Stories of Healing Pt 4

open up in your Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 9. Matthew, chapter 9.

We're going to finish up this section on the stories of healing today. Stories of healing, part four. And as we move into this last section, there's really kind of two things that I want us to pay attention to. First of all is the concluding stories. There's going to actually be four more stories of healing that kind of go rapid fire through this next section. And then the last part that we're going to really look at is the

compassion of Jesus. The compassion that he had as he walked here on the earth and kind of wrapping up the same way that we started off with seeing that heart of Jesus for people. So we pick up in verse 18 of chapter 9, and this is what it says. Saying these things to them, a synagogue official came and bowed down before him and said, my daughter has just died. But come and lay your hand on her and she will live.

Jesus got up and began to follow him, and so did his disciples. And a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for 12 years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak. For she was saying to herself, if I only touch his garment, I will get well. But Jesus turning and seeing her said, daughter, take courage. Your faith has made you well. At once the woman was made well. And when Jesus came

into the official's house and saw the flute players and the crowd and noisy disorder, he said, leave, for the girl has not died, but is asleep. They began laughing at him. When the crowd had been sent out, he entered and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. And this news spread throughout all the land. Now, this first part of the scripture says, this first section is actually what I've entitled Restoring Life, because that's kind of what takes

place. There's two stories that sort of are right there together, because one takes place in the middle of the other. The story of the healing of this woman with the flow of blood, this woman with the hemorrhage, takes place right in the middle of this story of Jesus restoring the life of the ruler's daughter. And so Jesus had been dealing with John's disciples. You may remember at the

very end of last week's message, we said that John's, meaning John the Baptist, his disciples had come to Jesus to ask him, how are you? And he said, I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine. And so they asked him questions about fasting. They said, hey, listen, we fast, the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don't seem to. And Jesus said, well, first of all, the bridegroom's

here. It's not really the time for fasting. But second of all, you don't fully understand what's happening because there's a new order, a new covenant that's being ushered in. And so you can't really pair the old with the new. And so Jesus is having this discussion with him about the old and the new covenant. And the language would indicate that while Jesus was in the middle of this

discussion, perhaps Jesus was in the middle of this discussion, but he was in the middle of this discussion. Maybe he didn't even get to finish everything that he would have wanted to say to John's disciples. This synagogue official comes up to him. Now, remember, Jesus is starting to maybe not be the greatest friend of those in the religious community. Maybe I should phrase that a

little bit differently. The people in the religious community were not viewing Jesus as much of a friend. And so he was becoming not very popular amongst the religious community because he was sort of standing against some of the legalistic practices that they had up to this point in time. And so it's kind of interesting that this synagogue official, somebody who's a part of the religious community, comes up to Jesus and says what he says. He says, first of all, it starts off with his

position in which he approaches him. Notice it says in verse 18, and he bowed down before him. Now, anytime in scripture you see someone bow down, you know that they have just come in a posture of worship. And so this synagogue official who knew the truth of God's word, who knew the Torah, who knew the law, is now coming up to Jesus. And so this synagogue official who knew the truth of God's word,

he's now bowing down in worship to him. Now, this is an interesting point that's sort of a sidebar, kind of like what I brought up last week, that some say, well, Jesus never claimed that he was God, and yet Jesus received worship. Anytime anyone else in the scriptures that's not God receives worship, the first thing that they say is, don't bow down to me, I'm not God. Even the angel in the book of Revelation that was giving the message to John, when John tried to bow down to him, he's like, whoop, stand up there, buddy. I'm not the one you should be worshiping. And yet,

when this is happening, he's bowing down to him. And so he's bowing down to him. And so he's bowing down to him. And so the synagogue official comes and bows down before Jesus. Jesus doesn't stop him. Why? Because Jesus is God. And so he bows down to worship him. And as he's bowing down in this position of worship, I want you to take note of what he says. He says, my daughter has just died.

Please come and lay your hand on her, and she will live. Now, the news about who Jesus is, is starting to spread amongst the people. And all this guy knows is something desperate has happened in his house. We're not really told what led up to her death. We're not told what sickness led to her death. We're not told what sickness led to her death. We're not told what

or anything along those lines. Just that this young girl has passed away, or at least in his mind she had, whether she was in a coma or actually had passed away. It's a little bit debatable amongst scholars. But whatever it was in his mind, she had passed. And he knew he only had one hope. And the only hope he had was Jesus. And so he goes to Jesus, and he says, please,

you need to come, and you need to lay your hand on her, and she will live. Now, I found it to be kind of interesting in these sets of stories that we look at here at the end, the emphasis on faith. Because I feel like most of the other stories, Matthew didn't really emphasize that, but for me, and maybe it was just me, the aspect of faith really came out in this section. Because this really took a great deal of faith for this synagogue official to sort of go outside of the bounds of religion at this point in time, outside the bounds of those who were the popular leaders at this point in time, and come to Jesus and say, I need your help. I need you to bring

healing, because you're the one who's going to heal me. And so I think that's kind of interesting. The only one who can. And so, of course, Jesus responds in the way that he always does when someone approaches him. He says, well, let's go. Let's go and see what we can do. It says in verse 19, Jesus got up and began to follow him, and so did his disciples. I love that Jesus is always

willing to be interrupted. Here he is in the middle of what we would call a theological conversation with John's disciples, probably some people that he would really enjoy talking to, because he can speak to them on a level that he maybe can't always speak to everybody else on. Because they'd been sitting under the teaching of John, so they distinctly understood the law and the prophets because of being under the teaching of John. And yet, in the midst of him having a theological discussion, it would have been very easy for him to say, listen, I'm in the middle of a thing right now, but as soon as I'm done, I'll come and help you out. But Jesus doesn't do that.

