Another lesson plan

Another lesson plan for this week’s lesson, “Always Trust Christ”, based on Matthew 8:1-9:34 was posted by J. Meyer from Bayleaf Baptist Church. I copied it below since previous links to his posts have not been persistent in the past.

ALWAYS TRUST CHRIST Matthew 8:1-3, 23-27; 9:1-8
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Life Impact — To help adults trust Christ in all situations that we face.
Introduction:
➢ Pilots learn early to trust the artificial horizon on the instrument panel. Countless airplane accidents have taken many lives when pilots trusted “gut feelings” rather than the artificial horizon, a small instrument that indicates whether pilots are flying level. Flying under instrument flight rules in clouds or fault can give the pilot the erroneous feeling that the plane is leaning to one side.
➢ Trusting gauges rather than gut is much like trusting God rather than self. If we take our eyes off God, we can wind up in a disastrous situation.
➢ Giving control to Christ is no easy task, particularly for those who place their faith in him for the first time during adulthood.
Overview: In these two chapters we see Jesus demonstrate his authority. Matthew balances this major theme with the theme of compassion. The three miracles in chapter 8 show Jesus’ willingness to become unclean in order to make others clean. His works of healing and forgiveness were signs that God’s kingdom was dawning.
Verse-by-Verse Comments:
8:1
• This was the mountain Jesus climbed to teach the Sermon on the Mount, and these were the large crowds that followed him in 4:23-25 because of his teaching and healing ministry. Now they had all the more reason to follow him, because of the authority he demonstrated through his teaching in chapters 5-7. It was before such an audience that Jesus continued to reveal his authority.
8:2
• The mention of the word leprosy made the first-century reader gasp. Leprosy was the AIDS of the ancient world. Everyone was terrified of this disease. Anyone who came in contact with the leper was ritually unclean (Leviticus 13-14) and at risk of his or her life. Lepers were outcasts. They were to stay far away from healthy people and were obligated to warn anyone who might come near (Lev. 13: 45-46). This man’s willingness to approach Jesus and violate acceptable practice was an expression of his faith. His confident words — not necessarily confidence in Jesus’s willingness, but primarily in his ability — further emphasize the man’s faith. “Lord” was used as a title of respect, like “sir.” The leper was conveying respect to Jesus.
8:3
• Jesus’ willingness to touch the leper was an expression of his compassion. Matthew went to great lengths to emphasize Jesus’ action. Instead of recording “Jesus touched him,” Matthew used an expanded version: “Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man.” Jesus’ touch was purposeful. He extended himself for the benefit of this man in need.
• When touching an unclean leper, Jesus would normally have become ceremonially defiled himself (Lev. 13-14). Of course, at Jesus’ touch nothing can be defiled. Jesus not only remained clean; he made the unclean clean. Touch in Jesus’ ministry is important throughout Matthew — especially in 8:15; 9:20, 25, 29. Of course, the man’s restoration was a testimony to the power and authority of Jesus the Messiah-King.
8:23-24
• Having filtered the curious and uncommitted from among his disciples by clarifying the price they would pay (8:19-22), Jesus and his disciples got into the boat he had ordered (8:22). Matthew highlighted the leadership of Jesus by his language: “Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him.” Those who followed them if you are willing to pay the price of 8:18-22.
• The Sea of Galilee was well-known for sudden, unpredictable, and violent storms. It is about 13 miles long from north to south, nearly 7 miles wide at its widest, from west to east. To travel from Capernaum (8:5) at the north end of the sea in the region of the Gadarenes (8:28) at the southeast end would have meant crossing the longest distance possible across the lake. Matthew pointed out that waves were sweeping over the boat. The natural reaction of anyone in this situation would be to bail out of the water, so the disciples must have been working feverishly.
