Healing

Jesus rose and followed him with his disciples.

Now, just fun, verse 19, his disciples, that includes Matthew now. We now are following an eyewitness account of what Jesus does. Significant, right? Matthew has recorded what's happened before from hearing from other testimonies, all of Luke's gospels like that, but we have to assume now Jesus is walking with his disciples, that would include Matthew, so we're starting to get an eyewitness account. Verse 20 introduces a new character. There's a disruption in this journey. There's a pause.

Behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for 12 years came up behind him and just touched the fringe of his garment. For she said to herself, if I only touch his garment, I'll be made well.

We see a kind of a unique character. The rule of the synagogue, he comes in and to a house where he's never been before, most likely. makes his own scene, kneels before Jesus, this woman who's had a bleeding discharge, she's been unclean for 12 years, she's been an outcast in society, not touched by others because she's unclean and that would make them unclean. She hasn't been able to go to temple properly because whatever doctors she's seen, no one's been able to help her for 12 years. And she just says to herself, there's a crowd, if I just kinda stealthily go through this crowd, And just, without being noticed, just touch the fringe of his garment. That's all it takes. Not even his hand on me, not even paying attention to me. If I just touch the most outer edge of his garment, the power of this man I've heard about or maybe even seen, it'll heal me. And she does. It's quite interesting. You see this quiet, spirited woman but a courageous faith. We see her somewhat shy, not wanting to be noticed. Maybe she's too used to not being noticed. Maybe she's scared to be seen, but an incredible, courageous faith. She works to that crown. She touches his garment. It's assumed there from 21 to 22, Jesus turned, he sees her, and he speaks. Jesus isn't just here to restore us, he's here to care for us. He turns to show care. He wants to make sure even though she wanted to stealthily come with that courageous faith to be healed, he will see her. She will be seen by her God. He sees her and he speaks. He sees her and he wants to speak to her. He wants to make sure she hears the words of love and care, not just receive the miracle.

Take heart, daughter.

Be encouraged. Be full. You are loved. And that word daughter there is surprising. Full of affection. Not his daughter, but a word he's choosing to show a love and affection for her. And then the assurance, your faith has made you well. She came seeking to be healed. She received that healing, but she came and received more than she asked for or wanted. She's now been seen by her God, spoken to by her God, encouraged by her God, and healed by Her God. Immediately, the woman was made well. She was made whole again. What doctors could not do for 12 years by just touching the garment of Jesus, it's happened. Now, two ways I want to think about this incredible reaction. First, this is faith. This is one example of many faiths we've seen, and I want to think about two applications here. One, this passage is abused when we say something like, if you just have enough faith, you'll be healed like her. And I see your faith has made you well. It makes it sound like her faith is the most operating powerful instrument here, but no, it's the fact that she touched God by faith. is that her faith is in the right one who will heal her. Too many have said something like, if you just believe, then you would be healed. Or are you really trusting God? If you've had enough faith, you wouldn't have this trial. If you don't get enough faith, you'll not suffer. Those are false promises. That's things Job's friends say, and you don't wanna be one of Job's friends. We also need to make sure we don't ignore what this text says, and that we should take everything to Jesus and trust Him to heal us. It's wrong to say, if you're not healed, then you must not have enough faith. That puts someone in some kind of weird, paralyzed spiritual state, and thinking there's something more wrong with them than just the physical problem. Now we've added a spiritual problem. But there's something wrong if we don't trust Jesus enough to bring to Him every physical, emotional problem, every anxiety and fear. Oh, go to Jesus with courage. Confess your sins. Lift up your problems. Lift up your worries. Lift up the trials. We're to count it joy in trial. Asking by faith because he gives generously. Again, this has been somewhat of a pause in the midst of the mission, but Jesus is going to take his time and care for this woman. Notice that just fast forward, the ruler has really been in the backdrop since he made the request. Verse 23,

when Jesus came to the ruler's house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, go away for the girl is not dead, but sleeping. And they laughed at him.