Jesus immediately just stops what he's doing, and he goes with him. I appreciate that, because we always know that Jesus has time for us, no matter what else is going on in the world or in life. And so Jesus goes with him. You can picture the scene, right? People gathered around him, because people were always gathered around Jesus. And Jesus is walking towards this

official's house. Now, I would venture to say that the synagogue official is probably moving at a pretty good clip, because he knows the urgency of what's going on right now. And he wants to hurry up and get Jesus to his house, so that Jesus can heal his daughter. I think that Jesus was probably moving with a great deal of urgency, because you know, he first of all knows the situation, but also following the urgency of the one that's leading him to his house.

His disciples probably weren't paying that much attention, because that's kind of what they did. But they were probably moving quickly, too, because Jesus was moving quickly. And they were like, if Jesus is doing it, we should probably be doing it. And so they're moving along at a pretty good clip. And you can picture the focus on Jesus's face, the focus on the synagogue official's face,

the hoping to focus on the disciples' face, right? And as they're walking along, we find out that there's something else happening. It says, in a woman, verse 20, we kind of put a bookmark in what's going on with the synagogue official's daughter. And we come to verse 20. It says, Now, if you were with us Wednesday night, congratulations, you endured through the teaching on bodily discharges. But it was kind of interesting to read in chapter 15

of the book of Leviticus, that that's exactly what it describes. What it describes, as far as what happens to a woman when she has a discharge that just won't stop, if you will, she has menstrual bleeding that will not stop, something that is not only dangerous, perhaps she was anemic, whatever it was, something that was not only dangerous for her health, but caused her to be ceremonially unclean. And because she was ceremonially unclean and was following the law of the book of Leviticus in chapter 15, she would have had to distance herself from everyone, because anyone that came in contact with her would be considered unclean. Not only would it mean that she was distanced from everyone, but it meant that she was distanced

from worship, because she could not come to the temple to worship, because she was ceremonially unclean. She was, if you will, in a place physically where she felt hopeless. Because when people deal with anemia like that, when they deal with a consistent loss of blood like that, there is a weakness in their body physically. And you know as well as I do, that when there's a weakness in us physically, it affects us emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. And so she has this physical weakness that she's dealing

with. But not only that, she's dealing with the fact that she has not been in human contact, much like the leper that we discussed. She's not been in human contact for years. You add to that the fact that spiritually speaking, she was separated from the temple, so her worship of God was very much hindered. And so physically, emotionally, and spiritually, she's about as broken as you come. And as she showed up that day, she had one goal and one goal

only. I simply need to come to the place where I can touch the fringe of his robe. Now, if you know anything about the way that good Jewish males dressed at that point in time, they put tassels on the corners of their robe, and they did so as a reminder of the promises of God, and as a reminder of who they were as Jewish people. And Jesus, being a good Jewish man as he was, had that kind of a robe. And so when it says she touched the fringes of his robe, she touched the fringes of his robe.

That's exactly what it was talking about, those tassels that would have hung from his garment that were a reminder of who he was as a Jewish male. And so she no doubt snuck up behind him, perhaps even crawled up behind him, and simply grabbed the tassel of his garment, perhaps just touched it. Because in her mind, her faith was such that she said, Jesus is so powerful, he's my only hope that if I can just touch the hem of his garment, then he will be able to heal me. He doesn't even need to know that it happened.

Because that's how powerful Jesus is. You see, this woman's faith, though maybe theologically not the most accurate in the world, because I think that we could all say that there was no power in the garment of Jesus. I've never once read a verse in the Bible that says, there is power in the garments of Jesus, right? Be a great song, but it's not. Faith makes her well. Is it because there was

anything powerful in the garment? No. It's because the one wearing the garment had power, and her faith was not in the garment. Her faith was in the one. She was not in the garment. She was in the one that was wearing it. You see, even though there's aspects of us as new believers that can sometimes maybe mildly be theologically incorrect, Jesus sees the faith. This is what I love about

new believers that try to pray, and they pray completely wrong. And that's okay, because Jesus doesn't care that they used all the wrong words. He cares that their heart was in the right place. Now listen, that's no excuse for never growing in faith. Ah, Jesus doesn't care if it's right. He just cares that my faith is right. No, he wants you to mature. It's beautiful how what Jesus is truly interested in is our faith. What are you truly believing in?

We do something similar in our church. When someone, every now and then I feel like the Lord says, hey, some people need prayer. And so I say, come forward, and I'll anoint you with oil, and I'll pray for you. There's nothing magical in the oil. I've heard the contact point of faith. And that's what happens with this woman. She reaches out, grabs the hem of his garment,

and it says immediately she was healed. But I want you to notice how Jesus responds. Jesus had to have been the most sensitive person in the world. Jesus, turning and seeing her, said, daughter, take courage. Your faith has made you well. And at once, the woman was made well. Now, if you look at other gospel accounts, it starts off with Jesus saying, who touched my garment? And his disciples are like, dude,

do you see how many people are around here? Probably everybody touched your garment, okay? And Jesus is like, no, no, this one was different. And turning and seeing her, he says, daughter, your faith has made you well. So the question came into my mind, why does Jesus even take the time to acknowledge her? She clearly didn't want to be seen. She clearly didn't want to be acknowledged.

