How to know that Jesus Was the Messiah
Jesus Heals the Centurion’s Servant.
Matthew 8: 5-17 (2553)
Let’s remind ourselves of where we are up to by revisiting the text about what happens when Jesus enters Capernaum, and a Roman Centurion approaches him.
5 Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, 6 saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.” 7 And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8 The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 10 When Jesus heard it, He marvelled, and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!
(Matthew 8: 5-10
This is the second healing, and it is of the servant of the centurion’s talk for a moment about what a centurion was. In the Roman army there was a legion which consisted of 60 groups of 100 men each centurion oversaw 100 different men. Somebody had said that they were the cement that held the army together they were the elite soldiers in the Roman army and had some extra benefits attached to that position. This centurion had a servant who is dreadfully sick, those Greek words used indicate that he was someone who was in excruciating pain. So, the centurion comes to Jesus and he says please heal him, and Jesus said alright I’ll come and I’ll heal him. But the centurion says you don’t have to come back to my house just speak a word. I’m a man under authority I understand that I have people under me and I say a command and they go do it. I know you don’t have to come, just speak a word and it I’ll be done. Jesus says I haven’t found faith like that in all of Israel. Here’s a man who understands authority, here’s a man who understands Jesus’ power and authority.
At this point Jesus does something interesting, he takes an opportunity to use this to teach others a lesson. One of the characteristics of Jesus ministry, everything he saw reminded him of something spiritual, you use what happened at the moment and this is a case in point here’s. What he says look at verse 11.
Outer Darkness
11 And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” And his servant was healed that same hour.
(Matthew 8: 11-13)
Now this phrase about“being cast out into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”. This is normally interpreted as hell, now I have a couple of problems with that interpretation and admittedly before I tell you this, I will confess up front this is a difficult passage of scripture that I have wrestled with and grappled with for a long time.
Let me show you some of the problems. Verse ten says, and “I say to you” He appears to be talking about those who are following him, like his disciples, yet he’s talking to lost people. But the real problem is this the little phrase, “the sons of the Kingdom” used in verse 12. It is also used later in the Gospel of Matthew of people who are who are lost and that specifically stated in the parables of Matthew 13. I don’t have tome to get into the details now, but I I’ll get into it in more detail when we come to that chapter and the parable of the tares. So, it seems Jesus isn’t talking about lost people he’s talking about followers, now that’s scary because if he’s talking about believers then what does it mean to be cast into outer darkness where there’s weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.
This is a part of the passage that’s given me no end of difficulty, but it is my contention that you have to interpret the Bible in the context and especially in the context of the book where you find these statements. So I think we have to ask what is the meaning of this little phrase outer darkness and if you look it up in the New Testament you discover that only appears three times in all of the New Testament and in all three times it’s in the Gospel of Matthew. In Matthew chapter 22 it appears and gives us an image that helps us understand what it mean because the image in Matthew chapter 22 is of a banquet where there’s and then there are those who are outside the banquet hall and they are to be in the darkness outside. Some say this should actually be translated, the darkness outside, which has a different vibe to that of being cast into “outer darkness”. So, the picture here is that some are going to sit with Abraham Isaac and Jacob and there are others who are going to miss that joyful experience, they’re not going to be in the banquet hall they’re going to be in the darkness outside.
OK, but what about the wailing and the gnashing of teeth, well that phrase is sometimes used today to refer to hell and is used to paint a picture as to what hell will be like for those that are there. However this phrase doesn’t mean anything more than an expression used to describe any situation where there will be great grief and suffering and some kind of a loss. Some Bible scholars who’ve come to this passage have come to the conclusion that what this passage is really teaching is that some believers are going to get to the marriage supper of the lamb but because they didn’t have great faith they just believed enough to get through the pearly gates so to speak, but they’re not going to be a banquet at which rewards to the faithful will be given, they’re going to be outside and they’re going feel great grief over the fact that they somewhat wasted their life here on earth. One commentator says and I quote that the wailing and mashing of teeth speaks of that the wailing and gnashing of teeth speaks of it describing, a grief experience by true Christians over the wasted opportunities of life. So, rather than the joy of those with great faith, some will experience great grief. I believe the point Jesus is making is not between having faith and no faith, it’s between having a little faith and great faith.
Look again at the context in verse 10, “assuredly I say to you I’ve not found such great faith not even in Israel” So those with great faith or to use James’s phrase in James chapter two, those who are rich in faith are going to sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob and celebrate. One preacher I heard suggests that this is a picture of those who are going to be seated with Christ, they’re going to sit with him while others who had only enough faith to believe that Jesus Christ was the son of God and who get into heaven are going to have great grief because they didn’t have a richness of faith and didn’t follow the Lord in their earthly lives at the banquet they’re going to be sitting outside crying and wishing that they had spent their life living for Jesus Christ.
