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PORTRAITS OF JESUS TO IGNITE FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE: HE MAKES GOD’S PROMISES COME TRUE Matthew 9: 14-34 INTRODUCTION We are in the season of promise making in the United States. As most of us are aware we are in the midst of a presidential race. Al Gore and George W. Bush are crisscrossing our nation making promises about what they will do if they are elected to the Presidency. There are two questions that those who are paying attention to this race are asking. First, do each of these men really mean what they say? Do they want to keep the promises they are making? Second, are they able to keep the promises they are making? Many Americans are cynical about this entire process because they either don’t believe our politicians mean what they say or because they don’t believe our politicians have the ability to keep their promises. God has been making promises to human beings since he first created us. In fact, God’s first words to human beings were words of promise. His promise making did not end when Adam and Eve sinned against him. In fact, in the midst of his decree of judgement on the human race he promised that a descendant of Eve would one day destroy Satan, sin and death. There are amazing promises recorded in this book. God promised Abraham that he would become a great nation, that his descendants would be as numerous as the sand on the seashore and the stars in the sky. He promised him that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through his descendants. In Psalm 34:17 he says, "The righteous cry out and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles." In Jeremiah he says, "I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord. Plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope." While few of us will admit it, we ask the same two questions about God’s promises that we ask about the promises of politicians. Does he really mean to keep these promises? Is he able to keep his promises? We ask these questions because it often appears in our own lives that these enormous promises are not being fulfilled. Many people have stopped caring about the political process because they have seen so many promises made and not kept. In the same way many have stopped caring about the Christian faith because the same thing seems to be true in relation to God’s promises. Where is this peace and love and hope and joy that I keep hearing about? If God promises to provide for me, why have I lost my job, why is my child sick, why do I still struggle with sin? While it is not my aim to answer all the questions we might have about the seeming failure of God’s promises in our lives I do intend to show you from this passage in Matthew that… MAIN POINT Only Jesus can make God’s promises come true for you because… I. You can’t buy your way into God’s party, but Jesus can get you in (vv. 14-17) Jesus is in Matthew’s home having a meal with he and his friends when he is approached by some of the disciples of John the Baptist. They ask him why it is that they and the Pharisees skip meals for religious purposes and his disciples do not. We need to remember who John is before we are going to understand what is behind this question. If you’ll turn back a couple of pages in your Bible to Matthew 3 we’ll discover some things about John. Notice in vv. 1-3 that he is the person Isaiah said would come to prepare the people of Israel for the coming of the Lord. He told people to repent of their sins because God was about to show up. In vv. 13-17 he baptizes Jesus and clearly sees that Jesus is "the Lord" who would bring in God’s rule on earth. He knows that Jesus is God’s beloved Son. While Matthew doesn’t record it, we know from the other gospels that he told his disciples Jesus is the Messiah, God’s Savior. In fact, we know that at least Peter, Andrew, James and John were followers of John the Baptist prior to their becoming disciples of Jesus. So what is it that prompts John’s disciples to ask Jesus this question about fasting? These disciples of John have been watching Jesus and they are not seeing Jesus behave the way they expected the Messiah to act. Beginning at the time God brought Israel out of Egypt 1400 years earlier God has been promising to send a person who would bring all his promises to fulfillment. So for all that time the Jewish people have been waiting for a Savior to show up and make all of God’s promises come true. John’s disciples expected the Messiah to promote a particular kind of religious practice that included fasting. They have been told that Jesus is the Messiah, but they don’t see him promoting the practice of fasting and so they are questioning whether he is truly God’s Messiah. Jesus gives them two inter-related reasons as to why he is not promoting the practice of fasting among his disciples. Before I give them I want you to notice that Jesus does expect that his disciples will fast after he leaves. Notice the end of v. 15, "then they will fast." There is a place for fasting in our lives, now that the bridegroom has gone. But, when he was on earth he did not promote fasting. Why not? First, he uses the metaphor of a wedding. He is the bridegroom and his followers are his friends that have come to his wedding. Wouldn’t it be strange if the friends of the bridegroom were at his wedding reception, sitting in a corner crying and refusing to eat? That would make no sense. Either his friends