Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the NET, netbible.org, all rights reserved)

Jesus went throughout all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and sickness among the people.
Matthew 4:23 (emphasis added)

You Jesus had a mobile ministry. Yes, He was centred in Capernaum, but that was more because His house was there than anything else (Jesus was already living there prior to knowing Peter). Jesus kept on the move throughout the whole region. No matter how much was happening or how little, Jesus kept walking. Never hard to find, He made sure that His message was getting to each and every village and town in the region. He took His mission seriously. And more than ANYTHING else, we see that there was a lot happening around Jesus in the healing department.

In the verse before today’s verse, Jesus called to Simon Peter and Andrew. “They immediately left the boat and their father and followed him” (Matthew 4:22). If you look at the other Gospels, there were several key events that happened between these verses. Jesus called the two men (vs 22). Then Jesus cast out a demon in the synagogue (Mark 1:21-28). He healed Peter’s mother-in-law (Luke 4:38-39). He healed a whole crowd of people (Mark 1:32-34). Jesus also established a pattern of praying alone in the early mornings in desolate places (Luke 4:42-43). After all of that, Jesus (in today’s verse) STILL focused on a ministry of teaching and preaching.

It isn’t like Jesus wasn’t getting a reputation. People were coming to HIM (as seen by the crowd of people – also in Matthew 8:16-17). Jesus could probably had just as many people seeking Him and giving opportunity to heal and perform miracles. But still Jesus stayed mobile. There are a lot of reasons for this. I think that He did it because if HE went then EVERYONE had a chance to hear and see Him. If He didn’t then only the healthiest or the ones with friends to help them would hear Him. Jesus came to ALL the lost sheep of Israel (Matthew 15:24), not just the ones who could travel.

I think another reason was that news of healing might travel, but not the words He said. It’s natural for some of His words to travel. Would they remain unaltered? What about the harder sayings? The ones for which He LOST followers (John 6:59-66)? Would ANYONE report them? Or report them accurately or favourably? I doubt it. No, Jesus HAD to travel and get to everywhere He found people in order to talk to the largest number of Jews. And since signs and wonders followed Him everywhere He preached and taught, He was also bound to help the largest number of the sick, possessed, and infirm too. Jesus was ALWAYS willing to heal, but without the preaching and teaching there was no TRUST in the people that Jesus could enable healing. Healing was the proof He was telling the truth, but the preaching and teaching were vital for that proof to present itself.

Any town that had at least ten men who were practising, reverent Jews could establish a synagogue. That was where the Old Covenant scriptures were read (of course they didn’t call them the Old Covenant) and discussed by the men present. These synagogues were where Jesus based His ministry. Again and again through the Gospels we see that Jesus was in the synagogue on the Sabbath. It was where He could teach and explain the scriptures. It was where He could find people HUNGRY to hear the Word. Hungry to understand it.
He didn’t stay in them though. He also went into the towns. Into the wild places. Anywhere He could find people. The people who didn’t know they were hungry. The people who were ‘unclean’ and couldn’t get into a synagogue. The people who were tired of all the rules and ways to ensure the rules were getting kept. The people who were tired of trying to understand or were too busy trying to make a living or survive to bother. Jesus didn’t leave ANY behind (Luke 15:1-7).

Is there any reason why we can’t do the same? Jesus said that we could. “I tell you the solemn truth, the person who believes in me will perform the miraculous deeds that I am doing, and will perform greater deeds than these because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12-14). If we are trusting in Jesus and living our lives in HIM, the Word says we WILL perform the miraculous deeds Jesus did. Which means part of that living in Him will include teaching and preaching because that is how Jesus operated.

Trust comes when the Word gets into our hearts (Romans 10:17). Jesus didn’t come to condemn us (John 3:17; 8:11). Jesus came to open our eyes to the way He was making between us and His Father (John 14:6). Without hearing and realising there IS a way, no one can hope for help. Spiritual help, physical help, emotional help, or situational help. None of it is possible unless we can hope for it. We cannot hope for it if we don’t know there is a source for help. A source that we are allowed to access. A source that can be relied on. The Word assures us of those things – and more (2 Corinthians 4:18). The foundational truth of the Word is this: “Now without faith it is impossible to please him, for the one who approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). We see it again and again. Seek Adonai and be rewarded.

None of us deserve ANYTHING. It is OUR sin that causes war. That causes strife. That uses the harsh and dark ways of this fallen world for our own ends. We use harsh words and deeds, not gentleness and kindness. We use violence, not peace. Righteous judgment, mercy, and trust are foreign to us. We are inherently selfish and operate based on our feelings. Even the generous and kind things we do we do because of how we feel, and not some universal moral right. Even what we call human rights come down to things WE want to make sure WE get. We DESERVE punishment and judgment. What we GET is Mercy in His Grace through Jesus who paid OUR price.

“In this way what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah was fulfilled: He took our weaknesses and carried our diseases” (Matthew 8:17). Jesus took ALL of the curse upon Himself. He took it and carried it to the tree upon which He hung as payment for all we have done and all that we are (1 Peter 2:24). He did it so that we could be divorced, separated, and become dead to sin. He did it so that we could begin to live in righteousness. To live as Jesus did – no want, no lack, no sickness, no disease, no toil, and no emotional baggage. To DO what Jesus did AS Jesus did it (John 14:31) – in accordance with the Word (Matthew 6:10). Enabling us to live selfless in Jesus as we seek to live according to Adonai’s point of view (Luke 22:42). To be OVERCOMERS (John 16:33) and not reeds blown about by the winds of the world (James 1:6-8).

We HOLD to our trust. We hold it tightly. We stand on the promise that Adonai watches over His Word (Jeremiah 1:12). He doesn’t watch over it for fun. He actively interacts with the Word to see it fulfilled. When our trust is in Jesus and we pray, talk, act, and worship according to the Word as the Father directs us (often through the Holy Spirit – John 14:25–26; Galatians 5:16-26; 2 Timothy 3:16), then we KNOW the Word will come to pass. “And this is the confidence that we have before him: that whenever we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in regard to whatever we ask, then we know that we have the requests that we have asked from him” (1 John 5:14-15).

Preach the Word. Teach the Word. Let the Father work and move through us as HE wants. Put your SELF aside. Grow smaller as He increases (John 3:30). You will have a more exciting life. You will have a more fulfilling life. You will have a healthier, more prosperous life. Regardless of your situation, you will have Peace and Joy and abundance running over. It is a life like no other. It is the way life was always SUPPOSED to be.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Psalm 45:7-8

“You love justice and hate evil. For this reason God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of joy, elevating you above your companions. All your garments are perfumed with myrrh, aloes, and cassia. From the luxurious palaces comes the music of stringed instruments that makes you happy.” Messiah would be anointed physically as well as spiritually. He would walk in the anointing of Adonai. He would also walk anointed of men. “Today your Savior is born in the city of David. He is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). “Now while Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of expensive perfumed oil, and she poured it on his head as he was at the table” (Matthew 26:6-7). “Now one of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. Then when a woman of that town, who was a sinner, learned that Jesus was dining at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfumed oil. As she stood behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. She wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and anointed them with the perfumed oil” (Luke 7:36-38). Jesus was declared Messiah at birth (spiritual anointing). Jesus was also anointed with costly oil on TWO separate occasions. Once in a leper’s home and once in a Pharisee’s home. Jesus was ANOINTED in EVERY way. Jesus IS the Messiah!

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

Yeshua is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Matthew 16:16b