Day 9, Matthew 9 
It is so obvious only a theologian could miss it!
Today we read four major stories about people who
were healed by Jesus, and all were healed through
faith (Matt. 9:2, 22, 29; Luke 8:50). Apart from
faith they would not have been healed, even though
it was clearly Jesus' will for them to be healed
due to the fact that He healed them. So when people
piously say, "God is sovereign, and so if it's
His will for me to be healed, He'll heal me, regardless
of what I do," they display their ignorance
of simple biblical truth, even if they hold doctorates
in theology. Had the people we read about today adopted
that same attitude, none of them would have been
healed. They were healed because they believed that
Jesus would heal them.
Additionally, they didn't believe Jesus would heal
them "someday, in His time, when it was His
will." They believed He would heal them very
soon. The paralytic man believed Jesus would heal
him when he was lowered into the room with Jesus.
The woman with the hemorrhage believed she would
be healed when she touched Jesus. The two blind men
believed they would be healed when Jesus touched
them. The synagogue official believed Jesus would
resurrect and heal his daughter when He laid His
hand on her. We should learn from their examples.
Jesus said, "All things for which you pray and
ask, believe that you have received them,
and they will be granted you" (Mark 11:24, emphasis
added).
I stated yesterday that there is no example
in the four Gospels of Jesus healing an adult solely
in response to another adult's faith. What about
today's story of the paralytic lowered though the
roof by four of his friends? We read, "Jesus,
seeing their faith..." (9:2).
Certainly, all four men, as well as the paralytic,
had faith, as demonstrated by their actions. If the
paralytic had not had faith, he would not have cooperated
with his four friends, and when Jesus told him, "Rise,
take up your bed, and go home," he would have
laid there, not believing such a thing was possible.
So we see that his four friends believed with him,
but not for him, that is, apart
from his own faith. You and I cannot overpower another
person's unbelief by our faith. For example, what
if I said to an atheist, "I know that you don't
believe in Jesus, but I'm going to have faith for
you so you'll be forgiven and go to heaven"?
Would my faith save him? No, he must believe for
himself. So it is with divine healing.
But notice that the faith of the synagogue official
(see Luke 8:50) brought his daughter back to life
and cured her of what killed her. Thus we see that
parents can use their faith on behalf of their children
for healing, at least up to a certain age.
Why did Jesus first tell the paralytic man that
his sins were forgiven? Perhaps because he was doubting
Jesus would heal him due to his sins. Once you know
God has forgiven you, it is much easier to believe
that He'll heal you (see Jas. 5:14-15). Another good
lesson.
When I read the brief story of Jesus calling Matthew,
I often wonder how many other people heard Jesus
say to them as He walked by, "Follow Me!", but
who watched Him walk off into the distance. Luke's
Gospel tells us that Matthew "left everything
behind, and rose up and began to follow Him" (Luke
5:28). That gives us some understanding of why Matthew
was later chosen to be among the twelve. He said
goodbye to his dishonest and greedy lifestyle.
When Jesus made the statement that the harvest is
plentiful, there were an estimated 200 million people
living on planet Earth. Today there are thirty-five
times that many, close to seven billion people. Truly
the harvest is even more plentiful than ever before,
and the need for workers is much greater than ever
before. Perhaps one-third of the world's people have
never heard Jesus' name a single time! Pray that
the Lord will send more laborers, adding, "Lord,
send me!"
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