11  The King’s Divine  Credentials (4:23-25)

And Jesus was going about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people. And the news about Him went out into all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, taken with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them. And great multitudes followed Him from Galilee and Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan. (4:23-25)

One of the ways in which Jesus demonstrated His divine character and power was through miracles of healing, which served as messianic credentials. John was especially concerned with those credentials, and his gospel features them. He makes it clear that “many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:30-31). Matthew also confirms that through His mighty works Jesus presented Himself as the Messiah, the great coming King.

The primary purpose of all four gospel writers was to present Jesus as being more than a man. He was the very Son of God. Apart from that central truth everything else about Him would be of little consequence. It would be of absolutely no consequence as far as salvation is concerned. But in light of that truth, everything about Him is of supreme significance. What He said was the Word of God, and what He did was the work of God.

Jesus’ claims were so astounding that His enemies desperately suggested that He must be demon-possessed or insane. But others were wiser, “saying, ‘These are not the sayings of one demon-possessed. A demon cannot open the eyes of the blind, can he?’” (John 10:19-21). The man healed of blindness told the disbelieving Pharisees, “Well, here is an amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes. We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing, and does His will, He hears him. Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing” (9:30-33). Jesus’ amazing words were backed up by His amazing works.

On another occasion the officers of the chief priests and Pharisees reported, “Never did a man speak the way this man speaks” (John 7:46). At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, “the multitudes were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes” (Matt. 7:28-29). The words Jesus said were also overpowering marks of His messiahship and His majesty.

Matthew focuses both on Jesus’ words and His works as, in 4:23-25, he introduces His ministry of teaching, preaching, and healing. He has already demonstrated that Jesus came at the right time and place and with the right message (4:12-17), and that for His work He chose the right partners (vv. 18-22). Now he shows that He came with the right plan—to establish His deity by His words and His works.

TEACHING

And Jesus was going about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues (4:23a)

Was going about (from periag) is in the imperfect tense, indicating repeated and continuous action. This verse summarizes Jesus’ entire Galilean ministry. His going about in all Galilee is given in detail in chapters 5–9. His words are the subject of chapters 5–7 (the Sermon on the Mount), and His works are the focus of chapters 8–9.

Matthew does not imply that Jesus visited every village in Galilee, but emphasizes that He ministered throughout the region. Because the entire region was only some sixty by thirty miles, and Jesus moved about in it, anyone interested in seeing and hearing Him would not have had far to travel. In the time that He had, He ministered to as many people as He possibly could.

Though that vicinity had long been known as “Galilee of the Gentiles” (see 4:15; Isa. 9:1), Jesus’ ministry there apparently concentrated in the Jewish synagogues. The synagogue is believed to have developed during the Babylonian exile, and its use was greatly expanded during the intertestamental period. By New Testament times it had become the most important institution in Jewish life. Although the Temple remained by far the holiest shrine of Judaism, many Jews lived thousand of miles from Jerusalem and could never expect to visit there. But synagogues could be established anywhere in Israel or beyond, and around them virtually all Jewish religious and social life centered.

The synagogue not only was the primary place of worship but also of study, community fellowship, and of legal activity. The greatest tragedy for most Jews was to be disfellowshiped from the synagogue, to be unsynagogued (aposunaggos, John 12:43). That is what happened to Jews who became Christians. It was such a terrible prospect that, as we assume from the repeated warnings of the book of Hebrews (6:4-6; 10:35-39; etc.), many Jews who recognized the truth of the gospel refused to become Christians because of the certainty of being ostracized from the Jewish community.

Most synagogues were built on a hill, often on the highest point of a town. Many had a tall pole jutting into the sky, much like a church steeple, making them stand out and be easy to find. Frequently they were built on banks of rivers, sometimes—as the one whose ruins are a popular attraction in modern Capernaum—without a roof.

Worship was held every Sabbath, which began at sundown on Friday and ended at sundown on Saturday. The Jews had special services on the second and fifth days of every week and observed the festivals prescribed in the law as well as numerous others that had developed by tradition. During the Sabbath services, sections of the Torah (law) and the prophets were read. That was followed by various prayers, singing, and responses. Then a text of Scripture would be expounded, possibly following the pattern begun by Ezra after the return from Babylon (see Neh. 8:1-8). Often visiting dignitaries or rabbis would be given the honor of expounding the Scripture, a practice of which both Jesus and Paul took advantage on numerous occasions (see Luke 4:16-17; Acts 13:15-16).

