Matthew 8 Discussion

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"What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?" The disciples' question echoes through Matthew 8 as Jesus demonstrates his supreme authority over every domain of existence.

We explore this powerful chapter where Jesus moves seamlessly between healing the sick, calming raging storms, and casting out demons—showcasing his absolute sovereignty over physical bodies, natural elements, and spiritual forces. The centurion's remarkable understanding of authority stands at the heart of this narrative. While our culture often rejects hierarchical structures, this Roman soldier grasped something profound: Jesus's word alone carries power that transcends physical presence and transforms reality.

The chapter reveals a fascinating paradox about authority. For those who trust Jesus, his power provides ultimate comfort and security—nothing falls outside his control. Yet for those who don't know him, that same authority becomes terrifying, as witnessed when the Gadarenes beg Jesus to leave their region after he delivers two demon-possessed men. How we respond to Jesus's authority depends entirely on our relationship with him.

Matthew strategically sandwiches Jesus's teaching about the cost of discipleship between these demonstrations of power. The message becomes clear: following Jesus demands everything, but he is absolutely worthy of that sacrifice because his authority extends over all things. Peter's mother-in-law models the perfect response—immediately after being healed, she rises and begins to serve.

What is holding you back from complete devotion to Christ today? A relationship, a habit, a possession? Jesus's invitation remains: "Follow me." Whatever the cost, nothing compares to walking with the One who commands sickness, storms, and spirits—and they all obey.

Episode Transcript

Pastor Plek (00:10):
And welcome back to A Chapter.
A Day Keeps the devil away.
I'm Pastor Plek and, along withHall and Greg, we are going to
take a look at Matthew, chapter8.
We're going to find out somereally great points or
observations that we can makeabout it.
We're going to give some truthsthat we can learn about God,
learn about people, and then seehow we can apply them using the
spec methods Send a voidpromise to claim, example to

(00:33):
follow, command to obey and thenknowledge to believe.
Okay, so Pastor Holland talkedabout some observations.
I'll first start out with theoutline that I saw.
Uh, you first have Jesushealing a leper, jesus healing
the centurion servant, jesushealing Peter's mother-in-law,
uh, and others.
And then there's this cost offollowing Jesus.

(00:54):
Uh, that Jesus lays out likeyou've got to give it all.
And then Jesus calms a stormand then cast out demons in the
country of the Gadarenes.
All right, what do you see here?
What's some observations you'veseen?

Pastor Holland (01:10):
Okay.
So the cost of following Jesuskind of happens right in the
middle of the chapter and it'ssandwiched by I think Matthew
does this a lot sandwiches animportant truth in between you
know two other kind of relatedthings.
And so the sandwich here is yougot this, you know it's going
to cost you everything to followJesus.

(01:31):
What that sandwich between, Ithink, is like what my
observation here is thesestories that are meant to give
you great confidence that youcan trust Jesus when you give up
everything to follow him.
And so why he heals the leper,the centurion servant you know
the centurion that comes to himand Peter's mom.

(01:54):
You see these physical healings.
He has power over the physicalbody, right.
Then he calms the sea.
He has power over nature andthe physical world.
Then he casts out the demons.
Spiritual world, spiritualworld.
Jesus has power over everything.
If there's anyone you know thatyou can feel safe following and

(02:15):
giving up everything to follow,it's Jesus, the one who has
power over the body, the naturalworld and the spiritual world.

Pastor Plek (02:22):
Yeah, I personally just want to dive into that
centurion servant.
Here is a centurion, a Romanoccupier.
He's a commander of about ahundred men and he asked Jesus
to heal.
And Jesus doesn't look at him.
Go, you filthy occupying swine,right, he doesn't go.
Like you know, you've probablyabused a lot of people in your

(02:44):
day and you got your power bywhatever.
Whatever, he just goes allright and then he marvels at his
faith, okay, and then, what'swild, jesus digresses for some
reason onto hell.
Did you see that?
Yeah, like this is where a lotof people go.
Like jesus never preached abouthell or never talked about hell
, and I'm like what?
No, he goes, he's like man.

