Sermon Tone Analysis

CIT: In order to be a faithful disciple we must recognize and submit to Jesus’s authority in all areas of our lives.

Jesus has authority over our physical lives

Jesus has authority over our spiritual lives

Jesus has authority over our physical lives

Jesus cleansed the unclean

When Jesus came down the mountain, after preaching his Sermon on the Mount, he is approached by a leper (someone who has a horrible skin disease)

Levitical law states that anyone with leprosy is to be sent out of the camp and is considered unclean.

Leviticus 13:45-46 ““The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’

He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease.

He is unclean.

He shall live alone.

His dwelling shall be outside the camp.”

***Anyone who touches someone with leprosy is also considered unclean***

See the faith of this leper, he does not ask Jesus to heal him, he recognizes Jesus’s authority “if you will, you can make me clean” and he submits to it “Lord,”

Jesus then does the unthinkable, he stretched out his hand and TOUCHED the leper, this should make Jesus unclean but what truly happens is that it makes the leper clean.

By coming into contact with Jesus the unclean is made clean!

Do you see how Matthew is foreshadowing the cross in this miracle?! 2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Jesus healed the ethnically outcast

After Jesus left the place of the Sermon on the Mount he entered into the city Capernaum, which is at 11 o’clock on the sea of Galilee, and a Roman Centurion came to him asking for Jesus to heal his servant.

____ notices 7 surprises in this section.

A centurion approaches Jesus.

Not only is this man a Gentile, meaning he was not part of the chosen people of God, but he was also a high ranking leader in the Roman military, the empire that is currently oppressing the chosen people of God.

The centurion who is required to worship Caesar as “lord” calls Jesus “Lord” twice.

(Matt.

8:6, 8)

This centurion is making a request on behalf of his servant.

In this cultural context servants were treated as less than human

Jesus tells the centurion, “I will come and heal him” meaning that first, Jesus does not need to take a look at the person to know his authority over sickness, and second, that Jesus is willing to enter the home of a Gentile, which is a major cultural no-no for a 1st century Jew.

The centurion says no to Jesus coming into his house.

Why?

Because he feels that he is unworthy to have Jesus come into his house.

Do you see the humility there?

The centurion tells Jesus that all he has to do is say the word and his servant will be healed.

This centurion recognized Jesus’s authority and submitted to it.

Jesus’s controversial statements in reaction to the wonderful faith of a Gentile military oppressor.

Matt.

8:11-12 “I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness.

In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.””

Jesus tells the people around him, primarily Jewish people who had just learned about how to enter into the Kingdom of God, that even the super religious - ex. a Pharisee - will be cast out if they do not recognize and submit to Jesus’s authority.

But, this Gentile military officer who is oppressing the Jewish people, is in because of his faith.

Jesus restores the culturally marginalized

Jesus then goes into Peter’s mother-in-law’s house who is currently sick.

Again, just like with leprosy, people who are sick are unclean, and to touch someone who is unclean is to become unclean yourself.

But not only that, in that day women were treated as second class citizens.

But Jesus pushes back against this and heals Peter’s mother-in-law with a simple touch on her hand.

And then people began to bring sick and demon oppressed people to Jesus to be healed.

And Jesus in his grace healed all of them.

Recognize what Matthew is telling us in these three miracles, that Jesus has ultimate authority over our physical bodies, and his healing of the religious outcast foreshadows his healing of our spiritual lives through his substitutionary death on the cross.

And by simple faith in him, just like that leper and centurion, we are counted as disciples of Christ, and if you are a disciple of Christ he has authority of your spiritual life.

Jesus has authority over our spiritual lives

We must count the cost of discipleship

A scribe comes up to Jesus and says, Teacher, I’ll follow you wherever you go.”

But Jesus sees through the scribe’s pride.

This is because the scribe does not know who he’s talking to or what he’s talking about

Who: Jesus is not merely some teacher like that scribe, he is the Son of Man, the divine conquerer from the throne of God, he is, as the leper and centurion proclaimed, Lord.

What: Jesus has forsaken all that he has, a seat at the right hand of the Father, and is going straight to the cross.

You must count the cost of becoming a true disciple of Christ.

You must ask yourself, do you know Jesus as Lord or just as some teacher?

You must ask yourself, are you willing to forsake EVERYTHING to follow Jesus?

We must be fully committed in our discipleship

After the scribe a disciple comes up to Jesus and says that he will follow him after he has buried his father, but Jesus says to “let the dead bury their dead”

Now, there’s a lot to these two verses and if you would like to get into the weeds of this section ask me afterwards, but to simplify these two verses down this “disciple” has a struggle with idolatry that will not allow himself to be fully committed to Jesus.

Jesus’s statement is telling this disciple that in order to truly follow Christ he must be fully committed.

You must be fully committed as a disciple of Christ.

Ask yourself, is there something in my life that is preventing me from being fully committed to Christ?

Because Jesus has taken our unrighteousness and given us righteousness on the cross, just like he cleansed the unclean and brought in the outcast, we must recognize and submit to Jesus’s authority by faith.

And if you submit to his authority by faith, you must be willing to forsake everything and be fully committed to Christ.