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Word from Scotland
by Sandy Shaw
In Matthew Chapter 8 verses 14 to 22, Jesus walked the 100 yards from the synagogue in Capernaum to the home of Simon Peter, where his mother-in-law has a raging fever. So Peter was married!
They ask for help in Luke. We see that time and time again. People ask for help.
Jesus never went running around healing all the sick, and ministering indiscriminately to every need, but when invited, HE responded.
There is such privacy here. It is so beautifully done?
It is set in Luke 4 almost as contrast to the demoniac. Do read the parallel passage.
Jesus wanted the normal domesticity of that household to proceed without any fuss. She is healed and cured, to serve.
He is so simple. This is the essential Jesus, when we see such simplicity.
This is all happening on the Sabbath Day.
In verse 16, we read that the sun is setting. Can you imagine that scene?
Can you imagine the suffering as - sick - ill - paralysed people – in pain – with some tormented – are brought for healing, and Jesus healed them ALL.
Jesus would not allow the demonised people to speak, even though what they were saying was true.
People can say the right things without the Spirit of God, and they can say all the right things for the wrong reasons. Jesus is firm when confronted with evil. We need to be aware of that.
Jesus needs a break, as He is drained and exhausted, but people seek Him out. They want Him to stay with them, but He has to minister in other places too!
That is the Father’s Will – a wider circle. Jesus would not do what He wanted to do – and at times Jesus would not do what the people wanted - but what God the Father wanted. Jesus was a Father-pleaser.
It is almost as difficult to get a wider circle of believers, as it is to evangelise!
Mark Chapter 1 tells us at this point, that everyone was looking for Jesus. Ah, the danger of being famous – the danger of popularity.
Matthew tells us that Jesus is fulfilling the words of Isaiah. In these days when there is so much scepticism and unbelief around we need to know the authority and authenticity of the Word of God.
Jesus fulfilled the prophetic word in more ways that one, and it is our task and duty and calling and responsibility to share and proclaim and publish that word.
Alexander 'Sandy' Shaw is pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship in Nairn, Scotland. Nairn is 17 miles east of Inverness - on the Moray Firth Coast - not far from the Loch Ness Monster!
Gifted as a Biblical teacher, Sandy is firmly committed to making sure that his teachings are firmly grounded in the Word.
Sandy has a weekly radio talk which can be heard via the Internet on Saturday at 11:40am, New Orleans time, at wsho.com.
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