Are You the One?

August 11, 2018November 23, 2019 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

¹When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities.

²Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples ³and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” ⁴And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: ⁵the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. ⁶And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” – Matthew 11:1-6 ESV

For whatever reason, Matthew chose to leave out what happened when the disciples went on their mission. He seems less interested in what the disciples ended up doing, than with what Jesus continued to accomplish as part of His messianic activities. Remember, Matthew is out to prove that Jesus is the Messiah so, it makes sense that he would ignore the accomplishments of the disciples. What they ended up doing was secondary in importance to what Jesus was doing and saying.

This chapter opens up with an encounter between Jesus and a few of the disciples of John the Baptist. John sits in a prison cell, by the order of Herod Antipas. His crime? Speaking out against the king’s immoral relationship with his own brother’s wife, Herodias. She had been incensed by John’s remarks and arranged to have him imprisoned. From his cell, John sent two of his own disciples to ask Jesus an interesting question. “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (Matthew 11:3 ESV). Was John’s question an indication of a lagging faith or a growing impatience? Was he beginning to doubt whether Jesus truly was the Messiah? It is likely that he was more than a bit confused by his imprisonment, wondering how it fit into the coming of the Kingdom as he had been preaching. Was he simply wondering when Jesus was going to begin acting like a Messiah and usher in His Kingdom? The passage doesn’t tell us what was going on in John’s mind, but based on the tone of his question, it seems as if John is struggling with both doubt and impatience. After all, he is sitting in a prison cell and Jesus is traveling around the countryside drawing crowds, but also drawing the anger and animosity of the nation’s religious leadership. If John is suffering from a case of doubt, who can blame him? While he had been chosen by God as the one to pave the way for the Messiah, he did not have in-depth knowledge of just how Jesus’ ministry would unfold. I don’t think John is wrestling with his imprisonment as much as he is with his expectations of just what should be happening outside the walls of his prison cell. Like all Jews, he had an image of what the coming of the Messiah would look like. John had preconceived ideas of what Jesus should be doing and he was probably wondering just what was going on.

When the two disciples arrived and presented John’s question to Jesus. In his Gospel, Luke tells us that “at that very time, Jesus cured many people of their diseases, illnesses, and evil spirits, and he restored sight to many who were blind” (Luke 7:21 NLT). And Matthew states that Jesus responded to John’s disciples with a command to return to John and describe what they were seeing.

“Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.” – Matthew 11:4-5 ESV

John was the herald, the offical God-appointed prophet, tasked with announcing the arrival of the long-awaited Messiah and His Kingdom. But even John had to have been a little confused by all that was going on. His concept of the Kingdom was markedly different than what was going on outside the walls of his prison cell. The activities of Jesus were not lining up with his expectations.

And Jesus wants John to understand that His immediate mission was far different than any of the Jews had expected. If you recall, John had a fairly strong view of Jesus’ role as the Messiah. Part of his message to the people entailed a fairly clear vision of Jesus as judge.

His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. – Matthew 3:12 ESV

He had told the Pharisees and Sadducees, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Matthew 3:7 ESV). So, in John’s mind, Jesus should have been taking names and dishing out some well-deserved wrath on those who stood opposed to Him. And this encounter between Jesus and John’s disciples opens up a section in which Matthew begins to reveal that rejection of Jesus by the Jews. Which is why, when Jesus said, “blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” Most would end up finding Jesus offensive and reject not only His message of salvation, but His claim to be the Messiah of Israel.

Jesus seems to be trying to assure John that His miracles were evidence of His authority and power, and that His message of Good News spoke of His agenda. Jesus encouraged John to stay faithful in the face of adversity. There were going to be bumps along the road. Not everyone was going to believe in Jesus or His message, just as not everyone believed in or took advantage of John’s baptism. In refusing John’s baptism, the Pharisees and experts in religious law were really rejecting God’s plan for them and that seems to be the real message of this passage.

The people to whom John had been sent and to whom Jesus was ministering were cynical and skeptical of this new message. They were attracted to Jesus’ miracles, but didn’t know quite what to do with His message. He tended to challenge them and raise the bar of expectation for them. He seemed to be making it harder, not easier. Jesus challenged the status quo and made them uncomfortable in their self-satisfied little worlds.

For John and all those who heard the message of Jesus, it tended to make no sense at times. It was confusing and seemingly contradictory to all that they had come to know about how to have a relationship with God. Jesus’ message was about faith in who He claimed to be – the Son of God, sent directly from the throne of God with a message of repentance and a plan of salvation for restoring man’s marred relationship with God. And the wisdom of what Jesus was saying would be proved true in time – for John and all those who chose to have faith in Him.

Jesus wanted John to know that everything was happening just as God had ordained it to happen. Yes, John was in jail, but that was no indication that the Kingdom was in trouble or that Jesus had lost His focus. John would be executed long before Jesus was tried, crucified, buried and raised again. But the disciples of Jesus would see the wisdom of Jesus’ message proved true. They would see their own lives radically changed. They would witness a literal revolution that would spread throughout the known world in a very short period of time, as the Gospel of Jesus Christ, powered by the Holy Spirit, exploded onto the scene and into the lives of men at Pentecost. So Jesus encourages patience and faith. Give Him time to do what He came to do, in the manner in which He came to do it. Things would never be the same again.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Not For the Feint of Heart.

August 10, 2018November 23, 2019 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

³⁴“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. ³⁶And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. ³⁷Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. ³⁸And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

⁴⁰“Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. ⁴¹The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. ⁴²And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.” – Matthew 10:34-42 ESV

The message of Jesus Christ is divisive in nature. It demands a reaction. It polarizes and stirs controversy because it is not of this world. It has already become clear that Jesus’ very presence on the earth had stirred up trouble. Satan had tried to tempt Him in the wilderness, attempting to keep Him from His appointed duties as Messiah. The Pharisees have labeled Him as a troublemaker and potential source of conflict and controversy. So, as Jesus prepared to send His disciples on their first independent foray into the world with the message of the Kingdom, He warned them about the dangers they would encounter. What they had to say would not always be well-received. But He didn’t want that to surprise or defeat them. While they must have believed that the news of the Messiah’s arrival would be met with excitement and enthusiasm, especially among the Jews, Jesus wanted them to know that His presence on earth was actually going to cause a great deal of conflict. It would divide families, pitting children against their parents, and disrupting entire households.

But Jesus wanted His disciples to know that the message of Gospel was going to end up causing a lot of strife. And at this point in their relationship with Jesus, the disciples had no way of knowing about His eventual death. They were still under the impression that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah who was going to set up His Kingdom on earth – in Jerusalem. He would reign with power, just as David had. He would return the people of Israel to power and prominence. But little did they know that their Messiah was going to have to suffer and die. And after His death, resurrection and ascension, their message of the good news was going to become even more controversial.

Paul would later write of the incredible news regarding Jesus, that would become the essence of the good news he and the other apostles would bring to the world.

