The Way of Mercy

Introduction

Good morning. We want to welcome everyone to our services, especially if you’re visiting with us. We want you to feel welcome and invite you to come back anytime you have an opportunity. We’ll meet again this afternoon at five o’clock for Bible class. And we hope you can stick around for a few minutes so we can get to know you afterwards. We’re here to worship God. We use the Bible as our standard for everything we do. And we’ll have a few announcements at the end, but we’ll begin our worship with a word of prayer if you’re a bow with me. Holy Father in Heaven, we praise you, Father. We praise your name. We hope that our efforts this morning will bring glory to your name. Thank you so much for giving us this opportunity to worship you and in spirit and in truth.

Thank you so much for sending your son Jesus. We’re here today to remember and celebrate his death and resurrection and the hope that gives us of spending eternity with you. Thank you for all our blessings. We pray all these things in Jesus’ name.

I will see my mercies of the Lord, I will see my need.

I will see all the mercies of the Lord forever. I will see all the mercies of the Lord. With my God will I make no faithfulness with my mouth my faithfulness to all I will see of the mercies of the Lord forever I will see.

After this will have a scripture reading followed by a prayer, followed by the recollection.

We are reading from First Timothy chapter six, starting in verse six. But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich will fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

Song and prayer, to worship you and to praise you and to honor you and to edify one another. We thank you so much for this family of believers here. We pray that you provide the elders and the deacons here with your strength and wisdom, and that each of us would esteem each other as we should, that we support each other as we should, that we love each other as we should. We pray for your blessings again as we worship, knowing that all things we do, great God, are for your glory and not our own. We thank you for Christ Jesus, our Savior and our atoning sacrifice, the one with the name that is above every name. And in this name we pray. Amen. Good morning. If you wouldn’t, if you want to, open your Bible to Psalms, chapter 96.

I’ll be starting in verse 7 in a moment. Right now we’ve set aside a time for this congregation and this family here to give back a portion of what God has blessed us with and a portion of what we are given from the work that we do, but is to be given back. This is not a solicitation of funds from those who are visiting with us today. This is an opportunity for the family here to support not only other members here, but the work that’s been done around the world. But we have to think about it a little bit differently sometimes just to keep things fresh. We don’t want to think solely about this is the time that we give, this is just the time that we offer what God has given back to us.

But it hit me this morning when I read this verse. It says, verse 7 of 96 of Psalms, give to the Lord, O families of a people. Give to the Lord glory and strength. Give to the Lord the glory due his name. Bring an offering and come into his courts. Oh, worship the Lord and the beauty of his holiness. Tremble before him in all things.

Will you pray with me? Our Father in heaven, we come before you now, grateful for all things that you’ve given us. Breath of life, the opportunity to serve you day to day. Lord God, we want to thank you for the blessings that you’ve given us, the jobs that we carry, and the finances that help us live day to day. Lord God, we ask that you please take our offering that we give today. May it be used by our elders in a wise manner to support those who are in need. Lord God, we thank you. And as you’re in your son’s name, we pray. Amen.

We’ll sing two songs before the sermon this morning. The first will be number six hundred thirty-five in the books. More like you.

Jesus with you to make me song after the sermon I surrender all if you’re working in books number four and three sermon. Let’s sing, let us go to the mouth. Let’s just stand single. Let’s go to the mouth.

He has shown you all men. What does God require? To justice, love mercy, walk only with your God. Do justice love mercy. Walk only with Lord God. Oh let us go to the mount of the Lord.

Take vows from your sword. No more shall we learn the protective war. But peace will be not to war will no more. He has shown you all men. What does God require? To justice, love mercy, walk humble with your God.

Oh let us go to the mountains of the Lord where justice is found for the wees in all the oppressed and that we may all share in his concept. He has so beyond what does God require to justice of mercy, what come we with your God to justice of mercy, what come we with your God.

Matthew chapter nine.

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 heart. That last verse or two there is actually a segue into chapter 10, where he’s going to call his disciples to do much of the same things that he is doing here in chapters eight and nine. We finished chapters five through seven, the text you’re used to calling the Sermon on the Mount last week. And we’re moving now into a section where Jesus is now living the gospel of the kingdom. He is demonstrating in his life what this is going to look like.

