Sermons

“Heaven’s Home” – Matthew 8:14-17

Intro: To catch us back up, Matthew offers a series of healings (cf. Mt. 8). 

• There are reasons for that.

 

• We are learning more and more about Jesus.
  • Verses 1-4, Jesus heals a man with leprosy.
  • Verses 5-13, Jesus heals the Centurion’s servant.

 

• Now in our text, Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law.
  • Triggering an all-night healing
  • Heaven comes down on this cottage where the whole city floods in for Jesus’ touch.  

Whom Jesus heals and how Jesus heals, tells us about the Lord. 

• When Jesus heals:
  • We learn about his authority over all
  • We learn about his compassion for every

 

• Matthew’s emphasis here is Jesus’ full integrity.
  • Healing anyone, anywhere.
  • To keep healing to care for everyone, coming.

Jesus heals privately and publicly. 

• A leper who by the law’s standards was ceremonially unclean.
• A Centurion’s servant, a Gentile, under Rome, loving a servant, with no status.
• [Point] A woman, Peter’s mother-in-law, easily passed over.

 

Male Jews every morning was pray: “Lord, I thank Thee that I was not born a slave, a Gentile, or a woman.” 

• None of these categories meant anything to Jesus.
  • Jesus was not at his best in public and at his worst in private.
    • He poured out love and power.
    • He was no respecter of persons.

 

• The ultimate servant with FULL integrity.

There will be ongoing discussions regarding sickness, death and with Covid vaccinations.  Dealing with the reality of the unknown is what makes people so uneasy. 

• The sense of helplessness about feeling safe from death.
• On people’s minds.

 

Believers have confidence in Jesus that no one else has.

• Jesus offers everyone the guaranteed cure, not for Covid (or any disease) for that matter.
  • Jesus offers the cure for the cause of Covid.
  • Heals everyone who truly cries out to solve everyone’s deep need.
    • The cause of everything that is wrong with you, the world.
    • He heals our hearts from sin.

       

• This guarantee is our Lord’s FULL integrity.

 “What do you want more than this?”

• Physical security, health, money?

Answering Why is solving the cause more important than solving the effect?

• Sin is the cause, and the disease is the effect.
  • If your sins are not solved in this life, then your physical healing will not be solved in the next.
    • Life is short and brief. A vapor.
    • Ask anyone in their 60’s or 70’s. Life is short. Then what?

 

• People have broken lives ensconced in broken bodies.

 

Jesus possesses the love, compassion, authority, and power to offer to all, immediately, the solution for man’s deepest need.  Forgiveness.  His integrity is what makes this an Guarantee!   

Culture and politics will lie.  Jesus will never lie. 

 

This emphasis is found in our text titled: “Heaven’s home”

 

Jesus brought heaven to this home by two modes of healing

 1. A private healing (vv. 14-15)

Jesus “entered Peter’s house” meaning Peter had a place he lived and a wife. 

• A full house.
  • Mark’s calls it “the house of Simon and Andrew” so at least that many (cf. Mk. 1:29ff).
    • Peter had responsibility for his mother-in-law, probably widowed.
    • Think commercial fisherman in Capernaum, off sea of Galilee.

 

• Cottage, a base of operations for Jesus.
• Jesus who did not own a home.   

As an Apostle, Peter was married. 

• The Roman Catholic Church requires celibacy for Popes and Priests in the line of Peter.
• Peter contradicts this precedent.

^ESV  1 Corinthians 9:5 ^aDo we not have the right to take along a believing wife,¹ as do the other apostles and ^bthe brothers of the Lord and ^cCephas?

 

Clement of Alexandria said Peter’s wife was martyred with Peter.  Before Peter’s eyes. 

 

There is spontaneity with Jesus’ encounter with Peter’s mother-in-law. 

• Jesus entered the house and “he saw” her “lying sick with a fever” (v. 14).
  • The severity was unexpected.
  • Luke the doctor, called it a mega-fever, “high fever.”

 

• When temperatures are this high, you go to the ER.
• People did not lie down with a cold like today.
• You had to be going down to be in this state.

The “disease” was synonymous with fever.  Type undisclosed.

• Anemia, Typhoid, Malta, were common.
  • Malaria with mosquitos and marsh was prevalent.
  • No anti-biotics
  • Nothing to help, like we have today.

 

• Scientists, like Edward Jenner invented the first vaccine for smallpox in 1796 and then Lewis Pasteur invented the rabies vaccine not util 1885.

She was in bad shape, at death’s door, when Jesus found her. 

