greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus on resurrection day Sunday to everyone watching and listening We were just talking about you folks and uh remembering you and asking the congregation to continue to pray for you You're always in our hearts and minds You're a priority for us here as I like to tell you every Sunday and welcome you and we love you and pray for you constantly and thank you for contacting us um when you may For those of you standing here uh standing here I've been fumbling over myself all morning long So please pray for me Those of you met here in person would you stand please to honor the reading of the word of the Lord Today we'll conclude Matthew chapter 4 Today's text is Matthew 4:es 23-2 And this is the beginning of Jesus' public ministry uh going back to the province of Galilee Matthew 4:es 23 to 25 And Jesus was going about in all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness amongst the people And the news about him went out into all of Syria And they brought to him all who were ill taken with various diseases and pains demoniacs epileptics paralytics and he healed them all And great multitudes followed him from Galilee and the Decapus and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan River These are the words of the Lord And thanks be to God for them Thank you folks You may be seated Sovereign Lord God our heavenly father ruler of heaven and earth our creator our redeemer Thank you for creating us making us part of your plan of redemption to glorify you and enjoy you forever Father Son and Holy Spirit in this life and the life to come in this world and the new heaven and new earth Thank you for this grand plan of sharing your life of which you've made us apart We pray for our brothers and sisters overseas Fill them with the truth of your word with your spirit We thank you and are very humbled that you are using this humble little group of folks to reach people in our country and many around the world Thank you for the situations and circumstances that allows us to do this And thank you for the privilege and honor of choosing us to join in the mission of the apostles and of Jesus in our generation our day and our time Bless this the humble proclamation of your word May it accomplish exactly what you wish for it to do wherever and whomsoever you wish May the meditations of all of our hearts the words of my mouth be pleasing to you oh Lord our God our rock our redeemer You are the world's one and only hope and your hope enough for one and for all In the blessed and holy name of Jesus we pray Amen I didn't choose any visuals in particular for a particular purpose for uh Bernie to pick and put on the screen but she did pick out some really lovely pictures of Galilee a contemporary photographs of Galilee Gives you something of the rural nature of the province and really just how beautiful that it is to this very day Well with today's text so now we're in the public ministry of Jesus beginning in Galilee If you put a harmony of the gospels together comparing what Matthew tells us with the other three gospels now there's something of a debate in the exact order of things But after Jesus baptism his filling with the spirit his being vindicated by the father his duel with Satan in Jerusalem in the wilderness If you look at the early chapters of the gospel of John we believe that Jesus did make a trip into Jerusalem upon one occasion Probably he has had that fateful encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well at Sakar as recorded in uh John chapter 4 And of course as Matthew's text tells us with the arrest of John the Baptizer I believe Jesus deliberately chooses to go back up into Galilee as a challenge to Herod Antipus who has arrested John the Baptizer his kinman He's not going back into Galilee to run away from Herod Antipus I think he's going back into Galilee which Antipus rules under Roman rule Jesus is answering him as if to say "Well you thought you were going to end all of this did you not on your life Not a chance The one that John is announcing is here I am the one the Messiah." And Jesus goes back into Galilee to challenge the tyrant by taking up the ministry of John the Baptist John the Baptist announced Jesus Jesus is here Now it's time for the Christ the Messiah to enter into his public ministry not just with a small group of people but with the world with the populace the gener the population at large And we had the calling of the disciples last week So he's you see what's happening he starts off by himself very few number of men He calls the 12 Matthew encapsulates that in the calling of Peter and Andrew and James and John We'll have Matthew's conversion coming later in chapter nine But now it is time for Jesus to how should I express it reveal himself as Messiah to the world Begin preaching and teaching the gospel of the kingdom which is his kingdom He's the king And revealing God's plan of redemption in the Messiah in Jesus and teaching the truth of the kingdom what what kingdom life is like We're going to have that in the sermon on the mount beginning in chapter 5 So now according to Matthew is a time when you're going to have as he just told us in the text great multitudes of people from all over the provinces of Roman Palestine and even into an extremely large and important and affluent Roman province of Syria just to the