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Well, good morning. It's good to be with you all. As Reid mentioned, my name is Jim Paul Pele. Yeah, and I serve at Resurrection Church, your sister church in Ottawa. I bring greetings from Ottawa and also we've been praying for you in a multitude of ways. Though I'm thankful to be here to serve the pulpit, it's not under great circumstances. And so we've been praying for Don Codling and for you guys as you look for your next pastor. Before we read the scriptures or I read the scriptures and preach on the text, it is the practice of our church to give a little bit of context. And I think it's especially helpful if I'm preaching a one-off sermon from the Gospel of Matthew. And so we're going to be in Matthew chapter 8 verses 1 to 17. But before I read it, here's a little bit of context. In Matthew's Gospel, the first part of the book is split up into sort of three parts. From chapters 1 to 4, we see the preparation of Jesus. In chapters 5 to 7, we see the precepts of Jesus where He teaches the Sermon on the Mount. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, we are told that Jesus taught as one with authority. In chapters 8 and 9, we see the power of Jesus. And not only do we see the power, the authority of Jesus in His words, but we see the authority of Jesus in His actions, which turns us to our text today. So I'll read it and after I read it, I will just pray once more and we will walk through the passage together. Matthew chapter 8 verses 1 to 17. When He, Jesus, came from the mountain, great crowds followed Him and behold, a leper came to Him and knelt before Him saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. And Jesus stretched out His hand and touched Him saying, I will be clean. And immediately His leprosy was cleansed. 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 proof to them. When He entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to Him, appealing to Him, Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly. And He said to Him, I will come and heal Him. But the centurion replied, Lord, I am not worthy to have you under my roof, but only say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority with soldiers under me. I say to one, go and He goes and to another, come and He comes. And to my servant, do this and He does it. When Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who followed Him, truly I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you many will come from East and West and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And to the centurion, He said, go, let it be done for you, as you have believed. And His servant was healed at that very moment. And when Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw his mother-in-law laying sick with a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her and she rose and began to serve Him. That evening, they brought to Him many who were oppressed by demons and He cast out the spirits with the word and healed all who were sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. He took our illnesses and bore our diseases. The word of the Lord, please pray with me. Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You that it is to give us hope and to see Jesus Christ, as it deals with the healing ministry of Jesus. Many of us in this room desire healing. We want you to make wrongs right. And as that result, many ways we appeal to, we ask for You to do this work. But there are times where we don't see that in this lifetime. And so Lord, in the midst of that difficulty, in the midst of that, we ask that You'd minister to us, that You'd comfort us and You'd help us. Would You lift our eyes? Would You give us faith to trust in You? In Jesus' name, amen. When it comes to healing, it is difficult, as I said in my prayer, for a number of reasons. Some of you might wonder why you or a loved one haven't been healed if Jesus is able to. Others of you wonder if these accounts are true, and some of you wonder if they even matter. What we see here is that Jesus heals to give us hope. Healing, according to the Gospels, accompanied Jesus' teaching of the kingdom. As He went about one, the other followed. The healings can be seen as the sign of the kingdom, and Jesus' preaching was the teaching of the kingdom. Healing is the sign of what was to come, but it was not the substance itself. Some have said that miracles are what authenticate the message. And though that is true, I think it is more than that. I think healings are a foretaste of salvation. Similar to how you taste batter off a spoon when making a tasty dessert, so is healing in relation to the kingdom of God. It is a foretaste of what is to come. The cake is better than the batter, but it's hard to tell when the cake hasn't come. With healing passages like this, we are tempted to think of them like the analogy of the cake, that they somehow give us a recipe to be healed. That if we follow the script of this passage, we or a loved one might be healed. And though that is possible, the passage is telling us something greater. It is not telling us a recipe because, as you will see today, Jesus heals a variety of people in a variety of ways for a variety of reasons. God is not prescribing so much a method as he is describing his hope, which leads us to our outline this morning. We can look to this passage in three parts explaining why we can have hope. We can have hope because of who Jesus heals, how Jesus heals, and why Jesus heals. And so we will look at who Jesus heals first. There's a few ways that we can answer this question, who does Jesus heal? Given how we are told this narrative, there are a group of people who ask to be healed. There's those who ask on behalf of another, and those who are incapable of asking at all. When it comes to healing, some have been taught that they must ask, believing the biblical truth that you do not have because you do not ask. And I bring that up not to discourage