And so he began in chapters five through seven with some conceptual boundary markers. This was about boundary making. This is what kingdom citizens look like. If you’re going to be part of my kingdom, it’s going to look this way. These are the kinds of people that you’re going to be. And then as we transition into chapters eight and nine this morning, this is about how kingdom citizens view people and how they live life. It’s not just the principles, but it’s the way they act day to day. It’s the actions and the feelings that they have and what that incorporates into what they’re doing in life.

And I want our young people and our older people alike to learn that every book of the Bible has a structure. It has a flow, it’s designed a certain way. It’s not just random thoughts squeezed together without any kind of plan. There’s a structure to all of this. And we’ve already talked about the fact that Jesus is reliving the story of Israel in the Gospel of Matthew. And so there are five sections of narrative and five sections of discourse, which most would say are there because they fit the five books of Moses. There’s a purposeful design here to show this flow in these five different discourses that then matches the Torah Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, at least conceptually. And so what you have here as I zoom in on this, and this is the sheet some of the kids have is this purposeful design to say that Jesus, not only is he the new Abraham and the new David and has a new kingdom, some of what we talked about in the very first sermon, but also he is the new Moses.

He is going to come and he’s going to deliver people from slavery to sin. He is going to take them from death to life. And not only that, but he’s going to initiate a new covenant. All the sorts of things that Moses did as they left Egypt, and he passed through the waters, just as Jesus was baptized to fulfill all righteousness. And then from there he has the temptations in the wilderness for 40 days, just like Israel did for 40 years in the wilderness. And then they’re at Mount Sinai, and Moses delivers the law. And now we have the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus is then delivering the law or the values of the kingdom. All of that then leads to what is this going to look like in real life.

And what we see is Jesus encountering a number of people, and again, there’s actually quite a bit of structure even within this text as well. There are three cycles of three stories, three miracle and healing stories, actually, in chapters eight and nine. And there’s these little interludes between the two sets of these. So after the first one you have one, and after the second one you have one going into the third, and these are kind of discipleship sections where Jesus is dealing with the idea of what it’s like to follow him. So even then with this two chapters, there’s these tight structural elements within the text. But the idea is really to center on how Jesus interacts with these people. The nature of what this interaction looks like.

And so that’s what I want our focus to be this morning. And the purpose here is not just to look at Jesus and see what he’s doing, but then, of course, to then take that into how should I be feeling, how should I be acting toward other people? I’m not Jesus, and you’re not Jesus. We don’t have the power to heal people from blindness and to resurrect people from the dead and to take someone who’s paralyzed and make them walk again. We can’t do those types of things. But we can speak life to them. We can give them the good news, which is ultimately what Jesus was working toward. The physical elements of the things he’s doing when he heals or when he helps is only to demonstrate the much greater reality, which is what he does spiritually.

And so when we’re seeing these stories and we’re looking through them, or you’re reading them either here or on your own, we need to see the bigger picture of what’s happening. It’s not just that Jesus is healing someone’s blindness, but he’s also the kind of person who can give spiritual sight. And we can’t lose sight of that reality and get so focused on the physical that we’re missing the bigger point of what’s happening within the story. And that’s why I wanted to read the summary as we started this morning. Jesus is looking out over the crowds. We’re only getting a small little piece of the things that are actually happening as he’s going from village to village and as he’s speaking at synagogues. We’re given a few stories here and there, but as Jesus looks out at the people, sometimes thousands of people who are following him, he has compassion.

He feels sorry for them. He pities them. Not in a condescending sort of way. But he’s looking at them as people who are they’re oppressed by people who take advantage of them. They are helpless to deal with the situations they’re in and to deal with the problems they have. And they don’t have any leadership. The people who are supposed to be their leaders are terrible leaders. And we’re going to see this as we work through the story as well. They’re actually the people who are trying to oppress Jesus and create problems with Jesus. Those are their leaders. And so Jesus looks out and he sees these people and they are misguided. They have no direction. And so what we’re seeing here in the very beginning of his ministry is that he has a mission of mercy.

