Faith that Goes Beyond

Our Theme for 2025 is “Live Like Jesus”

It comes out of a simple desire to follow Jesus - and to learn better what that means.

We are spending the entire year in the Gospel of Matthew.

We began by going very slowly through the beatitudes.

We skipped ahead to chapter 25 and moved through Jesus’ Passion, leading up to His death and resurrection.

Then we went back to chapter five to pick up where we left off.

Most of the rest of our time in Matthew will be spent examining the way that Jesus describes the renewed life that we have in Christ.

We talked about being salt and light - a demonstration to the world of who God is.

We also talked about living as a changed person.

And we talked about bearing “good fruit.”

Over the last several weeks we talked about divine healing, deliverance and forgiveness.

All of these are part of the renewed life and are part of God’s plan to restore all things.

One of the things that we said, especially about healing and forgiveness is that me can’t make them happen we just ask for it and receive it by faith.

You may remember that I defined faith as being based in covenant relationship with God.

Faith is not just about believing - but also belonging.

It is about knowing God and trusting God.

You have heard me say it many times - faith and faithfulness are the same word in both Greek and Hebrew - the difference is determined by context.

Obedience, loyalty, relationship and trust are all part of the definition of faith.

In the Bible, Abraham is considered to be the father of faith.

Genesis 15:6 NLT

6 And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.

Many Christians point to this verse as evidence of faith as believing. But believing would mean nothing if it were no also for Abraham’s obedience - a demonstration of faith. And God made a covenant with Abraham which further solidified that faith.

Did Abraham always believe God? Did He always obey God? Did He always demonstrate faith by doing the right things? No, No, and no.

But in the end, he was faithful because God was faithful to His covenant with Abraham and he is remembered for that faith which became the foundation of the nation of Israel. Today, all three major monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, all claim to be descended from Abraham.

This further reinforced the idea that faith is just as much or more about what God does in us and through us, than what we do in response.

This week we are going to look at even more stories of healing, miracles, even raising someone who was supposed to be dead.

The key element here is faith.

Jesus calls it forth when he raised a girl from her deathbed.

Then He heals two blind men on the basis of their exercising faith.

An older woman demonstrates it by pressing through the crowd too touch Jesus.

Finally a man comes to Jesus who can’t speak and who probably isn’t even in his right mind - and Jesus heals him.

And the reaction of the Pharisees show exactly where their faith lies.

Matthew closes this chapter with an appeal for those who would join Jesus in His mission by exercising faith that goes beyond what we currently know and have experienced.

If we are going to follow Jesus in the renewed life we need a faith that goes beyond the ordinary.

Beyond ordinary social expectations.

Beyond ordinary physical limitations.

And beyond even extraordinary spiritual oppression - beyond what we can comprehend!

It is a faith that goes beyond ourselves that both expects and allows God to do what only He can do.

Beyond social expectations.

Matthew 9:18–19 ESV

18 While he was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” 19 And Jesus rose and followed him, with his disciples.

The first thing that we see in this passage is that a ruler - presumably one of the Jewish ruling class - comes to Jesus and kneels.

Most of us miss that detail when we are reading - but that, right there is a big deal!

Jesus is an uneducated populist teacher from remote community - like a “hillbilly preacher”

The simple fact that this man is coming to Jesus and honoring Him is already out of the ordinary.

Social status is a fragile thing, you don’t risk that unless you are forced to do so.

Then we learn that his request is for his daughter who is apparently already pronounced dead and we begin to understand the scenario.

This guy believes he has nothing to lose - he has already lost what is most important to him.

He has heard that Jesus can heal - He may have even witnessed a miracle or two.

He believes that if he can bring Jesus into contact with his daughter, that the miraculous power which Jesus has demonstrated will be greater that whatever power death or disease may have over his daughter.

That takes faith, not just to believe that Jesus can heal, even after the body has ceased to function, but to believe that whatever power Jesus is exhibiting is greater than the power at work in death.

I say it is faith, because it is thinking bigger that just looking at the circumstances.

It is looking at ultimate reality.

Right now, this man doesn’t care that he is part of an elite social class.

He doesn’t care that Jesus is from Nazareth.

All that matters is that Jesus is demonstrating something bigger than this world and greater than death - that’s faith!

That’s why Jesus and the disciples get up and follow this man to his home.

Because they saw faith at work.

Faith is recognizing who you are to God.

Matthew 9:20–22 ESV

20 And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, 21 for she said to herself, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.” 22 Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well.

So while they are going, the story is interrupted by another story.

The two stories are told together because they work together to make a point.

The ruler invites Jesus to touch his daughter and heal her.

The woman with the issue of blood touches Jesus and is healed.

Jesus even calls her “daughter,” echoing the language of the first story.

And the two subject of Jesus healing are contrasted, because one is the daughter of a ruler and the other is an outcast whose identity is otherwise irrelevant.

The point is that someone can have faith regardless of who they are or how well-connected they may be.

That is a point that we might miss with our modern, Western view of scripture.

We often take it for granted that anyone can have faith.

But if faith is both believing and belonging - then a person’s social position really helps with the belonging part.

As least from a human perspective.

