Alderwood Community Church January 18, ONLY Jesus Saves Behold and Worship Your King Sermon Series Matthew 9:1-38

Transcription

1 1 Alderwood Community Church January 18, 2015 ONLY Jesus Saves Behold and Worship Your King Sermon Series Matthew 9:1-38 Intro: A little more than two hundred years ago, Adoniram and Ann Judson boarded a ship and set sail for India on a journey that would eventually lead them to Burma (modern-day Myanmar). Along with William Carey, the Judsons are considered pioneers in the modern missions movement. These missionaries were and continue to be used by God in some extraordinary ways for the cause of global missions; however, their journey looked anything but successful on the outside. The intense suffering the Judsons endured on the mission field was foreshadowed by a letter written from Adoniram to Ann's father asking for permission to marry his daughter. The following is Adoniram's candid request: I have now to ask, whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world; whether you can consent to her departure, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of missionary life; whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death. Can you consent to all this, for the sake of him who left his heavenly home, and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing, immortal souls; for the sake of Zion, and the glory of God? Can you consent to all this, in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with the crown of righteousness, brightened with the acclamations of praise which shall redound to her Savior from heathens saved, through her means, from eternal woe and despair? (Anderson, To the Golden Shore, 83) Gratefully, Ann's dad said "yes," the couple was married, and a year later they set sail. Ann's dad would never see his daughter or son-in-law again. In fact, Ann would lose her life sharing the gospel with people who had never heard the good news of Jesus Christ. As a result of the Judson's service, today there are nearly 4,000 Bible believing churches with more than a half a million followers of Christ in the heart of Buddhist Burma/ Myanmar. 1 My guess, is that in a room with this many people here, there may be just a few that God would actually call to go across the ocean to proclaim the Gospel to another people group. But I do believe he calls each one of us here to go across the street to establish a relationship and talk to our neighbor about Jesus, or to go across the cafeteria to get to know another student or across the room to speak with a co-worker. Context: Matthew is establishing Jesus authority. In Ch. 8 we learned that Jesus possesses absolute authority: Over disease, men, nature and demons. In Ch. 9 we will see Jesus 1 David Platt, Exalting Jesus in Matthew (Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary) (Kindle Locations ). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

2 2 demonstrate his authority over sin and death which qualifies him to be the only perfect savior of all mankind. 1. Embrace This Reality: A. There is no other means for humans to become rightly related to God, except through the one mean that God Himself has provided: Jesus Christ. But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins... Then he said to the paralytic, Get up, take your mat and go home. Matthew 9:6 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men. 1 Timothy 2:3-6 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. Acts 4:12 Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6 (1) Man s Problem: Sin has alienated him from God, condemned him to Hell. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23 For the wages of sin is death [eternal separation from God in hell], but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 (2) God s Solution: Jesus Christ s substitutionary death on the cross to forgive man s sins. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 He [Jesus] himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. 1 Peter 2:24 Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel that Christ dies for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures... 1 Corinthians 15:1,3-4 (3) Jesus Christ s Credentials (Matthew 9:1-34) *Read Text: Matthew 9:1-13

3 3 (a) Jesus has the authority (power and ability) to forgive sins and reconcile humans with God. (1-8) (key verse: 6) (b) Jesus came into our world, to seek out sinners in order to save/forgive them. (9-17) (key verses 13, 15) (i) He called Matthew (9) Matthew is doing in his narrative what the great Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn did in one of his most famous paintings of the crucifixion. He portrayed all the characters one would expect in such a scene: Jesus, the two thieves, the soldiers, and a large crowd of onlookers. But down in the corner of the painting, as one who shared in the guilt of the crucifixion and is not afraid to admit it, Rembrandt has painted a portrait of himself. Thus, as Matthew, he has testified to the fact that he too was a sinner and that he trusted in Jesus as the one who died to save him from his sin. 2 (ii) He associated with sinners (10) (iii) He explained the reason the came to earth which was to call sinners to faith and repentance. (11-13) The NIV puts sinners in quotation marks because first-century Judaism used the term in at least two specialized senses: (1) Am-ha-aretz ( the people of the land ), i.e., the vast majority of Jews who did not follow the stricter sectarian regulations of the Pharisees; and (2) particularly grievous sinners the most criminal and disreputable types of people in society. Here sinners carries this second sense, since Jesus and his disciples themselves were am-ha-aretz and would have provoked no objection simply by eating with their own kind. The combination of tax collectors with sinners, prostitutes or Gentiles ( pagan[s] ) recurs throughout the Gospels (Matt 11:19; 18:17; 21:31 32; Luke 15:1). Such references became idiomatic, demonstrating how unwelcome the tax collectors were to the Pharisees. Various factors in different times and places fueled this hostility, including the tax collectors support for the levies of the Roman government, making some view them as traitors to their country. They also regularly defiled themselves by contact with Gentiles and often were dishonest and unscrupulous charging more than they were required to so they could keep the additional profits for themselves. 3 2 James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of Matthew (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2001), Craig Blomberg, Matthew, vol. 22, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 156.

