There is a song that is often sung as part of our worship service, “I want to see Jesus, I want to see Him high and lifted up”. Well, I have decided that the best way to show you Jesus, is to look at His activities while here on this ball we call “earth”. In showing you Jesus, you will see His Father and my Father. I am going to go through the gospels and paint a collage. I am going to count for you each time Jesus is presented an opportunity to heal and see His response. We will start in Matthew. I don’t know how long this will take; but, I’ve got lots of time. Here goes!
In Matthew 4, Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness, fasting. That’s a long time! What happens next? His Father must be very pleased with His Son. Everything is going to be rosy! NOT!! Jesus is confronted with Satan. Satan tempts Jesus, with what might seem to most of us, as a kind of petty temptation, turn stones into bread. What’s wrong with that? But, Satan was asking Jesus to prove himself: “If you are the Son of God? Tempting Him to doubt whether if HE really was the Son of God. Was His Father really Jehovah-Jireh? Will He really provide food for you? Just like Satan did to Eve. Planting seeds of doubt. The second temptation was tempting Jesus to doubt His Father’s protection! Will your Father really protect you? Is He really Jehovah-Nissi, the Lord your Banner? Can He overcome gravity? The last temptation tempted Jesus to doubt the work that His Father had entrusted to Him. Adam had been given this earth initially and told to:
“Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. 30Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so doubt His”.
Adam surrendered this dominion over to Satan when he sinned. In John 12:31, Satan is referred to as “ruler of this world” and in 2 Corinthians he is referred to as “god of this world”. Jesus knew that eventually, after He had completed His job on this earth that His Father would seat
“Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And …put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”
Satan was offering Jesus a shortcut, an easy way out to avoid the cross.
Was Jesus going to take His Father at His Word? Did He have to see His Father do something to prove His “Fatherliness”? Was he going to pull a doubting Thomas? It would have been so easy! But then, it would not have been walking by faith!
Do you need to withdraw cash from your ATM in order to believe that there is really money in your account? Or, do you just accept by faith that the money is there when you need it? Do you need to check it first? Maybe my pin number is wrong! Does God’s Word really mean what it says? Maybe I better check it out just to make sure it works. Sure would not want to find out it doesn’t work when I am at the end of my rope! Do you test God or take Him at his Word?
How did respond to each temptation? By speaking the Word to Satan.
Immediately following this, He called Peter, Andrew, James and John to follow Him to make them fishers of men. How were they supposed to accomplish this? They did not have a church building! No sound system! Why would people come to them? Jesus said the “Kingdom of heaven is at hand”. What does that mean? We know how to fish for fish; but how to we fish for men?
Jesus showed them:
“And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. 24Then His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them. 25Great multitudes followed Him—from Galilee, and from Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.”
The first word picture of Jesus is a picure of the gospel of this kingdom, Jesus healing ALL the sick people who were brought to Him:
“healing…various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics”.
He was the first general practitioner.
Example #1 of Jehovah-Rapha!!!
DO YOU KNOW HIM?
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