The truth that the Bible conveys here is that who you are in people’s eyes does not define who you are to God.

Both of them are called “daughter.”

Are you a daughter or a son of God?

John 16:26–27 CEV

26 You will ask the Father in my name, and I won’t have to ask him for you. 27 God the Father loves you because you love me, and you believe that I have come from him.

Jesus told His disciples that they would be able to ask God directly for what they want because the Father loved them.

Do you know who you are to God?

Do you know that He loves you?

Do you know that you belong to Him?

Do you know that you are His son or His daughter?

Then you have confidence to talk to God, to ask for whatever you want.

And that confidence is called faith.

It is rooted and grounded in you identity in Christ.

It begins with knowing who you are, but it not just all about you...

Faith is realizing that there is more to life.

Matthew 9:23–26 ESV

23 And when Jesus came to the ruler’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, 24 he said, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. 25 But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose. 26 And the report of this went through all that district.

We will get back to the woman with the issue of blood, but first we arrive at the ruler’s house.

Matthew describes the scene as a commotion - disorderly and chaotic- lots of people expressing different reactions and emotions.

His choice of words reflects the state of the world before creation.

Genesis 1:2 LBP

2 the earth was a shapeless, chaotic mass, with the Spirit of God brooding over the dark vapors.

That’s what it was like in a house where death had just occurred.

As a pastor, I have on numerous occasions come into a house either just before or just after a person has passed. You can feel the heaviness when you walk into the room. Let me also say that there is a remarkable difference between the atmosphere of believers versus unbelievers. People who don’t have the hope of the gospel often have extreme reactions to death. Sometimes they lash out at each other, at God or even at me. There is nothing I can do or say in that moment that will make it better. I can only make it worse by saying the wrong thing or by leaving too soon.

Jesus walked into a house like that and the only thing He could say was that what they thought was the end is not really the end.

She’s not dead, she’s just sleeping.

Other places in the scripture, “sleeping” is used a code word for dead, but not eternally so.

1 Thessalonians 4:13 ESV

13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

Jesus is trying delicately to give them some perspective on the situation.

Death is not the end.

You can expect to wake up again to a new dawn.

Because there is eternal hope in eternal life and a new creation.

And to demonstrate, Jesus is going to take her by the hand and help her up out of bed.

That is something that we all have to look forward to when that time comes that we actually do “fall asleep.”

Our faith tells us that we will wake up to Jesus taking us by the hand.

Let me go back to the other woman for a moment, because both healing stories involve physical touch.

I want to first give us some context that first century Jewish men and women to not ordinarily touch each other.

It is still that way in some part of the world where I travel.

There are separate airport security lines for men and for women.

Men will sit in the front of the car and women sit in the back of the car.

Men and women will even sit on separate sides of the church.

The fact that Jesus would be invited to lay hands on the rulers daughter or that a woman would dare to touch Jesus intentionally in a crowd invites the reader to consider an aspect of faith.

Faith is connection.

In that context, you don’t touch people who are not part of your immediate family.

Touching or being invited to touch makes you family - it makes you connected by covenant - by faith!

Faith flows through connection.

Life overcomes death.

Heath overcomes sickness.

Order overcomes disorder.

The Presence of God overcomes this world.

And the renewed life overcomes whatever you may otherwise expect...

Beyond physical limitations.

Touch in the previous passage is not just illustrative of one person touching another, but it is about touching or receiving a touch from God.

Divine life and divine power flow through the connection that is created by faith.

Faith is not just the ability to cognitively conceive of something.

That takes imagination, but imagination is just the beginning.

Everything starts with imagination.

You see something in your mind.

You consider the steps it would take to make that dream a reality.

You plan and you collaborate to make it happen.

Eventually, if you are patient and persistent, you may see the very thing that you imagined, or even better than you imagined.

Faith has the power to create.

Matthew 9:27–28 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.”

Two blind men follow Jesus to the place where he is staying.

They are calling him “Son of David” a Messianic title.

They are asking for mercy like you would of someone who has real power or authority.

Jesus’ question is already answered in the details of what we just read.

They obviously believe He can heal them.

And they are willing to do whatever they have to to make it happen.

Yes, faith is believing, but it is also action.

Faith is not just the first step - faith is involved in every step.

Faith is the entire process that enables us to transcend the limitation of our current reality to discover a new reality.

When that faith is in an eternal God who is beyond this world, then it can also take us to places that are beyond physical reality.

Faith is not confined by time, space or matter.

It is only confined by our ability to imagine and our willingness to participate in what God is doing.

Hebrews 11:3 ESV

3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

Faith is creative.

Faith imagines what would not be otherwise possible.

Faith sees a way forward where things are believed to be impossible.

Faith doesn’t look at the world’s corruption and only see imminent destruction.

Faith sees a world that was created by God and which God has declared to make new.

Faith sees ourselves as part of that plan.

Not just as part of the problem.

But as part of the solution.

The video that we began with this morning is the inspiring story of our national anthem. It shows what can happen when people have faith in a vision for a new nation, even when it seemed impossible. Each one who gave their life to hold up that flag did so by faith, not just believing, but doing their part to make it so.