And so we find these three cycles.

He comes down from the mountain. The people are impressed with his teaching. He teaches as one, notice the contrast. He teaches as one who had authority at the end of chapter 7 and verse 29, not as their scribes. Their message is empty. It’s weak. The people aren’t impressed. But when Jesus speaks, there’s some kind of power and authority that is exuded from him. And now it’s going to be backed up as we see these stories where he interacts with people. He comes down from the mountain, chapter 8 and verse 1. Great crowds followed him. And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. It’s a defining moment. He has a lot of great things to say.

1. Jesus' Mercy for All: Boundary Breaking

This guy’s really interesting. He seems to have a lot of power. But now this unclean leper comes and falls before him. Now what is he going to do? And we see this sort of thing happening with frequency in these two chapters. One person after another approaching Jesus or appealing to him. And there’s all sorts of scenarios, whether it’s a leper or it’s a centurion, a pagan, and he’s worried about his servant or one of his own disciples’ mother-in-law. Right? There’s all sorts of people from all segments of society who we see coming to him in chapters eight and nine. And Jesus deals with them all in a way that shows compassion and mercy and love. And so the first thing I want us to see as we’re looking at this text and thinking through it, is that there are boundaries, and Jesus has established them in chapters 5 through 7.

This is what a kingdom citizen looks like. Yet at the same time as he is boundary making, he is also boundary breaking. He is going out of the world. He is touching lepers.

He’s allowing unclean women to touch the fringe of his garment. He is not worried about all the things society deems as being unworthy of him, below him. He is willing to go sit with tax collectors and sinners. He’ll eat with them and discuss with them and tell them the things they need to work on in their life. Meanwhile, the supposed rulers, the people who are supposed to be guiding the people toward righteousness and truth. They complain. Chapter 9. The Pharisees in verse 11, they come to Jesus’ disciples. Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? Why is he eating with those kinds of people? The lowlifs of society, the sellouts. Why is he interacting with people who are sick? They’re unclean. They have diseases.

Don’t you know they’re dangerous? That’s not the kind of people we really want to be around. And the possessed people, these demon-possessed people, Jesus is going and he’s interacting with them. Undesirables. All of these are the kinds of people we see in chapter 8 and 9 that Jesus is going to. He’s touching them, he’s talking with them, he’s even eating with them. Quite amazing. This is not at all what the Pharisees and the scribes would have done. In fact, they did everything possible to avoid such people. They were a hit on their image and their reputation. Don’t want those kinds of people come into synagogue. They’ll ruin our look. We have to uphold a certain image. We need to be holy. We can’t have these people coming in.

This is the nature of the Pharisees. And it’s why they’re so offended by Jesus and the way he interacts with these people on the outskirts, on the margins, the outcasts of society. And yet, in all of this, Jesus is going beyond just the physical. He’s not worried so much about that, other than it is a means by which he can get to that which is much more important. And so in the beginning of chapter 9, people realizing the power of Jesus and who he is, by their faith, they come and they bring this paralytic to him. You know the story. We’re told about it in Mark as well. They go to great lengths to get this man down into the presence of Jesus. And by this, Matthew just says, Jesus saw their faith.

That’s the comment he makes about it. And Jesus says, Take heart. This is a phrase he uses frequently in this section. He says, Take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven. That’s what truly mattered. It wasn’t his physical state that was most important, and this is what Jesus is recognizing, this is the priority he’s making here. Yes, Jesus wants us to have good lives on earth. It’s not that he doesn’t want that, but what’s most important to him is that we are in a right place spiritually. That we are not paralyzed within, with sin. And so he tells this son of Israel that your sins are forgiven. Of course, the leaders, the ones, again, who are supposed to be guiding the people towards spirituality and righteousness.

