Jesus Brings Mercy

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Don Filcek; Matthew 9:27-34 Jesus Brings Mercy

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For the next few weeks, we're going to be looking into the gospel of Matthew. We're taking a break from Acts and what the purpose of that is to take a closer look at the life of Jesus Christ and We're picking up in a series that I left off on called
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I'm not your average Savior now the fact of the matter is I think everybody in life has a a
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Savior that they turn to Now do you know what I mean by that? Everybody has something that I would call like a functional
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Savior some people turn to alcohol some people turn to relationships some people turn towards work and Fame or towards success or climbing the ladder, but everybody has a functional
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Savior raise your hand If you know what I'm talking about when I talk about a functional Savior, but Jesus Christ is not your average
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Savior He is the one who was sent from God to be the Savior of the world the Savior So he's not your average
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Savior And that's that's where this the sermon series comes from and we're actually picking up in the middle of that And I'm not
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I'm not preaching the Christmas story because I think that all of the Gospels Proclaim the
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Christmas story that as we as we encounter any text that is about the life of Jesus We see the purpose for why he came and that is there's just this intensity as you read
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Matthew Mark Luke and John you you get Focus and passion and vision and why did
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Jesus come to earth and it's all there At Christmas time we celebrate obviously the coming of the
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Lord and Savior and the incarnation that fact that God was made flesh is One of the most amazing miracles of all
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I think sometimes we can miss that a little bit Because there's so many other things that swirl around the Christmas season, right?
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But have you ever taken time to really consider why? Why did
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Jesus come in flesh? What was the reason I? Think so often in the hustle and bustle of the
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Christmas season We can easily lose sight of the purpose the focus for why
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Jesus came And I can tell you that as a child and growing up and going through college and listening to sermon after sermon
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How many of you heard a few Christmas sermons? Okay, how many of you heard the Christmas story more than once? Okay, you you get used to the
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Christmas story and I I can remember sometimes hearing pastors and thinking Dude you're getting
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Easter and Christmas confused. This is Christmas. This is joy This is about the birth of the king.
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This is about God coming in flesh. Don't get that confused with Easter Do you know what has anybody ever thought that before felt that way like you're preaching the cross and this is about the manger
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Okay, this this isn't about Calvary. This is about Bethlehem But that's that's missing the point.
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I I can't preach Christmas without preaching the cross because without the cross
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Jesus had no reason to come There was no point. There was no purpose. He came he didn't come just to kind of like on vacation to earth
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You know what I'm saying? But I mean I think sometimes we did we can't separate the two he didn't just come here for like a stint
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You know just kind of like I wanted to check it out. See what it's like Experienced that got the t -shirt No, he came to be the to be the the
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Lamb of God To be the one who was slain for us and that's that's amazing So with no nativity, there's no need for the cross if there's no
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There is no manger without a cross. There's no Bethlehem Without Calvary the hill of the skull the place where he paid the ultimate price for us and This morning
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Jesus is going to show us one of the primary focuses that he came He came down to earth to show us what mercy looks like and to bring mercy to actually be mercy incarnate
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So I want you to open your Bibles, please to Matthew 9 And read a short shorter verse shorter section than we're used to actually, but Matthew 9 27 through 34
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That's page 693 in the Bible in front of you I'm six nine three and If you don't own a
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Bible, please take that one with you. We've we we order more of those and we want to give them away but Matthew 9 27 through 34 and I recognize we're picking up in the middle of a text and I'll kind of set some of the the
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Context after we worship in song And Jesus passed on from there as and as Jesus passed on from there to blind men followed him crying aloud have mercy on a 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 do this? They said to him. Yes, Lord Then he touched their eyes saying according to your faith be it done to you and their eyes were opened and Jesus sternly warned them
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See that no one knows about it, but they went away and spread his fame through all that district As they were going away behold a demon oppressed man
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Who was mute was brought to him? And when the demon had been cast out the mute man spoke and the crowds marveled saying never has anything like this
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Never was anything like this seen in Israel, but the Pharisee said he cast out demons by the prince of demons