¹ Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, ²and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

³For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, ⁴that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, ⁵and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. – 1 Corinthians 15:1-5 ESV

That message would leave many incredulous and others furious. Paul would find himself under constant attack for sharing the good news regarding Jesus. He would be arrested multiple times, thrown into jail, beaten, and even stoned and left for dead. And Paul would learn the invaluable lesson that faith in Christ would require commitment and a refusal to compromise. Those who accepted the message of Jesus Christ would have to make the difficult choice between following Him and maintaining their relationships with family and friends. Because as Jesus said in His sermon on the mount, “the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:14 ESV).

Each and every individual who hears the Gospel will be forced to choose between this life and the life to come. They will be required to place their faith in the message of salvation from sin and death made possible through the sacrifice of the sinless Son of God. Or they will have the option of putting all their hope in this life. Jesus describes this difficult choice of accepting the Gospel message as taking up your cross. It will prove uncomfortable at times. It will result in conflict and difficulty.

But there is a reward associated with the message of Jesus Christ. The disciples would discover that their faithful obedience to their assignment from Jesus would come with some incredible benefits. And after His eventual ascension back into heaven and the arrival of the Holy Spirit, they would find themselves filled and equipped with a power like nothing they had ever experienced before. Their work would be dangerous and difficult, but they would be provided with a source of strength and wisdom beyond their wildest dreams. And the same thing would be true for all who received their message.

In their role as the messengers of Jesus, the disciples would be acting as prophets, speaking on His behalf and carrying the message of God. Those who listened to them would receive the reward of the prophet. This seems to be a reference to the good news that the prophet of God offered. Prophets tended to have two messages – one was a message of pending judgment for those who refuse to listen, and the other was a message of forgiveness and restoration to those who hear and obey the words of the prophet. In the same way, all those who would hear and obey the good news regarding Jesus would receive the reward of eternal life. And for those who receive the message of Jesus’ righteousness as the Son of God and Savior of the world, will be rewarded with His righteousness as their own.

To wrap up His message, Jesus turned His attention to those who would hear what His disciples had to say. For all those who treated His messengers with respect by offering them even a cup of cold water, would find themselves rewarded for their effort. Their kindness would be an indication of their receptivity of the messenger and their message.

The disciples of Jesus were about to enter an exciting new era in their relationship with Jesus. They would be the ones dessiminating the message and working the miracles. No longer would they be spectators. They were about to enter the game. But Jesus wanted them to know that their mission would be accompanied by difficulty. And the day was coming when He would leave them behind, returning to His Father in heaven, and assigning them with the formidable task of taking the message of the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

Misplaced Fear.

August 9, 2018November 23, 2019 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

²⁶“So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. ²⁷What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. ²⁸And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. ²⁹Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. ³⁰But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. ³¹Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. ³²So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, ³³but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. – Matthew 10:26-33 ESV

In His address to His disciples, as He prepares to send them out on their first independent ministry mission, Jesus uses a number of proverbial statement that must have sounded confusing and even a bit contradictory to His audience. There were already reeling from His announcement that they were going to face persecution and even death as His emmissaries. Of course, they didn’t understand that much of what He had told them was prophetic in nature and dealing with events far into the future, long after they were gone. Jesus was addressing not only the twelve, but all those who would become His disciples after His death and resurrection. Future Christians would face persecution and difficulties of all kinds, including martyrdom. And the greatest period of persecution will happen during the period known as the Great Tribulation, just prior to Jesus’ second coming.

So, in light of His announcement that the disciples would face difficulty and possibly death, Jesus encouraged them “fear not.” Three separate times, Jesus emphasizes that they were to have no fear of those who would harrass and harm them,

So have no fear of them… – Matthew 10:26 ESV

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul… – Matthew 10:28 ESV

Fear not, therefore… – Matthew 10:31 ESV

And knowing that His disciples would find these words difficult to obey, Jesus provided them with the reasoning that should motivate and alleviate their fears. First of all, using a proverbial statement, Jesus told them, “nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known” (Matthew 10:26 ESV). The news that they were to share regarding His Kingdom was going to become known. They could allow their fears to silence their tongues, but the message would still become known. The news about the arrival of the Messiah would be spread one way or another, so they might as well speak up. All that they had seen Jesus do and heard Him say was to be broadcast to their fellow Jews. The Messiah had come and they were to let everyone know. And they were not to let their fear of man silence them.

And Jesus was realistic, acknowledging that there was always the real chance of death associated with their mission. Not only was there the potential for people to reject their message, there was the distinct possibility that they could take their lives. But Jesus tells them “do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” His words were meant to focus the attention of the disciples on the eternal rather than the temporal. All men could do to them was kill their bodies. They could not touch their souls or impact their future destiny. Men could eliminate the disciples’ physical lives but do nothing to influence eternal life.

But while Jesus clearly told His disciples to “fear not,” He was not telling them fear nothing. They were to have a healthy fear of God.

…fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. – Matthew 10:28 ESV

Too often, we live with a misplaced fear, caring far more about men think of us or might do to us, rather than fearing the power and holiness of God. We are eternal creatures, whose souls will last long after our bodies have died and decayed. Men can harm our bodies, but they cannot touch our souls. And yet, the afterlife is far more important than our earthly life. Where we spend eternity is of greater importance than how we spend out lives on this planet. The disciples could allow their fear to keep their mouth’s shut, in hopes that they could avoid possible suffering, but Jesus wanted them to focus their attention on the future – on eternity.

The judgment of God is far greater and more devastating than anything man can do to us. He has authority over the physical bodies and the eternal desitinies of all men. So, it is much more important that we fear Him, rather than wasting our time worrying about what men might do to us. Jesus was not suggesting that a believer could lose their salvation if they failed to remain faithful. He was simply reminding the disciples that God was the ultimate determiner of men’s fate, and the eternal destiny of men was of greater importance than any temporal suffering they may face or attempt to avoid.

Jesus summarized the need for their fear of God by trying to get them to recognize His sovereign care for them.

Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. – Matthew 10:31 ESV

The God who cares for the physical well-being of birds, cares far more about the souls of men. He feeds the birds and even knows the fate of each and everyone of them. But He cares more about men. Birds and animals have no souls, but men do. And God cares deeply about the souls of every man and woman He has created. And the whole reason He sent His Son to die on the cross was in order that men and women, whose souls are condemned to hell because of sin, could be restored to a right relationship with Him. God knows us so intimately, that He has the hairs of our heads numbered. He is closely aware of every one of the billions of human beings on this planet, and He longs that their souls be preserved through faith in His Son.

But the fate of the souls of men is tied directly to their acknowledgement of Jesus as the Christ. Those who faithfully acknowledge Him as their Savior, in spite of persecution and opposition, will be acknowledged by Jesus as one of His own when they stand before God. Their willingness to face possible rejection and death on this earth for their faith, will result in full acceptance by God when they stand before Him. The disciples were to take the message of the Kingdom to their fellow Jews, knowing that they would face opposition. They were to shout their message from the rooftops, refusing to remain silent even in the face of persecution. All because they trusted that their eternal destiny was in the hands of God Almighty.

