Reading Assignment: Matthew 9:18-25
Key Verse: Matthew 9:33
Main Idea: Jesus has power over everything.
Jesus’ power is shown in four miracles:
1. Hemorrhaging woman: Jesus healed a woman whom no one could heal for 12 years.
2. Dead girl: Jesus raised a girl from the dead.
3. Blind men: Jesus opened the eyes of the blind.
4. Demoniac: Jesus exorcised a demon and enabled a mute man to speak.
Prayer Suggestions:
1. Jesus. I believe You are the Savior who alone can reverse the curse of sin.
2. I trust You as my Savior.
3. You are the Lord who has power over all things. I trust You as my Lord. I commit to serving You and obeying You as the Lord, because I trust in You from my heart.
4. If there is unbelief in my heart, please help my unbelief. Help me to grow in my confidence in the reality of who You are.
Transcript
Let's begin with a word of prayer.
Our Lord, thank You for this time to give our attention to Your word once again. We pray that You would bless this time, that You would give encouragement, perspective, and strength to each one here who reads your word. Thank You that You have a great blessing that extends to eternity for all those who would heed your word by faith. We pray that You will speak to us now. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
The next passage to be read is Matthew 9:18-35. The main idea here is that Jesus has power over everything. Jesus has power over everything. The key verse is found in verse 33, where after Jesus exorcises a demon the crowds say, “nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.” The people testified of the uniqueness of Jesus's power. Jesus was able to do things that no one has ever done. In this section, Matthew completes the series of accounts of Jesus’ miracles. We've already seen a number of miracles thus far. Matthew gives us here the last cluster of miracles to demonstrate the amazing power which Jesus possessed over everything. From here on out, all that Matthew has to do is simply refer to miracles of Jesus, and we know exactly what he means. He means all of these wondrous signs which Jesus performed. In this final set of miracles, we find four stories of Jesus's power: His power over hemorrhage, His power over death, His power over blindness, and His power over demons.
First, the hemorrhage. There's a woman who was hemorrhaging/bleeding for 12 years. The Gospel of Mark also tells us that she had spent all her money on treatments, but she wasn't helped by any of it. But here is Jesus. While He was on His way somewhere, and you'll see where He was headed in a minute, this woman comes up behind Him, thinking that if she touched the fringe of His cloak, that she would be healed. Well, she finally was able to get close enough to touch His garment, and Jesus immediately notices what happened. So He looks at her and He speaks to her, not to rebuke her, but to encourage her. And He says, “Daughter, take courage. Your faith has made you well.” And at once the woman was made well. She had tried everything to stop her bleeding, but Jesus was able to heal her on the spot. He can do that which no one else can do. No physician that she went to, no treatment that she paid for, none of these things were able to heal her. But Jesus was able. Well, this story about the hemorrhaging woman is nested inside another story, but this time, a story of resurrection.
This is the second miracle. I told you that Jesus was making a journey somewhere. Well, He was on a journey to the house of a synagogue official whose daughter had just died. This man, a leader of the synagogue, he asked Jesus to come and raise her from the dead. His words were striking. He believed that Jesus can do the impossible, and so he asked Jesus, “Come, lay your hand on her, and she will live.” And so Jesus makes His journey to this man's house. And of course, on the way He encountered this woman and healed her. Well, finally, after healing her, Jesus arrived at the synagogue official’s house. And there were mourners mourning the girl's death. But Jesus enters the room where the girl was laid, along with her parents, and He took the dead girl by the hand and made her come alive. Jesus raised the dead, impossible for humans, but possible for God. The resurrection that Jesus performed during His ministry is remarkable. However, it's nothing like His own resurrection from the dead. Because when Jesus rose from the dead, He rose in glory never to die again. All those He raised from the dead during His ministry, He gave them a temporal resurrection. They were raised to life for that moment and then they lived a normal life. Then afterwards, they all died. We know they all died because if they didn't die, they would still be alive today. But of course, there's no one alive today who’s 2000 years old. Jesus' resurrection in this regard was entirely different and unique. But with His divine power, He did raise the dead, though with a temporal resurrection. All of this was meant to give a foretaste of the future Kingdom that Jesus will bring, the Kingdom of heaven which Jesus preached. Nonetheless, Jesus did the impossible. He raised the dead.
Then comes the third story, and it's a story of two blind men. These two men, they cried out to Jesus for mercy and from the sound of Jesus and the entourage that were moving along with Him, they knew where He was headed; and they followed Him. They followed even though they were blind. Remarkable! When Jesus met them, He asked them whether they believed He was able to heal them and they answered yes. And so, Jesus healed them on the spot and opened their eyes. Jesus opened the eyes of the blind.
