Matthew 8:18-9:13

Matthew is presenting Jesus Christ as the king who will eventually sit on the throne of David and rule from Jerusalem.

As the King Jesus would fulfill the law and all the prophecies concerning His coming and become our sacrifice and shed his own sinless blood on our behalf as he offered himself once and for all for the sins of mankind.

Everything was fulfilled before Jesus’s death on the cross when he uttered his last words, “It is finished” or “paid in full more precisely”.

Christ didn’t set aside the law of Moses. He fulfilled it for us that’s the key point of Matthew. He takes the law interprets it to the extreme and then he absolutely fulfills it for us so yours and my salvation does not rely on our ability to fulfill that law.

Because Jesus did fulfil the law, we can take on his achievement to our benefit and that’s really the gospel.

As Jesus came down from the mountain after the sermon on the mount great multitudes followed Him and we moved into the next section of Matthew’s gospel where Matthew gives us the credentials of the King.

He displays the power of God as nobody else but God Himself could by healing all the sick, making the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the paralysed to walk and the leper to be cleansed.

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.

The text in Isaiah refers to the taking away of sin. That prophecy is Isaiah 53 verses 4 and 5 and Matthew, in referring to this prophecy right here at this point, treats the miraculous healing of the body as a type of the salvation of the soul by Christ Jesus,

 

Although this prophecy clearly refers to the payment for sin, the healing for which Jesus would pay for in His own body, this verse from Isaiah is one of the most abused verses in the scripture. Many television preachers along with many in the faith and prosperity movement use this verse to claim a power of healing, but that’s not what this is talking about.

He took our infirmities and bear our sicknesses on the cross. He’s speaking of sin, something far more serious than the kind of body illnesses and ailments these people make it refer to.

God can and does heal today. People are healed miraculously through prayer and laying upon of hands, but God is Sovereign. His will is the first and last word. There’s no formula or ritual that we can go through. God does it when it pleases Him.

Now we continue in Matthew where we see the cost of following the Lord and we continue to see His credentials as the prophesised King.

 

We shove off today in Mattew 8:18,

And when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side. 

 

Notice the great multitudes of people about Him.

Literally, He had healed thousands of afflicted people, not just those individual cases recorded.

John verifies this in his Gospel of John when he wrote in John 20 verses 30 to 31,

And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

See, these great miracles should point us to a belief the Jesus Christ really is the Son of God as He said He was and that by that belief we have life, eternal life.

 

In verse 19, just as Jesus was getting ready to cross to the other side, a man approached Him,

Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.” 

This scribe may have been a young man, because it’s hard to imagine an older man acting like this.

Scribes had knowledge of the law and could draft legal documents like contracts for marriage, divorce, loans, inheritance, mortgages, the sale of land, and so on. Every village had at least one scribe.

This scribe was in the crowd, toying whether or not follow Jesus or not.

Then he saw Jesus preparing to go to the other side. The Lord and His disciples were moving toward the boat, and he had to make up his mind. So, he came out from the crowd and said, “I’ll follow You wherever You go.”

The scribe had made his decision.

Verse 20 tells us the Lord’s reaction,

And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” 

 

In effect, the Lord Jesus was saying to this bloke, “Have you counted the cost? Check out the destination before you buy the ticket.”

Our Lord was revealing His poverty while he was here on this earth.

The young man had opened his heart, so, our Lord opens His heart.

He’s saying that they don’t have a place to stay. That even the birds have nests, and the foxes have holes, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay His head. This poverty of the Lord Jesus is part of the curse that He bore.

We’re not told if this young man followed Christ in spite of this warning.

I like to think that he did, that when that boat pulled out, there was a young man in it who’d decided to follow Him.

 

Now in verse21 there’s another potential follower,

Then another of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 

 

Here’s a young man who’s also made a decision to follow the Lord, but he wants to go and bury his father first. This incident has been greatly misunderstood. We get the impression that the old fella had just died, and that the family was getting ready to hold the funeral service and Our Lord seems very harsh when He replies in verse 22,

But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” 

 

What does the Lord mean by this? How could the dead bury the dead?

Well, firstly this is not necessarily referring to the father being already dead.

We could subconsciously read this as if this man will simply go and bury his father, then he’ll come back to become a disciple of Jesus in a few hours or maybe a day or two.

The expression of “going to bury their father” was a common saying at that time. It often meant that a person wanted to stay with their father until his end. He may have been sick, or it could mean they wanted to be with the father during the time he had left in order to be sure to get their inheritance.

So, you see this bloke’s father may well have been still alive and may not even have been close to death.

