{"id":1624,"date":"2022-03-14T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-14T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/?p=1624"},"modified":"2019-06-06T05:23:11","modified_gmt":"2019-06-06T11:23:11","slug":"fb-wanting-to-heal-us-matthew-8-1-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/fb-wanting-to-heal-us-matthew-8-1-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Flashback Episode &#8212; Wanting to Heal Us: Matthew 8:1-4"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_8100\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-1624-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/reflectivebiblestudy\/rbs-ga-miracles-11-fb_mixdown.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/reflectivebiblestudy\/rbs-ga-miracles-11-fb_mixdown.mp3\">http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/reflectivebiblestudy\/rbs-ga-miracles-11-fb_mixdown.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/reflectivebiblestudy\/rbs-ga-miracles-11-fb_mixdown.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/?powerpress_pinw=1624-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/reflectivebiblestudy\/rbs-ga-miracles-11-fb_mixdown.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"rbs-ga-miracles-11-fb_mixdown.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iheart.com\/podcast\/256-reflective-bible-study-gos-31078545\/\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_iheart\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe on iHeartRadio\" rel=\"nofollow\">iHeartRadio<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/feed\/podcast\/\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a><\/p><hr class=\"powerpress-player-divider\"><div class=\"spoiler spoiler-style-2\"><div class=\"spoiler-title\">Read the Transcript<\/div><div class=\"spoiler-content\">\r\n<p>As we continue moving forward in the gospels focusing on the miracles Jesus did, we come to a miracle where Jesus asks the person he has healed to be quiet. In this miracle, we discover what Jesus likely wanted, but we also discover that just because Jesus asked this man to do something, doesn\u2019t mean this man obeyed. When someone is excited about something that has happened, it is almost impossible for them to remain quiet about it.<\/p>\r\n<p>Let\u2019s read what happened, and what we can learn from this miracle that we can apply into our lives.<\/p>\r\n<p>Our passage is found in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 8, and we will be reading from the New Century Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 1, Matthew tells us that:<\/p>\r\n<p><strong><sup>1\u00a0<\/sup>When Jesus came down from the hill, great crowds followed him.\u00a0<sup>2\u00a0<\/sup>Then a man with a skin disease came to Jesus. The man bowed down before him and said, \u201cLord, you can heal me if you will.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p>Let\u2019s pause reading here because I want to draw our attention onto something significant. In this passage, the man with a skin disease acknowledges that Jesus is capable of healing him, but he questions Jesus on His willingness to heal him. This is important for us to pay attention to because it has a parallel in our own lives even if we don\u2019t have a skin disease.<\/p>\r\n<p>In our own lives, we could just as easily say to Jesus, \u201cLord, you can forgive me if you will\u201d. <strong>Through Jesus, we are capable of being forgiven, however do we ever struggle with feeling doubt about whether God would want to forgive us?<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p><strong>While it is easy to say that God is a God who forgives, it is much harder to think that He is willing to apply this forgiveness in serious or extreme situations.<\/strong> This is one reason I am happy to not be the judge or even anywhere close to the judge\u2019s seat in this matter.<\/p>\r\n<p>It\u2019s possible that this man believes his disease is the result of something bad he had done and this disease is a punishment for that sin, and that God would not want to remove this punishment for the sin this man committed. With this angle on how the man phrases his statement and request, the man actually makes this healing subtly also relate to forgiveness from his past sin.<\/p>\r\n<p>With this in mind, let\u2019s look at how Jesus responded. Continuing in verse 3, Matthew tells us that:<\/p>\r\n<p><strong><sup>3\u00a0<\/sup>Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man and said, \u201cI will. Be healed!\u201d And immediately the man was healed from his disease.\u00a0<sup>4\u00a0<\/sup>Then Jesus said to him, \u201cDon\u2019t tell anyone about this. But go and show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded for people who are made well. This will show the people what I have done.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p>In Matthew\u2019s gospel, we discover that Jesus is more than willing to heal people, and that Jesus doesn\u2019t see illness, disease, or tragedy as divine punishment. <strong>Sometimes bad things happen simply because we live in a sinful world; sometimes bad things happen because God chooses to withdraw His protection. When we are living apart from God, it makes logical sense that God is not obligated to protect us from the sin in this world. <em>God\u2019s protection is a gift, and when we realize this, we should be grateful when we are protected, not angry when bad enters our lives.