The affairs of the average village synagogue were usually administered by ten elders of the congregation, of whom three were called rulers. The rulers decided whether or not to admit a proselyte into fellowship and settled disputes of all sorts. A fourth ruler, called the angel, served as chairman of the synagogue. Some of the elders functioned as servers, carrying out the decisions of the four rulers. One elder interpreted the ancient Hebrew into the vernacular, one headed the theological school, which every synagogue had, and one served as a popular instructor, teaching on a level that the average member could understand.

During Roman rule the synagogue officials had the power to settle virtually every legal dispute within their congregations and even to inflict punishment, with the one exception of execution. That is why the Jewish leaders needed Pilate’s permission to crucify Jesus. Even the Sanhedrin, the supreme council of Jerusalem, had no such right.

The synagogue served as public school for boys, where they studied the Talmud and learned to read, write, and do basic arithmetic. For men, the synagogue was a place of advanced theological study.

The synagogues of Galilee provided Jesus with His first platforms for teaching. In almost every community of any size He would have found a synagogue, and in the early part of His ministry He was welcomed in most of them. As a visiting rabbi He was often asked to read and expound Scripture, as He readily did (see Luke 4:16-21).

It was in the synagogues that believing, sincere Israelites would be found. Here, if anywhere, Jesus could expect to find those who would hear and accept His divine message. Here is where God’s faithful remnant came to worship God and to be taught His Word.

Teaching is from didask, from which we get didactic and which refers to the passing on of information—often, but not necessarily, in a formal setting. It focused on content, with the purpose of discovering the truth—contrary to the forums so popular among Greeks, where discussion and the bantering about of various ideas and opinions was the primary concern (see Acts 17:21). Synagogue teaching, as illustrated by that of Jesus, was basically expository. Scripture was read and explained section by section, often verse by verse.

PREACHING

and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom (4:23b)

Proclaiming is from a term (kruss) often translated “to preach.” The root idea is to herald, or cry out. Whereas didask relates to explaining a message, kruss relates simply to announcing it. While interpreting the Old Testament in His teaching He also was proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, announcing the fact that God’s long-promised Messiah and King had come to establish His kingdom. He continued and extended the heralding that John the Baptist had begun.

That which is proclaimed is the krugma (Matt. 12:41; Rom. 16:25; Titus 1:3; etc.), and that which is taught is the didach (Matt. 7:28; Rom. 16:17; etc.). The message proclaimed needs to be explained, and vice versa.

Gospel means “good news,” and it was the good news that the kingdom was coming that Jesus preached throughout Galilee. That was the supreme truth, the great good news, around which all of His teaching centered. From His baptism to His ascension Jesus preached the kingdom. “Until the day when He was taken up” Luke tells us, Jesus was “speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:2-3). He never allowed Himself to get sidetracked into economics, social issues, politics, or personal disputes. His teaching and preaching focused entirely on expounding God’s Word and proclaiming God’s kingdom—a sound pattern for every faithful messenger of the gospel.

John the Baptist heralded the kingdom, but not the gospel of the kingdom. Good news as such was not the primary feature in his preaching. His preaching called men to repent of their sins and to prepare themselves for the coming of the King (3:1-10). He focused on sin and judgment. His was the bad news that pointed up the graciousness of the good news about to come. When Jesus’ ministry was more and more resisted by the Jewish leaders, His preaching became more and more stern, even sterner than that of John the Baptist. As hypocrisy became more evident and hostility became more vehement, Jesus’ words became more harsh.

But the King’s first proclamation was of good news, God’s marvelous offer to deliver “us from the domain of darkness, and [to transfer] us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:13-14). The gospel is the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ, the good news that God’s kingdom (the sphere of God’s rule by the grace of salvation) is open to anyone who puts his trust in the King.

The Jews were then under the rule of Rome, and before that they had been under the Greeks, the Medes and Persians, and the Babylonians. Even when they had their own kingdom and their own kings, their condition was far from ideal. Because they were not satisfied to have the Lord as their King, they insisted on having human kings, like all the other nations (1 Sam. 12:12). But those kings brought little peace, prosperity, or happiness, and much sorrow, tragedy, and corruption.

When Jesus preached and taught, He was announcing that He was the King who had come to bring God’s promised perfect kingdom. Had they accepted the One who now proclaimed the good news of the kingdom to them, the Jews could have had that kingdom established in their midst. Had they accepted Jesus as the Messiah, His kingdom then would have come on earth. But because they rejected the King and His gospel, they rejected the earthly, promised kingdom.

Jesus spoke powerful words, eternal words, words like no man before had ever spoken. Even the people in His hometown of Nazareth “were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips” (Luke 4:22). When He went down to Capernaum, “they were amazed at His teaching, for His message was with authority” (v. 32). Jesus’ cleverest enemies could never trap Him in His words, or confuse Him or confound Him or find any error in what He said. His teaching and His preaching about the kingdom were the divine credentials of His words.

