24.21 His Healing Touch Series

It had been a full day. Jesus had spent the morning teaching the group that followed him to the hill overlooking the sea of Galilee then had healed a leper on his way back to town, then there was the entire incident with the Roman Centurion that we looked at last week, that ended with the healing of the centurion’s servant. And now he has arrived at Peter’s home in Capernaum. If you read through the various gospel accounts it seems that this was were Jesus hung his hat when he was in town. And he must have been whipped. It had been a full day. To teach all morning and then the emotional energy that would have been expended when he performed the two healings. But his day wasn’t over yet. When they got to the house he discovered that Peter’s Mother-in-law was sick in bed with a fever. But at a touch from his hand the fever left her and she was better.

And then we read in verse 16-17 Matthew 8:16-17 That evening many demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. He cast out the evil spirits with a simple command, and he healed all the sick. This fulfilled the word of the Lord through the prophet Isaiah, who said, “He took our sicknesses and removed our diseases.”

Did you catch that, he healed all the sick. Throughout the Gospels we watch Jesus as he healed the lame, the blind, the lepers, the epileptic; he even healed one of the soldiers who came to arrest him.

Over and over again in the gospels we read the words and he healed all the sick. And the thing that we discover is that Jesus really didn’t seem to care who he healed, he wasn’t all that selective over the type of disease, the geographical area, the race of the healee or the technique that he used.

I mentioned before he healed blindness, epilepsy, leprosy, and paralysis. He healed in Galilee, Nazareth and Jerusalem, and he healed Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles. Some people he touched, some he spoke to, some he made mud packs for their eyes. Some he didn’t even see but simply spoke the word from a distance and the healing took place.

The one common denominator that we see though is the element of faith. Time and time again we hear Jesus tell people “You are now well because of your faith.” and sometimes it didn’t even have to be the sick person who had the faith, do you remember last week in the account of the centurion’s servant? The sick person wasn’t anywhere near Jesus it was the faith of the centurion that counted. The bible tells us Matthew 8:10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to those who were following him, he said, “I tell you the truth, I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel!

But what is faith? The Bible defines faith in the book of Hebrews 11:1 when it says Faith makes us sure of what we hope for and gives us proof of what we cannot see. And so this morning for a few minutes we are going to look at “His healing touch.”

1) There is a Healing for our Spirit. Sometimes we view the people of the bible through rose coloured glasses, never believing that they might have problems or be in the least bit down or depressed. In the book of 1 Samuel we read the story of Hannah, maybe you know the story, maybe you don’t. In the first chapter we discover that she was married to Elkanah and they loved each other very much but they couldn’t have children. And that was something she wanted very much, it’s so hard for those of us who have children to understand sometime the heartbreak felt by those who are childless.

And it’s not all that uncommon, just off the top of my head I can think of a number of couples within my circle of acquaintances who can’t have children for one reason or another and I’m sure that they all share the feelings that Hannah expressed in 1 Samuel 1:10 Hannah was in deep anguish, crying bitterly as she prayed to the Lord.

But Hannah wasn’t the only person in the Bible that experienced the blues listen to what Moses had to say in Numbers 11:14-15 I can’t carry all these people by myself! The load is far too heavy! If this is how you intend to treat me, just go ahead and kill me. Do me a favor and spare me this misery!” Sounds like the life of the party doesn’t he. And listen to Elizah in 1 Kings 19:4 Then he went on alone into the wilderness, traveling all day. He sat down under a solitary broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors who have already died.”