THE PREACHING OF THE APOSTLES

Sermon of the Week #200621 – May 26, 2006

            Manny times on this broadcast we have said, “This is the gospel as it was preached in the days of the Apostles.” The Apostle Peter tells us how the Apostles preached that gospel in Acts the second chapter as he spoke these words, “Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God unto you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by Him in the midst of you.”

            The first word of Peter in the actual beginning of the sermon on the Day of Pentecost was JESUS. That is always the best way to begin any gospel sermon JESUS! Then before he told of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, and their response to the gospel, He first told of His mighty works, and wonders, and signs, and that was the gospel as it was preached in the days of the Apostles. I cannot improve on that method. So, here are some of the mighty works, and wonders, and signs that JESUS did in Matthew chapter eight; and it may be that Peter, himself, included some of these incidents as he preached that first gospel sermon on the Day of Pentecost, as he told them of mighty works, wonders and signs.

THE HEALING OF A LEPER

            The first of His mighty works was the healing of a leper. The leper came to Jesus and worshipped Him saying, “Lord if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus stretched forth His hand and touched him, saying, I will be thou be made clean. And straightway his leprosy was cleansed.”

Leprosy was a disease that reminds us of sin for several reasons. For one thing it was a great separator. Sin separates today. A person with leprosy could not get any closer than six feet away from another person, and had to cry out, “unclean, unclean”. According to Leviticus 13 he had to stay without the camp and in the time of Jesus on earth, a leper was not allowed within the wall of a city. They wore black and were known as the living dead.

In a similar manner sin will separate the un-forgiven from the saved on the Judgment Day. It is significant that Jesus said in the last chapter of Revelation, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have the right to come to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates of the city.”

            However the amazing thing in this story is that Jesus did the unthinkable. He stretched forth His hand and touched him. Luke was a doctor and took a pathological look at the leper, and said he was full of leprosy. It appears from this that no person is such a great sinner in the leprosy of the soul that Jesus will not receive him.

            Remember also that Jesus told him to tell no man, and he went and told everybody what Jesus had done to him. He just could not keep it to himself. Jesus has told us to tell everybody what He did for us. What you hear in the ear proclaim from the housetops, what you hear in the darkness, speak ye in the light. The leper told everybody, and many Christians tell nobody.

Jesus would heal other lepers, but it appears this is the first mentioned in the gospel record. We have no indication that there were any before this. This leper had no example before him to encourage him. When it comes to salvation from the leprosy of the soul we have example after example of conversions in the book of Acts, “On the day of Pentecost those who heard the gospel of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, asked what we must do? And Peter told them, Repent ye and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

          Another time the Treasurer of Ethiopia listened to Philip tell the story of the cross and said, “What doth hinder me to be baptized?” And Philip said, "If thou believest thou mayest." And they went down into the water both Philip and the Eunuch and he baptized him. When they came up out of the water he went on his way rejoicing.  I mention these two examples without comment as examples of conversions to Christ as it was preached in the days of the Apostles.

THE CENTURION’S SERVANT

            Next in line of the works, wonders, and signs in Matthew eight is the Centurion’s servant, “When He was entered into Capernaum there came to Him a ruler and worshipped Him saying, Lord my servant lieth in the house sick of the palsy grievously tormented. Jesus said, "I will come and heal him." The Centurion said, Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldst come under my roof, just say the word and my servant shall be healed.” Luke helps us out at this point when he says the elders of the Jews said he is worthy. This man built for us a synagogue.

            The Centurion was right; he was not worthy and neither is anyone else; no one is worthy. One preacher of my previous generation had preached faithfully for fifty years. As he faced his last days on earth He related that he had preached 5,000 sermons, and mentioned the hours he had prayed, the money he had given, and then said, none of these have anything to do with my salvation. The only thing that matters is the blood of Jesus Christ.

