This past Sunday we heard a good teaching presented to us. We were definately blessed by the time and care given to present that which was presented. But there were a couple of things that my husband and I heard that did not quite "gel" in our spirit from what we knew of Scriptures. Sunday night the Holy Spirit led me to look up some Scriptures pertaining to the topic given and I knew that I was to do a study on it. Not being able to sleep I got up and did it that night. This is what I found to be in God's Word in regards to the topics that we questioned. I hope you are blessed by the study and we would encourage you to search the Scriptures to find God's view on different issues, especially those the Holy Spirit brings to you attention as being not in alignment with His Word. God bless!
Did Jesus ALWAYS Preach Before Healing People?
1) Jesus heals a centurion’s servant - Matthew 8:5-13
It appears Jesus had just entered Capernaum when the centurion came to Him. Did he preach to the centurion before consenting to heal this man’s servant? That does not appear to be the case according to this account in Scripture.
2) Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law - Matthew 8:14-15
Did Jesus preach to Peter’s mother-in-law before healing her of the fever? Scripture makes it clear that He went inside Peter’s home and upon seeing her lying sick with the fever just touched her hand and she was made whole.
3) Jesus heals two demon-possessed men - Matthew 8:28-32
In this account Jesus meets up with two demon-possessed men. No mention of Jesus preaching to them or to others prior to His meeting up with them. As a matter of fact, the men didn’t even ask to be healed by Jesus. The demons in them did ask to be cast into the herd of swine IF Jesus was going to cast them out.
4) Jesus heals a paralytic - Matthew 9:1-7
We see no mention of Jesus preaching before healing this paralytic. What is most interesting here is that we see no mention of this paralytic ASKING for healing nor of FORGIVENESS but Jesus does both!!!
5) A girl is restored to life by Jesus and a woman is healed by touching Jesus’ garment. Matthew 9:18-25
Jesus is sitting at a table talking and many others come in join Him (Matthew 10-11) when a ruler came and worshipped Him, asking Jesus to come heal his daughter who had just died. Jesus might have been sharing the gospel to the people as He sat around the table but it sounded more like He was answering questions put to Him.
And the woman with the issue of blood surely had not been listening to Jesus preach as He walked with the ruler to his house. Surely she must have heard accounts of Jesus healing others and her faith in His ability to heal her sent her on a quest to 'but touch the hem' of His garment. It was not necessarily that Jesus preached a good word that sent people to follow after Him. It is very possible that people sought Jesus out because of what He did rather than what He had to say. Look at Matthew 9:26, after Jesus raised the girl from the dead, "And the report of this went out into all that land."
6) Jesus heals two blind men - Matthew 9:27-29
From Scripture it appears that Jesus had just departed from the ruler’s house after raising the girl from the dead and two blind men followed Him. Surely Jesus wasn’t preaching then. But what He had done at the ruler’s house was now known to the blind men and they cried out for mercy, following Jesus into the house (we can only assume it is His house) and Jesus heals them - no word preached but the Living Word is being who He is, the Healer at this point.
Again, we see how the news of Jesus’ healing abilities are being spread about the land (Matthew 9:31), right to where it brings us to His next healing…
7) Jesus heals a mute and demon-possessed man - Matthew 9:32-33
Right after the two blind men are healed and go out, another man is brought in to Jesus, one who is mute and demon-possessed. There does not appear to be any long time lapse to have gone on for Jesus to preach before this man is brought in.
There are other accounts in Matthew alone that show that Jesus healed without having to preach the gospel before each healing (Matthew 12:9-14, Matthew 12:15, Matthew 15:34-36, Matthew 15:21-28) but these seven are sufficient to show in Scripture that Jesus did not ALWAYS preach before He healed the people. To say otherwise is a misrepresentative of what Scripture shows us. There is no mistake that Jesus did preach to the people and He even told His disciples to do the same but it was not a prerequisite before He brought healing to people. Could it be safe to say that many heard that Jesus healed the sick and so they sought Him out for that alone? That our Lord healed ALL that came to Him shows that He was not asking them to meet a certain criteria before healing would be allowed. How wonderful is our Lord!