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p>After healing this man, Jesus tells him to stay quiet about this but go and show himself to the priest. I wonder if the priests who had pronounced this man as unclean made the claim that God was punishing him for his past sins. If so, then Jesus wants this man to show up healed, and with this healing, along with the gift that those who were healed were to bring, the priests would have to admit that their previous conclusion that this man would be punished for the rest of his life was false.<\/p>\r\n<p>Matthew\u2019s gospel ends this event here, and we might assume that this man did as Jesus had requested. However, Mark\u2019s gospel records this event with an extra verse at the end. Mark, chapter 1, verse 45 tells us that: \u201c<strong>The man left there, but he began to tell everyone that Jesus had healed him, and so he spread the news about Jesus. As a result, Jesus could not enter a town if people saw him. He stayed in places where nobody lived, but people came to him from everywhere.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>I think that part of the reason Jesus wanted the man to stay quiet was that Jesus wanted to slow His advance into the spotlight. I think Jesus wanted anonymity for a little longer so He could help more people.<\/p>\r\n<p>However, with this healed-man\u2019s excitement, there was no way Jesus could remain secret. Because of this man\u2019s excitement, Jesus became so well known that He couldn\u2019t enter a town if people recognized Him.<\/p>\r\n<p>Part of me believes that this man\u2019s excitement wasn\u2019t just because Jesus had healed him. When reading this passage, I get the impression that this man was just as excited that Jesus <em>wanted<\/em> to heal him, and that he felt this healing was connected with the understanding that God had forgiven him as well.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>When we make mistakes in life, and when we sin, it is easy to think that God no longer loves us. However, God is more than willing to forgive you and me than we are willing to admit. God loves you and I so much that nothing could stop Jesus from coming down to take the punishment for our sins. <em>Jesus forgives us because He wants to forgive us, and because He knows that His forgiveness is a big part of the way we receive eternal life.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p>As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>Always seek God first and place Him first in your life. Know, understand, and admit that God loves you even when you have sinned, and that God is more than willing to forgive us when we acknowledge that He is willing to forgive. God loves you and I, and He won\u2019t stop loving us even if we have completely walked away and rejected Him.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p><strong>Also, always pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn what God is like. The Bible is God\u2019s story and it is a record of what He has done in the world. The Bible points us to Jesus, and we must always remember that without Jesus, there wouldn\u2019t be a point to the Bible, and without the Bible, we wouldn\u2019t be able to recognize God or Jesus. Intentionally study the Bible with the goal of growing closer to God each day and know that when we look at the world through the lens of the Bible, we are better able to see the world as God sees it. <\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p><strong>And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!<\/strong><\/p><\/div><\/div>\r\n<p><strong>Flashback Episode:<\/strong> \r\nYear of Miracles &#8211; Episode 11: When a man asks Jesus if He wants to heal him, we discover something incredible about God and His desire to not only heal us, but to forgive us as well!\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio"],"nelio_content":{"autoShareEndMode":"never","automationSources":{"useCustomSentences":false,"customSentences":[]},"efiAlt":"","efiUrl":"","followers":[],"highlights":[],"isAutoShareEnabled":false,"networkImageIds":[],"permalinkQueryArgs":[],"series":[],"suggestedReferences":[]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Flashback Episode - Wanting to Heal Us: Matthew 8:1-4 - Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/fb-wanting-to-heal-us-matthew-8-1-4\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Flashback Episode - Wanting to Heal Us: Matthew 8:1-4 - Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/fb-wanting-to-heal-us-matthew-8-1-4\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/reflectivebiblestudy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-03-14T09:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cam\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@godstruthhisway\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@godstruthhisway\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\\\/gospeladventure\\\/fb-wanting-to-heal-us-matthew-8-1-4\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\\\/gospeladventure\\\/fb-wanting-to-heal-us-matthew-8-1-4\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Cam\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\\\/gospeladventure\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6aa6c062baad6d28cd49429d13dee5e3\"},\"headline\":\"Flashback Episode &#8212; 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