Faith and the Power of the Kingdom | Matthew 9:18-38

Morning. So our first Bible reading is from Isaiah 9, verse 4 to 6.

Isaiah 9:4–6

For as in the day of Midian's defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them,

the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor.

Every warrior's boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning,

will be fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders, and he will be called Wonderful Counselor,

Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Second reading is Matthew 9, verse 18 to 38.

Matthew 9:18–38

While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said,

My daughter has just died, but come and put your hand on her, and she will live.

Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.

Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak.

She said to herself, If I only could touch his cloak, I will be healed.

Jesus turned and saw her. Take heart, daughter, he said.

Your faith has healed you. And the woman was healed at that moment.

When Jesus entered the synagogue leader's house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, he said,

Go away. The girl is not dead, but asleep. But they laughed at him.

After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up.

News of this spread through all that region.

As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, Have mercy on us, son of David.

When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, Do you believe that I am able to do this?

Yes, Lord, they replied.

Then he touched their eyes and said, According to your faith, let it be done to you. And their sight was restored.

Jesus warned them sternly, See that no one knows about this.

But they went out and spread the news about him in all over that region.

While they were going out, a man who was demon possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus.

And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke.

The crowd was amazed and said, Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.

But the Pharisees said, It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons.

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in the synagogues,

proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless,

like sheep without a shepherd.

Then he said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.

Good morning, everyone.

So we've been back in the second part of our series on the kingdom of heaven for a few weeks now,

to which our evangelist, Matthew, has been telling us about the signs and wonders of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And as we've seen, Jesus was able to do this because God himself gave his son the power

to do these miracles as he was testifying to Jesus's legitimacy as being Israel's long awaited Messiah,

the one who we heard from Isaiah that was to come to bring in the kingdom of heaven.

What have we seen so far?

Well, in just the span of two chapters, we've seen our Lord heal all manner of disease.

Command nature and tell demons to depart, all of which took us to the ultimate act of God's authority

in that Jesus was able to forgive a man of his sin with just the word of his mouth.

Every step of the way, Matthew has shown us that Jesus just needed to say the word,

and it would happen just as he commanded.

And people were astounded at that power.

That has stirred up so much controversy because people couldn't deny the power that they were seeing.

They couldn't deny that Jesus was operating on a completely different level to what they've seen before.

That's why we saw just a few weeks ago that the religious leaders and theologians of the city were jealous

and attempted to undermine our Lord by casting doubt among those who had placed their faith in our Lord.

And that's what Matthew is wanting to focus our attention in on this morning.

The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, obviously has the power and authority of his Father,

but this passage also reveals something about the importance of faith.

The importance of where we put our faith and that Jesus has the power.

That's what we're going to explore this morning in this passage.

The importance of faith, the importance of where we put our faith, and that Jesus has all the power.

But before we get into the text that we have before us this morning,

please would you join me in asking our Father to help us in the task before us?

Let's pray.

Father, these are indeed words given to us, given to your people, inspired by your Spirit.

And we ask this morning that as we look into the words of eternal life,

that we look into your breathed out words, that you would lead us, that you would guide us,

that you would convict us, and you would show us more of Jesus.

That we would be a people by your grace, that would be a faithful people to our Lord and Master.

And we ask for this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Now you might remember in the verses preceding the text that we have before us this morning,

that Jesus was invited to a gathering to a certain tax collector's house.

That was Matthew the author who wrote these words.

And we're told that all the outcasts of society surrounded Jesus, and that he was eating with them,

and that the Pharisees and disciples of John were questioning his ministry tactics.

And so Jesus took the opportunity to educate them on the kingdom of heaven.

And as he was sitting there among all these people speaking to them about the very heart of God,

we read in verses 18 and 19 that a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said,

my daughter has just died, but come and put your hand on her and she'll live.

Astounding.

Astounding because if we think about the context here,

we see that this man's utter faith in what he believed Jesus could do caused him to come to Jesus in the face of adversary.

Now, as I say that, you might instantly think about the hopelessness of this situation in that his little girl had just died.

And yes, that's certainly a factor. And we'll look at that in just a moment.

