Three Responses to Jesus.

Introduction:

Good morning and Happy New Year Connection Church!

It is good to see you all this morning. I love being able to worship together. We have worshipped through singing together, learning of truths together, and now we are going to worship through the reading and preaching of God’s Word together.

Introduction of the Text:

With this in mind, open with me to Matthew 9:27-38.

Last week we talked about Jesus healing the woman with the issue of blood and His raising Jairus’ daughter back to life. But what else have we learned through the book of Matthew?

Who wrote the book of Matthew? Who was Matthew?

Why did he write this gospel account?

Matthew wrote his gospel account to a Jewish audience primarily to show them who Jesus was. He emphasized that Jesus was the Messiah, the fulfilment of Old Testament prophesy. Specifically Matthew is showing that Jesus is the King of the Jews, the fulfilment of God’s covenant with David, where God promised David that the Messiah would come from his line. God promised King David that He would have one from his lineage that would sit on the throne forever. Jesus is this Son of David.

Reading of the Text:

With this specifically in mind, and out of reverence for the Word of God, would you stand with me for the reading of Scripture.

Matthew 9:27–38 ESV

And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.” 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.” Then he touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it done to you.” And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, “See that no one knows about it.” But they went away and spread his fame through all that district. As they were going away, behold, a demon-oppressed man who was mute was brought to him. 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.” But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by the prince of demons.” 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. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Prayer:

Let’s pray.

Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that today you would open our eyes. Help us to see You and what Your Word is saying. Help us to clearly see who you are and why you came. Open our eyes to the truth of Your identity. Then Lord, help us to marvel at you. If there are any here who do not know you, open their hearts to hear the Gospel. Do not let them reject you. And Lord, we also ask that you would equip us and send us out into this community to reach people with the gospel. Help us to be effective for Your Kingdom Here.

Finally Lord, I ask that yo would be with me. Help me Lord to be a good shepherd. I pray that you would equip and enable me to lead and teach these people well. Guard my mouth. Give me clean lips. Protect my mouth from speaking anything against You or Your Word. Silence any lie or twisting of truth that may come out of my mouth. Help me to teach well today Lord.

We ask this in Jesus name, Amen.

Oppening:

We open this passage right after Jesus has raised Jairus’ daughter. He has just left. As He is on His way back to where He is staying, He encounters two blind men who petition Jesus to Heal them. And Jesus heals two blind men.

1. Jesus Heals Two Blind Men

Explanation:

Jesus is on His way back to wherever He is staying, and along the way He encounters two blind men. They begin to cry out to Him, “Have mercy on us Son of David!” Jesus keeps walking. He does not stop and heal them. He keeps going until He gets to the house He was heading to. The blind duo follow Him, crying out “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” They made their way to the house, showing incredible determination. They even follow Him into the house.

Jesus turns to them and asks, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” Eagerly they say “Yes, Lord!” Obviously they have faith He can do it. They would not have followed Him otherwise. Jesus touches their eyes and tells them “According to your faith be it done to you.” Immediately they can see. The duo of blind men are healed! The first thing they see since their blindness is the face of Jesus.

Then Jesus sternly warns them to tell no one what has happened. But these men, in eagerness disobey Jesus and they tell everyone.

This is a remarkable story. Up until this point, there are no miracles restoration of sight. Jesus has not healed any blind. But here He shows His authority over blindness. And this will not be the last time He does so. Jesus will heal even more blind people. But Jesus here has for the first time opened the eyes of blind.

But this is also a strange story. Jesus does not heal these men on the road, but waits until they follow Him into the house. He does not even acknowledge them or call them to follow Him. The picture we get from Scripture that Jesus ignored these men until they followed Him into the house. He then asks them if they believe He can heal them. It was obvious by their actions that they believed that He could. It is difficult to follow someone when you are blind, but these two men followed Jesus. Then Jesus commends their faith in Him to be the cause of their healing. Then to top off the bizarre nature of this account, Jesus tells them to keep this event quiet, and make sure no one knows about it.

Illustration:

Argumentation:

So why does Jesus make these men wait? Why doesn’t He heal them on the way? Why does He ask them an obvious question? Why does He tell them to keep quiet?

