WWUTT 1988 Jesus Does Many Miracles (Matthew 9:18-38)

Jesus did amazing miracles like healing the sick, raising the dead, giving sight to the blind, giving words to the mute.

And each one of these physical miracles has something spiritual attached to it when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily study in the word of Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Matthew, we're going to finish up Chapter 9 today, looking at a larger section, verses 18 -38, which

I'll be reading from the Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. While he was saying these things to them, behold, a synagogue official came and was bowing down before him and said,

My daughter is just died, but come and lay your hand on her and she will live. And Jesus got up and began to follow him, and so did his disciples.

And behold, a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, for she was saying to herself,

If I only touch his garment, I will be saved from this. But Jesus, turning and seeing her, said,

Daughter, take courage. Your faith has saved you. At once the woman was saved from her hemorrhage.

And when Jesus came into the official's house and saw the flute players and the crowd in noisy disorder, he was saying,

Leave, for the girl is not died, but is asleep. And they began laughing at him.

But when the crowd had been sent out, coming in, he took her by the hand, and the girl got up, and this news spread throughout all that land.

And as Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, crying out, Have mercy on us, son of David.

And when he entered the house, the blind men came up to him, and Jesus said to them, Do you believe that I am able to do this?

They said to him, Yes, Lord. Then he touched their eyes, saying, It shall be done to you according to your faith.

And their eyes were opened, and Jesus sternly warned them, saying, See that no one knows about this.

But they went out and spread the news about him throughout all that land. Now as they were going out, behold, a mute, demon -possessed man was brought to him.

And after the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke, and the crowds marveled, saying, Nothing like this has ever been done in Israel.

But the Pharisees were saying, He casts out demons by the ruler of the demons. And Jesus was going throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.

And seeing the crowds, he felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd.

And he said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.

So again, a larger section of text we're looking at here today, but the miracles that we see in this portion of chapter nine are grouped into three sets.

We have the healing of the girl who had died and the woman who had a hemorrhage.

That's verses 18 through 26. Then Jesus heals two blind men. That's verses 27 to 31.

And then Jesus heals a mute, demon -possessed man. That's verses 32 through 34.

And then you have kind of a general statement about all of the kinds of miracles that Jesus was doing, verses 35 to 38.

And this statement that he makes at the conclusion summarizes the things that we've been reading through chapters eight and nine.

So let's look at it in that order here, beginning in verse 18. While he was saying these things, that was the answer that he gave to John's disciples in the section we looked at yesterday, behold, a synagogue official came to him and was bowing down before him and said,

My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her and she will live. Now we don't know what position this synagogue official had.

Maybe he was a Pharisee. Maybe he was a Sadducee. Maybe he was a scribe or one of the other teachers of the law.

We don't know for sure. So a very general label to give this guy that he was an official of the synagogue.

And I really think the reason Matthew does that is so we don't get confused. The Pharisees are always presented negatively.

They're the false teachers. They're contrasted with Christ, who is the true teacher. The Pharisees twist the scriptures.

Jesus teaches them rightly. The Pharisees take advantage of the people. Jesus loves the people.

So the Pharisees, Jesus called hypocrites. If indeed this guy here is a

Pharisee, so not to confuse him with the rest of them, Matthew just simply calls him an official of the synagogue.

Doesn't say exactly what his title is. And this man comes to Jesus and says, my daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her and she will live.

Now, this is a tremendous statement of faith here. This man thinks

Jesus can raise his daughter from the dead. That's how much he believes in the power of Christ.

And Jesus got up and began to follow him, and so did his disciples. And then we have kind of this parenthetical.

There's an event that happens in between, with the man coming to Jesus, and then Jesus going to the man's house.

Verse 20, behold, a man who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for 12 years, she had been bleeding for 12 years, came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment.

For she was saying to herself, if I only touch his garment, I will be saved from this.

But Jesus, turning and seeing her, said, daughter, take courage. Your faith has saved you.

At once, the woman was saved from her hemorrhage. You'll notice that all of the miracles that I read here in the opening reading, in all of them,

Jesus says, your faith has saved you. Daughter, take courage. Your faith has saved you.

And at once, the woman was saved from her hemorrhage. Remember what we read in Ephesians 2, 8, and 9.

For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

And by the grace of God, Jesus heals this woman. Remember that we read at the beginning of chapter 8, it's first about God being willing, not our faith.

We have faith because of what God has done, not because, you know, we decided

I just want to be saved from this. God is merciful to us. And that is why we have faith.

So it is with this woman. She sees the man of mercy, Jesus, and says, if I can just touch his garment,

I will be saved from this. And Jesus says, your faith has saved you, and she was healed.

And so going on in verse 23, when Jesus came into the official's house and saw the flute players and the crowd in noisy disorder, he was saying, for the girl is not died, but is asleep.