north which all the Roman provinces in Palestine old Israel basically are under the rule of their respective governors but under the rule of the leot or the governor of Syria Syria and read the book of Acts You'll find in the book of Acts that Antioch in Syria the capital of the Syrian province of the Roman Empire That's a very very important place It will become a center for Christianity and the work of the apostles beginning in the book of Acts And even here at the very beginning of his ministry it's an astounding success He's gaining Jesus gaining great fame or notoriety both But there's thrill seekers I think and genuine seekers There's probably people by the thousands Jews hoping he's the Messiah and lots of other people who are curious and they're coming down from Syria to the north probably by the thousands into Galilee to see this man Very important times The Messiah is off on his mission and it's an astounding success That's what this passage here is all about But what is he doing it's very important to take note of what Jesus is doing what he's accomplishing and what all that means So the public ministry of Jesus beginning in Galilee Messiah's mission of course is the atonement And our we're on our way to the atonement The shadow of the cross is now hanging over Jesus and that empty tomb But first he has to reveal the truth of God truth of the kingdom of God truth of the plan of salvation that God will perform in and through the son Jesus There's going to be a lot of preaching and a lot of teaching And there's going to be a lot of teaching about what life in his kingdom is ultimately supposed to be and what it will be like And he will be teaching if you follow me become my disciple receive this new birth from above as he teaches Nicodemus in John chapter 3 Well this is the way you're supposed to live And that will be taught in the uh sermon on the mount as well But we are beginning the last phase of his mission or his life in his first advent The last three three and a half years the public ministry as we traditionally call it All of Jesus incarnate life is very very important at this point though Teaching preaching healing those three That's what Matthew wants to focus on Now when Jesus ascended to heaven and the apostles all believers followers in Jesus receiving this new birth made possible by his person and work When they receive the Holy Spirit what are they supposed to do go out and do exactly the same thing teaching preaching healing Read the book of Acts By the way I do not think that has changed at all 2,000 years later I don't see anywhere in the New Testament that says any of that was supposed to cease until the Lord Jesus Christ returns in his second advent So we have been handed the mission of the apostles to teach and to preach and to heal Jesus is revealing who he is and what he has come into this world to do and to accomplish and the mission that he will leave to those who will follow after him Jesus ministry is extremely powerful That's what Matthew is telling us here As John said John the Baptizer said remember the one who is coming after me is far far greater than I am And this is proof positive of that And Jesus has a tremendous growing popularity as mentioned A third theme here can be detected as well We spoke of it before we'll speak of it again Jesus mission to the world Jesus mission to the gentile world as well That is extremely important In some ways Matthew has been called a very very Jewish gospel It's true It is But don't forget one of the major themes of this gospel is salvation to the world Salvation to the pagans to the gentile world as well And Jesus popularity and ministry cannot be confined or contained only to Galilee Matthew is telling us that everybody from the surrounding provinces let me walk you through them You have Galilee to the north Then you have Samaria then Judea then Idia There are probably people and that's that's to the west They're pro west of the Jordan River and Sea of Galilee They're coming up now to Galilee to see him On the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee just south of Syria you have Galonitis the Decapus the place of the 10 towns down into Perea and then Nabata to the south And Matthew is saying they are coming in by the thousands from everywhere to see and listen to Jesus because of who he is what he's teaching for preaching And of course the healing the miracles now begin Jesus showing that he is God He is the ultimate healer of mind soul body all of the above It's what he came into the world to do Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God to humankind Okay spreads to Syria Roman Gentile a lot of Jews in Syria but a lot of Gentiles Very much a Greco Roman province Very rich very wealthy very affluent Large military garrison there Very powerful governor there appointed by the Senate or by the emperor And these people mostly Gentiles I would say are swarming down over the Galilean border to see Jesus the Messiah So yes Messiah's mission is to be universal And here it is at last in action as prophesied all along Verse 23 And Jesus was going about in all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel the Yuangelon in the Greek the good news proclamation of the kingdom kingdom of Christ kingdom of God kingdom of heaven and healing By the way it's I think it's theuo theuo I have it in my notes here But the word