Why does he take the time to acknowledge her the way that he does? Well, I think there's two reasons. The first is, I think it was for the sake of those that were around. Everyone around had probably seen her sneak up and try to touch the hem of his garment, and they needed to hear that Jesus had just healed her. Not only for the sake of knowing that this woman is now

ceremonially clean, but for the sake of their faith continuing to be built that this is the Messiah who's able to heal anything, even what the scriptures consider uncleanness. And so I think he first of all acknowledged her for the sake of all those that were around her, not the least of which that was around her was the ruler of the synagogue who was taking Jesus to his daughter, and perhaps his faith needed to be built just a little bit. And so I think the first reason is for the sake of those that were around. But I think the second reason, and maybe even the more important reason that Jesus took time to acknowledge her was for her sake. Because did you take note of how Jesus referred to her? I found it interesting.

He turned around, did you take note of the first thing that he said to her? He said, daughter. Now, one of the commentators that I read pointed out, and I think that this is true, this is the only time Jesus ever refers to anyone in scripture as his daughter. We hear a lot about the sons of God. But this time he looks at her and refers to her as daughter. What an interesting, tender moment that Jesus had with her. Someone who had felt so separated

from society, so separated from human touch, so separated from God that the very son of God, who is also the son of man, just looked at her and said, daughter. And he just put her, into a position in the family of God that she probably felt like was never going to be achieved by her. And isn't that kind of what God does for us? When we come into the family of God, when we come to Jesus touching the hem of his garment, maybe you've never actually physically reached out to touch the hem of his garment, but I bet you the day that you came to know Jesus as your savior, all you knew how to do was to cry out, Jesus, save me. And you didn't know all of

the right words to say. You didn't know all the right theological terms. You didn't even realize that Jesus was your savior. You didn't realize that Jesus was your savior. You didn't really understand what salvation meant. You just knew that you felt separated from God, separated from people, and destroyed because of sin, destroyed because of your uncleanness.

And the only thing that you knew how to do was to reach out by saying, Jesus, save me. And while it wasn't physically touching the hem of his garment, spiritually speaking, it's about as close as you get. What was the first thing that God said to you? He said, son, daughter, your faith has made you well. Your faith has just healed you. And though that may not

mean from every physical ailment that we'll ever deal with, he heals us from the eternal ailment of sin that will ultimately separate us in death from God. Yeah, I think he acknowledged her because she needed to hear. You didn't steal a blessing from me. You didn't steal a healing from me. I healed you because you had faith, and you're now one of mine, and you belong to me. He said,

daughter, your faith has made you well. Now, it's time to get back to what he had initially intended to do on this journey, because what he initially intended to do on this journey was to go with this synagogue official to see his daughter. And so, here's, we get back to, it says, when Jesus, verse 23, Now, I don't know about you, but in my Western culture mind, when I realized that he shows up, and there are crowds of people in the synagogue official's house, and flute players in there, I kind of go, what's going on? One of the commentators that I read referred to it as something, he called it synthetic.

You see, at this point in time, what you needed to do to really show your love for your loved one is you actually hired professional mourners. Now, I'm going to be honest with you. I feel like if this whole pastor thing doesn't work out for me, I could be a professional mourner, right? Because I'm a sympathetic crier. Like, all I need to do is just, I can just, and I see it. I'm like,

I'm with you, man. And I'll just cry with you, because I just, it hurts when I see you, I hurt. So, you know, I'm just keeping my options open. If this thing doesn't work, I'm going to hire myself out to cry for people. So, but that's what they would do. But these folks weren't mourning because of how badly they hurt. They were mourning because they had been hired

to do so. Because that was what you did at this point in time. Isn't that ridiculous? And so, this synthetic grief is taking place. And so, Jesus walks in, and what's the first thing that Jesus says? He says, you need to leave. This girl is not dead, but she's asleep. Now, again, there's some debate amongst people. Does that mean that she had just slipped into a coma? Was she in a comatose state

from whatever took place, and she wouldn't wake up, but wasn't actually dead? Now, I could maybe go along with that. If somebody got real jumping up and down about it, I'd say, okay, okay, I can give in to that. But I'm pretty sure she's dead. Listen, this is a synagogue official that's an educated man. He knows how to check a pulse, right? That's what I think. I think Jesus shows up. And the reason why he says,

what I'm telling you is, she's not dead, but she's asleep. What he's saying is, death is simply sleep. Because honestly, that's what it is. And Jesus is about to overcome something temporarily that he will eventually overcome eternally. Because what he's about to show us in a physical sense is the very same thing that he's going to do in an eternal sense when he rises from the dead. Now, we need to understand that what's about to take place here

is not a resurrection. It is a resuscitation. There's a difference between the two. A resurrection is where you shed this old body, and you put on a brand new body. So, when Jesus was resurrected from the dead, he came back in a completely different body than he was before. He came back in a completely different body. He came back in a completely different body.

That's why he's the first fruits of the resurrection. What's about to take place is a resuscitation. It's the same thing that you see with Lazarus. It's the same thing that you saw in the Old Testament when folks were healed from the dead by guys like Elijah and Elisha. It is a resuscitation. It is being brought back to life. This little girl will eventually face

death again because she'll have to get rid of this old body in order to get her brand new body. But what Jesus is about to do, is he is about to show everyone why he really came to earth, and that was to defeat death. And so, he tells everybody that they have to leave. He says, ah, this girl isn't dead. She's only asleep. And notice what happens. They all begin laughing at him. I think Jesus had to have

had the thickest skin of anybody, right? Because there's going to be two times in this particular section where he literally is just ridiculed, mocked, and even degraded for what he does in his healing process. And so, he's going to be ridiculed, mocked, and even degraded for what he does in his healing process. And if it were you and I, and somebody started laughing at me, okay, at least if it was me, I'm one of those people that's like, if you don't want me here, I'm not going to be here.

