Kingdom Vision

Introduction

A long time ago in the North American continent a foolish man was seeking to make himself the most popular person in his village. The fall harvest came around and he insisted on hosting feast after feast to celebrate. He was providing all the food for the entire village from his own crops and herds. He invited the entire village each time. At the first feast, the entire village showed up except the village elder who was not feeling well. By the third event, most realized the man was just doing this to build his reputation. They also realized he was not conserving his food wisely. But the village elder did come that time. He went right up to the man and rebuked him, “You won’t have enough food to survive the winter!” The few villagers that came that time felt shame for being there. “Don’t worry about me, old man! I’ve got more food than anyone else!” The foolish man retorted.

But that wasn’t true. He knew it was a lie. Eventually winter did set in. The first few weeks went okay, but eventually his pantry was emptied by his autumn opulence. He looked upon the rest of his fellow villagers with contempt. He grew angry that all the people who were happy at his parties didn’t seem to even look at him now. Unbeknownst to him, the village elder commanded everyone to offer no assistance until he asked for it. But his pride would never allow him to ask for any help. As his hunger grew, so did his greed.

It started slow. He went out to his neighbor’s pasture and killed an animal for his food. But one was not enough. He killed them all. He went over to the pond to wash his hands of his deeds and noticed antlers growing out of his skull. His face had become sunken and deathly. His arms became lengthen to where he was walking on all fours. He was transformed into a monster. He killed his whole village. And finding nothing left, he consumed himself.

This is Native American folklore about the windego. A beast transformed and driven by his own greed.

And yet, we know we are not that far off from being controlled by our own greed.

N

This is the picture of the person who takes in all he can just to preserve himself. That is the picture of fallen man right after Genesis 3. Is that all we are? Men driven by greed to expend everything and everyone in our way so that we can be king of the hill on that pile of bodies? Or is there a chance that we can be satisfied? Is there a chance our greed can be nullified? If you had that chance to be eternally satisfied would you take it?

T

This is the scene we come to as we approach the stories in Matthew 9 this morning: people greedily taking advantage of the promised Messiah. But that’s not all. We see a glimmer of hope as eyes are opened to the true mission.

R

Matthew 9:27-34 reveals both blind, greedy opportunists and what it means to see with kingdom vision.

O

In Matthew 9:27-34 we will see that truth brings trust, folly brings fascination, resentment brings resistance, and the Messiah brings mission. (repeat)?

N

Do you want to find something in which you are truly satisfied?

Matthew 9:27-34

Theological Focus: Jesus enables his disciples to see Kingdom and righteous needs and speak to those needs while the crowds and Pharisees remain blind

Positive: fulfillment in giving oneself to a true and valuable mission

Negative: Taking in all one can for self-preservation

Messianic secrecy: Political revolution is not Jesus’s intent

Crowd: fickle fascination looking for political ends

Pharisees: jealous

Truth brings trust

Matthew 9:27–31 ESV

27 And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.” 28 When he entered the house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to him, “Yes, Lord.” 29 Then he touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it done to you.” 30 And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, “See that no one knows about it.” 31 But they went away and spread his fame through all that district.

Revelation

At this point in the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew is switching from focusing on the heart of Jesus’s identity and teaching and moving to his mission. The kingdom of God is at the heart of Jesus’s teaching. Extending God’s rule means more than just following Mosaic law, it means yearning for what God yearns for. We could summarize the whole sermon on the mount with “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.”

And we saw first hand the authority of Jesus to bring that kingdom in our midst. He has the authority to heal, to bring life, to forgive sins.

Here we see a healing of two blind men. There’s a very similar story in Matthew 20. The stories are linked because they both include two blind men who call on the “Son of David.” The title “Son of David” is a clear Messianic title. Some scholars conclude that Matthew accidentally put two different versions of the same story in his work twice.

But surely by now you have seen that Spirit-inspired Scripture is not filled with that sort of folly. No, it’s the differences that are striking. In this story, the healing is done privately, a statement of faith was demanded, and a stern warning was given which was disobeyed.