(03:04):
I haven't seen such faith inall of Israel.
And then he goes verse 11, Itell you, many will come from
east to west and recline attable with Abraham, isaac and
Jacob, the kingdom of heaven,while the sons of the kingdom
will be thrown in the outerdarkness.
Meaning, sons of the kingdom,the people of Israel will be
thrown out because here is thiscenturion who is not of Israel.

(03:26):
He is clearly a part of thechildren of God Because of his
faith.
Because of his faith.
And so there is punishmentawaiting those who do not
believe that Jesus is theMessiah and understanding fully
about his power, that he canremote, heal.
He doesn't have to lay hands on,he can just go like it is done,

(03:47):
and it's done no matter whereon the globe, which is why when
you pray to Jesus, you don'tneed to actually be anywhere.
You just need to be praying inthe spirit, asking God to do the
work.
You don't need to be touchinganyone, you don't need.
The loudness of your prayer isnot the thing, it's the object
of who the one you're praying to, it's his power.

(04:07):
Anyway, I just reallyappreciate that Jesus talked
about hell and then talks abouthow this guy, who wasn't a Jew,
is being ushered into thekingdom of God.

Pastor Holland (04:17):
It's so cool and what I love like.
This guy says something herethat I think is like pretty
important for our culture today.
He says I'm not worthy that youshould come under my roof.
Just speak the word and myservant will be healed.
And then he explains why he hasthe faith to say that and he

(04:37):
says for I am a man underauthority.
Yeah, having soldiers under me,he's over some and he's under.
He understands authority andhow authority works, something I
think is totally lost on ourculture today.

Pastor Plek (04:50):
We're kind of anti, we're like hierarchy bad, but
yeah this guy's saying I knowhow hierarchy works.

Pastor Holland (04:56):
If you're an authority, you can just give a
word and someone's going to doit.
And Jesus, I believe that youcan just give a word to who.
Who's this, you know for himhe's like I can give a word to
my servant and he'll go do it.
Who's Jesus giving the word tothe sickness, saying you can
just tell the sickness from here, or like and it, and it will

(05:18):
obey you and it will leave.
Like he understands, jesus hasthe total authority to demand
sickness, to leave someone'sbody.
That's wild and it's based onhis understanding of there's
hierarchy and, you know, there'speople who are in charge even
of the physical world.
And God, you're in charge,jesus, you're in charge, like I
believe that.

Pastor Plek (05:37):
And.

Pastor Holland (05:38):
Jesus, you know, celebrates and marvels at this
guy's faith and hisunderstanding of how the world
works.
Like Jesus is in charge.

Pastor Plek (05:44):
On the flip side, his authority scares people, so
the so you've got two different,you know.
You've got the uh, thecenturion, who's a um, not a Jew
, and he has great faith.
But then you've got theGadarenes, who are not Jews and
they are terrified by Jesus, andthey're just like hey, please
leave.
You just killed a herd of pigswe don't know how we're going to
eat now, and pigs we don't knowhow we're going to eat now.

(06:11):
And you're like some crazymagician.
It's time for you to go, eventhough the two dudes that were
standing there are healed and intheir right mind.

Pastor Holland (06:16):
Yeah, what is that?
What is that?
Yeah, I mean the people.
This is the Gadarenes,gerasenes.
You know these are not peoplewho are probably, like, familiar
with the scriptures, thepromise of the Messiah.
They just see a dude who costthem all their pigs and is
apparently friends with thecreepy demon graveyard guys.
And you know, to me I'm justlike man, they're kind of

(06:38):
freaked out about this.
They're just like get out ofhere, like let us keep our
simple country folk life withour pigs, you know, like leave
us alone, man.
And so they see the authorityand they don't understand it and
they're afraid.
So I think Jesus' authority ifyou trust him, it's very
comforting, right.

(06:59):
His authority, if you trust him, it is very comforting to know
he's in control.
He can you know you're in goodhands.
If you don't know him and don'ttrust him, his authority is
probably terrifying, right?
Because if you're not with him,well, he has the authority to
send you into outer darknesswhere there's weeping and
gnashing of teeth.

Pastor Plek (07:18):
I don't want anything to do with that.
Please leave.