And so, if everybody starts laughing at me, I go, fine. I'll just, I'll go somewhere else. I don't need to be here. I can make fun of myself. I don't need other people doing it for me, right? So, so if you think that much, that little of me, I'll just take off. But that's not what Jesus does. What does Jesus do? He sticks around. Why? Because Jesus knew he had a mission, and it didn't matter

what anybody else thought. He didn't know what he was doing. He didn't know what he was doing. He didn't know what people thought of him. You know, I think we could use a really good dose of that in our culture today. We could use a really good dose of people saying, but this is my mission. I don't care what people think of me. Because we live in a culture right now that is shackled by what other

people think of them. I can sometimes be one of them. I care a lot about what people think. I'm perhaps the more I grow in the Lord, the less I do. But we can really care a lot about what people think, and it just absolutely binds us and keeps us from doing what God wants us to do. I read this thing the other day, and it said we need to realize that words aren't guns. People's opinions don't

matter. There's only one opinion that matters, and that's the opinion of God, because he's ultimately the one that I'm serving. And that's what Jesus realized. I'm here to do a mission, and it doesn't matter what all of the other people think. It doesn't matter what everybody else has to say, because listen, everybody has opinions. Opinions are like certain portions of the body. Everybody's got them, and

most of them stink, right? And so we have to realize that. And so Jesus says, okay, well, everybody has to get out. Notice what he says. They all began laughing at him. But when the crowd had been sent out, I love it. He goes, you can laugh, all right. You can laugh your way out the door. When everyone had been sent out, he entered, and he took her by the hand,

and the girl got up. I appreciate this particular healing as well, because it's just so basic and simple in nature. There's no fanfare. There's no show. There's no magic words that were said. There's nothing. There was simply the grabbing of the hand and life being restored to the body. And the girl simply gets up. It's an interesting picture that's painted for us, is it not?

Now, I don't know about you, but I have found myself at times saying, Lord, if you can do that, then why sometimes do you choose not to do that? Because that's the hard one, is it not? I experienced some of that. I've experienced quite a bit of that, actually. Not only with my own life, but with a lot of people that I've talked to over the past two or three, four years. I've talked to a lot of people that have asked the

question, why? Why did God not do that with me? Answer is, I have no idea, because I don't. On topside of planet Earth, I'm never going to be able to answer the question, why? Here's what I do know. What I do know is that when someone dies in faith and they die as a believer in Jesus Christ, spiritually speaking, Jesus grabs their hand and they breathe for the very first time on the other side of eternity. They breathe for the

very first time without the things of this Earth holding them down. They breathe for the very first time with God. They breathe for the very first time without the things of this Earth holding them down. without the confines of the world, without the body of sin, without the fear that it will happen a second time. They breathe for the very first time in the greatest freedom and the greatest life

that they will ever live. And while I can never answer the question why, I can always answer the question, where are they? They're home with Jesus. And they're more alive than they've ever been before. Because Jesus showed us physically what he planned to do spiritually and eternally. And he brought life to that little girl. And it says, she got up. And notice what happens.

This news spread throughout all the land. You can imagine the wildfire of this news. Can you imagine all the people that were in there laughing at him when he said, ah, she's not dead, she's just asleep. And they're like, you're a moron. The synagogue ruler comes out. And goes, she's alive. And they're like, ah, maybe he's not a moron. And as loudly as they were mocking him, probably every bit as loudly,

they were out telling everybody about what they had just seen. Isn't that what Jesus is able to do? He is able to turn the mocking voice into one that finally has to say, ooh, he really is Lord. So news of this spreads everywhere. And we've got this restoration of life. Both in the woman who had the hemorrhage, the woman who had the issue of blood, and then also in the man who had the issue of life.

And also in the life of this little girl. Now we move on from there in verse 27 with this story of the healing of the blind men. And notice what it says. As Jesus went out from there, two blind men followed him crying out, have mercy on us, son of David. 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?

And they said to him, yes, Lord. And then he touched their eyes. It shall be done to you according to your faith. And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, see that no one knows about this. But they went and spread the news about him throughout all the land. Boy, that would be a hard one to keep quiet, wouldn't it? So we're given the indication that Jesus leaves the house.

And sometime within that next period of time, perhaps even the same day as Jesus leaves the house, we read about these two blind men. And it says that these two blind men followed him. And as they followed him, they cried out saying, Jesus, son of David, or have mercy on us, son of David. Now, again, I would like to point out to you the faith of these two men.

They have great faith, and their great faith was shown in their great persistence. They persisted in the way that they approached Jesus. Now, if you were at this point in time blind, apparently there were lots of ways. You could become blind. Apparently it was a major issue that took place in the lives of people at this point in time. A handful of reasons. Number one, all of the dust that was around and the wind that would blow

would sometimes blow dust in people's eyes, which could create infections, which could cause blindness. Of course, the sun that was shining in people's eyes could create cataracts on the eyes. As a matter of fact, I learned here recently that if I really want to avoid cataracts, that I should wear sunglasses all the time. Now, I've worked outside most of my life.

Since I was about 12 years old, and I was talking to an eye doctor, and I said, it must be time to wear sunglasses. And he said, unfortunately, your damage is probably already done, but it can't hurt to start now. So, who knows? One of these days I may be wandering around here, too. But that was one issue. And then there was a third issue that would come up.

There were insects, small little bugs that would get in people's eyes that would, again, cause infections. And so it was kind of an issue at this point in time. Now, for these guys to track Jesus down, they would have had to do some work. They would have had to start asking where Jesus was. Hey, can you tell us where Jesus is? In other words, there was a major seeking of Jesus that had to take place.

