Healing and Raising
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Grab a Bible and head to Matthew chapter 9. We're working our way through the book of Matthew. If this is your first time hanging out with us, we're glad you're here.
If you do not own a Bible, you can take one of these blue ones home with you. That's our gift to you. We want you to own a Bible. We want you to read it often. Nicholas Cage, who many of you know is one of the most renowned and greatest actors of our time. He did a movie 15 years ago called National Treasure.
Yeah, and it's on Disney Plus if you have that, so you're welcome. You can go watch it. But in that movie, he plays Benjamin Franklin Gates, who is a historian, and who finds out that there is a secret treasure map hidden on the back of the Declaration of Independence, which feels like a really bad place to hide a map if you intend to use it. I wonder if they had made the map first, and then they were like, we need some paper for the Declaration of Independence. And they were like, Benjamin Franklin's got that huge piece of paper he's always carrying around with him. Can we use that?
And he couldn't awkwardly talk his way out of not letting him use it, so they did. But anyway, he has to, they have to find this map on the back to find a national treasure. I don't want to give too much away. And at some point, they have to find some glasses that have these different lenses on them. So there's these glasses.
They have to look at the back of the map, and there are these red and blue lenses that they have to drop down. And this is made all the better by Nicolas Cage calling them spectacles the whole time. And if you've ever watched Nicolas Cage, you know, he either whispers or yells all of his lines. So at different times, he's like, hand me the spectacles. And he does this little thing, and he's looking at the stuff. And he has to use these in order to see what's going on there.
And so, what we're going to do as we read Matthew today, is we're going to read in chapter 9 a handful of miracle stories and interactions of people with Jesus that Matthew kind of just runs through fairly quickly. He just lays them out. This happened, then this happened, then this happened, then this happened. This is how much of chapter 8 and 9 have happened. It's almost like everything was back to back to back to back to back. Matthew's just laying this out for us.
And then we're going to take a few verses from Matthew chapter 9 to help us understand how we are to read this and what we're to understand from this. And those are going to be our spectacles. These two lenses that we're going to drop down, some verses, some quotes from Jesus that help us understand what he's doing. And we're going to just drop those down, and we're going to use those to look at this. So we're going to walk through the stories, then we're going to look at those two verses, and then we're going to walk back through trying to understand what Jesus is doing.
Because he's come, ultimately, to work his way to the cross. That did not catch him by surprise. Jesus came in order to die to redeem sinners. But he's spending a lot of time healing people and walking around and teaching, and he's working towards displaying something to us, and he's telling us as we go what he's doing. And so we're going to read through these interactions, but rather than just zooming in on them, we're going to kind of zoom out and look at them through a different lens and try to understand what he's doing. So we're going to pray, and we're going to do that.
God, we thank you for your word, and we pray that you would speak to us through it, that we might see Jesus more clearly. We love you, and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Matthew 9, verse 18. While he was saying these things, so he'd just been talking to John the Baptist's disciples. While he was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him.
We find out from one of the other Gospels he's a ruler of a synagogue, so he was well-respected. But he kneels before Jesus, saying, My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live. So this man comes to Jesus, and he says, My daughter just died. We find out in the other Gospels that she was 12, but he's got a young daughter. He comes, and he gets down in front of Jesus and says, She just died. And so he was mourning.
They were praying for her. I'm assuming he's a ruler of a synagogue. There's people around her hoping that she's going to get better, and she doesn't. Maybe they've been pleading with God, but he finds out that Jesus is near, and he just leaves. He leaves his daughter. He leaves whoever else was in his family there mourning, and he just heads out.
Maybe he told them what he was going to do. Maybe this is his last chance effort, but he's going to go try to find out what's going on. His daughter's sick. She's died. He goes to Jesus and kneels before him and says, She's died, but if you'll come, she can live. If you'll come, we have hope.
Jesus rose and followed him with his disciples. And you know this man's walking. He's got to have a mix of hope and fear and doubt. He comes to Jesus, and he says, If you'll come, she can live. And Jesus gets up and starts following him, and you know he's got to be going, Okay, good. That's as good as it could go so far, but there's got to be these moments of him trying to wrestle with himself and say, This can't happen.