• That Jesus managed to sleep at such a time attests to his humanity. He was exhausted from a long day of ministry. Even though the events of Matthew 8-9 are drawn out of chronological order into a thematic pattern, Matthew was showing that the Messiah was constantly ministering with compassion and authority and that he grew tired from his work.
8:25
• The disciples were probably angry that Jesus was not contributing to the bailing effort or exercising his power to help save their lives. To these men of little faith (8:26), Jesus was at least another pair of hands to help man the bailing buckets. The fact that they were so amazed and 8:27 suggests that their plea to save us in 8:25 meant they were looking for his participation and possibly his leadership in averting the crisis. But they apparently did not expect him to exercise such incredible supernatural power. It was one thing to heal leprosy, but quite another to control the fury of nature.
• Still the disciples had at least one necessary ingredient for true faith — an awareness of their helplessness. They despaired for their lives: “we are going to drown!” Their cry for Jesus’ help was more desperation than faith that he would actually stop the storm. Clearly, they did not yet have a full grasp of the nature of Messiah’s mission and his unfinished business.
8:26
• It was significant that Jesus rebuked the disciples before he rebuked the winds and the sea. If Jesus had any uncertainty about the outcome of the situation, he would have calmed the sea first, and then saved the lecture for afterward. By his conscious choice, he spoke while the boat was pitching wildly and the rain and wind were clashing violently, and the boat continued to sink. He knew that this was a teachable moment. We can imagine Jesus lingering in the midst of this violent scene, holding the disciples’ eyes for a moment to let his rebuke settle in, and then getting up from where he had been sleeping to calm the sea.
• Jesus’ rebuke of his disciples was justified because of the many miracles they had already witnessed that attested to his identity and power. But they were slow to catch onto the implications of what they had witnessed. Just as Jesus was surprised by the centurions faith (8:10), he was also disappointed at his own disciples’ lack of faith.
• Jesus literally called his disciples “Little-faith ones,” a single Greek adjective he used at times to rebuke his disciples (6:30; 14:31; 16:8; Luke 12:28). These “Little-faith ones,” like you and me, needed to be adding or supplying to their faith the kind of growth that ensured their greater reward (2 Pet. 1:5-9).
• Matthew did not record the actual words of Jesus used to rebuke the winds and the sea, but the words are not important. What is important is the identity and authority of Jesus over the natural world. Matthew chose wording that heightened his absolute authority over nature. Literally, “a great calm happened.” The word galene, “a calm, “is used only here and in the parallel Gospel passages of Mark 4:39 and Luke 8:24. Jesus proved himself to be the God of all nature, praised as sovereign over the mighty seas in Psalms 65:7; 89:9; 107:23-32.
8:27
• Three times in chapters 8-9, observers were amazed at Jesus’ miracles (8:27; 9:8, 33), and the same verb is used to Jesus’ response to the centurions faith (8:10). People in the first century had a much greater respect for the forces of nature than we do today (“even the winds and the sea” revealed the disciples’ awe for nature’s power). This respect for nature’s power is reflected by the numerous Old Testament passages that praise God for his control over them. To see the winds and the sea respond instantly to the word of Jesus was a major contribution to their developing understanding of him.
• “What kind of man is this?” The disciples were trying to pigeonhole Jesus. They were now being forced to add a new category to their mental list. Not only were the Pharisees impacted by Jesus’ actions, but Jesus’ disciples were also getting an education beyond what their tradition had offered them previously.
9:1
• Although this story includes a miracle, the central emphasis is on Jesus’s authority to forgive sin, not primarily on the physical healing of the paralytic. Jesus’ claim to have authority to forgive sins was validated by the healing of the paralytic, but also by the surrounding context of the series of miracles recorded in Matthew 8-9.
• Jesus and his disciples retraced the journey they had taken south across the Sea of Galilee (8:23-27). This same time they traveled from the southern tip to the northern tip, to Capernaum, which was now Jesus’ own town, his base of operations since 4:13. Note also that, in crossing the lake, Jesus was honoring the request of the Gentiles in 8:34.