Because they're blind, and they can't just see what's going on. They can't see that the huge crowd is there. They could probably hear that the crowd was there. But they would have had to work their way towards Jesus. So, they would have had to seek diligently after Jesus. Now, once they had sought diligently after Jesus by faith, they then had to ask Jesus,

by faith, over and over again. Do you take note of what it said that they did? It said that they followed him. And as they followed him, what were they crying out? Have mercy on us, son of David. Now, paint this picture in your mind. Imagine, if you will, Jesus and his entourage, his disciples, they're walking back towards the house, probably Peter's house,

where they seem to headquarter a lot of the things that they did, heading back towards Peter's house after leaving the home of the synagogue official, walking back across town, whatever the 10, 15, 20, minutes it would have taken them to do so. And all of a sudden, in the crowd of people, because Jesus was always surrounded by a crowd of people, you start hearing faint voices towards the back. Have mercy on us, son of David. And they get a little bit closer.

Who are you looking for? We're looking for Jesus because we want to be healed. Well, he's up a little bit further. So, they sort of meander their way up further. They have to kind of grope their way to make sure they're not running into people to find their way. And they just keep saying, have mercy on us, son of David. And they keep following. And they keep probably working their way up into the crowd until finally notice what happened.

They finally notice what happened. It says, and then, verse 28, they entered the house. In other words, the blind men come directly to this house where Jesus is. That's a great deal of persistency, is it not? To continue to seek God like that, to continue to seek Jesus like that, listen, that requires a great deal of faith. You know, I think in our culture today, we're not good at persistently seeking after God.

What are we told in Scripture? To he who asks. You'll receive. To he who seeks. He will find. To him who knocks. The door will be opened. Do you know that in the Greek, what those words actually mean is ask and keep on asking. Seek and keep on seeking. Knock and keep on knocking. And yet in our microwave, high-speed internet culture, we want everything today.

Well, I need it to be right this minute. If I want healing, I want it now. If I want blessing, I want it now. If I want God to show me something in his word, I want it now. Because after all, I want it now. After all, I'm used to the fastest download speeds possible. And when things start buffering, I get really angry about that, right? Well, sometimes when we seek God for things, we see the little wheel that says buffering.

And we're like, why? He says, because I want to see that persistent faith. I want to see that persistent seeking of me. And God always rewards that. You know what we're told in the book of Hebrews? That he rewards those who diligently seek him. And so these guys are just content. They're continuing to go after Jesus. And notice what it says. Verse 28. So they 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? And they said, yes, Lord. Why did he ask them that? That's a question I've never gotten answered for myself. Like, of all the healings that Jesus does, why this time does he say, do you believe that I am able to do this? He didn't ask the synagogue official that.

He didn't ask the woman healed with the flow of blood that. He didn't ask a whole lot of other people that. And yet this time, with these two blind guys that chased him all over town and finally beat down the door of his house to show up and say, have mercy on us. He asked them the question, do you believe that I can do this? Why did he ask them that question?

Well, I've only been able to come up with one answer. There was something that the Messiah was supposed to do. And what the Messiah was supposed to do. What he was supposed to do was heal the blind. That was one of the many things that he was supposed to do. But opening the eyes of the blind is one of the things that we're told in the book of Isaiah that the Messiah was supposed to do.

Well, how did these guys refer to Jesus? Did you take note of what they referred to him as? They didn't say, have mercy on us, Jesus. They said, have mercy on us, son of David. And so they seemed to have a distinct understanding that there was something different about Jesus. Because why is that important? Why is that important? Because David was the promised one that would sit on the throne.

In other words, they seemed to have this understanding that he was the Messiah. And so when Jesus asks them, do you believe that I can do this? Perhaps what he's really asking them is, do you believe that I'm really the Messiah? Do you believe that I am whose scriptures say that I am? And notice how they responded, yes. That's why we're here. I added that last part.

They didn't say that. I said, yes, we do. And I think that that spoke both on a theological level and on a very practical level. On a theological level, they were saying, yes, we believe that you are exactly who you say you are. That you are the Messiah. That you are the promised one. And isn't it interesting that these physically blind men seem to be more spiritually aware?

They seem to have a spiritual vision that these religious leaders did not have. Because these religious leaders didn't believe that Jesus was the Messiah. And yet these men who can't see the door in front of their face can absolutely see what's standing right in front of them. And that's that Jesus is the very Son of God. And so Jesus is about to do for them physically what had already taken place in them spiritually.

And so. Jesus looks at them and says, it shall be done. Excuse me, verse 29. 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, see that no one knows about this. So let's take each of those phrases. So the first thing that happens is Jesus touches their eyes. Now Jesus healed many blind people and he did it in a lot of different ways.

My favorite was when he spit on them. But anyway, that's neither here nor there. Can you just imagine? Jesus, I need to heal. Oh, I can see, right? What an amazing moment. Anyway, this time he just touches them. He touches their eyes and immediately their eyes are opened. He says, let it be done to you according to your faith. Not just their faith in his ability to open their eyes, but their faith in the fact that he is the Messiah.

And so. As he says this, it says their eyes. We're opened. Now. I've often thought a lot about what it would be like to see for the very first time. I've thought a lot about what that must be like to be able to see everything in front of you in vivid color for the very first time. To have spent your whole life or at least the last few years, depending on what caused their blindness.

Having things described for you. Trying to paint the picture of what colors actually look like. Trying to paint. The picture of what the sunset actually looks like. Trying to paint the picture of what someone's face actually looks like. Trying to tell somebody all those kinds of things. And then finally, you don't have to tell them any longer because now they can see it for themselves.

Because now they can open their eyes. I bet they didn't close their eyes for three days. Right? I bet they didn't go to sleep because they were just like, I just want to look at things. Oh, look. It's a tree. That's what they meant by leaves. Wow. Squirrels are weird. Right? Like all these kinds of things that they can see in front of them. They can see in front of their faces and they can see for the very first time.