This will be good. He will. And trying to convince himself, I would assume. But he does approach Jesus with a great amount of faith, saying, If you'll just come, she'll live. And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for 12 years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment. For she said to herself, If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.
And Jesus turned, and seeing her, he said, Take heart, daughter. Your faith has made you well. And instantly, the woman was made well. So Jesus is walking with this man to where his daughter is located. She's just passed. And he's walking along, and there's a lady who's had a discharge of blood for 12 years.
This would have made her ritualistically unclean. Luke tells us that she had suffered greatly at the hands of physicians for 12 years. So she had been trying to get this fixed. But every time she went, and every time she got it worked on, it seemed like it just got worse. It was a more painful solution. It didn't work.
And if she's ritualistically unclean, this means a couple of things for her. If she was following faithfully after the Lord and practicing Judaism, it would mean that she would, everything she touched would become unclean. So she'd have to do a lot to try to keep things washed and cleaned around her. She should not have touched Jesus because she's unclean. And she would have not been able to gather for feasts. And festivals and go into the temple.
This would have excluded her because of the Mosaic law from a lot of what she would have been able to walk in. But she also has suffered. She's in pain. She's tried to get this fixed, and it's not being fixed. She's got some kind of an issue that doesn't go away. And she says, if I can just touch Jesus, I'll be healed.
She just comes up with this on her own. She just makes up her own system. She just, and if you'll notice, this is what happens a lot. People approach Jesus, and they just approach him, and they're like, if you do this, it'll work. And Jesus is like, you're right. He talks to a centurion.
The centurion says, my servant's home, and he's paralyzed. And Jesus says, I'll go with you. And the centurion says, you don't have to go, just heal him. And Jesus is like, good point. One of the best points made, actually. This guy comes to Jesus and says, if you just touch my daughter, you can bring her back to life.
This lady's just in her head. She didn't even talk to Jesus about it. She just is like, if I can just touch him. So she's walking, there's a crowd. She just is like, grabs the fringe of his garment. I don't know how long it was.
I don't know how long she's, if she got on the ground, if she could. And that was it. She just is, she's going to sneak away. She did it. She touched the line. She's gone.
Jesus stops, turns around, sees her. He says, take heart, daughter. Your faith has made you well. And instantly, the woman was made well. Instantly. No long process.
No test. No practices. Nothing she had to walk through. She said, if I just touch him, I'll be made well. She touches him, she's made well. Because she believed that's what would happen.
She trusted Jesus. Can you imagine, how life changed for her, from that point on? If she had been, unclean, and actually practicing, what it meant to be unclean, now she's not. She gets to, gather for worship. She gets to, live normally, in relationships. This would have been, a beautiful thing.
She no longer has to suffer, consistently, constantly, painfully, for 12 years, she had been in physical pain. She's healed. And when Jesus came, this is verse 23, when Jesus came to the ruler's house, and saw the flute players, and the crowd, making a commotion. So there's people out, already mourning. There's a crowd, out around the house. People are, are mourning.
They're weeping. There are people playing the flute. They're playing, mournful songs. He said, go away, for the girl is not dead, but sleeping. And they laughed at him. Now this is an interesting, interesting interaction.
Jesus walks up to a house, they know that this girl is dead. It would seem as if, not everybody understood, what the dad had gone to do. Because if everybody had understood, they, I would have think, they would stop, they would pause, they would be like, Jesus is coming, let's see what happens. Jesus walks up, they keep doing what they're doing, and he says, hey, disperse. No funeral today. She's just asleep.
And this is such a crazy thing, that they laugh. It wasn't, and they awkward silenced him. They murmured around him. They laugh. I would assume it's derisive. Bitter laugh.
Not like, good one, we really needed that. No, like a, like a, like a, a bitter, angry, like, what are you talking about, kind of laugh. He just says, go away, no funeral. She's asleep. And they laugh at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he just says, get everybody out.
Get everybody out. He went in, took her by the hand, and the girl arose. And the report of this went throughout all that district. Some of us have had the unfortunate experience of seeing the life drain out of somebody. seeing someone who was alive moments ago pass. This family got to see the life come back into somebody. She was laying cold and dead.
