Matthew 8:1-13

open them to Matthew chapter 8. Matthew chapter

Matthew 8 · chapter mention Matthew 8 · chapter mention

8. We'll be looking this morning at the first

13 verses, but I'm going to do it a little bit

differently. I'm just going to read the first

four and then we'll pray. And then we'll go to

the other ones as they come up in the text. It

says, When he, that is Jesus, had come down from

the mountain, that is the Sermon on the Mount,

great multitudes followed him. And behold, a

leper came and worshipped him. Some of your translations

might say bowed before him. The Greek word is

proskuneo, and that's what it means, bowed before

him. Lord, if you are willing, you can make me

clean. Then Jesus put out his hand and touched

him, saying, I am willing. Be cleansed. And immediately

his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him,

See that you tell no one, but go your way, show

yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that

Moses commanded as a testimony to them. Let's

pray. Father, Lord, this morning, Lord, we open

your holy and eternal word. Lord, your word is

life and it is light. Lord, it directs our path

and guides us. But Father, it is life, Lord,

as it is illuminated and empowered by your spirit.

God, we need you this morning. Lord, would you

help us to see, Lord, what Christ has done for

us. Lord, would you help us to see our hopeless,

helpless condition, our uncleanness and inability

apart from him. God, would you make much of your

son through the weakness. and foolishness of

preaching. Lord, the weakness and foolishness

is on my part. May glory and honor be on his.

And I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. As we open

Matthew 8, we have to understand that our Lord

has just finished preaching that great sermon.

It's the Sermon on the Mount. And in that sermon,

remember, we took the time, pretty much the better

part of a year, and in it, Jesus is explaining

how life in his kingdom works. And we could really

say that his kingdom is essentially a reversal

of man's kingdom. And what I mean by that is

what is praised in man's kingdom is rejected

in God's, and what is rejected or despised in

man's kingdom is honored in the kingdom of God.

So think with me. In man's kingdom, it's going

to be made up of the strong, the powerful, the

influential, the beautiful. But Jesus tells us

that God's kingdom is made up of the weak, the

inconsequential, the nobodies, the rejects, the

outcasts. There were large crowds, and they were

eagerly following Jesus, and they were listening

to every word that he uttered. In fact, in chapter

5, we are told that the reason the Lord went

up on the mountain to teach them is because the

crowds were so large, that was the best vantage

point he had to be able to influence them and

to issue the sermon. Crowds were that big, he

had to go up in order to teach them. But in Matthew

Matthew 8 · chapter mention

chapter 8, we see a pivot. Matthew is pivoting

from the teaching of Jesus now to his actions,

to his miracles. So in chapter 5, he goes up

on the mountain to teach. In chapter 8, he comes

down from the mountain to heal. Now we are told

that Jesus taught the people with great authority.

Such great authority that the people were left

astonished because he taught them not like scribes

and Pharisees, but he taught them as one who

had authority in himself. So he's teaching with

this great authority, and now he's going to authenticate

his teaching by his actions. He's going to work

miracles among them. And that's what these miracles

were really designed to do. They were to authenticate

that the messenger had come from God. Because

anyone can come on the scene and say something.

Jesus is going to back it up. So now he finished

preaching in chapter 7. He comes down from the

mountain. And that crowd had not dispersed. They're

still there. Because Jesus was overwhelmingly

popular, and the people would not allow him to

go anywhere unless they were thronging and flocking

to him. So you always see Jesus, when he's ministering

publicly, there's a large crowd gathering. Now

what's so interesting about that is against this

backdrop of a large crowd, we read in verse 2,

a leper came. A leper came to Jesus. That's really

interesting because of all the places that a

leper should not be was in a great crowd of people.

We need to understand that when the Bible uses

the term leper, it covers a multitude of skin

diseases, not just Hansen's disease, which we

know as leprosy today. So now for a leper to

be in the crowd was already a violation of the

law of Moses. You go back to the Levitical law

in chapter 13 and we read what Moses had written.