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Let's pray Father as we come to And we come to a text that demonstrates the mercy of Christ The mercy of Christ towards those who are infirm and are in need and who recognize their plight
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Father we have a plight we have issues facing us. We are in need of mercy and I praise you
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That 2 ,000 years ago you sent your son You didn't have to do that But you chose to because of your immense and great love for your creation and for humanity and for us
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And so you sent your son to provide mercy to demonstrate mercy and to show us seeds and signs and and Give us that longing for a kingdom that is yet to come where all will be healed and all will be set right
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And so father I pray that as we have an opportunity to come before you and worship that you would move in our hearts and change us and allow
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The songs that we sing to flood of hearts of gratitude For this immense and awesome sacrifice the sacrifice of the cross and the sacrifice of the incarnation as well and all that that means
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Father I ask that you would unpack that for us in the next hour and a half. I ask this in Jesus name. Amen Thanks a lot to Dave and the band for leading us in worship
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Looks like there's a handful of doughnuts left back there and some more juice and some coffee so I'll take advantage of that at any time during the message if you need to make yourself comfortable if My voice at any time sounds like I'm going through puberty
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It might just be that I am and so um, that could be what's going on or or not
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But we are coming into the middle of the gospel of Matthew And it might be good to remind us of what some of the stuff that we've already gone through If you've been here for a long time and you'd have to have been here quite a while to have caught the first part of Matthew it's been probably about a year ago that we
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Ended Matt took time off of Matthew and then Went into the book of Acts again, and we've kind of been bouncing back and forth between different books.
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But um So Matthew begins right at the beginning if you started right from Matthew chapter 1
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Matthew chapter 1 is a big genealogy an explanation of where Jesus comes from what his history is and Who his family is and all of that with a focus on the part of Matthew the writer of this?
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Gospel to show us that Jesus Christ is indeed the Messiah that he fulfilled all the
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Old Testament requirements to be born of the right lineage that was important to the Jews where you came from mattered and That he came through the line of Abraham that he came through the line of David is a major Emphasis in that we're gonna see that in our text here that that Jesus is going to be called the
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Son of David and there's Significance to that so we see that Matthew's focus is Primarily that a
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Jew could pick up his writing in the book of Matthew and come to the conclusion that Jesus Christ is
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Indeed the Messiah he uses a lot of Old Testament references so that we can kind of see from the
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Old Testament the proofs that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and even some of the stories and the way that he shares some of the stories are for the intended
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Purpose to say Jesus is the Chosen One Now is it a mystery to any of you that Jews are still looking for a
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Messiah? Well, I think that sometimes we can be kind of hard on them But the reality is if you were thinking in your mind if you were looking for a military leader
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You were looking for somebody to set up a political kingdom and restore Israel to the center of all the world
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And the highest of nations and all of that then does that make does that shed a little bit more light on why
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Jews would? Still be looking for a Messiah That makes sense But instead Jesus came and he was and is the
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Messiah, but he came and he brought a different kind of kingdom, right? The type of kingdom that is a spiritual kingdom that crosses all kinds of boundaries of politics and race and all different kinds of things that we think of as barriers in our mind to kingdoms and He's broken that up to the point where we're part of a kingdom now that includes people who are dead
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Anything about that? I mean we think of death as a barrier to kingdom, right? How can you be a kingdom of both people who are dead and people who are alive?
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But we are I mean those who have gone and died before us are no less a part of the kingdom than we are here
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Alive today, isn't that kind of amazing? So we're a part of something that spans like cosmic perspectives here
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So that's that's what Jesus came to do He came as the chosen one of God to bring about restoration and healing to the sin -cursed world and to set up a kingdom that will go on forever and ever and ever that will be ushered in on his second coming
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Our text begins with just a simple phrase and as Jesus passed on from there and that needs some immediate context
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So I could talk about the scope of the book of Matthew But what was going on just before this being kind of important to understand we're picking up in the middle of a chapter
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Jesus has just raised a little girl from the dead. That's what happened just previous to this passage You can go back and look at it.