Looked like her, but not quite her. there's something very, very important missing. Jesus grabs her hand. Her face fills back up. His blood begins to pump in her body again. She sits up alive. Now, I don't, the story doesn't tell us this, and I don't think it happened, but I do think it would be fun if Jesus had walked out holding her hand and said, she's asleep.
I told you. Is it funny now? He didn't do that. It doesn't say that he did that. I doubt he did that. He actually, but it says that the report of this went throughout all that district.
That they tell everybody that Jesus rose, raised this girl from the dead, that he, that he brought her back to life. And Jesus passed on from there. So you see, he just, he's, Matthew's giving us these just back to back. He moves right on. Jesus passed on from there. Two blind men followed him, crying aloud, have mercy on us, son of David.
That phrase, son of David, is that they're saying that he comes in the line of David, that he is the prophesied king that is to come. That's what they're, they're giving him this, you're the Messiah, son of David. Now, Jesus actually is the Messiah. He is in the line of David. It doesn't seem like they would have known his actual genealogy, but they are saying, son of David, they're saying, you're the one, you're the Messiah, you're the one, have mercy on us. So these blind men are following him, crying this out aloud.
When he entered the house, the blind men came to him. So Jesus doesn't stop. He doesn't talk to him. He just goes into the house and they keep following him. They come into the house. Jesus said to them, do you believe that I'm 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. So with every single one of these, Jesus's fame is spreading.
His name is growing. People are knowing more about him as he's raising this girl from the dead as they go and proclaim his fame as well. So they were blind and Jesus touches their face. He says, do you believe I can do this for you? And I think it probably startled them a little bit to suddenly have someone touch their face. Wouldn't have seen it coming.
He touches their face. That was not meant to be a joke, you guys. It was just a thing. Sometimes I make bad jokes. That one's on y'all. That one's on.
He touches their face and they receive their sight and they can see Jesus. And they can see. And then he says, he sternly warned them, see that no one knows about it. That feels hard to pull off. I kind of feel for these guys. It says that they immediately failed miserably at that.
See that no one knows about this. And they were like, hmm. And then it says, they went and spread his fame everywhere. But it would be hard. I just, just let's give them the benefit of the doubt here a little bit. It would be difficult to walk in blind, walk out not blind, and not let people know that had happened.
It feels like you would have a hard time. Like people would be like, there's something different about you. And you'd be like, no, it's the same. I'm fine. But can you imagine?
We have stories now because we've advanced science, technology, medicine of people who have had massive hearing loss or have been deaf and were able to, they're able to get hearing. And you can get online. You can read stories. You can watch videos of people who were deaf who can now hear. And it's interesting to read the things that they were surprised by that made sounds, the things that they thought would make sounds. I saw a list of things the other day.
Someone who had been deaf and had got his hearing, thought the sun would make a noise, was surprised that it didn't, thought it would like hum or something. There's other stories of people who went and used the bathroom and the toilet scared the mess out of them because they flushed it and it was way louder than they thought that would be. People hearing birds, people being surprised at how different the voice between adults and children is. We don't have stories of people who have never seen being able to see. The closest thing I think we come to it is people who have colorblind and they've made those new glasses that you can put on and it fixes that and you can see in color.
And if you ever watch those videos, they show this beautiful picture and they'll show you in the video like this is what it looks like to them. Then they'll put the glasses on and you see these people who are colorblind putting these glasses on and being like, oh, y'all been able to see like this forever? This is what color looks like? This is crazy. And these men were blind and now they see. And they went and told everybody and how could you not?
He might argue obedience and that's a good argument but he says, don't tell everybody and they go spread his fame. I was blind and now I see. As they were going away, verse 32, 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.
So Jesus moves on. A mute man's brought to him who's mute because he's demon oppressed. Jesus casts out the demon and the man begins to speak. Everybody's excited except the Pharisees. So his fame's been growing.
This one ends. The Pharisees are fighting against his fame in the end of this story. Jesus is becoming more prominent and the Pharisees are saying, no, no, no, no. It's because he's actually evil. That's how he's able to do that. That's the argument they make.
