Season 4 Podcast 85 “The Stories of the NewTestament Chapter 8

Season 4 Podcast 85 “The Stories of the New Testament Chapter 8We offer a weekly podcast, Monday thru Friday. Each Friday we discuss the New Testament, King James’ Version. We are now on Matthew Chapter 8, the Sermon on the Mount just concluded.From the beginning of Christ’s Ministry, after his baptism by John, after his sojourn in the wilderness, and after calling his twelve disciples, Christ performed miracles.  In Matthew 4 we are told: And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.After that he was often followed by multitudes. Miracles, from the beginning, marked his ministry. They were prophesied hundreds of years before his birth. In Isaiah 35 we readThen the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.Isaiah is also alluded to in Matthew 7:That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.Notice that Matthew didn’t use the words “heal our infirmities and heal our sicknesses.” He said He “took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses.”  That means that Jesus himself felt exactly what we feel. There is no suffering that he did not himself suffer. That is the greatness of the atonement. He has compassion and empathy for us because he knows exactly what we are going through no matter how harsh, whether the suffering is temporal or spiritual, physical or emotional, deserved or undeserved, life or death.  Healing, of course, has multiple meanings. The scriptures tell us:·       He healeth the broken in heart, Ps. 147:3.·       with his stripes we are healed, Isa. 53:5  ·       Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings, Mal. 4:2.·       Jesus … healing all manner of sickness, Matt. 4:23 ·       he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, Luke 4:18.·       healing all that were oppressed of the devil, Acts 10:38.·       leaves … were for the healing of the nations, Rev. 22:2.Christ understood suffering or else he could not have empathy for us. That was part of His atonement. Everything we suffer, he suffered, even temptation:·       They pierced my hands and my feet, Ps. 22:16.·       I gave my back to the smiters, Isa. 50:6.·       For thy sake I have suffered rebuke, Jer. 15:15.·       It behoved Christ to suffer, Luke 24:46.·       Shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, Acts 3:18.·       If so be that we suffer with him, Rom. 8:17.·       Sufferings of Christ abound in us, 2 Cor. 1:5.·       Ye are partakers of the sufferings, 2 Cor. 1:7.·       He himself hath suffered being tempted, Heb. 2:18.·       Learned he obedience by the things which he suffered, Heb. 5:8.·       Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, Heb. 11:25.·       Ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings, 1 Pet. 4:13.