The apostle Paul would later write, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9 ESV). That is what Jesus is calling us to do. And it is not to be a one time event. Our confession of Jesus as Lord is to be ongoing, and it is something we should be willing to do before men. Our faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ should be something we are willing to broadcast to all those around us. The good news of Jesus Christ was not meant to be kept secret or hidden from others. It is to be shouted from the rooftops and proudly proclaimed to any and all. Yes, we will face rejection and ridicule. We might even face bodily harm and death. But we will be saved. Our souls are preserved by God. Our eternal destiny is secure. We have nothing to fear.

Sheep Among Wolves.

August 8, 2018November 23, 2019 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

¹⁶“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. ¹⁷Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, ¹⁸and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. ¹⁹When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. ²⁰For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. ²¹Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, ²²and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. ²³When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

²⁴“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. ²⁵It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household. – Matthew 10:16-25 ESV

Try to put yourself in the sandals of the disciples. It was still early in their relationship with Jesus and He has just told them that He is going to send them out on their own with the responsibility of sharing the news of His Kingdom to their fellow Jews. Not only that, He has informed them that they will be able to perform the same incredible miracles He has done. All of this must have sounded strange to them, but also a bit exciting. They were being commissioned by the Messiah and given a level of responsibility that must have seemed way above their pay grade. After all, they were simple fishermen, laborers, and tax collectors. Yet, they were being sent by Jesus and this assignment from Him must have left them with a sense of pride. But Jesus was about to tap the brakes on their enthusiasm.

He could probably tell from the looks in their eyes that they were thrilled with the prospect of being able to perform miracles. And the idea of being able to pronounce either a blessing or a curse on those to whom they spoke must have left them with a sense of power and authority that showed up on their faces. So, He threw a bit of cold water on their enthusiasm by telling them, “I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves” (Matthew 10:16 ESV). Remember, He had just described the people of Israel as “lost sheep.” Now He refers to the disciples as sheep. And that reference would have been well-understood by the twelve. Sheep were innocent and highly vulnerable animals. They were virtually defenseless, lacking no real capacity to protect themselves from harm. And Jesus told them they would find themselves like sheep among wolves. Not exactly an encouraging picture. Then He followed this up with a warning to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16 ESV). What does that even mean?

The Greek word translated as “wise” carries the idea of being prudent or shrewd. It is a kind of street savvy that would allow them to survive in a very difficult environment. But to prevent them from becoming jaded and ruthless in their behavior, Jesus warned them to maintain a sense of innocence. He did not want them to become like the wolves. Rather, they were to be aware of the wiles of the enemy, without emulating his ways.

Then Jesus dropped the bomb on them.

¹⁷Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, ¹⁸and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. – Matthew 10:17-18 ESV

What the disciples didn’t know was that Jesus was talking about the future. He was addressing the period of time that would take place after His death, resurrection and ascension. At this point in their relationship with Jesus, they had no way of knowing that His earthly ministry was going to end in His voilent death by crucifixion. He had yet to break that news to them. And they were completely oblivious to the fact that, upon His return to heaven, they would find themselves His ambassadors and earthly representatives, tasked with the responsibility of taking the good news of His sacrificial death on the cross to the world. They would be His witnesses “in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8 ESV). And they would find themselves facing stiff resistance in the form of persecution and even death.

All of this had to have left the disciples slack-jawed and dumbfounded. All this talk of courts, flogging and being handed over to death had to have left them shaking their heads in confusion. Their eager enthusiasm would have turned to abject fear and revulsion at the thought of having to endure such things. But Jesus gave them a bit of good news, informing them that the Spirit of God would be with them, so they had no reason to be anxious. The Holy Spirit would give the words they needed to defend themselves when standing before the courts. And even if their own families end up turning against them and they find themselves facing the hatred of those who once claimed to love them, they can rest in the knowledge that God will be with them. They will be saved. This doesn’t mean they will escape death, but that they will be ultimately delivered to eternal life.

None of this probably sounded like good news to the disciples. They must have been staring at one another in disbelief and confusion, trying to comprehend all that Jesus was telling them. And it is important to keep in mind that they believed Jesus to be the Messiah, but their understanding was that He had come to set up His Kingdom on earth NOW. They were looking for a new day to dawn for the people of Israel. They had joined up with Jesus because they thought He was going to restore Israel to its place of power and prominence and they hoped to get in on the ground floor of His new administration.

But now, Jesus had clouded their vision of the future. In essence, Jesus was revealing to them that God’s agenda was far different than their own. There was a divine plan in place that was going to include not only Jesus’ first coming, but a second one that would culminate God’s plan for the redemption of mankind and the recreation of the world. But in the meantime, there were some important events that would have to take place, including Jesus’ death on the cross, His return to heaven, His rapture of the church and His Second Coming at the end of the period of the tribulation.

The disciples lived with a here-and-now mentality that focused all their attention on the period of time in which they lived. They were not thinking about the distant future. They were not concerned about things that were to happen long after they were gone. But Jesus was trying to expand their understanding and open their eyes to the reality that His mission was far greater than they imagined. The redemptive plan of God went way beyond the physical restoration of the nation of Israel as a political force on earth.

The Son of Man had come, but He was going to have to come again. And it would be at His second coming that Jesus would accomplish many of the things the disciples were expecting. They would be long gone by that time. But they were the first of many who would spread the good news regarding Jesus to the world. They would start with the Jews, but after Jesus’ death, they would be told to take the Gospel to the nations. And after the disciples were gone, the offer of salvation through Christ would be carried around the world by future disciples who would face persecution, rejection, and even death. And one day Jesus will return to complete the mission He has been given by God.

In the meantime, we are called to be like our Teacher. We are to serve as He served, love as He loved, share as He shared. And, as a result, we will suffer as He has suffered. We will be falsely accused and maligned just as He was. But we have the knowledge and reassurance that one day He is coming back. We also rest in the fact that our destiny is secure and our eternal state guaranteed by His death and resurrection. We have nothing to fear and everything for which to look forward.

The Lost Sheep.

August 7, 2018November 23, 2019 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

¹And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. ²The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; ³Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; ⁴Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

⁵These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, ⁶but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. ⁷And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ ⁸Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay. ⁹Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, ¹⁰no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food. ¹¹And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. ¹²As you enter the house, greet it. ¹³And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. ¹⁴And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. ¹⁵Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town. – Matthew 10:1-15 ESV

Jesus has just finished speaking of the abundance of the harvest and the need for laborers. Now, in chapter 10, Matthew chooses to place Jesus’ calling and sending of the 12 disciples at his important juncture. They were to be far more than followers of Jesus. They were to be His apostles. The Greek word Matthew uses is apostolos and it derives from the verb apostello meaning “to send.” The men whom Jesus had chosen were about to find themselves thrust into a new role as messengers and ministers of the Kingdom of God. Made up of fishermen, a tax collector and a collection of other less-than-impressive individuals, the 12 disciples made up an unlikely and highly underqualified ministry vanguard. They were commoners and relatively uneducated men who lacked the religious credentials and credibility of the Pharisees, scribes and Sadducees.