that we translate into English as healing it's the coin a Greek word from which we get the word therapy in English Healing every kind of disease every kind of sickness amongst the people Now those of you who have your ESV study Bible there look at that ex excellent textual note that's there Read it for you And for our folks watching and listening who don't have this particular study Bible the Galilee region had a population of about 300,000 people probably more in 200 or more villages and towns with no major cities in the area That's right no large cities like Jerusalem But there were some fairly goodsized towns like Sephoris and Tiberius which were the Roman administration cities in the area They were fairly goodsized towns plus all the little uh fishing villages scattered along the lake and farming villages such as Nazareth scattered throughout the hills Remember this is a bread basket province Jesus ministry included teaching disciples and those already familiar with his message as his message was getting about proclaiming truth to those unfamiliar with the message Right preaching the good news of God's Messiah now arrived in the world to those who weren't familiar with it That would probably mean what mostly Gentiles And healing all physical emotional and spiritual infirmities And that points to who he really is His identity is God God the Son Healing of every disease and every affliction gives an amazing foretaste of the age to come right what John will call the new heaven and new earth where there will be no more sickness or death or disease You can read this Revelation 21:4 Philippians 3:21 and in particular 1 Corinthians 15:42:43 When Messiah returns he will do away with disease and sickness forever This advent points to the second advent where he will return and the world will be rid of sickness disease and death altogether forever Jesus combined ministry that met people's physical needs with ministry to their minds and their hearts Everything is being dealt with here The soul the emotions the mind the body Jesus is the healer of it all Who who only God only God the Almighty can do such a thing Only God the Almighty is the ultimate and complete healer of every ailment of any and every human being Proving Jesus deity Okay So according to Matthew this is Jesus first circuit or tour or mission trip if you want to call it that back home in the province of Galilee his home province Now the religious establishment in Jerusalem will look down on him because he's a Galilean and they say "What galilee and Nazareth well the Messiah can't come from Galilee and Nazareth He's supposed to be born in the city of David in Judea." Well he was He was he is the son of David born in Bethlehem of Judea Something that they conveniently forgot or didn't want to pay attention to in the first place And so they condemned him because he was a Galilean I've been doing a lot of study on this book and its background and the history and culture of the time is important And one thing you need to know I did not know uh until I some of the more detailed commentaries of Matthew thing you got to understand is the religious establishment is in Judea And Jesus when he begins his public ministry is coming from Galilee up in the north Judeans and Galileans didn't exactly get along with each other much Both of them had some biases and some prejudices against one another The Galileans were looked upon as pardon me folks from overseas for using American ex country expressions But they the the Judeans to the south especially those around Jerusalem the wealthier the socially connected the religiously and politically well-connected they look down their noses in contempt at those country bumpkin Galileans to the north like our elites look down in contempt on us Those people that fly over country those dumb rednecks out there and fly over country Stuff like that hasn't changed in 2,000 years in that part of the world And here they looked upon the Galileans with contempt Really hypocritical and rude thing to do considering the Galileans supplied them with most of their food Again things haven't changed have it But the Galileans didn't like the Judeans much They thought that they were all too comfortable with Roman rule In fact they believe their quasi political and religious leaders were flatout traitors and collaborators with the Romans hypocrites just as Jesus identifies him And they had some cultural differences Uh those Galileans were accused of having too much Greco Roman influence and their culture and their way of life up there But again the Galileans accused the Judeans in the south of being collaborators of the Romans The Galileans had a funny accent Um I guess what we could say over here is our country accents Midwest the South or whatever And those you know East Coast people make fun of us Well we do the same with them right these things don't change whatever country and culture throughout history So they didn't exactly get along with each other very very well And there's other reasons for that well as well but I won't go into that But I'll wait till later text to describe this antagonism between the two provinces But it was there And you have to understand that in order to understand that's one of the causes for hostility or antagonism between the Judeans the religious establishment to the south in Jerusalem and the fact that Jesus is a Nazarene