asking Jesus to heal, but to highlight that there is no formula for healing. Instead of looking at who Jesus heals based on request, I want us to look more broadly. Jesus heals an outcast, the leper. He heals an outsider, the centurion servant. And he heals the obsolete, a woman who is likely to wittle along with a group of misfit, demonized sick people. These individuals share in being the most ostracized people in Jewish society. It's almost like they are moving from the greater to the lesser. A leper in Jewish society was ceremonially and societally unclean. Leprosy was a contagious disease that, if it was caught, was required for the individual to be isolated and segregated outside of city limits. The centurion was a high-ranking legionary, and he was the symbol, in many ways, of oppression and Jerusalem. He was a Gentile, a Mayan outside of God's covenant community, and so was, or likely, his servant. He and his soldiers were the enforcers of Roman rule over Israel, and in some ways, they were public enemy, number one. Peter's mother-in-law, a woman, as we see in the text, lived with her son-in-law, likely because she could not care for herself. She was one who was in need. And lastly, Jesus heals a group of demon-possessed sick people. If you or I were making a list of people that we want to visit, we aren't likely putting these individuals on it. Our society is not very different from the one in the text. We aren't going out of our way to interact with the disease, the oppressors, the needy, and the demoniacs of society. Unless it is your job, we are likely avoiding such people. But Jesus, he doesn't avoid them. He moves towards them, and he heals them. Jesus heals the destitute, the unlikely, and the needy. Let us look at these individuals case by case. Verse 1 tells us that as Jesus finished preaching, a leper who heard his sermon comes to him as he walks down the mountain. He comes to Jesus and says, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. It is unclear who the leper thought Jesus was, but it seems to be that he knew that Jesus was one with authority. He knows that Jesus was able to heal. So in his request, he doesn't ask Jesus if you were able. He says, if you are willing. And I want you to hold on to that. It will be relevant in the subsequent point, but it is important. Now, let us look at the centurion. We are introduced to the centurion in verse 5. And Jesus, in the text, it tells us as Jesus enter the town of Capernaum, he is approached by a centurion. And he opens with telling Jesus that his servant is paralyzed. Before the centurion can even ask anything, Jesus already replies and says, I will come and heal him. The request wasn't even made, but Jesus was willing. Like the leper, it is unclear what the centurion believed about Jesus. But he did see that Jesus was one with authority. Verse 9 tells us the centurion believed Jesus could heal by simply saying the word. This was true, but it's astonishing as this was being said and believed by a non-Jewish soldier. Though Jesus commends the faith of the centurion later in this passage, what we must notice is that Jesus was willing to heal his servant before that. This is a note for us. Jesus is not coerced by our faith or our feelings. He simply moves in mercy to those in need. Though his faith is commendable, his faith is commendable to Jesus in this passage, it was not essential. Let us now look at Peter's mother-in-law. The next stop on Jesus healing escapade. He is healing a woman who is completely incapacitated. Verse 14 tells us that she was laying there sick with a fever. We are not told how severe this fever was, but it was severe enough that she does not speak or move till she is healed. Jesus in this case simply moves towards her and heals her. No words exchanged, simply in need and healed. Lastly, we are presented with a group of sick demon-possessed people. They are brought to Jesus and Jesus casts out the demons and heals them. This passage presents us with four different groups of people, four different people. Some of whom believed, some who believe on behalf of another, and others who neither make a request or indicate any form of faith. They are simply present. What we see from this is that Jesus is not discriminatory in healing here. He heals the needy. In this passage, Jesus heals freely, indiscriminately, and abundantly. And this healing gives us hope. Hope in the fact that Jesus is not healing just the affluent, but he is healing the needy. Those who are pushed aside and all of those in between. Not just those who are faithful, but even the faithless. Jesus' attitude towards the sick here shows us that he came for the sick. For the sick and the ailing, not the healthy. Jesus came to heal the people both physically and spiritually. Jesus graciously and compassionately looks to care for the overlooked. If you feel overlooked today by God, know that Jesus sees you. The truth of this passage should impact us in such a way that that we see that God cares for the overlooked. And our service at Resurrection and a few different other churches in Southern Ontario, we start our services with words like this that say, if you feel weary and need rest, if you feel cynical and need hope, if you are mourning and need comfort, if you are failing and need strength, if you feel worthless and wonder if God cares for you, then you are welcome here in the name of Jesus Christ. And it is because of texts like this that we can say that with confidence. It is because Jesus had compassion on the ailing, on the outcast, and the needy, and the suffering. Jesus came for the utterly incapable. This is who he heals. Jesus heals so that we can have hope. And so we have seen who Jesus heals. Now let us move to how Jesus heals. In the first case, Jesus heals by touching the untouchable. His healing touch rids the leprosy instantly, instantly. In the margin of my notes, I wrote, I've got chills as I wrote that. The reason being is because the Levitical law