#29. Luke 4:38-39 JESUS IN THE HOME OF SIMON PETER

Introduction:

In our previous text Jesus left Nazareth where the people attempted

to kill Him and returned to Capernaum. The people there welcomed Him

and were using Him as their principle speaker at the synagogue each

sabbath day. However, one sabbath day as Jesus was teaching, a man who

had demon spirits indwelling him yelled out against Jesus right in the

middle of the worship service. Jesus cast the demons out of the man.

All of the people were amazed at the great authority and power with

which Jesus spoke because even demons obeyed Him. Needless to say, all

of the people of the synagogue were very excited about what had

happened there that day.

I. Jesus going to the home of Simon Peter

When the synagogue services closed out Jesus went to the home of

one of disciples. V. 38, "And he arose out of the synagogue, and

entered into Simon's house." The Simon who is under consideration here

is, of course, Simon Peter. Simon Peter was one of the first men whom

Jesus called to follow Him and be fishers of men.

Simon Peter and his brother, Andrew, lived there at Capernaum and

prior to becoming a follower of Jesus, they had worked with their

father in the fishing industry. Our text makes it apparent that Simon

Peter owned a home there at Capernaum. Mark says that the home was the

home of both Simon Peter and Andrew, his brother.

At any rate when the worship service at the synagogue was over,

Jesus went to the home of Simon Peter and Andrew. It is apparent that

they had invited Him there. They had a home in that city and Jesus did

not. Some believe that Simon Peter and Andrew had invited to Jesus to

make this His place of dwelling as long as He was in the city. Their

home was His home. I strongly suspect that this was so.

Mark says that it was not only Jesus who went home with Peter and

Andrew on this sabbath day, but that James and John also went with

them. They had been friends in the fishing business and now they were

even closer friends in the ministry of Jesus Christ.

II. The bad news they received when they arrived

When they arrived at the home of the Apostle Peter, they were met

with bad news. (V. 38), "...And Simon's wife's mother was taken with a

great fever..." Now before we give out attention to her sickness, let

first give attention to the fact that Simon Peter was married. There

are those who teach that men who are in the gospel ministry should not

be married. In fact they make it much stronger than that. In their

particular denomination those who are in the gospel ministry cannot be

married. Their church simply will not allow it. If one of their

preachers does get married, they force him to give up his ministry.

These very same people teach that when Jesus left this earth and

went back to heaven that He left the Apostle Peter as the head of the

church. In other words, they say that the Apostle Peter was the

successor of Jesus as the head of the church.

Now it is not my purpose to bad mouth any other religious group for

holding to some belief which is contrary to that which Baptists hold

to. It does, however, fall my duty both to God and to you, to try to

point out to you the error of such teaching. It is my duty to show you

that what they teach on this matter is not in harmony with what the

Bible teaches.

In the first place, there is no place in the Bible that teaches

that the gospel minister should remain unmarried. The Bible teaches

that marriage is honorable. Hebrews 13:4 says, "Marriage is honorable

in all..." This is true not just of some men but for all men. This is

true even of the gospel minister. It was honorable for the Apostle

Peter to be married. It would be honorable for any of the other

apostles to be married. It would be honorable for any gospel preacher

to be married.

But now here is their inconsistency. If it is forbidden for gospel

preachers to be married, how is it that they hold that this particular

married preacher, Simon Peter, became the successor to Jesus as the

head of the church?

This is where they are wrong again. The Apostle Peter has never

become the head of the church. Jesus never gave up that position.

Jesus is still the Head of the church. Ephesians 5:23 reads, "For the

husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the Head of the

church..." The church does not have two heads. It has only One Head

and that Head is Jesus. The word, Head, here indicates the one who is

in charge, the one who is in authority, the one who is in command. And

that is Jesus Christ the Son of God. Jesus is the head of each New

Testament church.

Now before we leave this matter let me point out to you that some

seek to solve the problem by suggesting that Peter was no longer

married. They say that He had once been married by that he was no

longer married at the time that Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law.

They say she was at this time his former mother-in-law. But according

to I Corinthians 9:5 Peter was still married later when the Apostle

Paul wrote that letter to the Corinthians.

But now let us get back to the text and we note that when Jesus,

along with Peter and Andrew and James and John, arrived at Peter's

house. There were those who met them with the sad news that Simon

Peter's mother-in-law was very sick. Luke, as you may recall was a

medical doctor, and he avoids using the expression "deathly sick" or

"at the point of death." Luke chooses his words carefully and says

that she was sick of a great fever. The situation was, to say the

least, very serious. While she might not be at the point of death yet,

if she did not soon make a turn for the better, she might soon be at

the point of death. Death was a distinct possibility. It could go

either way. She was definitely so sick that she was confined to the

bed.

III. Jesus requested to heal Peter's mother-in-law

(V. 38), "...and they besought him for her." That is, on her behalf

they besought Jesus to heal her from her illness. They asked Jesus to

look in on her and to heal her. The impression I get is that she was

so sick that she was not able to come out to meet then and make the

request for herself. I suspect that all she wanted at that time was to

be left alone. When one gets just so sick, that is usually what they

want. They want to be left alone. But those who met Jesus and

informed Him about her condition make the request in her behalf that He

would heal her.