Before we even get into those questions, we see Jesus here exercise His authority over blindness. Jesus with a touch heals two men who were blind. This is an extraordinary example of the power and authority Jesus has and we should not pass over it. Who else can touch the eyes of blind and leave them seeing? No one! Jesus alone has this power. Even in our medically advanced day where we have so many blessings of modern technology, we cannot cure blindness. But with one touch, Jesus can. This should still be shocking to us, but I fear it is far too often seen as normative.

I know for me personally I read accounts like this and I can pass over them without a second thought. The internal commentary of thoughts in my head can read this and simply remark, “Jesus healed a couple blind men.” with no enthusiasm whatsoever. What a condemning fact on my own heart. How can we read this and not be awe of the God we serve. He is the one who touches blind men and they leave with their sight! I pray that God would work in our hearts to be awe of Him.

But why is Jesus’ interaction with these men so bizarre? Why is it that He seems to put their faith to the test? Why ask such an obvious question? Why tell them to keep quiet? Well, this reveals to us something fundamental about Scripture. Matthew records for us what happened. Jesus did test the faith of these men. Jesus really did tell them to keep quiet. What Matthew records is really what happened. We can full confidence that what is written here really happened. But Matthew does not give us the reason for why Jesus did this how He did it. It is obvious that Jesus had a reason, but we do not have it recorded what that reason was.

There are places where we can infer from context the reason something happened. There are times where we can see from context what the reasoning would have been behind an action. This is not one of those times. Whatever Jesus’ reasoning was, He interacted with these men in this way because of that. I believe that this happened at least in part for our benefit. We see here incredible faith in these two men. They had full confidence in Jesus, and their confidence was clearly not in vain. Because of the faith of these two men, we can have confidence that our faith is not in vain.

But one thing is clear from this encounter. We can see from the language used that these blind men had something that no one else to this point had when encountering Jesus. We see in this encounter, the sight of the blind men.

a. The Sight of the Blind Men.

Explanation:

When these men cry out to Jesus, how do they refer to Him?

“Have mercy on us, Son of David?”

Why would they use this term? Until this point people have referred to Jesus as “Teacher,” “Master,” or “Rabi.” The closest we see someone get to actually identifying Jesus as God is when the centurion approaches Jesus and calls Him, “Lord.” But these two men call Jesus “Son of David.” Now remember, Matthew is writing this gospel account to show that Jesus was the fulfilment of which covenant?

The Davidic Covenant.

And what was the Davidic Covenant?

The Davidic Covenant was God’s promise to David that the Messiah would come from David’s line.

In reality, these two blind men are not just referring to Jesus as a teacher or Rabi. They are calling Jesus the Messiah. These two blind men have seen something that others have completely missed. The people think Jesus is a prophet. The Pharisees have other opinions of Jesus that we will cover in a few minutes, but these two men see who Jesus is, and they call out to Him as the promised Messiah. The King from the lineage of David who will reign forever.

Illustration:

This reminds me so much of the picture that J.R.R. Tolkien uses in his epic conclusion to the Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King. Towards the end of the book, when the battle for the great city of Gondor has been won, the rightful king Aragorn is camped outside the city walls. There has been no king in Gondor for many many years, but Aragorn is the heir, the rightful king. The city is being cleaned and prepared for the return of the king. Aragorn is waiting for the right time to enter into the city. But there are many who are sick and dying from the battle, and he has been trained in magical medicine. So Good King Aragorn dons a cloak and sneaks into the city and begins treating the sick and dying in secret.

However, some of the sick and the old women in the city begin to remember a prophecy. The prophecy said that the hands of the true king would be hands of healing. And slowly the lowest of people begin to recognise this cloaked man for who he really is. The King has returned to Gondor.

Argumentation:

These blind men really are like those people. They were not the highly educated. They were not the well off, but they were observant. They had heard what the Messiah would do. They had heard that the true King, the Son of David, would come with healing hands. They did not likely know the intricacy of the prophesies in Isaiah and the other prophets. But they knew enough. And when Jesus came, and began His ministry, they saw the truth. These two blind men saw Jesus in a way that no one else to this point had. And when He walked by them, they knew of only one way to refer to the true King who had come at last. “Have mercy on us, Son of David.”

And they were right. Jesus commends their faith and in essence says to them, “I am who you say I am” through His commendation. He is the true King. And the first to openly grasp this, are two lowly blind men.