would be nuts or they would not really love the bridegroom because they were not happy for him and rejoicing with him at his wedding. In the OT God is often compared to the bridegroom. So Jesus, in using this metaphor is basically saying that he is God and has shown up to save his people and it would make no sense for the people he has come to save to be crying and refusing to eat now that he is here. Rather, if you have been invited to the wedding, then you ought to be full of joy, not crying and sitting in a corner. The second reason as to why he is not promoting fasting among his followers is because now that he has come fasting and all other religious practices have changed. Now that he, God’s Savior, has come no one can practice fasting or any other religious activity in the same way. He changes everything. That’s the point of the two metaphors in vv. 16-17. The good news about Jesus is the new patch that cannot be sewn onto the old way of doing religious activity. He is the new wine that cannot be poured into the old skin of Jewish ritual and religious practice without destroying both Jewish religious practice and the new wine of his grace. Jesus is not saying that there will be no religious practices but rather that all religious practice has been radically changed by his coming. The Jewish people, like every other human being, think that God likes you or doesn’t like you based upon how you perform. If you fast and pray and read the Bible and give money to the poor, then God will like you and keep his promises to you. But if you don’t do these things then God won’t like you and he won’t keep his promises to you. This is what John’s disciples thought, this is what the Pharisees thought and this is what you naturally think. We, like John’s disciples and the Pharisees, don’t think we are that bad. We believe that all we need is just a little sprucing up with some religious ritual, some good deeds and God will be happy with us and happy to fulfill his promises. What we fail to realize is that the only obedience that will get God’s attention and earn his promises is perfect obedience. God doesn’t grade on a curve. The only way to buy your way into God’s favor is to obey every command of God perfectly. For example Jesus said the greatest commandment was to love God with your whole being and your neighbor as yourself. When he gives these commands he doesn’t mean, "Try to love me with your whole being". He doesn’t mean love him with your whole being on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. He means, every moment of every day every thought that enters your mind, every word that crosses your lips, every action you take should be motivated by love for God and should be an expression of your love for him. When God commands you to love your neighbor as yourself he doesn’t mean only if your neighbor is the same race as you. He doesn’t mean you should love others when there is no chance of you being hurt in the process. He doesn’t mean that you should love others most of the time, but when you’re in a hurry you don’t have to. He commands that every thought you have of another person, every word you speak to another person, every action you take towards another person should be motivated by a glad desire for good to come to that person. That is the only kind of obedience that will gain God’s approval. Guess what? You have never loved God like that and you never will. You have never loved even one person like that and you never will. That is why if you think that God is going to be kind to you and keep his promises to you because of what you have done, you are sadly mistaken. Fasting or any other moral or religious action will never change God’s attitude towards you. Our failure to obey his commands has earned from him anger and punishment. We are not on the guest list for his wedding party because we have done good things for him. Rather, the only people on the guest list are those who are the friends of Jesus. There is only one person who can gain God’s approval for you, who can make God’s promises come true for you. Only when he invites you to the party and brings you into God’s wedding banquet can you be sure of being welcomed and sure that God will keep his promises to you. Jesus paid the admission price by dying on the cross and he alone can usher you into the banquet hall of God. Only Jesus can make God’s promises come true for you because…
II. You can’t make yourself clean or give yourself life but Jesus can (vv. 18-26) Jesus is still seated at the table in Matthew’s house and is finishing his conversation with John’s disciples when in comes a ruler who kneels before him. This ruler is one of the leaders of the synagogue in Capernaum and therefore a very prestigious and religious man. He kneels before Jesus and informs him that his daughter has just died but that he knows that if Jesus will come and lay his hand on her she will live. I don’t think it is an accident that right after Matthew has told us how Jesus informed the Pharisees and John’s disciples that right standing with God is not based on religious performance that a religious man with a problem that no amount of religious effort can correct comes to Jesus. He responds to the need and the faith of this ruler and goes with him to his house. He does not go with him because of his religious performance or his standing in the religious community. While he is walking to the ruler’s house a woman who has been bleeding for 12 years comes