Matthew 8:5-13Faith Demonstrated

January 31, 2016First Baptist ChurchJackson, Mississippi

USA

What’s the number one thing?

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The glory of God!

1 Corinthians 10:31 NKJV

31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

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Joshua 1:9 ESV“Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

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Sunday

Matthew 9:35-38; 10:1-8In His Service

February 7, 2016First Baptist ChurchJackson, Mississippi

USA

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TodayMatthew 8:5-13

Faith Demonstrated

Matthew 8:1-4 NKJVJesus Cleanses a Leper1 When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. 2 And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”

3 Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

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Leprosy

4 And Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

Matthew 8:1-4 NKJV

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Our text today is:

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Matthew 8:5-13 NKJVJesus Heals a Centurion’s Servant5 Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, 6 saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.”

7 And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”

8 The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed.

9 For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

10 When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel! 11 And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven.

12 But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” And his servant was healed that same hour.

Matthew 8:5-13 NKJV

Barnes' Notes on the New Testament

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John Hamel Ministries(150,000 People Will Die Today)

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Chuck Missler

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William Barclay'sDaily Study Bible (NT)

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John MacArthur, Jr.(born June 19, 1939)

Radio program: Grace to You

In the first twelve chapters of Matthew, Jesus is presenting Himself to Israel, not to the world at large.

That changes in chapter 12 so this healing of the servant of the Gentile centurion is extraneous to His present mission.

Many commentators believe that the first three miracles of Matthew 8 occurred on the same day.

If so, Jesus entered Capernaum only a short while after healing the leper by touching him – highly unusual.

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Dr. Paul BrandJuly 1914 – July 2003

Dr. Brand contributed extensively to the fields of hand surgery and hand therapythrough his publications and lectures, and wrote popular autobiographical books about his childhood, his parents' missionary work, and his philosophy about the valuable properties of pain.

One of his best known books, co-written with Philip Yancey, is Pain: The Gift Nobody Wants (1993), republished in 1997 as The Gift of Pain.

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He established a well-staffed research unit to study the complications of insensitive hands and feet.

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His methods for prevention of plantar ulcers are now extensively used for treatment of patients with diabetes mellitus who have similar problems.

Brand also popularized the technique of serial casting for the finger deformities (flexion contractures) that often result from Hansen's disease, a technique that is now widely used by hand therapists to treat contractures from many different hand injuries.

The book contains a foreword by Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, who said that if he could have chosen to be anyone else besides himself, he would have chosen to be Dr. Paul Brand.

In the Bible, leprosy (and leaven) is symbolic of sin.

Leprosy as a disease is an innercorruption that later manifests itself outwardly.

Sin also starts on the inside with wrong motives (corruption) and later manifests itself outwardly.

To the leper during Jesus’ day, there was no healing outside of God.

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Capernaum was a lovely town in Jesus' day and He spent considerable time there, much of it perhaps in Peter's home (see Matthew 8:14).

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Matthew 8:14-15 NKJVPeter’s Mother-in-Law Healed14 Now when Jesus had come into Peter’s house, He saw his wife’s mother lying sick with a fever. 15 So He touched her hand, and the fever left her. And she arose and served them.

Because Jesus pronounced a curse on Capernaum (Matthew 11:23-24), the ancient city no longer exists, except in the form of the ruins of a synagogue and of a few houses, including, according to tradition, that of Peter.

Matthew 11:23-24 NKJV 23 And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to Heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.

24 But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.”

Matthew 11:23-24 NKJV

Even in the brief appearance that he makes on the stage of the New Testament story this centurion is one of the most attractive characters in the gospels.

The centurions were the backbone of the Roman army.

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In a Roman legion there were 6,000 men; the legion was divided into sixty centuries, each containing 100 men, and in command of each century there was a centurion.

These centurions were the long-service, regular soldiers of the Roman army.

They were responsible for the disciplineof the regiment, and they were the cement which held the army together.

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The centurions were the finest men in the Roman army.

It is interesting to note that every centurion mentioned in the New Testament is mentioned with honour.

There was the centurion who recognized Jesus on the Cross as the Son of God (Matthew 27:54).

Matthew 27:54 NKJV 54 So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

There was Cornelius, the first Gentile convert to the Christian Church (Acts 10:22).

There was the centurion who suddenly discovered that Paul was a Roman citizen, and who rescued him from the fury of the rioting mob (Acts 22:25-27, Acts 23:10).

