"He Healed Them All" (Mt. 4:23-25)

Read Matthew 4:23-25.

1. The full scope of Jesus' ministry (4:23)
1. Teaching
2. Preaching
3. Healing
• Sickness
• Disease
4. Note: This was an itinerant ministry.
• Did that have any effect upon Jesus' success?
2. The full scope of human misery (4:24)
1. "all sick people"
• "taken with various diseases"
• "tormented with pain"
• "possessed with demons"
• "those who had seizures"
• "those who had paralysis"
3. The two results of Jesus' ministry
1. "His fame went throughout all Syria" (4:24).
2. "Great crowds followed Him" (4:25).
4. The reverent question from this passage
1. Why isn't everyone healed today?
• So many have been prayed for so often, and yet they leave each time with disappointment. They give up on prayer and the altar, deciding to just live with their pain.

FOUR OPTIONS TO EXAMINE

1. The days of miracles and healing are over.
1. I don't agree with this, but I do understand why it is popular (especially among those who have been disappointed).
2. Those who hold this faulty position are called "cessationists."
2. Healing was part of Jesus' ministry then; His ministry today has changed.
1. You can rule this out, since Hebrews 13:8 flat out says that Jesus can't change.
3. Those who were prayed for didn't have enough faith to be healed.
1. Where does it say that all whom Jesus healed had faith?
4. God can choose to heal or not to heal.  
1. His choice to heal or not heal is subject to information and purposes known only to Him (at least at the outset).
• So that the glory of God can be revealed at a later time (Jn. 9:3).
• So that pain and limitation will draw people to God, to depend upon Him for strength and hope (Psa. 119:67, 71) and to lead them to repentance (Psa. 88:7).
2. Psalm 88 - the frustration of those who suffer and aren't healed (and it doesn't say they suffered because of their sin or because they lacked faith)