I want to point something out. Spencer, we spent a couple of weeks ago, we spent some time talking about demons and some of how they work and how they operate. We do believe that they are real. We do believe that Jesus is in charge of them, that he is over them, that they bend to his will. I just want to point out here because I think it's a helpful thing to note. There are times where Jesus heals physical ailments and he just heals the physical ailment.
He heals a paralytic. He heals someone who has epilepsy. He heals someone who's blind. There are other times where he heals a physical ailment that is specifically told to be attached to something demonic. One of the arguments people make is they'll say, well, that's just how they understood it. They understood that when you had some kind of sickness, it was demonic, so they just put in here that he healed somebody who's cast out a demon.
But that's not how it works. They don't always say he cast out the demon of being paralyzed or he casts out the demon of epilepsy. It at times says that they're connected and times that they're not. This is why our basic argument for how do we approach this as a church, I always just call, I say fire all your guns. You're a whole person. So are you exhausted?
Are you in pain? Do you have weird emotional things? Okay. Yeah. You're a whole person. So let's talk about your sleep.
Let's talk about when you're eating. Let's talk about other things going on in your life. Let's talk about your emotional state. Yeah, maybe you should see a therapist. Maybe you should talk this out with somebody. But we're also going to pray that if it's demonic, Jesus would work deliverance.
We're not going to just focus on these and not fire this gun. We're going to also say, Lord, if this is demonic, bring some freedom, bring some healing. We're also not just going to focus on this one. We were walking through this with a girl one time and she, lady in our church, and she was talking about different things and we were praying with her about some stuff that seemed like spiritual attack and at one point we asked, what's it like when you try to read the Bible? She said, every time I read the Bible I get really, really sleepy and I have a hard time reading the Bible. She said, do you think that's demonic?
I said, well, when do you read the Bible? At night? Where do you read the Bible? In my bed. Okay. Let's try reading the Bible in the middle of the day at a kitchen table and see if you get sleepy then and that'll help us figure that out because you're a whole person.
There are certain things that do affect us. There are times where it's just physical. There are times where the enemy is at work and we want to address all of them and so I just wanted to point that out. That's not a main point in this but I just want us to see that as we walk through but Jesus shows his dominance over the enemy. Verse 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. Alright, so as Jesus travels the primary thing that he does the thing that's listed first every time it gives us one of these summary statements is that he teaches in their synagogues and he proclaims the gospel of the kingdom and then it'll say he heals he works miracles but the thing that he's traveling around doing is teaching and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing and working miracles.
So the question is as he's traveling around doing this what is his end goal? What's he trying to accomplish as he's traveling? He's come here to go to the cross to die for our sins but what's he's accomplishing now in his ministry? What's he doing? Is it just to heal? Is it just to provide some sort of physical fix for people?
Alright. Our two lenses we're going to drop down. Our two national treasure spectacles. Y'all ready? Matthew 9 they're both from Matthew 9 they're both quotes from Jesus that I think help clarify what Jesus is doing and I think was designed as Matthew laid this out to help make this clear to us. Matthew 9 look at verse 5 this is in the story where Jesus is going to heal a paralytic the first thing he says is son your sins are forgiven and the scribes have a problem with that.
So Jesus reading their thoughts begins to talk to them and he says for which is easier to say your sins are forgiven or to say rise and walk but that you may know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins he then said to the paralytic rise pick up your bed and go home. I think this is one of the things that's very helpful for us as we look at these stories about Jesus not to get too focused in on just the action and just the interaction and just the miracle of your forms because he says right here that you may know that the son of man has the authority to forgive sins. One of the things he's telling the scribes is I'm doing some of this to show to you who I am and what I've come to accomplish. This is that you may know this is why in the gospel of John John refers to all of these as signs that he's putting on display he's not just here to heal he's putting on display who he is and what he's come to do.
