He, that is Jesus, arose and left the synagogue. Of course, that after he'd been preaching and the astonishment of the people as he taught there. He left the synagogue and entered Simon's house. Now Simon's mother-in-law was ill with a high fever, and they appealed to him on her behalf, and he stood over her and rebuked the fever. And it left her, and immediately she rose and began to serve them. Now when the sun was setting, all who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him and he laid hands, excuse me, he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. Jesus from the time that he arrives on the scene publicly, is amazing one person after another. The scenes of his public appearances here in the early days of his earthly ministry seemed to always end with people being astonished. You didn't leave a moment when the Lord spoke or certainly when he performed some miracle of casting out a demon or healing those with various sicknesses. You left there deeply impacted by what Jesus had done. I pray today that the same is true for us when we meet together from Sunday to Sunday in our midweek Bible study. And as you meet with the Lord on your own and in your own private time of prayer and meditation and reading of God's word, I pray that our astonishment might grow throughout our lives. Jesus has cast out a demon. He has taught in a way that was so different and so much more powerful and authoritative than the people had ever heard from any scribe or Pharisee. And we saw that last week in the message that we tried to give on the authority and the power of Christ. And now the scene changes once again, but it's It's yet another powerful scene, if not one so publicly consumed in Peter's house, but then you have this great crowd of people that come, and the scripture tells us that he heals each one of them. But Jesus comes to Peter's house, and his mother-in-law, you know this story, she's sick. with a high fever and no telling what the particular disease was. Certainly malaria was a common disease of the time and the day and would lead to fever, but any number of things could have been the individual ailment. And Peter and those in the household were told, appealed to Christ. Erotao is the Greek, and it means a sincere, deep, personal request on behalf of another. Those in the household were deeply concerned about Peter's mother-in-law, and no doubt they had tried other traditional methods of healing, and she didn't get any better. And they appealed to Christ to heal her. And he's going to respond positively to that appealing. And the Scripture says that Jesus rebuked the fever. And that's what caught my attention as I began to study this passage of Scripture as God directed us in this way. He rebukes the fever. I want to speak to you today about the healing rebuke of Christ. the healing rebuke of Christ. Jesus wastes no time. He immediately responds to the request, and we're told again He rebukes the fever. You know, it might be said this way, that Jesus' entire life was spent rebuking sin And his entire life was spent as a rebuke of sin, and it demonstrated, again, his authority to overcome everything that was contrary to God's intended purpose for man. But he rebukes this fever, and in verse 39, that's exactly what we're told. He rebuked, he stood over her, he rebuked the fever, and it left. And that Greek word in verse 39, rebuked, is the same Greek word that was used when we're told that Jesus rebuked the demon, when he cast out the demon. He rebukes the fever. He treats the fever almost like the demon. He treats it as an intruder that needed to be commended to leave. He literally calls out the fever and says to it that it must leave. And that is, in a sense, what he was saying. He was saying, we might say this way, fever, it's not right for you to be here, so be gone. He rebukes the fever. And as I thought about that, I think that for all of us, there are many things in our lives that we might say it's not right that they're here. It's not right. In a way, I see Jesus saying that about this fever that Peter's mother-in-law was suffering from. He rebukes it, says it's not right that you are here. And there are many things in our own lives, are there not, where we might say the same thing. It's not right that that's here. It's not right that men and women commit sin and harm themselves and others. That's not right. And Jesus came to rebuke that. to say it's not right for that to be among us. And so be gone and it must leave. It's not right. We might think that men live their whole lives and they die and their bodies returned to the grave and to the dust from which it was made, never coming to know the God who made them. That's not right. That's not right. In Jesus' life, was a rebuke of that that is not right. Of all that isn't right, Jesus came to rebuke it. It's not right, we say, for men to live and to die without ever knowing any peace or purpose or meaning beyond the temporary pleasures of this world. That's not right. It's not right that people grow ill and pass away. To us, that's not right. It's not right that we suffer pain and sorrow and loss. In the household here, Peter and his mother-in-law sitting there, it's not right that she's sick. And Jesus comes on the scene and and they implore him and they plead with him. This isn't right. Jesus would you heal her. Things are not right. And maybe in your own heart right now there's something in your life or many things in your life and you say this is not right. I beg you to go to Christ with that. There are things in our lives that are not right. And Jesus, his entire life, when we look at it in a certain aspect and with a certain lens that I believe is an accurate way to look at his life, he came to rebuke all that is wrong in the world. And of course, all that is wrong in the world is rooted in sin. rooted in