Devotion presented at church 4 March 2012:
Matt 12:9-16: And having departed thence, he went to their (the Pharisee’s) synagogue, and lo, there was a man having the hand withered, and they questioned him, saying, `Is it lawful to heal on the sabbaths?' that they might accuse him.
Matt 12:9-16: And having departed thence, he went to their (the Pharisee’s) synagogue, and lo, there was a man having the hand withered, and they questioned him, saying, `Is it lawful to heal on the sabbaths?' that they might accuse him.
And he said to them, `What man shall be of you, who shall have one
sheep, and if this may fall on the sabbaths into a ditch, will not lay hold on
it and raise it ? How much
better, therefore, is a man than a sheep? --so that it is lawful on the
sabbaths to do good.'
Then saith he to the man, `Stretch forth thy hand,' and he
stretched it forth, and it was
restored whole as the other.
And
the Pharisees having gone forth, held a consultation against him, how they
might destroy him, and Jesus having known, withdrew thence, and there followed
him great multitudes, and he healed them all, and did charge them that they
might not make him manifest… (YLT)
Then jump down a couple verses:
Matt 12:22-23: Then
was brought to him a demoniac, blind and dumb, and he healed him, so that the
blind and dumb both spake and saw. And all the multitudes were amazed, and
said, `Is this the Son of David?' (YLT)
So, we see the multitude – the simple people, not
the haughty Pharisees - were indeed starting to make the connection with this
man Jesus being that promised descendent of David, the Messiah. They were fully
aware of the prophecies in Isaiah stating
Isa 35:4-6: Say
to those who have an anxious heart, "Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God
will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save
you." Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf
unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute
sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the
desert… (ESV)
On an earlier occasion
even Jesus himself, rather than just saying he was the Messiah, used these
references back to Isaiah to bring to mine what they have been waiting for all
these years, like when John sent people to ask Jesus about it.
Matt. 11:2-6: Now
when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his
disciples and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or shall we
look for another?" And Jesus answered them, “YEP, I SURE AM”
No, instead of just
telling them he was the one, he brought back to their mind just what it was
they were looking for all this time, to prove that his works were in fact proof
of who he was. He told them:
"Go and tell John what you hear and see: 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.”(ESV)
Jesus here
is of course referring back again to the prophet Isaiah.
In Acts,
we are told the story of Philip’s encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch who was
reading from the prophet Isaiah (53:7 to be more exact). Philip jumped up into
the chariot with him and:
Act 8:35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.
Later we find the instance where after Jesus’
resurrection, he was walking with the two men on the way to Emmaus who did not
recognize him. After a few moments of speaking he condemns them sharply:
"O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the
prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these
things and enter into his glory?" (Luke 24:25-26)
Then he
opens the Scriptures to them:
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to
them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. (And their response) They said to each other, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked
to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?" (Luke 24:27,
32)
Does your heart burn within you as you read the Scriptures? As many of us are on the yearly reading plan, most of those plans
have us reading currently in the Hebrew Scriptures – the very Scriptures Jesus
used to proclaim himself to the masses; the same ones that the Apostles used to
preach the gospel story and the Messiah. We should not blow through these
Hebrew books thinking they are a bunch of history – for they contain the heart
of the good news.
As I am
sure you all know, the word gospel means good news – and the news that was so
good to them in the first century, was that the one that was promised so many
centuries earlier, the one coming that would save the people – that one had finally arrived – and the
promised salvation was now being fulfilled. The good news is the actual end of
the very long story throughout of the Hebrew Scriptures; a whole story we
cannot simply gloss over as pretty much irrelevant, like many in the modern
church seen to think.
I
encourage you all in your reading, to be diligent to read and study to
understand what the Hebrews knew and understood about the coming messiah – for
it is that Messiah that we now sit at this table to partake with.
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