• Mark says, Simon [Peter] and Andrew, with James and John (cf. Mk. 1:29) came in with Jesus.
• Luke adds, “they appealed to him on her behalf” (Lk. 4:38).
• Mark says, “immediately they told him about her” (cf. Mk. 1:30).
  • This was dire and urgent.
  • Peter would not have left her in this condition.

Back to the integrity of the Lord. 

• Jesus had just left synagogue on Sabbath, from preaching and teaching.
  • Jesus’ ministry was labor-intensive.
  • Jesus had just rebuked a demon, not to mention healing along the way (cf. Mk 1:21-28).
    • Every healing and every deliverance came at a physical cost.
      • Remember the woman with a hemorrhage where Jesus felt power leaving him.
      • Ministry demanded strength.

 

• Jesus with no crowd to observe did not let up.

 

• He “stood over her”, “touched her”, “took her by the hand” and “rebuked the fever” and “the fever left her” (v. 15).    

 

The Lord’s integrity was fueled with compassion. 

• Not a nuisance nor too small a thing for Jesus to heal in this cottage.
  • Jesus, “saw his mother-in-law” (v. 14).
    • Providentially, by divine appointment, where Jesus had been specifically led to.
    • There to meet this need.
    • Neither anticipated nor mobbed by anonymous people.

 

• Peter’s mother-in-law was there infirmed by our fallen world and under the effects of being born in a fallen condition.

When sick, you are struck by the effects of sin but usually you are not responsible for making yourself sick but falling prey to sickness. 

• Her sickness was life altering and consuming.
• Fighting to survive.
  • “Lying” down meaning she was incapacitated.
  • Fighting to self-regulate what she could not otherwise cure.

For an undisclosed reason, Jesus reached out and “touched her hand.” 

• He did not need to touch her.
  • The Centurion’s slave.
  • “Touching” a woman was breaking cultural norms.

 

• Not normal procedure.
• Ceremonially unclean because of her fever.
• Jesus made clean.

Jesus is the fulfillment of this Law, sanctifier and healer and the picture of heaven. 

• In heaven, no more sickness.
  • Heaven came to this woman by grace.
    • Touched and healed.
    • Touching her hand was heaven’s grace.

 

• When Jesus heals, it is always immediate and comprehensive.
  • No recovery time necessary.
    • Not getting over mono.
    • She had the strength she had had before, yet this is still a temporal healing.

 

• She was still affected by the curse.

 

• This was a temporary reset.

 

When he touched her the power of Jesus to heal was enacted. 

“…she rose and began to serve him” (v. 15). 

• Other accounts say, she arose to serve them.
  • Matthew’s emphasis is her heart to serve Jesus.
    • She served others but was serving Christ.
    • Her focus, her calling, where she sought to invest herself.

 

• “She was saved to serve” [Barclay].  

We too should see our Savior as one who comes into our home and sees our infirmities and heals our broken state, helps our weaknesses, and raises us to serve him. 

• The idea that you are healed to serve Christ is instructive.
  • We serve Christ.
  • When we serve Christ, we will serve others.

 

• The immediacy of this woman serving is the priority of serving, using gifts and talents and strength for the Lord.

 

 “How do we know Peter’s mother-in-law was genuinely sick to the point of death?” 

• When word got out, that she was healed, everyone showed up for the same!

 

• Mark says, “the whole city was gathered at the door” (cf. Mk. 1:33). Thousands!

 2. A public healing (vv. 15-16)

Is this any more or less humble for Jesus to heal a crowd in front of a crowd as it was for Jesus to heal a woman virtually in front of no one? 

• The Integrity of Jesus Humility is first in attitude not action.
  • Jesus had integrity to keep going.
    • By the extra-measure of the Holy Spirit.
      • Word got out that Jesus had healed someone there.
      • An extraordinary event!
      • Once in a lifetime happening.
      • Highly sought after by everyone.

 

• Covid highlights this same population survival instinct.

 

• People wanted Jesus to save them from death and demons.

 

The masses held superstitious beliefs about the Law. 

• Profaning the Sabbath was serious.

^ESV  Exodus 31:14 You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. ^aWhoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.

It was the Sabbath and Jesus had been healing on the Sabbath. 

• Rebuking an unclean spirit in the synagogue and doing what was forbidden by law.
  • The Jews interpreted the law to say you could not lift more than two figs or you were working.
    • You could help someone, dying, not die.
    • You were forbidden to do anything that day to make them better.

 

• None of this mattered to Jesus.
  • Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath.
    • He is Sabbath’s rest.
    • Rest from the cause of the curse of sickness, from the pains of labor.