We shouldn’t think that Jesus is speaking against burying the dead or that He has no respect for the man’s feelings for his father.

Clearly, what this man meant was that the cares of this world, the things of this world were more pressing to him than following Jesus. He wanted to get his ducks in a row, to get everything in his natural earthly life sorted before committing to becoming a disciple of our Lord and Savior.

You’re either all-in or you’re like this man who wanted to have just a little bit more fun on Earth before focusing on eternity.

In a sense, it’s like people who say, “I have enough time, I’ll think about God when I’m old”. This is pure foolishness.

None of us is promised tomorrow and we don’t know what tomorrow brings. Our lives are nothing but mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes so says James 4:14.

By saying “let the dead bury the dead”, Jesus is clearly speaking about individuals who are spiritually dead.

Who are the spiritually dead?

These are all the unsaved people who are not interested in the free gift of salvation through faith in Christ.

These are those who value the things of this world more than eternal life.

So, when Christ told this man to leave the works of the (spiritually) dead and follow Him, He was implying that there’s something of greater importance.

But this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t honour our father and mother! It just means that our number one priority should always be Jesus Christ.

This chap who wanted to bury his father first was clearly torn between eternal life and temporary, secular life. Note that he didn’t decline Jesus’ offer to follow Him, so he must’ve been at least interested in doing this.

However strange and odd this phrase may sound to our ears; it was easily understood by a Jew and it’s Jews that Jesus is still dealing with here.

Our Lord was coaxing this young man to decide. Was he going to put Christ first?

When the young man made that decision, the Lord Jesus more than likely said to him, “Then you go back home and take care of your father.”

 

Now we’ve arrived at Matthew 8:23 and the fifth recorded miracle which has nothing to do with healing a body but is a physical miracle over nature.

Here the power of the Lord Jesus over the physical universe is demonstrated. His power and authority over creation is displayed here, further adding to the credentials of the King.

Adam would have had that same power before he lost his dominion over the earth. Now we see in this miracle a display of this power and authority the Lord Jesus, who is the last Adam, had over the earth.

1 Corinthians 15:45-47 tells us about this relationship Jesus Christ had with Adam.

And so it is written, “THE FIRST MAN ADAM BECAME A LIVING BEING.” (This is referring to Genesis 2:7 by the way) The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.

The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven.

Scripture not only explains the differences, but also the connections between the natural-born body of Christians and the resurrection bodies of those same believers in eternity.

Paul wrote in the previous verse that if there is a natural body, the one we live in now, then there’s also a “spiritual body.” In this context, he means the one we’ll be raised into after God transforms us. In other words, we go through a process from the natural body, built to live on earth, to the spiritual body, which will be built to exist in heaven and eternity. We should be aware that this means we’ll be transformed a spiritual body not a spirit. Our spiritual body will have all that the resurrected body of Jesus had.

This is simply impossible for us to fully understand as 1 John 3:2 tells us.

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 

So, on with verses 23 and 25,

Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. 

Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” 

 

This was no ordinary storm.

This storm was possibly supernatural in its origin and was an attempt by Satan to destroy the Lord.

The Bible doesn’t explicitly mention which of the disciples in the boat were fishermen. However, according to Matthew 4:18-22, Simon Peter and his brother Andrew were casting a net into the sea when Jesus called them to follow him, saying, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were also fishermen and were called by Jesus to follow him 3. Therefore, it’s more than likely that at least some of the disciples in the boat with Jesus were fishermen. The point being that not only were these blokes tough, rugged individuals but they were very familiar with the weather conditions in that area and yet here they are in gripping fear and screaming for the Lord to save them.

Notice how He handled the situation.

He was asleep. This is one of the most human scenes Matthew gives us. Jesus was so weary that even in a storm He could sleep! He could sleep in a storm, unconcerned about it.

In my years as a fisherman, I could never get used to storms. I always loved the wild, untamed beauty of a storm at sea, but it was always nerve racking. It would keep my focus for hours on end and I could never ever sleep in a storm even if it lasted for days.

 

Verse 26,

But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. 

 

He rebuked the disciples for their lack of faith, then He rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was calm!

It’s true that these men exhibited very little faith at this time but there did come a day when the storms of persecution broke over the lives of all these men and we don’t see any evidence of them panicking and crying out to the Lord to save them.

Rather, we read in Acts 4:29 that they said,

Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word.

That became the most important thing to them.

Don’t we need that kind of courage and conviction today!

