Matthew 9:18 - 10:1 Modern Healings Lack the Credibility Generated by Jesus.
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Transcript:
There are pastors in the world today who claim to have the ability to heal people. They have events in their churches where people are brought up on stage, appearing to be crippled or suffering some other ailment, but then they walk off the stage supposedly having been healed by the pastor. Then the crowd celebrates this supposed miracle.
Naturally, many people question whether these healings are real or fake. There is doubt because these events happen in a church building where the pastor who claims to have the gift of healing controls the environment. He presents people and then claims to heal them. How do we know the people are not faking their ailments?
Jesus healed people in a very different manner. Jesus did not heal in an environment where He presented people and then healed them. Instead, the ill people went to Jesus when He was amongst a large crowd, traveling from town to town. Unlike today’s pastors who claim to heal people, Jesus did His miracles in a way that everyone knew for certain that a miracle had truly taken place.
After giving His sermon on the mountain, Jesus came down from the mountain, entered Capernaum, and healed the centurion’s servant as well as Peter’s mother-in-law. Then He and His disciples got on a boat to cross the sea of Galilee. When a storm threatened them, He calmed the winds and the sea. The boat landed in the area around Gadara and Jesus cast some demons into a herd of pigs. The Gadarenes asked Jesus to leave, so He went back to Capernaum, healed a paralytic, called another disciple, and taught about compassion, sacrifice, and fasting.
Matt. 9:18 ¶ While He was saying these things to them, behold, a synagogue official came and was bowing down before Him, and said, “My daughter has just died; but come and lay Your hand on her, and she will live.”
Jesus did not bring a girl in front of the crowd and claim that she had died. Instead, the father of the dead girl went to Jesus and asked for help.
Matt. 9:19 And Jesus got up and began to follow him, and so did His disciples.
Matt. 9:20 ¶ And behold, a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years, came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His garment;
Matt. 9:21 for she was saying to herself, “If I only touch His garment, I will be saved from this.”
Jesus did not suddenly present a woman, claim she was suffering from a hemorrhage, and then heal her. The woman went to Jesus because she had seen other healings that could not possibly have been faked; therefore, she believed Jesus could heal her, also.
Matt. 9:22 But Jesus turning and seeing her said, “Daughter, take courage; your faith has saved you.” At once the woman was saved from her hemorrhage.
Matt. 9:23 ¶ And when Jesus came into the official’s house, and saw the flute-players and the crowd in noisy disorder,
Matt. 9:24 He was saying, “Leave; for the girl has not died, but is asleep.” And they began laughing at Him.
There were many eye witnesses of the fact that the girl had died.
Matt. 9:25 But when the crowd had been sent out, coming in, He took her by the hand, and the girl got up.
Matt. 9:26 And this news spread throughout all that land.
Many people knew the girl had died, but then they saw her alive again. It was obvious this was not a faked resurrection.
Matt. 9:27 ¶ And as Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”
The blind men went to Jesus.
Matt. 9:28 And when He entered the house, the blind men came up to Him, and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.”
Matt. 9:29 Then He touched their eyes, saying, “It shall be done to you according to your faith.”
Matt. 9:30 And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, saying, “See that no one knows about this!”
Notice the word sternly. Jesus told the men not to tell anyone what had just happened. The Bible doesn’t tell us why Jesus did not want the publicity. Perhaps the crowd following Him was already so huge, Jesus simply didn’t want more people.
Matt. 9:31 But they went out and spread the news about Him throughout all that land.
The two men did not obey Jesus.
Matt. 9:32 ¶ Now as they were going out, behold, a mute, demon-possessed man was brought to Him.
Jesus did not present a mute, demon-possessed man to the crowd, the man was brought to Jesus. Since the man was brought by other people, there were eyewitnesses who knew the man was truly mute and demon-possessed.
Matt. 9:33 And after the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke; and the crowds marveled, saying, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”
Jesus did not present a mute man to people who did not know the man, claim the man was mute, and then pretend to heal him. Instead, people who knew the man had been mute for a long time brought the mute man to Jesus. When the mute man began to speak, it was undeniable that Jesus had truly healed the man. The crowd knew this was not fake.
Matt. 9:34 But the Pharisees were saying, “He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.”
Since the healing could not be denied, the Pharisees resorted to accusing Jesus of using the power of demons to cast out demons.
Matt. 9:35 ¶ And Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.
Jesus did not do all these healings in His hometown where He could control the environment and con people into thinking He was healing people when He really wasn’t. Jesus traveled to many cities and villages. He healed every disease and sickness that was brought to Him. There was no way Jesus was faking any of this. He was truly demonstrating power that only God can have.
Matt. 9:36 ¶ And seeing the crowds, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd.
Notice the words distressed and downcast. Those are good words to describe many people living today.
Matt. 9:37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
Matt. 9:38 Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”
If the harvest was plentiful in the days of Jesus because of distress, then the harvest is plentiful today. The solution to the depression and anguish we see in our society is the truth about Jesus. We need to proclaim the truth. Jesus is God. Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus is Lord.
Matt. 10:1 ¶ And summoning His twelve disciples, Jesus gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.
The twelve disciples knew they did not have the power to heal. When Jesus gave them that power, they had proof that Jesus was not a mere man, He was God Himself.
When we picture the healings performed by Jesus, we should not picture what happens in many churches today where a pastor presents some people who claim to be ill and then pretends to deliver them from their illness. It is easy to explain how the pastor might be faking those healings.
Instead, Jesus did His miracles in front of large crowds, healing visible ailments of people who were known to the local population as having had their disease or disability for a long time. It was obvious to the people following Jesus that the miracles were not fake, they were very real.
Today’s equivalent of what Jesus did would be to walk into a hospital and heal every person, so that every single patient walked out of the hospital, and the hospital would be completely empty. If a pastor truly has the gift of healing, that is what he would do. The fact that none of these pastors who claim to have the gift of healing is doing something like that leads to the conclusion that these pastors are faking these so-called healing events.
Jesus did not fake His miracles. His miracles were done in such a way that no one could deny that Jesus had the power to control nature, demons, and disease.
“Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com.”