And they began laughing at him. Now, the girl was indeed dead. She had died.

But this was an expression that has been used by Jesus and his apostles to say that one who will live is not really dead, but is merely asleep.

Consider the way that the apostle Paul talks about saints who have died, but will join us on the resurrection day when

Jesus returns. And the dead will rise up with him and be gathered to him in the air.

The dead in Christ will rise first, as it says in 1 Thessalonians 4. And then those who are left, the rest of us, will also meet the

Lord with him in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. So the apostle Paul refers to them as having just fallen asleep.

Later on in the Gospel of John, chapter 11, when Lazarus dies, Jesus says to his disciples, our friend

Lazarus has fallen asleep, and I go to awaken him. And the disciples are confused about this. Well, if he's just asleep, then he'll wake up.

Why do we need to go and wake him up? And Jesus has to spell it out to them. Lazarus has died, and I'm going to go and bring him back to life.

He doesn't say that exactly, but he does say to them that Lazarus has died. So it's common to use this expression of having just fallen asleep.

There's a hopefulness to that expression. They're not really dead, they're just asleep.

So it is with all of the saints. Those who are in Christ, who have died in their bodies, are not really dead.

They're asleep, awaiting for that resurrection day when the bodies will rise up and be reunited with their souls and be caught up with the

Lord in the air. The dead in Christ will rise first. And so because we know the dead in Christ will rise, it's hopeful for us to just say that they've fallen asleep.

Jesus is giving the father and the guests of the house here hope when he says that she is asleep.

She had indeed died, okay? This is not Jesus saying, no, she isn't really dead, she's just asleep.

No, she's died. But Jesus gives a word of hopefulness. The girl has not died.

This is not permanent, which is what death was. She's asleep. And they began laughing.

But when the crowd had been sent out, coming in, he took her by the hand and the girl got up.

And this news spread throughout all that land. Jesus is raising the dead.

Now, the story of Jesus raising Lazarus is the resurrection story that gets all the popular attention prior to Christ's own resurrection.

But there were other times when he raised the dead. It wasn't just Lazarus. And this is the first account that we have in Matthew's gospel of him raising someone from the dead.

And truly the people are astonished at this. So that news spreads about this everywhere.

So that's the first miracle that we have, or kind of the first miracle story with the girl who was sick who gets raised from the dead and the woman who is suffering from a hemorrhage that's right in between, right in the middle of this story.

So then the next part is Jesus healing two blind men. So verse 27, as Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, crying out, have mercy on us, son of David.

And when he entered the house, the blind men came up to him and Jesus said to them, do you believe that I am able to do this?

They said to him, yes, Lord. Then he touched their eyes saying, it shall be done to you according to your faith.

There it is again, because you have believed you will be healed. And their eyes were opened and Jesus sternly warned them saying, see that no one knows about this.

But they went out and spread the news about him throughout all that land. That's the second place we see that statement.

Because previously in verse 26, after the little girl is raised from the dead, news spread throughout all that land.

And then these blind men, they go out and spread the news about him throughout all the land. It's going out.

This is significant because of what Jesus is going to say to the disciples at the very end. Now, there's also significance in each one of these miracles, and I'll touch on that here in just a moment.

But let's look at the last one here. Verse 32. Now, as they were going out, behold, a mute demon possessed man was brought to him.

And after the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke and the crowds marveled saying nothing like this has ever been done in Israel.

Now, that comment that they say there, that is certainly in response to the demon possessed man speaking now having the demon cast out of him.

But we could also consider that a summarizing statement as far as the narrative goes and what Matthew is writing.

So that summarizes these miracle things that we've been reading about ever since chapter eight with the crowd marveling and saying, we've never seen anything like this in Israel.

This that is happening right now, the miracles that Jesus is performing, this has never happened in Israel before.

Even the prophets did not perform miracles to the extent that Jesus is performing them.

We're seeing this over and over again in Matthew's gospel. This was even before the Sermon on the Mount. So you go back to chapter four and it says

Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.

This is before the Sermon on the Mount. That's in chapter four, verse 23. So part of the reason why great crowds come to him and hear what it is that he taught in the sermon is because of all the miracles that they had seen him do.

So the crowds are marveling at this saying, here's the word that's going out. Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.

Even the prophets weren't doing miracles to this extent. Verse 34, you've got the

Pharisees response and the Pharisees attempt to mislead the people.

The Pharisees were saying he casts out demons by the ruler of the demons. They're trying to say that Jesus himself has a demon.

The Pharisees are threatened in their positions. Jesus has called them out, calling them false teachers.

They don't even teach the word rightly. And so they're trying to convince the people not to follow after him by saying all these miracles and all these things that he is doing is actually by the power of Satan.

