Sermon Tone Analysis

Go to Jesus!

The Gospel of Matthew

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon by Rick Crandall

(Prepared August 10, 2022)

MESSAGE:

*One of the great hymns from the mid-1700s calls us to Jesus Christ with these words:

"Come, ye sinners, poor and needy, Weak and wounded, sick and sore;

Jesus ready stands to save you, Full of pity, love, and power.

*And the chorus says:

"I will arise and go to Jesus; He will embrace me in His arms;

In the arms of my dear Savior, O there are ten thousand charms."

(1)

*The mother in today's Scripture lived out the truth of those words.

We don't even know her name.

But she is a hero of our faith, and she teaches all of us to go to Jesus.

1. FIRST: GO TO JESUS WHEN YOU ARE DESPERATE.

*That's what this mom did in vs. 22: "And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, 'Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David!

My daughter is severely demon-possessed.'''

*Talk about desperate situation!

This mother's young daughter was demon possessed, severely tormented by a demon.

And that is so far removed from our everyday life that it's hard for us to relate.

But desperate times will come to us too.

Many of us here today have already been through desperate times.

*Why do the desperate times come?

-- Sometimes it's because of our weakness.

We like to think that we are strong, especially when we are young.

But just like the situation in this story, there will be times when nothing seems to work.

We've done all we can, but it's not enough.

And we realize that there is nothing we can do on our own to make it better.

*Family couldn't help this woman.

Friends couldn't help her either.

The priests in her false religion couldn't help her, and she couldn't help herself.

But thank God, Jesus came her way!

And in her weakness, she went to the Lord for strength.

Let your weakness drive you to Jesus!

*But sometimes our desperation comes from our sinfulness.

Demon possession is an extreme example.

But demon possession doesn't just happen.

This mother was a Canaanite.

Her pagan, satanic religion was a wicked fertility cult that also practiced child sacrifice.

Larry Norman said it was even possible that this mother had been a temple prostitute, and that her child had come from that lifestyle.

(2)

*We don't know the details.

But we do know that sin had taken a terrible toll on this mother and her precious daughter.

And somehow, some way, our sin will also take a toll on us.

As Christian author Kay Arthur said, "If you tolerate sin in your life, that sin will not only take you farther than you wanted to go, it will keep you longer than you wanted to stay, and it will cost you more than you thought you'd pay..." (3)

*Kay was absolutely right about that, so when you get desperate, it may be your own fault.

But don't let that keep you from coming to Jesus Christ!

*Sometimes our desperation is our own fault, but it can also come from our love.

That's what we see here: a mother's love for her child, and it's a beautiful thing.

*Margaret Cobb remembers when her 13-year-old daughter, Amy, was having extra trouble growing-up.

Amy was adopted from South Korea, and they had no idea who her birth mother might be.

That really bothered Amy for a while.

*Then one day, Amy got braces on her teeth.

As the day wore on, they really began to hurt.

By bedtime she was miserable.

Mom gave her some pain medicine, and invited Amy to snuggle with her for a while.

Soon, Amy got more comfortable, and drowsy.

That's when she said, "Mom, I know who my real mom is.

-- It's the one who takes away the hurting."

(4)

*That's what this mother was desperately trying to do: Stop the hurting.

And in her desperation she did the best thing we can do!

She went to Jesus.

2. GO TO JESUS WHEN YOU ARE DESPERATE.

AND GO TO JESUS WITH UNSHAKABLE DETERMINATION.

*Go to Jesus with the kind of unshakable faith we see in this Canaanite mother.

She faced at least seven discouragements in this story.

And I won't count them all out for you, but of course, the first discouragement was the demon possession of her daughter.

*Then she had to physically find Jesus.

She had to go to just the right place at just the right time.

And it was a sure blessing of God's amazing grace that she ever came face to face with the Lord.

Thank God, Church, we know that His Holy Spirit is here with us right now and all the time!

*Another hindrance was the fact that this Canaanite mother was a woman.

Women were looked on as property in that day.

Most "proper" Jewish men wouldn't even speak to her.

*Then in vs. 23 Jesus gave her the silent treatment, or as vs. 23 says, "He answered her not a word."

In the end we can see that our gracious Lord was proving her faith, but she didn't know that.

*Plus, in vs. 23 "His disciples came and urged Him, saying, 'Send her away, for she cries out after us.'"

The original word for "cries" here was a totally different word from her crying out in vs. 22.

There, she was passionately, desperately crying out to Jesus for help.

*But in vs. 23, the disciples used an insulting word.

In their minds this heart broken woman sounded like the croaking of a noisy bird!

The Lord's disciples wanted nothing to do with this mother, and it wasn't just because they were tired or too busy.

Most Jews of that day hated the Canaanites.

They thought people like her were the scum of the earth.

And she had to overcome that discouragement.

*Then in vs. 24, Jesus answered and said, "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."

Here, Jesus simply stated the fact that in God's perfect plan, the Lord was sent first to the Jewish people.

But we know that after His crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus told His followers to spread the Gospel all over the world.

We also know that in a minute or two, the Lord would fully heal her broken heart by healing her beloved daughter.

In this verse, Jesus simply gave this mother another opportunity to express her faith in Him.

*The same kind of thing happened in vs. 26, when Jesus basically called her a dog.

There Jesus answered and said, "It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs.''

Around my house calling someone a dog would usually be a compliment.

But not back then.

Dogs in the Middle East were despised animals, scavengers, and garbage eaters.

They were considered to be almost as bad as pigs.

*Did Jesus want her to quit praying?

Did He want her to stop crying out to Him? Obviously, the answer is no.

The Lord was stretching her and giving her opportunities to express her faith.

He surely wanted her to keep crying out to Him with unshakable determination.