Now the leper on whom the sword is, his clothes

shall be torn, his head bare, he shall cover

his mustache and cry, unclean, unclean. He shall

be unclean all the days he has the sword. He

shall be unclean. He is unclean and he shall

dwell alone. His dwelling shall be outside the

camp. Now friends, life for the leper would have

been very hard. There was a social stigma attached

to this disease. First of all, they were forced

to live in isolation away from others outside

the camp, outside the community. This meant that

this man would not be able to participate in

religious life. He was forbidden from going to

the synagogue. He was forbidden from going to

the temple to worship. So there was also not

just social isolation, spiritual alienation as

well. And he was required to let anyone who might

dare even approach him know that he was a leper.

We just read his clothes had to be torn. Now,

some say the head had to be shaved or it had

to be disheveled. So he had disheveled hair or

a shaved head, and he had to be crying out. If

anyone was making their way to him, that he was

unclean. He'd have to yell out, unclean, to make

sure that no one came near him. So if you look

at him, he was viewed as a social contagion,

and life would have been absolutely miserable.

But what made matters even worse for the leper

was that in that day, many saw this disease as

a punishment from God. He was just reaping what

he had sown. In fact, they thought that the very

fact that this man had leprosy would have meant

that he was under God's displeasure or under

God's curse. So think about life of this man.

Full of shame. He's lonely. And there's torment.

Obviously, he could not work. There is no social

system of that day, so he's forced to beg and

rely on the charity of others if he's going to

survive. They were always asking for alms and

for food. If this man happened to be a husband

or a father, that meant he could no longer provide

for his own family and they too would suffer,

adding to his torment. But we haven't even talked

about the physical toll. Leprosy often brought

severe pain as it affected the nerves. There

was no modern medicine. You didn't pop a pill.

There was no cure. So life would have felt hopeless

for this man. Everyone you knew was afraid to

be around you. They saw you as the disease. I

think about this. It's similar to when the pandemic

hit back in 2020 when COVID first came out. You

know, someone would get that, and everyone was

afraid. So the patient was placed in isolation.

I mean, even medical community, if they went

in, they had to be wearing the PPE, the gowns,

the masks, the gloves. And the COVID patient

was placed in isolation, everyone avoiding him

or her at all costs. That was for a short period

of time. But this gives you some idea how this

leper would have been viewed and how he would

have been seen in the community. And we read

in verse 2, That there was a leper in the crowd

and he came to Jesus. He decided to come to Jesus.

Why? Friends, put yourself in this man's shoes.

What hope did he have? What other options were

available to him? He was either going to die

alone or he would live the rest of his life in

isolation unless he was cured and there was no

cure. Now, yeah, he knew the law. He knew what

Leviticus said. He knew that the law said you

don't approach anyone. But desperate times call

for desperate measures. Now this man was in the

crowd. So we know that he knew of Jesus' ability

to heal. Now you're saying, how do you know that?

You have to do the timeline. You go back to chapter

4 of Matthew, verse 23. And Jesus went about

all Galilee, and that's where he's at right now,

teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel

of the kingdom. healing all kinds of sickness

and all kinds of disease among the people. Then

his fame went haywire throughout all Syria, and

they brought to him all sick people who were

afflicted with various diseases and torments

and those who were demon -possessed and epileptics

and paralytics, and he healed them. Great multitudes

followed him. Megas, the word. Mega crowds. From

Galilee, from Decapolis, those are the ten Gentile

cities around northern Galilee there. Jerusalem,

that's southern. Judea, that's the southern part

of Israel. This is the whole country and beyond

the Jordan. Everyone had heard of Jesus. Now

this multitude in chapter 4, verse 25, it's the

same crowd because immediately you go into chapter

5. Jesus seeing the multitudes goes up on the

mountain. So this man's here, right? Jesus goes

up and preaches in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. It's

the same crowd that we find in chapter 8, our

text today, because Jesus just came down from

the mountain. So that means this leper had been

part of that crowd who heard Jesus preach and

had seen Jesus heal. And I think that's important.