 

• Their vision was obscured the freedom found in Jesus.
  • Nevertheless, pressed toward him.
    • Luke says, “the sun was setting” (cf. Lk. 4:40).
    • They did not have clocks, so tradition said, when two stars appeared in the sky, Sabbath is over.

So, that “evening they brought him many…oppressed by demons…and…all who were sick” (v. 16).      

Peter’s home was an unparalleled event in deliverance and healings, heaven came down! 

• Why I call this heaven’s home.
  • A portal.
  • Casting out demons, healing everyone, likened Jesus’ transfiguration.

 

• This was a three-year concentration of Jesus’ episodes of healing people.
  • Jesus’ healings mentioned 90x in the Bible when you include the ministry of 70 disciples and 12 Apostles.
  • There are 37 accounts recorded of Jesus’ miracles.

 

• Jesus chose very particular locations with potency and purpose to create windows to show what heaven is like.
  • What the kingdom will be like.
    • Not vague undiagnosable maladies but dramatic recoveries.
    • Not the only thing Jesus did, but this is heaven.

Verse 16 says that this woman’s healing spawned a movement. 

• Jesus had “entered Peter’s house” perhaps that morning and by “evening” “they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons” and “[Jesus] cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick” (v. 16).

“What does it mean to be oppressed by demons?” 

• Cruel torment.
• Controlled bodily.
• Demons speaking through them.
• Thrown into convulsions, violence, made mute.

 

Demonic oppression is both physical and spiritual. 

• They promote false teaching and doubt.
  • Identified as “spirits” to be cast out, literally “thrown out of people.”
  • Like healing, fully effective and immediate.
    • Demons exposed because Christ was present.
  • Heaven on earth meant expulsion.

Demonic oppression is real binding people from God. 

• Deliverance is always through Word-ministry.
  • Not counterfeits for Word-ministry.
  • People speaking other things and do nothing to the demons.

 

• The Word of Christ counteracts demonic fortresses.

^ESV  2 Corinthians 10:5 We destroy arguments and ^aevery lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to ^bobey Christ

 

Demons, once cast out, were not permitted to speak (cf. Mk. 1:34). 

According to Luke were crying out:

^ESV  Luke 4:41 ^aAnd demons also came out of many, ^bcrying, “You are ^cthe Son of God!” But he rebuked them and ^awould not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was ^fthe Christ.

 “What is this about?” 

• Jesus does not want a demon-endorsement because he does not want people to adopt demon-faith.

 

• Half faith is no faith!

 

• Satan’s number one tactic to ensure people will not believe is to get them to half-believe.

^ESV  James 2:19 ^aYou believe that God is one; you do well. Even ^bthe demons believe–and shudder!

• Why Paul rebuked the slave girl.

^ESV  Acts 16:17-18 She followed Paul and us, ^acrying out, “These men are ^bservants¹ of ^cthe Most High God, who proclaim to you ^dthe way of salvation.” ¹⁸ And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, ^a“I command you ^bin the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And ^cit came out that very hour.

Why there is the Messianic secret where Jesus heals people and tells them not to tell anyone. 

• Jesus’ fame would spread but this was not positive.
  • Jesus hushed this kind of hype.
  • When Christianity is touted as taking back America be warned.
  • Demon-faith.

 

• Exactly what Jesus does not want you to believe in and Satan does want you to believe in!
  • Inspiration comes to natural minds to want to make it all good here again.
    • Placing our hope in our final 25 years.
    • To make it better for grandkids with no concern for their souls.

 

• You do not need Jesus for this kind of half-faith.
  • Moral faith.
  • Inspirational social reform.
  • Easily disguised as real commitment, when all it is, is demon-faith.

 

• Why we separate from false “do-good”

^ESV  2 John 1:10-11 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, ^ado not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, ¹¹ for whoever greets him ^atakes part in his wicked works. (2Jo 1:10-11 ESV)    

Jesus’ healing promise is fulfilled in heaven. 

• Healings on earth foreshadow heaven.
  • Peter’s house was Heaven’s Home!
  • This home was a portal to heaven, for an evening.

 

• An evening in heaven!

With a “word” you enter heaven. 

• “with a word” Jesus tells you well done and enter in.
• “with a word” Jesus heals all who enter.

“Will you enter this woman’s home?” 

• Jesus “healed all who were sick” meaning everyone.
• Jesus healed as no respecter of persons.
  • Everyone throughout the entire evening.
  • Hundreds? Thousands? 