They look and say, Jesus is a blasphemer, even though they’ve already heard about and seen him do all sorts of miraculous and wonderful things. And so then Jesus takes this opportunity to then heal the man of his physical infirmity to make it clear that he has the ability also to forgive sins. Jesus isn’t worried about status or station. He’s not looking for the elite of Judah or Israel to be on his side so he can become famous and be important and the word would spread. Actually, after many of these encounters, he tells them to go and not tell anybody about it. That’s odd. He’s wanting things to develop in a certain way, and he has his reasons for this, but he’s not after getting big fame and getting all sorts of attention.

He’s just there to help people.

And so Jesus is going through society, he’s going through Galilee, looking for people who are willing not just to hear him for the healing and for the food that we’ll get to eventually, but also to change their life within. And it’s interesting that those who are most willing, it seems, are the unclean and the pagans and the sick and the poor and the possessed and those who are undesirable. We’ll kind of see this. It’s true in the Gospel of Luke, but it’s also in Matthew, that it’s sort of the irreligious. It’s not the spiritual elite who are coming to Jesus and realizing their desperate need for him. And so Jesus tells the Pharisees, as they’ve questioned him, sitting with these terrible tax collectors and the sinners, the purpose of why he came.

Chapter 9 and verse 12 Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.

They look around at those who are physically ill and infirmed, those who are lower in status and station in society, and they see them as being unworthy. And sort of in a subtle way, Jesus is saying, You all need this. You’re sick, you just don’t realize it. It’s like Simon with the sinful woman in Luke 7. He doesn’t realize how desperately he needs Jesus. The woman does, and this is why she’s going to walk away justified. Or in Luke 18, with the tax collector and the Pharisee, the Pharisee’s praying to himself about how great he is, while the tax collector is beating him to his chest and asking for mercy from the Lord. Those are going to be the ones who come away justified. Not those who think so much of themselves, who have deemed themselves righteous, who go through the motions, who can offer the sacrifices, who can go through all the rituals and do them all just right.

That’s not necessarily what God and what Jesus are really interested in. He’s interested in people who have a heart for him, as we looked at in chapter 5 through 7. Those who are merciful, mercy will be without you will have judgment will be without mercy to those who show no mercy, James says, and mimicking the words of Jesus Himself. In his prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, he talks about the idea of we have to show mercy to others, or we need to forgive others if we want to be forgiven. These are the principles and the ideas that Jesus is teaching in his kingdom, and the Pharisees and the scribes are missing it. Instead, they point their nose down at the world around them and see them all as unworthy, and that is exactly the kind of people Jesus is looking for.

People who desperately realize that they need him.

And anyone that is here this morning, it doesn’t matter what situation you’re in, what sort of vile sins you have participated in, you will receive mercy from Jesus if you fall at his feet. If you kneel before him and you cry out for help and you show desperation, that’s what is happening in all of these stories. Even the demons, in realizing how far above Jesus is that they call and they fall before him and they cry out to him. They see the difference. And if that’s where you are this morning, you are in the right place. This is where you should be. Realizing how desperately you need Jesus. That is not something to point someone’s nose down at. That is not something that’s unworthy. That’s not something that anyone should be looking down on.

In fact, you are like these people. You recognize where you are, and someone who doesn’t see that, they don’t recognize where they are. They don’t see how desperately they need Jesus. And so you are to be commended as Jesus does over and over again in these stories. You are made well because of your faith, he says. And if that’s where you are this morning, you have great faith, willingness to come before Jesus and admit your sins and admit the problems you have and how desperately you need him in your life. But all of this also gets to another central part of this story. There are going to be three words that we really focus on throughout chapters eight and nine. The first of those is mercy, Jesus’ mercy for all.

2. Power and Authority

The next is power and authority. Compassion and mercy are not exactly the same. Compassion or pity is one thing. I could have compassion. I can feel bad for someone. You know, maybe I see events in the world around me. I look to other nations or I see things that are happening, and I can feel pity on the things that are happening, but what can I do about it? That’s the difference between compassion and mercy. Compassion is a noble feeling. It’s a good thing. And we should have compassion even when we don’t have much power to help. But what’s interesting about these stories is not just the compassion of Jesus, but the mercy of Jesus really implies or demonstrates his authority and his power.

