Hope Church's Church
12.7.25 Sunday Morning Worship
  • Hark The Herald Angels Sing / King Of Heaven
  • O Holy Night
  • Peace Has Come

      • Matthew 8:1-3ESV

      • Matthew 8:4-6ESV

      • Matthew 8:7-8ESV

      • Matthew 8:9-10ESV

      • Matthew 8:11-12ESV

      • Matthew 8:13-15ESV

      • Matthew 8:16-17ESV

  • Intro

    What is faith? What does it look like?
    And I will ask you today, Where are you at on your faith journey?
    Today, we are going to look at three aspects, or three steps of faith. As we look at them together, assess for yourself where you are at and how God is moving you to grow in these areas of your faith.
    Today, we start a new section of Matthew. We’ve spent a significant amount of time in the sermon on the mount, the first of 5 teachings Jesus will do in this book. But now Matthew moves onto miracles.
    We might think of this brief moment as us coming up for air. We’ve done a deep dive into the sermon on the mount. If the book of Matthew was a coral reef, we have looked at this one section of the coral reef, now we need to come up for air and reassess where we are. We need to look at the coral reef as a whole and remember it’s purpose.
    What is the book of Matthew about?
    When we think about gospel writers, we can sometimes think they are just sitting at a desk and trying to remember everything that happened. Maybe like a historian recording all of the info.
    But this is not how gospel writers work. The gospel writers are not historians recording data. The Holy Spirit used them to carefully craft a book that was intended for a specific purpose. If you missed the introduction to Matthew Message, i would encourage you to go listen to it online.
    But what we talked about is that the first verse of Matthew is critical for understanding his purpose.
    Matthew 1:1 NET 2nd ed.
    1 This is the record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
    Right here, a verse we might be tempted to skip over, we learn a lot about Matthews intent and purpose behind this book. Wrapped up in the first verse of this book.
    He wants us to know that Jesus is the promised Messiah, the King like David, and the blessing to the nations promised to Abraham.
    Him being David’s son reminds us that he is the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises, coming to us with authority as our King.
    Then he is the son of Abraham reminding us that he is the fulfillment of the Old Testament as the one who comes to rescue not just Israel, but the nations.
    Both of these Matthew themes will be important for us today.
    We boiled the message of Matthew down to this single sentence.
    Theme of Matthew: Jesus came to be the Messianic King of Israel and the rescuer of nations, establishing his Kingdom for his obedient followers.
    Matthew wants to instill faith in the followers of Jesus and a submission to his authority. So he has done that with the sermon on the mount, and now he is continuing that theme in the miracles.
    While Jesus did many miracles, Matthew hand selects just a few miracles from Jesus’s ministry. And these three that we look at today are not random, but in line with his purpose.
    These three miracles emphasize Jesus’s authority and our faith. And we will see what faith actually looks like in these three examples given to us today.
    Main Point: Jesus’s authority instills faith for all God’s Children.