This is a picture of Jesus what he has come to accomplish and who he is that you may know that ultimately this spiritual reality is going to be fixed I'm going to show it in a physical way that you may know I can forgive sins I'm going to intentionally go out of my way to say your sins are forgiven we're going to have this interaction and then I'm going to show you that I can actually do what I'm saying. Part of what Jesus is doing in all these miracles is he's giving himself credibility he's putting on display for us that when he says I've forgiven your sins when he says my death is in your place when he says that you're going to proclaim forgiveness in my name to his disciples that we may know that he can that we may know that he walks with God that God and he's not lying he's not tricking us he's got this on display. That's the first one. Second one he says just a few verses later is when he's talking to the disciples of John we're going to look at verse 15.
So the disciples of John come to him and they say why do we fast? And the Pharisees fast but y'all don't fast. We talked about this Jesus is celebrating with his disciples he's having a feast when most everybody else will be fasting and so they say what's going on? Jesus said to them can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them and then they will fast. This is interesting.
He says I'm the bridegroom and I'm here. But then he says there's going to come a day when I'm not here. Then they'll mourn then they'll fast. I'm here now we're celebrating. I'm giving you a picture of the kingdom I'm putting on display a foretaste of what this is going to be like but at some point I'm going to be taken away and at that point they will mourn they will fast. Jesus does not say to them I have come fasting is over.
Ultimate game changer we're done. No he says right now while I'm here with them and then he says there's going to come a day when I'm taken away then they will because what Jesus is giving us is a foretaste of the kingdom. Wherever he goes he's bringing the kingdom with him. He's going to die to accomplish for us everything that is needed for salvation but he has not fully consummated he has not fully conquered he has not fully claimed and put everything under his feet his enemies are not his footstool yet so there's we're in this middle zone where we've had a foretaste of the kingdom where he's brought it in where he's inaugurated it where it's already but not yet. he's already accomplished what needs to be accomplished for salvation for life and hope but it's not yet fully realized so now there's some struggle now there's some mourning now there's some fasting because we've had a foretaste of the kingdom and we long for it to be fully brought to bear.
So what Jesus is doing he's putting on display who he is and what he's come to do he's doing this so that we may know but he's also showing us that this is not typical for how everything will work from now on. This is not exactly how this is going to play out. There's going to come a day when we're not sitting around the table feasting where Jesus isn't walking around fixing everything because we're going to be in a zone where there is some mourning where there is some pain where there is some lingering doubt and frustration as we long for something better. But right now he's inaugurated he's brought it he's displaying it then there's going to be a time where we're in the middle.
Doubt and frustration as we long for something better. But right now he's inaugurated he's brought it he's displaying it then there's going to be a time where we're in the middle. So he's displaying it he's showing it because I think sometimes we look at this and go why don't he just keep doing this why ain't everybody just fixed all the time. And it's like because he was doing one specific thing as he was here to display and give credibility to his name
To manifest his glory to show us that we might place faith in him we might trust in him when he rose from the grave and he's bringing about the kingdom showing us what it looks like but eventually we're going to get there but we're not going to be there just yet. In the movie Frozen there's two sisters one's name's Elsa pretty early on in the movie Elsa goes crazy she freaks out starts freezing everything she takes off running across this fjord it's water she's trying to get away
From everybody it's a fjord escape and she takes off running and she runs up onto this mountain and she sings this song as she completely loses her mind she builds a spiky ice castle on a spiky ice monster and she's well on her way to becoming a crazy ice queen witch person that like from Narnia but her sister comes and talks her out of it and it ends up being okay. But when she's running across the water everywhere she steps freezes every place her foot falls
Freezes and she has solid ground and she works her way across and in some ways that's what Jesus was doing and displaying as he walked on earth that everywhere he stepped the kingdom advanced that everywhere he went it was displayed what the kingdom would be like when the king was fully present and fully reigning that's why he he displays this and he shows us what the kingdom will be
And then he says there's going to come a season where it's not fully realized and we're going to long for it and there are going to be moments where it works that way and there are going to be moments where it seems so marred and broken by sin we're going to mourn then we're going to know who he is we're going to long for it we're going to fast we're going to
