And just in case you decide to fall asleep before I get done, let’s start with the point which most clearly glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus went about all Galilee healing all manner of sickness and disease.
As I pointed out last week, the Saviour healed not only disease, but also malady. That is, He cured diseases caused by all kinds of germs – viral, bacterial, fungal and whatever else there is. But beyond that, the Greek language indicates that He healed, broken limbs, deformities and mental problems. Christ’s power extended not only to things physical and mental, but also to spiritual decay. He wasn’t the least bit afraid of Satan’s demons, but they were certainly deathly afraid of Him. “Jesus went about all Galilee …healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And …they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.”
Notice that the implication here is that Christ Jesus healed every afflicted person whom He addressed. Think back through your knowledge of the New Testament, and try to remember a case, where Christ tried to cure or heal someone but failed? When ten lepers came to him, pleading for His help, did nine go away cured, while one remained diseased? Perhaps nine went away never to be heard from again, but there were ten healed. Did Jesus ever come upon a funeral, and the interment went ahead as planned? Did the woman with the issue of blood, leave the Saviour to die a few days later at home? Did Peter’s mother-in-law stay on her sick bed, or did she rise immediately to serve her Saviour? Certainly Christ could have healed the nobleman’s daughter at a distance, but He chose to spend a few minutes walking to her house, and during that time she died, but it was with a divine purpose. He permitted her to die, as He did Lazarus, in order to more glorify His name by raising the dead. Christ is the great physician who never lost a patient. Now ask yourself if there has ever been a servant of God who was as completely successful as Christ? Even Christ Jesus’ closest disciples failed from time to time – but never the Lord Jesus. Why is that?
It is because the power of Christ is not derived, borrowed or commissioned to Him. As I have declared, intimated and reiterated several times over the last few weeks – Christ is the Second Person of the God-Head. He is the eternal Son of God. As such He is the Creator and the upholder and sustainer of the universe. He doesn’t have to ask permission from God the Father to heal the sick or raise the dead. He is the resurrection and the life. He doesn’t have to lean on the Holy Spirit to work a miracle, even though His relationship to the Spirit is like no other. I could give you a list of some of the more notable healings and cures of the Lord Jesus, but I don’t think that it is really necessary. We should all be familiar with His miraculous abilities, and we should be filled with praise as well.
But something to keep in mind is that His miracles were not ends in themselves. He didn’t heal people simply in order to give that immediate blessing and nothing more. Those miraculous cures were designed to bring the minds of the cured and the observers back to the Lord. They were to awaken people to the omnipotence – and thus to the sovereignty – of the Almighty. They were designed to clean the wax out of people’s ears so that they would hear the command to “repent.”
Can or does Christ heal today? Absolutely. I believe that I have witnessed the miraculous hand of God from time to time. And it is quite likely that we have witnessed the Lord’s cures, without obvious proof. Did that person really have cancer, and the Lord cured her? Or was the first diagnosis a mistake, and there never was any disease? Sometime we can’t know for sure, and we certainly can’t prove it to the skeptic.
Can or does Christ heal today? Assuming that He does, He certainly doesn’t do it as much or as often as He did in the early months of His earthly ministry. Remembering the purpose of those miracles, once more and more of the ministry and testimony became known, the less important those miracles became. And as Paul teaches elsewhere, upon the completion of the Word of God, the eternal and ministerial purpose of healings and cures became unnecessary. I know that it is easier to believe a miracle, but we are commanded today to believe the Word of the Lord simply because it is the Word of God. And there is a natural problem with miracles. That will be my fourth and final point this afternoon, which I will address in just a few minutes.
In the mean time, my second point is just a passing reference to the word “synagogue.”
“And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom.” The word “synagogue” is found only once in the Old Testament, and it is doubted that the Jews had any organized synagogues before their return from Babylonian captivity. In both Testaments, the word refers to “congregation.” They were local places for the worship and teaching of the Old Testament scriptures. They were not to replace the temple, and they did not have altars for the sacrifice of animals. In Jesus day it was said that wherever there were ten learned men, or ten avid pupils, there should be a synagogue. They were spread throughout Israel and far beyond into Syria, Asia Minor and even Greece. In larger communities there were many, and it is said that Jerusalem had as many as five hundred. We see in the Book of Acts that eventually, they became somewhat denominational. For example, Saul of Tarsus was a member of a particular synagogue. “Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen.”
It might be argued that synagogues were extra-scriptural and therefore sinful. The same arguments are applied to the use of Sunday Schools. As far as I am concerned, any and every opportunity to teach the Word of God should be encouraged. So long as it doesn’t supercede the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the truth is that some Sunday Schools and other Christian schools, do exactly that. Sometimes they are millstones around the necks of what used to be godly churches.
