Law & Grace - Matthew 9:18-38 Faith & believing
Matthew 9:18-38 · Vern Peterman · Oct 30, 2011
Law & Grace, No. 42
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926251541782

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. As we proceed into this passage, I'd like to have a few preliminary statements here. So as we continue through the Gospel of Matthew, now finishing up today, chapter 9, I want to warn you that we will have the return of the moose. Not today, but it's coming. I just want to let you know. Some of you may not know what that means, and so someone who has a knowing look nearby, look for people who don't know what that means and you can explain it to them. I'd rather you did than I did. Anyway, so return of the moose. It's coming. The other thing is something that's particularly relevant in the times in which we live.

Throughout the world, beginning in December of last year, we've had what the media has called the Arab Spring. I'm not pretending to read Arabic here. I do not. But it literally means, as I understand, Arabic rebellions or Arabic revolutions. The Arab Spring is a particular positive spin.

Nonetheless, it is going on, even today's headlines, this last week's headlines, next week's. Changes are happening, and they're happening fast. They're happening within our time. And so one of the things as we proceed through the Gospel of Matthew that we will be addressing, what connection do these events have with biblical prophecy? We'll be making that connection because there are in fact indications that there are connections and this is relevant biblically. So anyway, we will address that as we go through the Gospel of Matthew.

And finally, one more important point to make is as we go through this series that we're entitling Law and Grace, we're now in Lesson 42, and I would say we're not quite halfway done. One point that I would want to make is that the Law of Moses, all 613 laws, already included grace. It already included grace. There are some who would like to mix law and grace in some different proportion, but in fact the Old Testament law already had grace.

Here's one example. Exodus 22, 25 through 27 is about money lending and the Lord finishes that up in verse 27 about the person who is deprived of his cloak because of money lent. It says, and it shall come about when he cries out to me, I, that is the Lord speaking, I will hear him for I am what? Gracious. The law already included grace. Here's another example later on in Exodus 34, 6-7.

The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth, who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. The Lord already included grace in the law of Moses. My point in that is the law of Moses was already a mixture of law and grace. Even Jesus coming as the King of Israel to offer his rule over Israel with the law of Moses was also gracious.

What did Christ do? He forgave sins, as we saw in last week's passage, and he healed on the basis of merit? No, on the basis of faith. And we'll even see that in today's passage. He says, do you believe that I can do this? Yes. He healed on the basis of faith, not on the fact that they had earned it, supposedly.

If anyone wishes to mix law and grace now, they've missed their chance. We in the body of Christ live entirely within the principle of absolute, pure, total grace. A gazillion zeros past the decimal point, right? Pure and total grace. Grace is the reigning principle.

That's what God intends now. Okay. Now, into the passage. Matthew 9, 18-38. There are six things that Jesus does in this passage. Six, right? So now, if you want to, go ahead and count them with me. Six things. So go ahead and prepare yourself to count them. Six things. The first one.

Jesus stops a woman's chronic blood loss. We'll be taking a look at that in today's passage. Jesus raises Jairus' once-dead daughter. Yeah, raises his daughter from the dead. And this name Jairus was not in the passage, but it's in two parallel passages in Mark and in Luke. So that's where the name comes from.

But that's the second thing. So get your six-fingered hand out. We're going to keep counting. makes two blind men to see. That's the third thing that he does. And then the fourth one, a man once mute and demonic is freed from both. The fifth one, a summary statement that says he teaches and proclaims the kingdom. This is the gospel of the kingdom. And he heals as a validation of that gospel of the kingdom. And finally, number six, He sees the people and tells the disciples to pray. So those six things come out here in this passage. So His purpose is to proclaim and to validate through His healing and miracles that He, Jesus, is in fact, He is indeed Israel's long-promised Messiah. So, six things Jesus does, right? Okay, did you count them? You get them all? Good. Alright.

Now, the first one, verse 18. The synagogue leader comes. He is likely, it doesn't say so, but he's likely the synagogue leader in the synagogue there in Capernaum, which happens to be right near Peter's house. He comes to Jesus bowing to him and asking that Jesus come to raise his daughter from the dead. Now that's the summary statement that we have in the book of Matthew. From the other Gospels, and in fact Mark and Luke have longer passages with more detail, we learn that the actual series of events is a bit more complicated than that.

In Matthew 5.22-42 and Luke 8.41-56, we find there that the synagogue leader, whose name is Jairus in those two accounts, first came to Jesus asking for healing. And only after, as Jesus agrees and starts to proceed toward the home, does he later hear that his daughter has already died. The servants come up. And so we'll see the detail in that account. So here's the synagogue leader.