Mourn so walking back through these stories as a display of what the kingdom is like for the people who are in between to help us understand the spiritual reality that Jesus came to accomplish so that we may know what he does and what his kingdom is like let's look at these he heals a lady who's had a physical ailment for 12 years he can do that now
He can heal us physically now but he may not you see the promise of the kingdom is not that everything will work out fully here Jesus was putting on display what the kingdom would be like but he says there's going to come a day where we're going to mourn where we're going to fast we're going to long for it to be like
That it also so often these physical ailments are attached to sin and there are some of us who our sin has been much like this ladies it's been a secret that has plagued us and we have fought with it and we have not won it's been something that we've labored
For we've begged to get taken away we've worked on we've fought against and it seems like all we've done is suffer and it's continued and whether this is a long term physical ailment for you or a long term battle with sin the promise
Of the kingdom is that one day we'll be in the presence of Jesus and we'll be immediately healed this physical pain this unending season of depression that for those of our brothers and sisters who I get to talk with periodically who struggle with same gender attraction who just want it
To go away want it to be cured for those people who have a physical pain that seems like it will not ever stop and every time they go see a doctor it doesn't go away it seems like it gets worse yes the already part of the
Kingdom means that you have been justified in Christ that you have been made new that you are righteous and the not yet part means that it may not go away just yet but the promise of the presence of Jesus is that it will not remain that it will not make it Matt who is up here
One of our pastors he works for the South Carolina Baptist Convention he was leading a worship conference this past week and the people who were leading worship last minute said hey we think it would be good if we read the
Apostles creed and so they went and quickly typed it up and so after a song we started reading the apostles creed together and it's just it's a creed that some apostles wrote it's really
Good it has doctrinal statements that help clarify things for the church and it's been around for a very long time and it's just helpful and so we were reading it and there's a section that says we believe
In the communion of the saints the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting amen and it's I mean that's the part where you really you know bringing it home
The guy who typed it up was in a hurry so he typed up we believe in the communion of the saints the resurrection of sins the resurrection of the body and life everlasting so we go to reading and the
Guy's playing melodically on the piano we're reading and we all hit the resurrection of sins these are baptists so they're not super familiar with the apostles creed some of them are and you could just hear the
Whole room was like and the guy just stopped and goes no we don't believe in the resurrection of sins that's a typo and very very wrong and it was actually more worshipful for me than if we had just read it seamlessly because I got to come
Face to face with the idea of the resurrection of sins and then I got to celebrate the fact that no we don't believe in that that's not going to happen you see there is someone in eternity there is someone in the kingdom who will be marred by
Sin and that's the lamb who was slain and then everybody else healed pure free there's a resurrection of the body but there is no resurrection of sins and see Jesus then raises this girl to life you see ultimately we're going to be plagued by stuff and then we are going to die unless the Lord
Returns we're going to take our last breath but we are going to enter into eternity that Jesus will stand over us and say nope not dead no that's momentary there's an eternal life that is to come through what Jesus has accomplished see Jesus has died for our sins and those who have placed faith in him
Will not be claimed by their sin will not be marred by their sin will not be marked by their sin and will not be owned by death Jesus is a ruler over death that when death claims someone we have
So many stories about death showing up got a hood has a sickle claim someone and it's over and we got all these stories and movies and books about trying to cheat death guess what Jesus does not cheat death he owns death and when he grabs
Someone and says no and eventually he conquers death on the cross and eventually he throws death into the lake of fire death does not claim those in the kingdom death does not claim those in the kingdom we without
Jesus are blind and when Jesus touches us and claims us our eyes are open we see him face to face there will be a time in the kingdom when we will behold Jesus clearly face to face
We will no longer be in darkness we will no longer be fumbling around lost we will have sight and when you place faith in Jesus that's what Jesus says happens that those who understand that they're blind and own the fact
That they're blind without Jesus then you see and those who would claim that they have sight don't here's one of the most infuriating things that happens that I see in the church and I was reading this passage it started to make
A little more sense to me but there are times when you see somebody who has this pride about being a believer or there are times that the church is accused of acting like we have a corner we've cornered the market