Now, he comes to the ruler's house, and this might seem like an odd scene to us. There's flautists there. That is flute players. There's a crowd. They would be mourners for hire. Now, we might think that sounds odd. Let me just kind of take a swing at something, and you can tell me if I make contact later. think the entire history of the world would find, instead of funerals, having just mere celebrations of life? We're supposed to grieve. If this little girl's dead, they're supposed to grieve. And hiring mourners, gathering people to help you mourn, there's a eulogy in a funeral. There's a way in which we're always going to give thanks for the life, but My fear is by doing just a mere celebration of life, we're not really allowing ourselves to grieve. We try to erase things in our society and our culture that are, by common grace, normal for most other societies. Christians, we must learn how to grieve and grieve with hope, but we can never try to remove the pain of the loss of a precious life of God, especially someone precious to us. Notice the response after he comes and he says, go away. The funeral's over, folks. Go away, she's not dead, she's sleeping. Now, what she is, what that means, he's clearly dispersing, maybe like foretelling what's going to happen. They laugh at him. Just kind of scoffing, mocking. The hired mourners, they're there to grieve, weep, but instead, they're mocking and laughing at Jesus, thinking that he doesn't know what he's talking about, maybe they don't know who he is. But when he puts the crowd outside, he went and took her by the hand and the girl arose. A report of this went throughout the district. Now, He was supposed to become unclean when the woman with the death stars touched him, but instead of him becoming unclean, he healed her. You're not supposed to touch a dead body or else you become unclean, but again, Jesus, instead of becoming unclean when he reaches out and touches her, she receives new life. He gives her life. The God who created her, the God who is the source of her life has come to touch her He who has perfect power and purity, he's perfectly good and pure. He's the only one who has not sinned, but even more so, he's the holy God who's able to provide life when there's death. Notice it doesn't have a response to the crowd. It just says the report went out throughout the district. It's at least talked about. Let's go back to the crowds who laughed. If you're not a believer today, do you mock Christianity? Do you scoff? I kind of get it. If Jesus Christ is not raised, we are to be pitied among all people. If Jesus Christ is not raised, if it's not true, we really are wasting our time. If Jesus isn't raised, I've committed most of my life's decisions to a lie. and every believer should have as well. So again, if you think Jesus Christ is made up and he didn't rise from the dead, yeah, it's pitiful how many people are wasting their lives believing in him. But if he is who he says he is, if he is God who came down to die for sinners, if he rose from the dead It's more than to be pitied or scoffed. The wrath of God forever is the consequence. If you're a believer, I encourage you, don't scoff at the beliefs. Don't scoff at who Jesus is. Take the Bible in front of you, take and read it. Read the Gospel of Matthew. Ask somebody near you, would you read it with me? Would you be a conversation partner with me? The stakes are so high. I wanna be clear, I've been following Jesus for, Almost 30 years. He's only proven himself more and more true. God's word has only proven itself to be more and more right. I encourage you, please take and read and consider. Instead of scoffing, be inquisitive about the one man who was God, who claimed to die on the cross for sinners, and who changed the world with his resurrection. Our second text, believe in Jesus, seeking to obey all he says, 27 through 31.

Jesus passes on from there, and two blind men followed him, crying out, 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'm able to do this? And 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 throughout all the district.

