Stronger than Our Ailments

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Transcript:

Matthew chapter 20 and John chapter 9. I’m going off of my notes a little bit because I had just intended to talk to you about one of these stories tonight, but we’re actually going to look at two of them. So I think we need to see both of them here to get a complete picture.

I started last week talking to you about some of the miracles of Jesus, and there’s no way that I could do a series on all of them unless I took about a whole year to cover all the miracles that he did, not only the miraculous things that he did, but the miraculous things that he taught. Each parable, each lesson was something completely unlike anything that they’d ever heard before. But as I started looking through the miracles that he did, I realized that they fell into, at least in my mind, about six categories.

And it’s not like the Bible lays out and says, here are the six categories of miracles of Jesus. It’s just in my own mind, I sort of analyzed and categorized things and put them in their little box. And I noticed that the miracles he did fell into about six different categories in my mind of things that they demonstrated his power and his mastery over.

And last Sunday night, I came and talked to you about the storm on the Sea of Galilee, where his disciples were, they had followed him onto the boat, so they were only in trouble. They were only out there because they’d followed him. and yet they’re panicking, running around like headless chickens when the storm comes up and is about to drown them.

And I say that not to criticize them, because I would be doing the exact same thing. But then finally somebody comes up with the idea, hey, maybe we should wake up Jesus. And they did.

And so even in their moment of panic and in their moment of terror, they woke up Jesus, and Jesus steps in and rebukes the storm, and he tells the storm to knock it off, and the seas are quiet. And then the ones who followed Jesus out onto the sea in the first place, and the ones who asked Jesus to do something about the storm, have been shocked when he did. Which again, I don’t want to be too hard on them, because I probably would be too.

So we have the benefit of 2,000 years of hindsight, being able to know how the story ends. But we started off there by looking at, there are things that we’re afraid of. There are things in our lives, there are storms that spin up out of nowhere, and terrify us, and cripple us, and cause us to panic, and Jesus is stronger than anyone of them.

And it doesn’t matter what we’re afraid of, Jesus is stronger than that. Tonight I want us to look at two stories of people who were sick. Two people who had, or two groups of people, two times that he worked in these people’s lives, where somebody was sick, and it was a sickness that even today would be difficult, and maybe impossible, depending on the cause of it, to treat with all of our medical science and our knowledge and our technology and the advancements that we’ve made in 2,000 years, they still might not be able to do what Jesus did with just a word or just a wave of his hand or some action.

And the point that needs to be illustrated in these two stories is that even with our collective wisdom and technology and advancement, we still cannot even begin altogether to rival the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. We feel like in 2016 that we’ve pretty well tamed the world. I mean, we’ve paved roads through the wilderness, we’ve dammed rivers, and we have reclaimed land from the sea, and yet we’re reminded all the time how the natural world still is untameable. hurricanes, floods, diseases.

There are still things that we can’t control. And yet in these two stories, we’re going to look first at Matthew chapter 20. In these two stories, Jesus demonstrated his immediate control.

That just like with the winds and storms, the sicknesses, the things that ail us, the things that seem so insurmountable to us, Jesus speaks to them or Jesus does some sort of action, And immediately, people are healed at his word. So starting in Matthew 20, verse 30. We’re going to start at verse 29, actually.

And they departed from Jericho, a great multitude. And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed him. So we’re probably on the road that we talked about this morning with the good Samaritan.

Just headed the opposite direction, headed back up to Jerusalem. They left Jericho, headed toward Jerusalem, and a great multitude of people followed him. And if you’re going to go on that road, that’s how you want to go, with a great multitude of people, because there’s safety in numbers.

But it says, Behold, two blind men sitting by the wayside, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. There were two blind men. We don’t really know much more about them other than they were blind.

And they’re sitting there as we don’t have them identified as people who were already followers of Jesus. They were just men who were blind and they were sitting there by the side of the road because there was nothing else they could do. They sat there and they begged and that’s how they supported themselves.

And as this crowd passes by, they hear that it’s Jesus. And no doubt they’ve heard the miracles of Jesus. No doubt they’ve heard rumors and stories about what he’s taught and what he’s done and his amazing power.

And so they think, now is our chance. And so they speak up and they call out to Jesus. And it’s only just recently occurred to me that it says here that the multitude was following him.

Multitude’s probably not walking in silence back up to Jerusalem. He’s got a crowd around him and behind him. And so these men would have to scream out to be heard.

There’s not a lot of dignity in this. These are desperate men. Because I’m guessing they tried everything that was at their disposal to deal with this problem of their blindness.

