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The Ministry of Jesus
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In referring to this event, at what are we looking? We are looking at the unchanging will of God
for all men for all time. If Jesus did it, it’s the will of God for everyone.
Matthew 9:35 says, “And Jesus went about
all
the cities and villages, teaching in their
synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing
every
sickness and
every
disease among the people.”
Verse 1 of chapter 10 says, “And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave
them” authority, or “power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal,”
a good many
?
some
? No, “
all
manner of sickness and
all
manner of disease.”
Now, this is not Jesus’ doing it. These are His disciples.
Some say, “Well, that’s just Jesus.” No, it’s not just Jesus. It’s these 12. We read later that it’s
another 70, and we read about others beyond that. They argue, “Ok, it was the 12, too—but just
the 12.” No, it was the 70. “Oh, okay. It was the 70—but just the 70.”
The devil wants you to believe that, but in the last chapter, we saw plenty of scriptures that said
we’ve been given authority, that He gave this same authority to us.
We’ve already seen several accounts. What if we just kept seeing Jesus do it again and again?
What might we assume? That it is the will of God.
What if we had seen verse after verse where he had told people, “I’m sorry. I love you, and God
loves you, and I know it’s tough, but it’s just not God’s will for you to be healed, and you’ll
understand it better by and by…”? This is what millions of Christians believe. But, why didn’t
He do it at least once in a while instead of just healing every one of them? If He just keeps
healing everyone, we could get the idea that everyone is supposed to be healed, and then what if
we find out it isn’t always His will? Oh, we’re going to be disappointed and confused.
Matthew 12:15 says, “But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence: and great
multitudes…” How many folks? A couple of hundred? A multitude, if you look it up, is
thousands of people. There are places in the Bible where thousands are called a multitude. What
about a great multitude? That’s way more. What about great multitudes, plural? You get a
glimpse into the feeding of the multitude, don’t you? Now, in that case, it’s just talking
multitude—5,000 men not counting women and children, so easily there could have been 10,000
people out there. What about a great multitude? It would be more than that. And what about
great multitudes? Big crowds. I don’t think we realize how big the crowds were sometimes in
His ministry. You’re talking 20, 30, 40, 50,000 people. We haven’t had these pictures, have we?
Did you know the church and churches in the Book of Acts were big? They were huge. Three
thousand, four thousand, even ten thousand people got saved in one day.
Some say, “I don’t believe in big churches. I just don’t like the feel of them.” Well, you wouldn’t
have liked the churches in Acts.