Now, the two blind men crying out, have mercy on us, son of David, is already a significant declaration. We've just seen Jesus says he's come to show mercy. That's his primary mission. What's new with this particular text is the first recording declaration from someone in the story that he is the son of David. That's not brand new. If you go to Matthew 1, 1, the very first verse, this is the genealogy, the beginning of Jesus Christ, the son of David, son of Abraham. Jesus isn't new. He is the promised Savior, promised to even Adam, but promised to Abraham and promised to David, and David is the significant figure, the true King who is promised a truer, best, full, final, eternal King we promised. These blind men understand enough to see He is the promised Messiah. the one who would reign forever, the one who has come with great power, but especially power to be merciful. We've already seen him as a king. He taught us how to be kingdom citizens. Now they're crying out, more specifically, Son of David. It's a title of his kingship and his Messiah role in office. He's the promised savior. Have mercy on us. They cry out to him. Jesus responds when he enters the house, and it appears they were walking along, and they're crying this out in the street, but then he gets in the house, and he turns to them, and he asks them a question. Do you believe that I am able to do this? Now, they're blind men, and obviously the request for mercy is implied. Would you heal our blindness? Jesus' question is pressing in, do you believe I have the power, ability, authority? Again, if you've been with us, you've heard this, and I pray it's only sinking deeper into your soul how important it is and how good it is that Jesus is able. He has that authority. They respond with an absolute affirmation of honor, yes, Lord, Notice he touches her eyes. He reaches out and touches them. According to your faith, be it done for you. Now that isn't as bold of a statement as we saw what Jesus said to the woman with the 12 years of discharge, but again, faith is a significant role. We gotta be careful. Jesus, in what he does, is not limited by our faith. He's not even empowered by our faith. It is not the power of your faith that causes Jesus to heal or not heal. He's not some kind of Santa Claus where if we just have enough cheer and goodwill, then he'll have enough strength to do what he needs to do. No, it's he has all the power. He's asking them at some level of self-reflection, do you really believe? According to your faith, be it done to you. As you have believed, it is done as an assurance. And their eyes are opened. Now this is where it gets maybe confusing. It's very straightforward all the way through kind of the first part of verse 30. They ask with a special request. He asked them a kind of a reflective question. Do you believe? Yes, Lord, touch. They believe. Their eyes are opened. Jesus sternly warned them, do not tell others about it. Now that's kind of confusing. Because we now live in the age of Christ where we're on the Great Commission and we're supposed to be telling everybody about it. This is what we call the secret Messiah motif and it is just something we're supposed to obey. You're not supposed to be obeying this anymore. This is for the disciples at this time. because the more his fame spreads, the more confusion there is by the great crowds as to who he is and what he's gonna do, and it makes his ministry of making disciples more complicated and difficult, and even presses in the time that is set when he will enter Jerusalem for the last time. So there's a regular secret Messiah motif throughout all the Gospels where he's simply saying, don't spread the fame because the bigger the crowds get, the more difficult his ministry is. Verse 31, pretty straightforward, it's even sternly warned, do not say anything about it. But they went away and spread his fame throughout the district. Now, I don't know fully what to do with this, other than to say it's confusing at best. were they really saved? Some people doubted if they were truly saved because their works did not demonstrate a real faith. But at the same time, their faith did significantly affect or was significant enough where Jesus healed them. Don't let disobedience cause confusion regarding your faith, would be what I want you to take away from this. When Jesus says to do something and not to do something, we should seek to be obedient by faith. Here, they had a faith that would say, we know you can heal us, but they seem to have a lack of faith when it comes to Jesus. We don't know if you really have the authority to rule us. It's important Jesus is able to save, amen? Does Jesus have the authority to rule, amen? He's a good ruler. He's worthy to listen to. He's worthy to obey. This episode shows that there's some confusion and maybe they're just really zealous and they can't not tell others. But that would not be a faithful zeal. The third story, and they do keep getting shorter and more and more vanilla, more and more kind of storytelling with a plot. Verse 32, this is be careful not to be wrong about Jesus.

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 all of Israel.

There isn't an absolute clear faith, except for maybe in the people who brought the mute man. The mute man is not able to be asked a question or speak, he's mute. Here, it's just a very simple story, and the end emphases on what happens with the Pharisees. It doesn't have much buildup or climactic aspect to it, right? A man's brought, Jesus heals him, he speaks. The crowds, they marvel. Never has anything like this been seen in all of Israel. Now, I think that's true of their own lives, but I think it's true of all of Israel. There were different miracles. There were incredible things Moses did. There are incredible things other prophets did. But the amount and intensity and greatness of all the miracles, Jesus has raised a little girl from death just a little while ago and healed a leper. He's caused a paralytic to walk. He's healed the blind and the mute and the deaf. He's making people whole again. He's declaring, I can forgive sins. Nothing like this has been seen in all Israel. That is a connector, that's a significant declaration that leads to what's next, the real emphasis. The Pharisees respond to this saying,

he cast out demons by the prince of demons.

They can't deny what he's doing is amazing, because it is. They can't deny that statement they just made. The crowds are all saying how great Jesus is. They can't deny what he's doing is good and it's amazing. Remember last week he told the Pharisees to go back to Bible school? That was offensive because the Pharisees are the authoritative teachers of Israel. Jesus has been kind of picking a fight. Remember the Pharisees, they're the hypocrites that like to fast and pray publicly for the praise of men. If you're committed to just self-worship and you hear the crowds not praising you for being righteous, but you hear them praising Jesus, no one has been doing anything like this ever. Those idols start coming up. They could either repent, or they're gonna have to hate the one who's drawing the attention of the crowds away. Their entire religious system is a performance base to get the crowds to appreciate them, and now the crowds are looking at others. So they do that proven tactic that children learn on the playground, and sadly some adults continue it, that you need to tear down others so that others will think more of you. They say what he's doing is demonic. He is able to only cast out demons. He's only able to do these amazing things that no one else has done because he has the power of the Prince of Demons. This is so rich and complicated in how horrible it is. I'm not sure anything more wrong has ever been stated in all the world. Instead of seeing how good Jesus is and what he's doing, the people who are supposed to have the word of God and teaching Israel so that they're ready to hear him and receive him when he comes, they say he's demonic. The flip side of this accusation was a little while ago when the scribe said, no one can forgive sins, he's blaspheming. He can't say that unless he's God. This is worse. The scribes just failed to see that he was God. Here, they're actually actively accusing him of being under the authority of demons. In war, the first and most important thing to get right is who's friend, who's foe? Good guys, bad guys? They just got, in the most important war, the most important question wrong. They just identified the good king who's coming to crush the enemy. They just said he is doing all that he does by the power of the enemy. He cast out demons with demons. Everything is wrong here. He who has come to crush Satan as the son of David, they're saying is doing the very work of Satan. This is the worst theological answer possible. This is the list, this is the beginning of many wrong accusations of Jesus Christ. This is how the Pharisees attack him, and the church is gonna be attacked century after century after century until now. God, Christ, and his word have been regularly under attack for 2,000 years. We need to be ready and not surprised if we're attacked like this, falsely accused. The early church, they were called atheists because they didn't have a visible God to worship. They were confused to be cannibals because of what they said about the body of Christ and the blood of the fruit of the vine. Today, there are many outrageous attacks, not as straightforward as this, but Dan Brown's entire conspiracy in the Da Vinci Code, which is just bad history. Somehow Jesus is just a bunch of fulfillments of a bunch of Greek and Roman myths and ideas. In academia, we have a technical term for this, it's gobbledygook. And you can spell it however you want, it's the same thing. 200 years have seen an incredible attack on the reliability and the trustworthiness of his word. It's just proven to be more and more accurate. true in consistency, true in correspondence to the world, true in the manuscripts we have and how reliable these words are. The more Satan attacks, the more Christ seems to be made more clear and true. If you're not a believer this morning, Be careful of what kind of lies you might believe about Jesus Christ and his word. Again, take the gospel and read it. See for yourself who Jesus is.

Let God be found true in every man a liar.

Christians, don't be scared of false attacks. Be ready for false accusations about Christ or about you personally. If they attacked him, they will attack us. Be sure Christ has remained true and the same. Trust him. Here's a warning of how wrong you can get it about Jesus. Our last section is trust Jesus to align your life with his mission. It's different. Those other three are miracles and different responses, either a great faith like the ruler and the woman, or a confusing faith with the two blind men who believe but don't obey, and then, well, almost faith not even present, and it's just a false accusation. The way Matthew summarizes this, kind of coming to an end of a section, gives a summary of what Jesus did, and we've seen a number of these. Matthew, there's different ways to look at how he organizes his gospel. There's five discourses. The second discourse is chapter 10. So this summary is getting us ready as we conclude this kind of section of his healing and teaching ministry. Now there's gonna be another discourse where he sends out his disciples. Trust Jesus to align your life with his mission.

Jesus went throughout 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.