    Step 1: Faith to Pursue Jesus (Leper’s Faith) v1-4

    First today, we see faith to pursue. And we see this in the faith of the leper.
    Jesus is finished with his first discourse, and now wants to show us what authority and faith are.
    Jesus being the one who is not what we expect, takes his authority, and does what is not expected.
    You will remember how the sermon on the mount ends. With the crowds marveling at his authority. What will this leader do? What will this messiah become? What will he do next? What does he do with his great authority?
    Start conquest? Start gathering an army? Start grand oratory debates? Go to the high authorities of his day? Address the religious leaders?
    Nope. He takes his authority, and goes to the marginalized people. The people that society would look down on. The people that are forgotten about. The people that are overlooked. The people who are unworthy. This authority that caused the crowds to marvel, he is going to take to the lowliest of people.
    The first of which is a Leper. Maybe the most unclean of all. While we might know leprosy today Hansen’s disease, and is not known in America, but does still exist in third world countries. Lepers would be outcast from society. This was prescribed by Moses in Leviticus 13 in 1500BC. Did you know there was even a leper colony in America? Until 1969, all lepers were banished to an Island in Hawaii. Today, there is a modern cure for it.
    In Jesus’s day, this was an incurable disease, and could have been any number of contagious skin diseases. All of them would have been nasty. Maybe nerve damaging, maybe fungal, maybe bacterial. Causing pain and sometimes people would loose parts of their body. Often they would go blind.
    Through the Bible, we see leprosy as not just a skin uncleanness, but also a spiritual, or societal uncleaness. It is sometimes seen as a curse from God that only God can cure.
    In the American leper colony, like leper colonies around the world, didn’t allow integration back into society of the unclean people even after leprosy was healed. The lepers were actually all cured in 1949, but weren’t allowed off the island until the US government changed the laws in 20 years later. Lepers were not just seen as physically impure, but also seen as impure in humans.
    Think about Moses putting his hand into his coat, and pulling it out in horror to himself and onlookers. Then he puts it back into his coat and pulls it out and the leprosy is cured. This is to show that only God has the ability to heal, and that God is with him as he is God’s servant.
    Leprosy is seen as a curse from God. Think of Numbers 12:10-12. Miriam’s sin is punished by God. And how does God punish her? By making her a leper. Her skin became white like snow.
    Healing leprosy was equivalent to raising the dead. In 2 Kings 5:7, Naaman, a commander of the Syrian army is sent to the King of Israel to get healed of his leprosy. The king of Israel says this is impossible!. He says “Am I God that i can restore life? Can I cure skin disease?” And the point he is making is that he can’t. It is impossible. Only God can.
    The law of the Old Testament banished people with this disease to be away from people in isolation. They have to tear their cloths, not do their hair, and call out “Unclean, unclean.” If anyone was near them.
    Put yourself in this position. Can you imagine the humiliation of being a leper and having to do this? Not only are you in physical agony, but you have this mental and emotional agony. Proclaiming to everyone around this declaration that you are unclean. Unclean. Unclean.
    And for some reason, this leper that comes to Jesus is not following typical parodical or what was commanded by the law. He comes to Jesus and bows down to him and says “Lord if you will, you can make me clean.”
    You can almost imagine this scene. Crowds following Jesus, the leper that is supposed to be removed from society is all of a sudden among other people. He wasn’t supposed to be here. he shouldn’t have been here. It was unacceptable for him to be here! The people around must have gasped when this man was discovered. But his bold faith in Jesus made him go against cultural norms and society stigmas to pursue Jesus.
    He is supposed to be announcing his uncleanness. But here is is announcing that Jesus has the authority and power to make him clean. Realizing his is unclean, he finds the only one who can save him from his state of uncleanness.