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There was the centurion who was informed that the Jews had planned to murder Paul between Jerusalem and Caesarea, and who took steps to foil their plans (Acts 23:23).

There was the centurion whom Felix ordered to look after Paul (Acts 24:23).

There was the centurion accompanying Paul on his last journey to Rome, who treated him with every courtesy, and accepted him as leaderwhen the storm struck the ship (Acts 27:43).

But there was something very specialabout this centurion at Capernaum, and that was his attitude to his servant.

This servant would be a slave, but the centurion was grieved that his servant was ill and was determined to do everything in his power to save him.

Romans weren’t known for having faith in Jesus or any of the Hebrew Prophets.

However, this man was quite different than most of his peers.

This was also the reverse of the normal attitude of master to slave.

In the Roman Empire slaves did not matter.

It was of no importance to anyone if they suffered, and whether they lived or died.

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The average slave owner of that day, whether military or civilian, had no more regard for his slave than for an animal.

Aristotle, talking about the friendships which are possible in life, writes: "There can be no friendship nor justice towards inanimate things; indeed, not even towards a horse or an ox, nor yet towards a slave as a slave. For master and slave have nothing in common; a slave is a living tool, just as a tool is an inanimate slave."

It is quite clear that this centurion was an extraordinary man for he loved his slave.

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This fact that the centurion cared so much for his servant set him apart from the typical Roman soldier, who could be brutally heartless.

It may well be that it was his totally unusual and unexpected gentleness and love which so moved Jesus when the centurion first came to him.

Love always covers a multitude of sins; the man who cares for men is always near to Jesus Christ.

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The centurion who came to Him not only was a Gentile but an officer in the Roman occupation army, a man who ordinarily would have been greatly hated by the Jews.

Such soldiers were often hated still more because the Romans usually chose alien residents of a region to make up its occupation force —making those soldiers not only oppressors but traitors in the eyes of the populace.

We learn from Luke that this centurion actually came to Jesus through some Jewish intermediaries, because he felt spiritually unworthy of approaching Jesus personally and perhaps also because he thought he would be rebuffed because of his military position.

He was probably in the troops of the wicked Antipas and was possibly even a Samaritan, a half-breed Jew who was traditionally hated even more than Gentiles by "pure" Jews.

Yet this man was held in great esteem by the Jews of Capernaum, because, as they told Jesus, "He is worthy for You to grant this to him; for he loves our nation, and it was he who built us our synagogue" (Luke 7:2-5).

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Like Cornelius (Acts 10:1-2), this centurion was undoubtedly a God-fearing Gentile.

As we already noted, each of the Roman centurions mentioned in the New Testament are spoken of favorably and from the Biblical record it seems likely that each of them became a believer in Christ.

Matthew 8:6 NKJV6 saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.”

“Pais”, here in Matthew is translated servant, which literally means a young child.

Luke calls him a slave (doulos), indicating he was probably born into the slave household of the centurion.

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In any case, the boy "was highly regarded" by the centurion, who was now afraid that his servant would die (Luke 7:2).

“Lord”, he said to Jesus through his emissaries, “my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering great pain”.

Whatever the disease was, it was paralyzing, painful, and fatal.

Like the leper, it seems the centurion was reluctant to ask Jesus specifically for a healing, since he simply states the young man's terrible condition —although the request is clearly implied.

This nameless centurion was a seasonedand capable fighting man or he would not have been a centurion — who, as the title indicates, was responsible for a hundred men.

He was a man's man, and a soldier's soldier.

Yet he had deep compassion for his dying slave boy and felt unworthy to approach Jesus personally.

Jesus knew the man's heart and did not need to hear a direct request, either from the centurion or from the Jews who came in his behalf.

He simply responded in love, saying, “I will come and heal him.”

When Jesus came near to his house, the centurion saw Him and sent some friends out to meet Him (Luke 7:3).

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In his behalf they answered and said, "Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof."

He felt genuinely unworthy for Jesus to go to that much trouble for him, and no doubt also did not want Him to break the Jewish tradition of not entering the house of a Gentile in order to avoid ceremonialcontamination.

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The centurion's twice addressing Jesus as “Lord” indicates much more than courtesy.

(see John 20:28)

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The man here affirmed the divine lordship of Christ, believing that Jesus was indeed God and consequently had the power to heal his servant.

Because the servant was too ill to be carried out to Jesus and because he felt unworthy to have Jesus come into his house, the centurion said to Him, “Just say the word, and my servant will be healed”. (see Psalm 33:8-9)

Psalm 33:8-9 NKJV8 Let all the earth fear the LORD;

Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.