9:2-3
• The men who brought the paralytic to Jesus were the companions of the paralytic. (Matthew chose not to record the extent to which their faith took them; that is, tearing through the roof of the house, as Mark 2:3-4 and Luke 5:18-19 did.) All three Gospel writers note that Jesus saw their faith — not just the faith of the paralytic but the faith of the man’s friends. This is significant today. We must realize that our faith or lack of faith has an impact upon the lives of others.
• Jesus’s words to the paralytic were probably even more surprising to the Jewish listeners and readers of the first century than they are to us today. We expect these words to have something to do with the man’s physical healing, but instead he started talking about the man’s spiritual healing. You might be surprised and puzzled, but the Jewish bystanders, especially the religious leaders (9:3), were shocked and offended. In claiming to do only God can do, Jesus was blaspheming, in their opinion. To blaspheme was to insults God’s name and honor by laying claim to an attribute or action that could be attributed to God alone.
• The most fundamental tenet of the Jewish faith is found in Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” The Lord is a jealous God, unwilling to “yield [his] glory to another” (Isaiah 48:11). The Jews would have been justified in their condemnation of Jesus, if not for the fact that he was indeed the Messiah-King. His miracles and authoritative teaching had already testified to this fact.
• Jesus’s compassion was evident in his encouraging words, “Take heart,” and in his reference to the man as son (literally, “child”). The man was probably feeling intimidated in the presence of the great teacher and feeling unworthy of the attention, due to the humiliation of his physical condition and the sin in his heart.
• Jesus did not say, “your sins will be forgiven” (future tense), which would amount only to exhortation of hope, looking ahead to God’s future forgiveness. Nor did he say, “your sins have been forgiven” (past tense), separating the forgiveness from this encounter. Jesus confidently used the present tense, “your sins are forgiven.” Jesus was boldly proclaiming his word as a means of forgiveness. This was an incredible claim to deity.
• The scribes’ thoughts about Jesus were “said to themselves,” that is, probably only silent thoughts in their own minds. This sets the stage for our appreciation of Jesus’s insight in 9:4. It also emphasizes the fact that sin is not only what comes out of us, but also what is within our minds and hearts. An attitude can be as much a sin as an action or word. Attitudes will inevitably come out as actions and words. This was already happening at least through the scribes’ nonverbal expression.
9:4
• We need not assume that Jesus literally read the minds of the scribes. He certainly had the capability to use supernatural mental powers when it was appropriate. At Jesus temporarily gave up the exercise of his divine omissions during his visit to earth (e.g., recalls his surprise at the centurions faith in 8:10). It is not necessary to be a mind reader to know a person’s thoughts under the right circumstances. When a pro-life advocate is in the presence of a pro-choice advocate, a staunch Democrat is a staunch Republican, both know much of what is on the other’s mind. Jesus, the God-man, was an astute student of humankind. He had at least as much insight into people as the wisest and most perceptive people do today. He knew his opponents would be thinking hostile thoughts while he claimed the authority to forgive sins.
• Jesus was justified in declaring the scribes’ thoughts evil. To conclude that Jesus was blaspheming ignored the significance of his authenticating miracles. They had hardened their hearts against God’s truth.
9:5
• Having confronted their obstinate disbelief, Jesus prepared them for proof that he had authority to forgive sins and to heal paralysis. Neither spiritual healing nor physical healing is “easier” than the other. But Physical healing is easier to authenticate and spiritual healing, because physical healing happens in the visible realm. Spiritual healing occurs in the invisible spirit realm. If Jesus could prove he had authority to heal physically, he could also prove that he had authority to heal spiritually — to forgive sins.
9:6-7
• Jesus put this reasoning into words: “But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” He proceeded, with the authority of his word, to reveal a visible truth — that he was able to heal the man’s paralysis.