And Jesus looks at them and he says, don't tell anyone about this. Only did you take note of the verbiage that was used, the descriptive words that were used of how Jesus said this? It says he very sternly warned them. Now, that would give us the indication that Jesus wasn't like, hey, listen, if you can at all avoid it, maybe just don't tell anybody. We get the idea that it was a very stern warning.

Now, why was Jesus so stern about this warning? What did they know about Jesus? They knew that he was the Messiah. What did all of the nation of Israel want deliverance from? The nation of Rome. In their minds, because they knew about the book of Judges, because they knew about all of the men that God used to deliver in the past, what was their thought of a Messiah?

The Jewish thought of a Messiah is once the Messiah comes, he will set us free from this Roman occupation and he will establish himself. He will establish his kingdom. So I say again, why was Jesus so stern? Because he did not want anyone to think he came as a political revolutionary leader the first time. He did not come the first time as the ruling king. He came the first time as the suffering savior.

And he knew the hearts of the Jewish people that they would have wanted to take him by force and make him their leader. They would have wanted to try to force him into being what he was not supposed to be that first go around. So he vowed. He very sternly warned them and said, Don't tell anyone what just took place. But you know as well as I do that when Jesus changes you, it's super hard to hide it.

It's really hard not to tell everybody in the world what he'd done. And it was interesting to read what different guys had to say about this because some were like, We totally understand their disobedience here, even though it was disobedience. And then some others were like, There was no excuse for their disobedience. There was no excuse for their disobedience here, even though they were really excited.

I don't know where I fall in the camp of that thing. I fall in the camp of, I had a really hard time keeping my mouth shut. I talk a lot anyway. And it had been really, really hard for me not to be like, Guess what? Oh, I'm not supposed to. Well, I already started anyway. And just telling everybody in the world. So they go out and they tell everybody what had been taking place.

Well, there's one more story of healing. And that has to do with the mute demon. The demon-possessed man. Notice what it says in verse 32. As they were going out, a mute demon-possessed man was brought to him. And after the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke. And the crowds were amazed and were saying, Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel. But the Pharisees were saying,

He casts out demons by the ruler of the demons. This story. It particularly caught my interest for a couple of reasons. One, because so little detail is given. It's kind of interesting that of all of the stories that were given, this one seems to have the least amount of detail. The least amount of back story. All we're told is this. As they were going out.

In other words, we're given the indication that as they were going out and doing their things throughout the day. Whether it was the exact same day that these first two healings had taken place. Or the first three healings had taken place. Or whether it was a different day. They were going out and doing their thing. As they were going out, a mute, demon-possessed man was brought to him.

That's the only information we're given about this guy. He had two problems. Number one, he was demon-possessed. Though that's not the first one listed. That was actually at the heart of the issue. And the demon possession caused him to be mute. In other words, he could not speak. Again, there's a handful of things that I could not handle very well in life.

The inability to speak would be one of them. I think I might go nuts. Because I would be like, I'm not smart enough to learn sign language. I think I screw that up all the time. I tried it one time. I would just have to write all the time. But I'd write like a five-year-old so no one would be able to read it. It would just be the most frustrating thing in the world to me.

But when you add to that the fact that what caused this man's inability to speak was the fact that he had been possessed with a demon. That his inability to communicate, period, was all because there was a demonic possession. There was a demonic work that had taken place in him. Now, we do need to understand that everybody, anybody that can't speak is not necessarily possessed by a demon.

Because sometimes we can take these things and make them walk on all fours and do things that God never intended with Scripture. But that's what took place in this particular instance. So, I take note of what actually was wrong with this guy. Demon-possessed, unable to speak. But the second thing that I take note about this guy is that he didn't come himself.

Notice what it says. The man was brought to him. Whether this guy didn't really want to be delivered, because he was possessed by demons, whether he didn't know any better because he was possessed by the demons, whatever it was, he physically did not go on his own to Jesus. It says that he was brought to him. Now, it's kind of interesting that for a second time now in these stories of healing,

we see that someone is going to be healed, not because of their own faith, not because of their own coming to Jesus, but because of somebody else bringing them to Jesus. And again, I will make the point, who do you surround yourself with? Do you surround yourself with the people that will take you to Jesus? Or do you surround yourself with people that just don't care, or they take all of your issues to the public square where as many people can hear about it as possible?

But I have a second question for you that goes along those lines. What kind of a friend are you? Are you the kind of person that takes people to Jesus? Are you the kind of person that continues to take people to the foot of Jesus to say, this is what needs done. They've got a problem and they need healed because they're not going to be healed. Because what we see here is that Jesus honors the faith of others on our behalf.

And he honors our faith on the behalf of others. It's been such a blessing these past few weeks. As hard as these past few weeks have been for some people, because people that maybe don't necessarily go to church here, but they are attached to people that go to church here, and many of them I've grown up around, we've seen go through some very difficult health issues. And I've shared them with you all through the prayer room, through the prayer requests, emails.

I've shared them with my Bible class in the mornings, and we've been praying for them. But we've seen three people who were darn near death's doorstep, now home from the hospital, and it's because I believe they were taken to the feet of Jesus. I believe it's because people just kept taking them to the feet of Jesus and saying, Lord, this is what's going on and they need healed. And we've got somebody else that's attached to our family here at Calvary that we've been praying for this week.

That needs to continue to be taken to the feet of Jesus so that she can be healed. And it is so neat that so many of us have been those people that are going to the Lord on behalf of others. Because we read here in Scripture that God honors that kind of faith. And so they bring the man to Jesus. And notice, we don't even know how Jesus did it. We only see what happens right after he did it.