taught that one should not touch a leper because they themselves after touching them would become unclean. Jesus being fully God and fully man healed the leper by his touch, being the very cleansing agent. Jesus embodied his heavenly kingdom and mediated its power in his fingertips, exemplifying that he was both willing and able to heal the leper. Jesus had authority over disease, not just to heal, but to cleanse. Leprosy had a different connotation than a fever. It was a disease that made one unclean in society. Ceremony unclean, unfit to come to God. But what we see in this text is that God comes to him. The leper was seen as a contaminant more than a human, and Jesus by his touch rids him of his corrupted status, reinstituting him to life. For the centurion, we're told that he simply speaks a word and the centurion's servant, who is at home, kilometers away likely, is healed instantly. Jesus is nowhere near him, but by speaking, he healed the servant. What we see in this passage is that the power and authority of Jesus Christ is truly otherworldly. The centurion knew that Jesus was one with authority. Similar to himself, as he tells a soldier to go or to come or to do work, Jesus can tell creation to move. The same way that God the Father spoke creation into being, Jesus spoke and rid creation of its curse. His work of recreation by touch earlier and now by speaking. Healing, we see here, is a sign of something greater that Jesus will do in the future. A picture of new life, of recreation, a world without disease or death. Verse 13 tells us that Jesus simply said, and it was done. The paralyzed servant was healed instantly. Jesus' mother-in-law is also instantly healed by touch, and the demons are cast out by word. How Jesus heals here highlights for us that it's not a formula to be followed. Jesus works healing how he chooses. What we see here is that how Jesus heals is by his power and authority. He heals the sick and the demon possessed by a word or by touch. And in doing so, the kingdom of God is revealed in part as Jesus heals. But the sad reality is, though how amazing all of these healings are, they are but a fraction of the needs that were present in Jerusalem in that day. Francis Spufford commenting on Jesus' healing says this, One man doing miracles in West Asia doesn't move the leprosy statistic. The cruelty of the world reproduces itself far more faster than his slow hands can move. He brings sight to the blind eyes and the cause for blindness rage on. The healing of a damaged body can only be a sign of what he's come to do. Spufford in no way is degrading Jesus' healing ministry, but he highlights that there was many more in need than those that Jesus just healed here. And the same is true today. There are those who are healed by God and there are those who are not, some who are not. God's healing though, as Spufford goes on to say, was a sign what Jesus came to do. The Apostle Paul in his letter to the Corinthians deals with how he pled with God for him to rid him of something that was causing him suffering. He called it a thorn in the flesh. We read it just a moment ago. We don't know if this was a disease or if it was mental anguish. But though he asked God, God didn't take it away. What we see from this is that there are pains and sufferings in this life that God may allow for a season or for a lifetime. But in the case of the Apostle Paul, though God did not heal him, he did draw near to him. He says in 2 Corinthians chapter 13 that God's grace is sufficient for him and his weakness. In my notes, I say this, I don't know if you know somebody who is deeply, deeply sick. I feel like that's out of place because I know you do. And the same was true for me growing up. I saw my mom with who is greatly depilitated by her arms. She couldn't even lift her arms over her head. But as I think about this passage in 2 Corinthians 13, I know that God is a sign that God is a sign of the Lord. I know this was true for her. That in her weakness, in her need, in her debility, God by the Holy Spirit drew new to her and gave her strength though she is not healed in this life. And this is true that if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, draws near to you in your weakness, to strengthen you, to help you, though you might not be healed now. There is hope. The same Holy Spirit that draws near to you is the same Holy Spirit that gives you hope that there will be a world where there is new bodies, where we are fully changed, where there is no disease, there is no debilitation. In the spring of 2000, James Montgomery Boyce, a well-known pastor of 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, was diagnosed with cancer. He shared with his congregation how they should pray for him. And he says this, This should you pray for a miracle? Well, you're free to do that, of course. My general impression is that God, who is able to do miracles, and he certainly can, is also able to keep you from getting the problem in the first place. So although miracles do happen, they are rare by definition. A miracle has to be an unusual thing. Above all, I would say, pray for the glory of God. If you think of God glorifying himself in history, and you say, where in all of history has God most glorified himself? He did it at the cross of Jesus Christ. And it wasn't by delivering Jesus from the cross, though he could have. Jesus said, do you think that, do you think I could call down from heaven 10 legions of angel for my defense? He didn't do that. And yet, that is where God is most glorified. God is in charge. When things like this come into our lives, they are not accidental. It is not as if though God somehow forgot what was going on, and somehow the bad slipped by. God is not only one who is in charge. He's also good. Everything he does is good. Boyce in his testimony models for us terms what it means to have confidence in the sovereign power of God, trusting in the sovereign will of God. Like Boyce, we too must trust