And you can imagine, as he is there asking for Jesus to help, and Jesus says, yes, I'll help, now all of a sudden comes the challenge. Hurry before my daughter dies. Hurry even though there's a large crowd of people and we can hardly move. Hurry and don't let anybody interrupt or interfere with this process of hurrying. Right?

Well, that's not the way it's going to work out, as you know. So as Jesus... Oh, by the way, the disciples all have to come too. As Jesus and the disciples are going along with the crowd, to Jairus' house. So this great impressing crowd is around him.

A woman who had a chronic flow of blood touches Jesus' garment. Now we don't know exactly what the problem was. It may have been an injury or something of that kind. It may even have been some female issue. But, all she does is touch Jesus' garment. But, here's the amazing thing. Jesus knows it. Now the disciples are amazed. In fact, you see in the other accounts, the disciples are amazed. They're saying, how do you know somebody touched you? Everybody's touching you. We got a whole crowd of people around here. How on earth do you know that somebody touched you?

He said, ah, power flowed out of me. I know it. So these passages in Mark 5, 25-34, Luke 8, 43-48, both provide more detail as much as two or three times the amount of verses for the same event. It says that she had suffered with this condition for 12 years. So that's some period of time to have gone through this.

Jesus starts by encouraging her. Isn't that interesting? encouraging her, giving her hope, making note that her faith has made her well. Now, did she come up and ask? No. But she did exercise faith, didn't she? Her faith has made her well. Jesus did not say, you have merited this. Your faith has made you well. Even the healing offered by the King under a principle of law is still healing by faith, not by merit. That's the grace that's there. Now, this poor fellow Jairus, he is wanting to get the disciples, I'm sure all of them went, and Jesus, along with the crowd, moving, moving, please move, can we hurry? to get home.

And now this interruption with the woman. So finally, the servants come up and say, you're too late. The time has run out. Jairus, I'm sorry, your daughter has died. Don't bother this man any longer. You don't have to worry about pushing the crowd or any interruptions. It's too late. Can't do anything about it. We're sorry. Jesus, however, assures Jairus, he needn't be afraid. Just believe. So they press on to the house.

You can imagine, here's Jairus, chronic frustration as this crowd moves slowly. Chronic frustration with peaking with this woman that stops him. It's already slow enough without any disruptions and interference. The response is already slow, and we don't need that, and we don't need the servants. But now, now, how is he supposed to feel? Oh, don't worry about it. It's okay that your daughter's died. We'll still take care of it. Huh? Yeah.

So they press on to the house and of course the way things go there at that time in the Middle East is when someone is nearing death you go out and hire mourners and you hire flute players and so those people they don't really care necessarily for the people but they're hired to make noise and to sound sad and to weep and to wail and to play the sad tones of the flute. And so that's what Jesus and Jairus and the 12 disciples and I'm sure the slow-moving crowd all find when they get there. I won't try to imitate a flute, okay? All right. So all this weeping and wailing has already begun by the time they get there, which tells you how slowly moving the crowd was. Well, so it starts off boo-hoo, right?

The wailers and the flute players for hire, already busy with their mournful noise because after all, the daughter has died. Well, Jesus interrupts that by telling a joke. No. When Jesus tells everyone that the girl, oh, she's just sleeping, these people who are for hire go, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha and they break out into laughter. I'm sure the flute players make all kinds of weird flutey noises too when they start laughing while they're trying to play. So, anyway, the boo-hoo turns to ha-ha-ha-ha. Okay? Very funny. Okay. So now all these people, all these people went from boo-hoo to ha-ha-ha-ha.

Jesus, however, when he gets there, doesn't pay any attention to that. He brings in Not all the disciples, certainly not the crowd. He brings in the parents, himself, and only three of the disciples. Why? Why would he do that? If you think about this, he brings them into the room because of sensitivity. You don't want this thing to be a big crowd event. He's also about to tell them something shortly which would increase the need to cut down the number of people. So he has Peter and James and John into the room.

Jesus raises the girl from death with a hand and a command. He reaches out with his hand to hers and raises her up and then says to get her something to eat. She's certainly hungry. Besides that, that'll demonstrate that she really is alive. So the girl is raised. At this point then, with the girl raised and the six people in the room plus the girl, Jesus says to say to no one what happened.