HEALING

and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people. And the news about Him went out into all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, taken with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them. And great multitudes followed Him from Galilee and Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan. (4:23c-25)

Some people are sick and unhealthy because of their own foolish habits, whereas others suffer as a direct consequence of their sin. God sometimes uses physical affliction to discipline His people. Many of the Corinthian Christians were weak, sick, and had even died because they profaned the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11:30). Ananias and Sapphira lost their lives for lying to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:1-10). Yet Scripture makes it equally clear that all suffering and disease are not caused by sin, ignorance, errors in judgment, or God’s discipline. Job suffered greatly, though he was blameless, upright, feared God, and turned away from evil (Job 1:1). When Jesus’ disciples assumed that the man who was born blind was being punished either for his own sin or that of his parents, Jesus corrected them. “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in him” (John 9:1-3).

Jesus’ healing was a divine verification. His words should have been sufficient evidence of His messiahship, as they were for those who truly believed. The disciples left everything to follow Jesus before He performed a miracle of any sort. Many heard Him and believed in Him who had no need of healing for themselves or for their family or friends. It is possible that many who heard and believed in Christ never saw Him perform a miracle—just as many believed John the Baptist’s message, although “John performed no sign” (John 10:41).

Yet Jesus’ healing ministry was a powerful addition to the evidence of His teaching and preaching. Alexander Maclaren said, “It may be doubted whether we have an adequate notion of the immense number of Christ’s miracles. Those recorded are but a small portion of those done. Those early ones were illustrations of the nature of His kingdom; they were His first gifts to His kingdom subjects.” The writer of Hebrews says of the gospel of the kingdom that “after it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will” (Heb. 2:3-4). Like Jesus’ words, the miracles were a foretaste of His glorious, earthly kingdom. To get some idea of what the millennial kingdom will be like we need only multiply His words and His miracles ten-thousandfold.

Jesus healed every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people. This universal character of the healings is expanded and illustrated in the following verse: And the news about Him went out into all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, taken with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them.

In Jesus’ day Syria was a Roman province that took in all of Palestine, including Galilee. In the context of this verse, however, it may refer only to the northern part, of which Damascus was the major city. In any case, the point is that Jesus’ fame spread well beyond the area in which He was ministering. From a wide surrounding area the people brought to Him all who were ill, in hope that He would heal them.

Until modern times, with our great advances in sanitary and medical knowledge, disease was frequently rampant. Plagues stopped only when they had run their natural course, leaving behind countless dead and many others who were disfigured or crippled. Simple infections often became life-threatening. It is not strange, therefore, that news of a healer who could cure any affliction spread like wildfire.

As representative of the various diseases and pains, Matthew mentions three specific types that Jesus healed. Diseases signifies the many maladies, whereas pains refers to the many symptoms.

The first type of malady was that suffered by demoniacs, those whose afflictions were caused by demons. It is clear from Scripture, especially the New Testament, that many physical and mental afflictions are caused directly by Satan through the operation of his demons. Chapters 9, 12, and 17 of Matthew, and chapters 9 of Mark and 13 of Luke give abundant evidence of demon-related afflictions. The ability to cast out demons is often referred to as the gift of miracles (literally, “powers”; 1 Cor. 12:10, 28-29), the divine power given specifically to combat the demonic powers of darkness (see Luke 9:1; 10:17-19; Acts 8:6-7; cf. Eph. 6:12).

The second group that Jesus healed were epileptics. The King James renders the original (selniaz) as “lunatic,” which, like the Greek, literally means “moonstruck.” In many cultures the mentally ill and those who have convulsions or seizures have been thought to be under the influence of the moon. From other biblical references, such as Matthew 17:15, as well as from descriptions of the affliction in other ancient literature, it is almost certain that the disease was epilepsy, which involves disorder of the central nervous system.

The third group were the paralytics, a general term representing a wide range of crippling handicaps. The three terms Matthew uses characterize the three broad areas of man’s afflictions—the spiritual, the mental/nervous, and the physical. Jesus was able to overpower whatever evil afflicted those who came to Him. The earthly aspect of His kingdom will have no place for anything harmful, anything wicked, anything less than perfect wholeness and perfect goodness. “On that day the deaf shall hear,… the eyes of the blind shall see. The afflicted also shall increase their gladness in the Lord, and the needy of mankind shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel” (Isa. 29:18-19; cf. 11:6-9). They brought to Him all who were ill, . . . and He healed them.