We don't need to be convinced again that Jesus has power over demons. We've already seen him. He has power over demons. What we now see that is kind of being pointed out in this story of healing is not only the faith of the friends that brought him, but the lack of faith on the part of the Pharisees. Notice what it says. It says, after the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke.

The crowds were amazed and they were saying, nothing like this has been seen in Israel. Oh, what a beautiful day. This guy gets set free from this demon possession. And then he begins to talk again. What stories did he tell? No idea. But he began to talk. And again, if it's me, I can't talk for a bunch of years. I'm not going to stop for a while. You're like, we know.

We come here every Sunday. You don't stop. So everybody says, this is amazing. Can you believe this? Nothing like this has been seen in Israel. But notice what happens with the Pharisees, the religious leaders. He casts out demons by the ruler of the demons. This is the part that if this was a dramatized series, we would hear, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, right?

Because we just see that like a little turn has happened. We kind of pan to the Pharisees and they'd be like, he does so by the ruler of the demons. And dramatic music would be playing. Because we see that their hearts are now beginning to turn even more away from Jesus. The rejection of Jesus is getting deeper and deeper on the parts of these religious leaders.

But isn't it interesting? How little they care about people and how much they care about proving Jesus wrong. How little they care about the wonderful work that Jesus is doing. And how much they care about the fact that he's not doing it the way they think he should do it.

Well, now we come to what I would call the conclusion, the compassion of Jesus. It says in verse 35, Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every kind of disease and sickness. Seeing the people, he felt compassion for them because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. And then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

Therefore, beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest. As we come to this next section, that really highlights the compassion of Jesus, it starts with what we would call a summary statement. In a lot of the gospel accounts, and Matthew is no different, when a major section is finished, they'll give some kind of a summary statement. Well, this is the one that Matthew gives.

It may sound familiar to you because he gave the same one back in chapter 4, shortly prior to the Sermon on the Mount. And notice what it says. He reminds us once again of this three-fold work that Jesus did while he was here on earth. It says, Jesus was going through all the cities and villages. What was he doing? Well, number one, he was teaching. He was teaching in all of their synagogues.

What was he teaching about? Well, he was teaching about the truth of what the law actually said and teaching about the truth of the character of God. Because one of the things that had happened amongst the religious leaders at that point in time is they stopped teaching about the true character of God, which is why they were so upset at the healing that Jesus was doing because he wasn't doing it the way they thought he should rather than be excited that people are being set free. And so, as he went around, he spent time teaching them.

Well, this is what the law says. This is what the law means. This is what it says here, and it's because this is the character of God. This is what God is actually looking for in us. And so, he's teaching in all of their synagogues. But notice the second thing that it says he did is he proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom. He proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom.

And, of course, we know that the word gospel means, good news. So, he was proclaiming to them the good news of the kingdom, that there was a kingdom coming that had nothing to do with this earth. There was a kingdom coming where God would be in charge that looked nothing like the place that we're at now, and so it's okay. Endure now because we have a coming kingdom.

We have a kingdom that we don't even know anything about yet, and this place is not really our home anyway. And so, he proclaimed to them the gospel of the kingdom of God. And then, of course, we know that he healed diseases. I would, if I was putting this in a 21st century context, I would say he ministered to people because everybody kept coming to him. Day and night, people were continually coming to him and saying,

this is what I need healed from. This is what I've got going on. And because he's Jesus, he healed them. We would call it ministering to people because we maybe don't have that gift of healing, but we can take them to Jesus who does. And so, he ministered to people. And again, I will point out that I think these are the three things that should be a part of our ministry.

And I think that's what I'm going to do. That we should be teaching people the truth of who God is. That we should be proclaiming the good news of the kingdom. And we should be ministering to people. You say, Ryan, I'm not Jesus. I'm not a pastor. I'm just a guy that sits in church on Sunday morning. That's okay. Because the same Holy Spirit that was at work in Jesus

and raised him from the dead is the same Holy Spirit that's at work in you. And he wants to use you in these exact same ways. We'll talk about that more in just a minute. But then as he, after he gives us this summary statement, he tells us a little bit about the heart of Jesus for the people. It says in verse 36, seeing the people. That first phrase really stuck out to me

because it reminded me of the fact that Jesus sees. He sees the things that are going on in people's lives. He sees the things that sometimes we hope nobody else actually sees because we really don't like for people to see. We don't like for people to see what really goes on on the inside of me. Whether it be the sin that goes on on the inside of me or more accurately in this particular portion,

the hurt that goes on on the inside of me. You see, we can put on a really good front in front of a whole lot of other people, but Jesus peels all that away and he can see what really goes on in the heart. See, he sees all of those things. He sees the abuse that nobody else sees that seems to be hidden from the entire outside world. He sees all of those kinds of things.

He sees the abuse that nobody else sees. He sees the labor that you go through on a daily basis that seems to go completely unnoticed by your family, your friends, and even your co-workers, maybe even your boss. He sees how hard you work and while it feels like you're not getting rewarded on this side of eternity, he very much will reward you on the other side of eternity. He sees the corrupt things that are going on in government that sometimes we look and go, how do they not see this?

And Jesus goes, it's okay, I do. Jesus, seeing the people, it says, he felt compassion for them. Now, according to what I did with some word studies, this is the strongest word for compassion in the Bible. This is the strongest word in the Greek that can be used for what Jesus felt for the people. Because when Jesus saw what was going on in the lives and the hearts of people,

when he saw the state of the nation, when he saw the state of religion, when he saw the state of the church, if you will, at that point in time, it says he felt compassion. And remember the definition that we gave to compassion. When it hurts so bad, you have to do something. And as much as I think that Jesus was a man of great joy, and I think he was a man that laughed a lot, I think he was a man of great hurt.

