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Perfectly Whole
Text: Matthew 14:34-36
Made whole by Jesus Christ
- The last two words in this chapter describe what Jesus Christ is to a sinner. If people are made perfectly whole, that implies something is missing. Sinners in sin are missing parts of life.
- Look at Colossians 2:8-10 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. 9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. 10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
- If you say something was made whole it implies that a sinner’s condition is the result of sinners missing something. Sin is loss. You and I need to know that because sin never presents itself as loss even though God says it is. In fact sin often presents godliness as loss.
- Gain the world, lose his own soul. Sin is the loss of life – wages of sin is death. But Jesus Christ makes whole.
- The lost soul lacks righteousness. Jesus Christ is righteousness.
- Complete wisdom in Colossians 1:9-10 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
- Complete might in Colossians 1:11 Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power,
- Creator and sustainer in Colossians 1:16-18 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17 And he is before all things and by him all things consist. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
- Complete in Christ in Colossians 1:19-20, 28 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; 20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. … 28 Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
Every sinner can be made whole in Christ (vs 34)
- To the Jew first then to the Greek.
- Gennesaret – Galilee of the nations (Isaiah 9:1) describes the area Jesus Christ is in where people are flocking to him. It is an area largely populated by Gentiles.
- Up to this point in Matthew’s gospel, he has highlighted a contradiction about who was receiving Jesus Christ and who wasn’t. The Israelites who were prepared by God for centuries to receive the Messiah, God manifest in the flesh, had largely ignored Him. While Gentiles who had no such history seemed to be trusting Jesus Christ if they so much as bumped into the righteousness of God in their daily lives.
- In Matthew 2, Gentile men come from the east to pay homage to the King of the Jews while Israel was largely unmoved by Christ’s birth.
- In Matthew 3, John the Baptist tells religious Jews who claim to have Abraham as their father that their first birth means nothing in regards to righteousness. And that God could create children from stones if He wanted to.
- In Matthew 4, Matthew points out that the Light of the world, Jesus Christ, sprung up from a Gentile land on the north end of Israel. He quotes Isaiah in Matthew 4:14-16.
- In Matthew 5 Jesus says to his disciples they are the light of the world and then describes what that light looks like.
- In Matthew 8 a centurion says speak the word and my servant will be healed to which Jesus replies, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. In the same chapter he tells the disciples on the ship they are of little faith.
- In Matthew 9 Jesus raises Jairus, a Gentile, his daughter from the dead and heals a woman with an issue of blood who is a Gentile. All the while the Israelite religious leaders call Him the devil.
- In Matthew 10 Jesus sends the disciples to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And in Matthew 11 Jesus curses the Israelite cities where many of his works had been done. He curses Bethsaida, Capernaum, and Chorazin.
- In Matthew 12 Jesus warns the Israeli religious leaders of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. Then says the Gentiles have done more to receive Jesus Christ than Israel did. Jesus says Nineveh, Gentiles, would rise up in judgment against this generation of Jews. Jesus says the queen of the south, a Gentile, would rise up in judgment against this generation of Jews. Jesus says the only sign given to this generation will be that of Jonah, a rebellious prophet sent to Gentiles who received his message while he himself didn’t accept his own message. Then he was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly just as Jesus Christ will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
How they sought to be made whole
- (vs 36) And besought him that they might only touch the hem of his garment…
- So Jesus Christ is treated by Gentiles the same way you think of a celebrity. If I can just get close to him! If I can just get their autograph! If I can just shake this athlete’s hand!
- There is no old testament law that says touching the Messiah’s clothes will bring healing.
- Where in the Bible is the “sinner’s prayer”?
- Where in the Bible is an altar call?
- Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ makes the difference
- It’s possible to be close to the Lord Jesus Christ, even touch Jesus Christ, but have no virtue pass from the Lord to you.