the hill country up there with the the rednecks the country bumpkins up there in Galilee That's going to cause some problems not on Jesus' part but on the part of the Judeans to the south And also by this time probably Jesus is doing the unthinkable He's associating with the Samaritans and for that they would hate him because we all know how much the Samaritans and the Jews hated each other That terrible antagonism there So Jesus ministry is moving all about He's breaking down walls He's breaking down barriers He's breaking taboos He's breaking down prejudices and biases Very interesting And Jesus ministry I'm going to throw two big words at you Parapotetic or itinerate They're basically synonymous It means Jesus is constantly on the move now that he's chosen the 12 disciples He's moving all over the province not staying very long in one place for a given period of time Why because he has a lot of places to visit and a lot of people to see and the message to get out to everyone as many people as is possible So not stopping in one place or location And so therefore he's what he's something of what we would call in our time an evangelist Constantly on the move preaching and teaching to anybody and everybody that would show up and would listen Teaching and proclaiming proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and then proceeding to teach them what the gospel of the kingdom is and who he is and why he is there and who has sent him And this of course will prepare the way for the apostles and others to spread the gospel message of Jesus after he has gone And that mission 20 centuries later has been handed down to us And congratulations By way of that humble technology you're doing exactly the same thing right now from this place Preaching and teaching the gospel of the kingdom casting your net and it's going out to the far side of the world Literally Now examine here There's three categories or parts or components of Jesus ministry that Matthew is inspired to mention here this particular time They're important They're illuminating First though few words about the location of Galilee Just a few more As that textual note said Galilee was roughly in the first century about 70 by 70 mi long 40 miles wide And they're probably not using horses probably not even mules or donkeys They're probably just walking that's going to keep you really busy to reach as many people in all of these scattered villages in this province 70 by 40 miles It had approximately uh my sources state 204 villages and towns that we know of from ancient history and from the writings of the first century Jewish historian Josephus who by the way lived in Galilee for some time In fact during the Jewish war with Rome as memory memory serves me correct he was captured by the Romans in one of the battles that was fought in Galilee population of 300,000 people at least probably more That's a lot of people Most people are surprised to hear Galilee at that time had that many people You think it's a very rural sparsely populated province Well it's rural but a lot of people there and a lot of people moving in and out of there very advantageous place to what reach as many people as possible quickly Jew and Gentile Some historians believe it would take at least three or four months to traverse walking about the province of Galilee And even then you probably wouldn't get absolutely every single solitary village And they're supposing this at the rate of about two or more village sites each day Well there's many a day Jesus could only reach one village in a day So it's going to take you months at a time to do this teaching in their synagogues proclaiming and preaching the gospel of the kingdom So at this time Jesus continuous activity teaching preaching healing When he is teaching it is dedason in the synagogues meaning very careful methodical systematic instruction deep teaching diving into the word of God the Old Testament as I'm certain Jesus was doing The Gospels give us some examples of him doing just that Luke chapter 4 for one and him teaching from the Old Testament scriptures that he is God's Messiah arrived at last very careful teaching very methodical systematic That's what I like to do Book by book chapter by chapter verse by verse That's the way you do it Preaching and healing So he's simply doing what Jewish synagogues were supposed to be all about Many of these people they didn't a lot couldn't read and write Some could but they look written materials in the first century was all handcopied and it was really timeconuming and very expensive All these Jewish families did not have a copy of the word of God in their home like you do They had to go to synagogue to see it and to hear it to listen to it being read and proclaimed and taught You're one of the most privileged generations in all of history that you have a copy of the divine library in your hands for yourself take advantage of it because on judgment day we're all going to be called on what we did with it They're simply doing what synagogues are all about Teaching exposition of the Old Testament scriptures about he himself as Messiah The gospel message good news of Messiah arriving and salvation in Messiah arriving would be the preaching and then you proceed to teach it in detail Now it was common in the first century AD You may have heard of this for a parapotetic or itinerate rabbi traveling