The Promised Healer Series

The Promised Healer

Text: Matthew 8:1-17

Introduction

You all know I like to check out sermoncentral.com as I prepare my sermons. Sometimes it is more revealing for what is not there than what is there. This week for instance I was fascinated to read through sermon after sermon on this passage that dealt with anything but healing, They dealt with Jesus reaching out to the outcast, about him cleansing us of our sins, about our need to reach out to others, a few mentioned healing as a side note (O yes, and Jesus can heal bodies too). Now these are not inappropriate applications of the text but they certainly are not the central message either.

Now I’ll confess that it would have been easy for me as a Pentecostal preaching in a general Protestant service to take that route too, lest I become too controversial, or lest anyone misunderstand what I’m trying to do. But I’m not doing that for two reasons--

#1 I read the passage again and trust me on this, it’s about healing (yes, there are other appropriate applications, but healing is front and center). So if you’re wondering what I’m trying to do, the answer is just to be faithful to the Word of God.

#2 I think God placed this providentially on my preaching Schedule, a schedule I put together months before I got sick myself, But God knew right where I would be at this Sunday, And if he knew where I would be, He knew where you would be too.

So here is what I see as the central Thesis of the Passage

Proposition: Jesus of Nazareth, the promised Messiah came as promised by the prophets and He came healing.

Transition: What I’d like to look at specifically is how He did that, or maybe more precisely according to what set of rules or Guidelines, and there are four things I’d like to note in particular. The first is that Jesus heals according to His own...

1. Prerogative

vv. 2-3 A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately he was cured of his leprosy.

What does the leper understand here that’s also important for us to understand? That Jesus acts on his own prerogative. The choice to heal is his, "If you are willing you can make me clean."

There are some who say that health and healing are the prerogative of the believer, that we can insist that God provide us with these benefits because they are our due.

The problem is I never see that attitude displayed among those who come to Jesus for healing, they come asking, hoping, praying, believing, sometimes even begging but never demanding.

I think this man with Leprosy displays the perfect attitude in coming to Jesus--Lord I know you’re able to do this--will you?

God’s purposes are beyond me, I don’t understand how all that troubles me works into his plan--but that never means I doubt his power, or his love for me. Yet I understand the prerogative to heal is his alone. But note with me also Jesus’ response, he says basically "You’re right, it is my choice--I choose to heal you."

The fact that we understand he is sovereign should never mean that we doubt his willingness to heal, More on that in the last point.

We understand then that the healer heals by his own prerogative, secondly we should know that he heals by his own...

2. Power

vv. 8-9 "...Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ’Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ’Come,’ and he comes..."

What does the Centurion understand? He understands Jesus authority, his power over disease. He can heal at a distance as well as he healed the Leper with a touch.

But let there be no illusions on our part that we somehow hold the power of healing. In just a moment we will talk about faith and it’s necessity and how it fits into the healing picture, but understand that even though faith is an important part, it’s not faith in our faith but faith in the power of Jesus, for he heals by his own infinite power.

So as we come to Him for healing and as we contemplate Him as the Healer we should remember that He who heals by His own Prerogative, heals also by His own Power, and thirdly that it is he who establishes the...

3. Prerequisite

The prerequisite I’m thinking of here is faith