But Jesus does not stop here. We move on in this snapshot of the ministry of Jesus. And as we move on, we see Jesus heals a demon-oppressed man.

2. Jesus Heals a Demon-Oppressed Man.

Explanation:

The now seeing men are leaving Jesus, rejoicing on their way out. As they are leaving, some people bring to Jesus a man who oppressed by a demon. This man was mute. The demon oppressing him was keeping him from speaking. Perhaps the people who brought this man had heard the account of Jesus healing the two demon possessed men on the other side of the sea of Galilee. Jesus there already exercised His authority over demons. But regardless of whether or not they had heard this account, it is good that they brought this man to Jesus, for Jesus has authority over demons.

And again we see here that Jesus shows this authority. This man is freed from the demon by Jesus. As soon as he had been freed, the man spoke. Lips that had been sealed were not loosed again. The man could talk.

Illustration:

Argumentation:

One again we see another example of the incredible authority of Jesus. He has healed those impossible to heal time and again. He has shown His authority over the very forces of nature. He has shown His authority over the forces of Satan. Nothing is outside His grasp. Once again we are left with the question of who is this Jesus? Who is this that the sickness, the forces of nature, and the forces of hell are subject to Him?

This is Jesus. This is God. He is out King, our Lord. He is the one who came to earth to seek and save that which was lost. He is the one who we are all subject to. He is Lord. He is the one who is returning again to judge all. He is the one seated on the throne of the universe. Sovereignly in complete control. Sovereign in salvation. Sovereign in governing. He does as He pleases. He is God.

a. The Crowds Marveled and the Pharisees Blasphemed.

Explanation:

And in response to this incredible show of power we see two reactions. The crowds marveled and the pharisees blasphemed.

The crowds marveled. This is almost the correct reaction. Upon seeing Jesus cast out a demon that was tormenting this poor man for who knows how long, they were amazed. In other words, their jaws hit the floor. Mouths agape at the incredible show of authority and power from Jesus.

The Pharisees, however, did not marvel. The Pharisees seem to make a habit of following Jesus. They do not like Him, they in fact hate Him. They do not find this show of power and authority to be shocking or amazing. In stead, they say that Jesus casts out demons by the prince of demons. In other words, they call Jesus the devil.

Illustration:

Argumentation:

These are two polar opposite reactions. On one had you have awe and wonder, and on the other hand utter hatred.

I said that the marveling crowd almost had the right reaction. The only appropriate reaction to an encounter with God is worship. Upon seeing Jesus and seeing His authority and power, we should be on our face before Him in worship. This is God. This is the one who made everything. This is the one who has ultimate authority. This is the one who is judge of all. This is the Messiah, the promised King who is now seated on the throne ruling. This is the one who brings salvation. This is the one who will redeem His people. How can one have an encounter with Him and leave unchanged?

But these people likely did not see Jesus for who He was. Likely they saw Him as simply a prophet. They clearly did not understand who Jesus was. Likely they asked the question, “who was this Jesus?” But they did not find the answer. They saw the wonderful power of God, but they did not grasp the identity of who it was who worked this great power. They were in wonder, but not were not in worship.

However, the truly appalling reaction is that of the Pharisees. They should have known who Jesus was. They should have seen and known. They should have recognized the Messiah. They were schooled in the Law and the Prophets. They identity of Jesus should have been evident to them. But it was hidden from their eyes. Instead of seeing who it was in front of them, they blasphemed.

Imagine this, they called God the Devil. It is hard to get more blasphemous than that. I mean think of this, God very vehemently calls the idea of thinking that He is like us in Psalm 50:21.

Psalm 50:21 ESV

These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.

How much worse is it to say that God Himself is the Devil? I think this is a time where we must say, “Woe to you pharisees. Woe to you for calling God the Devil.” There is no maligning of God’s character that is worse than this. Taking the most Holy being and equating Him to the most evil of beings. The thought should make us shiver in fear.

This is an incredible statement of hatred and rejection of God. These men did not just miss Jesus. These men actively opposed Him. May we never be like the pharisees. May we never be found like them. Do not reject Christ. Do not hate the Lord.

Love Jesus and worship Him.

