Great faith in a Great Savior
Matthew: The King and His Kingdom • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 43:46
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· 8 viewsYou have no claim to the table with Christ. Yet those who receive mercy by faith are brought in.
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Call to Worship
Call to Worship
11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—
12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility
15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,
16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.
18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,
21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Q: What is your only comfort in life and in death?
A. That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death— to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven; in fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.
Q: What must you know to live and die in the joy of this comfort?
A: Three things:
first, how great my sin and misery are;
second, how I am set free from all my sins and misery;
third, how I am to thank God for such deliverance.
Adoration
Adoration
Confession
Confession
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
Message
Message
21 And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon.
22 And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.”
23 But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.”
24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
25 But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.”
26 And he answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
27 She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
28 Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
How many of you will have an Easter dinner?
Dinner brings people together.
And everyone wants to come to dinner.
They want to be invited!
But who gets invited when you have dinner?
Maybe family, friends, or people in your community.
There’s one common theme: you KNOW them.
Did you know that in the Bible there’s a banquet?
Actually there are two banquets which are worth noting for our purposes.
This marriage supper of the lamb is coming (Revelation 19:9)
This will be the final Messianic banquet.
Why do you think you’ll be invited to this dinner?
You think you’ve been a good person and you deserve to be invited.
“I’ve lived a good life, and I think I’ll make it to the dinner God is preparing!”
You think that you’ve grown up in church so you should get to come because of your family.
“My family has grown up going to church and there’s never been a time I wasn’t going to this dinner!”
Or maybe you think there is no way you could ever come to this dinner.
“My problems are too deep to ever be invited into this dinner!”
What does it have to do with Easter?
Everything!
There’s a second dinner in the Bible that is especially worth noting.
It’s the dinner in the garden of Eden.
This dinner plunged humanity into death.
It plunged humanity into their slavery to sin.
18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”
Everyone wants invited to the dinner with Christ.
Everyone wants a spot at the table.
But if we don’t first recognize what keeps us from that table of communion with Christ we have no shot.
A hopeless outsider in desperate need.
A hopeless outsider in desperate need.
You have no claim to the table with Christ.
21 And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon.
Jesus leaves the town where the religious leaders had come down to.
He goes up to the place of the enemies of God historically.
She is an outsider of every covenant advantage.
She is an outsider of every covenant advantage.
She lives in the place of enemies.
She lives in the place of enemies.
Tyre & Sidon were Israel’s enemies.
Notes on Scripture 39. Matthew 15:21–22
[Tyre & Sidon represent] Satan’s idolatrous kingdom
One historian referred to the land of Tyre as “notoriously our bitterest enemies.” (R. T. France quoting Josephus)
This is equivalent to Batman going into the hometown of the Joker.
It’s the Hatfields going off into the land of the McCoy’s.
22 And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying...
She is a Canaanite.
She is a Canaanite.
The very people that God commanded Israel to drive out of the land of promise.
Israel failed to conquer the land and the Canaanites were proof of the failure.
Here stands a woman from that people that were vile in the land of promise.
The Canaanites were a pagan people.
She’s an unlikely person.
She’s an unlikely person.
A woman.
The culture of Jesus’ day didn’t value women.
They were not seen as equals.
The fact that we hear this story about the Canaanite woman and ask,
“Why would Jesus talk to her like this?”
But a Jewish person would hear this story,
“Why is Jesus even talking to her at all?”
“Why didn’t Jesus just spit in her face?”
This woman rightly sees that she has no hope.
She is in hostility to God.
She is in hostility to God.
…as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned…
Application to everyone.
The main hindrance to understanding this story is the challenge of associating ourselves with this woman.
We always want to associate ourselves with the hero of the story.
This woman represents the exact position each of you have once been before a holy God: an enemy.
11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—
12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
She was cut off from God and without hope.
Application for everyone.
We don’t like to think of ourselves as enemies, but we are.
It’s much more pleasant to think of God as a friend or a colleague of sorts.
But the Bible’s depiction of humanities problem is far more bleak then we would ever admit.
We are his enemies.
What prevents us from coming to God’s table?
By nature, all of us are born into this world as an opponent of a holy God.
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Notice what this woman wants of Jesus…
“Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.”
Her present situation is marked by hopelessness.
All she asks for is “mercy” which is for Jesus to have pity on the pitiable.
She is helpless under sin and Satan.
She is helpless under sin and Satan.
Her situation is hopeless because of the dominion of Satan over her life.
Her situation is hopeless because of the dominion of Satan over her life.
Her daughter was oppressed by a demon.
Why was this woman without hope?
Being demonized was common in the ancient world.
There were exorcists from many different corners of the ancient world.
Jews had their own ineffective exorcists. (Matthew 12:27, Acts 19:11-20).
Why was demon oppression such a big deal in Jesus’ day?
Being demonized increased at the time of Jesus.
Demonization increased during the time of Jesus because the spiritual darkness was making a last ditch effort to stop the Son of God.
Being demonized made a person helpless.
There were no remedies or solutions for the demonized.
They were hopeless and without any help (Ephesians 2:12).
Despite all of this that would hold this woman back, she comes to Jesus.
Faith that refuses to be denied.
Faith that refuses to be denied.
This woman saw with the eyes of faith.
With pure faith she came to Him.
Notice how she addresses Jesus…
“Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.”
She addresses Him as “Lord” which is remarkable thinking of the pagan background she grew up with.
She see’s Jesus to be the Messiah, the Son of David.
The One who will usher in the promises to Israel.
A major question for all Jewish and Gentile readers would be:
How is Jesus going to respond to this woman?
23 But he did not answer her a word.
Faith despite Jesus’ silence.
Faith despite Jesus’ silence.
It’s surprising for us to think that Jesus initially ignores her here.
It’s a bit of a paradigm shift for those unfamiliar with the Bible.
We always speak of Jesus’ love, compassion, and care for the weak and hurting.
Application for unbelievers.
I can think of the person who would think,
“Of course Jesus’ doesn’t answer her because He sure doesn’t answer me in my needs either!”
“Seems about right that Jesus would ignore her because it sure seems like He ignores me!”
Jesus’ silence to this woman isn’t the end of the story.
Pay attention to the disciples attitudes toward this woman…
And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.”
This paradigm shift is nothing new because if you were a Jew you would think,
“Of course Jesus didn’t answer her a word, she’s a Gentile for goodness sake!”
Faith despite opposition.
Faith despite opposition.
Jesus’ disciples are sick of this woman.
Tired of her endless crying after them.
A Gentile would think,
“Go figures that Jesus doesn’t answer her because she’s unclean after all!”
Jesus respond’s to her with silence.
Yet this woman refused to accept the traditional exclusion!
She truly grasped the prophetic perspective of the kingdom of heaven being open to all people!
Jesus’ answer to the Canaanite woman reveals the heart of this story.
24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
Jesus was born into this world as a Jew.
“Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Jesus came to His own people.
11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
The covenant promises made to Israel were not for this woman.
She was outside the covenant’s of promise because she was outside the people of promise.
Faith despite covenant alienation.
Faith despite covenant alienation.
We’ve spent our whole lives hearing that Jesus loves us.
Hearing that we need to come to Christ and He will receive us.
It’s almost as if we’ve forgotten the utterly “wall of hostility” (Ephesians 2:14) that stood between us and God.
The Bible tells us that the divide between us and God was an infinite gulf.
Here Him saying that a massive wall separated Him from her.
She understood this, yet she persisted.
25 But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.”
Still Jesus presses through to make sure she is clear on this.
26 And he answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
Children get fed first.
Children get fed first.
Why does Jesus refer to her as a “dog”?
We miss the point when we minimize the gentle rebuke.
We miss the point when we minimize the gentle rebuke.
Only in a Western culture that loves dogs more than children do we think Jesus’ statement to be less offensive here.
In every other society in existence, Jesus’ statement would have carried an offense with it.
He employs a term which could be rendered “a little dog” or a “household dog.”
These kinds of dogs were different than the sort of feral and undomesticated dogs which are often seen in cultures.
