Jesus has the Authority to forgive sins- The Book of Matthew Part VIII

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Welcome back to Sunday Night Bible Study with Pastor Josiah of Witten Baptist Church, and we have now chapter 9 of the book of Matthew.
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Let's begin. In getting into the boat, he crossed over and came to his own city. Now remember, we left off in chapter 8 with Legion, with the demonically possessed men, the demons that he threw into the pigs, and they went over the cliff and all that stuff, and they told him to leave.
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Now Jesus crossed over This sea, with the storm, calmed and everything, and he got to go into one city, and they kicked him out, and he goes right back over.
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So he only went there for that one event. Of course, he knows what he's doing. He went to his own city, that's
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Capernaum. Remember, he was born in Bethlehem. He grew up in Nazareth, but when he started his public ministry, he was kicked out of Nazareth.
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They wanted to throw him off the cliff when he preached in the synagogue, so he left there and went to Capernaum.
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And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed, and when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven.
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Now Mark 3 gives more detail, and you know, they break open the roof, and they drop him down in there.
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So they're at Jesus's house. Now some people like me believe he's moved in with Peter, but we know he has a house.
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It says it explicitly in the Gospels. Take heart, my sons, your sins are forgiven.
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He says your sins are forgiven. And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, this man is blasphemy.
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They said to themselves, this man is blasphemy. So look back at our
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Greek of the week from last week. Remember, the Greek of the week was exousia, which means authority or the right.
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Right, exousia. So remember that word as we come forward. And now, the Pharisees remembered Isaiah 43, 25.
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So let's just go there real quick. Isaiah 43, 25.
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I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.
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This is Yahweh speaking, and Yahweh is the one who says that he has the ability to blot out sins.
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He is the one who forgives sins. So when Jesus says your sins are forgiven, they are considering him to be blasphemy.
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And of course, they are not recognizing that Jesus is God. That's why he continually calls himself the
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Son of Man, a deific title from Daniel chapter 7. The Messiah was always supposed to be a deific figure,
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God himself. Deific just meaning God. Your sins are forgiven.
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Behold, some have said, this man is blasphemy. So Jesus is going to give them a sign to show that he really is God. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, so he reads their minds.
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He said, he looks over at them and says, why do you think evil in your hearts?
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Now right there, imagine that you thought something in your brain, and someone out of an entire crowd of people, an entire crowd of people, honing in on listening to Jesus talk, and they go through a roof.
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He turns, the person who you had a thought about, turns and looks at you and says, why are you thinking that?
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You'd be like, oh. Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say your sins are forgiven, or to say rise up and walk?
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But that you may know that the Son of Man has, there's that word, exousion. Has authority, exousion.
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That the Son of Man has authority, the right on earth to forgive sins. He said to the paralytic, rise up, pick up your bed, and go home.
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So that they would know that he wouldn't just simply say the words, your sins are forgiven. But because he had the power of God to tell this paralytic, get up and walk, he also had the power to say, your sins are forgiven, it actually means something.
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Jesus forgave this guy's sins and healed him. And he arose and went home. When the crowd saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified
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God who had given such exousion to men. So those still don't quite understand.
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But the scribes, the Pharisees, knew in their hearts what Jesus just did. Now remember this, the
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Pharisees know in their hearts that Jesus really is God, because he just read their minds. This will become real important when we get to chapter 12 and the blasphemy of the
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Spirit. Jesus passed on from there, and he went and saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and said, come follow me, and he rose and followed him.
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Now remember I told you, Matthew doesn't go in chronological order. Jesus actually called Matthew and the other disciples before the
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Sermon on the Mount. This is just a call back to that. And as Jesus reclined at a table in the house, see
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Matthew is mentioning that he himself was a tax collector, because he's about to tell a story about when Jesus went to a tax collector's house.
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When Jesus reclined at a table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.
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And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to the disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? But when he heard it, so they're not in the house, because they wouldn't go inside that house.
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That would make them unclean. They're outside the house, and they're asking the disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?
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And, you know, maybe they're thinking back to Psalm 1, which says,
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And they think it means you literally cannot sit next to and eat a meal with an unbeliever.
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When clearly what that scripture is talking about is you cannot walk as they walk. You should not look, act, and smell like the world.