But these men had been hand-chosen by Jesus, and He had not selected them based on their qualificiations, capabilities, or merit. They were little more than common laborers whom Jesus was about to transform into emmissaries of His Kingdom, equipped with power and authority beyond their wildest imaginations. Their message would be a simple one: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matther 10:7 ESV). And their audience would be a particular one: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 10:6 ESV). They were to concentrate their efforts among their own people – the Jews. This would have been the easy part of their assignment because, as Jews, they had no love affair for the Samaritans or Gentiles. And because they believed Jesus to be the long-awaited Messiah, they assumed He had come to reestablish the kingdom of Israel and return her to power and prominence. Ignoring the Samaritans, whom they despised, and the Gentiles, whom they considered uncircumcised and unclean, would have come easy to the disciples.

Jesus demanded that they focus their attention on the lost sheep of Israel. This was a common Old Testament theme, referring to the sheperdless and wayward people of Israel. God had often referred to His people in those terms.

“My people have been lost sheep;
    their shepherds have led them astray
    and caused them to roam on the mountains.
They wandered over mountain and hill
    and forgot their own resting place.” – Jeremiah 50:6 ESV

God had spoken through the prophet Ezekiel, indicting the priests and other religious leaders of Israel for their role in the spiritual demise of His people.

⁴You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. ⁵So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. ⁶My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them. – Ezekiel 34:4-6 ESV

Now, the Messiah had arrived and was bringing His message of the Kingdom to His people. And here, He was delegating the deliverance of that message to His 12 apostles. They were to go and tell the rest of their fellow Jews that the Messiah had come and the Kingdom was at hand. And to validate their message, Jesus embued these men with power. Suddenly, they would find themselves able to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, and cast out demons. This would have been heady news for this rag-tag group of former fishermen and social bottom dwellers. The miracles they had seen Jesus perform would be delegated to them, all in order to validate their message and verify that they spoke for the Messiah. In sending out the 12, Jesus was expanding His ministry scope and spreading the message farther and wider than He could manage alone.

And He provides His disciples with some interesting last-minute marching orders, demanding that they “Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff” (Matthew 10:9-10 ESV). And upon entering a town, they were to focus their attention on “those who were worthy.” That phrase simply refers to their acceptance of the disciples and their message. If someone was willing to hear what the disciples had to say about the Messiah and His Kingdom, they were to be considered worthy and were to receive the blessing of the presence of Jesus’ emmissary. Those who refused to accept the disciples and their message were to be ignored. They would not receive the benefit and blessing of having God’s representative in their home and, as a result, they would fail to experience the power of God made available through these men.

Jesus knew that the 12 would experience far more rejection than acceptance. He was well aware that the message of the Kingdom would be rejected by the people of Israel. John prefaced His Gospel with the sad and sobering words: “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” (John 1:11 ESV). But Jesus, as the Messiah of Israel, was still willing to take His message to His own, letting them know that the Savior for whom they long waited, was here. But He warned the disciples to expect rejection, and He painted a bleak and foreboding outcome for all those who would refuse to accept the news of His arrival.

…it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town. – Matthew 10:15 ESV

These two cities had been destroyed by God for their rampant wickedness and immorality, along with all their inhabitants. But Jesus warns that the Jews who would hear the message of the disciples and fail to accept the news of the arrival of the Messiah, would be held more accountable and receive greater condemnation than the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. They would ultimately face the just judgment of God.

The 12 disciples had a mission to accomplish. They were to tell the message regarding the coming of the Messiah. They were to verify their message through miraculous acts of healing just as Jesus had done. And they were to prepare themselves to face rejection. Jesus will go on to describe the less-than-encouraging reception they were to anticipate. It would not be easy. They would not be popular. Their message would not be well-received. In fact, while their would be plenty of interest in their miracles, their mesage would tend to fall on deaf ears.

The lost sheep were going to hear from their Shepherd, but they would refuse to listen. They would reject His messengers and their message of the Messiah’s arrival. And again, John records Jesus clearly indicating that there would be many Jews who would reject His claim to be the long-awaited Messiah.

²⁴So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” ²⁵Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, ²⁶but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. ²⁷My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. – John 10:24-28 ESV

There would be many lost sheep of the house of Israel who would hear the voice of the Good Shepherd and refuse to return to the fold. Even the miracles of Jesus would prove insufficient to turn their hearts back to God. And the miracles of the disciples would prove just as inadequate. But for all those who proved themselves worthy by hearing and accepting the news of the Kingdom of God and the arrival of the King of that Kingdom, Jesus had a blessing in store for them that would be a everlasting value: Eternal life.

Sheperdless Sheep.

August 6, 2018November 23, 2019 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

³⁵And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. ³⁶When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; ³⁸therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” – Matthew 9:35-37 ESV

Jesus was a man on a mission. He knew that His days on this earth were limited and that He had much to accomplish before He would be required to lay down His life on behalf of sinful mankind. And a big part of Jesus’ earthly ministry was to prepare His disciples for His eventual departure and their assumption of that ministry. As Matthew prepares to transition to Jesus’ sending out the 12 disciples, as recorded in chapter 10, he provides us with a glimpse into Jesus’ daily ministry agenda and the heart behind His ministry. He was a busy man and anything but lazy. But His activity was motivated by compassion and a desire to touch the lives of those with whom He came in contact and for whom He would be giving His life. Jesus traveled extensively and relentlessly, proclaiming the good news to any and all who would listen. He validated His claim to be the Son of God by continuing to perform miracles. When Matthew indicates that Jesus healed “every disease and every affliction,” he is not saying that Jesus healed each and every disease, but every kind of disease presented to Him. In other words, Jesus didn’t heal every single person who suffered from an afflication, but His power was manifested over every imaginable human condition or ailment. There was no disease too great or difficult for Him to handle. It is a statement regarding His power and authority.

But more telling than Matthew’s statement regarding Jesus’ power over disease is his description of Jesus’ heart for those who flocked to hear Him speak and to watch Him perform His miracles. There were so many hurting people, and they were marked by a sadness and helplessness. In fact, Matthew describes tham as “harassed and helpless.” The two Greek words Matthew used are eklyō and rhiptō, and they refer to weakness as the result of exhaustion and a lack of care. To better explain their dire condition, Matthew described the people as “sheep without a shepherd.” They were like defenseless sheep, who shepherd had abandoned them, leaving them to feed and fend for themselves.

In the agrarian culture in which the disciples lived, this comparison would have made all the sense in the world. Sheep were herd animals that were essentially defenseless. They required the care of a shepherd in order to stay alive. They had plenty of natural enemies and virtually no built-in self-defense mechanism. So, they were, in essence, helpless and hopeless without the care of a shepherd. And this is the way Jesus viewed the people to whom He ministered. His perspective was reflective of God’s view of Israel. In fact, even Moses had seen Israel in the same light, asking God to provide them with a new shepherd when he was gone.

¹⁶“Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation ¹⁷who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.” – Numbers 27:16-17 ESV

And God had some very strong words for the those men to whom He had given the responsibility of caring for the His people. He indicted the shepherds of the flock of Israel for their lack of care for and protection of the sheep under their care. He describe the situation in not-so-flattering terms:

⁵So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered; ⁶they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them. – Ezekiel 34:5-6 ESV

But God also indicated that He would do what the shepherds had failed to do.