            The Centurion said, “I also am a man under authority. I say to this man GO, and he goeth, and to another COME, and he cometh, and to this one, DO THIS, and he doeth it. Lord, just say the word and my servant shall be healed.” The Centurion actually believed that Jesus could heal from a distance. He can still answer prayers today from a distance. Not only the distance from that far-away place seated at the right hand of the Father, but from the distance of time. It has been twenty centuries since Jesus walked on earth among men, but He has promised, “I AM with you always.”

Jesus marveled and said, “I have not found such great faith, no, not in Israel.” What did it take to make Jesus marvel? He could talk to Moses and Elijah as they appeared in glory and not marvel. He heard God speak to Him from Heaven, and say, “I have glorified Thy name”, and not marvel. He could walk on water, still the tempest, feed thousands with almost nothing, and not marvel. The thing that made Jesus marvel was the fact that He came unto His own and they that were His own received Him not, and here was a gentile that believed Jesus had all authority in Heaven and on earth, even before He said so in the Great Commission.

            This is a warning to our lack of faith in the Church today. Jesus said that many shall come from the east and the west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the Kingdom of heaven, but the sons of the Kingdom shall be cast out into the outer darkness, there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.

            This matter of serving the Lord has eternal consequences. Our faith, or lack of faith, will have something to do as to where we spend eternity; either in the eternal Kingdom of God or in outer darkness where there is the weeping a wailing and gnashing of teeth. This is an example of the preaching that was done in the days of the Apostles.

HEALING OF PETER’S MOTHER-IN-LAW

            And now the third event regarding works, wonders, and signs in Matthew eight is the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law. Jesus went into Peter’s house and found his mother-in-law lying sick of a fever. Jesus touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she arose and ministered unto them.

            The touch of the hand of Jesus is noticed in several places in the ministry of the Lord. He touched the casket of a young man at the gates of Nain, and raised him from the dead. He touched the leper and the leprosy was gone. That same event is mentioned three times in Matthew, Mark and Luke. He touched the ear of Malchus that Peter cut off and healed him. He touched the eyes of two blind men, and opened their eyes in Mathew nine, and later on, just before the Triumphal Entry He touched the eyes of two other blind men and one of them was Bartimaeus. Mark says that at Bethsaida some friends brought a blind man to Jesus for healing and they said, “Touch him Lord.” In this case it took a second touch and he saw plainly.

            However there is something in touching the hand of the mother-in-law of Peter that has a dimension to it that the others do not mention. Matthew says that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, “He Himself took our infirmities and bare our diseases.” When Jesus healed a person it took something out of Him. One woman touched Him and was healed and He perceived virtue had gone out of Him.

            While He bore their diseases, we are reminded that it also cost Him something to bare our sins on the cross. Peter tells us in the second chapter of his first epistle, “Who His own self, bare our sins in His body on the tree that we having died unto sin, might live unto righteousness by whose stripes we are healed.” If Jesus bore the diseases of those He healed when He was on earth, I cannot imagine what a load it was to bare My sins on the cross; that is what made the cross so heavy that He fell beneath the load on the way to the crucifixion.

            Because He bore my sins on the cross I can say in the words of a gospel song,

“In the last sad hour when I stand alone, and the powers of death combine

While the dark waves roll, He will guide my soul, by the touch of His hand on mine.”

And this is preaching the gospel as it was done in the days of the Apostles.

THE STILLING OF THE TEMPEST

            And now the fourth example of works, wonders, and signs is the stilling of the tempest. Jesus entered into the boat and the disciples went with Him. And behold there arose a great tempest in the sea and the boat was covered by the waves. Even experienced fishermen despaired of survival. Jesus was asleep and they awakened Him saying, “Save Lord, we perish. Jesus said, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? He arose and rebuked the wind and the sea and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”

Great storms could come suddenly on the Sea of Galilee and great storms can come suddenly in life. All seems well, and without warning a great temptation swoops down upon us and we need to awaken the sleeping Christ, “Save Lord we perish!”  All seems to be well and suddenly a disease reminds us of our mortality. The church bulletins are filled with names of the sick, and we are urged to pray for survival. Why should we pray? Do we not trust modern-day medical science? Miracles seem to be performed today as a matter of routine. We ask for prayer because we are not really all that sure that the doctor can handle this one, we realize that there are some situations in life beyond our reach and we need to awaken the sleeping Christ, “Save Lord!”

