Power over Disease
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2012 · 3 June 2012
Prepare to study together Matthew 8. We have covered the first seven chapters, and now we proceed further in this exciting Gospel. The 8th chapter through the 12th chapter are really critical to the understanding of the life of Christ and the message of Matthew. For in this section, Matthew records a series of miracles performed by Jesus Christ.
There are thousands of miracles that were done, but only nine are singled out by Matthew as examples of the power of Jesus Christ. They are really His credentials as the Messiah. They are those signs which point convincingly to His deity, for only God can do those things.
The sad part is that, after the miracles in chapters 8 and 9, and after the preaching that occurs following that, the Jews conclude in chapter 12 that Jesus is of the devil. That was their conclusion. So in many ways, Christ does everything possible to manifest His deity, but they conclude exactly the opposite.
Now notice that it begins with three miracles. The miracle of healing the leper in the first four verses; the healing of the man with paralysis, in verses 5 to 13; and then the woman with fever in verses 14 and 15. These are the opening three miracles. There are nine miracles in these two chapters and they come in three sections of three. All are designed to manifest the deity of Jesus Christ.
Miracles were God's way of proving the deity of His Son. These are creative miracles. They manifest a power that is only defined by the essence of God. These miracles are things that man could never do. They are supernatural.
Jesus has just delivered the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. He has literally turned their religious world upside down. He has told them that their teaching was wrong, and their living was wrong. Their attitude was wrong, everything they stand for, believe in, and hope for was wrong; and He never quoted any rabbis or any of their well-known sources.
He just repeatedly says, "This is the truth." In fact, repeatedly, He said, "You have heard it said, but I say…." And over and over He kept saying that, and when He was all finished, in chapter 7:28, “that when He ended these sayings, the people were astonished at His teaching.” Why? Verse 29, “for He taught them as one having authority, not like the scribes."
How did the scribes do it? They quoted other rabbis. They were fallible, so they needed a whole bunch of other fallible sources to support their material. Jesus just said it and He overturned their entire religious system. A first century Jew is going to say this. "By what authority does He speak? What gives Him the right to say all these things and to affirm that they are true?"...
Matthew 8 and 9 provides the answer to that question. We are learning what gives Him that right. He is God. That's what does it, and in chapter 8 and 9 Matthew is proving beyond a shadow of doubt that Jesus is God. And how do we know He's God? Because only God can create, and for two chapters using nine examples, Jesus creates situations, creates things that did not exist, even new physical limbs, and we see God at work. It gives us the answer to the question, "By what authority does He say and do this?"
Now, let's look first at the beginning three miracles. Here are some general thoughts about them. There is the healing of one with leprosy; then the healing of one it says was paralyzed and then one of a woman with a fever. And there are several key things to note about these first three miracles.
First, they begin at the lowest level of human need -- the physical. Life is more than physical, yes; but Jesus is also sympathetic about the physical. It's wonderful that the miracles of Jesus were not only spiritual miracles, or that dealt with comfort or riches or circumstances or providence; but that they also touched man at the physical level of need. He touches the depths of human disease.
Later on, in the second set of miracles, He deals more with the spiritual; and in the third set of miracles, He even touches on the ultimate enemy of man, death itself, as He raises the dead. But at this point He's dealing with those physical human needs, which shows us not only the power of Christ but His willingness to help us at our most basic needs.
Secondly He responds in all three cases to appeals. This shows us His compassion. First the leper says to Him, "If You will, You can make me clean." Secondly, the centurion says, "My servant is in the house, sick of paralysis," and He says, "I'll come." Thirdly according to Luke in a parallel passage, the friends of the family of Peter say to Jesus, "His mother-in-law is sick, and could the Lord please go over there and take care of her?"
The third thing to note is that in every case Jesus acts on His own will. Though He is sympathetic and though He is at the same time deeply compassionate, He is also sovereign; and that is important. Every time He acts because He wants to. "I will that you are clean. I will come down and heal him. He reached His hand and touched her, and the fever left."
And, fourthly, He touches someone who, in the eyes of the Pharisees and the Jews was at the lowest level of human existence. First a leper, considered the scum of the earth; second, a Gentile; and thirdly, a woman. You see where Jesus really puts His emphasis is on the humble and the meek and the outcast.
In this section, His power is truly awesome. He cleanses a leper, heals a servant, raises up a woman, controls the sea, casts out demons, makes the blind able to see, makes crippled people walk, makes dumb people speak, heals every single sickness that is brought to Him. And if you look and go back and start at the beginning of Matthew, you can see that this is just one more affirmation that Christ is God.
First chapter, His genealogy attested to the legal qualifications of the Messiah. Second chapter, His birth fulfilled all the prophecies of the qualifications of the Messiah. And then His baptism attested to the divine approval of God, the Father. The temptation of Satan attested to His spiritual qualifications as the Messiah. His sermon proved His theological qualifications as the Messiah; and now the miracles again prove that He is God.
Do you know that chapter 8 begins where chapter 4 left off? The Sermon on the Mount is just put in the middle. Remember Matthew 4:23-24, "And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. 24 So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them.”
Thousands uncounted numbers of healings were performed and Jesus healed all who came to Him. And now notice the first three we've introduced to you. For this evening, we're just going to study the first one. This is a beautiful story. Let me read it to you...
Matthew 8:1-4, “When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. 2 And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” 3 And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4 And Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”
That's it, a wonderful little story. Let me see if I can explain to you what it is really saying. Verse 1 says, "When He came down from the mountain.” Well, He came from the mountain where He had just been teaching the Sermon on the Mount near the village of Capernaum, "great crowds followed Him." Why?
