Unshaken: Chapter a Day
Pastor Chris Plekenpol and his guests explore the Bible together one chapter at a time. They offer practical insights, theological depth, and real-life applications. Dive in for engaging discussions that bring God’s Word to life, one chapter at a time!
Unshaken: Chapter a Day
Matthew 8 Discussion
"What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?" The disciples' question echoes through Matthew 8 as Jesus demonstrates his supreme authority over every domain of existence.
We explore this powerful chapter where Jesus moves seamlessly between healing the sick, calming raging storms, and casting out demons—showcasing his absolute sovereignty over physical bodies, natural elements, and spiritual forces. The centurion's remarkable understanding of authority stands at the heart of this narrative. While our culture often rejects hierarchical structures, this Roman soldier grasped something profound: Jesus's word alone carries power that transcends physical presence and transforms reality.
The chapter reveals a fascinating paradox about authority. For those who trust Jesus, his power provides ultimate comfort and security—nothing falls outside his control. Yet for those who don't know him, that same authority becomes terrifying, as witnessed when the Gadarenes beg Jesus to leave their region after he delivers two demon-possessed men. How we respond to Jesus's authority depends entirely on our relationship with him.
Matthew strategically sandwiches Jesus's teaching about the cost of discipleship between these demonstrations of power. The message becomes clear: following Jesus demands everything, but he is absolutely worthy of that sacrifice because his authority extends over all things. Peter's mother-in-law models the perfect response—immediately after being healed, she rises and begins to serve.
What is holding you back from complete devotion to Christ today? A relationship, a habit, a possession? Jesus's invitation remains: "Follow me." Whatever the cost, nothing compares to walking with the One who commands sickness, storms, and spirits—and they all obey.
And welcome back to A Chapter. A Day Keeps the devil away. I'm Pastor Plek and, along with Hall and Greg, we are going to take a look at Matthew, chapter 8. We're going to find out some really great points or observations that we can make about it. We're going to give some truths that we can learn about God, learn about people, and then see how we can apply them using the spec methods Send a void promise to claim, example to follow, command to obey and then knowledge to believe. Okay, so Pastor Holland talked about some observations. I'll first start out with the outline that I saw. Uh, you first have Jesus healing a leper, jesus healing the centurion servant, jesus healing Peter's mother-in-law, uh, and others. And then there's this cost of following Jesus. Uh, that Jesus lays out like you've got to give it all. And then Jesus calms a storm and then cast out demons in the country of the Gadarenes. All right, what do you see here? What's some observations you've seen?
Pastor Holland:Okay. So the cost of following Jesus kind of happens right in the middle of the chapter and it's sandwiched by I think Matthew does this a lot sandwiches an important truth in between you know two other kind of related things. And so the sandwich here is you got this, you know it's going to cost you everything to follow Jesus. What that sandwich between, I think, is like what my observation here is these stories that are meant to give you great confidence that you can trust Jesus when you give up everything to follow him. And so why he heals the leper, the centurion servant you know the centurion that comes to him and Peter's mom. You see these physical healings. He has power over the physical body, right. Then he calms the sea. He has power over nature and the physical world. Then he casts out the demons. Spiritual world, spiritual world. Jesus has power over everything. If there's anyone you know that you can feel safe following and giving up everything to follow, it's Jesus, the one who has power over the body, the natural world and the spiritual world.
Pastor Plek:Yeah, I personally just want to dive into that centurion servant. Here is a centurion, a Roman occupier. He's a commander of about a hundred men and he asked Jesus to heal. And Jesus doesn't look at him. Go, you filthy occupying swine, right, he doesn't go.
Pastor Plek:Like you know, you've probably abused a lot of people in your day and you got your power by whatever. Whatever, he just goes all right and then he marvels at his faith, okay, and then, what's wild, jesus digresses for some reason onto hell. Did you see that? Yeah, like this is where a lot of people go. Like jesus never preached about hell or never talked about hell, and I'm like what? No, he goes, he's like man. I haven't seen such faith in all of Israel.
Pastor Plek:And then he goes verse 11, I tell you, many will come from east to west and recline at table with Abraham, isaac and Jacob, the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown in the outer darkness. Meaning, sons of the kingdom, the people of Israel will be thrown out because here is this centurion who is not of Israel. He is clearly a part of the children of God Because of his faith. Because of his faith. And so there is punishment awaiting those who do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah and understanding fully about his power, that he can remote, heal.
Pastor Plek:He doesn't have to lay hands on, he can just go like it is done, and it's done no matter where on the globe, which is why when you pray to Jesus, you don't need to actually be anywhere. You just need to be praying in the spirit, asking God to do the work. You don't need to be touching anyone, you don't need. The loudness of your prayer is not the thing, it's the object of who the one you're praying to, it's his power. Anyway, I just really appreciate that Jesus talked about hell and then talks about how this guy, who wasn't a Jew, is being ushered into the kingdom of God.
Pastor Holland:It's so cool and what I love like. This guy says something here that I think is like pretty important for our culture today. He says I'm not worthy that you should come under my roof. Just speak the word and my servant will be healed. And then he explains why he has the faith to say that and he says for I am a man under authority. Yeah, having soldiers under me, he's over some and he's under. He understands authority and how authority works, something I think is totally lost on our culture today.
Pastor Plek:We're kind of anti, we're like hierarchy bad, but yeah this guy's saying I know how hierarchy works.
