Matthew 9 (Part 5) :27-34

We're picking it up at verse 27 where it says as Jesus went on from there two blind men followed him calling out have mercy on us son of David and when he had gone indoors the blind men came to him and he asked them do you believe that I'm able to do this yes Lord they replied and then he touched their eyes and said according to your faith will it be done to you and their sight was restored Jesus warned them sternly see that no one knows about this but they went out and spread the news about him over all that region and while they were going out a man who was demon possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus and when the demon was driven out the man who had been mute spoke the crowd was amazed and said nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel but the Pharisees said it is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons let's stop there pray with me father God open our hearts Jesus open our hearts to the one who hears we pray open our hearts and fill us with your spirit we look to you in Jesus name Amen it says that after Jesus finished raising Jairus's daughter that he went out from there and a couple of blind men followed along as he went on with the procession of people that were following him and they were calling out to him have mercy on us son of David and there's two things that I want to call your attention to related to what they're saying as they're crying out after Jesus I'll do the second one first and that is the title that they have extended to him which is a son of David a new believer might listen to this and find this even a little confusing I think son of David why are they calling him that wasn't he considered to be or known to be the son of Joseph even though Joseph was not his actual father we know because Mary or you know was was a virgin when she conceived Christ but the fact is son of David was really just a way of calling him Messiah because in in Old Testament prophetic scriptures the the Messiah was was foretold to be a descendant of King David and therefore to say or to declare you know in his hearing to call him son of David was in essence to say you are the Messiah they were you know they might as well just say that come up to him and say Jesus you are the Messiah so instead they just said Jesus son of David and that's pretty impressive I think that these men were correct in their designation or their understanding of who Jesus was why do I say that well because for one thing they were blind isn't it interesting that these two blind men had greater insight into who Jesus was than all of the religious leaders who had their sight and they are the ones who are constantly saying oh yeah you know he's not you know this or he's not that whenever the people begin to think so and we even when he does do some miraculous works as we see at the end of this section that we're looking at they actually said that he was functioning in the power of satanic strength and so forth ability with crazy crazy stuff but I am impressed I'm impressed by these two blind men who saw Jesus for what or for who and what he was the second thing that I think that these men say that is equally impressive is this statement have mercy on us now you I hope you guys remember the difference between grace and mercy sometimes people get them a little mixed up but you'll recall that mercy is defined as not getting something that you do deserve in other words if I deserve punishment and I'm going to God and I'm saying please don't punish me I would say to him have mercy on me so here's what these men are doing they are going to and we don't know why they are blind we have no idea there's no insight that is given to us in the scriptures here regarding that fact why are they blind we just simply know that they're blind but rather than then getting involved all that we need to look at just what they're saying to Jesus they're saying have mercy on us in other words it's very possible that they believed that their physical condition was in fact a result of something in their lives maybe they just didn't know but either way they're crying out to the Lord and saying have mercy I don't deserve your love and what I am getting in my life I'm quite sure that I deserve that you know so Lord have mercy have mercy have you ever stopped to think what you deserve from God a little bit of a rhetorical question but I want to pause for effect there while you kind of think it out think it through just a little bit I remember talking a number of years ago well I guess it wasn't a number of years might only been a year or so ago but I was talking to someone who had I was sharing the Lord with and they'd made mention of the fact that they'd prayed to God for something you maybe you've had this happen to you're talking to somebody and they talk about how they've prayed to the Lord for something and didn't get it and so you know they their conclusion was kind of like well you know so no and I at the time I asked this person I said well let me ask let me ask you this what do you think you deserve from God and usually someone's rather rapid answer is kind of like well probably nothing you know just to kind of quickly get something out but I didn't want a rapid answer I wanted a thought process that would really take a moment and think through the question what exactly do you deserve from God you know these men were not coming to Jesus or calling out to Jesus because they believed that they were deserving they were coming to him in fact saying if anything what we've got we deserve but have mercy on us right isn't that a refreshing attitude particularly in light of our Americanized way of thinking which basically suggests that you know I have a right to many things in this life and it just it just kind of blows me away when someone talks about how they've prayed to God and the assumption is I should have gotten what I asked for and they're all disappointed in God because they didn't get what they asked for after praying once you know sort of a thing am I am I again my question is well number one what is it that you deserve I mean it's just something you and I it's not something God's necessarily gonna throw in your face but I will because it's something I think that we need to consider well you know when we're when we're talking to the Lord these guys are pressing in they're calling out to Jesus and they are making sure that he knows they understand that they are not applying to him for this miracle because they