But then we see something incredible. Jesus had every right to wipe these people for failing to worship Him. They are guilty of breaking the greatest command. They are not loving God with all their hearts, strength, and mind. Especially the pharisees should have been destroyed. But Jesus does not do this. He shows incredible compassion! We see in these next verses that Jesus spreads the good news and has compassion on the lost sheep.

3. Jesus Spreads the Good News and Has Compassion on the Lost Sheep.

Explanation:

It says:

Matthew 9:35–38 ESV

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. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Jesus leaves this place and goes throughout the cities and villages. He teaches the people, proclaiming the gospel. He heals those that are sick or afflicted. But the amazing part is that He looks out upon the masses and His heart breaks. He has compassion on them.

“Look at these people.” We can hear him say to His disciples.

“What about them Lord?” One of them, likely Peter, asks Him.

“They are like sheep without a Shepherd...” It is clear what He is saying.

Numbers 27:17 ESV

who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.”

1 Kings 22:17 ESV

And he said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. And the Lord said, ‘These have no master; let each return to his home in peace.’ ”

Ezekiel 34:5–6 ESV

So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered; they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them.

All through the Old Testament God laments His people being scattered and compares them to sheep without a shepherd. It is clear that Jesus is referencing this. But it is more than that.

Argumentation:

It is so incredible to read these acounts of Jesus. Jesus has compassion and shows this by spreading the gospel and healing. His concern for these people is almost palpable. We can clearly sense and feel the massive weight of the purpose Jesus came here for. The mission of the Christ is clear. He is here to save His people. He is here to like a shepherd gather His people. He is here to spread the good news of the Kingdom.

So let’s look at what Jesus does here.

First, Jesus preaches the Gospel.

a. Jesus Preaches the Gospel.

Explanation:

It says in the text that Jesus “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.” It is easy to understand the healing part. We have already seen Jesus touching people. We have seen Jesus heal many people. Apparently Jesus traveled all over that area and healed any who were sick or oppressed. This is not an issue in our minds, because it is easy to picture.

But what does it mean that He preached the gospel of the Kingdom? What exactly was Jesus preaching? Isn’t the gospel that Jesus died for our sins? But Jesus has not died yet?

Illustration:

Argumentation:

In fact, many who proclaim themselves to be what is called “progressive Christians” use this as an example to say that you cannot say what the gospel is with any certainty. They would say that because Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 lays out a definition of the Gospel that says this;

1 Corinthians 15:1–4 ESV

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

But they say since Jesus here is preaching the “gospel” before He has even died, then there is no way to even define the gospel. They view it as dangerous to put a definition on the gospel. These self labeled “progressive Christians” believe that they have “progressed” while those of us who hold to the a firm definition of the gospel are in essence stuck in the dark ages.

But how do we answer this? What was Jesus preaching? How could He preach the gospel before He had died? Well, in honesty this is very simple. In answering this form of “gotcha” objection, we simply have to look at what the word “gospel” means. Gospel means “good news.” But specifically the word gospel held the connotation of victory. This was the word that runners would use when the King had won a victory. The runners would run back to the villages and yell, “Gospel! The King has won!” or, “Gospel! There is a new kingdom!”

So you see, there is no confusion here. Jesus is declaring that His Kingdom has come. It even makes this clear in the text. Jesus is proclaiming the “Gospel of the Kingdom.” The Kingdom has come. He is declaring that He is the messiah, the true King and the true Kingdom has come. This objection does not shatter the gospel message, as the “Progressives” think it does, it instead re-enforces the gospel message. Jesus is proclaiming to these people why He came.

So we see Jesus proclaiming the Gospel, and now we see Jesus cares for the lost sheep.

b. Jesus Cares for the Lost Sheep.

Explanation:

As we’ve already touched on previously, Jesus looks out and has mercy on the crowds. He calls them sheep without a shepherd, a common example given in the Old Testament. Then He says 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.”

This is a statement of great compassion. Jesus sees the helplessness of these sheep and implores the disciples to pray and beg God to send out workers to reap the harvest. He compares these people to ripe grain. But fields of ripe grain need workers to gather the crop. A field by itself is useless. There is a great need for workers.