up behind Jesus and touches his cloak. The problem this woman has experienced for twelve years is not only a physical problem. In the book of Leviticus God commands that a woman with a flow of blood cannot enter into the temple or take part in any religious ceremony. Anyone who touches her or anything she lies on or sits on also becomes unclean for a day and must go through a special ritual before he or she can enter back into God’s fellowship. So this woman has lived for twelve years separate from people and from God. She ought not to be in a crowd of people and she certainly ought not to touch Jesus. However, the only way she will ever be able to enter into fellowship with God and people is if the flow of blood is stopped. She cannot stop it but she is certain Jesus can cleanse her. This woman and this dead girl represent the condition of every human being. We are made unclean by our sin and cannot enter into fellowship with God without first being cleansed. He will not fulfill any of his promises to us unless we are cleansed and there is nothing we can do to make ourselves clean. In addition, we are spiritually dead, just like this little girl is physically dead and we can do nothing to give ourselves life. Dead people are the most helpless of all people. Both the woman and the ruler are fully aware of the situation they are in. They know they are helpless to change their condition. But they also know that Jesus can cleanse and he can give life to the dead and so both of them go to him and in going they find him willing and able to cleanse and give life. Is this how you think of yourself? Do you see yourself as dead, devoid of spiritual life apart from Christ? Do you view yourself as stained by your sin and therefore cut off from God’s presence and help? Do you see yourself as completely helpless to change your condition? But then, do you see that Christ is able to cleanse you and make you alive? Do you pursue him with the persistence of this woman, knowing that if you could just touch him, you would be made clean? Do you beseech him like this ruler to give you spiritual life and vitality? I am not just talking to those of you who are not yet certain that Christ has saved you. I am talking to everyone in this room. Somehow we have gotten it into our heads that once we have been saved by the grace of God in Christ we no longer need Christ to live. We need to know that all of us, whether we are Christians or not, in our natural selves are unclean and dead. We must daily go to Christ for cleansing and for spiritual life. Daily we must acknowledge our inability to cleanse ourselves from our sin or to create God’s life in ourselves. Each day we need another miracle of grace in our lives. You don’t have to live enslaved to sin and enveloped in spiritual deadness. Christ is able to cleanse you of your sin and to give life to your dead heart. All it requires is faith, confidence that Jesus is able to do as he promised coupled with the persistent pursuit of Jesus in prayer to do what he has promised. The reason we do not persistently pursue Christ to make God’s promises come true for us is because we do not really want his help. We are not concerned that we are unclean or that we have no spiritual life. We are not like this woman and this ruler because we do not have the same sense of desperation. As a result we do not experience his cleansing and his life. Only Jesus can make God’s promises come true for you because…
III. You have no claims on God, but Jesus has all authority to bestow God’s gifts(vv. 27-34) After Jesus leaves the ruler’s house and while the news of his resurrecting his daughter is spreading like wildfire around the city, he heads for home. Two blind men, after hearing that Jesus was passing by, begin to follow after him, yelling out, "Have mercy on us, Son of David." Now before we look at the rest of the story we need to know why in the world these blind guys would call Jesus, "Son of David." What does this mean? In 2 Samuel 7 King David tells the prophet Nathan that he wants to build a temple for the worship of God in Jerusalem. That night God speaks to Nathan and gives him a message for David. He tells him that not he but his son will build the temple and that God will establish the kingdom of his son forever. He promises David, "Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me, your throne will be established forever." David responds with one of the most moving prayers in the Bible. He ends it by saying, "Now be pleased to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever in your sight; for you, O Sovereign Lord, have spoken, and with your blessing the house of your servant will be blessed forever." Based on this original promise to David the prophets after this begin to talk with greater frequency about the son of David who will be the agent of God in establishing the house and kingdom of David forever. It is he that will be the agent of God’s salvation. Consider this one example from Jeremiah 33: 14-15, "The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the gracious promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land. In those days Judah will be saved." So these two men who cannot physically see can see with greater clarity than most others that this Jesus is David’s greater Son. They know that Jesus is the Messiah and that he is able to extend mercy to whomever he wants. They address Jesus as you would a king and request of him mercy. The sense of petitioning