The Fame of Jesus and My Testimony

MATTHEW 4:23-25

23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. 24So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them. 25 And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.

It is interesting that Jesus' FAME grew as He healed everyone and proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom.  Where were all those people when He was crucified?  

That begs the question, How does Jesus want us to make Him famous? How do we glorify Him?  I want to point out two particulars of this story.

First, Jesus wasn't proclaiming the good news we are familiar with today. The good news that His death would take the place of our damnation, the good news of His resurrection, and the transmission of His righteousness to our account, which would provide the only means unto eternal life.  (That is the gospel we have today, but that was not the gospel being preached by Jesus or His disciples).  

Jesus was preaching the observable invasion and reign of God's active sovereign rule over a people enslaved to their own sinful pride and desires.  He was also preaching that He was the manifestation of that authority.

Second, in His own day, Jesus was famous because He gave people the hope of a ruler who would take care of them according to all of their temporal desires.  When it wasn't working out the way they envisioned, they turned on Him in rage and celebrated His torture and death.

Think about how we respond to His Gospel message today.  The parable of the soils in Matthew 13 tells us that there are several different ways which people respond to His gospel.  All look genuine at first, but only one of them is a genuine response which leads to true repentance and life.

It begs the question for me, "Has my response to the Gospel made Jesus famous because my response points to who He is, or simply what He did?" "He paid my bills; He restored my marriage; He healed my cancer; He saved my little girl." But without intention, that doesn't really proclaim Him as God does it? Especially if the rest of my life and speech is not surrendered to Him.

Today, if you want to share Christ, the usual advice is to share what He has done for you.  I believe that is a necessary testimony, but I believe it has a proper place and time.  In the Bible, there is never a focus on simply what He did for someone.   Anytime the pharisees focused on Jesus, it was always on what He was doing for people, and He chastised them for it because they didn't see who He was through it.  The Biblical writers always focused on what He did because of who He was, is, and will be. His healing proved His authority over the physical realm. His nature miracles proved His authority over the natural realm. His teaching and responses to challenges proved His authority over the spiritual and legal realm.

What does our testimony reveal about Christ? I think it is easy to make Him my rescuer or my father or my friend, but I don't always hear in my own testimony or others, He is the one and only God Almighty. That's how people responded to Him when He met them. "My Lord and My God!"

God bless you today.  Live worthy of the hope to which you have been called, and the name which you have been given.  It's all about Him.

With you for His glory