And I think Jesus hurt a lot. Matter of fact, he's referred to in the book of Isaiah as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Because he felt the pain that the people were feeling. So as Jesus saw what was going on in the lives of people, took note of what was happening in the lives of people, he had compassion on them. And what did he take note of them?

Because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Those words are kind of interesting. The word distressed means weary or exhausted by trouble. I couldn't help it as I read the definitions of these words, all I could think about was the current state of affairs in the 21st century in the United States of America and in the world today.

Because I think if we were to describe what most people feel right now, it's that they feel distressed. They feel weary and exhausted by trouble. I think our whole world is kind of weary right now. I think we're weary because we're tired of dealing with a pandemic or an endemic or a, whatever you call it now, whatever thing it is that we're dealing with now.

I think the world is weary from dealing with that. I think the world is weary from dealing with loss that goes along with that. I think the world is weary from the division that we see in our world today because I don't care which side of whatever political aisle you want to sit on, it's about as divided as it's going to be right now. I think the world is weary of all of the hate that we see.

Hate coming from people that are actually hateful and hate coming from the people who tell us we should be loving each other and yet they're hateful in the way that they do it. The world is weary from all of that. We're weary of the fact that we hear over and over again about how terrible the world is. And as we're so weary and distressed and worn out from all of it, Jesus still sees and he still has compassion for us and he still says, why don't you just look unto me?

Because when you look at me, you won't see all of those other things of the world. He said he could see that they were distressed, but you know what else he could see? He could see that they were dispirited. The New King James translates this word scattered, but it can also be translated as aimlessly wandering. And may I say, if I'm talking about just the world right now,

I think the world right now is aimlessly wandering around. They're aimlessly wandering around trying to figure out how they can cure all of the physical sicknesses. They're aimlessly wandering around trying to figure out how they can cure all of the physical sicknesses. They're aimlessly wandering around trying to figure out how they can have some kind of hope.

They're aimlessly wandering around figuring out how their life can have some sort of meaning. They're aimlessly wandering and they just go, I don't know what to do. And you know what? I can safely say, I used to be that way at one time until Jesus got a hold of my heart. And now I'm no longer aimlessly wandering. Now I'm very focused following. And yes, sometimes I get weary.

Yes, sometimes I can feel a little, I can feel dispirited. But it's not because I'm aimlessly wandering about. It's because I've taken my eyes off Jesus and it's time to restore the focus where they need to be. He says, They look just like sheep without a shepherd. And then he goes on to say, The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore, beseech the Lord of the harvest

to send out workers into the harvest. This is going to create a really good segue into the next chapter where Jesus now will begin to send out his disciples into the harvest to do some of that work. Now, from this last little section, and perhaps from everything that we've looked at so far, I would like for us to take away three things. But particularly from this aspect of the heart of compassion that Jesus has, I think I had her put these up there.

Number one, this is the heart of Jesus towards me. That heart of compassion that Jesus just talked about there, or that Matthew described in the heart of Jesus, that's what he has towards me, and that's what he has towards you. And before we can become workers, workers in the harvest, we must first rest in the fact that I don't have to walk about feeling distressed and dispirited because Jesus had such great compassion on me that he called me to his fold and he's now my savior. That's the heart that he has towards me.

And if I don't start there, if I don't have my life right there where I realize that's how much Jesus loves me, then I can never respond the way that I need to to give out the truth of God's word the way that he wants me to. And so that's God's heart towards me. Number two, this is the heart of Jesus for the world. Now perhaps you're like me and you have found yourself going, well, Lord, I think you're done with the world now.

Right? Like, surely this is it because you have to be done. I can kind of be like, I believe it was Habakkuk who was like, so when's judgment gonna come? Because this seems really bad, feels like it's time for you to judge right now. I think sometimes I can kind of be that way and I have to be reminded that this heart of compassion, Jesus still has this, for the entire world,

even the people that I think are morons, even the people that I think are making really bad, ungodly decisions, Jesus still has that same heart of compassion for them. And I think that if I can begin to understand the heart that he has for me and realize that that same heart that he has for me, he has for everybody else in the world, then I can come up with number three because this is the heart that he wants me to have for people. This is the heart that he wants me to have for the people of God. For the people of the world right now.

You see, why did Jesus take his disciples along on all of these things? They don't seem to help him out any. As a matter of fact, they seem to only hinder his progress at times. Have you noticed that? Sometimes you're kind of like, why are they there? They don't really contribute anything to the whole process. As a matter of fact, we'll continue to read more and more,

they just say dumb things. So why did he take them? You know why he took them along? Because he needed them to catch the same heart for people. Because if they were going to become workers in the harvest, then they first of all had to understand just how much Jesus loved them. They needed to understand just how much Jesus loved the people in the world and just how much he wanted them

to have that same heart for everybody else. Because brothers and sisters, we need to have that same heart for everybody else. But we can't in a legalistic way go, okay, I'm just going to love people now. Because you know what will happen when you do that? You start going, okay, I'm going to have a heart of compassion for people now. You'll talk to people. And you know what will happen?

You'll go, you're morons. I don't want to talk to you anymore. Because I know that's what people do sometimes when they talk to me, right? They're like, well, he's an idiot. How can Jesus love him? Because God's really funny. We can't work it up on ourselves. It has to be a response to what he's doing in my heart. It has to be a response to the love that Jesus has for me.

You see, we love because he first loved us. Amen? Amen. Let's all stand.

Oh, I'm praying we have a blessed week this week as the worship team leads us in this last song. Just allow God's word to continue to do in your heart what it needs to do. Father, we come before you and just thank you. Thank you that you are the God of all grace and the God of all mercy, the God of all healing, and Lord, a God of compassion. And so, Lord, may we all be