IV. The instantaneous healing

V. 39, "And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever..." Matthew

says that He touched her hand. Mark says that He took her by the hand

and lifted her up. But at the same time that He lifted her up with His

hand, He spoke to the fever and commanded it to cease. Just as earlier

that same day He had spoken to the demon spirits and commanded them to

leave the man at the synagogue, even so He now speaks to the disease

that had caused this fever and commanded it to be gone. He was most

certainly expecting fast results because He was lifting her up at the

same time that He was commanding the fever to leave her.

Now note carefully the next words in this text (V. 39): "...and it

left her and immediately she arose ..." Note that Luke did not say

merely that she arose. With somebody lifting her by the hand she could

have possibly arisen without being healed. But Luke said that the

fever left her and she arose. The fever immediately left her and she

immediately arose. She was well by the time she arose.

Then when she arose she showed the evidence that the fever was

gone. (V. 39), "...and ministered unto them." It was dinner time and

she immediately got us and started fixing dinner for her guests. There

is no question about it; this was a genuine miracle. This woman had

been desperately ill and now immediately she is up and working as if

she had never been sick.

V. The dilemma Peter would have faced if Jesus had not been there

But now let me ask you a question: What would have happened if

Simon Peter had not asked Jesus to come to his home? What would have

happened if Simon had just gotten up from the synagogue service and

went his merry way home and had left Jesus to provide for Himself the

best way that He could? Do you think that once Peter got home and

found his mother-in-law gravely sick that he would have turned around

and went looking for Jesus? Do you think that he would have found

Jesus in time and got Him back to his house in time to save the life of

his mother-in-law?

Well, of course, we have no way of knowing what would have

happened. But we can see that it was definitely to the advantage of

the Apostle Peter to have Jesus with him when he arrived home from the

synagogue. She may or may not have died if Jesus had not been with

him, but since Jesus was with him she did not die. It was definitely

to his advantage to have Jesus with Him when he came home.

But let us look at the motive of the Apostle Peter and even his

brother, Andrew, when they invited Jesus to their home. Perhaps, as I

have already mentioned, when they first arrived at Capernaum back from

Nazareth, they had invited Jesus to make their home His home. Or,

perhaps, this was the very first occasion when they invited Him to come

to their home and take food and find rest. But at any rate, I am very

sure that they were very glad that Jesus was with them on this

occasion. They would hate to think what could have happened if Jesus

had not be there. They were exceedingly glad to have His help.

But not knowing in advance that the mother-in-law would be

extremely sick, seeking His help was not their motive for inviting Him

to their home. What then was their motive? They invited Jesus to

their home to be of help to Him. They were not trying to get His help.

They were trying to help Him. They wanted to provide food for His

need. They wanted to provide for a Him a place to spend the night, a

place that was warm and comfortable, a place where He would be

protected from the weather. Where He would be surrounded by friends.

They wanted to help in any way they could the spread of the gospel

message. They wanted to do whatever they could in His cause. They

wanted to do something and they felt that this was something they could

do.

Most of all, they wanted to show that they love Him. They were

thankful to God for sending Him to the world. They were thankful to

God for the salvation of their own souls. They were thankful to God

for all that Jesus had meant to them and they just wanted to show that

they love Him.

VI. The dilemma people face today without Jesus

Listen, I wish that every home would invite Jesus in. Every home

needs Jesus. Some people may think they are getting along just fine

without Jesus, but they just do not know what is going to happen at any

time when they will need Jesus in a great way. At any time one could

come home and find a loved one desperately ill. Oh, sure, you can

carry the loved one to the doctor and to the hospital, but when the

doctor says, "I cannot help you" what then? When the best of doctors

can do no good, what then?

Oh, we can work with our hands and we can labor with our back and

we can earn our bread by the sweat of our brow. But when the job plays

out and you are told, "We don't need you any more" what then? Where

will you turn? To whom will you go?

Or if the effort to achieve peace in the middle-east does not

succeed and war breaks out and your loved ones have to go to war, what

then? Where will you find someone who can help you in your need?

Or when the end of your days run out and it is time for you to step

out into eternity, what then? What in this world are you going to do

if you do not already know Jesus as your Savior and Lord?

Please take a lesson from the life of the Apostle Peter. He did

not wait until he needed Jesus to heal his mother-in-law to invite

Jesus into his house. But when the trouble came and his mother-in-law

was desperately sick, Peter was extremely glad that he had Jesus right

there with him to face the problems of life with him. Let me tell you

that whatever problem you may face in life, those problems are a lot

easier to cope with you if you already know Jesus Christ as your Savior

and you have already invited Jesus into your home.

I have already told you that it may or may not have been too late

for Peter to try and find Jesus to help his mother-in-law if Jesus had

not been right with him, but he did not have that to worry about. He

already had Jesus right there with him. I can tell you that it will be

too late for you to try to stay out of hell if you wait until you are

dead to ask to be your Savior. Right now is the accepted time. Right

now is the time to call on Jesus and to trust in Him to save your soul.

If you are saved already then there is every reason in the world

for you to take Jesus into your home and let Him be the ruler in your

home. Let direct your life. Let Him lead you and guide you and show

you the way. Show the Lord that you love Him by the way that you live.

Do what you can to promote His cause in this world. I will guarantee

you one thing. You will see the time that you are very glad that you

are already saved and that you have already started to live your life

for Him.