 

• All comprehensively healed and everyone
  • This is the glimpse into divine glory, into heaven.
  • A vision of future kingdom.
  • Disease is banished forever.

Heaven will be better than Peter’s home. 

• Even being healed was not guarantee they would not experience worse disease later before they died.
  • Demons were banished but Satan would still be tempting believers throughout their lifetime.
    • Greater is he who is in you, but he is still lurking in the world.
    • Still to be resisted.
    • Arrows still to be extinguished.

Heaven was here in this this small cottage. 

• A small corner of the world, yes.
  • But the saving message of Jesus affects the entire world!
  • All comers secure this promise of salvation.

^ESV  Revelation 21:1-4 Then I saw ^aa new heaven and a new earth, for ^bthe first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.² And I saw ^athe holy city, ^bnew Jerusalem, ^ccoming down out of heaven from God, ^dprepared ^eas a bride adorned for her husband.³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, ^athe dwelling place¹ of God is with man. He will ^bdwell with them, and they will be his people,² and God himself will be with them as their God.^{34 a}He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and ^bdeath shall be no more, ^cneither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

 

The reference to Isaiah solidifies what Jesus was doing. 

• Jesus provides physical cure to point out that he is the spiritual cure.
  • He cures the cause not merely the effect.
  • He cures the cause, sin!

Do not dismiss Christ’s outpouring of love, grace, and sympathy. 

• Literally carrying, literally illnesses, and diseases, and through this night, through his ministry here.

THEN/NOW for all comers. 

• Physical healing is not the point!
• Never the end in and of itself.

 

• Modern faith-healers trick to get money!
  • “It’s always about the money”
  • 2 Peter where false teachers have “eyes full of greed!”

Jesus’ physical outpouring represents his saving outpouring. 

• Not expect healing on demand.
  • Only one thing is guaranteed for everyone.
    • 100% guarantee that you will die.
    • Unless raptured.   

Isaiah’s prophesy, “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases” (v. 17). 

• “How long did it take to fulfill this promise?”
  • Not pragmatic.
    • Millions died from terrible infirmities and yet for this evening they escaped.
    • Injustices we will not understand.

 

• We are like children watching or parents make decisions that appear to make no sense at all.

 

• Yet this promise was fulfilled and fulfilled exactly when it was supposed to be, so it could explain the meaning of the Gospel.

 

• Jesus “took our illnesses and bore our diseases” means Jesus would go to the Cross and die for our sins.

 

• The point of Isaiah 53.

^ESV  Galatians 3:13 Christ ^aredeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us–for it is written, ^bc“Cursed is everyone who is hanged ^con a tree”

^ESV  1 Peter 2:24 ^aHe himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we ^bmight die to sin and ^clive to righteousness. ^dBy his wounds you have been healed.

Jesus healed all comers proving himself to be the cure for the world’s curse. 

• Everyone in this world is under the curse of sin and in need of saving grace.
  • The ultimate cure for every demon and every sickness comes from the One who cures the curse.
    • The woman’s home was Heaven’s Home at least on this evening.
      • No magic there.
      • A was Savior there.

 

• A Savior who lives in your home, to cure the cause of your demons and disease with Grace.

 

• Grace secured when “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.” The CROSS

 

Conclusion: One more application. 

• As believers we get a real foretaste of heaven’s home in the church.

 

• Gathering locally since Pentecost the Spirit resides within his church.
• Jesus is here as our Head and here he heals hearts through his Body.

 

• The emphasis in healing is hearts.

Everything, has been about man’s state of heart, so healing is understood primarily within the scope of someone’s heart. 

• “How does Jesus heal within this home called the church?”
  • He binds up and heals the broken hearted when we confess our sins to each other.
    • With prayer and encouragement.
    • Giving promises that apply to your failing and downcast spirit.

 

• He makes you whole within his Body that you are a part of.

 

• This is Jesus’ ongoing healing ministry as we enter in fellowship by the Holy Spirit on Sunday mornings.

Interestingly, when Peter’s mother-in-law was healed, she served. 

• Is not this the pattern we should follow in the church?
  • We come in, destitute with infirmed spirits from our sins.
  • Then we encounter Christ, refreshed, propels, into full service to Christ.

Our fevers leave, we rise and serve Jesus, serving Christ’s body. 

• Isaiah ties together (cf. v. 17).

 

• Jesus’ death would not merely be solving something like Covid, but sin’s curse! 

 

Heaven on earth comes:

When we share this message of Grace.

What cures the cause of everything wrong with you.

What cures everything wrong in this world.