If someone has some kind of physical ailment, I’m really in no place to say, hey, take heart. It’s all gonna be okay. I can have compassion. I can say, I feel bad for you. I’m sorry that you have to go through this. I can suggest faith or trust in Jesus, which we’ll talk about a little bit more here in a minute. I can do all those things, but I’m I don’t have the power or the authority to say, you know, it’s all gonna be fine. I know you’re blind, but don’t worry about it. You’re gonna see again. I can’t make those kind of guarantees. I can have compassion, but I can’t demonstrate the mercy that Jesus does in these stories. And so part of what’s happening here is not just the demonstration of Jesus’ mercy, but also it is a proclamation of Jesus’ authority and power.

His power is demonstrated over and over and over through his helping and through his healing in all of these stories. Really from the very beginning of chapter 8. It’s amazing the way all of this happens. The leper comes to him, it says immediately his leprosy was cleansed. He says, Hey, if you can do this, I can be clean. I’m gonna come back to that thought here in a few minutes, too. If you will, I can be cleansed, the leper says. Jesus says, I will be clean, he’s clean. I don’t have that kind of power. Neither do you.

And as the story continues, it’s the same sort of thing. The centurion comes in the very next story. The servant was healed at that very moment. The centurion says, Hey, you can just say a word. Jesus says, go, and he’s better. Just like that. He comes and he touches Peter’s mother-in-law. Instantly she’s better, and now she’s up serving. It’s just one thing after another. The storm is raging at sea, and the disciples come and they wake Jesus up. Notice, again, a statement of power and authority. You have some kind of power and authority if you can just be sleeping during a raging storm and you’re not worried about it. I don’t think any of us would be in that sort of scenario. It says something about Jesus and who he is.

He’s not concerned. And in a subtle fulfillment of Psalm 107, Jesus rebukes the wind and the wave, and a great calm happens. This is the kind of person they’re dealing with. It is a statement of his power through this entire thing. And then, of course, it’s not just in this physical realm, it’s also in the spiritual realm. Two demoniacs come running out of the tombs, crying and screaming. They’re so fierce that no one would even go by them anymore. The story’s also in Mark. They tried to bind them with chains. They tried to keep them from being able to move. And these demons are so powerful within these men. They’re breaking these shackles and chains, and nobody can contain them. But when they encounter Jesus and they come into his presence, they cry out and say, O Son of God, have you come to torment us before the time?

And they begged him. I mean, just that phrase alone. These demons are coming to the presence of Jesus and they’re begging him. They’re falling down before him and begging him to handle them in a certain way. This is who Jesus is. His mercy is a demonstration of the power within him. And story after story after story. The woman comes up behind him. He’s on his way to help this girl who’s dead. Her father has come. This is in chapter 9. A ruler of the people has come to tell Jesus that his daughter has just died. And so Jesus, he begins to make the journey to this ruler’s house. And in the midst of that, there’s this woman. Nobody’s aware of her. If they would have been aware of her, they would have kept away because she’s unclean.

But they don’t even know. And she just walks up and she touches the hinge of Jesus’ garment, just the very edge of it. And instantly the woman is made well. Matthew wants us to be impressed with the unparalleled power of Jesus Christ. And how it’s being demonstrated in this world. When he brings his kingdom into daily life, remarkable things, amazing things are happening. People are marveling. They’re amazed at what Jesus is doing. The demons are begging him. Sickness and illness is fleeing at his touch. He takes the little girl by the hand and she just immediately raises up. Now we’ve heard many of these stories. Some of us for years. We’ve had Bible class, we’ve read through the Bible maybe various times, either yearly Bible readings or whatever other kind of reading plan we’ve done.

We come across these stories, and they seem sort of distant and abstract to us. But I want us to understand these are real stories. They are concrete events that happen in the life and the ministry of Jesus. And as he’s walking the earth, people are seeing him do this. People are receiving sight, and parallels paralyzed people are walking again, and people who are dead are coming to life. It’s sort of this intensity is growing as he’s going from place to place, leading up to the resurrection of the dead of this woman, this little girl.