Notice the profound impression this incident made on the disciples by this miracle over nature in verse 27,

So, the men marvelled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”

 

You see the King, The One who displays His credentials by His power and authority over nature causes these tough men to recognise that they were dealing with Someone special, Someone who was unlike any other individual. They would eventually see Him for Who He really was, The King, The long promised Messiah, The Lord, God incarnate, God in flesh.

 

The sixth miracle is a tremendous one. And it demonstrates the power of the King over the supernatural world, the world outside of the dimensions we’re aware of as we live in on this earth. Here we see the casting out of demons.

 

Matthew 8:28,

When He had come to the other side, to the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him two demon-possessed men, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way. 

 

Here Jesus is in Gadara, as it’s called today.

The people living here were from the tribe of Gad. In the Old Testament, when the land was being divided up among the tribes of Israel, the tribe of Gad stayed on the wrong side of the Jordan River.

What happened to them? Well, they went into the pork business, which, as Jews, they shouldn’t have done.

See, once you disobey the Lord, the next step of disobedience is not so difficult. Before long you’re walking out of His way and His will altogether.

When Jesus entered into this country, He was met by two very dangerous, demon–possessed men.

 

Verse 29,

And suddenly they cried out, saying, “What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?” 

 

This miracle opens up a tremendous area that, unfortunately, we know so little about today.

It’s difficult for us to understand the importance of this miracle because of our lack of understanding of the demonic realm. Some commentators believe that these demon related miracles could possibly be the greatest Jesus performed.

The reference relating to “before the time” is not made clear but it’s widely regarded as a reference to the day of judgment which is reserved by God where they’ll receive their full wages of eternal torment. They apparently had some knowledge of this.

Verse 30 and 31,

Now a good way off from them there was a herd of many swine feeding. 

So the demons begged Him, saying, “If You cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of swine.” 

 

For some reason that we don’t know about demons want to be brought into physical reality. They seem to be concerned about being materialised. They were even satisfied to indwell a herd of pigs

 

Verse 32,

And He said to them, “Go.” So when they had come out, they went into the herd of swine. And suddenly the whole herd of swine ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and perished in the water. 

 

The pigs, however, would rather die than to have the demons possess them.

Mankind is a little different.

The concept of demon possession is not explicitly mentioned in the Old Testament, and the term “demon” is not used often. However, there are several instances in the Old Testament where evil spirits are mentioned, such as in 1 Samuel 16:14-23, where an evil spirit tormented King Saul, and in Judges 9:23, where God sent an evil spirit to cause dissension between Abimelech and the citizens of Shechem.

The Bible also describes many instances of supernatural manifestations during the time of Moses and Elijah.

In today’s world demonic influence and even possession could explain much of the pure evil we see on the global scene as well as in nations and individuals.

Jesus gave these demons permission to inhabit the physical bodies of the pigs.

Without this permission, these evil spirits couldn’t enter the pigs and without that permission they can’t do anything to the bodies, souls, or the belongings of men.

Therefore, they shouldn’t be feared by people, especially by the people of God.

Some may ask, why Christ allowed the demons to enter the herd of pigs, and destroy them, which would’ve been a financial loss to the owners.

As we’ve said this area was inhabited by the tribe of Gad so the owners were more likely than not Jews and they would have been breaking the law to raise pigs. Remember all these events are still taking place prior to Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection so it’s all happening under the law. It would have been a just punishment for their breach of the law. If the pigs were owned by Gentiles, this event would show the cruelty and evil of these spirits as well as the Lord’s dominion over them. The news of the miracle would have spread even more.

 

Verse 33 and 34,

Then those who kept them fled; and they went away into the city and told everything, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. 

And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw Him, they begged Him to depart from their region. 

 

These people would rather have their pigs than Jesus. Believe me, this is not peculiar to the Gadarenes. The Jews, as a nation, are going to fail to recognise the Messiah throughout His ministry on earth and they would eventually execute him on the cross. Today, as a nation, they still reject the Messiah. Even though many individual Jews have and still are accepting Him, the nation has not. But one day, probably soon, it will. There are a multitudes of people today who prefer their “pigs” to the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Now we move to Matthew chapter 9 where Jesus performs 6 more miracles, calls Matthew, clashes with the Pharisees, and continues His ministry in Galilee.

The King has demonstrated that He has the power and authority, to rule the coming Kingdom. This continues as we see Him performing physical miracles of healing and His mastery over the spiritual realm with the miracles of the raising of the dead and casting out a demon.

 

Matthew 9:1,

So He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city.

 

Jesus left the country of the Gadarenes, who didn’t want Him, and returned to Capernaum.

 

Verse 2,

Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.”

We’re given more details in Mark’s account concerning this miracle.