But look at what this man is doing and where he is doing it.

We're told that he came to Jesus in amongst all the people who were questioning Jesus.

A bit of background on this will help.

You see, synagogues back then were ruled like Presbyterian churches are ruled today,

in that they were led by a group of elders.

But unlike today, synagogues were the hub of society as the whole community was built around the Jewish way of life, the Jewish religious life.

And so this elder wouldn't have just been known to all the onlookers coming into this tax collector's house,

but also to all the Pharisees who were sitting there and probably still seething from being challenged.

And right in front of them all, this guy comes up to Jesus and he says,

come and put your hand on my daughter and she'll live.

Amazing.

And so this man's faith in what Jesus could do totally trumped his concern over what he thought others would think of him.

And notice it, he doesn't just come and ask, but like the leper and the centurion who were in desperate need,

he kneels down before our Lord in a posture of absolute humility and trust.

We read Jesus got up and went with him and so did his disciples, verse 19.

We read on verse 20, just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak.

Now notice this, she said to herself, if only I touch his cloak, I'll be healed.

Jesus turned, he saw her, take heart daughter, he said, your faith has healed you.

And the woman was healed from that very moment.

We see that in verses 20 to 22.

Now, church, I just want you to notice a couple of things here.

First, notice that though Jesus was on a mission, this was in no way an inconvenience to him.

This whole scene displays yet again the compassion of our Lord Jesus Christ.

To him, people matter.

To him, these people, the Jewish synagogue leader, this sick woman, they matter to him as they were the helpless that he had come to help.

Notice he's not like, oh, can't you see I'm busy here?

No, he leaves a party to go to this desperate man's house.

He stops along the way.

He sees this woman and he not only calls her daughter, which is a beautifully affectionate term,

but he also publicly declares that she's now healed.

And with the disease that she has, she would have been outcast in that she would have been considered unclean.

So his public declaration of her healing meant that she is now totally clean and free to go back to her friends and her family, to her way of life in the community.

And church, this all goes to show that our Lord cares for his people.

And there is no one who's an inconvenience to him.

No one who is a waste of time.

And we can go to him with whatever we're going through.

Nothing is too small or too big for us to not take to him.

His people, when we come by faith, we're welcome.

And that's the second thing.

There's something about faith and Jesus that Matthew wants us to see here.

As he records in verse 22 that Jesus looked on this woman and he says, Your faith has healed you.

Let me explain.

If you've been with us for the last few weeks, Matthew has reported to us time and time and time again,

wonderful and miraculous events that our Lord performed among all the people.

Yet in just these few verses, Matthew wants to show us that it's not enough to just know that Jesus can do miracles, signs and wonders.

No, faith is vitally important because faith is the instrument by which we embrace Jesus.

And we see Matthew start to bring this concept out, this theme in the next few verses.

But for now, think about what's happening here.

Jesus stopped and he spoke to this dear lady because he wanted her and by implication,

the synagogue leader and his disciples to know that faith matters,

that faith was the instrument which God used to heal her.

But notice this, he wanted to direct her where her faith was aimed.

He healed her, not his cloak.

Now, some of you might giggle and think how ridiculous people believing in a magical coat.

But there's been things in the history of the church where this has actually been a serious problem

in that people have collected things called the relics of the saints

because they think that they have this special healing power in and of themselves.

To the point that they say, if I just touch this severed foot, if I just go to this special table,

if I just hold on to this person's sandal, if I just touch them, then I'll be healed.

Jesus makes it clear for all those who would witness this astounding miracle.

It wasn't the robe which brought about this poor woman's healing.

No, faith was the instrument which God used to bring his blessing.

And so after revealing to the crowds the importance of faith,

reread that Jesus entered the synagogue leader's house and he saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes.

He said, go away, the girl's not dead but asleep, verses 23 and 24.

Now, don't miss what's happening here.

This is Jesus reminding everyone who was standing there, the synagogue leader and his disciples,

that he had the authority, the power to do this,

the power and authority even over death to the point that it was going to be like

he was going to wake this little girl up from her sleep.