Jesus comes along and now is their chance. This is the only thing we haven’t tried. And they cried out and they said, have mercy on us, O Lord.

They needed mercy. They’re admitting here that we don’t deserve healing. We don’t deserve for you to stop and take pity on us.

We don’t deserve for you to do anything for us. We’ve never done anything for you. They were just asking for mercy.

And what we see from the scriptures is that those who come to God not looking to make some sort of deal, not looking as though, hey, you owe me, God, because I’ve done this in life. But those who come to God looking for mercy, they find mercy, don’t they? If we come to God humbled and admitting our shortcomings, do we walk away empty-handed when we ask for forgiveness?

Not in my experience and not in my reading of the Bible. Those who cry out humbly for mercy find it. So they cry out, have mercy on us, O Lord.

They were calling him their Lord. And they said, O Son of David. And they’re not just identifying here his lineage.

They’re pointing to him as the Messiah, as I understand it. The Son of David would be the one who would come to sit on David’s throne. The one who would rule on the throne of David forever.

They believe. These people believe. They may not understand everything that’s going to happen, that he’s going to come and he’s going to be crucified and that he’s going to rise again.

They may not understand all that, but at this point, these men believe that this is the one that God has been promising for all these years, for all these centuries. He’s the one that God has promised all throughout the Old Testament. And so knowing that we may never get another chance like this, the anointed one, the Messiah, is passing by, they cry out to him for mercy.

And Jesus stood still and called them and said, What will you that I shall do unto you? In other words, he asked them, What do you want? Are you crying out for mercy?

What specifically are you asking for? And I love that Jesus asked this question. Because this is how I work in conversation.

You’ll come and ask me a question. I’ll say, Well, what do you mean by this? Is it acceptable for me to, you know, does the Bible teach it’s okay for me to do this?

What do you mean by the word okay? Jesus says, let’s get specific here. What is it that you’re wanting me to do?

When you ask for mercy here, what does that mean? And I’ve learned over the years, too, that it’s real easy to pray these general prayers. Say, God bless me, bless my family, bless my church.

It’s something entirely different to step out and ask for something specific. Now, it doesn’t necessarily mean that God is obligated to grant you that request. Because we still have to pray in accordance with God’s will. But a lot of the prayers that I see being answered and being granted in God’s word are the times that the people had faith and the times that people had enough faith in God to ask for something specific.

And so he says, what do you want here? You know, oh Lord, have mercy on me. Great, what is it that you want?

And I said to him, verse 33, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. And so Jesus had compassion on them. That’s important to this message.

Jesus had compassion on them in verse 34. And touched their eyes. And immediately their eyes received sight.

And as I was writing out my notes earlier in the week, I totally missed this last part of the verse. And they followed him. I thought that was pretty neat.

He had compassion on them. He was moved out of a heart of love for them. And he reaches out and he touches their eyes.

and immediately their sight came back. It wasn’t, call me in a week and we’ll look at this again. Immediately their eyes were opened and they saw for the first time.

And they were so moved by what they had experienced that they followed him. Jesus healed them because he was moved with compassion for them. Now look with me at John chapter 9.

John chapter 9 starting in verse 1. And as Jesus passed by, he’s here in Jerusalem at this time. And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.

And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? And there are so many times the disciples ask questions that don’t seem all that smart to us in hindsight. And it’s kind of an odd question for them to ask.

Well, who did wrong? Who sinned, him or his parents, that he was born blind? But they’re just trying to come to terms with understanding what Jesus is teaching.

So they ask the question, and to be honest, a lot of us think this way. I thought for a lot of years, as a young person and as a young Christian, that things operated this way, that God operated strictly on a system of punishment and reward. You do something good, you get a cookie.

You do something wrong, you get zapped. And then I grew up and studied God’s word and got knocked around by reality a little bit and realized that the world’s not quite that simple. And sometimes we face the consequences of other people’s actions, and life is just not that simple.

There is punishment for sin, and there is reward for following him, but it’s not always immediate. It’s not as though God owes us, depending on how we act. And so they said, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?

Somebody had to have sinned here. Well, the point is we live in a fallen sinful world. Somebody did sin, and that led to his blindness, but it’s not a punishment.

It’s not that he did something or that his parents did, and they were being punished. Because Jesus said in verse 3, neither hath this man sinned nor his parents. He’s not saying that they never sinned.

He’s not saying here that they are sinless, perfect beings that somehow escaped the taint of Adam’s transgression. What he’s saying here is that the blindness is not a result of either his sin or his parents. They, in other words, are not responsible for what’s happened to him.

