Matthew 8:1-17 | Jesus Our Healer | Matthew Dodd

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1. There is something about an illness, a sickness, or a disease that can unsettle the soul.
2. Once there is a diagnosis, the patient often feels isolated, vulnerable, and desperate.
3. Tonight, we are going to look at the first seventeen verses of Matthew 8 and discover the heart of our Savior for those who feel isolated, vulnerable, and desperate because they need His healing touch. Along the way, we will also learn what it means to have a faith that pleases Jesus.

Matthew 8:1-17

Context
1. In Matthew 8, we find Jesus in the northern end of the Sea of Galilee by His hometown of Capernaum.
2. He had just finished His Sermon on the Mount in which He told the people of Israel that to enter the kingdom of heaven, they must be transformed in the inner man, a transformation that happens when a person has placed his or her faith in Jesus Christ for salvation.
3. After the Sermon on the Mount, we are told that the crowds were amazed by His teaching because “He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes”. (7:29)
4. The events that unfolded next, demonstrated Jesus’ power and authority. He had spoken as one having authority, now Jesus revealed His power and authority over all of creation in Matthew 8-9.
5. There are ten miracles recorded in these chapters, each with powerful applications for our lives. We will focus on the first three this evening.

I. Jesus has the Authority to Make Us Clean

• These verses record an amazing, yet touching event that has sparked much debate.
• But Jesus explained the purpose behind what happened, so it’s essential for us to understand it too.
• To understand what Jesus was referring to, we must first understand some things about leprosy.

A. Leprosy is a picture of sin
1. Leprosy was an incurable disease. Without divine intervention, those infected were sentenced to a lonely, torturous existence which ultimately led to their death.
2. Some forms of leprosy begin with little nodules that ulcerate and eventually produce a foul discharge. The eyebrows and hair fall out. The hands and feet ulcerate and eventually the whole body becomes a mass of leprous growths. The vocal cords also become infected so that one’s voice becomes hoarse. This form of leprosy lasts approximately nine years and ends in mental decay, a coma, followed by death.
Quote: “It’s doubtful that there is any disease that so completely reduces the human being in his body to so foul and hideous and repulsive a wreck.” (Dr. S. Lewis Johnson)
3. In Leviticus 13, we see that leprosy is a picture of what sin does to a person.
a. It goes deeper than the skin 3)
b. It spreads (7)
c. It defiles those infected (44-45)
d. It isolates one from God and man (46)
Those infected were not permitted to attend any of the prescribed feasts or sacrifices. They lived outside of the camp and whenever they came upon another person, they had to move away and shout, “Unclean! Unclean!”
e. Any defiled clothing was destroyed by fire (52)
4. Because of their sin, the nation of Israel was pictured as being defiled with leprosy.

Isaiah 1:5-6, Where will you be stricken again, as you continue in your rebellion? The whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head there is nothing sound in it, only bruises, welts and raw wounds, not pressed out or bandaged, nor softened with oil.

APPL – So leprosy is a picture of what sin has done to all of us. Spiritually speaking, we are all lepers in need of a supernatural intervention, a divine touch.

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