Pastor Holland (07:21):
So the authority of Jesus isn't merely
comforting or terrifying.
It's one or the other,depending on your relationship
to him, that's really good.

Pastor Plek (07:30):
All right, let's get some truths about God.
I love that.
Jesus says I am willing becleansed, like he is really not
only able, but he is fully God,fully man, but he's able to go
and take away sickness.
But he is fully God, fully man,but he's able to go and take
away sickness, especiallysomething as crushingly awful

(07:50):
and dark as leprosy, like thatwas a death sentence.
And then this guy comes withhumility If you're willing, you
can make me clean.
He's like I will be clean.
I love the simplicity of thestatement, I love the non-show
of it, I love all of that.
And the guy has just likeHerculean hope.
And then Jesus is like hey,just go do the regular thing

(08:13):
that you're supposed to do forcleansing according to Moses.
I thought that was wild, anyway.
But Jesus responds to faith,not status.
Yeah, that's good.
What do you got?

Pastor Holland (08:25):
Truth about God.
Truth about God he hasauthority over the physical, the
natural, the spiritual.

Pastor Plek (08:30):
Nice.

Pastor Holland (08:30):
It all belongs to him, and so you can.
You know a storm's coming yourway.
You can pray that God wouldsubdue the storm.
Even the wind and waves obeyhim.
A family member is sick andsuffering with some kind of
disease, you can pray for God toheal, and someone you know is

(08:55):
being tormented by demonicspirit.
You can pray that God wouldsave and deliver.
So just remembering like thisis what's true about God Nothing
is outside, nothing's too hardfor him and nothing's outside of
his control.
Pete, here's something aboutpeople.

Pastor Plek (09:05):
People often doubt Pete.
Yeah, even when Jesus is near.
So you could see a miracle.
And I think sometimes if wejust had a miracle, people
believe.
No, they wouldn't.
It might reinforce whatever itis they previously believed,
because faith isn't by miracles,faith is by hearing, and

(09:25):
hearing by the Word of God,where God declares a sinner
righteous on the basis of grace,by means of faith.
It is a gift of God's that noone can boast.
Isn't that the beauty of it?
So it's not like if there was amiracle or if this one person
believed, then many would besaved, although God could use
that person.
But I do think sometimes wedoubt, even when we see miracles

(09:47):
.
Yeah, that's good.

Pastor Holland (09:49):
This is for my example to follow for
application.
Peter's mother-in-law says thathe touched her hand.
The fever left her and shearose and ministered to them.
First thing she rose up.
I'm healed now Let me serve you.
I'm just like man.
What a great model for theChristian life.

(10:11):
Jesus, you saved me.
I'm going to serve you.

Pastor Plek (10:13):
Oh, I love that.
I love that.
Okay, how about this?
The command to obey, follow me.
When Jesus says to follow, itshould cost us everything, or at
least something I thinksometimes in our culture, like
you know, christianity is.
It might not be cool, but it'snot taboo and so you're not

(10:33):
going to die.
However, it should cost yousomething and clearly Jesus
wants people who are willing tolay down their lives, lay down
their stuff, to follow him.
Yeah, all right, anything else?

Pastor Holland (10:52):
It's good, I think, combine those things
together and say you know Jesussaved you and so follow him,
serve him, whatever the cost.
Whatever you know, maybe.
What's one, maybe morepractical to narrow it down to
like okay, what is it set beforeyou today that you know you
need to let go of to followJesus?
Oh nice.
Set before you today that youknow you need to let go of to

(11:13):
follow Jesus?
Oh nice.
What is something that you know, man?
This game.
I'm obsessed with this.
You know habit I have ofscrolling my phone for three
hours before bed that you know Idon't read the word, but I, you
know, spend all day on watchingreels.
Whatever.
Or maybe it's this relationshipthat you know you're not
supposed to be in that iskeeping you from being fully
devoted to Jesus.

(11:34):
Whatever it might be, followJesus.
He saved you, rise up, servehim, follow him, leave it all
behind, anything that's holdingyou back.
Let it go today.

Pastor Plek (11:45):
Hey, that's a great word From our house to yours.
We'll see you tomorrow on achapter a day.