we're going to look at some men who had to deal with some barriers to
following Jesus.