a king is heightened by the detail that Jesus has arrived home and they come into his house. It is the picture of people coming into the throne room of the King. When do people plead for mercy? Usually we think of mercy being asked for in a court of law. "I throw myself on the mercy of the court" is a cliché within our justice system. So it is here. These two men are asking the King if he might deal with them not as they deserve but rather would be lenient and kind. They do not approach Jesus demanding their rights but rather petitioning him as the one who has the authority to restore their sight as an act of kindness bestowed upon them contrary to what they deserve. Don’t miss this. These two men don’t pray like Americans. They don’t say, "It’s not fair that we are blind. We demand to be treated fairly, so give us our sight." Rather they pray like men who know that it is not unjust for them to be blind but who know that the Son of David has the authority to heal and has a reputation for dealing with people not as they deserve but in mercy. I was talking with a friend recently and he reminded me of something that a speaker said at a conference we attended together. The speaker, who is also a pastor, said he had begun answering people who ask him how he is doing by saying, "Better than I deserve." The last couple of weeks when I’ve been feeling sorry for myself I’ve been asking my children to ask me how I’m doing so that I can say, "Better than I deserve." This helps me be grateful for God’s great mercy already given and to then ask for more mercy. Why does Jesus ask them if they believe he can do this? He has not asked anyone this question before, why these two men? It is important to note that he does not ask them if they think God is able to do this. He asks if they think he is able to do this. This really is astounding. If you were to pray for a person to be healed would you ever think of saying, "do you believe that I am able to heal you?" Of course not, because the authority doesn’t lie in you but in God. So he’s saying to them, "Do you really believe that I am David’s greater Son, the Messiah and that I have all authority?" "Do you believe what you just said?" They assure Jesus that they know he has the authority to heal and so because they know who he is and they trust in his power to be merciful, he gives them their sight. While they are leaving, a demon-possessed man who cannot speak is brought into the house. Jesus simply commands the demon to leave and this man who had never spoken begins speaking as if he had been speaking his whole life. The crowd is amazed and they say they have never seen anything like this in Israel. In other words the crowd knows that there is an authority at work in Jesus that has never been seen before. They are confirming the testimony of the two blind men, this is the Son of David. But not everyone is happy with Jesus’ authority. The Pharisees seek to quell the enthusiasm of the crowd. They make the outlandish claim that his authority to drive out demons does not come from God but from Satan himself. Please note, they do not deny the reality of the miracles, they seek to attribute them to the work of Satan. What makes this accusation even more wicked is that having just witnessed the healing of the blind and the mute they ought to have thought of Isaiah 35 which says that the Messianic kingdom will be characterized by the healing of the blind and the mute. They are rejecting the authority of Jesus that has so clearly been demonstrated in these miracles. Why would they do this? They reject Jesus because they believe you can buy your way into God’s party. They believe they are clean in God’s sight. They believe they have spiritual life and they believe they have rights that God must honor. They reject Jesus not because of who Jesus is but because of who they think they are. Regardless of what people say, this is why everyone who rejects Christ does so. People reject him not because there is insufficient evidence that he is the Son of God but because they don’t need what he has to offer. Typically when we think of a person who has authority we think in terms of receiving commands. We don’t like authority usually because it means that we lose control over our lives. At work, we have to do what the boss says. In school we have to pay attention to the teacher. But in this passage the authority of Jesus is put forward not as the basis for his issuing commands, but as the basis for his being able to help people. I was visiting a friend who was a beekeeper and he showed me his basement full of 5 1b jars of honey. He took one down from the shelf and gave it to me to take home to my family. It was his honey, I had no claim on it, no right to it, but he mercifully used his authority as the owner of the honey to give me a good gift. This is how it is with Jesus, he uses his authority to show mercy and bestow gifts on those who know who he is and know that he is able to give them whatever he wants. But there is also a warning in this story. How do you think those Pharisees are going to feel when they stand before Christ, as the Son of David, when he comes to set up his eternal kingdom knowing that they accused him of exercising the power of Satan? Every person in here is either like the blind men, asking Jesus for mercy or like the Pharisees, rejecting Jesus’ authority because they don’t need him. Only Jesus can make God’s promises come true for you because…
