October 10, 2021
Evening Service

This morning Jesus revealed to us that it is what is in the inside of person that matters most to Him.  Lives are not changed by creating new habits or pursuing a new lifestyle.  Lives are truly changed from the inside out.  That is how God works in our lives.  To produce good works and positive encouraging speech, He first changes our heart when we give it over to Him.  It is from that pure heart which He owns that we are then able to truly know, worship and follow Jesus completely.  Tonight along our journey with Jesus we see Him acting with compassion and again healed all who comes to Him.  A Gentile mother even convinces Him to heal her daughter.

 

Mat 15:21-28 Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon.  (22)  And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed."  (23)  But He answered her not a word. And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, "Send her away, for she cries out after us."  (24)  But He answered and said, "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."  (25)  Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, help me!"  (26)  But He answered and said, "It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs."  (27)  And she said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters' table."  (28)  Then Jesus answered and said to her, "O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

            Jesus was initially sent exclusively to minister to the children of Israel, not those of other nations (Gentiles); that came later with the household of Cornelius.  The disciples had no time or compassion for this mother pleading for her daughter as they “urged Him to send her away, for she cries out after us.”  She was annoying them; causing them an inconvenience.  We must be careful not to ever treat someone in that manner.  All the people around us deserve to looked at with the same compassion Jesus gives this mother.  People can make this very challenging for us as some of them are just hard for us to tolerate, let alone have compassion on them.  Pray to see and love as Jesus did.

            The conversation between a mother, who out of need, would not be denied and our Lord is fascinating.  In the end Jesus praises her faith and grants her the healing for her daughter.  God will reward persistence in our prayers.  Never give up asking Him for what you need in a humble and thankful manner.  I believe it was her humility to identify with the little dogs that revealed her true faith in Jesus.  She was not too proud to accept being humbled to receive her request.  Now great multitudes find Jesus and bring more who need His touch.

 

Mat 15:29-31 Jesus departed from there, skirted the Sea of Galilee, and went up on the mountain and sat down there.  (30)  Then great multitudes came to Him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others; and they laid them down at Jesus' feet, and He healed them.  (31)  So the multitude marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.

            There is a lot happening in these short three verses.  Matthew is showing us that Jesus turned no one away regardless of what they were suffering from.  He healed the “lame, blind, maimed, and many others.”  As the disciples watched all this transpire, it had to be fascinating.  Imagine watching the face of a blind man who sees for the first time or a cripple stand up and walk!  This is stuff that had never been seen before and later the disciples would even do some of these themselves.  God is more concerned who we are on the inside, but He is also able to heal us on the outside as well.  He uses healings to bring glory to Himself and cause us to proclaim, “truly this is the Son of God!”  If you need a miracle, ask for it in faith believing He able and then trust Him to do what is best for us.  We now see Jesus again act in compassion to the needs of the large crowd that has assembled around Him.

 

Mat 15:32-39 Now Jesus called His disciples to Himself and said, "I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way."  (33)  Then His disciples said to Him, "Where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude?"  (34)  Jesus said to them, "How many loaves do you have?" And they said, "Seven, and a few little fish."  (35)  So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.  (36)  And He took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitude.  (37)  So they all ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets full of the fragments that were left.  (38)  Now those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children.  (39)  And He sent away the multitude, got into the boat, and came to the region of Magdala.

            Jesus again directs His disciples to feed this great multitude of 4-12 thousand people as He did earlier for the 5-15 thousand.  The disciples, like many of us, seem to be a little forgetful of what He has done in the past.  They ask; “where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude?”  At times where we find ourselves challenged like this, we need to look back in our lives and remember what God has done for us in the past and hold tightly to that.  If He did it before, He can do it again.  Rather than question “how?” move forward by faith knowing God will make a way where there ain’t no way.  Faith is believing in our Lord despite what it is we see before our eyes.  This time it He had “seven loaves and few little fish” to work with, but it was more than enough.  All He needs is all we have.  As we begin chapter 16, the Pharisees are again “testing” Jesus.

 

Mat 16:1-4 Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven.  (2)  He answered and said to them, "When it is evening you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red'; (3) and in the morning, 'It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.' Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.  (4)  A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah." And He left them and departed.

            So there are just some people who you just can’t please no matter what you do.  Jesus has now twice fed over ten thousand people in the middle of the wilderness with plenty of left overs.  He healed each and every person who came to Him for healing, regardless of their ailment.  He has cast out demons, raised the dead, and stopped storms with only His words.  BUT, the Pharisees want “a sign from heaven!”  I am not sure how they explained all the miracles that we just mentioned, but they were apparently not enough and they tested Him to do more.  Jesus refused to play their game knowing they would not believe regardless of what He did.  He criticized them for their lack of discernment as they can predict the weather, but are blind to the many miraculous signs that were happening right in front of them.  They were not seeking to believe, but to find something He could not do.  The only other sign they would receive would be that of Jonah being in the fish’s belly for three days. 

We too must be careful not to ask for a sign proving that Jesus is Lord.  He has given us more than we need to believe.  As Peter tells us that Jesus’ “divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue.” (2Peter 1:3) There are times that God does give us signs that He is on the job, but we need to be looking for them.  Don’t ever draw a line in the sand and demand a sign as the Pharisees did here.  Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of God (Rom. 10:17) not from miraculous signs.  Stand on His Word alone.  We will close with Jesus trying to teach us about the Pharisees in our lives.

 

Mat 16:5-12 Now when His disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.  (6)  Then Jesus said to them, "Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees."  (7)  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "It is because we have taken no bread."  (8)  But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, "O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread?  (9)  Do you not yet understand, or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up?  (10)  Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up?  (11)  How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? —but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees."  (12)  Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

            The disciples, as we do too often also, look at the physical side of the conversation rather than the spiritual side.  We are spiritual beings and we worship Jesus through “spirit and truth.”  We need to keep our spiritual eyes open and look at each situation as Jesus would.  Jesus is instructing us to beware of those who teach such things as the Pharisees.  If we dabble in them just a little bit, it can soon effect everything we do.  Steer clear of any teaching that you know does not line up with the Word.  Our enemy can use that to detour us from the path of following Jesus searching for things that are untrue or just don’t matter.  “Be careful little ears what you hear.”

            As the 13^th disciple every day is an adventure; anything is possible when Jesus is with you.  Walk each day now with the same sense of adventure.  He walks with us today, spiritually, as He did back then.  Go through each day with eyes that are looking for His handy work.

 

Heavenly Father, thank You for sending Jesus to be our Savior.  Open our eyes to see Him at work in our lives each and every day.