they they deserve this you know they might as well be saying Jesus you are the Messiah and we deserve nothing of what we're asking for but please would you restore our sight not because we are worthy not because we are deserving of your love and seeing your power in our lives but because you're good and you know what that's always going to get God's attention you know now I say that but yet did you notice that Jesus didn't give them his attention right away did you notice that it says in verse 28 that when they had gone indoors meaning Jesus in his party the blind men came in following after him did you notice that so they've been following for a while they've been shouting for a while Jesus son of David have mercy on us Jesus son of David have mercy on us can you are you you got this going through your mind here's the picture Jesus walking along walking along you know and and voices you know going on loudly Jesus son of David have mercy on us but he keeps walking and he even goes into the house where he's intending to go and probably share or whatever and and and so it's interesting isn't it that he holds back on his response I find that very interesting I find it also interesting that by holding back Jesus kind of compels these to take the next step to press in a little bit more I mean they've been yellow yelling they've been following Following along with Jesus, but he I we don't even know if he turns to look at them we don't even know all we know is that he goes into the place where he's going and These men are now faced with a decision now, what are we going to do? So what do they do they just go right into the house they come right in there and and you know I think it's interesting. I think that Jesus is maybe doing a little Testing here Kind of see if their words to them to him was just part of the excitement of getting caught up in the crowd or Do they really want what he has to give them? See where their hearts are really at, you know Is this a momentary cry Or Is this something that they're willing to press in to get I Want you to think about that people Are they willing To press in and I and again I want to bring up And that's something I've shared several times when wherever we're looking at how Jesus Responds to someone who's calling out remember we're seeing how God responds to people so we we learn something of the of the character of our God and sometimes how he Responds to us by how Jesus is doing this with these men and did you and I don't think Jesus is being cruel I don't think that at all. I don't think he's holding back for reasons of cruelty or Because he's being aloof, you know Or anything like that he is I believe he's testing are they willing to put forth The effort are they willing to press in and so forth? Have you ever stopped to think what would happen in reading this story? What if these guys gave up? What if they followed along? Calling after Jesus all that time and then saw Jesus go into the the house Where and they and they got and they got there and and and somebody, you know, of course these guys are blind They can't see what's going on. But somebody says to him. He went inside. Oh Let's go home But they didn't did they They pressed in Let me ask you a question how many times have you given up seeking God in prayer How many times have you prayed but when he didn't turn around right away When he didn't immediately give you the attention that you thought he should How many times have you given up and just kind of backed off There is a wonderful promise in the Word of God It's in the book of Jeremiah. Let me share this with you from Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 13 I love this verse. It says you will seek me and Find me when you seek me with all your heart this is a reminder of something a principle if you will a Guideline for you and I as it relates to seeking the Lord and bringing our petitions before him He doesn't say I am the God of the drive-up window That you can just kind of scoot through and you know, isn't that how prayer is often characterized by you and I you know I I made a quote I quoted someone last Wednesday night but I didn't credit the person because I I Think I just thought of it on the top of my head and I didn't look it up. But I quoted the the statement pray until you pray last Wednesday night because we were talking about prayer there too and That quote is by a guy by the name of da Carson in He wrote a book a number of years ago. That was kind of about prayer and he said in there pray Until you pray and the idea behind that is essentially that most of what passes for praying today Really isn't praying because what we're doing many times in prayer is we're just kind of quickly shooting up Sort of an announcement to God if you will this is what I need and then we give him a Advice on how we think he ought to meet that need and then we're done It's just kind of this quickie sort of a deal and that becomes prayer for you and I it's like, all right We're gonna pray now. All right God We need this And here's how you can meet that need. Thank you. Amen. And by the way You better come to the party. I Mean, that's kind of the that's kind of the implication, you know behind we may never say those sorts of things to God But you know, we pretty much mean it we expect you to show up God and if you don't I just want you to know I'm going to be sorely disappointed and we've Lost the whole concept of what it means to seek the face of God with all our Hearts I have another rhetorical question for you When is the last time? That you sought God That you could say with all honesty you sought God with all your heart Yeah, I know me too It's just one of those things that we we see from time to time in the word, but we don't often really Approach God in that way For and and for a lot of different reasons, I mean, you know God I think it's kind of a lot for you to ask that kind of time. I'm a pretty busy person For one thing. I mean that's takes a lot of time to seek God. I mean who has the time to do that? I'm busy. I got things going on. We're gonna have to do the quick sort of a not that there's you know There's nothing wrong with the kind of the quick prayers, you know at times You know Sometimes, you know, you're sitting down with somebody and and a witnessing situation comes up and you shoot up a quick prayer and you just say Lord, I just really need your grace as I'm talking to this person and you go back to talk and and that's what's needful at the moment But but often what we