    Notice how he prays. If you will. Greek has different ways of phrasing conditional statements. And this one is particular in wording. Some conditional phrases assume a negative response will follow. Some conditional phases assume a positive response will follow. This one presumes no response at all. The leper has faith enough to know that Jesus has power or ability or authority to do this task, but only if he is willing.
    This is not how we pray often times, we pray and demand that God do what we want. But this leper is praying the spirit of the Lord’s prayer that we looked at a few weeks ago. Paying for God’s will to be done in our lives rather than what we want or don’t want to be done. Being ready to accept God’s will into our lives in faith that He knows best for his glory and for our good. This leper is practicing that for us.
    Then look at verse 3. Jesus stretches out his hand and touches him saying “I will, be clean.” And immediately, his leprosy was cleansed. Maybe the first physical contact this leper has for the majority of his life.
    This touch from Jesus is not an unintentional slide swipe, Jesus stretched out his hand, intentionally, to touch him. You aren’t supposed to touch uncleaness. Touching uncleanness would make you unclean. But not so with Jesus. Jesus is so clean and pure that the uncleaness does not affect him. The reverse happens! His cleanness and purity affects the uncleaness.
    Tied up in “i will” is the claim of his divinity and nature of God. Remember we said only God could heal leprosy? Signs in the Old Testament show us this? But here, Jesus makes the claim that he is able to heal leprosy, staking his claim to the divinity of God.
    Then in verse four, we see Jesus tell the previously leprous man not to tell anyone. Commentators are split on this and why it happens. Why does Jesus not want him telling other people?
    Jesus didn’t want to be known for being a miracle worker. It wasn’t his primary goal. Instead, this miracle of healing was to accomplish a goal, not the goal itself. By telling him to go see the priest, he was showing his authority and proving that he was the messiah.
    We need to understand the Old Testament law a bit. If someone was healed of leprosy, or something that seemed like leprosy, they would have to go to the priest, go through this waiting period, and then present an offering to cleanse them of everything. For more on this, you can read Lev 14:1-32.
    Jesus is submitting to the law and living it out. Remember from the sermon on the mount how Jesus states his purpose is to fulfill the law, and then make a way so we can live it out also through him?
    He is putting that on display here. He cleansed this leper, then enables him to live out the law by going to the priest. No longer to be unclean but to live out his faith. Previously, this Leper was unable to live out the law. But now, Jesus’s righteousness gave this man a way to be righteous.
    Jesus has this leper tell no one until he tells the priest, because he doesn’t want to be known as the cleanser of sickness, but the cleanser of sin.
    If you have missed the gospel connection here, we are staring it in the face!
    Maybe you are here to day, and in the initial stages of your faith in Jesus.
    Jesus wants you to have faith that he cleanses you from your sin.
    Just like the man who came to Jesus who was physically unclean because of leprosy, we are spiritually unclean. Unclean to be in the presence of God. Unclean because of our sin. It is stuck to us. And it weighs on us.
    And because of it, we are unable to come close to living out the law in righteous living. Our good works do not outweigh our sins, our good works mean nothing against our inability to live out God’s law in our lives!
    But Jesus comes not to cleanse of from sickness, but to cleanse us from sin.
    Isaiah says though our sins have stained us like scarlet, we can be made white like snow, cleansed completely.
    You can start pursuing Jesus today!
    Maybe you are further along in your faith and struggling with the guilt of sin in your life. We don’t have to live in guilt and in a state of feeling unclean.
    Faith starts with pursuing Jesus as our only hope to save us from sin. With us going to him and asking “Lord, make me clean.” But this faith to pursing Jesus is not only a one time decision, it a continual blessing to run to him and know we are forgiven and he is continuing to cleanse us from sin.
    He is faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteous+
    ness.

