Bible Study 10 10 2014

The Power of Jesus                                   Bible Study  October 10, 2014

In the past two months, we have been discussing how Jesus presented the life we should seek to live in the Kingdom of God.  He began in Matthew 5:17, “Repent…” and finished His Sermon on the Mount in 7:12 with the sum of the law- The Golden Rule.  He then went on to live what he taught, was hated by those in control of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, and those same people killed Him as he threatened their comfortable life.

The 7^th chapter finished with stating how the people listening to Jesus were “amazed’ with His teachings as He taught with ‘authority’.  Have you ever been amazed with a professor and how that person taught with great authority in his field of learning?  We must remember that Jesus taught with first knowledge of how and why the world was created.  Jesus was there in the beginning when God created the world.  Jesus is, in part, God, an element of the Trinity God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.  Three in One and at the same time, each One separate in Three.  This Trinity is a mystery that full understanding will come in our Resurrection.

Today we move into Chapter 8 and

see the Power of Jesus

Matthew 8: 5-17      The Faith of the Centurion        Lk 7:1-10

5  When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help.

6  "Lord," he said, "my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering."

7  Jesus said to him, "I will go and heal him."

8  The centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.

9  For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."

10 When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, "I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.

11  I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.

12  But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

13  Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go! It will be done just as you believed it would." And his servant was healed at that very hour.

Commentary-
Verse 5&6-  Centurions were military officers in charge of about 100 men.  This was not small position.  He was a man of prestige and power. He represented the backbone, the very foundation of Roman Power.  Yet, this man comes to Jesus for help and addresses Jesus as ‘Lord’.  Capernaum was a town with an important Roman garrison.  The soldiers were likely gentile.  But, somehow, this leader knew the power of Jesus over his paralyzed man.  Too, the Centurion shows compassion for his servant.  It would have been easy to release the servant and find another servant.  So here is an important, unclean, Gentile, soldier showing compassion and respect for a servant,  and respect to the greatest Servant of all.

Verse 7  By saying He will go heal the Centurions son, Jesus shows disregard for the old Law of dealing with Gentiles.  No Jewish priest would have helped the Centurion because of restriction in the OT Law dealing with unclean Gentiles.

Verse 8/9  The  respectful and humble Centurion was clearly aware of the OT Law when he commented he was unworthy.  But, just look at his faith in Jesus!  He tells Jesus to just speak and the servant would be healed!!! 
Here is a man of great authority as presented in verse 9, a man that knows of the power of the spoken word.  No doubt, this Centurion understood the power of Jesus and the spoken word. 

We too must remember the power of speaking as seen in Genesis 1.   “And God said…”

Verse 10  Look at Jesus’ expressed astonishment and amazement as this is the same word used in our study last week in verse 7:28.  Then we have a major theme of Matthew in the comment by Jesus, “I tell you the truth.”  This is recorded 30 times in Matthew NIV.  Remember these words ‘amaze’ and ‘astonish’ we find in the NT, are very special.  It is words that mean to ‘see or hear the totally unexpected.  This is the only time we see the word used to describe Jesus’ reaction to someone he meets.

Remember too, the words “I tell you the truth’, when we read these words, we need to pay attention to what Jesus is about to say!

Verses 11&12  This is a reference to The Messianic Banquet prophesied in the Old Testament, Isaiah 15:6-9.  This is a way that the writer is connecting what the reader of Jesus’ day knew about the prophecy of the Old Testament.   The Messianic banquet was a union of the Jewish patriarchs of old (leaders of old) with the people of Israel present day, and the Gentiles from all corners of the earth.  The Jews thought they would be the only ones in attendance at this banquet.  Jesus with these two verses is expanding the attendance to the banquet.

This was a great shock to the Jews.  Admittance would be by faith, not just Jewish descendents of Abraham, the father of all Jews.

Verse 13.  Here we see the power of Jesus across distance.  Jesus heals the servant immediately even though the man is not in Jesus’ presence.  Again, this would be an amazing incident for the people of Jesus’ day.  But, we understand Jesus.

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I go to John 1: 1-3,14.  The Gospel of John 1 is so very powerful and shows us the power of Jesus in its greatest light!

The Gospel of John, Chapter 1
The Word Became Flesh

1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 

2 He was with God in the beginning. 

3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The write John, a disciple of Jesus, had a unique position to know Jesus.  In this John shares with us great and important information about Jesus.

What, so very important an amazing do you read in verse 3 and verse 14. 

In understanding verse 3 and 14, Jesus was from the beginning and part of the creative force in the universe.  We should not be amazed at His ability to heal from a distance.

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You must understand here- The ‘Word’ referenced in verse 1, is identified to be Jesus in verse 14!
So, if Jesus created with His word, so to he could heal with His word. 

Thanks be to God