rabbi especially one who was particularly famed for his arudition his wisdom his teaching Very common in the first century AD for a community a synagogue to invite such rabbi in to speak and to teach This is exactly what Jesus is doing Now according to all the gospels Jesus did this and he did this quite often In fact some of his most important teachings were in synagogues as well as outdoors on a mountain side or by the lake Now proclaiming or preaching is keroson in the Greek It specifically means some kind of big public proclamation proclaiming what the gospel yuangelon which means good news It initially meant good news from a battlefront that a great victory has been won Well that's what it means now The ultimate battle has been fought and won by the Messiah And so we proclaim the good news of his victory until his return The gospel of the kingdom the good news preaching of and preaching about the kingdom that's referring to a theme that is very very essential to Jesus overall teaching and message here in the Gospel of Matthew Matthew is inspired to be all about the kingdom The kingdom of God the kingdom of of the Messiah the kingdom of heaven coming into this world being established in this world overwhelming the world spreading throughout the world and of course being completed when Messiah returns Phrase very important to Matthew And by the way kingdom the gospel of the kingdom that's a phrase that only is used by Matthew in his gospel but it's synonymous It's the same as kingdom of God kingdom of heaven As I just mentioned the disciples of Jesus the disciples at Jesus command will imitate what he's doing They will imitate the preaching and teaching and the healing of Jesus when he sends them out on their own mission coming up in chapter 10 And I believe again that message mission and message has been handed down to us exactly the same for us Teaching preaching healing But by the way teaching and preaching were two typical parts of every synagogue service You know why I'm mentioning this over and over and over for one thing so you'll remember it But another thing it's important Teaching and preaching is what we are to be all about when we meet on resurrection day Sunday the first day of the week And there is very little of that taking place in many if not most of our country's churches teaching preaching and healing Some people are about healing and nothing else Some people are about entertainment and a social club and absolutely none of this It's teaching and preaching and healing In fact I'll refer to what is it Justin Martyr who gives us one of the earliest descriptions of a Christian church service in ancient times He said just everything that they did was based on the word of God They read the scriptures They proclaimed the gospel of Jesus from the scriptures And one of the elders taught They also baptized people Took the Lord's supper every time they met That's what they did And then they made sure that everyone was all right The physical needs of the church members were cared for That's what they were supposed to be doing That's what they were doing That and that only He's teaching but not in synagogues only Soon there's going to be so many people He's going to have to take this out of doors And he will But for now two typical parts of every synagogue service parts that should be part of every church service as we call it not in synagogues only Teaching preaching we're defining activities of Jesus wherever he went And that will be that of the apostles as well But more often than not it will start to take place outdoors and not in any building at all By the way we don't have to be in buildings all the time either Wherever we go wherever we are doing what therapuo from which we get the word therapy Therapuo Healing every kind of disease every kind of sickness amongst the people Notice every every absolutely anything and everything that would plague the mental emotional and physical well-being of a human being Jesus tackles it all And he heals it all everything Who in the world can do this but God the Almighty alone now you had miracles of healing by God's Holy Spirit falling upon prophets Remember the miracles of healing of the prophets in the Old Testament But they didn't do anything like this Nothing like this This is astounding This is amazing It goes far above and beyond anything that ever took place by way of the prophets or the patriarchs and others at the time of the Old Testament G Jesus is probably healing thousands of people of absolutely everything you can think of demon position mental disorder seizures every kind of sickness that the human body can contract Probably people who are terribly injured people who are deformed Jesus is able to for form limbs on their bodies that were deformed or that scarcely exist because of what we might call some kind of birth defect I mean who in the world can do this kind of thing but God the Almighty alone God in the flesh And this is why everybody in the region and beyond is swarming down there over the Galilean border to see what in the world is going on Who is this who can do these kind of things to the pagans what God who got who's doing this and to the Jews is this man the Messiah as our ancient scriptures proclaimed and prophesied in John the wild man of the wilderness the last of the great prophets the second Elijah he said he was certainly looks like it