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You should look, act, and be like a child of God. There should be such a difference. Come out from among them and be separate.
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They took it literally as you can't eat with them. When he heard this, he said,
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So he quotes Hosea and says, which they had memorized and says, go learn what this actually means.
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The guilt of the Pharisees is that they don't recognize that they are just as hopeless and without God as the tax collectors and sinners.
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When you get to... Let's see if I wanted to add anything else here. Yeah, and then we get to this part about fasting.
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Now, we have two ways of looking at this. These are disciples of John the Baptist. Now, as you continue going on in the
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New Testament, it becomes increasingly more difficult to sympathize with them. Because the whole time
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John was prepping them for the coming of Jesus. And Jesus told them to start... I'm sorry. And John the Baptist told them to start following Jesus.
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But John the Baptist fasted a lot in the wilderness. So the disciples of John the
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Baptist maybe are genuinely confused here and say, we fast, the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don't ever fast.
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They're always eating. They're never fasting. And Jesus said, So in other words,
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So both are preserved. So they'll fast when I leave. But for now,
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I need them to have the strength to work. Jesus did not tell them not to fast.
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He told his disciples not to fast yet. They would start fasting after Jesus went to heaven. For now, they had work to do and they need their strength.
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The point about the old cloth with new patches and new white skin and old white skin is profound yet simple. Fasting will continue to be a practice of the followers of Jesus, but not in the same way as John's disciples were doing it.
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Not in the same way of an old covenant system of doing it. Not in the same way that John's disciples did it, but in a new way.
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Alright, this next section, Pastor Jeff preached on last week. Awesome passage here.
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As I noted here, you can get a lot more detail of this account when you read the parallel passages in Mark and Luke.
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So I would encourage you to do that. Have Matthew, Mark, and Luke all in front of you when you read it. By the way, there is a man to whom we should be very grateful for.
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Now, we have all these computer programs to help us compare Matthew, Mark, and Luke and other parallel passages. But a man named
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A .T. Robinson. I know very little about him as a man. I haven't read any biography on him. But he made something.
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I think it's, what's the date of this? 19, I don't want to exaggerate. Not 19.
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What year did he do this? I can't find the publish date.
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I'll have to find that later. I'll try to find that later.
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At any rate, he made Harmony of the Gospels. Harmony of the
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Gospels. Where he puts side by side all the passages of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
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And then puts them in chronological order. The amount of time this must have taken. I mean,
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I look at this and I'm marveled. Can y 'all see this? Just incredible.
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Without the same type of computer programs like Accordance and Logos and all that stuff that we have.
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I still use this. At least great work there.
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I don't know much about him. But I have recently discovered him through that book,
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Harmony of the Gospels. And I'm going to seek to find out more about him. What I can learn from him. Anyway. Jairus interrupts
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Jesus' teaching. Which shows how desperate he was. So does the woman with the blood disorder.
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All they know to do is cry out to Jesus for salvation. So let me kind of briefly go over this story.
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I might not read the whole thing. So Jairus is a ruler. He comes before him and says, My daughter has died. Come lay your hands on her that she will live.
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And he uses sometimes messengers to do this along the way. And they start going.
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And there's so many crowds of people. But a woman who has been on her period. Has had a menstrual cycle of bleeding.
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For 12 years. 12 years.
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Comes up behind him. And touches the fringe of his garment. For she said to herself, If only
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I touch his garment I'll be made well. The Chosen TV show. I think does a really good job staying faithful to the biblical text.
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They have some things. And I encourage you if you have questions like, Should I watch this or not? My answer would be yes.
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Just have your Bible next to you. So you can say, Okay, this is where they kind of veered off a little bit.
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And added some Hollywood stuff. This is where they remain faithful. But overall, I think it's a pretty good depiction of the gospel.
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So far that I've seen. Well, a couple weeks ago. They had this section of scripture.
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With a woman of bleeding issue. And I think they did a really good job.
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And it's a powerful scene. At any rate. Luke says that she has spent all her money on doctors.
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Who only made it worse. So she's broke. She spent all her money on doctors who only made it worse.
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She's had this problem for 12 years. Now, Jairus is in a hurry. Because his daughter is sick.
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And he thinks Jesus needs to get there before she dies. So he can help her. So Jairus is patiently waiting.