Today the Old Ship of Zion faces other problems as well. We are faced with the hurricanes of heresy, the ice-burgs of indifference, the winds of worldliness, the cyclones of conformity, and in addition to that, the crew is in a state of mutiny against the Captain of our salvation. But in spite of it all, we need to remember the words of the gospel song,

“The winds and the waves will obey My will; Peace be still, peace be still

Whether the wrath of the storm tossed sea; Or demons or men or whatever it be

No water can swallow the ship where lies; The Master of ocean and earth and skies

They all shall sweetly obey My will; Peace be still, peace be still.”

And this is another example of the kind of preaching that was done in the days of the Apostles.

THE HEALING OF LEGION

And now the fifth example of works, wonders, and signs, is the casting out of demons. When Jesus and the boat-load of Apostles landed, they were in the country of the Gadarenes, and there met Him two possessed with demons coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce so that no man dared pass that way. Mark only mentions one, perhaps because he was the most violent. He said his name was Legion because he had so many demons in him.

Legion had been bound with chains and he had rent the chains asunder, and no man had strength to tame him. This is an example of the world today that does not want to be bound with the Word of God. The second Psalm reminds us of this when it is written, “Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their cords from us.” All restraining influence of the Word of God must be removed. And how does God react to all this? The Word of God says, “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, He shall hold them in derision.” Think of that one. When people ridicule His Word, God laughs at them.

The restraining influence of the marriage vows has been broken, and cast away. It is respectable for two people to live together without marriage; and the family as it was at one time is in shambles. Two men living together used to be a disgrace, but now the verse that refers to it ‘as a vile passions’ has been rent from the Word of God, and cast away.

The cords of the plan of salvation have been rent asunder. Just bow your head and ask Jesus to come into your heart. Repentance is never stressed; it makes people feel bad, and baptism for the remission of sins is only for the cults.

            It is no longer God’s plan of salvation, but man’s plan of salvation which plainly says, “God, if there is a God, is too good to damn my soul, if I have a soul, and send me to hell, if there is a hell, for surely someday everybody will go to heaven, if there is a heaven. Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their cords from us. But remember Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My word shall not pass away.” And I must also give you this lovely thought expressed by Jesus, “The word which I spake unto them, the same shall judge them at the last day.”

            The delivering of Legion had a strange effect on the town people when they learned what happened to Legion. When the demons were cast out of Legion they went into the hogs, and the hogs went berserk and ran and fell over precipice and drowned in the water, all 2,000 of them.

            The town people should have been pleased that Jesus had delivered them from such a nuisance as Legion. He was a new man. The only thing is Jesus was too expensive. Two thousand hogs would bring in a lot of money, but now because of Jesus they were floating belly-up in the water. It looked like Jesus had ruined the local economy. They besought Him to depart from their borders.

            I have often said it and will say it again, “They thought more of ham than heaven. They thought more of bacon than baptism. They thought more of sausage than salvation. They thought more of chittlins than Christ.  They thought more of lard than the Lord. They thought more of hog houses than church houses. They thought more of pork chops than prayer. What a sense of values!”

            There is not much difference in them that many today. On the Lord’s Day millions think more of pigskin flying through the air than they think of the Lamb of God dying on the cross. So they asked Him to depart from their borders. Jesus straightway got in the boat and left. He will not stay where He is not wanted.

            I have forgotten who it was, but a preacher told me one time that he was talking to a man about the Lord and salvation. He asked him why he had never become a Christian with all the opportunities he had? The man told him, “Years ago I told the Lord, if He would leave me alone, I would leave him alone, and Jesus has not bothered me since.” “Depart from our borders,” is a haunting verse. There is another verse in scripture where Jesus said that same thing, “Depart from Me ye cursed into the eternal fire.” And this is preaching as it was done in the days of the Apostles.