And in chapter 9, verse 33, as we’re nearing the end of this text, it says, the people are saying, never was anything like this seen in Israel. Something is different here. And it’s not just the miracles, it’s also his teaching.

That’s not the essence of what is taking place in here, but it is actually a message about Jesus’ mercy, about his power, and about the need for his disciples to trust him and realize that he is able to save. That’s what’s happening in all of these stories.

3. Our Need to Trust

It’s not just the power and the amazement of physical healing, it’s the idea of rescue, of deliverance, of salvation. He’s taking someone whose life is not good, is not going well, and he is completely changing and transforming it into something different. And so, what I want us to understand is our need to trust. And the one who has power, but not just power, but also mercy. That he loves and he cares for us. And it’s pretty amazing, again, if we kind of work back through these stories again. I’ve gently highlighted some of this to talk about Jesus’ power, but think about the different people involved in this. The people who are who are reaching out to Jesus. When you are in desperation, you look for the answers that can actually help.

And that’s what’s happening in all of these situations. The leper doesn’t go to a rabbi. He doesn’t try to go to the temple or send somebody else to the temple and say, Hey, can you go get one of the priests and have him come to me? That’s not going to help. He knows that. But he knows Jesus can help. And so he goes to Jesus and he says, If you will, you can make me clean. That’s trust. He believes that Jesus can do it. This pagan centurion comes to him. No doubt these people have heard about Jesus and the things that he’s doing. And he tells them that his servant is sick. And Jesus says, I’ll come. I’ll come heal him. And the guy says, You don’t even have to come.

You just say the word. I understand authority. I know how this works. He’s a centurion. I say the word, and people do what I say. You just say the word, and my servant will be better. And Jesus is amazed by this faith and says, With no one in Israel have I found such trust or faith. Do you believe Jesus? That’s the message of this text. Do you trust like the centurion? Do you trust like the leper? Even the disciples. He criticizes them. I think maybe in a facetious sort of way. This happens a few different times. I think there’s a little truth in it, but I think he’s also trying to give a little message to them here. Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?

But notice when they’re desperate and they think they’re going to die, where do they go? They go to Jesus. There’s a level of trust, even in their weakness. It’s like the man in Mark 9, I believe. Lord, help my unbelief. It’s not always that it’s this raging trust and faith that we have in our life, but even in the weak moments when things don’t seem right and we’re not sure we have the right answers, we know at least where we can go in faith in Jesus. And so maybe even it’s a subconscious sort of reality to these disciples. They know waking him up is the answer. Seeking him is what they need to be looking for. And then there’s the paralytic.

About to do in chapter 10, which we’ll save for another time, but he’s going to call his disciples to mimic his mission. To go out to the world and to say the same sorts of things and do the same sorts of things that he’s doing. And what we find here in chapter 9 at the very beginning are really good friends. They know who Jesus is, they believe Jesus and they trust him and they tell their friend about it and say, we need to bring you to Jesus. Do we trust Jesus enough to bring our friends to Jesus? Do we really think he’s the answer? And I’m not talking about physical ailments and diseases and sicknesses. I think we can pray for those, and Jesus can do amazing things, and the power of God, I still believe can work through physical ways, not maybe manifest in this sort of way.

And so I’m not against praying for those, but the really important thing is people’s souls and our spiritual well-being. Do we really think that Jesus is the answer? And if so, are we suggesting that to our friends? Do we want to bring our friends to him? This ruler is an interesting character. These rulers don’t like Jesus. The Pharisees, the scribes, the rulers, they hate Jesus because he takes their glory. The crowds are following him. He’s getting all kinds of attention and fame. People are listening to him. And even that summary at the end of chapter 7, he teaches with authority, not like the scribes. Right? Can you imagine that would be frustrating? You know, maybe you’ve taught Bible class before, kids’ class or adult class, and someone’s like, oh man, this other person, they’re a great teacher, not like our other teachers.