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You got to think. But maybe with a little frustrations. We'll see in a minute. That Jesus has stopped by this woman. And Jesus says, take heart, daughter.
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Your faith has made you well. And instantly the woman was made well. And of course, it wasn't the friends of his garment that healed them.
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It was her faith. And when Jesus came to the ruler's house.
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He saw the flute players in the crowd making commotion. So they are already mourning the death.
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And I think it's Mark. The messengers of Jairus' house come in the middle. And say, hey, it's too late.
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She's already dead. And Jesus says, go away.
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The girl is not dead, but sleeping. And they all laugh at him. And it says it in the other
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Gospels too. Jesus tells them all to get out. He goes inside. And the only people in the room are.
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The Gospels tell us, Matthew, Mark, and. I'm sorry. That's not true. Peter, James, and John.
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Jesus and the parents of the girl. And the girl. Jesus takes her hand. And he tells her to arise.
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And she wakes up. And then Jesus tells them to give her something to eat. Real amazing passage here.
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Shows the mercy of our Savior. These two people interrupted his teaching. They knew nothing what to do. But call out.
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And he honors their faith.
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Now, this next section, I really like. Let's make sure I didn't skip over anything. Yeah. Now.
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He gave her food. Why? Because she's been raised from the dead, but not yet resurrected. Raised from the dead is.
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Her body was dead. Now it's living again. So she had, you know.
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Arthritis before she still had arthritis. Her body's just raised. Resurrected is a new glorified body.
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All right. Now, this next section. Yes. This next section is the faith of the two blind men.
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And the false accusation by the Pharisees of demonic activity. That, again, will be a buildup for the blasphemy of the
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Spirit in chapter 12. We talked a little bit about that last week. So.
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As Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, have mercy on us, son of David. When he entered the house, the blind men came to him and Jesus said to them.
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Do you believe that I'm able to lose? And they said to him, yes, Lord. He touched their eyes, saying, according to your faith, be it done to you.
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And their eyes were open. And Jesus certainly warned them, see that no one knows about it. But then went away and spread his fame throughout all the district.
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OK. First off, let's talk about this for a minute.
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Jesus passed on from there. And if you've tuned out to this point, maybe tune back in right here. Two blind men were following him, crying aloud, have mercy on us.
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Do you notice that Jesus doesn't stop and turn around? He keeps going all the way home.
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Isn't that what it says? Two men are following him, crying aloud, have mercy on us, son of David.
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And we can imply by verse 28 that Jesus kept walking. Why would he do that?
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What are they crying out? Have mercy on us, son of David. If you've been with me at this point or studied
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Matthew, you should know this phrase. Huyas David, son of David. That is a messianic title.
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The son of David is the Messiah. These two blind men have heard about Jesus and know that he is the
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Messiah. They believe that he's the Messiah. And Jesus keeps on walking.
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And we can imply some things here. They were groping their way through the streets trying to get to Jesus.
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They hear him walking by. And they're crying out to him, and he keeps walking. And they're tripping over themselves, falling, groveling, trying to get to the
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Savior, and he keeps walking. Now, in your brain, you might be thinking right now, that sounds harsh of Jesus.
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You know, Jesus always has a point. Always has a plan. There is purpose for our suffering.
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Let me say it again. There is purpose for our suffering. It's too simplistic, and it's not correct to say that Jesus, that God, causes all of our suffering.
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But he is the sovereign of the universe. If he wanted it to end, it would end immediately, which means he has a purpose for not ending our suffering.
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And what is that purpose? Well, sometimes he gives us the blessing of knowing what that purpose was. Can't you look back on your life,
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Christian, and see times where you had suffering, and see God's purpose now, being older, looking back and, oh, that was his purpose.
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Sometimes God chooses not. Sometimes God chooses not to reveal to us the purpose of why he allowed us to suffer.
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Now, I'm not talking about consequences of sin. That's something else. If you touch the stove and it's hot, that's consequences of sin.
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That's not suffering in the sense of there's no direct cause of this. But the scripture teaches over and over again,
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John 9, the purpose of that guy being blind was not because he sent his parents in, but so that those people could go watch
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Jesus heal him. There's always a purpose for suffering. Revelation 15, verse 3 and 4 tells us that one day we'll see what that purpose was.