9 For He spoke, and it was done;He commanded, and it stood fast.

From the many reports he had doubtlessly heard of Jesus' healing power, and perhaps from having witnessed some of the healings himself, he knew that distance presented no barrier.

The centurion also understood delegation of power.

‘For I, too, am a man under authority, with soldiers under me, he said. And I say to this one, "Go!" and he goes, and to another, "Come!" and he comes, and to my slave, "Do this!" and he does it.’

He recognized authority when he saw it, even in a realm in which he had no experience or understanding.

He knew that if he had the power to make his soldiers and slaves do his bidding by simply giving them orders, Jesus' supernatural powers could even more easily allow Him simply to say the word and cause the servant to be healed.

Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled, and said to those who were following, "Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel."

Mark 6:5-6 NKJV5 Now He could do no mighty work there (in Nazareth), except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And He marveledbecause of their unbelief.

Is Jesus marveling at your faith or your unbelief today?

You either believe His claims to Deity and the miracles that back Him up or you don’t!

Bob Dylan, in his wonderful Bible song, “Precious Angel”, said so succinctly: “You either got faith or you got unbelief and there ain’t no neutral ground!”

Verse 10. “I have not found so great faith.”

The word faith, here, means confidence, or belief that Christ had power to heal the centurion’s servant.

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It does not of necessity imply that he had saving faith; though from the connection, and the spirit manifested, it seems probable that he had.

If this was so, then he was the first Gentile convert to Christianity, and was a very early illustration of what was more dearly revealed afterwards, that the heathen were to be brought to the knowledge of the truth.

Although, as God, Jesus knew all men's hearts, in His humanness He was amazed that this Gentile soldier showed more genuine faith in Him than He had found with anyone in Israel.

It was because of the faith of the four friends in Mark 2:1-12 that Jesus healed the other paralytic in Capernaum after they had dug through a man’s roof.

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Mark 2:5 NKJV5 When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Many Jews had believed in Jesus, but none had shown the sincerity, sensitivity, humility, love, and depth of faith of this Gentile soldier.

Even to His disciples Jesus would say a short time later, "You men of little faith"(Matthew 8:26).

Still later in His ministry He would say to Philip, "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me?" (John 14:9).

This Gentile soldier would not be alonein his belief.

Verse 11. Many shall come from the east, etc.

Jesus takes occasion, from the faith of a Roman centurion, to state this conversion would not be solitary; that many pagans—many from the east and west—would be converted to the Gospel, and be saved, as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were.

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The phrase "from the east and from the west," in the Scripture, is used to denote the whole world, Isaiah 45:6, 59:19.

The phrase, shall sit down, in the original, refers to the manner of sitting at meals, Matthew 23:6 and the enjoyments of Heaven are described under the similitude of a feast or banquet-a very common manner of speaking of it (Matt 26:29).

It is used here to denote enjoyment or honour.

To sit with those distinguished men was an honour, and would be expressive of great felicity (bliss).

Jesus went on to say, “many shall come from east and west (Gentiles), and recline at the table with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of Heaven; but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Those who had less spiritual advantage and less opportunity to know God's truth — the Gentiles from east and west —would show greater response to the Gospel than God's own chosen people, who considered themselves to be the sons of the kingdom simply by virtue of racial descent.

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The Gospel came through Abraham's seed, as Matthew has already attested through Jesus' genealogy.

But the benefit of the Gospel, which is salvation, is appropriated by faith, not by genealogical descent. (Romans 10:12-13)

Romans 10:12-13 NKJV12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. 13 For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”

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The Jews played a huge part in God's bringingthe Messiah and His Gospel, and they are yet destined to play an important role in the end times.

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It is integral to God's plan of salvation that His own Son be born, live, and die as a Jew.

But the fact that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — or any other Jew — will be in the kingdom of Heaven will not be because of their Jewishness but because of saving faith.

Jesus' words to those Capernaum Jews was startling in the extreme.

What He said utterly contradictedeverything taught by their rabbis.

The Jews believed that there would be a great heavenly feast at which allJews were going to sit down and eat behemoth (the elephant) and leviathan (the giant sea monster) —symbolic of an unlimited amount of food.

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In the eyes of many Jews, one of the most significant and appealing things about the feast was that it would be totally free of Gentiles.

But at that meal, Jesus said, many Gentiles would be present and many Jews absent.