Faith is the ability to make it happen.

Matthew 9:29–31 ESV

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.

Notice how Jesus empowers people by the way he performs miracles.

He doesn’t say, “Well you came to the right person. I just happen to have enough faith for the both of us!”

He says, “you have faith, use it!”

God loves you!

If you can imagine that, you can also believe that He wants to heal you.

If you can believe that God wants to heal you, perhaps you can also envision what it would be like to be healed.

Do you still want that? Good!

Now lift up your eyelids and look through those eyes that don’t work.

If you can see who God is and yourself as God sees you, then you already have better vision than most.

Let that perfect vision transform those imperfect eyes.

Let God create a new retina, new rods and cones, new cornea.

Let His order bring alignment to the disordered interpretation of those images to your mind.

Let God bring the world into focus, both physically and spiritually.

What you are seeing is not just your imagination, you are seeing it with you own eyes - you are healed!

Be sure to let me know if anyone is getting healed right now, either here in the room or online.

We want to celebrate and give God praise for what he has done.

We also want your story to help someone else grow in their faith so your story becomes their story too.

Beyond spiritual oppression.

I wish we could just see miracles happen all the time.

I wish that people would just grow in their faith and never slide back into doubt and sin.

I wish that spiritual growth was a linear process.

Unfortunately it’s not - and the reason for that is that there is also resistance.

God is real, Jesus is real, faith is real, but so is the devil.

The best way to deal with the reality of evil and it’s resistance to the truth is to get our eyes back on God.

Faith is trust in God’s sovereignty.

Matthew 9:32–34 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.” 34 But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by the prince of demons.”

All that we are told about this man is that he is oppressed by a demon and that he can’t speak.

I have spent a year of my education focusing on trauma and how to help people who have been the victims of trauma. One of the best ways to help people is help them talk about it. You need learn how to listen and draw people out when the things that they are sharing may be hard to hear. One of the effects of trauma is that people lose their voice. They are overcome with anxiety even at thinking about the events, let alone talking about it. It is not uncommon for people to literally lose their vocal ability when something has triggered their memory of the event.

We aren’t told anything about this man, his circumstances or how the demon manifested - just that he couldn’t speak.

Not being able to speak would also limit his ability to seek help.

He can’t tell people what happened.

He can’t process his experience out loud with others.

He may not even be able to pray.

How do you exercise faith when you can’t get the words out?

Maybe you can’t believe?

Maybe you can’t imagine being whole?

Maybe your thought are chaotic and your words don’t make sense?

Can God still heal you? Of course He can!

Mark records the words of a father whose son was in this condition, and to some degree he may have felt that way himself.

Mark 9:24 NLT

24 The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”

I think it is important to balance any teaching on faith and our exercise of it with a reminder that God is also sovereign.

He doesn’t need our help - but He wants our participation.

Why? because faith is a relationship word - its not something we are ever meant to have or to do alone.

The Pharisees recognized this fact and insisted that if Jesus cast a demon out, he must have had help from other demons.

Now on one hand, this makes no sense at all.

But they must have been thinking, what is more powerful than a demon? - more demons!

Um, hello? What about God?

They had already ruled that out, because they are the experts on God - if God were involved - they would know it.

This raises another good point about faith and God’s sovereignty - don’t ever think that you can use faith to manipulate God or make Him do what you want to do.

The very definition of faith is that you can only do what you do because you belong to Him.

In other words, He calls the shots, not us.

Faith is responding to God’s call.

Matthew 9:35–38 ESV

35 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Matthew zooms out at the close of the chapter to give us a big picture view and a challenge.

As Jesus is looking out over the landscape and as he looks over each crowd in every place, he’s sees people who are helpless, hopeless, chaotic and untethered.

They don’t act like people who know who they are and where they belong.

The faith that is supposed to be the cohesive bond of the people of God is mostly missing.

And so that same faith that enables God’s people to act as His agents in the world is also scarce.

That raises another point about faith which has only been briefly mentioned.

Faith is action - it is agency.

It is not just knowing God, but participating fully in what God is doing in the world.

Faith is not just our thoughts and our words but also our walk.

2 Corinthians 5:7 CSB

7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.

Faith is an awareness that both helps us to navigate life in this world and propels us forward.

It is every aspect of our relationship with God.

Who we are in Him.

What we receive from Him.

What we do for Him.

And so the chapter ends with an appeal for prayer- “Pray that God would send workers into the field.’

People who know who they are to God.

People who aren’t afraid to aske God for what they need.

People who are able to see what God is doing.

People who are able to imagine what God wants to do.

People who are able to mobilize and make it happen.

People who walk by faith and not by sight.

Questions for reflection:

What does it mean to have faith? Is it what you believe? Is it being part of a church? Is it a daily walk with God that influences every part of your life and gives you purpose? Is it all that and more?

How do you exercise faith? Do you study the Bible to understand God? Do you pray to get closer to God? Do you serve out of love for God? How do each of those things help you become all that God created you to be?

How would you like to stretch your faith? Ask God to help you imagine something that He wants to do. Ask Him to help you to know how to pray for that. Ask Him what part He would have you to play. Now ask God to do even more than you can imagine!