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Just don't get caught up in that miss what I'm saying to you this morning but um And you can go back and listen to these by the way
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I think that we have these or we're working on getting them up online But going back and being able to listen to these messages through the book of Matthew They should be in the process of becoming available for you at least on our new website
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But don't you think I mean you'd raise your hand and say raising a girl from the dead She was certified certifiably gone.
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How many of you would say that's a big deal? Okay, that's pretty amazing. How many of you'd like to see that happen? I would love to be there
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I would love the ability to do that. That would be pretty cool I think my ministry would be in really high demand if I could do that it will right but um
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And we're gonna see that Jesus ministry was in really high demand because he could do that No small thing and how many of you do you think that that would collect a crowd?
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Okay He raises a girl from the dead and how many think that probably instant crowd flash mob everybody's there and they're probably not flash mob like the dancing kind or something like that, but You know like instant like praising
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God though that kind of flash mob like yeah Like everybody praising God and just like in awe and within that crowd we find that there's two blind dudes
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So these two blind guys are there and they're somehow connected to this Group of people who are like wow
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And they're following him the text tells us as he departs from the house They are shouting out loud at the top of their lungs
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The only method it means that they have to obtain his attention and they're shouting have mercy on us
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Son of David, I'm not gonna shout that because I will sound like I'm going through puberty if I shout it But have mercy on us son of David These two blind guys have actually a lot of spiritual sight
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There's there's sometimes there's ironies and I don't know how much it's intended or unintended but they've got Significant spiritual insight into who
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Jesus is by calling him son of David They had not seen think about this. They had not seen the raising of the little girl with their eyes
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Their eyes are blind They had not seen any of the miracles firsthand that Jesus had performed
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Have you ever thought about that these blind people when they come in multiple blind people come to Jesus asking for healing
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They never saw him do a single miracle What does that say about their faith?
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They're literally getting everything that Jesus did secondhand Somebody's telling him that telling these guys that Jesus just raised a girl from the dead
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So they'd have to put trust in multiple channels in order to even trust that this guy is the Messiah You getting that and yet in the text they call him son of David All Jews knew that the
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Messiah would come from the lineage of King David Significantly important the Prophet Samuel is the one who foretold that And calling him this publicly is identifying him publicly in their hearts as the
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Messiah They're saying by by calling him son of David. They're saying we believe you are the Chosen One We believe you are the one who is sent to restore all things.
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We believe that They believed more than just that Jesus could heal them physically they believed he was the solution of their spiritual problems as well
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Notice what they asked for look at the text. What are they gonna ask him for? Jesus give us back our sight, please.
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Is that what the text tells us? Is that what they say? Restore us to the way that we ought to be you you should give us sight or Jesus make us wealthy or Jesus make us healthy
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No, what did they ask for? Mercy They asked for mercy
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Now at this point I don't want to make a I could make too much of a theological point of this concept of mercy because mercy in a technical
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Sense means getting what you don't deserve in a grand scheme of theology But the word that's used here for mercy is not a technical theological term.
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It's a little bit more along the notion of pity Okay, so can you think of them if they're saying have pity?
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What do you think they mean when they say have mercy on us? You think that maybe they want to be healed of their blindness, isn't that kind of primarily what they're getting at?
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But is that what they ask for? Do they outright say heal our eyes because we know what is best for us
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We know what we need and you should heal us because are you getting what I'm saying by that? There it although it might be subtle Although it might just be a little bit of semantics and working with words here.
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I think it's significant That they don't come right out and say heal our eyes, but they say have mercy
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Have pity on us Putting their hands over Putting their lives over in the hands of the
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Messiah and saying do with us what you desire You see the difference. I think it is different.
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I think it is significant It's not that they're just saying, you know Save our souls and have mercy on us and don't give us hell
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That's I don't I think we could over theologize that and be like, you know Where mercy is in here, but it's a little bit more they did definitely want their eyes healed and they're coming to him for that What is our cry?
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What is our cry? What is our request to Christ look like? Are we satisfied to plead for mercy or we move past that to telling
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Jesus what we need? everything about that What does I request?
