Understanding Authority

Intro

Last week we began walking through a section of Matthew’s Gospel that highlights 10 miracles Jesus performed

A variety of miracles that, when looked at together, touched basically every aspect of our lives in this world.

Matthews intention in choosing these stories and the conversations mixed into the miracles, was to show us the authority of Jesus over our world.

Last week we focused on how these miracles stories reveal how we should respond to the authority of Jesus.

This week we are going to look at the how these miracles reveal our greatest need, Jesus’s unimaginable power and compassion, and confront the ways we struggle to live under His authority.

This chapter ends with one of the most incredible pictures of the heart of Jesus and we can see it throughout chapters 8 and 9.

Matthew 9:36 ESV

36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

As we walk through this chapter, remember that we are those sheep, harassed and helpless, and He is our compassionate, powerful shepherd.

Matthew 9:1–34 CSB

1 So he got into a boat, crossed over, and came to his own town. 2 Just then some men brought to him a paralytic lying on a stretcher. Seeing their faith, Jesus told the paralytic, “Have courage, son, your sins are forgiven.” 3 At this, some of the scribes said to themselves, “He’s blaspheming!” 4 Perceiving their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why are you thinking evil things in your hearts? 5 For which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 6 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—then he told the paralytic, “Get up, take your stretcher, and go home.” 7 So he got up and went home. 8 When the crowds saw this, they were awestruck and gave glory to God, who had given such authority to men. 9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, “Follow me,” and he got up and followed him. 10 While he was reclining at the table in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came to eat with Jesus and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 Now when he heard this, he said, “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.” 14 Then John’s disciples came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” 15 Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests be sad while the groom is with them? The time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16 No one patches an old garment with unshrunk cloth, because the patch pulls away from the garment and makes the tear worse. 17 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. No, they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.” 18 As he was telling them these things, suddenly one of the leaders came and knelt down before him, saying, “My daughter just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” 19 So Jesus and his disciples got up and followed him. 20 Just then, a woman who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years approached from behind and touched the end of his robe, 21 for she said to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I’ll be made well.” 22 Jesus turned and saw her. “Have courage, daughter,” he said. “Your faith has saved you.” And the woman was made well from that moment. 23 When Jesus came to the leader’s house, he saw the flute players and a crowd lamenting loudly. 24 “Leave,” he said, “because the girl is not dead but asleep.” And they laughed at him. 25 After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. 26 Then news of this spread throughout that whole area. 27 As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” 28 When he entered the house, the blind men approached him, and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I can do this?” They said to him, “Yes, Lord.” 29 Then he touched their eyes, saying, “Let it be done for you according to your faith.” 30 And their eyes were opened. Then Jesus warned them sternly, “Be sure that no one finds out.” 31 But they went out and spread the news about him throughout that whole area. 32 Just as they were going out, a demon-possessed man who was unable to speak was brought to him. 33 When the demon had been driven out, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowds were amazed, saying, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel!” 34 But the Pharisees said, “He drives out demons by the ruler of the demons.”

The Authority of Jesus Confronts...

1) Our GREATEST NEED

Chapter 9 picks up with Jesus leaving somewhere (possible the region of the Gadarenes) and coming back into Capernaum.

Again, Matthew isn’t necessarily sharing these stories in chronological order, so the miracle he is introducing doesn’t necessarily follow Him casting the demons into the pigs.

After Jesus gets off the boat, some men come, carrying their friend who is paralyzed to Him.

We aren’t told what they ask Jesus, but we can assume by the state of their friend and knowing what Jesus has done thus far, that they brought their friend to Him in order that he could be healed.

And that is what makes Jesus’s response odd and somewhat off-putting.

David Platt points out that this is the only place in the entire Gospel that Jesus says to someone “Your sins are forgiven.”

But the man didn’t come to Jesus seeking forgiveness of his sin, he came to be healed.

Why would Jesus say such a thing to a man laying on a stretcher, obviously there desiring to be healed from a physical disability that made his life incredibly difficult?

I think there were 2 reasons:

One, Jesus knew who was watching.

Jesus knew there were Scribes around, witnessing the men carry their friend to Jesus, listening intently to what He was going to say and watching with critical eyes how He would respond.

So Jesus says something that would instantly get their attention…and He is successful.

Matthew 9:3 CSB

3 At this, some of the scribes said to themselves, “He’s blaspheming!”

The word “blasphemy” means to speak of God irreverently or dishonorably. It is a breaking the 3rd commandment, to dishonor the name of God.