    Step 2: Faith to Submit to Jesus (Centurion’s Acknowledgement of Authority) v5-13

    Next, we look at faith to submit to Jesus. This is step two in our faith. And we see this exemplified in the foreigner Centurion.
    The Centurion of this region would not have been a Jew, and was more likely to be a non-roman citizen. He would have not only been a gentile, but he would have been an Israelite enemy, someone who was currently ensuring peace for the Roman occupation.
    Centurions were the backbone of the Roman army with 100 soldiers under them. Many times they would be non-Romans who would gain roman citizenship after 25 years. They would lead an axillary army for a region.
    In his faith, he seeks Jesus out to appeal to him. To ask him for help.
    The point is that he as a centurion had great authority in this region, but here, he is humbly coming to Jesus to ask for help.
    And he says in verse 6 “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.”
    The greek term used here is more affectionate than slave, it is more likely used of a personal servant or main servant.
    Paralysis could have been a disease like polio or something related to a stroke.
    But notice he calls Jesus “Lord.” He is recognizing Jesus’s authority. The one who could have come to Jesus and demanded that he heal his servant, humbles himself under Jesus’s authority.
    In verse 7, Jesus says he will go and heal him.
    Some translations have this statement from Jesus as a question. In greek, there is an emphatic I. It might be better understood as either “You want ME to come to your house?” Or “I myself will come to your house if that is what you want.”
    Jesus is in a difficult position here.
    It was not lawful for a jew to enter a gentile house. John 18:28 and Acts 10:28 tell us that a jew entering a gentile house would have made the Jew unclean. The gentile centurion would have known this Jewish law.
    So if Jesus was to enter his house, he would have been made unclean. Was the centurion really asking a Jewish rabbi to do this? This would have been bad for Jesus, and bad for centurion who wanted to be respectful of Jewish customs and stay in good graces for the sake of peace.
    But if Jesus was unwilling to go, he would have been uncompassionate and uncaring of this person seeking his help.
    Thus Jesus’s answer, I am willing.
    But the centurion again calls Jesus Lord, and says he is unworthy to have Jesus come under his roof, but only say a word. He has faith that Jesus can heal.
    I don’t think this is a social or class unworthiness, but a moral difference of authority. And the following dialog of the centurion will show us this.
    This unworthiness is less about race and custom defilement, and more acknowledging authority of Jesus. He recognizes that compared to Jesus’s authority, he is unworthy.
    In verse 9, he goes into this odd discussion about authority. Lets look at it.
    Matthew 8:9 “9 For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave ‘Do this!’ and he does it.””
    Initially, we see this verse as odd. What is he ranting about? Why is he declaring his authority before Jesus? Is he really being humble before Jesus? Is this a brag about his own authority?
    And look at Jesus’s response in verse 10 that seems out of place. He is amazed and turns to his followers with him and says “I tell you the truth, I have not found such faith in anyone in Israel!”
    And we think, is Jesus impressed and amazed with this guys brag on his authority? Why is Jesus marveling at this guys faith and not the faith of the leper who seems to have even more faith?
    I think something else is going on here.
    He is understanding faith inside of Jesus’s authority. He knows what it means to command authority, and to be under authority. As a military leader, he recognizes authority when he sees it. He the occupying force and authority over the conquered people the Jews, goes to this lowly Jewish teacher.
    Remember, Matthew is trying to show us Jesus’s authority from various angles, and now it is being shown to us from a military leader who wasn’t even a jew.
    He has a no-nonsense faith of a practical man. Just like people obey him in military realm, Jesus will also be obeyed in the realm of healing.
    This centurion says he is a man under authority, he was under the Roman emperor’s authority. What he says comes with the full power of the emperor. He channeled the authority of the emperor.