Why in the world is all this taking place? It’s transitioning us from the miracles focused on Jesus’s identity to his teaching on his mission.

The problem when it comes to Jesus’s mission is that everyone already has preconceived notions of what the Messiah’s mission is.

The blind men see Jesus better than the crowds. They follow Jesus saying in v. 27, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.”

Jesus waits until he is in the house away from the public eye before he addresses them. He asks them in v. 28 if they believe he is able. They say , “Yes.”

Notice the truth that these blind men know.

They know that Jesus is the Messiah. (Identity)

And they know Jesus’s mission is to bring mercy. (Mission)

They know Jesus’s character is to show compassion. (Character)

They know Jesus can bring sight to the blind (Ability)

They know all this truth and it brings trust. They trust fully in Jesus. Jesus tells them “According to your faith. . .” In other words, “On the basis of your faith” or as we said last week, this faith was a necessary prerequisite.

But then, Jesus strangely commands them not to tell anyone. In fact the langauge is strong in v. 30 when it says Jesus “strongly warned them.” But the blind men who now see disobey that command which brings us to the next story.

Relevance

Consider that for a moment that “truth brings trust.” How many people know the phrase “Jesus dies for my sins.” Many. How many know what that means?

How many leave that statement thinking, “I sure am glad he did that, now I can sin all I want!” Is that truth? No.

Christian language can easily become hollow when devoid of the heart of Christianity.

Consider one of the top Christian worship songs right now. This is from Elevation Worship called More Than Able

“Can you imagine with all the faith in the room What the Lord can do, what the Lord can do It's gonna happen, just let the Way Maker through He's gonna move, He's gonna move Can you imagine with all the faith in the room What the Lord can do, what the Lord can do It's gonna happen, just let the Way Maker through He's gonna move, He's gonna move”

I’m just left singing that verse wondering. . .What exactly is the Lord going to do? You leave this song knowing God’s ability but not his mission, character, or identity. This is how we fashion a god of our own. We make a being out there who is all-powerful but ill-defined so we can convince him to do what we selfishly want.

Consider “Great is Thy Faithfulness” for a comparision.

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father There is no shadow of turning with Thee Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be

We get a sense of God’s identity, character, ability, and mission. There’s more truth in one line of that hymn than the entire previous song.

It’s truth that brings trust. Not emotional facades or unauthentic gimmicks. We don’t need to showboat to get a crowd, we need truth. Otherwise, all we’d get is fascination.

Folly brings fascination

Matthew 9:32–33 ESV

32 As they were going away, behold, a demon-oppressed man who was mute was brought to him. 33 And when the demon had been cast out, the mute man spoke. And the crowds marveled, saying, “Never was anything like this seen in Israel.”

Revelation

A similar event to this takes place again in Matthew’s gospel. Both times, Matthew uses it to focus in on people’s responses. Notice that the faith of the mute man nor the faith of the people who brought him are mentioned. Yet, he is still healed. It’s because the point of the story is no longer on the faith, Jesus’s identity, but rather on people’s response to that identity.

You see, Messianic fervor is at an all-time high. People are gathering huge followings, claiming to be the Messiah then getting killed for trying to start an insurrection. Because of this great misunderstanding surrounding the Messiah’s mission, Jesus wants to keep his Messianic identity on the down low. This is not to say that he does not agree with his Messianic identity, but he does not want people to make him a king by force as it mentioned they tried to do in the gospel of John.

The people want a Messiah to establish an earthly kingdom for Israel to overthrow the Romans. The Messiah’s mission is much wider than that. He will establish the kingdom of God for the entire world to save people from the oppression of sin and the devil. To establish an earthly kingdom to overthrow the Romans would be a rejection of his true mission.

This is why he tells the two men who were blind to keep quiet. But their disobedience leads to this. People here about this guy and bring him a mute man. Because there is no mention of their faith, it’s safe to assume their relation to Jesus is similar to the crowd: mere fascination. The crowds “earthly kingdom” focused is emphasized when they say, “In Israel” at the end of v. 33

Relevance

A long time ago after Adam and Eve partook of the forbidden fruit, God kicked them out of the garden. God knew the eternity he had intended for their blessing would be twisted in their sinful state and become a curse.