Of truth we're the only ones who know what's right everybody else is wrong do you want to know something that's true there's no pride there do you know who I believe were probably some of the most gracious people to the blind
People in their community these two guys who used to be blind I think they understood it whenever anybody seems very prideful about no longer being blind it's a good chance they're blind and they're pretending there's a good
Chance Jesus hadn't touched them they hadn't truly seen their depravity and they hadn't truly seen their weakness you see who they went and proclaimed as glorious when they left here
Jesus how could they not and if Jesus has brought us to where we see him and has redeemed us how could we not proclaim Jesus not ourselves not our own power not our own glory
Not our own morality we have nothing to claim in ourselves other than we went to Jesus and said we were blind and we need your help and that he gave us sight and then we
Point to Jesus and make much of his name every once in a while in the American church there are people who go man I can't believe somebody would go and spend their
Whole life in a foreign country they would go and be somewhere where it's dangerous I just have such a hard time with that the reality
Is held up to the cross that makes way more sense than spending your time running around on the American dream that one makes
Sense someone who would be bent on making sure everybody knows the one who can redeem and the one who can save than people
Who are running around focusing on something else how could they not proclaim him and how can we not and the last one Satan
Will not reign in the demons was over top of the demons and so the demons would have to obey the prince of demons
That's what they say he's doing this by the prince of demons but what they fail to reckon on is that the king of
Kings is over the prince of demons yes right Jesus has more authority good point but he goes way higher than the prince of
Demons some of us struggle with fear I feel like the enemy is attacking us I feel like we're laboring and we just can't
Win well guess what Jesus wins he conquers the enemy and there is a kingdom where your sins aren't there where there's life everlasting
Where we see Jesus face to face and where the enemy has been cast into an eternal punishment and we're free and Jesus has
Done this so that we may know so how how do we access this how do we get to this what do we do
What is our response faith Jesus says to the blind men do you believe I can do this yes Lord Jesus looks at the lady who grabbed
The hem of his garment and says your faith has made you well he says that over and over again what is faith faith
Is trusting Jesus not ourselves faith is us putting our hope in him cashing all of our chips in on him saying that you
Are the only one who can do this without you we have nothing faith is going to Jesus and saying I'm not strong enough
I'm and when we have faith we get the kingdom because we get the king our sins are taken away our shame is gone
What has marked us and broken us and kept us down is conquered we're raised to life we were dead in our sin but
When we place faith in Jesus we're brought to new life in him we see and the enemy is conquered and has no claim
Over us faith is not something that you muster up in your own strength faith is you rejecting your own strength and running to
Jesus and saying I believe son of David have mercy on me I believe you can do this God have mercy on me I
Believe you can do this Jesus have mercy on me I trust you and some of us right now are in that stage where
We're mourning we know these promises of the kingdom but we're not in the already we're in the not yet and so we have
Physical pain we have fear and doubt we have things that have fallen apart around us and we are hurting we will labor we
Will fight sin we will beg and plead for hope and help but someday the king is going to return he's going to claim
His bride he's going to consummate the kingdom he's going to claim the throne he's going to put his enemies as his footstool and
We will eternally behold him face to face free from sin victorious over the enemy raised to life forever if you have not placed
Your faith in Jesus some of y'all have been hanging out for a while you've been hanging out with groups you've been here on Sundays
We want you to trust Jesus we do not want you to become a good person we are not here to mend your behavior
We are not here to help you work out this one issue you have and send you merrily on your way we want you
To run to Jesus claiming that you're blind and beg that he might give you sight some of you need to place your faith
In Jesus today you need to be ushered into the kingdom you need to be brought into what Jesus has accomplished through the cross
And his death on your behalf when he rose again and conquered everything for you some of you everybody in your group thinks you're
A Christian and you need to tell them this week I wasn't but I am now I was just blind pretending I could see
In a moment we're going to take communion and we're going to celebrate that Jesus body was broken for us that his blood was shed for
Us communion is for Christians who look forward to his coming so I don't know where you are today I don't know what kind
Of pain you have what kind of fear you have what kind of doubt you have I want you to take it to the Lord
Say have mercy and I trust you and if you've never placed your faith in Jesus do and have him save you let's pray God we thank you for your grace your redemption
And your love may we have faith God we thank you that you conquer and that you came so that we might know and Lord as we long for your kingdom give us endurance help us to hope and to
Cling to you in Jesus name amen