Argumentation:

It is a clear metaphor that Jesus uses. Agricultural imagery is something most all of us understand. When the harvest is ready, you do not delay. You go out and gather it. Harvest is when you need the most labor. Laborers are essential to gathering in the crop. This makes clear sense to us even today. And even though to our eyes, we may be confused by Jesus saying the harvest is plentiful in regards to this crowd. We know that by human standards, not many followed Jesus in His ministry, but Jesus calls this a great harvest. Or as John Calvin put it, “37. The harvest is indeed abundant. By this metaphor he intimates, that many of the people are ripe for receiving the gospel. Though the greater number afterwards rejected basely and with vile ingratitude the salvation offered to them, yet the limited number of the elect, who were mixed with unbelievers, is compared to an abundant harvest, because God values a small band of his own people more highly than the rest of the world.”

We should take great encouragement from this passage. We may feel like the least of the workers here in Lead, SD. We may feel like our gatherings are meek and lacking, but to God, it is a great harvest! We can and must work on with great passion in gathering the harvest here in this small town!

The mark of success in the Church is faithfulness to God.

We are to be faithful to God. We must be obedient to His call to gather in the harvest.

Application:

But as we go from here we should do some self examination. We saw three responses to Jesus in this passage.

Are you like the Pharisees?

Are you here and rejecting Jesus? Do not do so! Do not hate Him. Those who reject Jesus find their place in hell. I call you to repent! Turn from your sin and follow Jesus. Do not leave here today without turning from your sin. We are going to have a time of response. Before we partake of the Lord’s Table together, we are going to take time and pray and examine ourselves. During that time, I ask you to come forward for prayer. Let us pray together. Turn away from your rejection of Jesus and run to Him.

Are you like the Crowd?

Are you like the crowd? Are you here marvelling at how wonderful Jesus is, but not really grasping who He really is? Perhaps you are here because you think that going to church makes you a good person, and gives you favor with God. This is not true. Unless you recognize Jesus as Lord, you will find your place in hell with those who hate Jesus. I do not say this to be harsh or mean. I say this because I love you. You must turn from your sin and turn to Jesus as Lord. He is your only hope for salvation. During the time of prayer and self examination, I call you to come to the front. Let us pray together. Surrender your life to Jesus.

Are you like the Blind Men?

But perhaps you are here and you do see who Jesus is. You worship Jesus as Lord. I am so grateful for this! I pray that the Lord will bless you in your walk with Him! I pray that God will continue to grow you in your faith. But those of us who are saved, we have a job to do. We are to pray for God to raise up workers for the harvest. Then we are to go out and work in the fields!

Go Out and Gather the Harvest.

We live in a town that needs the gospel. We need to be workers in this community! Go out, invite people to church! Invite people to small group! But most importantly, go out and share the gospel! Lead, SD is a plentiful harvest! But we need laborers to go out and gather in this harvest! Please, good christian, be the laborer. Please, share the hope of the gospel. I beg of you, do not look out and neglect your work. I long to have more and more baptisms here. I long to see people saved here. But this will not happen if you neglect the work of the kingdom.

Communion:

At this time we are going to take a few moments and examine ourselves before partaking in the sacrament of communion. But during this time, if you are here and you need to surrender your life to Christ, I ask that you would come to the front. I cannot save you. But I can point you to the one who can save you. If you would, come. We can pray together, and then you can partake in communion with us! If you want to come, but are afraid that people will judge you, or think less of you, do not be afraid of that! We as a church want to celebrate with you! This is not something to be afraid of or ashamed of. Surrendering your life to Christ is the greatest thing that can happen. We are your cheer squad. We are not going to think less of you. We are going to be cheering you on!

Isn’t that right Connection Church?

Do we want to cheer people on in their steps of faith?

Yes we do! So at this time I would ask that you bow your heads and begin to pray. Pray that God would forgive you. Pray that God would reveal any sins you need to repent of. Pray that God would work in all of our hearts here to surrender fully to Him. And if you are here and want to turn from your sins and surrender to Christ, please come now!

Taking of Communion:

1 Corinthians 11:23-24  For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Let’s take the bread.

25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

Let’s take the cup.

26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Reminder of Baptism:

If you are here and have never been baptized, please talk to me afterward. That is the first step of obedience that Jesus calls us to after being saved. We are having a baptism service tonight at 6 p.m. right here. If you need to be baptized, do it tonight! For the rest of you, please come and support the three young Christians who are stepping out in obedience to their Lord Jesus tonight!

Let’s Close in singing!

Closing Hymn: