Jesus is the Lord Jesus Christ – regardless

Matthew 9:18-35

 Cousin Fergy called and said the New Year was getting off to a great start. He and Gerty had gone for their second session of marital therapy. He said that when the therapist asked Gertie how Fergy was doing on his assignment she bragged that he was doing the impossible.

 I said, “Come on, Freddie, I can’t believe that.”

 “Then he said, “All right! Her exact words were, “Freddie? He’s absolutely impossible.” But let’s not quibble over Semantics!”

Okay, let’s not quibble over semantics but let’s quibble over what’s impossible and what’s not. There’s a Chinese proverb that says: People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

 According to Matthew, Jesus was doing a lot of things that people would consider impossible.  Here’s the outline of where we are in Matthew. Jesus is doing shocking things. Let’s take a look paying particular attention to the response he got. It’s amazing how differently people react to Jesus – then and now. 

Matthew 9:18-35.

  18 While Jesus was saying this, a Jewish official came to him, knelt down before him, and said, “My daughter has just died; but come and place your hands on her, and she will live.” 19 So Jesus got up and followed him, and his disciples went along with him. 

20 A woman who had suffered from severe bleeding for twelve years came up behind Jesus and touched the edge of his cloak. 21 She said to herself, “If only I touch his cloak, I will get well.” 

22 Jesus turned around and saw her, and said, “Courage, my daughter! Your faith has made you well.” At that very moment the woman became well. 

23 Then Jesus went into the official’s house. When he saw the musicians for the funeral and the people all stirred up, 24 he said, “Get out, everybody! The little girl is not dead—she is only sleeping!” Then they all started making fun of him. 25 But as soon as the people had been put out, Jesus went into the girl’s room and took hold of her hand, and she got up. 26 The news about this spread all over that part of the country. 

27 Jesus left that place, and as he walked along, two blind men started following him. “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” they shouted. 

28 When Jesus had gone indoors, the two blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I can heal you?”

“Yes, sir!” they answered. 

29 Then Jesus touched their eyes and said, “Let it happen, then, just as you believe!”— 30 and their sight was restored. Jesus spoke sternly to them, “Don’t tell this to anyone!” 31 But they left and spread the news about Jesus all over that part of the country. 

32 As the men were leaving, some people brought to Jesus a man who could not talk because he had a demon. 33 But as soon as the demon was driven out, the man started talking, and everyone was amazed. “We have never seen anything like this in Israel!” they exclaimed. 

34 But the Pharisees said, “It is the chief of the demons who gives Jesus the power to drive out demons.” 

35 Jesus went around visiting all the towns and villages. He taught in the synagogues, preached the Good News about the Kingdom, and healed people with every kind of disease and sickness.

Another day in the life of Jesus. The prophet said a light would dawn and it was shining brightly in Galilee everywhere he went all day long.

 First, a synagogue official from Capernaum came and knelt down before Jesus. His daughter had just died and he wanted Jesus to shine on her and bring her back to life.

 Before Jesus could do that he had to deal with an interruption. A woman who had a bleeding ailment thought if she could just touch Jesus, just get a flicker of light from him, she’d be healed. And she was right. Jesus spoke just a few words but they were powerful and tailor made for this fearful woman.

  After this delay, they arrived as the funeral activities were in full swing. Jesus chased everyone away and they made him the butt of their jokes for saying the girl was still alive. While they were insulting him, he went to the little girl and helped her out of her deathbed.

 Next two blind men followed Jesus as he went back to his own house or maybe Matthew’s. My guess is that it was the hot part of the day and time for a rest and a cold drink. They followed Jesus in and left with their thirst quenched, their sight restored and the urge to tell everyone they met what Jesus had done.

 As the blind men were leaving another party barged in with a demon-possessed man who could speak. Jesus sent the demon packing and suddenly the man could talk. 

 There may have been more light that day but that’s all Matthew reported. It was a typical day in the life of the Messiah. He healed a woman the doctors couldn’t help and told her to be courageous. He raised a girl from the dead. He healed two blind men. He cast out a demon.

 Most of it was done in public. Lot’s of people saw what Jesus was doing. Lot’s of people saw the same things, but they didn’t all have the same reactions.