disobedience and rebellion against God. But you know, when men often say, this isn't right in my life, and that's not right. I'm not paid enough. I don't have a good enough job. I don't have the advantages that I should have. It's not right that I'm not rich and powerful. It's not right that I don't get to have this or that. Or it's not right that I have to go to school every day. It's not right I have to go to work every day. These things are not right. It's not right that people get sick. It's not right that we lose people to death. And sometimes when we think this way, when men think this way, they'll blame God. They'll point their finger at God and say it's not right. And God's to blame. Some will say God is the one who has the power to change all of this. They'll read the scripture in Genesis, and they'll point their accusing finger to God and say, why did he allow an opportunity for sin? He's the one that put the tree there, so he's to blame when Adam and Eve fall and eat of the fruit. He's to blame. Isn't that what we say sometimes? Isn't that how men and women think sometimes? If it's God's fault, if he had not allowed this to take place or that to take place, it's his fault. But you know, in a way, that's similar to saying a judge who gives a man and lets a man loose on bail, and that man then goes and commits another crime for that criminal then to say, well, it's the judge's fault. He's the one who let me out. It's like the child who's given an allowance, and when they waste it all on candy, they say, well, it's my mom and dad's fault. They're the one who gave me the money. Or this is perhaps more frequent. Sadly, a doctor gives a very specific prescription for a very specific need. and it's misused, and then complications arise, and people grow addicted to it, and people say, well, it's the doctor's fault who prescribed it to me, and granted, there's some accountability there, but the fault is ours. For you to blame God for the things that are wrong in your life is to misplace the blame. Now, listen, don't misunderstand me. There are things that are not right in your life for which you are not directly responsible. See Job as an example. But just because it's not your direct fault does not mean it is God's. Our position, listen, our position as sinners in a fallen world, that's to blame. The fact of the matter is Jesus came to make right all the things that men have made wrong, all the way down to this fever that afflicted Peter's mother-in-law. He rebukes it. He rebukes this fever and Jesus rebukes all that is wrong in the world by coming and taking upon himself the human flesh and becoming a man and living among us and dying on a cross to satisfy the law of God. And he makes right in that all that is ultimately wrong. Jesus' entire life was about righting the wrongs. It's about rebuking the wrong. One day, Jesus is going to speak a final word of rebuke against all sin and command it all to depart. One day and one day sooner rather than later, I believe we are going to hear the rebuking command of Christ that sin is to be forever done away with. In Revelation chapter 21 verse 4 and 5, He, Christ, will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more. For the former things have passed away, and He who was seated on the throne said, Behold, I'm making all things new. And in doing that, he rebukes all that is old and all that is sinful, and he rebukes the sin. Jesus is going to rebuke the tears of our sorrow here in this world. He's going to wipe the last one of them from our cheek. He is going to rebuke our pain. He's going to rebuke death itself. He's going to rebuke all these things. And as He rebukes them, they will have the same option that everything else Jesus ever rebuked had, which is to leave. When Jesus rebukes, that that is wrong leaves at His rebuking power. I want us to look very carefully today at this passage and what happens both with Peter's mother-in-law and with the crowd. I think there are a number of things that we can learn about Christ and about how he deals with people when we look at this. One of the first things I'd like to point out to you is that Jesus works here in an individual nature, one-on-one. He deals with Peter's mother-in-law, one woman out of many. Throughout his life, we find Jesus dealing with, healing, and saving individuals. I do not believe that Jesus ever spoke salvation over a crowd and said, you're all saved. I pronounce you all saved. It was always an individual experience between the one who was saved or healed and Jesus. Always. This year that we're now in of Jesus' earthly ministry in the fourth chapter of Luke, again, as we've said, it's been called and referred to as the year of popularity, great crowds came to see him. People from all over traveled far distances to hear this preacher from Nazareth, this one who people had heard could perform miracles. Great crowds, throngs of people would come and hear Jesus and desire to be near him and to hear what he taught. And certainly many brought, as we even in our passage today, brought people who needed to be healed. But there's a... there is a much greater focus in the Gospels with Jesus dealing with individuals than with a crowd. We could take time, there's at least 19 that I could list, I won't list all of them, of these individual encounters that are recorded in the New Testament. Here with first, this by the way is the first recording at least in the Gospel of Luke, if not all four Gospels, the first healing miracle of Christ is Peter's mother-in-law. One person Jesus in Luke chapter 4 later, he's going to heal. Prior to this, he healed the man with a demon. He cast out the demon. Jesus heals an individual leper. Jesus heals a centurion's servant. He heals the paralytic. one individual that was let down through the roof. He heals one man with a withered hand. He heals