¹¹“For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. ¹²As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. – Ezekiel 34:11-12 ESV

And Jesus was simply doing the will of His Father, acting as His earthly representative and extending to the people of Israel the same compassion and care His Father had for those He called His own. But Jesus was not going to be a one-man show for long. His God-ordained destiny would require that He suffer and die on behalf of the sheep. As Jesus would later tell His disciples, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11 ESV). Jesus was aware that His calling by God included the sacrifice of His life. He would be required to die on behalf of sinful mankind.

With His eventual departure, He would pass on His earthly ministry to His disciples. So, He began to prepare them for the role they would play. And He did so by exposing them to the incredible opportunity facing them, but also the tremendous need.

The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few… – Matthew 9:37 ESV

There were more than enough helpless, hopeless sheep out there in need of shepherding, but there was a lack of qualified shepherds to care for them. And that is where they would come in. Jesus wanted the disciples to share His heart for the sheep. He was the Good Shepherd and would one day die for the sheep, and they were to emulate His example. They were not to treat their role as that of an employee, but as the owner of the sheep, with a investment in the well-being of their flock.

¹²He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. ¹³He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. – John 10:12-13 ESV

Jesus looked at the crowds and saw the tremendous hurt and heartache among the people. The sickness, disease and demonic possessions were simply the external symptoms of the much darker condition facing the people to whom Jesus spoke and among whom He ministered. They were living in darkness and wandering like lost sheep with no one to guide or protect them. Healing from disease was not going to solve their problem. Restored eyesight was not going to cure their spiritual blindness. Exorcism would not end their captivity to sin and death. And Jesus was beginning the slow, but steady process of preparing His disciples for the role they would play after His departure. And He told them, “therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:38 ESV).

It is not clear whether the disciples understood the import of Jesus’ words. They were probably left shaking their heads in confusion over what He had to say. And there is no indication they understood what Jesus had meant by the either the harvest or laborers. But in time, they would. The need was great, but so was the opportunity. There were more than enough lost sheep to find and care for, and that meant there was the tremendous need for more shepherds. So, they were to pray. They were to remember that the work to which Jesus was about to assign them was ultimately God’s work. These were His people, His sheep. He would need to raise up additional shepherds to care for those for whom His Son would die.

When the Good Shepherd eventually laid down His life for the sheep, He would need undershederds to gather in all those for whom He died. They would need to be gathered in to the fold. And that would be a role the disciples would eventually inherit from their Master.

¹⁴I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, ¹⁵just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. – John 10:14-16 ESV

And there are still lost sheep, wandering helplesslly and hopelessly, in need of a shepherd. Jesus laid down His life for them, but they need to be found and restored to the safety and security of the sheepfold. And like the 12 disciples, we have a responsibility to serve the Good Shepherd by acting as His faithful undershepherds. The words Jesus spoke to Peter apply to us.

“Do you love me? … Feed my sheep.” – John 21:17 ESV

Blind and Mute.

August 5, 2018November 23, 2019 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

²⁷And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.” ²⁸When he entered the house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to him, “Yes, Lord.” ²⁹Then he touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it done to you.” ³⁰And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, “See that no one knows about it.” ³¹But they went away and spread his fame through all that district.

³²As they were going away, behold, a demon-oppressed man who was mute was brought to him. ³³And when the demon had been cast out, the mute man spoke. And the crowds marveled, saying, “Never was anything like this seen in Israel.” ³⁴But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by the prince of demons.” – Matthew 9:27-34 ESV

This particular story opens up much like one in chapter eight. On the earlier occasion, Jesus found Himself confronted by another two men, but they happened to be demon-possessed, not blind. But like the blind men, they cried out to Jesus.

And behold, they cried out, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” – Matthew 8:29 ESV

Notice the difference? These two men were crying out, but it was the voices of the demons or spirits inside them that were doing the talking. Yet, they acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God, a clear reference to His deity. They knew He was God, and we know from the story, that they were, in essence, asking Jesus for mercy because they begged Him to cast them into a herd of swine rather than face an early and inevitable judgment at His hands. Now, take note of the words of the two blind me in this story. They too cried out for mercy from Jesus, but in their own voices. And they also addressed Jesus with a title, but the one they used was “Son of David.” This is a Messianic title and it reveals that this two men believed Jesus to be the long-awaited Messiah and that He had the power to heal them. It’s significant that they did not call Him Son of David, because it indicates that they, like most Jews, did not view the coming Messiah as a part of the Godhead. He would be a God-appointed king, like David. So, these two men are not worshiping Jesus as God, but simply indicating their belief in Him as Messiah. But it ironic that these two blind me were able to “see” who Jesus was in spite of their lack of physical sight. Their desperate need gave them a spiritual vision that others with full use of their physical sight lacked.

When Jesus asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?,” they replied, “Yes, Lord.” Then, Jesus, touching their eyes, said, “According to your faith be it done to you” (Matthew 9:29 ESV). And Matthew records that they were immediately healed. Their sight was restored. They had not asked for the restoration of their sight, but Jesus had clearly understood what they meant when they had asked for mercy.

But what did Jesus mean when He told them “According to your faith be it done to you?” Was He saying that they had been healed in proportion to their faith? Was it the degree of their faith that resulted in their healing? A more accurate translation of Jesus’ response might be, “since you believed.” It was not the strength of their faith that healed them, but the very fact that they had placed their faith in Jesus’ ability to bring their healing about. They had come to Him with their need and believed that He could do something about it. The point of the story is not the amount of faith they displayed, but the one on whom their faith was focused.

And as with the leper he had healed earlier, Jesus commanded these two men to tell no one what He had done. Unlike some of Jesus’ other healings, this one was done indoors, in relative privacy. But why would Jesus command these men to keep their healing a secret? I think a big reason for Jesus’ stern warning was His concern that, should the people recognise Him as the Messiah, they would attempt to force Him to abandon His primary mission from God and fulfill their false expectations of the Messiah. They were waiting for a savior, but one who would deliver them from the oppression of the Romans and restore the Jews to power and prominence once again. But that is not why Jesus had come. His God-given assignment was to suffer and die at the hands of men, giving His life as a ransom for man (Matthew 20:28). There will be a day when He establishes His Kingdom in Israel and rules from the throne of David, but that will not be until His second coming. Jesus will repeatedly warn those He has healed to keep His designation as the Messiah a secret because He was determined to complete the task assigned to Him by His Father in heaven.

Matthew follows up this story with yet another healing of a demon-possessed man. But there are some interesting contrasts in this particular scenario. First of all, the man is described by Matthew as mute. He is not only demon-possessed but stricken with a physical disability. And if you recall, when Jesus had been approached previously by the two other demon-possessed men, they had cried out to him. But the demons had used the voice boxes of the two men they were possessing. In this case, the demon was unable to address Jesus. It could not cause the man to speak. And it was not until Jesus had cast the demon out, that the man’s voice was restored. Jesus performed two miracles at one. He cast out a demon and restored the man’s ability to speak. But what is significant is that the demon lacked the power to produce sound from the man’s damaged vocal chords. The demon, while powerful, was incapable of replicating the works of Jesus.

And upon seeing what Jesus had done, the crowds responded with amazement, saying, “Never was anything like this seen in Israel” (Matthew 9:33 ESV). This is an interesting reaction, because it is clear from Matthew’s account, that Jesus had performed many other miracles of equal, in not greater, significance.