Genesis 3:22–24 ESV

22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

Think about it. Sin has turned the human race into monsters. We take the rock that God has given us to stand on and pick it up to kill our brother. We take fire God gave us to cook and purify and use it to destroy. We take the beauty God gave a person and use it to fulfill our own lusts. We take every good blessing God has given us and greedily twist it into a cruel selfish fulfillment.

If this is true with the Tree of Life how much more is this true of the Messiah?

Everyone wants Jesus on their side. You have the cosmic Christ of the new age which is the positive energy everyone can feel. You have the liberation Jesus who died to set people free from oppression of the oligarchy. The Muslim Jesus who was a prophet that foretold Muhammad would come. You have the mormon Jesus who can make you a God too. And the JW Jesus who wasn’t really God at all (but the angel Michael). You turn on the Christian radio and you hear about the Jesus who wants to woo you like an emo middle school boyfriend. You have the mega church Jesus who’s really just the greatest showman who promises to make your life better. I heard an “impastor” say the other day that Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem was a political protest. Another impastor took it further and said it was a drag performance because Jesus was pretending to be a Roman ruler to mock them. . .Wow.

And all of this can call into question my own view of Jesus. Do I make Jesus into something I selfishly want him to be, or do I understand Jesus for who he claims to be.

The real question for us is who does Jesus claim to be? Is our vision of the Messiah who he really is or a dream to fill our selfish desires?

Resentment brings resistance

Matthew 9:34 ESV

34 But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by the prince of demons.”

Revelation

We won’t spend a whole lot of time on this but notice that these Pharisees know the truth. They’ve seen Jesus just as much as anyone else. They know the Old Testament. They know the things Jesus is doing is fulfilling the prophets. And yet, they show no fascination instead they harbor resentment in their hearts. And so they hurl false accusations to make Jesus seem to be something that he’s not.

And this might seem like a completely different response than the crowd, but it’s really quite similar. The crowd is eager to use Jesus to achieve their selfish ends. Their greed motivates them to accept him and get him to do their bidding. For the pharisees, they also want to be int he center of it all. They believe if they can dethrone Jesus, so-to-speak, they will remain the center of their lives and central in the eyes of the people.

Both the crowd and the pharisees are motivated by greed to use Jesus to achieve what they selfishly want.

Relevance

Consider the mere Jesus of liberal theologians. Liberal theologians deny the truthfulness and veracity of Scripture. They say things like, “Did God really say. . .?” They deny the miracles of the Scripture, like the resurrection. With all this denial, you may wonder what positive claims they make.

Well, They claim that Jesus was just a good teacher, a good moral example. Jesus died, these liberal theologians claim, just to set an example of how we should give our lives too.

Of course there’s a major problem with this. Jesus claimed to be God. He claimed to be the Messiah. If Jesus was just a good teacher, then why would he lie about his identity. Furthermore, we could argue that someone who lies about their identity could not be a good teacher.

In trying to defang Jesus, the liberal theologian creates a contradiction. But, now this person can use Jesus to get what he wants out of him: morality.

But you don’t get missions. The PCUSA as of last week has formally fired all their missionaries. No longer will this denomination actively seek to share the gospel.

Application

Whole Sermon Relevance

In the garden of Eden,

English Standard Version Chapter 3

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took. . .

Genesis 3:6

The story ties the eyes to greed and taking advantage.

And ironically, our story in Matthew began with two people who could not see. Yet those blind men clearly saw who Jesus was. They knew his identity.

The crowds and Pharisees who could see, we eager to use Jesus to exalt themselves in some way.

But Jesus is the exact opposite. We will look at this text a lot more next week, but consider this: Matthew 9:36 “36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

Notice, that when Jesus saw the crowds, the crowds became his mission. Notice, unlike the crowds and Pharisees who want to use Jesus as a means to an end.

And here we come to the thrust of the whole text.

When we trust in Jesus for who he says he is, we realize that all our needs and wants are met in him.

This cures us from trying to use Jesus or other people to get what we selfishly want.

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