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But for now, we trust that there is a purpose, and he will reveal it in his time, not ours.
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But you and I, looking back on this text, might be able to see what his purpose was in allowing those blind men to follow him, probably tripping over themselves, crying, groveling, begging
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Jesus and him to keep walking. What would his purpose be? Well, as they walk through those streets, what are they crying out loud?
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Have mercy on us, son of David. Maybe people heard the gospel that day.
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Maybe people heard that Jesus really is the Messiah who came to save sinners. Maybe some people came to follow
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Jesus and turn their life to faith in him that day. Maybe they didn't, but maybe then they had responsibility to reject the call of the gospel or to submit to it.
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But as they went through that street crying out, have mercy on us, son of David, as they're crying that out, people are hearing it.
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Now notice, as these blind men cry out, have mercy on us, son of David, crowds don't come and follow
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Jesus. Oh yeah, he's the Messiah, nothing new. The gospel's not what they're interested in.
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They want to see Jesus do another magic trick. How do I know that? Well, watch. After he heals them, which they had the faith he would, their eyes were opened, and Jesus says, see to it that no one knows about it.
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Now, of course, a little play on words here, see to it, see that no one knows about it.
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And either Mark or Luke, and they disobey, they go and tell him. Now, why would
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Jesus tell them not to tell people what he did? Well, actually,
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Mark or Luke, one of them, tell us why. After this happens, crowds, oh,
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Mark 1 .45 tells us, crowds come and crowd the house so much because they want to see
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Jesus do another magic trick. He has to leave. He told them not to go tell people because he knew that would happen.
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He had to leave because they rushed in on him because they wanted to see him do another magic trick. They weren't interested in them crying out, son of David, have mercy on us.
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They weren't interested in him being the Messiah. They just wanted to see him do another magic trick.
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As they were going away, because remember, a whole of the demon -oppressed man who was mute was brought to him.
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And when the demon had been cast out and the mute man spoke, the crowds marveled and said, never has anything like this been seen in Israel.
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But the Pharisee said, he cast out demons by the prince of demons. I want you to remember this phrase. It's going to come back up in chapter 12 with the blasphemy of the
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Holy Spirit. We have Jesus doing a miracle by God through the power of God, the
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Holy Spirit. And the Pharisees say he's doing it through demonic power. Jesus ends the teaching by saying this.
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Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues. He starts in the church, if you will.
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Teaching in synagogues and within the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and affliction. When the crowd saw that he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.
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And he said to the disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but laborers are few. Pray earnestly, therefore, to the
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Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Jesus teaches and preaches.
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If you don't remember the difference, teaching, that Greek word is gadasko.
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It means to explain, to make plain, to take out the plain meaning. Preaching is caruso, to herald.
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You know, it seems whenever Jesus and his apostles go into a new town, they always first go to the local church or synagogue. I've said this before.
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It's what I love about what Wynton does in our mission trips. We go and we evangelize. You know, going and evangelizing in a community park or plaza is great.
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But the best way to make a lasting impact is to disciple, motivate, admonish, encourage the local church.
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The church should be more quick then to impact the community. I'd rather build up the church who can then impact the community.
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Why does Jesus have compassion for the crowds? Because they have been harassed and helpless. They've been harassed.
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They have been taught as doctrine the commands of men by their religious leaders. Helpless like sheep without a shepherd.
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They have not had a leader guiding them to the pasture. They are liable to be lost, deceived, or killed. You know,
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Jesus is telling the disciples they got their work cut out for them after he's gone. They'll have to find other workers to help them with the fields of the kingdom.
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Christian, I want to remind you this right here. Our work is already prepared for us. Ephesians 2, 8 -10, not just 8 -9 says,
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Our job is to go do it. The work is already prepared for us. Our job is to go do it. Following the script the master has laid out.
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What's amazing about this script is it doesn't need to be improvised, altered, or have any impromptu performance.
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Just submission to its providential perfection. To its providential perfection.
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The harvest is plenty. The laborers are free. Church, get the work. Get the work invested in people's lives.
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Knowing the books of the Bible is good. Knowing the word of God is amazing. Applying the word of God is even better.
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Don't just know the word of God. Know the word of God. The difference is
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Satan knows the word of God. He doesn't know the word of God. This one applies in your life. In everything.
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