It wasn't because they loved Him, it wasn't because they believed in Him. It was because they were curious, because they had never heard anybody speak with such authority, and they had never seen anybody who could heal people totally instantly. Verse 2, "And behold, a leper came to Him." Now what's interesting is, lepers never approach, but this one did.
Do you know anything about leprosy in the Bible? It's from the Greek word lepros, which means scale or scaly. In the Old Testament, you have another Hebrew word that is also translated leprosy that comes from the Hebrew word that means scale or scaly also. So in both cases, it referred to some kind of visible scaly skin disease.
Now, because of the horror of the disease itself it was a big problem; and so God gave them laws to deal with leprosy, so they would not contract this disease. There is a statement made in Luke 4:27 that there were many lepers in Israel and none of them were healed except for Naaman, the Syrian.
You can read about it from Leviticus 13. There are various tests and all patients had to be examined very carefully. Now, if someone got the severe kind, the 13th chapter deals with him with several prescribed treatments. Now read verse 45, "As for the leper who has the infection, his clothes shall be torn, the hair of his head shall be uncovered, and he shall cover his mouth and cry, 'Unclean! Unclean!'"
And then he spends the rest of his life going around making an announcement everywhere he goes. So nobody will get near him. The Talmud said you can't get any closer than six foot to a leper, and if there's a wind blowing, 150 feet is the limit. There were 61 types of defilements in Judaism. No. 1 defilement, on top of the list was a dead body; and No. 2 was a leper. You didn't go near him and you didn't touch him.
The first thing that leprosy does, apart from its physical symptoms, the patchiness and so forth, it attacks the nervous system and immediately anesthetizes the limbs. It attacks the eyes and brings blindness, the teeth and they then fall out. It attacks the internal organs so that sterility occurs. This disease was horrifying and much feared and did not have a cure.
Leprosy was the most graphic illustration of sin. Sin defiles the whole body. Sin is ugly and sin is incurable. Sin is contaminating, sin separates and alienates and makes outcasts of men. So every leper not only lived with his own disease, but he became a walking illustration of sin.
Isn't it shocking that Jesus showed that the Messiah cared for such a man while ignoring all the sick Pharisees in town? “So a leper came." He did what was forbidden.
Four things stand out about this leper...No. 1, he came with confidence. "Behold, a leper came to Him." I can imagine that the crowd split fast. Here I see a man who is so desperate that he really could care less what anybody thought, right? Josephus tells us that lepers were treated like dead men. But that wasn't going to stop him. He may have been dead in everybody's eyes, but he came.
Second thing, he came with reverence, "A leper came and knelt before Him, saying, 'Lord.'" Here was a leper from the outside diseased and filthy, but on the inside: reverent and worshiping. He believed he was in the presence of God, and he knew it; and his soul was turned toward God. That's because he understood that the soul is more important than the body.
Third, he came with humility. He says, "Lord, if You will.” He didn't demand anything, He didn't complain because he got this disease, he didn't talk about his rights, He didn't even talk about his desires. He only said, "If You want, You can.”
Finally, he also came with faith. "Lord, if you will, you can make me clean." Dunamis, power, that's the word in Greek. "You have the power. You are able. I know that, I am convinced of that." And Luke who always gives us the clinical analysis of everything, because he was the doctor, says, "He was full of leprosy."
Verse 3, "And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him.” And you could add, "And the whole crowd gasped.” Nobody touched lepers, Leviticus 5:3 says you are never permitted to touch the uncleanness of a man. Jesus didn't have to touch him. "He said, 'I will. Be clean!" And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.”
All of Jesus' miracles were immediate. You know, when humans touch defilement, we get defiled. When He touches defilement, the defilement goes away. When we touch a disease, we get contaminated. When He touches a disease, the person gets healed. That's real power.
Those shriveled up hands instantly becoming beautiful hands. The forehead that was eaten away, the eyes with their absent brows and lashes, the scaly, bloody skin that rubbed off, the nose and throat and eyes that were destroyed, the fingers and toes that look like claws and were worn off and instantly, he is totally whole, beautiful and clean again.
You can call all the healers in the world, and they can pick out any leper they want, and they're not able to do this. Only God can do this. They are not able to recreate parts of the body, fingers, feet and skin. Jesus did it immediately.
What is the first test when Christ has invaded your life? One little word – it starts with O, Obedience. Verse 4 says, "All right, you've been healed. Now do these two things. First, do what Moses said to do. Keep the law of God and Moses.
Now you might say, "Well, why did Jesus tell him not to tell anybody?" Because the priests will confirm through all their examination that he's clean, and then they'll discover it was Jesus; and by their own testimony, and their own examination, they will confirm the power of Christ.
Well, you know what happened? The guy didn't do that. He just got so excited that he failed to obey. I want you to think about this. Jesus said, "Which is more difficult, to heal disease or forgive sin?" He said that a couple of times in different words. You know why? Because He was not only revealing His power over disease, but every miracle was also an illustration of His power over sin.
Follow this thought in conclusion. Leprosy, being unclean, it's just like sin. Sin is widespread, sin is ugly, sin is communicable and sin is incurable. But the leper came with confidence. Why? Because he got desperate enough over his leprosy, right? He felt that way and conversion happened.
People get saved when they get desperate over their disease of sin. And, brothers and sisters, that is often missing among the people of our time. This man came. He did not care about all the social stigma, He lost his fear of being ostracized. It didn't matter to him anymore, He simply was overwhelmed with his disease.
Coming to Christ is not getting on the bandwagon. It's being wretched and knowing it. It's better to say nothing and let the world see that Jesus changed your life by their own examination, than for you to tell everyone and not be able to support it with the way you live.
Be obedient; and, in the midst of your obedience, God will manifest the transforming power of Christ. It's your life that speaks loudest, not your words. Let's pray.