← ArchiveMatthewMatthew – The Untouchables (Matthew 8:1-13)DateJune 15, 2025SpeakerDr Josh BurnhamTextMatthew 8:1–13Passages in this sermonMatthew 81:17TranscriptMachine transcribed. Click any line to jump there.0:00We'll be right back. Welcome to the church that gathers here locally at Bethel.0:30My name is Josh, and I want to invite you here. Not only are you welcome here, but you're wanted, because we believe fundamentally that when we gather in the name of Christ, we're two or more gathered. And I don't know about you, but I am here today because of Christ.0:56So if I can get one amen, that's two. We know then the promise that the Lord is here with us also. So whether you're in the balcony, in the VIP seats, whether you're in the cheap seats, whether you're on the couch watching from home, thank you for worshiping with us today. We're going to open the word in the book of Matthew chapter 8. Matthew is the first book in the New Testament, and chapter 8, verse 1 begins this way,1:23when he came down from the mountain. You see, Jesus had been waiting his entire earthly life for this moment. On the mountain, he had just preached the world's best sermon. It could not have gone better. It went viral. I can imagine people leaving the mountain, going east to Nazareth, speaking to themselves,1:51saying, can you believe what we just witnessed? This prophet from Nazareth, he preaches like someone who has a new authority. We know the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue, that tell us, do not murder. But this man says, if we have hated someone in our heart, we have committed murder. Maybe they were going north to Choracene, or walking to the other side of the Galilee,2:15or maybe south to Magdala, to the commercial fishing village, and they were speaking to each other because they were cut to the heart. We know what Moses said, do not lust, but do not commit adultery. But Jesus says, if we have lusted in our hearts, that we have committed adultery. Who is this man? And as they are leaving, crowds are following Jesus Christ. And I can imagine Jesus is thinking, okay, here we go.2:44I'm about to be on the front page of the Jerusalem Times. I'm going to sit down. We're going to have a sermon discussion panel. We might call it Nine Marks at Nine, post-Beatitudes edition. But something is different about Jesus. You see, if the law is universal, Jesus now applies it personally.3:08And he meets someone along the road coming from the greatest moment in his life, which we would call an untouchable. And actually, Matthew stacks three untouchables together. The third is a lady who Jesus heals. The second is a centurion who is ethnically outside the bounds of God's love from the Jewish thought.3:35And the first is a man who would have to say, unclean, unclean, unclean, don't touch me. And Jesus, who had been waiting his whole life to reach stardom, speaks directly to this individual.3:58And before we read the scripture, I think this is what God wants us to know. There are times in our lives where we need a Sermon on the Mount. We need the word of God in our ears to change our life. But there are times where we just need God to put his hand upon us because we know his word.4:24And we say, God, I know what you say, but I'm unclean. Lord, get away from me. And in those moments, Jesus reminds us that he is not too distant to transform your life. So today's message is simply called the untouchables. And before you think, well, I'm not one of them.4:52We are. We are they. Matthew 8, verse 1. When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him. And right away, a man. Now, what's the man's name? I spent my whole life studying the Bible and I've not found it yet. We don't know. And maybe that's way, maybe that's God's way of saying, from the world's perspective, this man doesn't have a name.5:18He doesn't have an identity. But Jesus knows him. He had leprosy. And he came up and he knelt before Jesus. And he said, Lord, if you are willing, because I know you're important. And I know you speak to thousands. I'm just one. But Lord, if you're willing, just please lay your hand upon me.5:48Have you ever felt like that? God, I know you're worried about taking care of the whole universe right now. But if you would just see my need, it would change my life. He said, can you make me clean? Jesus, reaching out his hand, touched him and saying, I am willing to be made clean. Immediately, his leprosy was cleansed. Then Jesus told him, see that you don't tell anyone, but go show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded as a testimony to them.6:15Let us pray. Father, the grass will one day wither. And the flowers will one day fade. But your word, Lord, your holy word, your living word will live forever.6:46Father, we