Now Jesus ministry is not only made up of words is it but deeds and actions as well Not only words but deeds and actions as well This is not saying that Jesus healed every single solitary sick or ill person in Galilee It does mean however that he did heal every single solitary person that was brought to him who reached him Everyone that he personally encountered also notice every kind of disease or sickness Every all of them physical mental spiritual For heaven's sakes this is who he is Again only God the Almighty can do such a thing You want evidence of Jesus deity there it is But I wasn't there He's God He is God in the flesh Just exactly as the gospels proclaim as that beautiful prologue to the Gospel of John proclaims And by the way why don't you try him he heals people today just exactly as he did in the first century AD Oh he's not physically present with us One day he's going to be But he has sent his spirit the third person of God the trinity the spirit one with the father and the son into this world who is to heal people He still heals today as he did long long ago By the way that healing sometimes is to take place through us elders in the church Go read the fifth chapter of the Gospel of James Gospel of James the letter of James the Apostle James our Lord Jesus Christ's halfb brotherther And what does James say under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in chapter five if you're sick and you want to be healed pray about it but also contact the elders of your church and they are to pray over you lay their hands on you anoint you with oil for your healing Not a lot of people take advantage of this or obey this these days And by the way the text says the elders aren't supposed to come looking for you If you are sick your duty is to go to them and ask them to attend to you But what Jesus is doing here only God can do such a thing Jesus is the Lord The Lord who heals mind body and soul The one and the only one who can do that and is willing to do it for one and all Why he cares because he loves us Lost and helpless and hopeless as we are He is our hope He is our healer He is our redeemer He Jesus God the son has the power and authority to do so And again he still does This has not changed Jesus will also give the power and authority to heal the sick to his disciples in chapter 10 I do not believe that has been taken away from us There are some who believe that and I respectfully disagree with them Some people believe that some of these gifts of healing that were given to the early church you read of in the book of Acts in the New Testament that when the apostolic age ended all of that ended I don't believe that I don't see it anywhere in the New Testament Now can those sort of things be abused yes tragically they are abused by charlatans here in America But don't let their sin keep you from the truth and what really does belong in the life of every Christian believer and the life of every Christian church in this time in our generation Grant Osborne writes in his commentary "The church is to relive the life ministry and authority of Jesus in the power of his spirit." Amen brother The church is to relive continue the life ministry and authority of Jesus in the power of his spirit preaching teaching and healing Verse 24 And the news about him went out into all Syria the large Roman province to the north And they the Syrians the people in Syria began to bring to Jesus all who were ill taken with various diseases and pains demoniacs epileptics Notice folks that's two different things A lot of people want to say "Oh they back in those days they were so ignorant They didn't know what they were talking about This demonic possession was just you know what we would call epilepsy or seizures." Um no I don't think so Not if you examine the accounts of people being harassed by demons carefully in the Gospels Here it says demoniacs epileptics Two totally different things Seizures by way of a physical malady Epileptics demoniacs people who are being harassed and attacked by demonic spirits fallen angels two different things And Jesus handles it all Paralytics And he healed them Or he healed them all Now news about him spread out into all of Syria This of course as I mentioned to you before is the first century Roman province of Syria to the north of Galilee An extremely important and influential regional province of the Roman Empire on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean And Syria will become a major influential region for Christianity in the New Testament in the New era Very important I refer you to the book of Acts to see all of that beginning Jesus popularity the news of him spreads far wide and rapidly You know one of the reasons why the Roman Empire existed at that time and all those tens of thousands of Roman roads all over those provinces it wasn't for the Roman Empire It wasn't for the Roman emperors as much as they thought it was It was about Jesus so that when he arrived at this time in history the first century news could go out across the civilized world or known world and beyond faster than it ever could have before in human history You see this is living proof that Jesus is the God who was supposed to arrive in person as prophesied that he is the Messiah and that he is for the whole world all of humankind Jew as well as Gentile Not just Jews not just Israel the world the Gentiles