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What do our prayers look like to God but what what is your primary hearts cry to Christ look like Have mercy
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Do what because doesn't that put trust in him to know what we actually need
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Versus telling him what we need how many of you would say we've tended we've tended to Tell God what we need and then ask for those things
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Am I the only one or some of you have done that? Okay, three of you the rest of you have all of you your prayer life is totally rock -solid.
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That's awesome Just praying for mercy and that's it And I don't hear me. Don't hear me saying that God doesn't want to hear our needs
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I mean, that's not what I'm getting at. I'm talking about our heart. Do you see the difference of Trusting God for what we need and saying
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I trust you with that But at the same time do we have the freedom to come before him and ask for Healing to ask for him to take care of us to take care of the ones that we love
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Absolutely, and we should and we just did we just prayed for Sharon, right? Was that was that presumptuous of Rob to ask for her to be well or for things to go well for them?
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Not not at all. So but we do ask that ultimately God is merciful towards us, whatever that might look like Part of the problem though I think when it comes to asking
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God for mercy or to be merciful with us is that we don't see ourselves as very needy of mercy
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Because ultimately we're really not that bad, right? So when we think about mercy in a theological sense
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We think our primary our primary primary need if you think about this is is happiness
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Or our primary need is pleasure or good things But really deep down in our souls
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Mercy and grace are our primary needs. That's what is central to our neediness
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Jesus Presumably heads home. We don't know exactly in the text exactly where the location of that house that he goes to is
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But it's likely that it's the one he's staying in All of this is occurring in the town of Capernaum, which is in the north of Israel about about a day's walk north of Jerusalem and Right off the
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Sea of Galilee That's where Jesus had his base of operations and he actually stayed in a home there by the seashore
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And so it's likely that that's the house that's mentioned here in the text The blind men are so determined that they follow
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Jesus and they even follow him into the house so he goes home and they they walk with him and When he gets home they he goes home and goes in the house and they go with him
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Does that sound kind of determined to you? Somebody's following you around and they go into your house That's creepy.
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Okay And now though within the privacy of the house If there's something about the privacy of the house, but Jesus addresses them asking them a question concerning their faith
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He says ultimately in essence using different words, but do you believe I can heal you you believe it?
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They again show their faith and reply not just saying yes. Yeah, we believe you can heal us but yes
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Lord They acknowledge that he is their leader their ruler their superior and they acknowledge that There's no question that these two blind men have a significant faith in Jesus.
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They see him as their ruler They see him as able to heal them. They see him as the son of David as the
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Messiah There's a significant level of faith that they have and they see him ultimately as the answer to their plight
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To the difficulty in the situation that they're in. He is the source of mercy. He is the source of restoration
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He is the source of healing Do we truly believe that Jesus is the solution to our plight?
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Think about that Or have you been guilty like me at times of seeing
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Jesus as your last -ditch effort, you know I'll try everything else try to sew things up on my own and fix things myself and then if all else fails run to Jesus If all else fails then
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I'll pray to him and I'll talk with him about it But man, I think I can pretty much handle my life myself only in those really extreme circumstances
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Do I need Jesus to come in and take care of things for me? You know what I'm talking about? Is he just a last -ditch effort or is he the first place that you run?
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And and what is our plight anyways if you were thinking about that, what is the plight that you are in Search down deep
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If you were to look down deep in your heart, what is your primary need? What is your primary plight?
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I Think we would find that our own dark heart is Our plight that we are our own worst enemy
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Have you experienced that in your life? Where you do the things that you don't want to do and you find yourself wanting to improve and wanting to be a better person and wanting to achieve and get ahead and you just keep falling behind and getting worse and worse because Your heart stands in the way and by heart.
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I don't mean you know, the the blood pumping organ in your chest, I mean The essence of who you are
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That you'll let yourself down. Has anybody in this room ever let yourself down? I give you how to stand up for yourself and you're like, you know what?