Because it shows us why he reasoned, there's

hope. Jesus could heal me. If he could cure others,

epileptics and paralytics, he could cure me.

But even more importantly, he must have reasoned,

Jesus will accept me. But why would he think

that? The only reason I can think that he knew

he'd be accepted is because of what Jesus had

just preached. As he heard Jesus preaching about,

blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the

meek. Hope is arising in this man's soul. He

knows his own inability. He can't do anything.

He knew that he was ceremonially unclean. But

both of those things, knowing his own inability,

knowing he's not clean, made him a great candidate

for the kingdom of God. Why? What does he have

to offer Jesus? Nothing. He must strictly rely

on the mercy of God. But he knew that the kingdom

of God is made up of outsiders. He knew the kingdom

of God is made up of nobodies. There was no greater

outsider and no one more rejected than a leper.

He knew what that was like. Others stood away

from him, stood far from him. But he assumed

Jesus wouldn't do that. He certainly heard Jesus

and he believed what he was saying, so Jesus

must be a safe place for him. So without fear

of being rebuked, without fear of being rejected,

this man has the courage to come and he bows

before Jesus, proskuneo, worship some translations.

It doesn't mean he's worshiping his God here,

because not even his own disciples get that yet.

He bows down paying homage and reverence to him.

And he came down and bowed and he said, Lord,

if you're willing, you can make me clean. Now

think with me. If the crowds were so big, and

no doubt many other people are clamoring to get

to Jesus, how did this unclean leper manage to

get to him? Now I can't be dogmatic here. But

do you suppose it could be that everyone who

saw this leper moved out of the way when they

saw him walking? Because if he touched any of

them, even slightly, they became unclean. So

remember, how does he look? Tattered, torn clothes?

Disheveled hair. The people knew what he was.

And when they saw him walking, I believe that

this crowd is kind of like the Red Sea parting.

Just all these people would have moved out of

the way. They wanted to avoid him like the plague.

But that allowed him to make his way to Jesus.

And finally, he's before Jesus. He bows down

and calls him Lord. Kurios, Master. It's a posture

of humility. It's a posture of respect. But this

man not only shows great humility, he shows great

faith. Lord, if you are willing, you can make

me clean. This is not an admission of doubt.

He's not doubting Jesus' ability at all. In fact,

he's convinced, Jesus, you can do this. So there's

no doubt whatsoever of Jesus' ability to heal

him, but he was unsure whether or not Jesus would

heal him. So not knowing the will of God, not

knowing Jesus' will, he appeals to the Lord's

mercy. If you're willing, you can make me clean.

Let me just say this as a side note. That's how

we come to the Lord in prayer as well. We know

God can. We don't know if it is his will. So

we pray, Lord, if you are willing, if this is

in your plan, God, if this brings you glory and

honor, Now in this case, we don't have to wait

long because look at verse 3. Jesus put out his

hand, don't miss the words, and touched him.

Did Jesus have to touch him? Couldn't he have

just said the word? They said, yeah, touched

him and said, I am willing. Be cleansed. That's

what's amazing here. Jesus is breaking the protocol.

He stretched out his hand to touch this man.

The leper had moved toward Jesus and bowed down,

but he didn't touch Jesus. Jesus is now closing

the gap and he's going to touch this man. All

kinds of people looking. They know who this man

is just by looking at him. What are they thinking?

Is Jesus crazy? I'm the great teacher? He's going

to touch a leper? Didn't Jesus know the law?

Didn't he know if he touched him, that's going

to make him defiled? But what was the leper thinking?

No one's touched me in such a long time. Is this

really happening? Could this be the day when

I'm healed and I'm rid of this terrible disease?