And we know when Jesus is going to address this later on, that this is blasphemy of the

Holy Spirit because they can see what is happening and they should know according to the word what this is fulfilling in the scriptures, but they're blind to it.

They're blind guides as Jesus will also call them later on in Matthew 23, where we have the seven woes.

So you have a kind of a contrast of two statements here, the people marveling at what Jesus is doing and the

Pharisees lying about what Jesus is doing. And now we summarize this in verses 35 to 38, and it's going to sound a lot like the statement that we just read or that I recalled for you from chapter four.

Jesus was going out, going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.

Exact same statement that was back in chapter four. It's almost like it puts bookends on it.

So we've seen so many demonstrations of miracles and we've heard a demonstration of the teaching as well with the

Sermon on the Mount. Now each one of these miracles that we've read in this section has something spiritually significant connected to it.

And we can make that connection to these miracles because Jesus had done it for us already at the start of chapter nine with regards to healing the paralyzed man.

When he tells the man to get up, take up his mat and walk, well, first he says to him, take heart, your sins are forgiven.

And the Pharisees, some of the scribes, said to themselves, this man blasphemes.

And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, why do you think evil in your hearts? For which it's easier to say your sins are forgiven or to say get up and walk.

And as I had mentioned to you on Monday, what's harder to say is get up and walk because you actually have to demonstrate that you can heal a man and make him walk.

But when it comes to forgiving sins, you don't have to demonstrate that you've forgiven someone's sin.

That's something that happens on a spiritual level. You're unable to demonstrate it. So Jesus, by his miracles, shows the power that he has.

He can tell a man to get up and walk, and by the evidence of that, you know that when he tells a man that his sins are forgiven, he's got authority over it.

If he's got authority over a lame man to heal him of his paralysis, then he's got authority over anyone to forgive them of their sin.

So we can find the spiritual connection in each one of these other miracles that we've read here in verses 18 through 35, where the girl's daughter has died and he has the ability to raise the dead.

So Jesus has the ability to raise our dead spirits to life. This is back to Ephesians 2 again, even when we were dead in our transgressions, he made us alive together with Christ.

By grace, you have been saved. That was Ephesians. I think that's verse five. I can't remember where exactly.

Anyway, but it's there in Ephesians 2, Ephesians 2 .5. So Jesus raises the little girl to life to show that he can raise our dead spirits to life and make us born again.

Then Jesus heals the blind men and he gives them sight. Spiritually, Jesus opens our eyes that we see our sin and need for a savior.

All of this being tied into being born again, by the way, because regeneration is that work.

Exactly. The Holy Spirit regenerating our hearts so that when we hear the gospel, we're convicted of our sin and we recognize that Jesus is the savior who forgives us of our sin.

So raising our dead spirits to life, opening our eyes that we may see. And then the next one is even opening the mute man's mouth that he may speak.

So our dumb lips are even open that we may confess our sins before God and confess him as Lord, something that we would not have been able to do before the miraculous working of God on our lives.

And then we have three testimonies, verses 33, 34, and 35. You have the testimony of the people saying nothing like this has ever been done in Israel.

You have the Pharisees falsely testifying. He casts out demons by the ruler of the demons.

And then you have Jesus testifying to the truth. He was going throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness to demonstrate that the word that he spoke was a word that came from God.

Now, here's how he summarizes these things for his disciples in verses 36 to 38.

And seeing the crowds, he felt compassion for them. So as Jesus has compassion on the crowds, so must we.

We must desire that all kinds of people would come to salvation in Jesus Christ, that they would hear the gospel, turn from their sin to the

Lord Jesus Christ and live. They were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd, the rest of verse 36 says.

And then Jesus says to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.

And then what we're going to have next in chapter 10 is Jesus sending workers out into the harvest.

And we're going to see that even at the very end of Matthew's gospel, the great commission in chapter 28, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Now, therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing in the name of the Father and of the

Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And lo, I am with you always to the very end of the age. You had previously here in chapter 9, the blind men who could see and they went and shared the word throughout all the land.

When the little girl died and was raised back to life, the word about this spread throughout all the land.

Jesus is testifying, but there needs to be more. There needs to be more people going out with the gospel of Christ.

And so if God has saved you, if you've been washed clean, if you've been raised from death to life, you've had your eyes open, your mouth open that you may testify.

So go and share with others the good news of the gospel of Christ that they too might be saved.

In Psalm 51 verse 13, David said, then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will be converted to you.

Let's finish there with prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read here in the miracles of Christ, in Matthew chapter 9, and may it motivate us to want to testify of the goodness of what you have done in our hearts, in our lives, that we've been raised from death to life, that our eyes have been open to see your goodness and our mouths have been open to testify of your grace to us.

So help us to have boldness in these days to share the gospel with others that they too may come to faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ and live. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the

Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study.

Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.