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I just I'm not doing it. That's what I'm talking about that's what our plight is so that the solution to that can never be fixing ourselves because that's that's just a
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Spiral down isn't it just trying to improve and trying to improve and that's that's where we find ourselves and that I think
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Jesus loves to loves to find people in that cycle and change their hearts
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But it's recognizing that you're in that cycle that is the humility that I think finally arrests the human mind and will and heart to the point where we're
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We're realizing you come to that place where you realize I can't do this on my own anymore
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And I think it's a reality that to be saved. You must hit rock bottom. I Think that's an essential you have to come to the end of yourself
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You have to come to the place where it's like I've been trying it's like beating my head against a brick wall
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And I'm getting nowhere And that's when the light of Christ shines in in this situation, it's literal light
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Jesus physically touched their eyes You ever think about how how much how important touch is to a blind person?
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To know how do you know somebody else is there? Especially in our day and age where there's recordings and stuff
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I mean you can imagine walking in a room where somebody's tricked you and there's a recording and you think that they're talking with you or something I mean
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How do you know somebody else is there if you're blind and you can't see touch This is a sign of Jesus compassion and his mercy
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It's very important to a blind person and he touches their eyes And then he says because you believed it it will be done for you we're not to read this as a as a kind of Comparison like because you believed a lot you're gonna get a great healing or something like that It's just saying according to your faith not according to the amount of your faith but because you have faith is the way we should read that so because you believed it is now done for you and Then look at the simple sentence at the start of verse 30 look at verse 30
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Just a few few words, but very powerful and their eyes were opened Such a short sentence
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But such immense power and mercy found there he opened their eyes Jesus gives sight to two blind men
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Anybody like signing up to see that firsthand? Awesome to be there But then
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Jesus did something that could be very confusing. I think it's confusing. It was confusing to me when I read it It's confusing to commentary commentators.
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It's confusing to people who are scholars who have studied Matthew on down What does he do?
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He sternly warns them to tell nobody They appear then to disobey him and you're left with options here
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Either these guys are just complete obnoxious boneheads Okay, because what we're gonna see in verse 31 is they're gonna go and do like what appears he commands them
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Don't go. What has he just done for them? anybody Gave him sight healed them.
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Like is that pretty significant? They've identified him as the Messiah the Son of David their
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Lord their King he is going to do what appears to be issuing a command and Then they're going to go out and do the exact opposite Anybody think that that's like thumbing your nose at the
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Messiah at your at your King or does anybody think that's a little bit weird? Anybody have an issue with that?
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Okay I think that that's reasonable to have an issue with that and you see what a lot of there's a theme that runs through the
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Gospel of Mark primarily if you read Mark from beginning to end if you were to read it in one sitting sometime Challenge you to read some big chunks of Scripture sometime
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If you get a you get a break and you're looking for you're looking for something to do It's awesome to get a chunk of Scripture at one setting you get the feel the flow
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It's amazing to see that thing come alive But if you were to read Mark from beginning to end you'd see that there's times where Jesus tells people to be quiet about who?
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He is he says that to demons a lot. The demons are like son of God have mercy on us Don't say that son of God thing yet, it's not my time yet So a lot of people think that that's why he says that in this context
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But they've already been out on the street shouting son of David have mercy on us They've already been out declaring that he's the
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Messiah I think something is different is going on different here because I really struggle with the notion that these guys are so utterly obnoxious
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That they have complete faith in Jesus and then go out the next minute and completely disobey him like literally like that And now that that couldn't be the human heart could the human heart do that and some commentary see that and I'm gonna say that There's different opinions about this
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So I just want to be I just want to be clear that what I'm about to what I what my opinion is is not everybody's Opinion, okay
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But I think that it follows another theme that's going on here. I think ultimately
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Jesus tells them to not go out and to I'm totally lost my train of thought there.
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I'm really sorry. I got to get back in my notes I'm sorry guys
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Ultimately, I think that Jesus warned them sternly But he doesn't issue a command so I think he's warning them about another theme and that is that People get persecuted for following Jesus Okay There's a common theme that runs throughout all the
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Gospels that those who are healed and get like Lit on fire for Jesus and are really excited about him undergo persecution
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So the word that's used there for sternly warned is not a command. He's not telling them
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Don't go and tell anybody or else I'm going to get you now. What does a warning look like? Okay A warning says if you do this something bad like the warning on the gorilla cage says get too close and you're gonna be missing
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Some fingers right some something bad is going to happen if you do this thing What's the bad thing that Jesus is saying is going to happen to them like it says that he sternly warned them
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Does that mean I'm gonna get you? Think about the word warning here. Jesus is issuing a warning.