    If he tells a foot soldier to go, and the foot soldier doesn’t obey, his disobedience is not just to the centurion, but disobedience of the emperor. To submit to the authority of the centurion was to submit to the authority of the emperor. Whatever this centurion said was meant to be seen as the emperor’s authority.
    Even a single word from him is meant to be taken with the full weight of the emperor of the Roman Kingdom.
    So why this weird excursion? Is he bragging? No.
    He is recognizing Jesus’s authority in a parallel situation. His authority is the very authority of God. Just like his authority is the emperor’s authority, Jesus’s authority is God’s authority.
    Jesus’s one word that he asks for comes with the full weight of God’s authority.
    He didn’t need a ritual, magic, a special ceremony to be be obeyed. Jesus’s authority was God’s authority, his word was enough. One word is enough.
    The centurion did not just have faith that Jesus could heal from a distance, but he has faith in Jesu’s authority. He understands the nature of Jesus as divine better than Jews as we will see in the rest of Matthew.
    Then, Jesus says in verse 11 that Many will come from east and west to share the banquet, the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into outer darkness where agony exists.
    This might be the clearest statement in Matthew, a book intended for a Jewish audience, that Jesus would show Gentile inclusion into the kingdom of God. The sons of the kingdom are the Jews, thinking they are following God when they in fact are not.
    The good news that Jesus brings is not just for Jews, but also for the gentiles.
    What is wonderful here is that he says “many.” Remember last week we saw that “many” will be on the broad road that leads to destruction and few find the narrow gate to the narrow path that leads to life. Now, many of those few that find the narrow path are gentiles. How off-putting this would have been!
    Jesus is challenging the traditional understanding that the focus of the kingdom of God is for Jews.
    But this is a reminder that God was always about the salvation of the nations! Remember that from Abraham, a blessing would come for the nations! This was meant to be the purpose of the Children of Jacob. That they would be bringing the nations to God and God to the nations. But they failed at this task. But Jesus comes to fulfill what they could not. Jesus is that blessing to the nations, bring us to God and God to us.
    Jesus is the fulfillment of texts like Isaiah 25:6 giving us access to God“6 The Lord who commands armies will hold a banquet for all the nations on this mountain. At this banquet there will be plenty of meat and aged wine— tender meat and choicest wine.”
    Malachi 1:11 “11 For from the east to the west my name will be great among the nations. Incense and pure offerings will be offered in my name everywhere, for my name will be great among the nations,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”
    Israel’s disobedience led to them being removed, and the gentiles brought into the people of God through Jesus. The idea of gnashing of teeth is punishment, anguish, remorse, and regret. The ones who think themselves to be God’s people are not. Why? Because their faith missed step two here. They did not submit to Jesus’s authority.
    Remember last weeks sermon where many MANY come to Jesus and say “Lord Lord, look at all these great things we did.” And he tells them to depart from him, he never knew him, why? Because they continued to live in sin. They did not submit to Jesus’s authority.
    What about us? Where is our faith? Do we have faith to submit to Jesus’s authority and know that his ways are better than our ways? That even when it doesn’t make sense, and we want to hold onto this thing we love in my life that God tells me I need to get rid of, are we willing to submit to God’s authority.
    This is what it means to be a part of the Kingdom that Jesus is inviting us to. Recognizing that he is king, and we are not, so we submit to his authority and know God is most glorified and it is for our good.
    In what way do you need to submit to Jesus’s authority today? What area of your life is not currently under his authority? How can you put your faith in Jesus and trust his authority for your life?