Now this is almost And this is kind of a tender moment, but that's almost humorous. It's like, good luck with that, right? Good luck with that, keeping this quiet. We've had all these mourners, and they've already been mourning and playing their flute and all that because she's dead. And the servants already ran and said she's dead. And now when she gets up and gets something to eat and walks outside and say, you know, that was real thoughtful of all of you, but you can go home.

That's got to get people's attention, right? well now the next part verses 27 to 31 two blind men see this is now the third item here now notice it's two blind men see it's not two blonde men see no it's not that okay so two blind men see they approach Jesus Okay, I know Roger's shaking his head.

I'm going to hear about this one. Okay. They approach Jesus begging for him to have mercy, calling him the Son of David, which is a term that means the Messiah. So they're acknowledging Christ as the Messiah in this account. Right? Son of David! Jesus asks these two if they believe that he can restore their sight. Now notice. Faith again.

He didn't say, have you guys been good little boys? He didn't say, you know, I've been making a list and noting it twice, right? No, he didn't say that. He didn't say, did you earn this? He said, do you believe? Faith is what God values. There wasn't a chance that they could earn it. They responded, yes, Lord.

And for their faith, he healed them. both which is why they call them four eyes all the time after that right okay okay alright Jesus orders them to tell no one what has happened right they go about doing just the opposite telling everyone they can as the account says so it's another one of those good luck with that right well now the next one Here's a demon-possessed man in verses 32 through 34, and we have as the title of the slide, Help me! Help me! I'm demon-possessed and I can't talk about it! Right? So it's sort of like a mime screaming for help. Okay. This man is brought to Jesus, is unable to speak, apparently from a demon that possessed him. Now, I'd like you to notice something.

We've encountered demon-possessed men before, and we're not done. The demon possession does not result in a uniform outcome for the one possessed. The demons don't always cause the same symptoms. That's something very interesting to note. The demons will do one thing in one situation, and another thing in another situation. In this instance, the demon keeps him from speaking. In the prior instance the demons did not keep the man from speaking. Jesus casts out the demon and the man is then able to speak so the crowds are quite amazed at this.

The Pharisees however are not impressed and we get a clue here about some resistance that they're offering, and it's significant. Matter of fact, it's not done. They're not impressed since Jesus is not impressed with them. Now, from time to time people ask me, why didn't the Jews believe in Jesus when he came?

Matter of fact, I was telling people a few years ago I met with an Orthodox rabbi here in the Denver area. And he and I kind of joked with one another. And when Jesus comes again, the Jews and the Christians will gather together and be saying, is this your first time or your second time? Right?

So anyway, as this comes about, here is what the Pharisees thought. They thought that we're doing such good things that when the Messiah comes, he will certainly think that we are the best of the best. So when Jesus did not think of them as the best of the best, well, their response is, well, if you don't like us, we don't like you, right? So that was the way they responded, right? So they turn around, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. If you don't receive us since we're the best of the best, then obviously you're not the Messiah. That was their response.

So they say that Jesus casts out demons by the Prince of Demons, who is Satan. Now, the Pharisees are just beginning to make this accusation. This one account with one verse of this accusation is not the end of it. It's a serious accusation, but it's certainly not the last time they're going to make it. We're going to see the same accusation just a few chapters from now in Matthew 12, 22 through 32. But we're going to delve into it a little bit more because that includes the unforgivable sin. So we're going to find out what the unforgivable sin is or was. So we'll be looking at that just a few chapters from now.

So, in 9.35 we could say, what is he doing? Well, the verse summarizes it. Verse 35 sums up what Jesus is doing here. Jesus is going through all the towns and villages in Israel. Matter of fact, primarily in the area of Galilee in this particular account. His teaching was certainty. That's one of the things that he is said to have done. He taught with certainty.

The scribes and the Pharisees would often say, well, some rabbis think this, and this rabbi over here thinks this, and so you have kind of a quandary. How do you like that? And they would traditionally leave people with things in tension. You know, maybe this, might be that. And this rabbi has this view, and this one has this view, and God knows.

And so they would leave things unresolved. They would quote others and teach with uncertainty. Jesus did not do that. He would say, you've heard that it was said, and he would quote others, and he'd say, but I tell you, and then he'd nail down his statement with certainty. Not just, might be this, might be that. But it definitely is this. And he would nail it down with certainty.

Not as the scribes and the Pharisees. He proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom. What is that? That he is the king of Israel and the kingdom is being offered. And it's being verified. I'm offering you the kingdom and I am the king. Will you take the offer? That's the offer he was making.