confess that we're not simply reading about untouchables today in your word. We are them. Father, some of us need to hear a word from the Lord in our ears today. And Lord, there are others of us that simply need a touch from the Lord upon our shoulders.7:15So we confess and we appeal to you, Father, no matter where we are or where we have come from. We thank you for the promise that when we draw near to you, you will draw near to us. Lord, touch us even when we are untouchable. We pray this in Jesus Christ's holy name.7:44Amen and amen. Well, let's see what happens when the Holy One touches what the world avoids. Again, Matthew 8, verse 1, Jesus doesn't begin this section with a polished or professional lecture. Jesus encounters this individual and these outcasts. Again, there's a leper in verse 1. There's the centurion in verse 5.8:13And then there's the mother-in-law in verse 14. Now, she's not untouchable because she's a mother-in-law. So if you make that joke, you do not have pastoral approval. But she's untouchable because she's a female in the first world, ancient world. And they would say, Jesus, you don't have time for her. But praise be to the Lord that we have a Savior who has time for us. And so we see this leper.8:44Now, the first miracle records isn't flashy or platform, it's deeply personal. Now, again, the leper has no name. Actually, you know more about his condition than you know about his identity. Because I believe that his condition and his infirmity has become his identity. He has leprosy. He's ravaged by it and a heart likely hollowed out by years of shame. Can you imagine if everyone that comes in contact with you or near you, you had to say,9:11Hey, Ed, back up. Unclean. And in the first world, because they didn't know how to treat leprosy and because it was highly contagious, they had something that you don't know anything about. But there was a word in the ancient world called quarantine. I'm not making this up. And they would say to protect society, you had to live by yourself.9:36Not seven days, not 14 days, but potentially for the rest of your life. Society considered the one who had leprosy to be cursed by God. It's one thing to be sick. It's another thing for the world to say you're sick because God has abandoned you or cursed you.10:02And it's your fault. Can you imagine the weight that this man had? And in the eyes of the law, he was untouchable. Leviticus said that he had to live outside the city, away from his family, away from worship, and away from life. And I believe when he cried out, unclean, that was a warning about his soul.10:27He wasn't simply saying, my hands are unclean. I have, I have itchy skin. He was saying, my soul is unclean. And if you get near me, I will contaminate you. Let me just say this. If sin has cast you far from joy, if you feel like you have leprosy today, maybe it's your shame has made you feel unfit for God or church or for worship.10:51Christ did not recoil from this man's defilement. In fact, Jesus goes towards him, not away. So if you are living in shame today because of who you are or what you've done, Jesus does not recoil from your condition.11:22In fact, the gospel can change your life. So Jesus speaks to this man. Actually, the man puts his cards on the table and he says, Jesus, I have leprosy. And he kneels before him. Now, you might recognize that verbiage, but it's been a while. It's been about eight chapters, give or take, maybe seven chapters since you've heard that word kneel.11:47But you would be wise to remember that word because the last people who knelt before Jesus Christ were the magi. Those who came and presented their gifts to Jesus. So I don't think he was kneeling simply out of ceremonial respect. Matthew is connecting the dots to say this man probably knows something deeper about Jesus than the crowd on the mountain knew about Jesus.12:12Now, he wasn't on the mountain because he wasn't allowed there. But that didn't stop Jesus Christ from touching him, did it? So he kneels before Christ and he says, Lord, if you are willing, heal me. Cure me. Fix me.12:41Fix me. That's not what he says, is it? No, this leper says, if you're willing, cleanse me. You see, I think he knows that he needed more than just a fix for his life. The word cleanse was a spiritual word. I think he knew Christ. I think he knew Christ. I need you to cleanse my life. Leprosy was a spiritual death sentence.13:09This man wasn't just suffering in his body. He was exiled from belonging, from dignity, from worship. Modern day Hansen's disease, which is, yes, partly leprosy. But in the ancient world, leprosy included more than Hansen's disease. But the modern day leprosy, Hansen's disease, can disfigure you. You have no nose or your skin can be just, your hands will be