He says neither hath this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. He said there’s a very simple reason here why this man, in particular, is blind. and this doesn’t apply necessarily to every blind person or every sick person who’s ever lived but to this person he says there’s a simple reason here why he was born blind and it’s so that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

It is so that the power and the glory of God can be demonstrated through his life. He says in verse 4 I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day, the night cometh when no man can work and as long as I am in the world and the light of the world. He says, I have a very limited window of opportunity while I’m here on earth doing this earthly ministry to do the things that the Father sent me to do.

And we understand this. Just about everybody here, as far as I know, either is involved or has been involved in some form of agriculture or at least you work outside at your house, take care of your yard. So we understand this, what it means I’m losing daylight.

By the time I get home tonight, there’s no way I’m going to have time to mow because it’s going to be dark. And plus the snakes come out when it’s dark anyway, so I don’t want to be out there. There’s no way that I’m going to get the vegetables picked during the summer after it’s already dark.

If I run out of time, some things just have to wait until tomorrow. So we understand what it means to be burning daylight. And Jesus is saying here, I’m burning daylight.

I have a limited window of opportunity while it’s day to get the work done that the Father’s given me. He said, so that’s why I’m here. It’s no accident that we’re running into this man now because while it’s day, here is an opportunity for the power and the glory of God to be demonstrated in his life.

He says, as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. And it’s interesting that he would say that, right, as he’s about to bring light into the darkness of this man’s life. So it says in verse 6, when he had thus spoken, He spat on the ground and made clay out of the spittle.

And he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. Jesus healed people in a lot of different ways. And I would be lying if I told you that I understood why he did all the things he did the way he did.

I don’t understand why Jesus spit in the dirt and made mud and put it on the guy’s eyes. Whereas with the people on the road to Jericho, he just touched their eyes. And other times there were people that he just said, you were healed and they were healed.

I don’t understand Jesus’ thought process about why he did things the way he did. Unless, maybe, maybe, here’s the best explanation I can come up with, is maybe to keep people from thinking that there was some kind of magic formula for healing. But if Jesus every time, you know, said, put mud on your eyes, people would think, oh, if I put mud on my eyes, I can be healed.

Now, Jesus, if every time he touched their eyes, or if every time he said a specific phrase and healed them, then people would think there’s some kind of power in that specific phrase. So the best explanation I can come up with, because every time I read this, I wonder the same thing. Why did he spit and put mud and spit and dirt on the guy’s eyes?

And probably someone in here was thinking the same thing. That’s my best stab at an explanation, is that he wanted to make sure that nobody thought there was power in any particular action or phrase. There’s no magic words here.

It’s the power of God, however he chooses to demonstrate it. So he makes the clay of the spittle. He anoints the eyes of the blind man with the clay and said to him, in verse 7, Go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation sent.

He went his way, therefore, and washed and came seeing. So Jesus didn’t even heal him right there on the spot. Could Jesus have healed him right there on the spot?

Yes. Could also be that he wanted to test the man’s faith and say, here’s a demonstration of faith. Or maybe there was a bigger audience at the pool of some love.

I don’t know. But what I know is that Jesus put the clay on the man’s eyes, told him to go wash and he’d be healed. He went and washed and he was healed.

And this wasn’t some made-up fairy tale story. And neither was the other. There was a whole multitude of people following Jesus who saw this.

And if Matthew had written it down wrong about what happened on the road to Jericho, somebody would have come and corrected it and said, no. And Matthew’s account would have been buried a long time ago. So they’re still studying it today. If John had gotten wrong what happened at the Pool of Siloam, there were neighbors, if you read on past verse 7, there were neighbors and friends and people in the city who said, wait, is that the same guy?

It looks like him, is it? Yeah, that’s him. There were plenty of people who, if John had gotten it wrong, would have said, no, that’s not really how it happened.

And yet apparently nobody came forward because people believed it in John’s day and people continue to believe it now. So you’ve got these two stories where Jesus healed these people who blindness doesn’t seem to be something they could treat back then. For their day, there was quite a bit of medical knowledge.

Nothing like we have today. But there was quite a bit of knowledge. I mean, they could do, I mean, some of it we look at today and say, well, how backwards is that?

We don’t bleed people anymore. We don’t normally use leeches, except for a few procedures. There’s a lot we don’t do.

But for the technology they had, they had a lot of medical knowledge, but it doesn’t seem like they were able to cure blindness. And that was just beyond their capabilities, from what I understand. And yet Jesus comes in and very quickly, very easily heals these three men.

Either by touching them or by saying, go and wash and you’ll be healed. I’m not sure which is more amazing. They’re both pretty incredible to me.