That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. – Matthew 8:16 ESV

But their reaction indicates the growing degree of amazement among the people as they watched Jesus perform His miracles. They were witnesss to something never before seen in Israel. And yet, Jesus was simply fulfilling the very role the prophets had attributed to the coming Messiah.

⁵Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
    and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
⁶then shall the lame man leap like a deer,
    and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
For waters break forth in the wilderness,
    and streams in the desert… – Isaiah 35:5-6 ESV

But the Pharisees, reflecting their growing jealousy of Jesus and the spiritual hardness of their own hearts, retort that Jesus “casts out demons by the prince of demons” (Matthew 9:34 ESV). They didn’t deny that the miracle had happened, but declared that its source was demonic and not of God. They accused Jesus of being in league with Satan. And this will not be the last time they make such an accusation. Matthew will later record another encounter between Jesus and a demon-possessed man. And when Jesus heals him, the people will ask, “Can this be the Son of David?” (Matthew 11:23 ESV). But the Pharisees will once again respond, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons” (Matthew 11:24 ESV). They cannot bring themselves to believe that Jesus is the Messiah. These men, with full use of their physical sight, were blind to the reality of who Jesus was.

John records a rather heated exchange between Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders. In it, Jesus reveals that these men, while heavily steeped in the Old Testament Scriptures, were ignorant of who He was. They studied the Word of God, but failed to recognize the Son of God when He was standing right in front of them.

³⁶But I have a greater witness than John—my teachings and my miracles. The Father gave me these works to accomplish, and they prove that he sent me. ³⁷And the Father who sent me has testified about me himself. You have never heard his voice or seen him face to face, ³⁸and you do not have his message in your hearts, because you do not believe me—the one he sent to you.

³⁹“You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! ⁴⁰Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.

⁴¹“Your approval means nothing to me, ⁴²because I know you don’t have God’s love within you. ⁴³For I have come to you in my Father’s name, and you have rejected me.” – John 5:36-43 NLT

They rejected Jesus. They were spiritually blind and incapable of seeing Him for who He really was. And while they could speak, they used their voices to falsely accuse Jesus of operating in the power of Satan. They could see. They could speak. But they missed the one who could have given them spiritual insight and the ability to verbally praise God for His mercy and grace.

The Focus of Faith.

August 4, 2018November 23, 2019 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

¹⁸While he was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” ¹⁹And Jesus rose and followed him, with his disciples. ²⁰And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, ²¹for she said to herself, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.” ²²Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well. ²³And when Jesus came to the ruler’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, ²⁴he said, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. ²⁵But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose. ²⁶And the report of this went through all that district. – Matthew 9:18-26 ESV

Jesus and His disciples had just sailed back across the Sea of Galilee to the village of Capernaum. Before they could get out of the boat they were surrounded by a crowd of people who had been waiting for Jesus to return. Among them was Jairus, a leader in the local synagogue. He made his way through the throng of people surrounding Jesus and fell at His feet, begging Him to come and heal his 12-year-old daughter, who was near death. We knew from Mark’s account of this very same story, that the man’s name was Jairus and that he was “one of the rulers of the synagogue” (Mark 22 ESV). As they made their way to the man’s home, the crowd followed, pressing in on Jesus. They were all there for a variety of reasons. Some were simply curious. Others hoped to receive healing. Still others, influenced by the rhetoric of the religious leaders, were there because they hated Jesus. But one woman in the crowd was desperate and determined to see if this man called Jesus could help her with a very serious problem. Imagine the scene, as hundreds of people crowded around Jesus, jostling Him, bumping up against Him. Everyone wanted to get a closer look at Him. And somehow this very ill woman was able to make her way to His side, close enough to touch the hem of His robe. That was all she dared to do. She didn’t dare do what the leader of the synagogue had done. She probably felt unworthy because of the nature of her physical infirmity. According to the Mosaic law, she would have been considered unclean.

But she was driven by hope. She had heard about Jesus. And Mark tells us, “she thought to herself, ‘If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed'” (Mark 5:28 NLT). Driven by need, motivated by desperation, and encouraged by hope, she touched the robe of Jesus and was immediately healed. After 12 long years of suffering and countless trips to doctors that had left her financially destitute and worse off than when she started, she was healed. With just a touch of the robe of Jesus, she had received the miracle of healing.

And Jesus knew exactly what had happened. He had felt healing power go out from Him. So Jesus asked, “Who touched me?” (Luke 8:45 NLT). Interestingly, the word Jesus used for “touched” is one that can be translated, “to fasten oneself to.” It carries a sense of intimacy and closeness. Her touch was of a different nature than all the others who were bumping up against Jesus. Some in the crowd had viewed Jesus as a celebrity. This woman saw Him as a source of hope, help and healing. And when she touched Him, she did so fully intending for something unbelievable to happen. And it did.

Jesus takes the time to point out something special about this woman. He states, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well” (Matthew (9:22 ESV). But this statement can be misunderstood and misconstrued. Is Jesus really saying that it was this woman’s faith that provided her healing? Was it the source of and power behind her miraculous cure? No, it was Jesus. He had provided her healing. Her faith was simply the means by which she availed herself of the power available through Him. Her faith activated His compassion and made possible her cure. The important thing to consider is the source of her faith. It was Jesus. She truly believed that a single touch of His robe would provide the thing she needed most: Healing.

But it’s interesting to note that Jesus said nothing of the faith of Jairus and yet, he had said to Jesus, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live” (Matthew 9:18 ESV). His daughter was dead, but he seemed to believe that Jesus could raise her back to life. I would call that faith. But Jesus doesn’t say a word about it. Why? We may gain some insight if we compare the response of Jairus to that of the centurion in the previous chapter. The Roman had stated that Jesus could heal his servant with just a word. And yet, Jairus seemed to believe that any hope of healing his daughter would require a touch from the hand of Jesus. His faith, while evident, had some caveats attached to it.

If we look at Mark’s account of this same story, he seems to indicate that the man’s daughter was “near death” when he approached Jesus. She was on the verge of death. But by the time Jesus showed up at Jairus’ house, she had died. And it was upon hearing this news that Jairus lost all hope. Because Jesus immediately said to him, “Do not fear, only believe” (Mark 5:36 ESV). Her death had done a number on his faith. Suddenly, all thoughts of his daughter being “made well” (Mark 5:23 ESV) were gone. But Jesus was far from done. Death was not an obstacle to Him, and more than the woman’s issue of blood and unclean state.

Jesus, upon seeing the mourners and the commotion they were causing, dimissed them, saying, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping” (Matthew 9:24 ESV). And they all laughed in His face. They viewed His response as either insensitive or simply stupid. He didn’t know what He was talking about. But Matthew matter-of-factly states, “he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose” (Matthew 9:25 ESV).

Mark provides us with a bit more detail:

⁴¹Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” ⁴²And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. – Mark 5:41-42 ESV

A woman was healed. A young girl was raised back to life. All because of Jesus. There was no problem too great for Him to handle. There were no individuals He deemed unworthy of His healing touch. Romans, widows, adolescents, the lame, the unclean and the demon-possessed all found in Jesus a source of hope and healing. But the key is that they came to Jesus. The took the problem to the only viable source of a solution.