Jesus touched him and immediately, immediately

his leper's sleeve was cleansed. Immediately

his skin is clear. One second earlier, he's a

leper. One second later, he's a whole man. Still

had on the same tattered clothes. His hair was

still shoveled. But he's a new man. By the way,

Jesus did not become unclean either. The leper

became clean. Jesus did not become defiled, but

the man was restored. Jesus' holiness is not

diminished by activity with our sinfulness at

all. But what we see is something. Yeah, we see

the Lord's power. But we knew about that. He

revealed his love and his mercy, his compassion.

To whom? To those who are on the periphery of

life. No one wants them. With Jesus' touch, the

lepers made whole. He's no longer broken. He

can rejoin his family. And he can rejoin the

rest of society. What he was unable to do for

himself, Jesus did for him. No matter how hard

this man tried, he could have never caused his

own cleansing. He was unable to do it. His leprosy,

it's incurable. But Jesus did for him what nobody

else in the entire world could have done for

him, the miracle that made him whole. What's

the point? Friends, if you are in Christ this

morning, we know what this is like. We can relate

to this man. We too had an incurable disease.

The disease we had was far worse than leprosy.

Yet we were unable to do anything about it. We

could not heal ourselves. We were unable to offer

the cure. But Jesus did for us what we could

never do for ourselves. He touched us and took

away our sin and gave us his righteousness. You,

in Christ, have been cleansed and have been made

whole by this same Jesus. Now Jesus then said

to the man, don't tell anyone. But you need to

go to the priest, because that's what the law

said. When the leper was going to rejoin the

community, a priest had to examine him. But why

not tell anyone? Well, the crowds were massive.

So too much publicity is going to make ministry

that much more difficult. It's already hard enough

for him. And besides, he wasn't doing miracles

for some ostentatious display. Jesus was not

wanting to be known as the miracle worker. Rather,

those miracles were done to authenticate his

teaching. the miracles all were pointing to something

far greater. So he wasn't sitting there wanting

to entertain the masses by displays of miraculous

power. So he said, don't tell anyone, but go

down and tell the priest. Because the law said,

go before a priest. The priest is going to examine

him, he's going to look for any signs of leprosy,

and then he's going to declare him clean by giving

him a certificate by which he could show to the

world, I have been cleansed of this, and now

I can rejoin the rest of society. That's the

leper. Verse 5. Now Jesus leaves that area. Now

when he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came

to him pleading with him, saying, Lord, my servant

is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.

Jesus said to him, I will come and heal him.

The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not

worthy that you should come under my roof, but

only speak a word and my servant will be healed.

For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers

under me. And I say to one, go, and he goes,

and to another, come, and he comes, and to my

servant, do this, and he does it. Just say the

word, Jesus. And when Jesus heard that, he marveled

and said to those who followed, Assuredly, I

say to you, I have not found such great faith,

not even in Israel. So Jesus leaves the mountain

area, right? The Sermon on the Mount. He leaves,

he enters in Capernaum. This is the base of his

operations while in Galilee. This is where most

of his miracles will take place. Capernaum's

on the north shore, the north side of the Sea

of Galilee. It's there, 2011, Tim and Kenny went

with me. So again, this is his base of operations

here. It is in Capernaum now that Matthew introduces

us to another outsider. This time it's a centurion.

Okay, well, we know who they are. A centurion

was a well -respected, mid -level officer, and

he was in charge of about 100 other soldiers.

That's why it's called a centurion. Only the

most talented soldiers could work their way up

and become centurions. And they had a lot of

responsibility given to them. They had to train

other soldiers. They were responsible for their

welfare and their conduct while under their own

care. So when they're in Israel, because that's

where they're at, they had to enforce Roman law.

They had to collect the taxes and they had to

keep order. And because of this, the Jews despised

them. Why? Because the Jewish people felt that

the Roman army was unjustly occupying their land.