What do we see here?

We read that they, the crowds, laughed at him.

And so Jesus puts them outside, he goes back in, he takes up the girl by her hand, and she gets up, verse 25.

Incredible, amazing, just like Jesus went to Peter's mother-in-law and took her by the hand and the fever left,

Jesus did the exact same thing here with this little girl and death itself fled.

Like you'd expect, news of this spread like wildfire, verse 26.

Church, what we see here again is that there is nothing outside the power and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I mean, time and time again we've seen Jesus demonstrate absolute power and authority over every situation.

And now here, with death itself, nothing is out of his dominion.

He was, is, and always will be Lord of all. And so with that said, might I ask, are you trusting our Lord?

Are you trusting Jesus in the midst of all that you're going through?

Are you trusting in his power to even now enable you to endure whatever circumstance you find yourself in?

Like the examples that we see here, are you going to him?

Nothing, not even death itself is too much for our Lord.

And as Matthew reminds us here, we can trust that our Lord is Lord of all, but do we have faith in that?

Do we trust that he's able to even save us from death itself, to bring us from eternal death to eternal life?

Brothers and sisters, faith is so important, but there is something here that makes all the difference.

And that's what Matthew wants to show us next. Faith in Jesus makes all the difference.

We read in verse 27 through to 30, as Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out,

have mercy on us, son of David. When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him and he asked them,

do you believe that I'm able to do this? Yes, Lord, they replied.

Then he touched their eyes and said, according to your faith, let it be done to you. And their sight was restored.

Now, going through what we just had a look at, we've seen that Matthew stresses to us that faith is important.

We see it again here. But now he stresses in no uncertain terms that faith is to be placed in Christ himself.

We see it there in verse 28. Do you believe that I am able to do this?

Now, as I've said before in this series, we've seen an ascending set of events from minor ailments all the way up to death itself

being conquered by our Lord. And so in saying that, it's interesting that Matthew has taken us from Jesus raising the dead

to these couple of blind guys in a house, right? I mean, it's a bit of an anti-climax.

Matthew set it up like this because he wants to drive home to us that trusting that Jesus can do miracles is not the point of his ministry,

but faith in Jesus is. That's the point in all of this. To put it simply, Jesus is meant to be the proper object of our faith.

Faith in him makes all the difference. Now, you'll notice that Jesus didn't want these blind men acting like evangelists

and going and telling everyone about their healing. We see that in verse 30. And that might seem weird at first,

but we need to understand that signs and wonders, they point to the sign giver. Very much like today, if you see a sign on the side of the road,

it's pointing you to something and it makes you wonder about the reality of that thing. And so Jesus was doing these signs

and wonders among his people and he didn't want a wrong interpretation of his ministry getting out there.

And as we'll see, he's going to travel and even send out his own disciples to get on out there because he wants to give meaning

to what he has been doing. Because as we've seen this morning, faith in Jesus makes all the difference.

And that's the next thing Matthew wants to show us here. Jesus, he has the power. If Matthew has shown us the importance of faith

with the synagogue leader and the woman suffering with bleeding, and then the importance of where we put our faith with the blind men,

then these next few verses stress to us that the source of God's blessing isn't to be found in our faith. No, it's to be found in Christ.

In other words, it's not our faith that gives Jesus power to heal, but Christ himself has the power of God to bless his people.

We read, while he was going out, a man who was demon possessed and couldn't talk was brought to Jesus.

And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke, verses 32 and 33.

Notice it, it wasn't the possessed man's faith that gave Jesus the power to set him free,

but Jesus's own power heals this man and releases this poor son of Israel.

Now, I want to briefly mention this because there's a dangerous teaching out there that we don't have time to get into this morning.

But it's a theology that teaches that if Jesus doesn't heal you or make you whole in this life, then it's because you don't have enough faith.

It's erroneous. And dear ones, these verses clearly demonstrate that Christ's ability to heal wasn't dependent on the faith of those he was healing.

This was never the case. Faith was the instrument he used.

But notice it, with all these people and all these verses, their faith didn't give power to our Lord.

No, he had sovereign power every step of the way, and his power can set his people free from anything.