Now he hasn't said, so far as we have record in this gospel, he hasn't said anything yet about, I'm going to die on the cross, and I'm going to be buried, and I'm going to rise again. That's a few chapters away too. Right now he's offering the gospel of the kingdom to the Jews. He who was born king of the Jews, that's what we saw earlier in Matthew, He who was born king of the Jews is offering to be their king.

Will they take it? That's the offer he's making. Jesus validated his kingship offer by healing and casting out demons and performing other miracles, like calming the seas in the middle of a storm. So he made the offer. He validated the offer. Everybody could tell. Everybody could see the validations.

We have, again this week, in this little box here up in the corner of the slide, a listing of verses in the Old Testament that talk about these are the miracles and the healings that will take place when the Messiah comes. So we could also go in those next verses and talk about what is He thinking? Previously, what was he doing? Now, what is he thinking? He saw all the people and he observed that they were very distressed and also dispirited.

That is, they lacked a hopeful spirit. He said that they were like sheep without a shepherd, which is a fairly common Old Testament theme for Israel's people. Now, that sheep with no shepherd thing, I kind of know something about that. I spent a little bit of time with sheep, but I wasn't their shepherd. And that's pretty good. because you wouldn't want to smell me. Anyway, the sheep, one of the things I noticed about them, they would be grazing, you know, out in the grass in the middle of the field, just grazing away.

All of a sudden, one of them would lift their head, and they would all run after the one who lifted their head and ran. And then they'd stop, and it's like they're having this discussion. What were we running from? I don't know. You know, I have no idea. Hey, I know, let's eat. Okay. And that would be their usual sequence, right?

And so the sheep with no shepherd very commonly do that sort of thing. We also had for a while, we kept the llama, because the llama are not like the sheep. And unlike the sheep who will run at anything, just a slight rise in the wind will cause them to run. The llamas are curious about any predator. So a mountain lion comes up to the sheep and the llama goes and runs after the mountain lion and gets a close look, right? And the mountain lion doesn't know what to do with that and runs away.

So that seemed to work for a while, but still, no shepherd. Okay, these verses we have here in Numbers 28, 1 Kings 22, 2 Chronicles 18, are examples of this sheep with no shepherd theme out of the Old Testament. Zechariah 10-2, which you have there quoted, reads this way, therefore the people wander like sheep. They are afflicted because there is no shepherd. So this sheep with no shepherd theme about the people of Israel is one out of the Old Testament. Jesus would have observed it. Yep, it's a continuing characteristic of these people.

Mark 6.43 also records a similar kind of statement. So he said that they were like sheep without a shepherd. It's a fairly common Old Testament theme.

But Jesus saw this condition among the people, not as the end of them, not just as, well, yeah, they're sheep without a shepherd, and they still are, but it's a spiritual opportunity. So he told his disciples to pray for harvest workers. It's not the end of the sheep. It's a harvest opportunity.

So I have some questions for you coming out of this message. Ever been frustrated or baffled by God allowing delays and more bad news? You probably had that happen sometime. Lord, another delay? And it can be about all sorts of things. We can sympathize with a synagogue ruler who after first waiting for Jesus to get back to the city, because remember he had to come back across the Sea of Galilee to get there, also had to suffer with the crowd and the woman and the flow of blood with the flow of blood and the skeptical servants. Oh, it's too late.

Likely all of us have been through some circumstance that involved endless and countless delays and cascades of more and more bad news. We can relate to that. It's comforting to know that God has his purpose in it. It is not senseless. God has His purpose in it. And we sometimes don't know what that purpose is until later, but we know that He has His purpose in it.

Another question we could ask is, is God a chauvinist and does God care about individuals? Some have claimed that the books of the Bible come from a culture that treats women like cattle and is just simply male-dominated in a negative sort of way. These accusations can be made of the culture, but they can't rightly be made of Christ and the God of the Bible.

Here is the woman with the flow of blood, suffered for 12 years, healed. And Christ didn't just walk on. He stopped, encouraged her, and talked to her, and spoke of her faith. He went across town and went through all sorts of little diversions and a slow trip to raise a 12-year-old girl.

Do the women matter? Yes. Jesus ministers in each of these situations, dealing with the family, dealing with the parents, an only child, two individual females, a woman and a daughter. The only child referenced, by the way, is in the book of Luke. We have multiple instances of Christ not bowing to the culture. He dealt with the woman and the girl with sensitivity in this passage, and we'll see there are others.