    Step 3: Faith to Serve Jesus (Peter’s Mom’s Service) v14-17

    Last today, we see step three. Faith to serve Jesus. We see this exemplified in Peter’s mother in law. What does it look like to have faith? It looks like serving.
    We don’t know why Jesus went to Peter’s house, only that he did.
    Here is a picture of what we believe to be the place of Peter’s house. And you might say “how would they know that?” Through archeology and history, this seems to be the site of Peter’s house based on the wall inscriptions about Jesus as well as the historical preservation the early church gave to this site.
    And when he does, he sees Peter’s mother in law who is very sick.
    What is wonderful about this story is that it continues Jesus’s healing of the marginalized people.
    After the big drama of healing a leper, and the servant of a centurion, this is seemingly insignificant mother in law, someone who would have been quickly overlooked, Jesus has compassion on.
    Jesus touches her hand and her sickness leaves her. And she rises in faith to serve him.
    We’ve talked about Chiasm before. A literary structure used by biblical authors and Dr. Sues. If you are new to them, they are parelel ideas that point us to a central point. And in this Chiasm, we see how Jesus, the center of this Chiasm, changes everything.
    What does her faith in Jesus look like? It looks like action to serve. She is not rescued by Jesus just to sit around, keep her faith to herself. In her faith, she serves Jesus.
    Look at verses 16 and 17 where many are being brought to Jesus. And he heals both the sick and the demon oppressed. Two separate things if you were wondering.
    Then in verse 17, we are told that all of this healing was fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah. Matthew loves to point out these fulfilling of Jesus.
    Some people doubt that Isaiah 53, the place Matthew is quoting from, is really a prophecy about the messiah to come, written hundreds of years before Jesus. But Jewish Rabbis realize that some understood this passage to be talking about a messiah.
    He took our weaknesses and carried our diseases.
    Sin is directly or indirectly caused by sin. A result of our fallen state because of sin entering the world.
    Jesus comes to show us he has authority over both of them and fixes both of them.
    That doesn’t mean when we come to Jesus, all of our physical ailments will be removed. We look forward to the day and long for the day that all things are restored.
    We don’t want to have an over-realized expectation of this moment and miss the expecation of how the future happens. Jesus promises to restore everything, but we live in this interim period and are patient to accept the struggle, the pains, the illnesses we have as God uses them for his glory and our good.
    He has already started this work of restoration in us, this work of fixing the problem. And he does that first by removing our sin.
    The connection to Isaiah here is significant. He is showing the physical healing was meant to point us toward a greater healing. A spiritual healing of our sin.
    Our spiritual problem is more significant than our physical problem. Jesus’s signs of miracles point us beyond the signs themselves of physical healing and show us about a spiritual healing.
    Sometimes when Matthew does a quick quote from an Old Testament passage, he wants you to think of the whole passage and context, not just the specific verse he mentions.
    Jesus was our substitute. We deserve the punishment for our sin, death. But Jesus came to take on our sin, our guilt, our punishment. So that we can be cleansed and now live for him.
    This is the passage that the Ethiopian Eunich was struggling with in Acts 8. The passage that pointed to Jesus.
    Peter would understand this connection in 1 Peter 2:24 “24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we may cease from sinning and live for righteousness. By his wounds you were healed.”
    Jesus heals us and cleanses us from our sin. So that we can now live in righteousness. Freed from the power of sin. Healed of sin to live righteously. In our faith, serve.
    When we think of step three for us, what are we doing with our faith? Is our faith knowledge in our heads? Or does it look like action and service?
    Jesus hasn’t saved us so that we would come to church on sunday, hear a sermon and sings some songs, and then go back to living like we used to.
    Jesus has rescued us for a purpose. Ephesians 2:10, we are his creative work because of Jesus Christ for good works. God intends us and has planned for us to be about his kingdom.
    How are you currently being faithful in your service to the kingdom of Jesus? In what ways could you grow and take the next step to serve Jesus in your home, your church, your community?
    What does it look like to have faith? It looks like serving Jesus and his people.

    Beyond the Walls (Grace and Growth)

    As we wrap up here, today, maybe you are here and do not yet have faith in Jesus. In his grace and love, he is offering you salvation from your sin today. He took your sin to the cross, died, and was buried so that you could have life. Abundant life. Eternal life. Will you accept in faith this free gift of grace? Talk to us today.
    If you are a believer here, where is your faith? How can you take the next step in your faith? Maybe you need to trust in Jesus’s power to cleanse you from sin. Maybe you need to submit to Jesus’s authority in your life. Maybe it is time for you to realize that Sunday morning listening is not the only thing that Jesus has saved you to. He doesn’t just save us from sin, he saves us to a life of service. How can we begin to show your faith through our service?
    Church, there is another subtle theme going on here that we should point out. Who do we let into the kingdom? Who do we want to be filling our church? This section of Matthew shows Jesus’s love for the marginalized people. The outcasts. The ones looked down on. The ones easily overlooked. The ones who are quickly forgotten.
    We want Hope Church be a place where all people are welcome. The Rambunctious children. The people with physical and mental illnesses. The people that struggle with sin, and maybe serious sins that make us uncomfortable. The people who are looked down upon. Messy situations.
    Jesus comes to save people from east to west, all kinds of people, bringing them to God.
    Who do we invite to church? Who do we welcome into church? The people we think deserve it? Or all people from east to west.
    In this season of Advent, Jesus’s coming, he came all the way from heaven to earth, from the comfortable to the uncomfortable. Surely, if Jesus came that far for us, we can walk up to people across the aisle and welcome them and tell them we are glad they are here with us.
    Let’s bow our heads and close our eyes as we respond the text together. Pray with me if you would like.
    Father, thank you for sending Jesus to cleanse me of sin.
    Jesus, help me to submit to your authority in every aspect of my life.
    Spirit, reveal to me the areas of my life I need to conform to the teaching of Jesus.

      • Matthew 1:1ESV

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