Jarrah's daughter. He healed the woman with an issue of blood, the man who was born blind, the man at the pool of Bethesda, the boy with an unclean spirit, Malchus' ear. He raised Lazarus individually. He heals a nobleman's Son, there is just a count, after a count, after a count in the New Testament, and in the Gospels in particular, where Jesus heals one on one, individually. He did not, I do not believe, though some have argued. Some of the reading that I did, they argued that Jesus just pronounced the whole crowd saved here, and I don't read the scripture that way. We'll say more about that in a little bit, but in many of these individual encounters, Think about it. In many of these individual encounters where Jesus healed someone, there were likely others nearby with the same affliction. But Jesus didn't heal the crowds. He healed individuals. There were other graves nearby when Jesus called Lazarus from the tomb. But Jesus does not call forth all of the dead from the tomb. In John chapter 11, he calls Lazarus. Jesus healed multiple blind men at different times instead of healing all the blind men in the world at the same time. Even in instances like the one before us today, where Jesus healed many, listen to the scripture very carefully. It says he touched his hands on every one of them. I believe when he healed them, he looked in their eyes. I believe they looked upon him. I believe there was an individual encounter with Christ on the part of these individuals that were in the crowd that day. Why does Jesus do this? Why is this important? Why am I making a point of this? Why didn't Jesus just heal everyone with a wave of his hand? We might ask this question, why doesn't Jesus just fix all the problems of all the world all at once? Why doesn't he do that? We think, and even might say things like this, if I had the power of God, I would make everything better for everyone. So why doesn't Jesus? I believe there are at least a couple of reasons that I would like to give to you to think about. First, listen, Jesus isn't interested in being your icon. or your hero who swoops in and out of your life when you have some need. He's interested in being your savior and your Lord and your friend every day. He does not want to merely be your get-out-of-jail-free card. He does not want to be merely the one you call when you find some trouble. Now listen, if you're in some trouble, Jesus is the best place to go. But this Jesus does not simply want to be at your disposal when you have need of him. Think about it carefully. I believe we need to think about this very carefully because I believe that much of Christianity, at least in the West and America, has become more concerned with the entertainment of the people than the healing of the person. The temporary pleasure of the crowd over the eternal peace of the individual. Jesus deals with individuals one at a time. He has the concern for all the world, but when I was saved, when I was 11 years old, I dealt with him and he dealt with me individually. Second, and I believe it's related to the first but different, If all that Jesus did was pronounce healing over all of the crowd, I believe the crowds would seek comfort instead of Christ. In fact, in John chapter six, we read something where Jesus acknowledges this, and there were a great crowd of people following him after he had fed the multitudes in a miraculous way, and they were still following him, and Jesus looked at them and said, you're not following me to find life, you're following me because you ate and were fed yesterday. He said, don't seek the food of this world. Seek the spiritual things that lead to eternal life. If Jesus simply healed everyone, I believe many, if not most, would never truly seek him or love him in the way that he desires to be loved at all. You know, many show up to be fed or blessed in some earthly manner by Christ, but few seem to show up just to be near Him and with Him. If Jesus fixed every problem you have in your life, would you still serve Him? If every problem you had in your life suddenly was dealt with in the way that you think best, Would you bow the knee and thank him? The ironic truth is, the ironic truth, I believe, is that our earthly pain and poverty, our earthly pain and poverty are far less deadly to us than our earthly pleasure and prosperity. You know, when we think about Jesus dealing with the individual, I think that many people would prefer it not be that way. They just prefer that Jesus work in the crowd in which they find themselves. Because you see in a crowd, many people, it's the only experience of Christianity that they know is Christianity in a crowd. all kinds of energy and all kinds of well-orchestrated service, all kinds of beautiful things to look at, wonderful singing to listen to. well-arranged and not really challenging sermons, but entertaining enough and storytelling enough to capture your attention for the 30 minutes that it's going to require. And they shuffle in, in a crowd of thousands, and they shuffle out with a crowd of thousands. And the only concept of Christianity that they have is in the midst of a crowd. And I believe that a lot of people would just prefer it to be that way. You want to know why? Because there's far less responsibility individually in a crowd. You can avoid it. There's far less accountability in a great crowd of people. There's a sense of belonging in the crowd. Many seem to be just fine sitting in a church pew in relative anonymity of the crowd, but avoid entirely any real and direct and true presence of Christ. They'd rather be lost in the crowd than found by Jesus. They'd rather be unaccountable in the countless numbers of people around them than to be solely alone standing before Jesus Christ who deals with men and women and children one on one. Anything but that. If the only Christianity you are