How would you feel? How would you feel about that? And so, from a very earthly human standpoint, you can understand why these guys would hate Jesus and they wouldn’t like that he’s getting all this attention and glory. But what’s interesting is when his daughter dies, he doesn’t go to any of the other rulers. He doesn’t go to some other Pharisee or scribe. He goes where he knows the power lies. He wants to talk to Jesus. And this poor woman who’s been sick for as long as the ruler’s daughter’s been alive, 12 years. She’s been dealing with sickness. When she realizes Jesus is there, she says to herself, if I only touch his garment, I will be made well.

And when Jesus replies, Take heart, daughter, your faith has made you well, and instantly the woman is made well. It’s not just, oh, you know, she believed in Jesus and that’s what made her well. That’s not what he’s saying. It was her trust and her faith that caused this woman who has been having this discharge of blood for 12 years and would have been unclean within any circles if anybody knew what was actually going on, and yet she makes her way into the crowd against what would be considered good and right if people knew that she was violating this principle, they would have been upset with her, and yet she takes this all the way to the edge of Jesus’ garment and touches it. That’s the faith he’s talking about.

She trusts enough in Jesus to break boundaries that society would look down on her force she was so desperate and she knew he was the answer.

The two blind men, when they hear that Jesus is walking through, they cry out, have mercy on us, son of David. And Jesus says, Do you believe that I am able to do this? When he asks them what they want, they want to restore their sight. Do you believe I am able? That is, do you believe I have the power or I have the authority? That’s the idea there. And they say, yes, Lord, they trust. So again and again through all of these stories, the message is do I trust in Jesus? Do I really trust that he has the ability to free me from what binds me? To remove the slavery of sin? To deal with the problems in my heart, if I will fall before him and beg him for answers and for mercy.

Do I really trust and believe that Jesus can actually do this? And when he heals these men, he says, according to your faith, it will be done to you. Because they believe he has the power and they know he is able, that he has authority and that he is merciful. And maybe it is that we believe he has the power, but do we believe he’s actually merciful enough to help us? Do we actually think he cares about somebody as unworthy as me? Over and over and over, the answer is yes. Whether it’s a Jewish ruler or a pagan centurion or a little girl, or a leper. In every case, Jesus cares. Even these three men who are possessed by unclean spirits. He cares about them. The two in chapter eight, and then the mute here in chapter nine.

And this one’s an interesting one. We don’t even really get the story. Some people bring this demon-possessed man to him, and it just says, when the demon had been cast out. We’re not even, it’s just, it’s done. It just happens. This is the kind of power Jesus has.

Conclusion

What demons are in your life? What things are controlling you that you think you can’t let go of. If your trust is in Jesus, he can set you free. That’s the message of this text. He is able.

Yes, it is their stories, and it’s things that’s happening in their life, but the message is for all of us to see how Jesus can influence our own lives if we will let him. If we will come to him and we will fall before him and beg him for mercy and tell him we trust him and we want to do things his way, he can transform our life in ways we would have never imagined. And some of you have experienced that in very real ways in your life. Some of us have seen that happen to the lives of people who are even in this place this morning. And so we have our own testimony beyond these stories here in Matthew 8 and 9. We have the stories of people who are around us this morning to see how Jesus can transform lives.

Do you trust him? Do you have faith? That he can take a life of sin and he can turn into a life that is lived for his glory and his purposes. If you believe it, you can show that this morning by giving your life to Jesus Christ. He makes it very clear how we’re to do that. We’re to believe him, we’re to come and to submit ourselves to baptism, be buried with him like he died for us and be resurrected as he resurrected for us. And when we do that, we have a new life. This is transformation. That’s what he’s calling us to. And if you’re ready to do that this morning, we’re ready to help you. Why don’t you come now as we stand and we sing together?

Surrender to him.

Surrender Jesus, I give myself to me with my love.

Let’s sing together number two hundred and one two zero one. Hallelujah. What a savior.

When he saw his friends will sing out of the house, we’ll look in just a minute at the old testament book of Ruth. But if you did not grab the elements when you walked in this morning, please raise your hand, and someone will come over and bring them to you.