 Verse 33: The crowds marveled, saying, “Never was anything like this seen in Israel.”

 Verse 34: But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by the prince of demons.”

 These are two vastly different responses. There’s an online workshop called The Skeptics Tool Box < http://www.skepticstoolbox.org/hall/>. It delves into a human phenomenon: One person will look at the evidence and believe. Another person will look at the same evidence and not believe.

Paul ran into the same thing in Athens. When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others . . . believed (Acts 17:32-33).

 So there are a lot of people who have seen Jesus in action, heard his teaching and seen his miracles. Some are open to him but others poke fun at him and some go so far to claim that he’s evil, controlled by demons. The skeptics were going public in denouncing Jesus. So what does he do? What would you do?

 Here’s what Jesus did: He went through out all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction (35). He stuck with the game plan. He didn’t let the naysayers get to him.

 Tim Ferris is the author of the bestseller, The 4-Hour Workweek. He’s an interesting guy. At Princeton he studied neuroscience and East Asian studies. He speaks 5 languages. At one time he was the National Chinese kickboxing champion. He was a horseback archer in Japan, an MTV breakdancer in Taiwan, a hurling competitor in Ireland and an actor on a hit TV series in China and Hong Kong

 In his blog he talks about the inventor of the Segway, Dean Kamen: He’s no stranger to doubters and skeptics. People said the Segway was impossible, but Kamen disagreed, and he was right. Be more careful not to bend to the majority for whom impossible is a comforting excuse for inaction.

  Jesus didn’t bend to the religious leaders and they killed him for it. But he accomplished what he set out to do. He let his light shine. We need to do the same thing.

 Sometimes in the high tech age of skepticism and relativism and pluralism and me-ism, it seems like an impossible task. We’re surrounded by thousands of people but it’s impossible that they would listen or even care about what I have to say about Jesus and their need to be saved.

 Jesus told the woman to be courageous – that’s having a mental willingness to endure toward accomplishing the impossible. I want to try to do the equivalent by telling you about John Mason

 John Mason is a national best-selling author and minister. He has authored fourteen books including An Enemy Called Average, You re Born An Original-Don t Die A Copy, Let Go of Whatever Makes You Stop, and Know Your Limits-Then Ignore Them. Just his titles are inspirational.

  In his book, The Impossible Is Possible: Doing What Others Say Can't Be Done he has some ides that will help us be more like Jesus:

1. You’ll always miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take. 


2. Worry is like a dark room, because dark rooms are where negatives are developed. 


3. In times of adversity, you don’t have an obstacle; you have a choice. 


4. Failure is the opportunity to start over more intelligently. 


5. Faith is like a toothbrush. Everyone should have one and use it daily, but you shouldn’t try to use someone else’s.

Jesus had an incredibly difficult mission and he did not falter even when people laughed at him and maligned his character. He pressed on and did what he did.

We also have a mission – the Great Commission – and we have Jesus promise to be with us each step of the way. Like Jesus let’s be about our Father’s business – Mission Possible.

Youth Message

Not Everyone Believes

Would you believe me if I told you: there was a pie fight in Texas with over 400 people hurling chocolate, apple and cherry pies, on 7 January 2010.

Would you believe me if I told you: there’s a pig that can jump four feet in the air.

No. Kotetsu is a pot-bellied Japanese pig that can jump 27 inches.

Would you believe there’s a dog that’s four inches long? No the shortest dog is Brandy and Chihuahua from Florida.

Would you believe there’s a rabbit with ears that are 31 inches long. Yes, Nipper’s Geronimos from California.

Would you believe there’s a motorcycle that’s over 11 feet tall? Yes, build by Gregory Dunham.

Would you believe there’s a living room couch that can go 50 miles an hour? Yes, there’s a motorized sofa built in England that can go 92 miles an hour.

Would you believe that someone loved you enough to die on the cross so your sins could be forgiven and you could go to heaven?

Yes, I know you believe that. But do you know there are some people that don’t believe.

Some people don’t believe because it sounds too good to be true.

Some people don’t believe because they don’t want to admit that they have any sin that needs forgiven. And some don’t want to stop.

It’s sad but there are a lot of people that don’t believe – yet. That’s a very important word, because we hope and pray that one day they will.