The fourth miracle is the exorcism of a demon. We've already encountered other demoniacs earlier in Chapter 8, but here in this chapter we find a demoniac which made this man mute. Well, this man was brought to Jesus and there Jesus casted out the demon. And once the demon was casted out him, the mute man began to speak. And the crowds were stunned, and they made the statement in verse 33, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.” Jesus did that which was impossible. His power extends over everything, even life and death, blindness, and demonic powers. Jesus has power over all things.
Now some people take the miracles of Jesus the wrong way and they think that perhaps if you believe in Jesus today, that you should also experience these temporal healings. But you could tell that to have temporary healing or even a temporary resurrection from the dead is not salvation. Jesus didn't come to give us this kind of meager form of salvation. He came to give us an eternal and ultimate salvation, and all the miracles that He performed are best understood as the signs to lead people to believe in Him for the ultimate salvation which He promised in the Kingdom of heaven. He performed these miracles to give a foretaste of the true everlasting salvation from sin and the curse for sin. His objective wasn't to give everyone a slight improvement to their life on earth now. He knows our true need. He knows we need an eternal salvation. He knows that a temporal Band-Aid isn’t what we ultimately need. Jesus understands our deepest problem, which is the problem of sin and all the effects of sin, including the curse for sin which has brought about pain, suffering and death in this life. Jesus demonstrates these signs to show us that He can be trusted as our Savior. These miracles also show that He is the Lord, the God who possesses power over all things. And this is really the crux of Jesus’ teaching, which is that we would believe in Him as the Savior and as the Lord that He is, for all who believe in Him for who He is are given the gift of eternal life.
I think you all know the verse very well, John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” Well, what does it mean to believe in Jesus? It means to trust in Him as Savior and Lord. Let me quickly elaborate on this a little. What does it mean to trust in Jesus as Savior? It means to admit that I don't have the resources to save myself, or even to change myself. It is to declare that Jesus alone can save me and transform me. It is to say that I am not righteous in and of myself. I need Jesus to give me the status of righteousness which Jesus alone can give me as a gift. It means that I cannot earn heaven by my own effort; I need Jesus to grant to me eternal life. It also means that I can never earn God's forgiveness. I could never work off my spiritual debts before God. I can never undo my sins in the sight of God. What I need is someone to pay the penalty for my sins and to release me from my spiritual debts. And that someone is Jesus. He's the Savior who alone can save us from our sins. Matthew already told us this back in 1:21, that Jesus is He who saves His people from their sins. This is what it means to trust Jesus as Savior.
What does it mean to trust Jesus as Lord? It is to recognize that He has authority over everything, that He is the powerful God over everything, and my response to Him is simply to submit myself totally to Him as my Lord, my King, and my Ruler. To trust in Jesus as Lord is to go from living life where I am in charge, according to my own desires, to living life according to Jesus's words, where Jesus is now the authority over my life. It is to go from serving myself to serving Christ. It means that now I have Jesus as my Master, and I live to honor Him as Lord because He is the Master over my life. He's my Lord, my King, my Ruler, and my Master. To trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord, that is what it means to believe in Jesus. And this is the backbone of the message of the Bible, that everyone who truly believes in Jesus is saved from their sins and all the miserable effects of sin forevermore in the Kingdom of heaven.
Well, Matthew comes to the end of this section and he has a summary statement that mirrors what He said earlier in 4:23. Matthew writes in 9:35, “Jesus was going through all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom (that is, the future Kingdom to come), and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.” Matthew wants us to see this was what Jesus did. He taught, He preached the Kingdom of God to come, and He demonstrated His power to bring that Kingdom through His healing miracles.
Well, how might we respond to the Lord in prayer with all of this? We can tell the Lord that we believe all these things to be true, and that our response to Him is to embrace him as Savior and Lord. A prayer like this would be right for us:
Jesus, I read these stories and I believe them. I believe You have the power to reverse the curse of sin, even to raise the dead, to exercise power over demons, to heal every kind of disease and sickness. I trust in You that You are the Savior. There is no one who can save me from my sins and all the suffering and death that came from the curse of sin. So I place my faith in You. You alone can save me from my sins. You indeed are the powerful Savior. I trust in You for the forgiveness of sins, for eternal life, and for the righteousness that I need before God. I also trust in You as my Lord. You are the powerful God. There's none like You, and I submit my life under Your authority to serve and obey You.
If there's any doubt in my heart, I ask You to help me to gain the confidence that I need to trust in You, as I should. My desire is to believe in You and submit myself to You. Help me to become a man or a woman of faith who truly believes and obeys from the heart. I thank You that You came to help sinners. And I seek You for Your help. Amen.
As I’ve said before, always respond to the Lord with a prayer of faith. And even when you feel that your faith is lacking, call upon Jesus because He can help you. In Mark’s account of the story of the synagogue official, Mark tells us that when Jesus arrived, the man was struggling with his faith. And he cries out to Jesus and says, “I do believe; help my unbelief.” If you cry out to the Lord with the same prayer, He will help you.
Well, that's it for today. And we finished another week of devotions. May the Lord bless you and we are done for today.