mangled.13:36And can you imagine the stigma of that living in society? He needed more than a fix. He needed to be cleansed. And maybe that's where you are today. You see, if we're honest, sometimes we come to Christ and we simply want, we want him to fix the urgent need. He could have said, Jesus, I have leprosy.14:05I need you to cure my leprosy. And that's like us in a lot of ways. God, I need a job. Fix it. Right? God, my son or my daughter has wandered away in today's Father's Day. And it's a heavy day. It's a difficult day. God, fix it. God, I've messed up again. I have shame and guilt. God, fix it.14:34But Jesus wants to do more for you than fix it. He wants to cleanse you. And praise be to the Lord that he doesn't stop at superficial fixes in us. See, we live in a world that offers you quick cures. Suffering, drink it away. You won't remember how much you suffer today, but the world doesn't tell you that you will wake up tomorrow and you'll wake up with more suffering.14:57Relationship issues, just cheat. Right? Just go somewhere else. And in doing so, you destroy that and you destroy yourself. And I would consider to you today that if you think that this service today is a fix for your soul, that's a temporary band-aid.15:18If you say, well, I'm going to come to Bethel today because I love the pastor, which many of you have said. And he's going to preach the second best sermon behind the Sermon on the Mount.15:45And I am expecting that sermon to fix my ailing soul. I can't do it. And this church can't do it. And not even if Pastor Jared sings your favorite worship song, out of your favorite hymnal, or your favorite new modern gathering, it will not fix what only Jesus can cleanse.16:05Maybe we should just confess to the Lord today, Jesus, would you cleanse me? It's me. I need your touch.16:34That's quite surprising, I think, first of all. But I think there's something even more surprising than that. The request, the kneeling, the posture that we should be taking. In verse 3, Jesus does something that's not kosher. Jesus reaches out his hand and he touches him. Which breaks social convention because if Jesus touches the man who is unclean, then Jesus becomes unclean.17:03And if Jesus is the Son of God, how dare the Son of God become unclean? Can't we just say out loud, Jesus should have known better. Who does he think he is? And actually, Jesus doesn't think he is anyone. He knows who he is. And I think in that moment, Jesus understands that the man just doesn't need healing.17:30He needs more. Because in a moment, we're going to read verses 5 through 13, not yet. And in that section, Jesus heals the centurion's servant by speaking. He just says, hey, you're here with me now, but I want you to know when you go home, your servant is healed. So Jesus can heal by proxy, by direct message, right?18:00Jesus is texting and saying, okay, done. He's healed. Thumbs up. So Jesus can heal the man with leprosy by distance. Why doesn't Jesus heal the man with leprosy by distance then? Because he knows the man hasn't been touched in years. There's no one that's held his hand and drawn him close and said, you're a person again.18:31You're loved again. You see, he didn't need a fix. He needed to be restored. And Jesus heals him by touching. And don't miss the point. The point is not the healing. Now, the leper would probably say, no, Pastor, you missed the point. That was my point. The healing shows us the heart of Jesus.19:01That he can touch the unhealable. He can redeem the broken. That's exactly what Christ does in this moment. And it's a reminder, you are not too far gone. So if you've walked in here today and you feel like a leper, maybe you're not disfigured, but maybe you have, maybe you're rich and you have, you have done everything the world has said, obtain.19:21And it's not enough. And it's not enough. You have the house. You have the job. You have the retirement. You have the championship rings. You have the participation trophies. But you're missing something.19:50Would you come to Christ today and say, Jesus, I need you to cleanse me. Because the world is not enough. You are not too far gone. And maybe you've walked in here and you say, well, I don't have an internal problem. I have an external problem. If you look like me, if you, if you had the shame I had, you, there's no way you would say the things that you can say through the word of God. And I would say, no, Jesus can touch anyone and change their life.20:17Would you have the boldness today not to pray, God, fix it, but Lord, redeem me. This is the power of the gospel. What happens when the Holy One touches the untouchable? Now, some of you are hardheaded. And I know because I'm one of you. And we miss it.20:46So we say, okay, that's a good story. And Matthew