Again, there's five major discourses. We're summarizing this section. We've seen these summaries before. Here it's, he's proclaiming, he's healing. We just have a few of the instances of when he does this. Start in verse 36, when he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them. That's significant just to understand who Christ is and how he sees us and the world. He had compassion. He saw the crowds, he's looking at all the people that are made in his image, made with dignity and value as image bearers of God. He sees, especially Israel, those who are supposed to be his people, his holy nation and treasured possession. And he has compassion for them. He has compassion because they're harassed and helpless. That harass, now it's like persecution. They're being pressed in, they're being lied to, they're being misled by the Pharisees. They're helpless. They don't know where to turn. They're the blind being led by the blind. He has compassion. Now we're about to start a Wednesday night series. I encourage you to come to, like all our Wednesday night series. We'll have three devotions on the emotional life of Jesus. And this one's one of those, and it's the compassion. There's obviously a human element to this emotion, but I believe it's more aligned with that messianic mission. He sees us with compassion and he comes to show mercy. This is what's behind the mercy, a compassion that we're helpless, we're in danger. He sees us like his sheep without a shepherd and he has pity, he has concern. He's seen the woman who was bleeding for 12 years. He saw the daughter dead and reaches out and touches her. He hears the men crying out for mercy. He sees all of us and has compassion. God is not distant or disinterested in you. He has compassion. God sees us all and the different worries we have, the united fears we have. He has a care to bring us up under His good rule and His good care. There's real pressing problems on outside. There's real physical difficulties. There's anxieties that reside in our hearts. Jesus knows all of them better than we even know them. He has compassion for us and all the trials and things we go through. He has compassion on us. Now, they're sheep without a shepherd, which means they're going all different directions in all different ways. There's a way in which he has compassion on us because we are not under the right rule and we're not worshiping the right God. He has compassion because he sees us and he cares to be the one who rules us with his kindness, gentleness, restoring us. He cares to have compassion on us that we might actually worship him, the one true God. We need to make sure we understand this compassion is, he's also the holy and righteous judge. This compassion is what led him in mercy to seek us out as sinners to save us. The same thing he has compassion for, that we've all gone our own way and we need help. If we do not repent and believe, he will judge our sin. Today, he sees us with compassion. Compassion, because sheep were easy prey. Jesus sees his own people, whom he created and designed to be under his rule. It's significant we understand he is the good shepherd. I believe this is tied to Ezekiel 34. I believe it's in response at some level to the Pharisees. The Pharisees were supposed to be leading God's people. Ezekiel 34 is God seeing that the priests at the time, instead of taking the sacrifices of the people and giving them as worship to God and teaching the people, they were just fattening themselves with the sacrifices that were meant for God. They were abusing the people rather than feeding the people. And God said, I will come and I will judge those leaders and I myself will come and be their God. I will judge those shepherds. I will be their shepherd. And John records, he comes to say he is our good shepherd. He comes and knows us by our name. He comes to restore us. in our hurts and our needs. He comes to use all of his authority to give his life for our sin. Jesus is a good shepherd. He comes to restore us in a way that, this is gonna be worthy of some good conversations afterwards. We as human beings are hardwired to be under rule and to worship. You're hardwired to be under God's rule. You're hardwired to worship. And those two things go together. You will serve who you worship. In sin, we seek any and other kind of rule, usually our self-rule, and any other kind of worship, usually self-worship. You're hardwired to be ruled and to worship. has compassion on us because we're hardwired to be under rule and to worship and we're being ruled by all kinds of things that are gonna abuse us, especially our own self-worship. He's come to restore us, to save us, to put us under his good rules so that we will worship him who is truly worthy. Now he's the good shepherd and he's not walking and talking with us right now. He's ascended, he's at the right hand of the Father. He sent a spirit to exercise his rule. He's given us his word to exercise his rule. He's given us his church to exercise his rule. We must understand those three things are still with us in how Christ exercises his rule, his word, his spirit, and his people. And all those three things are supposed to be working together by the power of the spirit in Christ's name. As he sees compassion, notice what he says to the, as he has compassion, notice what he says to the disciples. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. That is, there's a great harvest of sheep, there's a great harvest of people, there's a great harvest of labor to be done to restore humanity to God. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Jesus, our good shepherd, is telling us to respond to him by aligning our lives with his will. Again, right after this, he tells the disciples to pray. He's gonna tell them to go do it. After telling them to pray for it, he's gonna tell them to go do it. We can too easily think, I'm gonna pray for it, and I'm praying that somebody else will do the work. No, the goal is to be a laborer of God and to pray for laborers. The whole idea of prayer is that we're seeking to be aligned with God under his will and his rule for his worship. And as we're praying for more laborers, we're praying for ourselves to labor well. When folks who used to be members of this church ask me or pastor friends, how is Jefferson Park doing? I am thankful at this point in our life, I can say we have a lot of really good problems. God is blessing the church in a lot of ways. A lot of opportunities for ministry, our children, our youth, college students, and our community. Blessed numerically in spiritual growth. Blessed with what the world calls diversity, what God calls bringing the nations, the tribes, the tongues to himself. Blessed with lots of work. That work needs laborers. Laborers that are blessed by participating in that work. Harvest is plentiful. I encourage you, the last response here is to participate in the will and the mission of God. To see people with the same compassion God has. And here's how we normally think of this text as a missionary text. Now the first place it should be applied is who you can see. So take a chance to just look around. Nobody's looking around, you're looking at me. I can see your eyes, I am looking at you. The people closest to you are the people you should have the most compassion for, the people you know. We too often want some kind of care and compassion for people we really don't know and don't really have a burden for, and therefore aren't really burdened by, because it's gonna be costly. But the people right next to you, if you seek to care for them, it's going to be costly, because you have to get involved. Here, Christ is saying, pray earnestly for more laborers, and you are part of the people that might be called into being laborers. Jesus is going to send out the disciples to do these very same things. Christian, the harvest is plentiful. Are you praying for God's work to be stewarded well by you, your family, your church? Let's do some work in concentric circles. We can pray this for the nations. We're thankful we have missionaries, evangelists. We're praying for the Zambia trip right now, our members who are going to be with other Christians and other non-Christians in Zambia, that they would see those people with compassion and want to minister to them. Pray for the Heilers who are hoping to send to France next year. Pray for Matt, who goes into UVA, where the nations are actually coming next door to us. But this isn't just a missionary text. Our church would be blessed with more laborers to do the work of ministry. Pray for more elders that would equip the saints for that labor. For more members who would be eager to participate in that ministry. Church, pray earnestly. This is how we become united in the will of God together. Pray. that we would labor in love, that others would come to know Christ a good shepherd. To try to make this as concrete as possible, come and pray with us on Wednesday night. That's where we see and hear the different kind of concerns and needs our church has, our community has, and our missionaries have. Secondly, a practical way in which you can labor, practice hospitality. I mentioned that earlier before the offering. Inviting others into your lives and into your homes and at your table is the best way to connect with them in a way that's going to help them see Jesus. This is where when you see somebody and you're going to care for them, it is going to be more costly, but it also means it's going to be a greater blessing as you get to be part of their life transformation, Lord willing. So church, we pray that the Lord of the Harvest will send out more laborers. We pray that we would be eager to be those laborers. We pray that we as a church would be united in the things we're laboring for. God, who comes to save us because of compassion, invites us to see people the way he sees them and to participate in his work of restoration. Will you pray with me? Father, we pray for anyone here who has mocked you in your gospel, that you would convict them. I pray for anyone here who is merely here to be distant and disinterested, but not believing. We pray that you would show yourself and pray that you would convict of sin, and that you would show yourself as a God who comes to see us and speak to us and heal us. Pray for us as a church, Lord, that we would be united in the mission of Jesus Christ. First in prayer, uniting our wills together for you, and in mission and what we do. We pray especially for that team that gets to go and represent us this week to dear friends, brothers and sisters in Zambia. May they go out with great compassion, with great eagerness to show the love of Christ, to encourage other churches and mutual faith and endurance, and to participate in their evangelism, Lord. May we pray for them earnestly this week. In Jesus name we pray, amen.