familiar with is Christianity in a crowd, I I beg you to consider that. It's important. Do you know Christ? Are you willing to be with him whether the crowd comes or goes, whether they're present or not? Many might even prefer to think themselves saved because they're in the right crowd, but have never been truly in the presence of the Lord alone. But this is not how Jesus works according to the New Testament. He deals one-on-one. He heals individually. He saves individually. You know, I had heard of the need to be saved before God convicted me of my sin. I had been in the midst of many other people. I considered myself a Christian. I'd gone through the motions of being baptized and joining the church. I'd done all those religious things. I was part of the group. But I didn't know Jesus. He'd never worked in my heart. I found comfort in being a part of that crowd, but everything changed when Jesus called me. And, you know, when we think about the healing rebuke of Christ in Peter's mother, Peter's mother-in-law's case, it was a fever. Christ is going to come to you one day and he's going to rebuke your sin. and he's gonna rebuke your sins so that he might heal you. He's gonna convict you of it. He's gonna call it to your attention. He's gonna call you out of the crowd. He's gonna call you to himself and his rebuke of your sin is his call to you individually. Come to me, he says, all ye that labor and find rest. When I was a boy, I found comfort in that crowd. But that day that the Lord convicted my heart of sin, and I knew that I was lost before Him, and I knew and I admitted and acknowledged without any argument intellectually, there was no argument to be made, I was a sinner by nature, and I was a sinner by choice, and because of my choice, I stood condemned before God as a sinner, and He came that day and rebuked my sin, and He rebuked it so that He might heal me of it. Now, though many would prefer Christ to work in a crowd, think how much better it is that He works with an individual instead. Think of how much better it is. If Jesus just healed everyone all at once, listen, if Jesus would have just waved His hand over this crowd, and they all of a sudden, miraculously so certainly, were healed of whatever infirmity it was, they had no one to thank. He's over there at a distance. I never got to say thank you. Remember the 10 lepers that were healed by the way? Who came back? One. One came back and was pronounced, you're whole by Christ. lost in a crowd found by Christ. This rebuke of this fever in Peter's mother-in-law reminds us and shows us again that Jesus deals with people individually. And I believe the scriptures say it on purpose that Luke says he touched every one of them. And I refer you back again to chapter 1 as we've been working our way through this gospel. Why did Luke write this gospel to Theophilus, his friend? So that Theophilus might know and be persuaded of the things that he had been taught, and what a loss it would be if Jesus healed us somehow, but never spoke to us or never listened to us. We think we want salvation in a crowd, but we don't, not really. We need and desire, the human heart does, to be in communion one-on-one with our God, our Creator, our Lord, our friend that sticks closer than a brother. Surely these people, had they all been healed all at once as a crowd and in a global way, but not individually, they would have left a maze at being healed, but they would also go away without the opportunity to thank the one who had changed their life. I remember the day that I got saved and as joyful and as wonderful as that moment of salvation was, and it is incomparable. It's just the down payment I understand of that that I'm going to experience when I finally leave this world, which is one day out there in the future. And I don't know when it is, but when I leave this world, I know I'm going to be with Christ. And in that moment, it became real. And I knew and I understood whether there was a crowd of people there or not. I didn't care. I didn't know. I was dealing with Jesus, and as wonderful as that moment of salvation was when he gave me peace, it was a wonderful thing to be able to say, thank you. Thank you, Jesus. But if Jesus just heals in a crowd, how can you thank him? Jesus deals with you. He wants to. He wants to and he proved it again and again in his earthly ministry. This is how I work. This crowd had been, if they had been healed all together all at once, they'd have gone away healed, never having met their healer. And in meeting their healer, though instead they went away not only with newly recovered body, but a newly recovered purpose because I now know him and he knows me. This one who healed me, he's not some distant icon like popular culture likes to follow. He's not some hero that saves the day here and there. He's my hero who saves my every breath. and I know him and I walk with him. I fear there are many today who believe themselves healed who have never met the healer. Serious thought, I believe, should be given to that because the clear pattern of scripture shows that Jesus might teach the people, but he heals the person. Now, I think another thing that we see here as we try to make our way through this passage is we see his care for physical ailments. Some have made the mistake of thinking Jesus is entirely concerned with spiritual things and entirely unconcerned with our physical well-being. This isn't true. He is concerned. It does concern him. Some take what I have said earlier, already this morning, about the spiritual realities of the healing of Christ. They take that to the entirely wrong conclusion, and they believe Christ cares little about our physical pain and suffering. This is not the case. As Scripture clearly demonstrates, Jesus, we're told in Matthew 14, 14, had compassion on the crowds, and He healed their sick. James