Jesus was declaring the man’s sins to be forgiven, something only God could do. And so Jesus was making Himself equal with God.

“How could this Galilean carpenter claim He has the authority to forgive sin?” It was utterly outrageous.

But there was another, much more significant reason Jesus says these words.

Matthew 9:4–6 CSB

4 Perceiving their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why are you thinking evil things in your hearts? 5 For which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 6 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—then he told the paralytic, “Get up, take your stretcher, and go home.”

Jesus knew His audience, He knew that simply healing this man would have caused a stir in the crowd, would have shown His power to heal a broken body, but it would have only dealt with a physical problem and not the man’s greater problem.

Pay close attention to Jesus’s words here “so that you may KNOW that the Son of Man has AUTHORITY to FORGIVE sin...”

Jesus’ heals the man in order to show that He has the authority not only to heal the physical, but more importantly to heal the Spiritual.

I all the other miracles stories leading to this one, FAITH has been at the center.

The leper comes to Jesus believing He could heal him.

The Centurion comes to Jesus with faith that He has the authority to heal, even from miles away.

The disciples lack faith in Jesus as the storm rages around them.

And the demons shudder in fear the moment the see Jesus get off the boat.

Faith in Jesus saves, heals, and overcomes in each of those circumstances.

But Jesus didn’t come simply to heal physical suffering, He came to heal the very roots of our suffering.

This man’s greatest struggle wasn’t that his legs didn’t work, it was that he was separated from the God that created him because of his sin.

That is what Jesus is doing here, He is pointing to the paralyzed man’s greater need, not a working pair of legs, but forgiveness, freedom, and eternal security.

In each of these miracles, Jesus is proving that He is powerful to save us from the suffering we experience in this world, because He is able to save us from the root of all of our suffering, sin.

Don’t hear me saying that the suffering we face in this world always a result of your sin.

Some of the suffering we face in life is a result of our sin, but much of our suffering is a result of how sin has broken our world as a whole.

And Jesus came to heal it all.

Jesus sees us as sheep, harassed by sin and helpless to overcome, and driven by love, He offers us a way out.

2) Our SELF-CENTERED STRUGGLE

Matthew takes a short break from his miracles stories in verse 9, shifting to the account of his own call to follow Jesus.

He shares the story in third-person, but I can’t help but think there were tears on the page as he remembers the day.

Matthew was a tax collector. A Jewish man employed by the Roman government to collect taxes from his fellow Jews.

The tax collectors made their living by collecting more than what was demanded by Rome and keeping the excess.

So you can imagine how hated they were.

Matthew was a traitor, a sinner, and unworthy to considered a Jew.

So you can imagine the shock of the crowd when Jesus turns to his tax booth and calls him to follow Him.

The eyes that would have followed Matthew as He stood up from his post, closed his ledger books, and walked out.

And then Jesus goes to Matthew’s house, where friends and coworkers of Matthew are gathered for a meal, likely invited by Matthew so that He can introduce his friend to this man that had changed his life.

It is easy to judge the Pharisees harshly in this passage.

They see Jesus at Matthews house, lounging and eating with people who are clearly not following the laws of God, who are not just bad Jews, but who are working for the Jewish people’s greatest enemy.

For them, obedience to the commands of God, doing what good Jewish boys and girl were supposed to do, and not doing the things that they were not supposed to do, that is how there relationship with God was judged.

And when compared to the tax collectors, they were SOOO much more worthy of God’s love and acceptance.

Much like the Pharisees, we are prone to judge our own standing with God based on how well we are doing in comparison to others.

Sure we might fail in some areas of our life. We might not be as faithful as we should or as obedient as we ought, but at least we aren’t as bad off as those people marching on Pride days, or as lost as those people posted on the sheriff’s Facebook page.

Jesus shows the Pharisees that he has a different view of what it means to be a sinner than they do.

To the Pharisees, a sinner is a person who has violated the law according to their interpretations.

But to Jesus, a sinner is any person who remains opposed to God’s will.

The Pharisees consider themselves to be righteously healthy before God because they define righteousness by their observance of the law—their “sacrifice.”

But they are blind to their real sinfulness before God.

One of our greatest struggles in living under the authority of Jesus is our struggle with judgmental self-righteousness.

Grounding our relationship with God in how much better off we are in comparison to others.