9:8
• The crowd’s reaction was awe and praise to God. There was no mistake that Jesus’ authority came from God. What they praise God for was that he had “given such authority to men.” The crowd apparently so Jesus is a God-ordained prophet, like Elijah or Elisha. They had not yet recognized Jesus’ deity. They had heard the human side of the “Son of Man,” but they had not recognized the divine implications from Daniel 7:13-14.
• God’s glory is the physical, a visible demonstration of his nature and character. To “praise” God is to make them visible to make them known to others. This was what the crowd was doing in their praise. They proclaimed what they had witnessed of God’s nature and character, that he might be made known more fully.
Additional Questions for Discussion:
Matthew 8:1-3 — When You Are Ailing
What did you do the last time you had a virus? How did you feel when the physician said you simply had to weather out the virus? Why does God seem to help sometimes and at other times appear to ignore us?
➢ God hears and answers every prayer, but we do not always understand want to accept the answer he gives.
➢ Jesus demonstrated that no person — absolutely no one — is beyond his love and concern, shown by his concern for the man with the serious skin disease.
How do you respond when you encounter someone with AIDS? How does AIDS compare with leprosy? How does Jesus establish a model for how we are to minister to others?
➢ Although large crowds follow Jesus down the hill after the Sermon on the Mount, the leper demonstrated more than curiosity. He violated religious and ethical standards to approach Jesus.
➢ Ministry should not depend on how others respond to social taboos or myths about diseases. Address the real issues of AIDS, including that you cannot get AIDS merely by touching a person infected with the disease.
➢ Our response to others should not depend on whether there are Christians, but on their needs.
Matthew 8:23-27 — When You Were in Danger
Invite the class members to describe times when they found themselves in dangerous situations. Ask them to brainstorm how to prepare for such dangers.
➢ Some activities can present dangers if we aren’t prepared. For example, snow skiing can be dangerous without the proper clothing, helmet, knowledge of boundaries, and hydration.
➢ Spiritual dangers can arise without proper safeguards as well. Notations have the greatest influence when spiritual defenses are low.
Why did the storm cause so much fear and men who had fished most of their lives? Wouldn’t they have faced storms before? Why was Jesus so calm?
➢ Remind the class of 2004 Indonesian tsunami and ask why the disaster wreaked such devastation and loss of life. Many people were caught without warning.
➢ Matthew used terminology that suggested the storm faced by the apostles was potentially devastating. Their boat could be swamped, and they feared they would die.
Why did the apostles fear the storm so much when Jesus was asleep? How did Jesus react to their fear? How did Jesus react to the storm? Why were the apostles so amazed by Jesus’ power over nature?
➢ “Little faith” emphasized that the disciples demonstrated in adequate faith.
➢ Although the powers of nature can be destructive, all things are still under God’s control.
➢ Jesus is still the anchor onto which we should tie our lives when we faced storms. We can be sure that we will not be abandoned by Christ as we weather our storms.
Matthew 9:1-8 —When You Need Forgiveness
What does “whatever it takes!” mean to you? Where do you draw the line? Are you willing to go beyond “acceptable” behavior to achieve your goal?
➢ Athletes say this is to suggest that they will give 110% to win. Yet some use this statement with wrong motives to suggest that if legal or appropriate means do not achieve their end, then they will do anything to achieve their goals.
➢ Large crowds followed Jesus. Getting a man on a pallet in front of Jesus seemed impossible.
➢ Call attention to the faith of the friends and the lame man. Note that our faith has an influence on others.
➢ Jesus recognized their faith and responded.
Have you ever done something that was right, but people criticized you for your actions? Why? What reactions did you receive?
➢ Encourage the class to share their reactions.
➢ Jesus showed that forgiveness of sins was more important than physical healing. In this he also made clear that he had the authority as the Messiah to forgive sin. ➢ Jesus also knew the hearts of those who charged that he was blaspheming. He knows our hearts as well and can determine whether our actions and influence are based on genuine faith.