Another note that is important to remember, Jesus did not always wait until people asked Him to heal them. There are two accounts in Matthew to show that this statement is not an accurate one according to Scripture. The two accounts are:
1) Matthew 8:28-32 about the two demon-possessed men. This account was mentioned earlier.
2) Matthew 12:9-14, the man with the withered hand. This man did not ask for his hand to be healed, at least it is not stated that he did in Scripture. Rather it is the Pharisees who are questioning Jesus about whether it is lawful or not to heal on the Sabbath. According to Scripture dated before Jesus, it would be unlawful to heal on the Sabbath but Jesus was not bound to Scripture alone but by the wholeness of God’s will and with that, He healed the man’s withered hand. The Pharisees followed the written Scripture to the "t" but Jesus was and is the Living Scripture. We can choose to live by that which is bound in the pages of a book or we can live by the fullness of that "Life". The Holy Spirit is showing it to me this way:
The Written Word of God alone is likened to a man whose body is now confined to a box/coffin. While we know he once had life we can only imagine the fullness of that life. Even from reading or talking to others about his life, we will only get bits and pieces. At best, it is but a partial understanding of this man’s life, his thoughts, his desires.
The Written Word of God along with the Holy Spirit is likened to a man who you grow up with, a dear friend whom you converse with daily. It is a sharing of a life that you are privy to the private and intimate thoughts, hopes, plans, sorrows and joys.
To think that the Written Word contains every detail of our Lord’s heart and His plans, even His workings upon the earth is to make a grievous error. The very last sentence in the Gospels tells us that we do not have the entire works of Jesus written down before us. John 21:25, "And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen." That’s a whole lot of stuff that Jesus did that we have no clue on. What we do know is that Jesus did things contrary to the Written Word in His day. He was a rebel in the eyes of the religious leaders, leaders that the people looked up to for advice and spiritual guidance. Oh, how we need great discernment and the Holy Spirit to lead us and show us what we are to do in this day so that we are not like the religious leaders in the time Jesus walked the earth! Yes, the Lord the same yesterday, today and forever. But to think we know Him as well as we can just through the Scriptures alone is to say that the things He did but are not recorded is unimportant. If they are unimportant then why are they even mentioned in Scripture? Perhaps to let us know that there is more to know of Him and that’s why He sent the Holy Spirit? Something to think about wouldn’t you say?
JESUS SENDS OUT THE TWELVE DISCIPLES
Just as Jesus commissioned the twelve disciples we, too, are commissioned in like manner. Let us read what Jesus said to the twelve regarding preaching when He sent them out in Matthew 10:7-8:
"And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give."
The word "preach" here is the Greek word kerusso and it means "to cry or proclaim as a herald." It is the same word used in Matthew 4:17 - "From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." As a matter of fact this word "preach - (kerusso) is used most of the time in the gospels when "preach" is written. Now, there is another translation for the word "preach" which is the word kataggello which means "to tell thoroughly" and this is often the understanding we have when someone tells us to "preach the gospel.’ As a matter of fact, we see where many pastors feel this is the ONLY way to preach, 'to tell thoroughly'. Do you think they would be surprised to learn that this word for preach, kataggelo, is not found in the gospels at all! The first use of it is found in Acts 4! The "preaching" that Jesus instructed the disciples to do is different from the preaching that took place after His accession. Now why that is so, I honestly do not know. But it is something to check into.
Yes, we are to preach the gospel, crying out or heralding "The kingdom of heaven is at hand" but how often do we do that? We are more studying the Scriptures rather than declaring that the Living Word has come to us and brought us the kingdom of heaven to a loss and dying world! Instead of declaring the Good News we want to reveal the terrible state of man, declaring the tree of good and evil has more relevance and power than the Tree of Life! Lord, forgive us! Jesus came to save the world, not judge it. Are we not to do the same? We can continue to be like the Pharisees who have boxed the Word of God into a coffin or we can allow the Living Word to flow in and through us, allowing the Holy Spirit to do that which He is sent to do, draw us closer to our Lord! Of course reading and learning Scripture is important! I would never dare to say otherwise. But if we do not acknowledge that there is more to the Scriptures than is written on a page then we have seriously neglected to receive the gift our Lord and Savior sent us, the gift of the Holy Spirit, our Helper and Spirit of truth.
Lord, breathe into these dry bones, in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
God bless,
Joan