A Healing of Peter’s Mother-in-Law.
At any rate the point Matthew is describing a series of miracles. Now, these miracles are not in chronological order we know that from comparing this with other passages in the synoptic gospels which means Matthew is deliberately arranging them to demonstrate something and I think it’s to demonstrate that Jesus is the Messiah. So, first Jesus heals the man with leprosy and then Matthew uses the illustration of him healing the servant of the centurion and in the process, he says, oh by the way, you need to have great faith like this guy which bring us to the third miracle in this trilogy. This one is really interesting because the Lord will heal Peters mother-in-law.
“When Jesus had come under peter’s house, he saw his wife's mother lying sick with a fever, so he touched her hand and the fever left her and she arose and served them. When evening had come, they brought to him many who were demon possessed and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed them all who were sick that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying he himself bore our infirmities he bore our sins.
First of all Jesus heals Peters mother-in-law, in another account of this in the gospel of Luke Peter asked for it so I’m going to assume Peter considered this a blessing, just in case any of you were planning to insert a mother-in-law joke at this point. Luke tells us that Peter considered this healing a blessing upon her house. We’re told is a fever, now there are several different kinds of fevers described by record keepers from those days. One was called a Malaise fever which was marked by weakness and wasting away, which lasted for months and often ended in a decline which finished in death. There was another one called an intermittent fever which was something like our current day typhoid fever. This was a type of fever that was very common in that part of the region of the Holy Land because of the mosquitoes that breed nearby, and many commentators think that that is the kind of fever she had. Either way both types of fever were in a sense chronic with no cure at that time, it was a miserable experience for those who had it. So, they came in and they discover her with this fever and the text says that he touched her hand and the fever left her.
Notice it was an instantaneous healing, to the point that she got up and served them, the point being made is that healing was so complete that she was able to serve them and that indicates how complete the healing was. Then it tells us that the word got out that he was there and by evening many people appeared bringing with them the sick and the demon possessed, and he cast out and he healed all who were sick.
Jesus Miracles as the Fulfillment of Messianic Prophecy
We’ve looked at basically 3 miracles, the miracle of the healing of the man with leprosy, the second was the healing of the centurion servant and the third is the healing of Peters mother-in-law. The whole point of these miracles comes down to verse 17, which tells us, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saw where it says he did these things in that he himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses and that is a quotation from Isaiah chapter 53 verse four. In other words, Matthew is saying I just gave you 3 miracles, and those three miracles are the fulfillment of prophecy, a prophecy concerning the Messiah that these miracles demonstrate that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, and because he did these miracles that fulfilled prophecy.
By the way I feel I have to pause here just for a minute and make a point. There are people who teach that Jesus died for sickness and ill health in exactly the same way that he died for sin, and therefore if you believe in him he will always heal you. Let me just say a word about that. I believe that as Christians we should be praying for the healing of one another, and if someone is sick amongst us, we should go to them and” lay hands upon the” and pray for their healing. But I do not believe that Jesus died for sickness like he died for sin.
Jesus died for sin and that means that anybody who trusts him will be forgiven, right, well if he died for sickness like he died for sin then if you trust him, you’ll be healed right away of everything, but there are people who trust him and aren’t healed all the time, right, so how do you explain that. Some will quote this verse where it says he took our infirmities he bore our sicknesses and they will preach loud and long that he bore our sicknesses on the cross and therefore if you trust him, you will be healed and if you didn’t get healed you didn’t have enough faith.
How do you answer that, if it says he bore our sicknesses, let me make a very simple observation, when did he bore our sicknesses on the cross-no hello this is in his life not his death. Matthew specifically says he bore our sicknesses in his life. Now please don’t misunderstand me I believe God can and does heal people, he can do anything he wants, but that’s radically different than saying Jesus died for sickness like he died for sin and therefore he has to heal you if you are ill. That’s different, that’s really different and it’s really obvious from reading the New Testament that God doesn’t heal everybody all the time.
Paul had a physical problem called a thorn in the flesh and he asked the Lord to take it away and the Lord said no, so the Bible does not teach that Jesus died sickness like he did for sin, and therefore God has got to heal you.
I think that teaching has hurt many people who bought into it and didn’t experience healing, some then walk away from the Christian faith and more tragically some reach the end of their life and view death as a failure of their faith rather than the victory in Christ that it can be. I think that’s tragic that people’s sense of the security of their salvation can robbed from them at them last moment by this incorrect teaching.
Jesus now has worked 3 miracles and we’ve run through them rather rapidly and get down to the end and Matthew tells us why he told us about them and that was because he wanted to show that Jesus fulfilled prophecy and that proves that he is the Messiah. But I don’t want to stop here just yet because Matthew goes on to say something else that is very pertinent to this discussion, but we shall pick that up in the next episode.