All the while failing to see the mission Jesus came to accomplish.

He didn’t come to recognize and affirm the righteous, He came to save sinners and heal our broken world.

And until we recognize that we are those sinners, we the lost and helpless sheep Jesus came to save, then we no better off than the Pharisees.

3) Our INADEQUATE PURSUITS

Seemingly right after Jesus’s exchange with the Pharisees, some of John the Baptist’s disciples come to Jesus’s disciples and ask a question.

Why were Jesus’s disciples not doing some of the things that seemed to be the “right” things to do, namely fasting?

It doesn’t seem like John’s disciples are as judgmental as the Pharisees in the previous section, but they are struggling to see how Jesus’s disciples are faithfully follow God if they aren’t doing all the “right things”.

Jesus’s isn’t opposed to fasting, He had just given instructions on fasting in the sermon on the mount.

He isn’t being loose with the law or flippant with obedience.

As He has said before, He has not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.

John’s disciples fasted as a sign of their repentance, preparing their hearts for the coming of the Messiah.

Jesus is the one they were preparing for, so there fasting was no longer needed.

The purpose behind spiritual disciplines isn’t to prove our salvation to God or to others.

Spiritual discipline is a result of a heart that has been transformed by God and a person that is being made more and more like Him.

We often make spiritual disciplines into duties we have to perform in order to stay in the favor of God, works we perform keep Him happy.

But Jesus didn’t come to give us a list of rules to follow in order to make Him happy.

He didn’t come to repackage a new set of laws that people had to obey in order to be right with God.

He came to show us a better way, to open up, through His death and resurrection, THE WAY to be right with God.

He came to save lost sheep like you and me.

4) Our PHYSICAL FRAILTY

In the next two sections, Matthew returns to the miracle stories, recording 3 miracles that overcome show Jesus’s power to heal our broken bodies.

Jesus heals a woman who has been bleeding for 12 years.

Who had likely been to every doctor and healer that she could afford, trying to fix her broken body and be healed from her suffering.

Finding no answer, she fights through the crowd surrounding Jesus, believing that if she just touches His robe, she will be healed.

And the moment Jesus sees her, He declares that her faith has SAVED her and she is made well.

In verse 37, Matthew tells us about 2 blind men who come to Jesus asking Him to heal them.

Jesus asked them men “Do you believe I can do this?” A question of faith, to which they answer “Yes, Lord.”

And with those words, they are healed.

And in the middle of those 2 there is a man who comes to Jesus, whose daughter has gotten very sick and has died.

He comes to Jesus believing that He can bring her back from death.

When He arrives, He finds professional mourners outside the home, weeping loudly that because the girls has died.

And Jesus tells them “Stop crying and go home, for the girl is not dead, she is only sleeping.” And the crowd laughs.

But Jesus walks into the girls room, takes her hand, and she rises out of the bed.

Moments of deep despair. 3 circumstances of people overwhelmed by the frailty of our bodies and in each case Jesus heals with a word, or a touch.

Matthew has already shown us Jesus’s power to heal sickness, cast out demons, and calm storms, but here we are shown that He has the power over our greatest enemy and sin’s most faithful partner, death.

In our deepest, most desperate moments, Jesus is never outmatched or overwhelmed.

His authority confronts our physical frailty, sealing for us complete healing and eternal life.

5) Our HARD-HEARTED REJECTIONS

A focus on doubt and refusal to believe - accusing of healing with demonic power. They just wouldn't believe.

These Pharisees miss the point. They accuse Jesus of casting out demons by the power of Satan, but why would Satan cast out his own demons.

Why would a general choose to destroy his own troops when it seems like they were winning?

They are finding every reason not to believe in Jesus as savior and not to submit to Jesus as Lord.

Matthew has spent 2 chapter, 10 miracles, showing us how Jesus has authority over every aspect of our lives.

He can overcome every source of pain and suffering we face in this world.

He could have shown his authority in lots of different ways, but he shows his authority in healing the hurting, protecting the weak, and freeing the captive.

This is the Gospel folks, our compassion savior, the one that molded and shaped the universe, the one that breathed life into our lungs,

He loves us deeply and there is nothing outside of his authority.

The King Who has authority over sin, death, demons, disease, disasters, this King loves you.

Don't be like the Pharisees, stop looking for a reason to not believe.

You don't make Jesus Lord of your life, your stop denying that He is.

Pray