4 4 Jesus fraternizing with disreputable people remains a scandal in the predominantly middle class, suburban, Western church. Many of us, like the Pharisees, at best ignore the outcasts of our society and at worst continue to discriminate against them. We do well to consider substantially increasing our spiritual, evangelistic, and social outreach to minorities, the homeless, prostitutes, addicts and pushers, gays and lesbians, AIDS victims, and the like, as well as to the more hidden outcasts such as divorcees, single parents, the elderly, white-collar alcoholics, and so on. We must get to know them as intimately as Jesus did only close and trusted friends shared table fellowship over meals. We dare not join with sinners in their sinning, but we may well have to go places with them and encounter the world s wickedness in ways that the contemporary Pharisees in our churches will decry. 4 (iv) He illustrated his reason for coming. Jesus is the groom, seeking his bride. (14-17) Throughout the Old Testament God had pictured himself as the bridegroom, seeking to draw his bride (Israel) to himself. Jesus is claiming to be the bridegroom who is in pursuit of his bride (sinners who need repentance)! This reinforces the idea of Jesus being the one who initiates salvation by seeking us! (c) Jesus demonstrates his authority and his compassion as he heals diseases, raises the dead and casts out demons. (18-34) (i) Jesus raised a ruler s daughter from the dead. 9:18-19, (ii) Jesus heals the woman who had suffered for 12 years. 9:20-22 (iii) Jesus heals two blind men. 9:27-31 (iv) Jesus heals the demon possessed mute man. 9:32-34 Notice it is desperation that draws these people to Jesus As for being incurable, the condition of the dead girl and the condition of the woman were both clearly beyond hope. But not for Jesus. What we are told is that the woman s contact with Jesus healed her from that moment (v. 22) and that as soon as Jesus had taken the dead girl by the hand she got up, being raised from the death that held her. None are too unclean, too isolated, or too hopeless for Jesus to save. He can even raise the dead. The point of these stories is that this is exactly what Jesus does in the case of everyone who is saved from sin. It is what he has done for you if you are a Christian. What does sin do to us after all? Obviously, it makes us unclean. It contaminates us, and none of us can come before the purity of God s presence until our sin is dealt with. When Isaiah saw the Lord seated upon his throne in heaven he cried out, I am ruined! For I am a man of 4 Craig Blomberg, Matthew, vol. 22, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 157.

5 5 unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips (Isa. 6:5). He trembled before God until an angel touched his lips with a coal from the altar, saying, Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for (v. 7). Sin also isolates. It keeps us from God, which is the worst thing about sin, but it also isolates us from other people, creating hurts, hard feelings, and misunderstandings between races, individuals, and even members of one s own family. Isaiah also wrote of our isolation from God: Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear (Isa. 59:2). Then, too, our condition is hopeless apart from grace. Nothing could be more hopeless than death, and we are described as being dead in our sins (Eph. 2:1). But the same chapter of the Bible that says we were dead in our sins also says, But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:4 7). There is no finer picture of that love, grace, resurrection power, and salvation than Matthew s account of the healings of the ruler s dead daughter and the bleeding woman. 5 B. There is no other method to communicate this reality (Gospel), except through the one method that God Himself has established: You! You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Acts 1:8 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, and the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation We are therefore Christ s ambassadors, as though Christ were making his appeal through us. 2 Corinthians 5: Engage In The Mission of Jesus Christ. A. Obey the command of Christ. (1) Pray (9:35-38) A. Ask the Father to send more workers. (especially to our loved ones and friends) B. Ask the Father to send you. C. Ask the Father to give you and others, boldness, clarity, sensitivity and creativity. D. Ask the Father to open the spiritual eyes of the people you know who need Jesus. (2) Witness (Acts 1:8) 5 James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of Matthew (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2001), 157.

6 6 A witness is one who tells what they know, what they have seen, heard, smelt, felt and experienced. The witness is not to act as the prosecuting attorney and try to convince the jury. So you too, are a witness and are to tell what you know about Jesus. You don t have to win the case or close the deal or get them to get on their knees to say the sinners prayer. That is God s job. The Holy Spirit of God does the heavy lifting. The Father draws people to Himself. You are not a soul winner you are a witness, simply telling what you know about Jesus and how he has impacted your life. Now, we want and desire people to pray the sinners prayer and we hope we can participate with people when they cross the line of faith and receive Christ s offer of salvation and forgiveness. But we have to keep clearly in mind what our part is in the process and what God s is. This is very liberating, and created much joy and relief. B. Follow the example of Christ. (9:9-17) (1) He was laser-beamed focused on his mission. I must be about my Father s business (Luke 19:10, Mark 10:45, Matt. 9:9,13) (2) He associated with sinners. (9:10-11) (3) He had mercy and compassion on the hopeless and helpless. (9:18-34) C. Follow the example of the men (9:2,10) (Expand on this ) (1) The men who brought their paralyzed friend. (a) They believed that Jesus could heal their friend. (b) They were determined and creative in getting their friend to Jesus. (2) Matthew who invited his friends to a dinner with Jesus. (a) Throw a Matthew dinner party or BBQ for your unbelieving friends or neighbors and invite other believing friends. Share the Gospel. (b) Grow in your knowledge and skills. Take classes, read books, tell your story! (c) Utilize resources available at our Kiosks in the church. (d) Use Social Media to proclaim Christ (e) Give away books, tracts, and other materials. Refer people to websites. Conclusion: 1. Embrace This Reality. A. There is no other means for humans to become rightly related to God, except through the one mean that God Himself has provided: Jesus Christ. B. There is no other method to communicate this reality (Gospel), except through the one method that God Himself has established: You! Will you communicate the gospel to others? 2. Engage in the Mission of Christ. Further help: Check out the sermon series Game Plan for Getting People to Jesus (February 10, 17, 24, 2013) on our website: alderwoodchurchfamily.org