Now, think about the crowd that surrounded Jesus that day. We have no idea how many were there, but we do know that they were all trying to come into contact with Jesus. They were following Him and wanted to gain access to Him. And while many of them touched Him that day, only one walked away healed.

You see, there are so many times that each of us come into touch with Jesus. We read about Him in the Word. We hear about Him through a sermon, Bible study lesson or small group study. We spend a great deal of our lives “bumping” into Jesus, but never expecting anything to happen as a result. We are part of the crowd that follows Him and even says we believe in Him, but we rarely receive anything from Him. Maybe it is our seeming lack of need or our failure to believe that He can do anything to help us. We come into contact with Jesus, but walk away unchanged. And the problem lies not with Jesus, but with us. We don’t reach out to Him expectantly, because we fail to believe He has the power to heal us or help us. The woman in the story had spent twelve years of her life reaching out to everyone but Jesus, and now she was desperate enough to try Him instead. Jesus told her that it was her faith that made her well. Yes, it was His power that healed her, but it began with her belief that simply reaching out to Jesus would make a different in her life. Her touch became the conduit of healing. Her faith as expressed through her intentional touch of Jesus changed her life forever. She chose to “fasten herself” to Jesus. So should we.

In the time it took for this miracle to happen, a tragedy occured. Jairus’ daughter died. A servant arrived with the news, but Jesus was not deterred or downcast. He simply said, “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith, and she will be healed” (Luke 8:50 NLT). Like the woman in the crowd, Jairus had a choice to make. He could have doubted Jesus’ words and given up all hope. But he chose to believe and then put that belief into action by walking alongside Jesus to his home. Matthew records that Jairus, upon hearing of his daughter’s death, told Jesus, “you can bring her back to life again if you just come and lay your hand on her” (Matthew 9:18 NLT). Which is exactly what Jesus did. He took the little girl by the hand, commanded her to get up, and she did – fully alive and fully restored. Jairus had chosen to believe. He ignored the circumstances and “fastened himself” to Jesus. He counted on Him to solve his pressing need. And Jesus did. He always does. He longs to feel healing power go from Himself in response to the faith of His followers. He longs to respond to the faith of His disciples when they choose to fasten themselves to Him even in the face of insurmountable odds. Are you willing to reach out and touch Jesus today? He is waiting.

Something New.

August 3, 2018November 23, 2019 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

¹⁴Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” ¹⁵And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. ¹⁶No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. ¹⁷Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.” – Matthew 9:14-17 ESV

Jesus was a radical. From the moment He opened His mouth and preached His sermon on the mount, He revealed His radical nature. He wasn’t your average rabbi. He didn’t adhere to the standard script handed out by the Jewish religious leadership. No, Jesus was a boat-rocker, paradigm-shifter, tradition-breaker, and custom-crusher. He spoke as one with authority, and He proved that authority by healing the sick, casting out demons, and calming raging storms. Jesus wasn’t afraid to stand up to the religious leadership of His day. He saw them for what they were: Self-righteous hypocrites who were leading the people astray. And He had no qualms about calling them out.

“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn that person into twice the child of hell you yourselves are!” – Matthew 23:15 NLT

Everything about Jesus was different, and His radical style was attracting huge crowds of followers. They were amazed by His miracles, intrigued by His words, and strangely attracted to His refreshingly different take on religion. But Jesus’ radical approach to ministry left some a bit confused and others, simply angry. In today’s passage, Matthew records an encounter between Jesus and several disciples of John the Baptist. They had been watching Jesus closely, taking in all that He had said and done. After all, their teacher, John, had boldly claimed that Jesus was “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29 ESV). Most likely, these men had heard Jesus speak and even witnessed Him healing the sick and the lame. But they were confused by what they didn’t see. Jesus and His followers were not adhering to what these men believed to be standard religious protocol, so they asked Jesus, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” (Matthew 9:14 ESV). The fasts to which the referred were not required by the Mosaic law, but had been established by men. Many of these fasts had been instituted during the Jewish exile in Babylon, and they had become nothing more than ritualistic rites designed to sin favor with God. But even in those days, God had condemned the Jews for their hypocritcal observances of these man-made fasts.

⁵“Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? ⁶And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves? ⁷Are these not the words the Lord proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest and prosperous, and the Negev and the western foothills were settled?’”

⁸And the word of the Lord came again to Zechariah: ⁹“This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. ¹⁰Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’” – Zechariah 7:5-10 ESV

So, the disciples of John, having faithfully maintained this tradition of these fasts, were appalled that Jesus and His disciples failed to do so. And Jesus responded to their question with a question of His own.

“Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?” – Matthew 9:15 ESV

As the disciples of John, they would have been familiar with this metaphor, because their teacher had used it when speaking of Jesus.

²⁸You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’ ²⁹The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. ³⁰He must become greater; I must become less.” – John 3:28-30 ESV

In essence, John saw himself as the best man. He was nothing more than a herald for the One who was to come. And Jesus simply took John’s metaphor and expanded upon it, explaining that the day would come when He, the bridegroom, would no longer be with them. It would be then that the disciples would fast and mourn. But in the meantime, there was no reason to fast and mourn. This was to be a time of celebration and joy, because the Son of God had come to earth. The Messiah had finally arrived. Back in Zechariah’s day, during the exile, the people fasted in hopes that God would rescue them and restore them to their land. But all the while they fasted, they were failing to show justice, mercy and compassion to one another. And the same thing was true in Jesus’ day. Religious rule-keeping and the observations of ritualistic fasts had taken the place of true righteousness. Adherence to the law had taken precedence over a love for God and others.

And Jesus explains that He had come to introduce something new. He compares His ministry to new cloth and new wine. And He emphasizes it’s radical new nature by suggesting that, like new cloth, His agenda was not going to be an add-on to the old ways. His message was not about keeping the law, but about recognizing the sinfulness of man as exposed by the law. Jesus had come to provide a radical new way for men to be made right with God. He was offering up something distinctively different. In fact, He had told the crowd listening to His sermon on the mount:

“I warn you–unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!” – Matthew 5:20 NLT

Fasting, rule-keeping, religious observances, and self-righteous displays of pious-looking acts would not be enough. Jesus was offering new cloth and new wine. As the apostle Paul would later put it, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV). With the arrival of Jesus on the earth, God was breaking with the old and instituting something new. The Jews had long ago broken their covenant with God. They had failed to remain faithful to Him and He had been forced to send them into exile as punishment for their disobedience. And even though He had eventually returned them to the land, they continued to live in unfaithfulness and spiritual darkness. But Jesus had come to establish a new covenant with the people of God. And the author of Hebrews points out the radical new nature of Jesus’ ministry and message:

⁶But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. ⁷For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. – Hebrews 8:6-7 ESV

And the author of Hebrews goes on to stress that this new ministry of Jesus was going to be in fulfillment of the promise of God to establish a new covenant with His people.