The woman caught in adultery, this is from John chapter 8, was brought to Christ for Christ to condemn her. You see, what had happened is by New Testament times, Things had degraded to the point where all you had to do was catch the woman because the woman was the one you're going to nail. But what did the law say? The law said, bring them both. So because they didn't bring both to Jesus, what did he say? Go and send no more to the woman. They didn't bring both. I'm not going to condemn just you.

The first witnesses to the resurrection of Christ were all unreliable women. Now why do I say that? The Jewish culture had determined a woman could not be a witness in a court of law because her witness testimony was considered unreliable. So the Lord turned that on its head. Who were the first people to see the empty tomb and Christ resurrected? Women. not a chauvinist, and the Lord does care about individuals. The first person to talk to the resurrected Christ was Mary Magdalene, an individual, and he spent time with her and appeared to her first.

Now, why tell people not to talk about what happened when they're going to do it anyway? I mean, Christ knew the future, right? And He did it again and again. Why would He do that? He told people, don't talk about what happened because the Jews need to realize that He was and is the Holy Messiah. Why would we say that? He did not need or desire publicity. This was not a publicity stunt. He didn't need publicity.

Hey, this guy does miracles and it's really cool. We haven't had entertainment like that in Capernaum for a long time. Right? I mean, this is five-star entertainment. No, he says, that's not what this is about. Obviously, Jesus knew that these Israelites were going to tell people anyway. He did know it. Out of His graciousness, He didn't threaten, you know, if you tell anybody, this will all get undone. Right? That would be a reversal of the validation that He was intending to make by carrying out the miracle. Here's another question.

Should we tell people that they aren't healed because they don't have enough faith? It happens. Christians get told, you know, you'd be healed if you have enough faith, and because you don't have enough faith, that's why God hasn't healed you. Shame on you for not having enough faith.

I give this example here because that's what's been told to this lady. You may recognize her, Johnny Erickson Tada. I've been in and seen situations where people have been healed. And I've also been in situations where people have not been healed. And I wouldn't say that faith was the difference. Besides that, we don't have the assignment that the Lord does. When He was healing, He was healing as a validation of his kingship, of his claim to be the Messiah. We're not in that spot. This kind of hurtful accusation is based on a failure to understand why both Jesus and the apostles healed. They had a validation to carry out. We don't have that.

They were given this ability as a validation, uniquely. The things that we struggle with require ongoing faith. What of the person who asked to be healed but is not? Does not that person continuing to walk with and trust in the Lord require faith? Yes. We're not in a place to condemn or shame someone because the Lord has decided not to heal them. That's the Lord's choice and not ours to make.

We could ask another question. How often does the crowd have it right? We live in a culture with mass statistics, public opinion polls, and televised crowds of people. There was a poll taken that says, do you trust public opinion? 19% of the people said yes. 5% said, huh? Didn't know. Jesus obviously dealt with the crowds. As a matter of fact, we'll keep seeing reference to crowds all the way to the end.

Often being deliberate and getting away from them at times. Let's get away so I can pray. Let's get away so we can pray and I can talk to you. Jesus sometimes feeds the crowd. We'll see accounts of that. He addresses them, speaks to large numbers. But we'll see that the spiritual inside of the crowd is rarely on target. One of the things that comes out of this, Jesus cared for these people. Here's this mass crowd and he stops for this woman. Here is this huge crowd, and in spite of multiple discouragements, he turns to Jairus and says, don't be afraid. Jesus did deal with individuals. Christ loves the church, the body of Christ. He loves us as a whole. He most certainly does.

It might appear to be just one more kind of crowd. And you might even be wondering, Lord, I'm back here. I know you're several hundred yards away, but I've got a prayer request if you have time. And we may be thinking that we're somewhere back in the line or somewhere back in the mass. But Christ's death is the bride price paid for us joyfully. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross."

Hebrews 12. For you, for each one of you, for every single one. Each one of us is added to that beloved body, but the Lord isn't overwhelmed by great numbers. He's got plenty of time for you. We're added to that beloved body as we believe. How do we do it? One at a time. One at a time.

Christ isn't overwhelmed by the numbers of us, but he desires fellowship with each one of us. He is there to take the time to listen. He's not looking down at his watch and saying, I got two seconds, then I'm out of here. He cares about each and every single one of us.

And He paid the price for each and every single one of us. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your individual care of each of us. We thank you for your immense love for all of us. And Lord, as we look at this passage and we look at the questions and issues brought up, we thank you that you have good clear and solid answers that we can count upon. We thank you for that. We thank you for the insights that we have from your word. And we look forward to the next things that you have for us in the days and weeks ahead. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.