I mean, they looked at the Romans as unclean

people. They're these pagan oppressors who had

invaded their sacred spaces and they didn't like

it at all. Get them out of Israel. Get them out

of Jerusalem. So it is bad enough that this man

we're reading about, not only was he a Gentile,

but he was an officer in the army who was occupying

their land. That made it worse. So there's no

self -respecting Jew who felt that any member

of the Roman army would have any inheritance

in the kingdom of God. So that's not going to

make it. Certainly the scribes and Pharisees,

their leading religious officials, They would

not have offered to help this man. They would

have considered him a dog, unclean, just like

the leper was. But once more, Matthew is showing

us a picture. There's an outsider who has the

temerity to come to Jesus. But he's not seeking

anything for himself. This man does not come

asking for a miracle from Jesus or himself, but

rather from one of his servants. He said, Lord,

my servant is at home paralyzed and he's dreadfully

tormented. We don't know why he was paralyzed.

We don't know how he became that way. So we don't

need to speculate there. The Bible does say that

he was dreadfully tormented, but it doesn't even

explain what the torment was. Was he wracked

with pain? Was there an accident? Was it something

far more sinister? We don't know. All we see

is verse 7. Jesus said, okay, I will come and

I will heal him. Do you remember when Jesus touched

the leper? That's scandalous. He broke with protocol.

Jesus going to this man's house? That's scandalous.

He's breaking with protocol. To enter a Gentile's

house would have been a major social faux pas.

Why? The Jews considered Gentiles unclean. If

Jews had to go into Gentile territory as they

re -entered Israel, they would shake the dust

off their shoes and off their clothes. They didn't

want even Gentile dust being upon them. So to

enter into this man's house would have been defiling

ceremonially for Jesus. You can get an idea of

how this was if you remember Peter in Acts chapter

Acts 10 · chapter mention

10. Do you remember when he saw the vision of

the unclean animals? So you had an angel go to

Peter and say, Peter, arise and eat. And Peter

said, no, I'm not eating unclean food. That thing

happened three times. The whole point was that

angel was trying to get Peter, you're going to

go to a Gentile's house and enter it and preach

the gospel to him. It took an angel with a vision

three times to get Peter to do that. Racial prejudices

ran very deep at this time. Very deep. There

was no social interaction, no fellowship between

Jews and Gentiles. They did not like each other.

Again, often Jews are referred to Gentiles as

dogs. Do you remember when the lady came to Jesus

and Jesus said, it's not fit to give the children's

food to the dogs. This was how they were viewed.

But just as Jesus touched a leper, he said, I'm

willing to go to your house. Scandalous. But

the centurion said, no, Lord, I'm not worthy.

Jesus, I'll go back with you. And what's so surprising

is this man declined that offer. Why did he decline

the offer? Well, we don't have to wonder because

the text tells us. He says, I'm not worthy for

you to enter into my house. He was a military

man. He understood authority and rank. He understood

that, Jesus, you are my superior. This is a great

display of humility. He knows how authority works.

He's a man with authority, right? As an officer,

he said, no, Jesus, you can't do this because

I know what it's like to issue commands to my

subordinates and they have to obey my word. And

he says, your, this is what he's saying, your

word has more authority than my own. Your word

has supernatural authority. Yeah, I can tell

a servant to come and he has to come. I can tell

him to go and he has to go. I can tell him to

do this and he has to go do this. He says, but

you, you have the authority to say to a disease,

be gone and the disease leaves. I'm not worthy

for you to come to my house. And apart from that,

he knew that he didn't need to come all the way

to his house. Why? Because the authority that

Jesus possessed was not... limited by distance.

He says, only speak a word and my servant will

be healed. He touched the leper. He didn't have

to. He doesn't have to touch this paralyzed man.

But notice the display of faith in this Roman

man. Only speak a word and I know my servant's

going to be healed. Just speak it, Jesus. That's

all I need you to do. Because if you speak it,

it's going to happen. This is incredible faith.