⁸“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord,
    when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel
    and with the house of Judah,
⁹not like the covenant that I made with their fathers
    on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
For they did not continue in my covenant,
    and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.
¹⁰For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
    after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws into their minds,
    and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
    and they shall be my people.
¹¹And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor
    and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
for they shall all know me,
    from the least of them to the greatest.
¹²For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
    and I will remember their sins no more.” – Hebrews 8:8-12 ESV

New cloth. New wine. New covenant. New nature. New hope. And a radical new way for men to be made right with God. And that calls for feasting, not fasting. That should produce in us joy, not mouring. Gone are the days when men must attempt to win favor with God by tying to keep the law of God.

The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. – Romans 8:3 NLT

A new day. A new way.

Sinners in Need of a Savior.

August 2, 2018November 23, 2019 / kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

⁹As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

¹⁰And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. ¹¹And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” ¹²But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ¹³Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” – Matthew 9:9-13 ESV

By this point in Matthew’s narrative, it is obvious that there is something radically different about Jesus. He is not your average rabbi or teacher. He has supernatural powers that allow Him to heal with a touch of His hand or a word from His mouth. He exhibits a never-before-seen authority that allows Him to cast out demons and control the wind and waves of the sea. To the Jews, He’s like nothing they have ever seen before. To the religious leaders, He is an enigma and a growing concern, because of His increasing popularity among the people.

And in today’s passage, we are going to see yet another aspect of Jesus’ radically different nature. We have already seen that He has no problem associating with the unclean, such as the leper whom He touched and healed. And unlike most Jews, Jesus was willing to have contact with Gentiles, even healing the servant of the Roman centurion. Now, in Matthew’s account of his own calling by Jesus, we are going to see that Jesus broke all rules of social protocal by associating with known sinners, such as tax collectors. It just so happens that Matthew himself had been a tax collector, and his retelling of his call by Jesus provides the perfect occasion to, once again, illustrate the radically different nature of Jesus’ ministry.

Just as He had done with Peter, Andrew, James and John, Jesus used a simple two-word phrase to issue His call to Matthew: “Follow me.” And Matthew records that he did just that. Luke provides us with a bit more information regarding this initial encounter between Jesus and Matthew.

Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. – Luke 5:27-28 ESV

We’re not given an explanation as to why Matthew (Levi) had two different names, but it was probably nothing more than a case of him having a given name as well as a nick-name. But Luke makes it clear that Matthew “left everything” and followed Jesus. He turned his back on what had to have been a lucrative business as a tax collector in order to obey the invitation of Jesus. And one of the first things he did was invite Jesus into his home for a meal. It was this occasion that set the stage for yet another illustration of Jesus’ out-of-the-ordinary behavior. Evidently, Matthew wanted his friends and business associates to meet Jesus, so he records that he invited “many tax collectors and sinners” (Matthew 9:10 ESV). Notice the close association between these two groups. From a Jewish perspective, tax collectors were despised and seen as some of the worst of all sinners. They were traitors to their people, choosing to make a profit off their fellow Jews by collecting taxes for the Roman government. Tax collectors were well known for their corruption and vice. They were viewed as social pariahs by the Jewish community. Which explains why Matthew invited other tax collectors and known sinners to his party. And yet, Jesus willingly accepted Matthew’s invitation, choosing to dine with those whom the average Jew would readily shun.

The Pharisees who witnessed this appalling scene addressed their shock to the disciples of Jesus, asking, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” And before the disciples had a chance to respond, Jesus provided the Pharisees with an answer:

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” – Matthew 9:12 ESV

This carefully worded retort from Jesus was like a missile aimed at the prideful arrogance of the Jewish religious leaders. Jesus knew exactly what they were thinking and was well aware that these men saw His actions as unacceptable and unworthy of someone who claimed to be a faithful Jew, let alone a rabbi or teacher. In their minds, Jesus had discredited Himself by His actions. But Jesus’ statement revealed the radical difference between His outlook on sinful humanity and their own. The Pharisees saw themselves as anything but sinners. They were not only Jews and, therefore, part of the chosen people of God, but well-respected religious leaders and experts in the law of Moses. They were professional law-keepers, priding themselves on their knowledge of the law and their adherence to it. But as Jesus had revealed in His sermon on the mount, most of their interpretations of the Mosaic law were flawed. And their so-called righteousness was deemed inadequate by Jesus when viewed from God’s perspective.

The problem, as Jesus exposes it, was that these men did not see themselves as sinners. They prided themselves on their righteousness and their ability to earn a right standing with God through their actions. Which is why Jesus refers to them sarcastically as “those who are well.” They had the mistaken impression that they were somehow better than the tax collectors and sinners sitting at the table with Jesus. It is reminiscent of the story Jesus told about the two men praying in the temple. Luke tells us that “Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else” (Luke 18:9 NLT). In the story, Jesus compares the prayers of tax collector and a Pharisee. The tax collector “dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner’” (Luke 18:13 NLT). But the Pharisee exhibited a dramatically different attitude.

“The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don’t cheat, I don’t sin, and I don’t commit adultery. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’’” – Luke 18:11-12 NLT

Notice that the Pharisee prided himself on a sinlessness that was based on his self-manufactured righteousness. He fasted and tithed. He didn’t cheat, commit adultery or sin. But remember what Jesus said in His sermon on the mount: “But I warn you–unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 5:20 NLT). This self-produced kind of righteousness was inadequate. It was insufficient to earn anyone a place in the Kingdom of God. No man could earn his way into God’s favor. As Paul puts it in his letter to the Romans, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard” (Romans 3:23 NLT).

The Pharisees, standing outside Matthew’s house and shaking their judgmental fingers in the face of Jesus and His disciples, pridefully viewed themselves as non-sinners. They were above the fray, having already earned their right standing with God through their status as God’s chosen people and their strict adherance to the law. But Jesus reveals that He came to minister to those who recognized their need for a physician. In other words, He came to provide spiritual healing to those who recognized their sinfulness. Like the tax collector in Jesus’ story, they cry out, “be merciful to me, for I am a sinner!”

When Jesus stated, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners,” He was not commending the Pharisees or indicating that they were somehow exempt from the need for His salvation. He was simply stating that their prideful belief in their own self-produced righteousness was going to keep them from ever admitting their need for a righteousness outside of themselves. They were convinced that they could earn a right relationship with God on their own. They needed no Messiah. But they were wrong. Dead wrong.

Jesus refers the Pharisees to an Old Testament passage they would have not quite well: Hosea 6:6:

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Like their Old Testament ancestors, the Pharisees prided themselves on their strict adherance to the laws of Moses and their keeping of the religious rules and rituals associated with temple worship. But in all their activity they had lost their knowledge of God. It had become all about rule-keeping, not a relationship with God. And these arrogant men were as guilty as their ancestors, whom God condemned as little more than hypocrites.

“These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote.” – Isaiah 29:13 NLT

Jesus willingly associated with sinners, because they are the ones for whom He came give His life. And while the Pharisees refused to admit it, they too were sinners in need of a Savior. But pride and self-sufficiency would prevent them from seeing and admitting their need. Their self-reliance would keep them turning to Jesus for the salvation they so desperately needed.

Devotionary

The Bible Made Accessible and Applicable

Month: August 2018