The Healing of Peter's Mother-in-Law was a seemingly insignificant miracle in a day of many miracles nevertheless, the three synoptic evangelists deemed it important enough to record.
In Matt. 8:14-15 it said “And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever. And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them.
In Mark 1:29–31, it says, “And forthwith, when they were come out of the synagogue, they entered into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. But Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever, and anon which in the Greek is yoo-theh'-oce which mean immediately they tell him of her. And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up; and immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them.
In Luke 4:38-39, “And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house. And Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought him for her. And he stood over her and rebuked the fever; and it left her: and immediately she arose and ministered unto them.
In fact, if we were to search the events of that day, we will see that this was Christ's second miracle on that day in His adopted hometown of Capernaum.
His first miracle occurred at the synagogue on that Sabbath morning when He cast out the evil spirit from a man. Mark 1:23-28 says, “And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, saying, let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art, thou come to destroy us. I know thee, who thou art, the Holy one of God. And look at what Jesus did, Jesus rebuked him, saying, hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him.
And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, what thing is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him. And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee.
And let me stick a pin in right here, because I believe that we need to follow the example Jesus and tell the devil to shut up and hold your peace. I believe that we need to take authority of the devil and command him to shut his mouth and here the Word of the Lord. I’m sorry but I got a little sidetracked, but when I think about how the devil and his little imps tries to stick up their heads, I just want to tell them to just shut-up and sit down.
This want was his first miracle of the day, and the bible said that immediately his fame spread abroad throughout the entire region round about Galilee".
By the end of the day, it was recorded that the whole city was at the door, and not only was his mother-in-law healed, but the bible said that He healed many.
Remember that Mark's Gospel, is in all likelihood Peter's Gospel. Therefore, he includes more intimate details, such as the fact that Andrew lived with Peter along with Peter's wife and her mother.
Now this second miracle is in fact a private one, as opposed to His public miracles. And can I tell you that Jesus is interested in both aspects of our lives. He’s concerned about the private acts of our lives just as he is about the public acts of our lives.
Now imagine Peter's concern when his mother-in-law was unable to serve the Master, as well as his concern for her health.
As I was looking at this, Peter was probably returning from a fishing trip. How I came to this conclusion is because of Mark 1:16-23 which said “Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And Jesus said unto them, come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. And straightway they forsook their nets and followed him.
And when he had gone a little further thence, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets. And straightway he called them: and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him.
And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue and taught. And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes. And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, all of this was happening within the same episode
.
Now Peter may have been unaware of her condition, her disorder, or her sickness. In any event, Jesus solved the problem by healing her and thereby enabling her to serve them. Notice also the apparent good relationship between Peter and his mother-in-law, because he was concerned about her well-being. And when people are concerned about you, they will pray with you and pray for you, which means if they are praying then they are talking to the master, the one you is well able to handle your situation.
It is interesting to note that Luke says that these disciples (Peter, James and John, and undoubtedly Andrew also), "forsook all, and followed him". Notice that Peter still had his house in Capernaum. But please know that this forsaking was not an irresponsible abandonment of what Peter needed to sustain his family, including his mother-in-law, it was not an act of quitting his job or resigning from his commitment to provide, no he was following Jesus.
But look at what happen here. There was an issues, there was a problem, and there was a family emergency. And when the problem arose, they didn’t hesitate, they didn’t vacillate, equivocate, or procrastinate, what they did is they told Jesus. In fact, Luke 4:38 says that they besought him for her, Jesus is made aware of the situation.
And allow me to tell someone that is here this morning that if you have a problem, if you have a situation, if your family member is going through then you need to tell the Lord about it. If you are going through, you don’t need to postpone, dawdle, or delay you need to tell the master. You can tell me, and I can pray for you. But if you tell the Lord he has the capabilities to do something about it if it’s his will.
In this case it was his will to implement this miracle. In this case it was his divine will, his phenomenon sensation to perform this miracle. The reason that Jesus performed miracles was so that His disciples "might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God; and that believing ye
might have life through His name.
But also, the miracles were an outflowing of Jesus compassion for those around him. In this case, He took pity on Peter and his mother-in-law and granted her an immediate healing, whereas under normal circumstances it probably would have taken her several days to recover from the fever. I think I need to tell somebody that Jesus is sensitive to our circumstances, so with that in mind then we should not hesitate, to lay all our needs before Him in prayer.
And I believe that when Jesus heals us, then in return we ought to serve Him.
When Peter's mother-in-law was healed she did not become puffed up and proud, nor did she waste time with useless words about her experience. Instead, immediately she arose and ministered unto them.
So, allow me to put the whole story together. It was the Sabbath, and Jesus and His disciples had gone to the synagogue to worship and teach. The service was now over, and Jesus had apparently entered Peter's home to have lunch. Peter had probably invited Jesus to lunch for the main meal on the Sabbath came right after worship or twelve noon, which was about the sixth hour, because the Jewish day began at 6 a.m. and There is a strong picture here. Worship brought Jesus into Peter's home. Peter and the other three apostles had followed Jesus to worship. Upon leaving worship, Peter invited the Lord to be a guest in his home, and Jesus accepted the invitation to fellowship with him and his family.
When a person truly worships the Lord and invites Him into his home, the Lord will enter in and have fellowship with them. Yes, He willingly to becomes a guest of anyone who extends the invitation.
Because Revelation 3:20 says "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me".
When a person truly worships the Lord, that person is assured of Christ's presence. And since I’m in his presence, if I have a problem, I’m going to tell Jesus, if my family is going through I’m going to tell Jesus. Can I recommend to you that you ought to tell the Lord about your problems because he able to handle whatever you are going through?
I’m reminded of a story about a young man that was on his way to work one morning, as he was driving, he was praying and talking to the Lord about all of his problems.
As I was driving down a two lane highway a drunk driver veered over into his lane causing a major accident. The accident was so bad that it totaled his beautiful car. When the police arrived on the scene, all they heard the young boy say was BTG, the police officer said young man you are hurt very bad, the young man said BTG. The ambulance pulled up as the young man was laying on the ground and the paramedics began to question him about how he was doing, but the young man continued to whisper BTG.
They took him to the hospital and as the doctor examine him, and all they could hear him saying BTG, BTG, BTG. A few day after being in the hospital the attending physician came by his room to visit him and he said to the young man that you are looking pretty good for a person that was in a major accident, but when they brought you in all they could get out of you is BTG, and I just want to ask you what that mean.
The young man sat up on the side of the bed and said sir, a few days ago, I was dealing with a possible divorce, I had to file bankrupt, along with a few other problems.
But I remember what my grandmother told me. She said just a little talk with Jesus can make it all right. Well, I began to tell the Lord all about my problems when a car came into my lane and totaled car, broke a few of my ribs. I didn’t have a lot of breath yet so I just abbreviated BTG, the doctor interrupted him and asked him but what does that mean? He simply said it means By The Grace.
It was by the grace of God that I made it.
It was by the grace that I’m still here.
It is by the grace that I was able to talk to the Lord. And for someone that on the live this morning you have that same testimony; it was by the of the Lord that you have made it.