PORTRAITS OF JESUS TO IGNITE FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE: HE MAKES GOD’S PROMISES COME TRUE Matthew 9: 14-34 INTRODUCTION We are in the season of promise making in the United States. As most of us are aware we are in the midst of a presidential race. Al Gore and George W. Bush are crisscrossing our nation making promises about what they will do if they are elected to the Presidency. There are two questions that those who are paying attention to this race are asking. First, do each of these men really mean what they say? Do they want to keep the promises they are making? Second, are they able to keep the promises they are making? Many Americans are cynical about this entire process because they either don’t believe our politicians mean what they say or because they don’t believe our politicians have the ability to keep their promises. God has been making promises to human beings since he first created us. In fact, God’s first words to human beings were words of promise. His promise making did not end when Adam and Eve sinned against him. In fact, in the midst of his decree of judgement on the human race he promised that a descendant of Eve would one day destroy Satan, sin and death. There are amazing promises recorded in this book. God promised Abraham that he would become a great nation, that his descendants would be as numerous as the sand on the seashore and the stars in the sky. He promised him that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through his descendants. In Psalm 34:17 he says, "The righteous cry out and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles." In Jeremiah he says, "I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord. Plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope." While few of us will admit it, we ask the same two questions about God’s promises that we ask about the promises of politicians. Does he really mean to keep these promises? Is he able to keep his promises? We ask these questions because it often appears in our own lives that these enormous promises are not being fulfilled. Many people have stopped caring about the political process because they have seen so many promises made and not kept. In the same way many have stopped caring about the Christian faith because the same thing seems to be true in relation to God’s promises. Where is this peace and love and hope and joy that I keep hearing about? If God promises to provide for me, why have I lost my job, why is my child sick, why do I still struggle with sin? While it is not my aim to answer all the questions we might have about the seeming failure of God’s promises in our lives I do intend to show you from this passage in Matthew that… MAIN POINT Only Jesus can make God’s promises come true for you because… I. You can’t buy your way into God’s party, but Jesus can get you in (vv. 14-17) Jesus is in Matthew’s home having a meal with he and his friends when he is approached by some of the disciples of John the Baptist. They ask him why it is that they and the Pharisees skip meals for religious purposes and his disciples do not. We need to remember who John is before we are going to understand what is behind this question. If you’ll turn back a couple of pages in your Bible to Matthew 3 we’ll discover some things about John. Notice in vv. 1-3 that he is the person Isaiah said would come to prepare the people of Israel for the coming of the Lord. He told people to repent of their sins because God was about to show up. In vv. 13-17 he baptizes Jesus and clearly sees that Jesus is "the Lord" who would bring in God’s rule on earth. He knows that Jesus is God’s beloved Son. While Matthew doesn’t record it, we know from the other gospels that he told his disciples Jesus is the Messiah, God’s Savior. In fact, we know that at least Peter, Andrew, James and John were followers of John the Baptist prior to their becoming disciples of Jesus. So what is it that prompts John’s disciples to ask Jesus this question about fasting? These disciples of John have been watching Jesus and they are not seeing Jesus behave the way they expected the Messiah to act. Beginning at the time God brought Israel out of Egypt 1400 years earlier God has been promising to send a person who would bring all his promises to fulfillment. So for all that time the Jewish people have been waiting for a Savior to show up and make all of God’s promises come true. John’s disciples expected the Messiah to promote a particular kind of religious practice that included fasting. They have been told that Jesus is the Messiah, but they don’t see him promoting the practice of fasting and so they are questioning whether he is truly God’s Messiah. Jesus gives them two inter-related reasons as to why he is not promoting the practice of fasting among his disciples. Before I give them I want you to notice that Jesus does expect that his disciples will fast after he leaves. Notice the end of v. 15, "then they will fast." There is a place for fasting in our lives, now that the bridegroom has gone. But, when he was on earth he did not promote fasting. Why not? First, he uses the metaphor of a wedding. He is the bridegroom and his followers are his friends that have come to his wedding. Wouldn’t it be strange if the friends of the bridegroom were at his wedding reception, sitting in a corner crying and refusing to eat? That would make no sense. Either his friends would be nuts or they would not really love the bridegroom because they