But they were still unclean.
The little cute dogs were just as unclean as the big dogs.
We miss the point when we think we’re clean.
We miss the point when we think we’re clean.
Notice how this woman replies to Jesus…
She doesn’t object to His statements.
She actually presses them further and seeks mercy despite covenant inclusion.
27 She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
She agrees with Jesus’ assessment.
“I know I’m not included within the household meal, but at least let me have the leftovers!”
“I know I’m not apart of the people of God, but please feed me the scraps from the table.”
Faith despite her unworthiness.
Faith despite her unworthiness.
She agrees that she’s not entitled to sit down at the feast that Jesus offers.
But only the heart of faith would ask for the crumbs of “uncovenanted mercies”
Only one who believes would ask for crumbs!
Only one who believes would ask for crumbs!
In Matthew, the cross hasn’t even been mentioned.
But it’s as if this woman is banging down the door begging for Easter to come.
This woman receives now what Jesus will purchase later!
This woman is insisting upon Easter.
It has everything to do with Easter.
Undeserved mercy from the Savior.
Undeserved mercy from the Savior.
28 Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
What do we mean by mercy?
Mercy is the undeserved kindness to the helpless.
We will miss the wonder of what Jesus does for this woman depending on our view of mercy.
If God can be merciful by the flick of the wrist and mere Shazam, then mercy will be cheap.
But the way the Bible describes the mercy of Christ is far more amazing.
This woman’s daughter was completely subdued by the demonic realm.
She was held captive in the chains of the Satanic and nothing could liberate her.
The latin term, like the song we sang, “Christus Victor” is Christ the Victor.
13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,
14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.
Our sin is like a debt that continues to increase.
Without Jesus, we could never have paid the debt that we owed ourselves.
This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
Jesus has “disarmed the rulers and authorities” by taking the penalty that we deserve thus the accusations of the enemy are no longer valid.
The rulers and authorities can no longer condemn the Christian (Romans 8:1).
Christ triumphed over his enemies by making a public spectacle of them by defeating God’s plan of salvation in Jesus.
Mercy for those who believe.
Mercy for those who believe.
Look at the commendation that Jesus gives this woman.
“O woman, great is your faith!
Application to believers
Mercy for the helpless.
Mercy for the helpless.
But let’s get specific for the kind of mercy we see Christ display here.
There is a undeserved kindness to free her daughter from her bondage.
There is a undeserved kindness to free her daughter from her bondage.
This daughter was enslaved by the demonic realm.
She was held captive to prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2).
There is an undeserved kindness to receive the bread given to the children.
There is an undeserved kindness to receive the bread given to the children.
The goodness and kindness of Christ overflowed to Jews first.
But this woman is a marvelous example of the good news of the gospel going to the Gentiles.
She is a foretaste of what’s coming to all the world!
She’s banging down the door of the Messianic feast!
Application to everyone
Don’t think that you’ll enter the kingdom through another means.
2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, 3 and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come.
This represents the call to the Jews.
But notice the man who tries to come to the feast in his normal attire.
11 “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment.
12 And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless.
This man tried to come into the kingdom feast without the proper attire.
That attire was the righteousness of Christ.
What are you wearing?
Are you trying to wear the rags of your own self-righteousness?
These wedding garments represents the righteousness of Christ given to us.
But Christ’s imputed righteousness always shows itself in deeds done from faith (Rev 19:6-8).
Mercy gives what she doesn’t deserve.
Mercy gives what she doesn’t deserve.
You reason within yourself.
“I can’t come near!”
“I don’t deserve to come near!”
“I have failed so many times, how could He let me in!”
“even if we be dogs; even if we have done anything whatever dreadful; we shall both turn from our own crimes, and obtain so great liberty of speech as also to be advocates for others” —John Chrysostom
See you’re invited to the table of God not because you deserve to sit there, but because Jesus Christ has paid the ransom.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility
15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,
16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
You have no claim to the table with Christ. Yet those who receive mercy by faith are brought in.
You have no claim to the table with Christ. Yet those who receive mercy by faith are brought in.
Benediction
Benediction
