What Do I Know For Sure?

WHAT DO I KNOW FOR SURE?
Matt. 8: 16-17

Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use? Romans 9:21 NIV

Matthew 8:1-17 groups three accounts of healing each with a different twist, each confirms Jesus is the Messiah.

I. THE HEALING WILL

1 When he came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. 2 A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." 3 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately he was cured of his leprosy. 4 Then Jesus said to him, "See that you don't tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them." Matthew 8:1-4 NIV

The man began by saying, “if you are willing.” He recognizes that God’s will is sovereign, not his. Even Jesus said, “Not my will but Thine be done.”

II. THE HEALING WORD

In Matthew 8:5 -13 the Centurion’s sick servant is not on the scene.

It is as one at the altar to intercede for another. The healing is in responses to the faith of the centurion.

Jesus marveled at the centurion’s faith, "Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel “ Matthew 8:10 NASB

Sometimes the healing is an opportunity for God to reveal something that we could not and would not have understood apart from the context of the crisis.

III. THE HEALING WITHOUT A WORD (14-15)

When Jesus came into Peter's house, he saw Peter's mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. 15He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him. Matthew 8:14 -15 NASB

In Matthew there is no reference to anyone’s faith in this account and no formula to follow.

IV. THE HEALING WITNESS

The takeaway for us is…

>He is the One arisen with healing in His wings,

>He is anointed, He loves and cares for us

>He will never leave us nor forsake us.

Healing is a part of the kingdom but we have no neat miracle formula to follow. After praying we may still be left with unanswered questions.

We know that, “He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.” Matthew 8:17

Max Lucado wrote, “God honors radical, risk-taking faith. When arks are built, lives are saved. When soldiers march, Jericho tumbles. When staffs are raised, seas still open. When a lunch is shared, thousands are fed. And when a garment is touched – whether by the hand of an anemic woman in Galilee or by the prayers of a beggar in Bangladesh – Jesus stops and responds.”