were not happy for him and rejoicing with him at his wedding. In the OT God is often compared to the bridegroom. So Jesus, in using this metaphor is basically saying that he is God and has shown up to save his people and it would make no sense for the people he has come to save to be crying and refusing to eat now that he is here. Rather, if you have been invited to the wedding, then you ought to be full of joy, not crying and sitting in a corner. The second reason as to why he is not promoting fasting among his followers is because now that he has come fasting and all other religious practices have changed. Now that he, God’s Savior, has come no one can practice fasting or any other religious activity in the same way. He changes everything. That’s the point of the two metaphors in vv. 16-17. The good news about Jesus is the new patch that cannot be sewn onto the old way of doing religious activity. He is the new wine that cannot be poured into the old skin of Jewish ritual and religious practice without destroying both Jewish religious practice and the new wine of his grace. Jesus is not saying that there will be no religious practices but rather that all religious practice has been radically changed by his coming. The Jewish people, like every other human being, think that God likes you or doesn’t like you based upon how you perform. If you fast and pray and read the Bible and give money to the poor, then God will like you and keep his promises to you. But if you don’t do these things then God won’t like you and he won’t keep his promises to you. This is what John’s disciples thought, this is what the Pharisees thought and this is what you naturally think. We, like John’s disciples and the Pharisees, don’t think we are that bad. We believe that all we need is just a little sprucing up with some religious ritual, some good deeds and God will be happy with us and happy to fulfill his promises. What we fail to realize is that the only obedience that will get God’s attention and earn his promises is perfect obedience. God doesn’t grade on a curve. The only way to buy your way into God’s favor is to obey every command of God perfectly. For example Jesus said the greatest commandment was to love God with your whole being and your neighbor as yourself. When he gives these commands he doesn’t mean, "Try to love me with your whole being". He doesn’t mean love him with your whole being on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. He means, every moment of every day every thought that enters your mind, every word that crosses your lips, every action you take should be motivated by love for God and should be an expression of your love for him. When God commands you to love your neighbor as yourself he doesn’t mean only if your neighbor is the same race as you. He doesn’t mean you should love others when there is no chance of you being hurt in the process. He doesn’t mean that you should love others most of the time, but when you’re in a hurry you don’t have to. He commands that every thought you have of another person, every word you speak to another person, every action you take towards another person should be motivated by a glad desire for good to come to that person. That is the only kind of obedience that will gain God’s approval. Guess what? You have never loved God like that and you never will. You have never loved even one person like that and you never will. That is why if you think that God is going to be kind to you and keep his promises to you because of what you have done, you are sadly mistaken. Fasting or any other moral or religious action will never change God’s attitude towards you. Our failure to obey his commands has earned from him anger and punishment. We are not on the guest list for his wedding party because we have done good things for him. Rather, the only people on the guest list are those who are the friends of Jesus. There is only one person who can gain God’s approval for you, who can make God’s promises come true for you. Only when he invites you to the party and brings you into God’s wedding banquet can you be sure of being welcomed and sure that God will keep his promises to you. Jesus paid the admission price by dying on the cross and he alone can usher you into the banquet hall of God. Only Jesus can make God’s promises come true for you because…
II. You can’t make yourself clean or give yourself life but Jesus can (vv. 18-26) Jesus is still seated at the table in Matthew’s house and is finishing his conversation with John’s disciples when in comes a ruler who kneels before him. This ruler is one of the leaders of the synagogue in Capernaum and therefore a very prestigious and religious man. He kneels before Jesus and informs him that his daughter has just died but that he knows that if Jesus will come and lay his hand on her she will live. I don’t think it is an accident that right after Matthew has told us how Jesus informed the Pharisees and John’s disciples that right standing with God is not based on religious performance that a religious man with a problem that no amount of religious effort can correct comes to Jesus. He responds to the need and the faith of this ruler and goes with him to his house. He does not go with him because of his religious performance or his standing in the religious community. While he is walking to the ruler’s house a woman who has been bleeding for 12 years comes up behind Jesus and touches his cloak. The problem this woman has