The presumed sons of the kingdom shall be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

To the Jews God had given the unique promises and privileges of His kingdom, but because they rejected the King when He came to them, they disqualified themselves from God's blessing of light and destined themselves for outer darkness, where, instead of feasting throughout eternity, they would suffer foreverin the horror of weeping and gnashing of teeth.

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Shall be cast out into outer darkness, etc.

This is an image of future punishment. It is not improbable that the image was taken from Roman dungeons or prisons.

They were commonly constructed under-ground and were shut out from the light of the sun.

They were, of course, damp, dark, and unhealthy, and filthy.

Masters were in the habit of constructing such prisons for their slaves, where the unhappy prisoner, without light, or company, or comfort, spent his days and nights in weepingfrom grief, and in vainly gnashing his teeth from indignation.

The image expresses the fact, that the wicked who are lost will be shut out from the light of Heaven, and from peace, and joy; and hope; will be confined in gloomy darkness; will weep in hopeless grief; and gnash their teeth in indignation against God, and murmur against His justice.

What a striking image of future woe!

Go to a damp, dark, solitary, and squalid dungeon; see a miserable and enraged victim; add to his sufferings the idea of eternity, and then remember that this after all is but an image, a faint image, of hell! (Matthew 22)

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Jewish tradition taught that sinners — a term synonymous with Gentiles in their thinking — would spend eternity in the outer darkness of Gehenna.

Jesus concurred with them about the destiny of condemned sinners (see also Matthew 22:13; 24:51), but He declared them totally wrong about the identity of those condemned sinners.

Hell is a place both of darkness and of fire, a combination not found in our present world.

Part of the supernatural quality of hell is that it will be a place of fire, pain, and torment that will continue for all eternityin total darkness.

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Being a physical descendant of Abraham was a great privilege and advantage (Romans 3:1-2), but in spite of what most Jews believed, it did not guarantee salvation. (1 John 5)

It is the children of Abraham's spiritual faith, not the children of his physical body, whom God adopts as His own children. (Romans 8:14-17; Galatians 3:7-9,26-29; Romans 4:11,16; 1 John 5:11-13)

Those who reject Christ, even though they are physical descendants of Abraham, will have no place at the table with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of Heaven.

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By their rejection of the Son of God — especially in light of the irrefutable evidence of His miracles —they prove they are really sons of Satan (John 8:42-44).

Because they are false sons of the kingdom: they annul the divine promise, forfeit the divine blessing, and are forever barred from the divine kingdom.

That was the substance of Jesus' brief but sobering message to the unbelieving Jews just before He pronounced the healing of the centurion's slave.

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Jesus again reaffirmed the greatnessof the centurion's faith as He said to him, "Go your way; let it be done to you as you have believed."

And the servant was healed that very hour.

Jesus usually healed non-Jews at a distance.

That the servant was healed was Jesus' affirmation that the centurion truly believed, because otherwise his servant would have remained sick and probably soon died.

The servant's healing was accordingto the centurion's faith (as you have believed), and because the healing was complete so had to have been the faith.

If the centurion had such great faith before the miracle, how much greater must it have been when he saw his beloved young friend get up from his deathbed and go about his work in perfect health and without pain?

Jesus did not give the principle “as you have believed” as a universal promise to all believers.

The principle of healing in proportion to faith was sovereignly applied as the Lord saw fit (see also Matthew 9:29).

Matthew 9:29-30a NKJV29 Then He touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith let it be to you.” 30a And their eyes were opened.

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Paul had absolute faith in God's ability to heal him (he personally experienced and was often used as the instrument of) God's miraculous healing.

But when he prayed three times in great earnestness for his "thorn in the flesh" to be removed, the Lord's answer to him was, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:7-9).

The Plan of Hope & Salvation

John 3:16 NKJV16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

John 14:6 NKJV6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Romans 3:23 NKJV23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 6:23a NKJV23a For the wages of sin is death,

• Death in this life (the first death) is 100%.• Even Jesus, the only one who doesn’t deserve death, died

in this life to pay the penalty for our sins. • The death referred to in Romans 6:23a is the second

death explained in Revelation 21:8.

Revelation 21:8 NKJV8 “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

Romans 6:23b NKJV23b but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 5:8 NKJV8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Revelation 21:7 NKJV7 “He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.”

• Romans 10:9-10 explains to us how become an overcomer.

Romans 10:9-10 NKJV9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Romans 10:13 NKJV13 For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”

If you have questions or would like to know more, Please, contact First Baptist Church Jackson at 601-949-1900 or http://firstbaptistjackson.org/contact/