The great reformed theologian B. B. Warfield said, “When our Lord came down to earth He drew heaven with Him. The signs which accompanied His ministry were but the trailing clouds of glory which He brought from heaven, which is His home. The number of the miracles which He wrought may easily be underrated. It has been said that in effect He banished disease and death from Palestine for the three years of His ministry. One touch of the hem of His garment that He wore could heal whole countries of their pain. One touch of His hand could restore life.”

Jesus’ miracles accomplished four things above and beyond the immediate and obvious benefit to those who were healed. First, they proved that He was divine, because no mere human being could do such things. “Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me,” Jesus told Philip; “otherwise believe on account of the works themselves” (John 14:11).

Second, the wondrous healings showed that God is compassionate toward those who suffer.

Third, the miracles showed that Jesus was the prophesied Messiah, because the Old Testament predicted that the Messiah would perform miracles. When John the Baptist was imprisoned and began to have doubts about Jesus’ messiahship, Jesus told John’s disciples, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them” (Matt. 11:4-5). That Jesus did these things predicted of the Messiah (see Isaiah 35:5-10; 61:1-3; etc.) proved His messiahship.

Fourth, the miracles proved that the coming kingdom was a reality, the wonders and signs being a foretaste of the marvelous realm God has in store for those who are His. “And Jesus was going about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of sickness” (Matt. 9:35). A short while later Jesus committed the same message and accompanying powers to His disciples: “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons; freely you received, freely give” (Matt. 10:7-8). A while after that, He pointedly told the disbelieving Pharisees, “If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (12:28).

I am convinced that the only time such miracles will again be performed is just before the millennial kingdom arrives, when the Lord regathers Israel and the tribulation begins. Then, just as at Christ’s (Messiah’s) first coming, “the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb will shout for joy” (Isa. 35:5-6). When Israel rejected the King at His first coming she also rejected the kingdom. But when the King comes again, the coming of His kingdom will not depend on men’s response. He will establish it then. It will be announced “among the nations, ‘The Lord reigns; indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved’” (Ps. 96:10).

To demonstrate the absoluteness of His power and authority, Jesus healed everyone who came to Him during His earthly ministry, without exception and without limit. He still has power to heal today, with the same absoluteness and completeness; and, as He sovereignly chooses, He does so. But He does not promise to heal everyone who now asks Him, not even those who belong to Him. The healing miracles He performed while on earth, like His other miracles and those of the apostles, were temporary authenticating signs to Israel that her Messiah had come. The Scripture now stands to attest to the promise of a coming earthly kingdom.

Six features of Jesus’ healing have never been duplicated since New Testament times. First, Jesus healed directly, with a word or a touch, without prayer and sometimes even without being near the afflicted person. Second, Jesus healed instantaneously. There was no waiting for restoration to come in stages. Third, He healed completely, never partially. Fourth, He healed everyone who came to Him, everyone who was brought to Him, and everyone for whom healing was asked by another. He healed without discrimination as to person or affliction. Fifth, Jesus healed organic and congenital problems, no matter how severe or longstanding. Sixth, He brought people back to life. He healed even after disease had run its full course and taken the life of its victim.

Those six features also characterized the healing ministry of the apostles. At the beginning of the book of Acts we are told of many miracles and signs that the apostles performed. Yet before the end of the book the accounts of miracles cease. The same diminishing is seen in the epistles. In his early ministry Paul performed many miracles of healing, but years later he simply advised Timothy to take some wine for his stomach ailment (1 Tim. 5:23). At the end of his next letter to Timothy the apostle reports that “Trophimus I left sick at Miletus” (2 Tim. 4:20), apparently beyond the power of Paul to help. There is no scriptural evidence that, by the end of the apostolic age, miracles of any sort were still performed. Once Israel had turned her back on her Messiah, her divine King, the authenticating signs of the kingdom had no more purpose. They faded and then disappeared altogether.

The great multitudes who followed Him no doubt came for many reasons besides healing for themselves or others. Many came primarily to hear Him teach and preach, and many no doubt came out of mere curiosity. But they came in great numbers and from great distances. Decapolis was a region composed of ten major cities (hence the name, which literally means “ten cities”) located east and south of Galilee. Beyond the Jordan probably referred to areas such as Perea, which was south of Decapolis and east of Jerusalem and Judea.

Many of that great multitude believed in Jesus and were saved, experiencing the kingdom inwardly, the rule of God through the grace of salvation. The vast majority, however, Jew and Gentile alike, did not believe in Him. They listened to what He said, watched what He did, and received temporary blessings. But they did not accept the One who spoke and who healed, whose words and works not only give blessing but eternal life.