says, okay, well, buckle up. I'm going to give you another healing. So verse 5. Again, Matthew is displaying the heart of God to his people. When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, pleading with him. He said, Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed in terrible agony. Now, you might think, well, this guy has everything. He has servants. He has maids. He has had to clean his house.21:16But the Roman soldier, when they were conscripted, they had to leave their family if they were allowed to have a family during their period of service. So in this moment, the only family that this centurion had was his servants, which might be why some textual variations actually say that it was his son, because it was his servant who might as well have been his son.21:31And he said to him, and he said to him, am I to come and heal your servant? Verse 8. Lord, the centurion said, I am not worthy for you to come under my roof, but just say the word and my servant will be healed.21:56For I, too, am a man under authority, having soldiers under my command. I say to this one, go, and he goes. I say to another one, come, and he comes, and to my servant, do this, and he does it. This verse right here, verse 10, it is the hinge of the entire passage. Hearing this, let's pause there.22:26I know we're modern readers, and we just, we know the Bible, and so we lose the value of reading it for the first time. What did Jesus hear? It's not rhetorical. What, you can cheat, you have your Bibles. What did Jesus hear? He heard faith. He heard a man who was not in the covenant community say, Jesus, I don't really fully know who you are, but I know if you just say the word, if you thumbs up my request, God hears you, and you can heal him.22:52And Jesus was like, dude. Look at verse 10. Jesus was amazed and said to those following him, truly I tell you. I have not found anyone in Israel with so great a faith.23:23So just draw a circle around you right now. Jesus is speaking to people in the circle, and he's saying, hey, I don't know anyone in the circle that has faith like this guy who's outside of the circle. He said, I tell you that many will come from the east and the west to share the banquet with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.23:48Then Jesus told the centurion, go, as you have believed, let it be done for you. And his servant was healed that very moment. So first we have ceremonial uncleanliness that prevents this man from knowing Christ, the leper.24:15Now we have ethnic boundaries. We have a man who the world will say, he doesn't look like us, and so we can't, he can't worship with us like we desire because he's on the outside. He's on the other side of the tracks. He wears crimson, we wear blue and orange, or maroon and white, or purple and gold.24:40And we laugh about that, but how often in our lives do we draw boundaries? And we say, you can't be with us because of who you are, or what you wear, or where you were born. And Jesus says, watch this, because the gospel tears down the boundaries of flesh.25:04There's neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, rich nor poor in Christ. And that day, that centurion realized, I might be far from the sons of Israel, but Jesus is not too high and mighty to redeem me individually.25:30So let's look what happens. Jesus heals from a distance. He heals the leper up close, and he heals the centurion from a distance. And so I don't know where you are or where you come from, but if you don't think God can heal you or touch your life, Jesus says, I don't care how far you are, I can heal you.25:54I can change you. And Jesus was amazed. Often in the New Testament, the word amazed is used, but it's always used, or almost always used, as people being amazed at Jesus Christ. They're amazed at the way he speaks. They're amazed at the way he loves.26:23They're amazed at his compassion. They're amazed at his power. Rarely is Jesus amazed at anyone. And yet he's amazed at this man. Why? Because he has people under his control? No. Is Jesus amazed because this centurion deeply loves his servant when he can easily find another one? No.26:53No. He's amazed at his faith. And because of his faith, he says to him, go, let it be done for you. Your faith has made it well. You see, faith like this moves the heart of the Son of God. You want to move the heart of Jesus Christ? Have faith in him. You can't move the heart of God by singing, by giving, by serving enough, by doing enough.27:22Jesus says, if you want my heart, believe fully. This faith moves the heart of God. I don't know about you, but I want this faith. I want faith that moves mountains, a little faith. Because a little faith in a great God is still great faith. And don't misconstrue what's going