This is living proof of that And Matthew is drawing our attention to that fact In Old Testament times Syria was the enemy Now people are flooding over the Syrian border no longer an invasion But they're flooding over the Syrian border into Galilee into quote unquote Jewish territory even though it's Roman rule to seek what to seek the Jews To seek their Messiah to seek their help for salvation and healing Remember Naaman book of second kings a Syrian who came down from Syria to seek out the Jewish prophet and the god of the Jewish prophet to heal him Naaman in his healing is pointing to this Syrians coming down and being healed by the Messiah when he arrives Messiah's ministries for Syria and beyond Judea Samaria and to the ends of the earth Remember truly good news wouldn't you say now notice again mental and spiritual afflictions or attacks not just the physical This truly is the work of God And this list is pretty impressive isn't it remember John the Baptizer's remark again about Jesus being greater than he greater than the prophets This is proof of that Here's the evidence in action Messiah is greater He is more powerful He is a more authoritative than anyone ever And Jesus Messiah came into this world to heal people of everything beginning with their soul their emotions their mind and the body The body rides the coattails of the soul as I like to say And Jesus covers it all all that can harm humankind He is the ultimate healer and deliverer He is the answer He and he still is just as much today as in the first century AD Healer of body and soul Now Matthew also in this list if you notice Matthew goes from the general to the specific We notice that he goes from general oh people were sick to start mentioning specific things that were wrong with people The words Matthew uses here are cacos nos These words are virtually synonymous for illness any ailment Some say maybe this these words cover injury or deformity as well that Jesus was able to heal It's used here for comprehensiveness Jesus healed everybody of everything Now many argue we should translate the original Greek this way They were tormented by severe pain and demonic oppression That's an interesting thing to say isn't it interesting to say the least Matthew uses basinos It's a very very strong word for pain You could just as arguably translate it as agony Somebody being tortured with pain Tortured with agony Jesus is the one who liberates people from pain that torments or tortures Jesus it's who he is It's what he came to do now as well as then The word Matthew uses that we translate into English as epilepsy A word in the Greco Roman world that was used for seizures we translate it as epilepsy It literally means moon struck and it comes from the old pagan belief that at phases of the moon people had seizures and it comes from selen the old moon pagan moon god selen the word specifically means moonstroke but Matthew says here it is a natural disease of epilepsy seizures and Jesus is able to heal that countering all of those pagan beliefs Now this may also some believe refer to oppressive demonic attack here as well I may I wanted to get through this I'm going to try point I have to make there is physical epileptic seizures and that is something different from demonic oppression Both are very very real Take it seriously and Jesus heals them both But some physical ailments the gospel tells us came about because of demonic oppression or attack Don't rule that out Even in the 21st century some mental illness what we might call a mental illness the Bible calls demonic attack demonic harassment or oppression We here in the secular west tend to think that this there's no supernatural at all Oh that is very dangerous and it's not true I think if you look around this fallen dreadful horrific culture that is in this country now you will easily see the demonic There are lots of people under the attack harassment and influence of evil spirits of fallen angels Take it seriously It exists then and now Jesus is the one who conquers it all Physical or demonic he's the answer all of it The triumphant Messiah heals anyone and everyone from whatever the affliction is You have an affliction for heaven's sake take it to him He is the one who can heal And the spiritual healing is even better and more important than the physical healing now isn't it and he can do that as well All of it Same today same today same today as it was 2,000 years ago All of this may also be telling us that yes again there are some spiritual reasons behind illnesses Not all the time We have to have wisdom from the spirit of God to know which is which But sometimes I really do believe that now as then there are some physical and mental and emotional maladies that are not all physical They are spiritual and there are demonic There are often spiritual realities behind the physical ones I'll say it again Look for spiritual causes and realities behind the physical ones They are there They are there 25 I think we will finish Great multitudes In other words to a first century Matthew he's telling you tens of thousands of people are swarming in to see Jesus He is constantly on the move Matthew say Matthew say he's dragging us all over the place all over Galilee and we're absolutely swamped by thousands of people everywhere that we go And Jesus doesn't have to go looking for them They're coming in looking for