Today we looked at Matthew 4: 23-25:
Jesus went all over Galilee, teaching in the synagogues, preaching the Good News about the kingdom, and healing people who had all kind of disease and sickness.
The news about him spread through the whole country of Syria, so that people brought to him all those who were sick, suffering from all kinds of diseases and disorders: people with demons, and epileptics, and paralytics..........and Jesus healed them all.
Large crowds followed him from Galilee and the Ten Towns, from Jerusalem, Judea, and the land on the other side of the Jordan.
The passage speaks of Jesus traveling all over Galilee, into Syria and the Ten Towns, from Jerusalem , Judea, and the land on the other side of the Jordan. The area he covered would have been over sixty miles.................not including Syria. We know that He walked wherever he went. All through the New Testament he walks, meeting people's needs wherever he goes. The healings would have been both emotional and physical. It shows him time after time coming through in the hour of one's deepest need (ie...Jaraius' daughter, Lazareth, the blind man at the pool of Siloam....etc). He went where the people were and taught about the kingdom to come, proclaiming all God had done and would do. He talked repeatedly about "The Kingdom at Hand." We discussed the idea of "Kingdom Living" that we have talked of so much recently..................about living out the walk in the here and now as Jesus followers. We talked about a slogan that Steve mentioned this week at revival related to "Kingdom Living." He said: "Walk slow and the kingdom will grow," meaning that we should keep our eyes and ears open wherever we go to see where God is working and where he wants to use us.
So in this passage we see that he taught (in the Synagog), preached and proclaimed and healed all types of people. He would have had to have been a very strong person with a great deal of stamina but yet very compassionate and tender. He went around looking out on people and loving.
Although he could see everything about them, he still loved. He saw their pride, anger, all kinds of sin and yet longed to pour out on them. He was so aware of his purpose...........that he had come to offer them a way.
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