Matthew 9:18-34 Faith Confused - Sermon Summary

This past Sunday Nick preached through Matthew 9:18-34, continuing through our Matthew Series. This section is exciting with several healings back to back, a woman healed from chronic bleeding, a girl raised from the dead, two blind men given sight, and a demon possessed mute being freed from his oppression and regaining his speech. All of these stories can be exciting but also confusing for a modern reader. Why were there so many healings based on faith, and yet healings are not prevalent, let alone consistent from our perspective today? Nick pointed out that healings are a means to an end with the intention of drawing people in to know Him more. Also in the context of the New Testament, as one commentary explains, Jesus’ “miracles generally all were for the purpose of authenticating His claims. Jesus came primarily for spiritual healing, not physical healing.” And that spiritual healing is a herald for the coming of the Kingdom of heaven, a renewed spiritual kingdom in the hearts of all who believe. 

This was made evident when Jesus was questioned about who He was by John the Baptist in particular. 

Matthew 11:2–6 (ESV)
2 Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” 4 And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. 6 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

Jesus healing and preaching hope to the hopeless, while great, point to the reality that Jesus is the Messiah, coming to redeem His people and reconcile them back to Himself. The Bottom Line from Nick’s message Sunday was “May our motivation for the supernatural, in Jesus name, always be for the Gospel.” More than anything what the Lord wants to do for us is grow our faith, which speaks to an eternal need, not a temporal situation. Of course we still pray for physical healing and relief from frustrations in this life, but in all situations may we, as the Apostle Paul did, focus on knowing nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2), because our faith is not dependent on what we get in this life, but who we are and who we are becoming. And in faith, as disciples, we are adopted sons and daughters of the King, being made new in the image of Jesus.