experienced for twelve years is not only a physical problem. In the book of Leviticus God commands that a woman with a flow of blood cannot enter into the temple or take part in any religious ceremony. Anyone who touches her or anything she lies on or sits on also becomes unclean for a day and must go through a special ritual before he or she can enter back into God’s fellowship. So this woman has lived for twelve years separate from people and from God. She ought not to be in a crowd of people and she certainly ought not to touch Jesus. However, the only way she will ever be able to enter into fellowship with God and people is if the flow of blood is stopped. She cannot stop it but she is certain Jesus can cleanse her. This woman and this dead girl represent the condition of every human being. We are made unclean by our sin and cannot enter into fellowship with God without first being cleansed. He will not fulfill any of his promises to us unless we are cleansed and there is nothing we can do to make ourselves clean. In addition, we are spiritually dead, just like this little girl is physically dead and we can do nothing to give ourselves life. Dead people are the most helpless of all people. Both the woman and the ruler are fully aware of the situation they are in. They know they are helpless to change their condition. But they also know that Jesus can cleanse and he can give life to the dead and so both of them go to him and in going they find him willing and able to cleanse and give life. Is this how you think of yourself? Do you see yourself as dead, devoid of spiritual life apart from Christ? Do you view yourself as stained by your sin and therefore cut off from God’s presence and help? Do you see yourself as completely helpless to change your condition? But then, do you see that Christ is able to cleanse you and make you alive? Do you pursue him with the persistence of this woman, knowing that if you could just touch him, you would be made clean? Do you beseech him like this ruler to give you spiritual life and vitality? I am not just talking to those of you who are not yet certain that Christ has saved you. I am talking to everyone in this room. Somehow we have gotten it into our heads that once we have been saved by the grace of God in Christ we no longer need Christ to live. We need to know that all of us, whether we are Christians or not, in our natural selves are unclean and dead. We must daily go to Christ for cleansing and for spiritual life. Daily we must acknowledge our inability to cleanse ourselves from our sin or to create God’s life in ourselves. Each day we need another miracle of grace in our lives. You don’t have to live enslaved to sin and enveloped in spiritual deadness. Christ is able to cleanse you of your sin and to give life to your dead heart. All it requires is faith, confidence that Jesus is able to do as he promised coupled with the persistent pursuit of Jesus in prayer to do what he has promised. The reason we do not persistently pursue Christ to make God’s promises come true for us is because we do not really want his help. We are not concerned that we are unclean or that we have no spiritual life. We are not like this woman and this ruler because we do not have the same sense of desperation. As a result we do not experience his cleansing and his life. Only Jesus can make God’s promises come true for you because…
III. You have no claims on God, but Jesus has all authority to bestow God’s gifts(vv. 27-34) After Jesus leaves the ruler’s house and while the news of his resurrecting his daughter is spreading like wildfire around the city, he heads for home. Two blind men, after hearing that Jesus was passing by, begin to follow after him, yelling out, "Have mercy on us, Son of David." Now before we look at the rest of the story we need to know why in the world these blind guys would call Jesus, "Son of David." What does this mean? In 2 Samuel 7 King David tells the prophet Nathan that he wants to build a temple for the worship of God in Jerusalem. That night God speaks to Nathan and gives him a message for David. He tells him that not he but his son will build the temple and that God will establish the kingdom of his son forever. He promises David, "Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me, your throne will be established forever." David responds with one of the most moving prayers in the Bible. He ends it by saying, "Now be pleased to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever in your sight; for you, O Sovereign Lord, have spoken, and with your blessing the house of your servant will be blessed forever." Based on this original promise to David the prophets after this begin to talk with greater frequency about the son of David who will be the agent of God in establishing the house and kingdom of David forever. It is he that will be the agent of God’s salvation. Consider this one example from Jeremiah 33: 14-15, "The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the gracious promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land. In those days Judah will be saved." So these two men who cannot physically see can see with greater clarity than most others that this Jesus is David’s greater Son. They know that Jesus is the Messiah and that he is able to extend mercy to whomever he wants. They address Jesus as you would a king and request of him mercy. The sense of petitioning a king is heightened by the detail that Jesus has arrived home