And their sons’ wives, and they flee their hometown due to a famine, and they go to Moab. And while in Moab, Elimelech and his two sons die. And as a result of those consequences, those events, the wives of these three men, Naomi, Orpah, and Ruth, were left to fend for themselves. So Naomi had decided to go back to her home and be with her people. And she urged her daughters-in-law to do the same. And through her convincing, she was able to convince Orpah to go back to her home and to be with her people and her gods. And in verse 15 of Ruth chapter 1, Naomi says to Ruth, see, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Return after your sister-in-law.

But Ruth said, Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord do so to me, and more also if anything but death parts me from you. And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said, No more. There is tremendous passion and insistence with Ruth and her intention to stay with Naomi and follow Naomi. No matter what happens, no matter where she ends up, no matter what awaits her going to another foreign land, she will follow wherever Naomi goes.

And this feels at least somewhat similar to ideas that we see in the New Testament. And we can look at several different things, but I want to narrow it down to just a couple. In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 4, we see where Jesus begins his ministry, and he starts to call his disciples to him. In Matthew chapter 4, beginning in verse 18, it says, While walking by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting it into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called to them.

Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

I have this idea in my mind of Jesus just walking up to these people and just saying, follow me. And it doesn’t matter what they were in the middle of or what they have going on, or the thought of leaving their employment and the way that they were providing for themselves and their families. They just put those things down to follow Jesus. Wherever Jesus goes, they will go. Wherever he stays, they will stay. The disciples become Jesus’ people. For prior to that, he really had none. And it seems that this dedication and following Jesus ultimately extends to us today. If you look further in Matthew and chapter 16, beginning in verse 24, Jesus says to his disciples, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life from my sake will find it. For what will a man profit if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? One of the most important ways I believe that we follow Jesus is by remembering him. Remember who he was, remember what he did for us. Because we are simply sinful creations. Who don’t deserve what he did, who don’t deserve what he went through. And yet he willingly did those things for us. For me and for you.

Not just because he did those things for us, but ultimately because Jesus leads us to the cross. That pivotal event in all of human history where beforehand earth yearned for his coming, and afterward, everyone for all of time has access to salvation because of what happened on that day on that cross. To this day, to this very moment, we are assembled here as followers of him. So that one day we may go where he went. That after this life is over, we will lodge with him for eternity, where we will be with his people who are our people and see God as he truly is. Let’s pray together.

For the love and mercy that was shown to us on the cross. Aspects of you, things that you have given us that we truly will never deserve and could never earn. But Father, your love was shown to us on that cross in sacrificing your son, a perfect sacrifice, that we may have a relationship with you, that we may have the hope of heaven. As we partake of these emblems, Father, help us to remember the importance of what was done for us and the importance of following Him. We pray this prayer through Jesus’ name. Amen.

Let’s pray once more. Father, we come to you again, remembering the sacrifice of Jesus, the pain and shame that was born for our sins. That Jesus took upon himself, the penalty for the wrongs that we commit for the times that we fall short, so that we might be able to avoid your wrath and instead be offered your grace and your mercy. Father, we pray that we would follow in his steps and that we would sacrifice ourselves in service to you. We pray this prayer in his name. Amen. This concludes our observance of the Lord’s Supper. Ed Giles is going to have an MRI this week on his shoulder. And he’s asked for our prayers for a good results for that. So please keep Ed in mind.

If you haven’t yet met Nick and Nicole Grinnell, I don’t think they’re here today. Traveling. Okay. Make sure you make sure you do that. And group four meets this afternoon. Anything else we overlooked? Glad you’re all here. Let’s stand and we’ll be dismissed with a song and a prayer.

It has always been so good to be with you and to sing with you.

You have shown us mercy.

With the cards, the phone calls, the text messages, the overwhelming flood of food and other gifts, and all the things that you have done that you do for everyone. This is not unique to us. You are truly manifestation of the Jesus.

Let’s sing this on together as we close our worship this morning.

Just one glory will love every day.

You bow with me as we pray. Heavenly Father, we are thankful for the time that you give us on this earth, and particularly the time that we have spent this morning in study of your word and praise and worship to you. We’re thankful for the faith of those who are around us here and for the encouragement that comes from spending time with them. And in your presence.

Freely we should give.

Amen.