Mark tells us how this man was let down through the roof of a house, and the Lord both healed him and forgave him his sins. Healing and the forgiveness of sins are related.

 

To verse 3 now,

And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, “This Man blasphemes!” 

The scribes were horrified to hear Jesus forgiving sin. Only God can forgive sin. This is why they thought He was being blasphemous. How could this human forgive sin? Jesus clearly displays Who He really is here, God incarnate.

 

Verses 4 and 5,

But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? 

For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? 

 

They wouldn’t answer His question, but if they had answered, they would have had to say, “Well, to us, one is as great a deed as the other.” Forgiving sin and enabling a paralytic to arise and walk are equally the work of God alone.

 

Matthew 9:6-7

But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” 

And he arose and departed to his house. 

 

To me this a truly wonderful verse and it brings the reality of Who Jesus is right out in the open for all who want to see.

When this paralysed man got up and walked, it meant that the One who could make him walk was the One who could forgive his sins.

No other force or created thing in universe has that power and authority except God Himself.

“But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins.” What He’s saying here is that this demonstration is for you. It’s for your eyes. It’s visible proof, it’s a demonstration specifically for your eyes to see, and that demonstration proves this. That although this One doing this work was the son of man, truly and really 100% man, He was much, much more than just a mere man. He was also truly and properly 100% God. God and man in one person, having the power on earth to forgive sins, proving not only His ability as God, but His authority as a mediator between God the Father and man. However, this audience didn’t quite get that at this time.

Then turning himself away from the scribes He was talking to back to the paralysed man and without even a prayer for healing to God but purely by His Word of command, Jesus says to him, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.

He ordered him to “arise” from this bed, on which he was carried in by four men, and “take up his bed”, and carry it himself, which was not only evidence that the disease had left him, but that he was in full strength, and perfect health, and to “go” to his own “house”. The multitude would see that this paralysed man who was bought in lying on a stretcher carried by others could now walk home himself. All who saw this drama outplayed had been eyewitnesses of this man’s severe illness and weakness along with his cure.

 

Verse 8,

Now when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled and glorified God, who had given such power to men. 

When the many people who were there saw this miracle performed before their eyes, when they saw the man take up his bed, and carry it home, they were struck with amazement and astonishment at this sight which they had never seen before, nor even heard of. What other conclusion could they reach but that God had given this power to a human. They attributed these events to God and they praised, and glorified God Who had given such power to a man.

See they attributed these miracles to God but notice that they still looked upon Christ as a mere man, by whom God did these wonderful things. They still didn’t know the mystery of the incarnation, God taking on flesh and entering humanity, His creation.

Verse 9,

As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him. 

Matthew is very modestly about himself here. He passes over his personal call with only this verse.

In Luke’s record of this calling in Luke 5 verses 27 to 29, we’re told that Matthew made a huge dinner in honour of Jesus. Evidently the incident which follows took place at this dinner. Matthew invited many of his publican friends to this dinner because he wanted them to know the Lord Jesus Christ also.

Matthew is referred to as Levi in both the gospels of Mark and Luke. The fact that he had two names (the Greek name Matthew and the Hebrew name Levi) shows that he had a place of status within the Roman community. Matthew was a tax collector by the lake of Tiberias before he gave himself over to the service of Jesus.

 

To verses 10 and 11,

Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. 

And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 

 

The Pharisees didn’t believe in eating with publicans and sinners. Many Christians today still have the same idea. It doesn’t hurt to invite sinners to dinner because they’re the ones who need to know about Christ. We need to have contact with sinners. It’s our calling.

 

Verse 12,

When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 

 

Jesus is the Great Physician. He came to heal mankind of their basic problem, which is sin.

Christians often form groups who have their bless me dinners and “fellowship” meetings and exclude the unsaved from outside their particular group.

If the unsaved do come, they’re often frozen out with meaningless Christianese chatter. Our Lord gives us a great example of mixing with those who’re shunned by so called good, upstanding Christians.

 

 

Verse 13 of chapter 9,

But go and learn what this means: ‘I DESIRE MERCY AND NOT SACRIFICE.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” 

 

Matthew is at it again, showing us how everything about Jesus’s time here on earth fulfills Old Testament prophecy. This time He’s quoting Hosea 6:6 which reads,

For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. 

When Jesus said, “For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance,” the Pharisees were included because they were sinners. They just didn’t see themselves in that light. In fact, all of us are included. Romans 3:23 says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.

Until next time friends when we’ll see Jesus continuing to show His credentials As King through mighty miracles and parables, may God bless you and keep you from the cares of this world.