on.27:50Faith is a fitting and the only fitting response to a righteous and merciful God. But Jesus doesn't heal the centurion servant because the man had perfect faith. Some of us read this and say, I'll never have faith like this. That's not the point. The healing wasn't caused by his faith as if faith were some magic formula to move God to act. No, the healing came in response to faith.28:19And it is faith in God that helps us receive the salvation of God. So what is faith? Faith on its basic level is trust. You say, pastor, is that all? That's all. It's not bravado. Not performance. Faith is to trust in the restful, soul-deep confidence that Jesus Christ is enough.28:47And I love what happens because the faith of the centurion did not come after the miracle. Did you catch the chronology there? The centurion doesn't say, Jesus, if when you heal my servant, then I will believe.29:15No, he has the trust to say, Christ, you are enough. Do you have faith like that in your life? Do you have the faith that say, God, if you never give me the miracle I'm praying for, I trust you. I don't get it. I don't know what you know.29:47I might not even be okay with it. But God, I trust you fully. Augustine once said, faith is to believe what we do not see. And the reward of this faith is to see what we believe. You don't have to trust Jesus until you have all the answers. Trust him now.30:16And you will see the things that only faith allows you to see. Jesus was amazed. Jesus was amazed. That's captivated me this week. Because we sing songs, you know, amazing grace. How sweet the sounds. That saved a wretch like me. But rarely do we think or ask God, God, are you amazed by me today?30:43And that's the wrong way to say it, but to pray, Lord, I want you to be amazed by my faith. What would it be like in your life if Jesus turns to the angels today and say, hey, guys, you see? Do you see Nathan's faith? Do you see Bob?31:14Like, he doesn't believe us because of what we do. He believes me because I died on the cross for his sin. This is the faith that we need. What would it take for Christ to be amazed by your faith today? My prayer is that that is our prayer.31:43Because when Jesus changes an untouchable's life, the world takes notice. Let me say it this way. When Jesus changes your life, the world takes notice. Would you have deep, soul-resting trust in Christ today?32:13There's a song that some of you know. It's not a new song. For Jesus shed his precious blood, rich blessings to bestow. Plunge now into the crimson flood that washes white as snow. Only trust him.32:45Only trust him. Only trust him. Only trust him now. He will save you. He will save you. He will save you now. As we sometimes do, I'm going to invite you that if you today would desire the Lord to work in your life.33:04And maybe you're here and say, I just want someone to pray over me. I'm going to invite you to stand where you are. And we want to acknowledge that and pray over you. And here's my charge. Firstly, to our dads in the room. Father's Day, about to get personal. What would our world look like if every dad in the room stood up today and said,33:37God, I don't care if I'm the best provider. I don't care if I'm the best cook or the best lecturer. But God, if my children know nothing else today, I want them to see my faith. What would that look like? How would our homes change? And how would our community change if every dad stood up and said, God, give me just a little more faith to believe today?34:05That's my prayer. So I'm going to invite all of our dads. Would you be bold enough to stand up today and say, I want people to pray over me. I want Matthew 8 faith. Give me centurion faith today. Would you be willing to stand up and say, I'm in. I don't know what it looks like. I don't know where it leads.34:34I don't have to know where it leads, but I want that faith. What would our community look like? Maybe you're here today and you say, well, I need to come to faith in Christ for the first time. Our pastors will be in our front. We will pray over you. If you just want to stand up where you are and have someone pray. Here's what I'm going to ask you to do, though. If you are near someone who is standing, if you would pray over them as we sing.35:02If you don't want to pray out loud, pray quietly. If you don't want to pray quietly, pray out loud. But would you acknowledge these men who are standing and say, I see them and God sees them. Give us centurion faith. That we would trust, right? Only trust Him.35:33Only trust Him. Only trust Him now. He will save you. He will save you. He will save you now, Father.← Previous in MatthewMatthew – The Sermon on the MountNext in Matthew →Matthew – Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-23)More sermons on Matthew →
