The Significance of Jesus' Healings

VIII. Jesus’ Healings Continue to Indicate His Restoration of Creation and of Israel, the Corporate Adam

A. Healings were acted out parables of Jesus’ mission to spiritually heal, i.e. to forgive.

B. Jesus continues to re-establish the tribes of Israel.

C. After re-establishing the tribes, Jesus begins to send them out to begin the mission to the ends of the earth, beginning with Israel first.

IX. John the Baptist and His Relationship to the Redemptive-Historical Ministry of Jesus.

A. Jesus has come to begin to fulfill the great prophecies of Israel’s restoration from Babylon.

B. John the Baptist was the fulfillment of the prophecy that Elijah would come again in the end times.

X. Jesus Begins to Announce Coming Judgment on Israel.

A. This is a development of John the Baptist’s earlier condemnatory statements about the leaders of Israel in Matthew 3:7-12.

B. Nevertheless, Jesus offers the “rest” promised by the OT.

XI. Jesus Redefines What a True Israelite Is.

A. Because Jesus is not only restoring Israel but also is restoring all of creation, including gentiles, the true people of God cannot any longer be marked out by certain nationalistic badges which sometimes distinguish nations from one another.