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What's the what's the edge to it? What's the backside of it? What's the punishment that's going to happen? What's the bad thing that's gonna happen?
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I don't believe Jesus is at all saying if you go and tell everybody I'm after you I Think the warning is if you go and tell everybody
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Do so and count the cost that idea of considering the cost of recognizing that there is risk involved
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I think Jesus actually even went so far as knowing these guys future He knew it was not going to go well for them if they went out and proclaimed
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If they went out and shared so see to it that nobody knows or else Not I'm gonna get you
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Now I'm gonna hunt you down Pharisees are gonna hunt you down Sadducees are gonna hunt you down The religious leaders and the scribes are going to hunt you down just like they're gonna hunt me down That's what
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Jesus is saying. Do you see what do you see how that's a different notion? So that what we have is we've either got utter
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Creepy obnoxious buffoons in the text or we've got heroes in the text I don't know and and people see different sides of it, but I see these guys as actually going and Acknowledging the risk and then going out and living according to that risk and saying
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Jesus told us to count the cost and that it could it could and probably will go bad for us if we go out and Proclaim and we're gonna do it
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Does that make sense? John 12 10 actually goes so far as saying
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Remember this little story about Jesus raising a dead guy named Lazarus. Anybody remember that story?
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Okay, Lazarus in the grave for three days his sisters say He They're told to roll the stone away and they're like he's gonna stink
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Like he's decayed like gross. Okay. I'm not gonna roll the stone away from the tomb because this is disgusting
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He's like roll the stone away Calls Lazarus his name and Lazarus comes out all wrapped up in his funeral, you know wrappings with all the spices on it and something they have to cut him free and He lives and he hangs how many of you would if you were
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Lazarus you'd hang out with Jesus some after that Okay, he spends time with Jesus and do you know what it says in if you're if you're taking notes write this down This is kind of a cute little verse
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John 12 10. It says that the Pharisees sought to kill who?
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Lazarus a Man who had received an immense miracle why because he was kind of showing them up.
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Do you get it? so what's gonna happen to these blind guys if they're out saying Jesus healed as we were blind and everybody in our entire community knew we
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Were blind and now we're healed and Jesus is awesome and he's all that and he's the Messiah and he's the chosen one and they don't
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Like that So you getting what I'm saying? so when we get to When we get to verse 31
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These men have been sternly warned and are actually willing to take risks by identifying themselves with Jesus who is the
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Messiah They spread the fame Jesus knowing fully the risk that they are taking that's what
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I think is happening here but even as they were departing with their sight Matthew says and whenever you see the word behold you can think of the the phrase check this out
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Okay, so Matthew says check this out they brought a man who is mute to Jesus we don't know who they is
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But some people bring a mute man who is also identified as demon oppressed verse 32
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Is where we're seeing all this and it's difficult to distinguish between the idea of demon possession and demon oppression
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What we're gonna see them actually cast this demon out Jesus actually cast him out so I think that those those two words are pretty similar, but the
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Greek word means It's demonized it's not Particular to thanks
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We know that somehow a demon has
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Some sense of it influence in this guy's life Because we see that it's linked to his inability to speak the fact that he's mute has something to do with demonic activity
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We also know that demons are able to do that because we see What they do in Job's life, right
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Satan is able to actually produce sores on Job's body There's there there are times when he's able to produce sores on Job's body There are times when physical physical manifestations happen as a result of demonic activity and this man in his life for some reason it has
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Has to do with his inability to speak But think for just a moment
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The attitude of scripture is not that every illness is the result of demon activity, right?
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Some people have down through the ages thought that a person is sick. Well, what have you done wrong?
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Right or is there some demon behind that or is there some kind of you know Like every every kind of handicap or illness or ailment.
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Have you any of you ever heard that notion or heard it expressed? That is not the attitude of scripture think for just a moment just in our immediate context.
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Jesus just healed some blind dudes Is there any mention of demons in that healing? Okay, he there's nothing about that.