see in prayer is is No, no, no communing with God. No, no seeking after him No desiring of his presence. There's just kind of this Sharing here's what I need Here's how you can meet that need and we're done, you know in Jesus name. Amen. And by the way, I said in Jesus name And that's the key right and I was told that's the key to unlock That's it's the thing. I brought the magic key with me Jesus. You saw that right? You heard me say that I Told you what I needed I told you how you can meet that need and then I put the magic key in the lock and I said in Jesus name so I expect this to happen and Then when it doesn't we're just all Dejected and disappointed and we go around in bitterness and we say things to people like well You know, I tried that and I've had people say this to me. Yeah, I tried I tried praying once And you know by their very statement it kind of betrays the kind of prayer that they offered up Yeah, I prayed once it didn't do any good So much for God, you know Listen we see in the word here An interesting sort of a dynamic Regarding prayer and I am very impressed By these men as we've said we've picked up three things that Personally are very impressive. First of all, they knew who Jesus was they called him Messiah You know Second of all, they recognized that they did not deserve What they were asking for in fact what they did deserve was probably what they had But they were still asking anyway for his goodness to touch their lives. And the third thing is and this is very impressive they pressed in They pressed in And Christians once again, we need to learn from this We need to learn to pray until we pray until we're really praying until we're really Pressing in would you have had the boldness had you been one of those guys to make your way inside that house? He Jesus hasn't even Responded yet and and so often people will say come to me. Well, I prayed and I just haven't gotten any answer keep praying You know Why'd you stop? Did you stop because you didn't think you didn't really believe in your heart that he's good Maybe that was it and maybe these guys pressed in. I mean, what is it that motivates you To press through all the barriers including a doorway or a home that your mate you're maybe aren't even welcome in but you're gonna go In there anyway to meet with Jesus. What would motivate you to do that? There has to be an understanding in your heart That It's worth it to go in there and meet with this guy and I don't care and you know all this all this silence that I met with during my prayer time I'm not gonna let that discourage me and here's why Because I know that the one that I am petitioning is good You Okay, and you know what if you're convinced of God's goodness, you're gonna press in If you question God's goodness if you question whether or not he even loves you you're not going to press in and so maybe your lack of pressing To meet with God and to talk to him about the things that are really on your heart. Maybe you're inability to press through the barriers is More of a revelation of how you perceive God Then it is his unwillingness to respond at the very first cry Maybe there's something that you and I need to address in our own hearts again as it relates to how do I? View God and his character and so forth if you believe he's good Right you're gonna press in And you're not going to be dissuaded by a Momentary period of silence where God isn't responding Why isn't God responding? You know pastor Paul I've been praying about this and why isn't God responding Well, I'll tell you one reason That you know, you shouldn't consider and that is that he doesn't care don't even think about that Don't don't even consider the idea that the reason you're not hearing is because he doesn't care about you because you know what God has bent over backwards to tell you that he loves you and That you are the apple of his eye he delights in you He longs for you. And you know, the Bible even says he longs to show mercy He longs to show mercy But there is I'm struggling for how to describe this. There is a divine purpose to God's delays that you and I Cannot necessarily tap into or understand But we can't Let those divine delays color What we would otherwise hold in our hearts as an understanding of the character of the one to whom we are Petitioning these things we cannot you cannot let those divine delays Communicate to you, although the enemy would love to do it to say to you. God doesn't care God really doesn't love you. God isn't listening your prayers aren't getting anyway He answers other people's prayers not yours that sort of thing. You can't go there. You just can't go there You have to break down the door. You have to just press through and I think he wants to see that And you know what Jesus isn't even done talking to these guys about their petition Look what it says in verse 28 as it goes on here verse 28 They come into the house and and and Jesus looks at them and he says do you believe that I'm able He's not finished testing them to find out where their hearts are at The divine delay continues if you will to kind of take their spiritual temperature and see just exactly where their faith Is do you believe that I'm able to do this? Wow Now you might you might listen to that question and think Isn't that kind of a dumb question? I mean They've been following along yelling Along this procession and then even when he went in the house, they went in there followed after him. I mean, isn't it pretty obvious? That they that they think that he is able well, not necessarily not necessarily It is obvious and it was obvious to James when he wrote his letter in the New Testament that some people ask And really don't believe in fact, here's what James said in chapter 1 verses 6 and 7 When you ask he said you must believe and not doubt Because the one who doubts he says it's just like a wave of the sea Blown and tossed by the wind and here's what here's the conclusion that person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord This is that passage by the way that goes on to say He is a double-minded man. He's a double-minded individual and There is a kind of double-mindedness that asks but really doesn't expect To receive and so you see there is legitimacy to the question that Jesus poses to these two men Do you believe I am able I mean this is a big deal again, we don't know how these guys Got blind. We don't know how long they've been blind But after giving Jesus the response to his question It says in verse 29 that