Pastor Holland:If you're an authority, you can just give a word and someone's going to do it. And Jesus, I believe that you can just give a word to who. Who's this, you know for him he's like I can give a word to my servant and he'll go do it. Who's Jesus giving the word to the sickness, saying you can just tell the sickness from here, or like and it, and it will obey you and it will leave. Like he understands, jesus has the total authority to demand sickness, to leave someone's body.
Pastor Holland:That's wild and it's based on his understanding of there's hierarchy and, you know, there's people who are in charge even of the physical world. And God, you're in charge, jesus, you're in charge, like I believe that.
Pastor Plek:And.
Pastor Holland:Jesus, you know, celebrates and marvels at this guy's faith and his understanding of how the world works. Like Jesus is in charge.
Pastor Plek:On the flip side, his authority scares people, so the so you've got two different, you know. You've got the uh, the centurion, who's a um, not a Jew, and he has great faith. But then you've got the Gadarenes, who are not Jews and they are terrified by Jesus, and they're just like hey, please leave. You just killed a herd of pigs we don't know how we're going to eat now, and pigs we don't know how we're going to eat now. And you're like some crazy magician. It's time for you to go, even though the two dudes that were standing there are healed and in their right mind.
Pastor Holland:Yeah, what is that? What is that? Yeah, I mean the people. This is the Gadarenes, gerasenes. You know these are not people who are probably, like, familiar with the scriptures, the promise of the Messiah. They just see a dude who cost them all their pigs and is apparently friends with the creepy demon graveyard guys. And you know, to me I'm just like man, they're kind of freaked out about this. They're just like get out of here, like let us keep our simple country folk life with our pigs, you know, like leave us alone, man. And so they see the authority and they don't understand it and they're afraid. So I think Jesus' authority if you trust him, it's very comforting, right. His authority, if you trust him, it is very comforting to know he's in control. He can you know you're in good hands. If you don't know him and don't trust him, his authority is probably terrifying, right? Because if you're not with him, well, he has the authority to send you into outer darkness where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Pastor Plek:I don't want anything to do with that. Please leave.
Pastor Holland:So the authority of Jesus isn't merely comforting or terrifying. It's one or the other, depending on your relationship to him, that's really good.
Pastor Plek:All right, let's get some truths about God. I love that. Jesus says I am willing be cleansed, like he is really not only able, but he is fully God, fully man, but he's able to go and take away sickness. But he is fully God, fully man, but he's able to go and take away sickness, especially something as crushingly awful and dark as leprosy, like that was a death sentence. And then this guy comes with humility If you're willing, you can make me clean. He's like I will be clean. I love the simplicity of the statement, I love the non-show of it, I love all of that. And the guy has just like Herculean hope. And then Jesus is like hey, just go do the regular thing that you're supposed to do for cleansing according to Moses. I thought that was wild, anyway. But Jesus responds to faith, not status. Yeah, that's good. What do you got?
Pastor Holland:Truth about God. Truth about God he has authority over the physical, the natural, the spiritual.
Pastor Plek:Nice.
Pastor Holland:It all belongs to him, and so you can. You know a storm's coming your way. You can pray that God would subdue the storm. Even the wind and waves obey him. A family member is sick and suffering with some kind of disease, you can pray for God to heal, and someone you know is being tormented by demonic spirit. You can pray that God would save and deliver. So just remembering like this is what's true about God Nothing is outside, nothing's too hard for him and nothing's outside of his control. Pete, here's something about people.
Pastor Plek:People often doubt Pete. Yeah, even when Jesus is near. So you could see a miracle. And I think sometimes if we just had a miracle, people believe. No, they wouldn't. It might reinforce whatever it is they previously believed, because faith isn't by miracles, faith is by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, where God declares a sinner righteous on the basis of grace, by means of faith. It is a gift of God's that no one can boast. Isn't that the beauty of it? So it's not like if there was a miracle or if this one person believed, then many would be saved, although God could use that person. But I do think sometimes we doubt, even when we see miracles. Yeah, that's good.
Pastor Holland:This is for my example to follow for application. Peter's mother-in-law says that he touched her hand. The fever left her and she arose and ministered to them. First thing she rose up. I'm healed now Let me serve you. I'm just like man. What a great model for the Christian life. Jesus, you saved me. I'm going to serve you.
Pastor Plek:Oh, I love that. I love that. Okay, how about this? The command to obey, follow me. When Jesus says to follow, it should cost us everything, or at least something I think sometimes in our culture, like you know, christianity is. It might not be cool, but it's not taboo and so you're not going to die. However, it should cost you something and clearly Jesus wants people who are willing to lay down their lives, lay down their stuff, to follow him. Yeah, all right, anything else?
Pastor Holland:It's good, I think, combine those things together and say you know Jesus saved you and so follow him, serve him, whatever the cost. Whatever you know, maybe. What's one, maybe more practical to narrow it down to like okay, what is it set before you today that you know you need to let go of to follow Jesus? Oh nice. Set before you today that you know you need to let go of to follow Jesus? Oh nice. What is something that you know, man? This game. I'm obsessed with this. You know habit I have of scrolling my phone for three hours before bed that you know I don't read the word, but I, you know, spend all day on watching reels. Whatever. Or maybe it's this relationship that you know you're not supposed to be in that is keeping you from being fully devoted to Jesus. Whatever it might be, follow Jesus. He saved you, rise up, serve him, follow him, leave it all behind, anything that's holding you back. Let it go today.
Pastor Plek:Hey, that's a great word From our house to yours. We'll see you tomorrow on a chapter a day.