him even up from Assyria Great multitudes followed him from Galilee Dicapus right the Dicapus is to the east the province of the 10 towns all the way down from J Jerusalem Judea and from beyond the Jordan meaning territories east of the Jordan River Pagan territories They're all coming in What is this folks it's a living symbol of Jesus being sent to the world And the world should be what sent to him He's here He's arrived He's still here by way of his spirit at work in his church He's everywhere He's still everywhere He's still moving about Go to him Go to those who have his message those who can teach you about him Right it's something of a remarkable summation isn't it of the absolutely astounding success even from the worldly point of view Amazing success of the early J days of Jesus public ministry by Matthew All of this prophesied in the Old Testament By the way the Messiah is here for the world Jew and Gentile And you're not going to believe the things he's going to do when he gets here It's all happening We also see in this verse that the size of the crowds must be truly remarkable for the fame of Jesus is now covering and spreading over a ra really rather large geographic area as here described and it's happening fast Remember no planes no trains no automobiles no internet no phones walking or an animal or a cart or word of mouth It's astounding what's happening here Why because it's a work of God God the son coming into the world to ultimately reveal God All is prophesied All is planned Right and there's a debate here as to Matthew's use of followed him All these people are following him Probably two things are happening here Great numbers of people followed Jesus So how does Matthew mean this are they genuine followers as in really believing in Jesus and his message as Messiah fully committed to him or are they following Jesus just wanting to be healed wanting to get something out of him wanting to see the miracles the sensational right following or following after Jesus seeking the sensational seeking excitement the thrill seekers I would say both Matthew's saying both And the same is true to this day isn't it people just follow Jesus to see what they can get out of him Some thrillseker sensation seek whatever All kinds of crazy stuff happens in churches But what should be happening same true today as then Now how many genuine folks are there amongst these followers that's a good question I'd say quite a bit And even Gentiles crack open your Bible this afternoon and read the four gospels How many times does Jesus praise a gentile for their faith in him and for their faith in the God of the Jews in fact to a Roman army officer he says "There's greater faith in this man that I've seen in any Jew out of anyone in Israel." So there are genuine followers Jew and Gentile because all of humanity was meant to follow him and respond wisely and well to his mission both insincere and sincere Those who are genuine those who are not And so the question is in conclusion same's true today So which are we which are you the real deal the authentic the genuine really coming to him to follow him for who he is or just in it for whatever reason not really authentic not really genuine not really committed Which which are we which part of the crowd are we and also again it must be said that the locations Matthew lists in this verse cover areas that were heavily populated not only by Jews but by Gentiles Last word of the day Messiah's mission is for everyone Every human being from every ethnicity from every culture from every nation on the face of this earth He came for all of us that we might have life life in his name life abundantly life as it was always meant to be here and hereafter And he is the one he is the only one who is the ultimate healer of your body and your mind and your soul And if you have salvation in him true life in his name at that wonderful resurrection day at the end of history as we know it and you enter the eternal age you will be perfectly healthy in every way shape or form Jesus final act of ultimate healing for each and every one of us Perfect body perfect soul the way human beings were meant to be in the first place Image bearers of God This is who he is This is what he came to do Same today as it was in the first century And so the Messiah's ministry is off and running and it's astounding It will change the world and it's still changing the world today Sovereign Lord God our heavenly father thank you for this divine history the divine plan in Jesus Thank you for saving us redeeming us and making us a part of this plan Bless this the humble proclamation of teaching and preaching of your word And we pray for the healing and the power of the Holy Spirit of God upon all who are watching and listening who are sick who are injured who are troubled We here in this little congregation pray for them in the name of Jesus Christ our savior that because of the finished work of Jesus and the power of your spirit and the truth of your word healing will come to our brothers and sisters who are watching and listening overseas Hear our prayers and their behalf oh sovereign God the almighty that we may take part in the ministry of Jesus as well teaching preaching and healing according to your will and your plan for each and every individual Hear our humble prayer we cry O Lord our God In Jesus holy name we do pray Amen