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I mean scripture that is patently false that every but but can demons affect health
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Yes, they can and we see that in this text, but not every illness is caused by demonic activity the crowds are astonished at Jesus casting the demon out of this man and They declare never was anything like the scene in Israel again.
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We don't get any of the details We don't get a conversation with the demon. We don't it's just he's cast out and They are in awe
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Now I don't think they're in awe just strictly because a mute man has started to speak I don't think that that's the that's that's the sum total of the crowds awe that makes them say never has anything like this been
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Seen in Israel they're kind of well aware of the history of Israel and they know like parting of Red Seas and things like that that would have been pretty impressive
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I Think that this is this crowd has been following Jesus all along and they've been seeing the the
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String of miracles that he's done. So he's raised a little girl from the dead He has given sight to two blind guys.
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And now he has also given speech to a man who is mute Maybe you'd be impressed spending that day
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Like what would you say they say never has anything been seen like this in Israel before? What would be the cries that would come out of our mouths if we were there?
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Any of you be in awe and wonder and just shock and maybe we wouldn't even be able to say anything It'd just be like whoa.
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Did that really just happen? You have to check with somebody else to make sure that you know, even a week later.
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I'd be like That really happened. Did I dream that or is that you know what I'm saying?
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What you were there? Was that really the way that went down? I think we'd be blown away
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And so the crowd in this context responds just the way that we would expect a crowd to respond in that context
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But verse 34 reveals a different response the end of our text the Pharisees have another take on what's been going on They accused
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Jesus of casting out demons by the Prince of demons and who is that? Satan There are witnesses to these awesome acts of mercy and then they drag those acts of mercy through the mud
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Consider how skeptical the human heart can be You ever think about that? The Pharisees doubt in the face of mercy incarnate he is there with them and they doubt
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Mercy has come down and walked among them and they did not believe it. Even though they saw it with their own eyes
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I'd like to think that I would be at least among those who are marveling at least among those who are struck with awe
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But I think it's possible That I would have been right there among the
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Pharisees Could you see yourself there among the Pharisees Disagreeing with him out of pride out of arrogance out of whatever it was that motivated them to oppose his works
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So why did Jesus come to earth? One of the reasons Jesus came to earth was to bring mercy and respite from the sin -cursed world
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But have you ever asked yourself why Jesus healed people while he was here on earth? I Mean, it was a temporary fix at best, right?
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And if the sole purpose was just to heal their eyes It's a little bit of a cruel irony, right?
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Because I'm gonna you know that their eyes eventually ceased to see At least in death that the mutes voice was eventually silenced by the grave
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That the little girl However many years she was given to live after being raised again died
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So you ever wonder like what's the what's the point? Anybody ever wonder that what's the point of the miracles of Jesus while he lived here on earth?
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Was Jesus just offering some temporary? hope people I'm convinced that the miracles of Jesus all point to the reality of the kingdom that he has come to offer us
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He offers a kingdom of mercy one where there's going to be a complete restoration and these miracles are ultimately just a foretaste of The joy and glory that will be revealed in the final restoration and that if you ask yourself does
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Jesus have the power to fix our eyes Yeah, and he will
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Does he have the power to? Give speech to those who are mute.
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Yes. He does does and he will does he have the power to raise? the dead
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Yes, he does and he will at one final culmination of history when he will bring it all together and roll it up and usher in a new kingdom a new era a new earth and a new heaven
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And that's awesome. I Love that notion And that's why he came to demonstrate and to show the mercy of his kingdom
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And to say this is the way it's going to be forever and ever and ever Let's not forget though that there were three different responses to Jesus in our text and I'm going to conclude with these three
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The first response is the two blind men who went out and spread the fame of Jesus Despite the stern warning from him that it would not go well
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What an amazing response from these men who had been given a new lease on life What might be our first response if we were given sight for the first time?
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I'm gonna go look at stuff Just go like check out some sites and catch some vistas and stuff right, look at a sunset and a sunrise and go check out the ocean and finally find out what my wife looks like and You know what?
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I'm saying? I mean, what would be like let's live it up a little bit, right? And what do they do?