No situation, no demonic force, not even death itself can trump the power of God to set his people free.

And like we noticed before, the Pharisees, they never denied that there was something real about the power of Jesus.

We don't see them downplaying that, but because of the hardness of their heart towards God,

it led them to do something so much worse.

It's astounding. Astounding. They saw the exact same work of God in their midst, the exact same signs pointing to God's very power among them.

Yet because they didn't embrace Jesus by faith, they could even see lives radically changed and people set free with the crowd around them saying,

nothing like this has ever happened in all Israel. Yet with great conviction, teach the people it's by the prince of demons that he drives out demons.

Verse 34. Can you see the irony in all of this?

Those two blind men could see Jesus better than the Pharisees ever could.

The blind men called Jesus the Messiah. That's what son of David means.

They called him Lord. They trusted in the Lord that he had all power and authority over their situation.

Yet those who knew the law, who searched the scriptures, who taught it and preached it, well, they're as blind as anything.

They saw the signs and wonders, but didn't see them for what they were and to whom they were pointing.

And that's the warning in all of this. If we won't trust Jesus and embrace him by faith, we remain under judgment.

Church, faith in Jesus makes all the difference and he alone has the power to save.

And this is good news. Good news that everyone needs to hear. We see this in verses 35 through to 38.

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.

You see, the good news of the kingdom of heaven and its king was never designed to be kept to ourselves.

No, it's wonderful news. It's glad tidings to those who sit in darkness.

The king of God's kingdom has come and he has the power to save.

And in just these last few verses, Jesus came into this world to heal his people of our greatest infirmity.

And the cure for that isn't temporal relief, but eternal blessedness.

And as we see here, it was the joy of our Lord to seek and save the loss and bring people into his kingdom.

That's why Jesus went about from village to village preaching about the kingdom.

It was because he had a heart of compassion for people who are harassed and helpless, who were like sheep without a shepherd.

And to them, he brings good news of the kingdom with the power to save his people.

Brothers and sisters, these last few words are so important for us.

So important because the good news is of Jesus Christ.

Our Lord loves his people. Our Lord came for his people and ultimately, he gave his very life for his people

to heal us and to set us free from all which would keep us in the grave and eternal torment.

Why? Because not only does he have the power to do so, but he has compassion for his people.

He has a deeper love for us than we could ever hope to understand.

And get this, he is the one who came after us.

So as we end our time in this part of scripture, there's just a couple of things that I want you to take away.

First, the good news of the kingdom is meant to be shared. It's meant to be shared.

It's the greatest news and it's our privilege to share it. God desires that of us.

And there's a lot to do. And we're going to look at this more in part three of this series in the coming weeks.

We're going to have a look at this in the coming chapters.

But for now, second, Jesus is the proper object of our faith, which is to say we're not just to believe things about him.

We're not just to trust that he did miracles, but we're to put our faith in all that he had to say

and what he did for us on the cross.

This passage this morning has shown us that faith is the instrument by which we receive the benefits of our Lord's work.

Again, it's not the source of our blessing to which our Lord gives us himself, but it's the means, the vehicle, if you might say,

whereby he gives us the blessings of his kingdom by his power.

So might I ask just one last time, do you have faith in Jesus?

Do you trust that he has the power to save, to save you from death itself, to take you from eternal death to eternal life?

Church, faith in Jesus makes all the difference.

And he alone has the power to save.

Would you pray with me?

Lord Jesus, we are so thankful that you came after us, that you died for us while we were still your enemies.

Lord Jesus, we are so thankful for the precious people that you sent to share the gospel with us,

that they knew that the harvest was plentiful, the workers were few, but they still took up the task

to tell us about the good news of the kingdom.

Lord Jesus, we ask that we would be a faithful church, faithful to your word, faithful to your mission, faithful to your ways.

And as it's already been said this morning, this world isn't getting any easier.

But Lord, would you give us the courage?

Would you, by grace, give us the faith to trust that your ways are so much better than our ways,

and that you would lead us and use us for your glory and kingdom?

We ask for this in Jesus' name, Amen.