Matthew 8:5-17
GET THIS: Those transformed by Jesus sometimes display commendable faith. But all the more important than the levels of their faith, is the Object of their faith. All sorts of people are changed in the gospels, but the Change Agent never changes! It’s always Jesus!

The Centurion’s Faith in Jesus

Read Matthew 8:5-13

I look around at the world and I ask myself what it is made of. Words. Magic words. Spoken by the Infinite, words so potent, spoken by One so potent that they have weight and mass and flavor. They are real. They have taken on flesh and dwelt among us. They are us. In the Christian story, the material world came into existence at the point of speech, and that speech was ex nihilo, from nothing. God did not look around for some cosmic goo to sculpt, or another god to dice and recycle. He sang a song, composed a poem… You are spoken. I am spoken. We stand on a spoken stage. The spinning kind. The round kind. The moist kind. The kind of stage with beetles and laughter and babies and dirt and snow and fresh-cut cedar…You are made of cells. I am made of cells. My cells are built on molecules. My molecules make use of atoms. My atoms are mostly space, but the bits that aren’t are called quarks. My quarks are standing because they’re obedient. They’ve been told to by a Voice they cannot disobey… I’m real. I’m heavy. I’m matter. Cut me and I’ll bleed. But I’m not made out of anything, and if the Magician, the poet, the Word, if the Singer were to stop His voice, I would simply cease to be. —N.D. Smith (Notes From The Tilt-A-Whirl

Other Scriptures: John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:15-17

Peter’s Mother-In-Law Healed By Jesus

Read Matthew 8:14-15

We have so far a complete stranger (in human terms) who is not even an ethnic Jew and we have a jewish woman who is family with one of Jesus’ closest friends… They could not have been more different! But Jesus isn’t done yet

Other Scriptures: Matthew 11:28-30; Acts 4:13

The Kingdom of God Experienced By Many

Read Matthew 8:16-17

Video: D.A. Carson: The Ground of Our Assurance (on YouTube)

Other Scriptures: Isaiah 53:4-6; John 6:67-69

Take Time To Reflect
(1) What or who is the primary object of your faith?
(2) What impossible situation(s) are you struggling to leave in the loving control of Jesus’ words and touch?

GET THIS: Those transformed by Jesus sometimes display commendable faith. But all the more important than the levels of their faith, is the Object of their faith. All sorts of people are changed in the gospels, but the Change Agent never changes! It’s always Jesus!