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They go sold out for the king proclaiming his glory His fame throughout the entire district they take it on as a mission
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What about us? Are we sitting back after having a life -changing encounter with Jesus and just living for ourselves?
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Or are we proactively going out and taking risks for Christ? The stern warning to the blind men goes for us too.
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It's not a easy road to spread the fame of Jesus Some will laugh at you have any of you experienced that anybody here been laughed at for the kingdom of God awesome
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Some people will think we're certifiably mad But some will believe in the fame of Jesus will spread through us to this community the second thing the crowds responded
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The crowds responded a second response by awe and wonder at what was being done in their midst
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And I don't want to read too much into this But I do think that it's valuable to consider how many of you know that you can marvel at something but not buy into it
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Like you didn't be awestruck by something and still not be Invested in it like I can watch an
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Ohio State receiver make an amazing catch I can be impressed with his athleticism and not be glad that it's happening
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Do you know what I'm saying? I mean have you experienced that at some level before like you can respect what happened and not enjoy what happened
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Okay, or not be really that interested in it I Think many in the crowd would just be dazzled by his miracles
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Some here might be at a place here at recast where they are beginning to see the works of God. You're beginning to believe
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Please don't give up in your pursuit of God. Whoever you are Keep searching and seeking if you're here and you're starting to feel that all of God and that wonder and the things that he has
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The power to do please come and talk to me at the end of the service I would love to talk to you about the forgiveness and fresh start that you can have through Jesus Christ The last response is very dangerous that we see in the text the
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Pharisees as we saw outright rejected Jesus and his good works Whether it was pride or jealousy about Jesus stealing the spotlight
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They maligned his character and they rejected even his merciful works as evil
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It's unlikely there's anyone here like that unless you got totally physically thrown in the back of a car and dragged to church and pulled by your
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Neck into here and forced to sit down. I don't imagine that there's anybody quite that far gone
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But the question that I have for all of us then is how do we respond to those who reject Jesus? Anybody know somebody like that Anybody have anybody that's really really hard in their life that is like opposed
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Not just not just like that's good for you, but that's not for me, but that's not good for you
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Anybody hear that about your faith? How do you respond? You show them love
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You let them know that you're there for them if they need anything Are we willing to be compassionate and kind to them?
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You see Jesus came to bring mercy and healing and We are left here to carry that ministry on right here in Matawan and when the places that you work and in your neighborhoods
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And that's a major major point of Christmas Jesus came to that manger 2 ,000 years ago so that we could have healing and mercy his life demonstrated his purpose and his purpose was all about bringing an ultimate restoration and reconciliation
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Between the holy and righteous God in his fallen creation and we have an opportunity to carry that forward as his ambassadors
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He did this by the cross Jesus being both God and man stood as the mediator between us able to put a hand on both
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God and a hand on man He paid the price on the cross that we all owed to God for our sins he took the punishment for us
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If you believe that Jesus Christ is King and you've asked him to save you from your sins
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Then feel free to come to the table and take communion this morning What great mercy has been given to us by our
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Lord and Savior? Mercy represented by the blood that was shed for us mercy that was represented by the body that was crushed on our behalf
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Let's pray Father I thank you for the great mercy that we have in Jesus Christ that he came to model that and to be an example for us
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Father we are desperately in need of mercy of your kindness of your love towards us and Father, would you pity us?
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Would you look down on us and? Care for us. I praise you for the attention that you've given to us here at recast for the love that you've poured out on us
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And father if there are any here in this room that have not experienced mercy from your hand Have not experienced healing from your hand a spiritual healing
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Father I pray that you would help them even now to reach out to you in faith and to say I believe Jesus is
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Lord and I desire his salvation and his forgiveness Father for those who are here that are in your kingdom and that are are
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Delighting in Christmas in the reality that Jesus came. I ask that you would give us a deeper a deeper feeling this
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Christmas of understanding that our minds would inform our hearts and that our hearts would inform our emotions and that we would be rejoicing
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And really thinking deeply about these amazing truths That you came to show mercy and to usher in a kingdom that goes across boundaries