That Jesus was able, not only in these times, these are just representative of all the healing stories in the New Testament, in the Gospels, but all the times that he was able to step in when a woman had been to every doctor in the area and hadn’t been able to be healed of her bleeding problem and Jesus comes along and just with a word says, you’re healed. There’s story after story after story of the times that people had given up hope because of some sort of physical ailment that all of the collective knowledge and expertise of mankind could not heal and Jesus just with His word or His touch healed it and demonstrated the incredible power that he has. And the reason that I brought these two stories to you tonight and brought both of them is to show you both sides of the coin.

Because a lot of times we pray for healing now. We pray for healing for somebody. We pray for healing if it’s his will.

And it sounds harsh to say, but healing is not always his will. Even people who were healed in Jesus’ day eventually died. He brought Lazarus back from the dead, and eventually Lazarus is still back.

I mean, there comes a point, God may heal you a hundred times, but there’s still going to come a point in time where healing is not His will for that circumstance, for that situation. And so we pray, Lord, if it be Your will, heal this person, heal me, deal with this circumstance. And sometimes He does, and sometimes He doesn’t.

And if he doesn’t, or if we pray for a long time and have to wait for a long time, sometimes we can begin to despair, forgetting about his ability to do anything about it, or forgetting about his care for us. And the way he approaches these two stories tells us a lot that we need to know when we come to God for healing, when we’re facing some kind of ailment that he can deal with, that God has both the power to meet our needs and the compassion to run to. And just because the answer isn’t always yes, shouldn’t allow us to forget either of those two sides of that point.

That just because God doesn’t heal us of an ailment, doesn’t mean that he can’t. And just because he doesn’t, or doesn’t do it in our time, doesn’t mean that he doesn’t care. There was no..

. Hear me on this. Please understand what I’m trying to say.

There was no reason for Jesus to come and do these miracles and heal these people in the sense that there was nothing that we had done to earn that. God was under no obligation. Jesus was under no obligation to walk through Jerusalem and walk through Jericho and walk through the areas in between and heal people and ease their suffering.

if we suffered every day of our lives, I mean, we’ve sinned. We deserve what we get. And yet God, God the Son came and had compassion on these men.

Not because they’d earned it, not because they deserved it, but just because He is compassionate. And He had the power to heal whatever disease they had. In one story, in one of these stories, It talks about the compassion that he had.

It doesn’t mean that he didn’t the other times, but that’s what Matthew remembered, that he looked and he had compassion on them. And it still amazes me, and it should still amaze all of us, that God would have compassion on us at all. See, I know myself.

I know what goes on in this mind. I know the attitudes that sometimes lurk inside this heart. And it’s incredible to me that God would still have any kind of compassion for a person like this.

It’s amazing to me that God would have compassion on any of us. But he was reminded in that story that even at our lowest point, even at our most desperate points in life, God still works on us with compassion. These men had nothing to offer Jesus.

And he looked on them with compassion. The other story says the suffering you’ve gone through is not in vain. It’s not without reason.

As you’ve gone all this way, we don’t know how old the man was, but from birth he’d been blind. And suffering wasn’t in vain. Because Jesus looked at him and said, this has happened so that the power of God would be demonstrated.

So that people could see God at work. And then he healed it. And we’re reminded that God has the power to heal us, but even if he doesn’t, just like it should be amazing to us that God looks on us with compassion, it should be amazing to us that God chooses to walk in and through our lives at all.

And I’m, you know, before you say, well, that’s easy to say if you haven’t suffered anything, I’ll admit, I have never had cancer. Thank the Lord. I’ve never broken a bone.

I’ve never had shingles. I don’t want to. I’ve never had anything all that bad.

And walking pneumonia is the worst that’s ever gotten. And yet if you look outside the physical elements, there’s been suffering, there’s been times of trouble in my life, and to know that these things happen, and to have seen how they happen, so that God’s glory could be shown, means more than thinking I just suffered because it’s an empty universe and that’s what we do is suffer. What these two stories do is taken together, they show us both sides of the coin to remind us that the things that we go through are in God’s control.

And it doesn’t mean that when something bad happens, he caused it. It means he allowed it. But they’re under God’s control.

God knows, and God looks on us even in our suffering, even in our struggles, even in our lowest points. He looks on us with compassion, and He works in and through our lives to demonstrate His glory, not only through us, but to us as well. And that we are never forgotten by God, but that we are loved by God, and that He’s always at work in our lives.

That we can trust the power of a God who at any time could end the suffering, but also can use the suffering for a purpose.