Now keep in mind what Matthew is doing here because

let's not lose sight of this is a book written

for an audience. Matthew is highlighting events.

Why? He's not telling us who Jesus is. He's showing

us who he is. He is the one whose word has authority.

What kind of authority? What cleanses lepers

and it heals paralyzed men. So Matthew, by pointing

these miracles out, and you're going to see that

as we continue through the chapters, he is showing

to everyone who will read this gospel that Jesus

of Nazareth is the Messiah sent from heaven.

The people couldn't see it. Verse 10. But when

Jesus heard what this man just said, he marveled,

astonished. And he says, my goodness, I've not

heard of such great faith at all, not even in

Israel. The irony of irony is here. This Gentile

showed far greater faith than anyone in Israel.

The outsider got it. Now he didn't understand

everything about who Jesus was at that time.

But he was on the right track. He knew enough.

But the insiders, the ones who should have seen

it, the ones who had all the prophets and the

prophecies, they were blinded to Jesus. So Matthew's

starting to show something. The outsiders are

beginning to understand who Jesus is and his

mission better than the insiders, better than

his own countrymen. See, there's a foreshadowing

that's taking place. Israel is going to be hardened

to the gospel of Christ, and the Gentiles are

going to embrace it. And we ought to be saying,

thank you, Lord. Verse 11. Jesus said, I say

to you that many will come from east and west.

These are Gentile nations. And they will sit

down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom

of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom, they

will be cast out into outer darkness. There will

be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Those coming

from east and west, those are Gentiles, folks.

Just like this centurion, and they're going to

be welcomed into the kingdom of God. The sons

of the kingdom. Those are the Jews. They're the

natural sons. They're the ones to whom the covenant

was given. They had all the advantages in the

world. And Jesus said they will be cast out because

of their unbelief. Many foreigners, many outsiders,

many unclean people entering. The insiders, the

natural sons are shut out. Why? This is exactly,

folks, what Paul talked about in Romans 9. Verse

30. What shall we say then? That Gentiles who

did not pursue righteousness, that's us, have

attained to righteousness, even the righteousness

of faith. But Israel, on the other hand, pursuing

the law of righteousness, has not attained to

the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did

not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the

works of the law. For they stumbled, they tripped

over that stumbling stone. That's Jesus himself.

As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling

stone and a rock of offense, and whoever believes

on him will not be put to shame. Most Jews were

trying to enter the kingdom by obeying the law

really well. Take the Apostle Paul before being

converted. They were trying to earn their way.

And consequently, they're trying hard. They're

living moral lives. They're living pious lives.

They're trying to honor God. And Jesus said,

you will be denied entrance into the kingdom.

And yet you have these outsiders, these dirty

people, the pagans. They don't know God. They're

idolaters. Sons of wrath. Ephesians 2. That's

us. But they don't get rejected. Why? Because

they begin to see God's grace works and we start

to see our own unworthiness, our own just condemnation,

and we rely only on the mercy of God. We don't

deserve it. That's the point. But the Jews never

deserved it. But they thought they could earn

it if I just try harder and harder and I keep

that law. And Jesus is the stumbling block because

he's like, I'm the only one. I'm the true Israel.

That's what Matthew showed in the beginning of

the gospel. I'm the true Israel. I'm the true

son. I'm the only one who can do this, and you've

got to come to me. And they're like, no, far

be it. And they crucified him. They thought,

the Jews thought they had a guaranteed place

in God's kingdom. Why? Because of their lineage.

Because of their heritage. But without faith

in Christ, no one enters in the kingdom of heaven.

So both the leper and the centurion, they saw

their need. Because they knew they were humbled.