tells us Strongly, he rebukes the idea that we ought to ignore the physical ailments of those to whom we long to minister and serve. James says it this way in James chapter two, verses 15 and 16. If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled without giving them the things needed for the body. What good is that? Jesus is concerned about these things. If we then are to imitate Christ, then we too ought to do what we can to rebuke the poverty and the pain of the physical nature of those among whom we live. Now again, we know that the spiritual ailments are of much greater importance because no matter what we do, No matter how we might feed and clothe the poor, every one of those people whom we have fed and clothed is going to die one day. We know that the spiritual things of Christ are more important from an eternal perspective, but that does not dismiss our need to recognize that Christ is interested in our physical well-being here in the world. Consider this too. I mean, Lazarus, Jesus brought him forth from the grave. He called him from the dead and Lazarus left the tomb just to, at some point in the future, go right back. We think, you know, was it Ponce de Leon, Fountain of Youth? Want to find the fountain of youth so I can live forever. Do you want to know, perhaps? I'd have to think about it a while. Well, there's one that's worse, but I can give you a few examples of anything that would be worse than this. You found the fountain of youth and you drank from it and you lived here forever. That is not a blessing. That would be one of the greatest curses ever. I would say to you that after a few hundred years, you would go stark raving mad. You'd lose your sanity. It's not designed for this side of eternity to live forever. We think we want immortality here. It would be the worst thing we were ever given. There isn't a single one of us who would enjoy such a deadly gift. Yet, this does not mean that we should be dismissive of the physical needs of those to whom we long and attempt to minister. Remember this, God is, he's not, he's not done remaking me or you. If He has saved you, there's yet more work that is left, and that is the new body He's going to give you when you enter into eternity. But He's going to give you a new body. He's interested in the physical. We're human beings. We inhabit physical reality, and we inhabit that physical reality, I believe, in time and eternity. that body that we're going to receive will not be ever, I don't believe it will ever suffer pain, I believe I believe that it will know striving. I do believe that, but there is a striving that is a blessing that is joyful, that is fulfilling, that is hopeful, and then there is a striving that we so often encounter here on this side of eternity, which is none of those things, but it is draining and it is painful. That's not the kind, but those bodies that we receive then, I believe they're going to be able to handle the matchless glory of Christ and enjoy life eternal. I want to say just a few final things here today. We note with Peter's mother-in-law that the fever left immediately. We don't want to overlook that. Immediately it's gone. Christ rebukes it and it's gone. We've all had the flu, likely, and you're miserable for however many days. It's just horrible. Your brain's in a fog, your body hurts, you've got chills, you can't breathe well, the throat maybe even hurts, and all of these things, and then one day, Those symptoms are gone, and your body has fought the infection, and you feel better, but you know what? You're still completely exhausted, and a recovery time is needed, even after you start feeling better. It's not what happens when Jesus heals his mother-in-law, Peter's mother-in-law, hops up right out of bed, starts serving. What's next? When Jesus saved my soul, it was not a gradual process. It was not a graduation from one understanding level to another. I didn't go to Salvation 101, Salvation 201, and then the third year, Salvation 301, and then my senior year of Christianity, go to Salvation 401. When Jesus pronounced peace to my heart when I was 11 years old, he did the healing, and he did it entirely, and there was nothing left to be done. And in a moment, I was changed. And thus is said, I believe, about all who Christ changes. There was not a need for recovery. There was not a need for time for her to say, you know, just give me a little bit. I feel much better now, a little bit. I feel like I'm improving. No, she gets up and she does what you and I ought to do, by the way, when God heals us, begin to serve. Do not fail to serve when Christ has rebuked the pain and the sorrow in your life and given you peace. The healing rebuke of Christ. My thought, my hope is that we would see this and understand the very inescapable truth of Christ dealing with us as individuals. and that there is no such thing as corporate salvation. There is only individual salvation. There is only one-on-one knowledge of Christ. There is not, in the last day in Revelation, we do not read that we are, or in Thessalonians and in other places in Corinthians, when we read about the end time, we do not read that Christ is going to gather groups before Him. He says He's going to gather everyone before Him. That includes you and me and everyone else. And people say, well, how can that be? I have no trouble leaving that to the Lord, how he's going to arrange that. I'm with the psalmist in that I try not to exercise myself with things that are too high for me. I know what the scripture says and I trust what God has said in it. I pray that we would each one be individually connected to Christ, not merely as part of a congregation or a crowd, but that we would know him and that we each know the healing touch of his hand in our life. And if you don't, I encourage you to seek it. Seek it while it may be found.