that God will do what is good. Boyce, eight weeks after sharing these words with his congregation, he passed away. But he died, trusting in the sovereign power and sovereign will of God. He knew that Jesus was able to heal, yet he submitted to Jesus will his good and pleasing and perfect will. I hope you see this morning that healing is not something that we can conjure up. We can ask, but God and his sovereign plan may allow for pain to persist. Jesus allowed for his apostle to suffer. He allowed for this pastor to pass. The stains of sin in this world still affect those who are in the church. But God, by a way of miracle, can heal. Jesus has the power and authority to heal. And as he does heal, as we see in this passage, we must know that healing is but a foretaste of what is to come. The Apostle Paul and James Montgomery Boyce, though they did not enjoy the batter of the kingdom, they knew the whole. They know the taste of the fullness of life that is free from sin, death and disease. So how did Jesus heal? He healed by his power and authority. And even when he doesn't heal, he's still good because he is working out his plan in his sovereignty. As I say all this, you might be wondering, I understand who Jesus heals, how Jesus heals, but it begs the question, why? Why does Jesus heal? Which leads us to our last point. Verse four tells us that Jesus wasn't healing for the sake of fame. Though these were very public miracles, he wasn't doing this as some sort of circus act, trying to make a life as a busker. Jesus, in the instance with the leper, tells him not to tell anyone but the priest. Jesus earlier in Matthew's Gospel said he didn't come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. And the law taught that if one was healed from leprosy, that they should go to the priest and show that they've been restored so that they can rejoin society. Jesus didn't heal for the sake of fame, he healed to save. The true reason that Jesus healed is found in our last verse of our passage. It was to fulfill the prophecy told in Isaiah. The prophecy spoke of a day where God will send his servant and he will make all things right. We read this chapter this morning, the verses from Isaiah this morning, and it is chapter and verse that are very common to be read at Easter. I'll read them for you as a reminder. Verse 17 reads, this was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. He took our illnesses and bore our diseases. This verse is often tied to the death of Jesus and not often his life in ministry. But what we see here is that Jesus' ministry of healing the sick and exercising demons was to some extent fulfilling him taking our diseases and bearing our illnesses, making all wrongs right. When I began this message this morning, I said that healing was a sign of God's salvation to come. Jesus' healing was to give us a picture of what the kingdom of God will be like. And this is what Matthew is saying here that Jesus is fulfilling the hope to come. Healing is the in-breaking of the kingdom of God into this present world. That this world would be perfect, that it would be free from sin and death. But the reality is that this world is still stained till Jesus returns. But till then, till this world is made new, some of us will get a taste of what is to come. In John's gospel where we have the most miracles done by Jesus, John tells us that these signs were given so that we would believe. So that we would believe in Jesus. And the same is true today. Though Jesus heals indiscriminately in this life, he heals particularly in the life to come. Jesus speaking to the centurion in verse 11 about the banquet of heaven where the cake of salvation is served. He says those who are seated there are seated by faith, not entitlement. And my appeal to you this morning is please do not settle for the batter. Know that salvation will come and it will come in full for all who believe. So if you've yet to believe in Jesus, I appeal to you to trust in Him, believe in Him as Lord and Savior. As today you would see His compassion, His power, His hope, turn to Him today so that you would know true healing. True healing for your soul and the life to come. Jesus, whether healing by miracle in the past or now, is giving us a sign of what is to come. That He is ridding us of illnesses and disease that will put death to death in the life to come. The hope of Jesus Christ moves beyond healing in this life, knowing with certainty that we will be perfect in the next. Each way that we are failing and ailing today, Christ will make new. Whether it is mental, physical, or spiritual, Jesus makes us new. If we have trusted Him by faith, the sign of healing shows us that Jesus is capable of more than we can ask or think. The healing that we look to heals every crevice of our being. Mind, body, and soul. Healing in this life is but a picture of what is to come in the next. Whether we taste to the better now or not is not the question that we should be asking. I don't say that to discourage asking God to heal at all. Please do ask God to do many miracles and many do that. But the same way that a parent may say no and tell a child to wait till the cake is done baking, so too does God call some to wait. There are times that we are told to taste the batter. There are other times where we are told to wait. To wait on the fullness of Christ's kingdom. Where death is no more. Where death is no more. Where disease doesn't exist and sin has ceased. By saying this, I don't mean to trivialize your suffering at all. Dear Christians of Bedford Presbyterian Church, my hope for you is that you'd see that God is truly in the business of doing better. So if you're suffering today, wanting healing today, know God may heal you. But even if he doesn't, better is on the way. The reason Jesus heals is to give us a glimpse of the life to come. Until his kingdom comes in its fullness, may we wait with expect and hope, knowing that he'll make every wrong right. Please pray with me.