Perhaps I should point out that our Lord traveled through Galatia preaching in the synagogues at least three times. On this first occasion, He was apparently accompanied by His first four disciples. On the second occasion, He had with Him the twelve disciples, and there was a far less enthusiastic response. On the third occasion, He sent the disciples ahead of him, two-by-two.
My third point this afternoon hinges on the word “Syria.”
“And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.” Christ Jesus was like a “MASH” unit in the military – a “Mobile Army Surgical Hospital.” And the casualties found Him wherever He was.
But did you notice the word “Syria” as we read this scripture earlier today and last week? This is not a common word in the New Testament, found mostly in the Book of Acts and only twice in the gospels. Of course it refers to an area – a country – outside of Israel. It is elsewhere called “Syrophenecia.” In Mark 7 Christ and his disciples were traveling in that country and our Lord healed the demon-possessed daughter of a woman of that nation. What I would like to point out is that Jesus’ fame was spreading rapidly, and it wasn’t confined to home.
And in this perhaps there is an application. We don’t have complete control over our fame or what people might think about us. People are going to talk, and they will say whatever they want to say. All that we can do is make the grounds of their talk as positive and glorious to God as possible.
I hope that you won’t mind me using an illustration from sports. A few years ago, one of the best college football players in the nation was a man named Tim Tebow. Now he is the controversial quarterback of the Denver Broncos. He is controversial for several reasons – one being his unorthodox style of play. Many say he will never be a very good professional quarterback, because he lacks the right skills. He is polarizing; among the football experts, there are highly differing opinions. Because of his background and his unique skills he has a definite notoriety and people talk about him. Mr. Tebow has no direct control over what people are saying about him from week to week. But he does have some degree of control over his game on the field – he is a winner. On three successive weeks, he has won his game in the waning seconds. Those are facts which cannot be argued, no matter what people might say about his abilities. And then there is the added fact that Tim Tebow professes to be a Christian. His parents were evangelical missionaries – in Southeast Asia, if I remember correctly. Tim was in a controversial Superbowl commercial condemning the sin of abortion. During his college career, he openly wore tape on his cheeks with scripture verses on them, causing the NCAA to ban that sort of thing. And the other night I listened to Tebow after his latest spectacular come-from-behind win. He was humble, talking about his limitations and his need to grow. He was praising his teammates and encouraging them. And he often interspersed his comments with praise to God, and Christ his Saviour.
No one, not even Tim Tebow, has control over what people say about us, good or bad. But in that man we have an illustration of someone who is trying to direct his notoriety in a way which glorifies the Lord. And thus far, other than not being a good church member, Tim Tebow is doing a reasonably good job.
After Sicknesses, Synagogues, Sicknesses we come finally to “Sycophants.”
This was the only “s” word which came close to what I wanted to express. A “sycophant” is someone who fawns and flatters in order to get things from others. The people following Christ were perhaps not exactly sycophants, but many of them came close.
There was a great fame about Christ which spread throughout Israel and the surrounding countries. Remember that there weren’t any newspapers, cell phones, email or Face Book in those days. The word was spread from mouth to mouth like a wonderful germ. And people flocked to see Him – bringing with them their sick, their maimed and their halt. They came up from Jerusalem and from Decapolis, on the eastern side of the Jordan and the Sea of Galilee. They came from Jewish cities and they came from Heathen cities. They came to witness and to receive of the Lord’s miraculous power.
But essentially, they wanted things of brass, when in fact the Lord had gold and silver to give them. They wanted miraculous food which would eventually leave them hungry again, and they wanted miraculous health which would eventually end in death anyway. But Christ Jesus had grace and eternal life to offer them. But do you know what? I don’t read of Christ refusing or rebuking them at this point in His ministry. He was kind and gracious, hospitable and generous, despite the fact that many of them were only attempting to use Him.
Perhaps that should be our closing application for today: Like the Saviour, we have the gospel of the Kingdom of God to share with our neighbors. We have an unending source of gold and silver to share with people. But the world is not interested. They may not have any appreciation of the quality of that gift, wanting much lesser things from us. In Denver, right now, Tim Tebow is a hero and highly popular, but very few want his Saviour. Remember that the Lord Jesus didn’t refuse to give what He could, simply because it was His right to deny them. If we were as generous and helpful as we could be – with everything that we could share – perhaps we’d eventually have more opportunity to share the really important gifts that we possess.
In these verses we see how the Lord Jesus began His ministry on earth. And in some ways our ministries ought to be like His.