They knew they were powerless to fix it. But

that was just the beginning. They also saw the

answer in Jesus. They both came to Jesus in faith,

believing that he could do for them what they

could never do for themselves. So what was the

end result with the centurion? Verse 13. Jesus

said to them, Go your way, and as you have believed,

so let it be done to you. And the servant was

healed from that same hour. He was right. Jesus'

word did it. So they came humbly, both of them,

came believingly, and they find the solution

they were looking for. The message for us is

the same. If we come humbly to Jesus, believingly,

you will also see that he is not only the only,

but the ultimate solution we are looking for.

There's a narrow gate, Jesus said. That door

of humility and faith, it's so very narrow, but

it leads to life. Whoever would be saved must

come to the end of himself, truly knowing that

you are absolutely unable and powerless to earn

God's favor. Nothing. Nothing in my hands I bring.

Only to thy cross I cling. You must believe,

friends, you must be convinced that Jesus is

the one sent from heaven. by God, who can do

for you what you could never do for yourself.

Notice what he said. Many sons of the kingdom

would be cast out into outer darkness and there's

weeping and gnashing of teeth. We all weep at

times, don't we? Everyone weeps at some point.

But those redeemed by Christ will come to a day

when weeping will be no more. For we're told

in that great final book of the Revelation that

God will wipe away every tear from our eye and

sorrow will only be a distant memory. But there

is a weeping that does not end. There is a weeping

that will be bitter and last for all eternity.

That's the weeping of the lost, shut out of the

kingdom, those who would not bow the knee to

Christ. Their weeping will be so severe it will

cause them to gnash their teeth. What bitter

regret. What soul's anguish. How foolish they

have been. But Matthew is showing us something

as well. God is gracious and merciful and he

grants mercy freely upon those whom we may least

expect. Isn't that good news? That is really

good news. That it's on those who are the outsiders.

Those are rejected. Those who are going to sit

down in this great feast in the kingdom, and

they're going to sit down with Abraham, Isaac,

and Jacob, they are the one who hold on to Jesus.

They have seen him, they believe him, and they

plead for his mercy. What is it that you hope

will earn an entrance into the kingdom of God?

It is only, it is enough that Jesus died. And

that he died for me. I need no other argument.

I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus

died and that he died for me. That's it. That's

it. Why would God the Father let me into heaven?

Why should he let me in the kingdom? If it's

anything I've done, I'm damned. I deserve none

of it. I've been confronted with my sin. I understand

I'm broken. I understand I'm a rebellious, just

one who's lifted up his hands against the Lord.

I don't deserve his mercy. Lord, if it's based

upon me, you should not let me in. But I believe

that Jesus died and that he died for me. That's

the one. I'm united to him. He's the one that

said I could come. Look at that last verse in

verse 33. Let's read it again, Romans 9. Behold

I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of

offense. But look at this last phrase. And whoever

believes on him will not be put to shame. Do

you believe that? Do you really believe that?

The one that believes on him will never be put

to shame. The Jews could not accept that righteousness

comes through trusting Christ. Not through performing

the deeds of the law. That's why Paul wrote in

Romans 10, he goes over, one chapter over, and

he says, hey, listen, for Christ, he's the end

of the law for righteousness to everyone who

believes. Amen. That's it. That's the gospel.

To everyone who believes on Christ, your sins

have been remitted, righteousness has been granted,

and you have been made a son of God. You will

never be put to shame. Do you believe that? This

is the good news of what our Lord has done. And

friends, we don't just get to talk about it.

Can we tell Jesus thank you as we commune with

him? Let us thank him for his broken body. Let

us thank him for his shed blood. Let us thank

him for his sacrifice. Let us thank the divine

father for sending in love his son. Let us thank

the Holy Spirit for awakening us and showing

us our need. And today we come and we come in

here sinful. And miserable. And broken and weak.

And we're like, I'm not worthy. That table, it's

for outsiders. Rejects. Broken, sinful people.

Who can come to Jesus Christ. Jesus welcomes

you at his table. He wants to minister to you.

He wants to serve you. As we commune with the

risen. Lord, as he has prescribed. The deacons

are to come and pass out the elements at this

time.