and they come into his house. It is the picture of people coming into the throne room of the King. When do people plead for mercy? Usually we think of mercy being asked for in a court of law. "I throw myself on the mercy of the court" is a cliché within our justice system. So it is here. These two men are asking the King if he might deal with them not as they deserve but rather would be lenient and kind. They do not approach Jesus demanding their rights but rather petitioning him as the one who has the authority to restore their sight as an act of kindness bestowed upon them contrary to what they deserve. Don’t miss this. These two men don’t pray like Americans. They don’t say, "It’s not fair that we are blind. We demand to be treated fairly, so give us our sight." Rather they pray like men who know that it is not unjust for them to be blind but who know that the Son of David has the authority to heal and has a reputation for dealing with people not as they deserve but in mercy. I was talking with a friend recently and he reminded me of something that a speaker said at a conference we attended together. The speaker, who is also a pastor, said he had begun answering people who ask him how he is doing by saying, "Better than I deserve." The last couple of weeks when I’ve been feeling sorry for myself I’ve been asking my children to ask me how I’m doing so that I can say, "Better than I deserve." This helps me be grateful for God’s great mercy already given and to then ask for more mercy. Why does Jesus ask them if they believe he can do this? He has not asked anyone this question before, why these two men? It is important to note that he does not ask them if they think God is able to do this. He asks if they think he is able to do this. This really is astounding. If you were to pray for a person to be healed would you ever think of saying, "do you believe that I am able to heal you?" Of course not, because the authority doesn’t lie in you but in God. So he’s saying to them, "Do you really believe that I am David’s greater Son, the Messiah and that I have all authority?" "Do you believe what you just said?" They assure Jesus that they know he has the authority to heal and so because they know who he is and they trust in his power to be merciful, he gives them their sight. While they are leaving, a demon-possessed man who cannot speak is brought into the house. Jesus simply commands the demon to leave and this man who had never spoken begins speaking as if he had been speaking his whole life. The crowd is amazed and they say they have never seen anything like this in Israel. In other words the crowd knows that there is an authority at work in Jesus that has never been seen before. They are confirming the testimony of the two blind men, this is the Son of David. But not everyone is happy with Jesus’ authority. The Pharisees seek to quell the enthusiasm of the crowd. They make the outlandish claim that his authority to drive out demons does not come from God but from Satan himself. Please note, they do not deny the reality of the miracles, they seek to attribute them to the work of Satan. What makes this accusation even more wicked is that having just witnessed the healing of the blind and the mute they ought to have thought of Isaiah 35 which says that the Messianic kingdom will be characterized by the healing of the blind and the mute. They are rejecting the authority of Jesus that has so clearly been demonstrated in these miracles. Why would they do this? They reject Jesus because they believe you can buy your way into God’s party. They believe they are clean in God’s sight. They believe they have spiritual life and they believe they have rights that God must honor. They reject Jesus not because of who Jesus is but because of who they think they are. Regardless of what people say, this is why everyone who rejects Christ does so. People reject him not because there is insufficient evidence that he is the Son of God but because they don’t need what he has to offer. Typically when we think of a person who has authority we think in terms of receiving commands. We don’t like authority usually because it means that we lose control over our lives. At work, we have to do what the boss says. In school we have to pay attention to the teacher. But in this passage the authority of Jesus is put forward not as the basis for his issuing commands, but as the basis for his being able to help people. I was visiting a friend who was a beekeeper and he showed me his basement full of 5 1b jars of honey. He took one down from the shelf and gave it to me to take home to my family. It was his honey, I had no claim on it, no right to it, but he mercifully used his authority as the owner of the honey to give me a good gift. This is how it is with Jesus, he uses his authority to show mercy and bestow gifts on those who know who he is and know that he is able to give them whatever he wants. But there is also a warning in this story. How do you think those Pharisees are going to feel when they stand before Christ, as the Son of David, when he comes to set up his eternal kingdom knowing that they accused him of exercising the power of Satan? Every person in here is either like the blind men, asking Jesus for mercy or like the Pharisees, rejecting Jesus’ authority because they don’t need him. Only Jesus can make God’s promises come true for you because…
© Copyright
2000 John Swanson.
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