what Jesus said to them was According to your faith. It will be done to you and then verse 30 says and their sight was restored And we can probably understand how excited they were that even though he Commanded them not to tell anybody they went out and told Everybody not a real good start on obedience necessarily but again, you can kind of understand that and and So forth and that of course would make life a little more difficult for Jesus Because it's gonna stir up even more crowds and and that sort of thing and speaking of crowds you'll notice that verse 32 tells us that while these guys were going out somebody else was coming in and And do you get the impression Jesus hardly had time to rest? I mean even for a moment and in comes this man being brought by others obviously who is invested with a demonic spirit by which he is unable to talk and I want you to notice that that that's what it says in verse 32 that he was he was mute He could not speak now this you may not you may not have ever heard this before but there was a tradition among the rabbis of that time that the way that you Exercise a demon is by tricking them in to tell you their name They really believed it and so you would you would literally talk to the person invested with the demon So the demon would be speaking back to you and if you could get them to tell their name Then you could use that as a handle to oust the demon Now it was just it was just something that the rabbis believed. There was really no Biblical proof of it. But anyway, what that means is this man was beyond hope Because this demon had so taken a hold of this man's vocal cords that he couldn't speak So, how could you trick the demon into telling you its name? right It's not gonna happen. So as far as the Jews were concerned this man was beyond any Ability any any hope of of being restored? But you'll notice as we go on and read here in verse 33 that was not a hindrance to Jesus at all It simply says in verse 33 and when not if but when the demon was driven out The man who had been mute then spoke He just started talking which of course amazed the people and look what they responded by saying they said nothing like this has ever been Seen in Israel. Well, they're not necessarily talking about just demon possession and somebody being relieved of a demon They're talking about somebody who is being exercised of a demon that made them mute Because what they're basically saying is this was a hopeless situation, but Jesus showed that he had authority even over hopeless Situations that's the point Now the word is obviously spreading about Jesus what he's doing Can you imagine people are saying, you know, wow this guy what authority he even cast out a demon from a guy who? was mute So we thought there's no hope for this guy, but they took him to Jesus and he's talking he's in his right mind Everything's good to go. But of course the Pharisees decided that while they couldn't deny That something genuinely supernatural had taken place They explained it by saying it's by the Prince of demons that he drives out demons In other words, they're saying that he's in league with the devil Now I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time this morning giving credence to this statement and I'll tell you why we're gonna cover It again, they're gonna be dumb enough to make this statement a second time It's going to be covered in Matthew chapter 12 And then at that time Jesus is going to respond to their statement and we'll have plenty to say about it at the time So stay tuned but They should have recognized what they were seeing as being genuine as a prophetic Fulfillment of what the Messiah was supposed to come do Let me let me show you a passage from Isaiah chapter 42 on the screen here Look what look what God says to them through Isaiah This is written about 700 years by the way before Christ was born. I the Lord have called you in righteousness And I will take hold of your hand And I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles Look what Messiah is gonna do. He's gonna open the eyes that are blind He's gonna free the captives from prison He's gonna release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness We saw both of those things take place in the verses We've covered just today. The sight has been given to the blind those who are sitting in the dungeon of spiritual and demonic Darkness and oppression have been set free have been released That is exactly what Jesus is doing among the people and they should have recognized it In fact You'll remember that when John the Baptist had been arrested by Herod He came to a place of Kind of questioning. He was the one who boldly said in front of other people whenever Jesus walked by John was heard to say behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world Behold the Lamb of God Behold the Lamb of God. Well, then he got imprisoned You know you sit in a dirt dank prison for a while and your perspective can begin to kind of change and The Bible tells us that he sent word Through some of his disciples to go to Jesus and to ask them. Are you the one? That we were waiting for or should we wait for another? And Jesus understood What that that the prison can do that to a person? But he didn't didn't rebuke him or anything like that he sent back Basically the prophecies of Isaiah he told the disciples of John to go back to him and to tell them what they've been seeing and These are the very scriptures that John used to shout out About the coming of Messiah and the things that he was to do and John would say things like You know, and I'm not even worthy to to untie the the lace of his sandal. I I I baptize you with water, but he's going to baptize with the Holy Spirit and and so forth He's gonna do amazing things. It was from the book of Isaiah that John Derived his sense of ministry who he was that voice calling in the wilderness repent John knew well the book of Isaiah. And so what does Jesus say to his disciples? Go back and tell John what you see show it. Tell him what's going on Tell him that the eyes of the blind are being open. Tell him that the prisoners are being set free That was a direct connection to the prophecies made about coming of Messiah and the things that he would do And that was how the Jews were to recognize Messiah By the footprint that had been given to them through the prophets and not just Isaiah I might add but Isaiah did an amazing Job of let lining these things out for them. This is exactly what Jesus was doing You You