Speaker 2: Well, I have a confession to make.
I'm not ashamed of it, but it's a confession.
I love Kung Fu Panda.
I recently have been basically singing the soundtrack around our apartment.
My wife can attest.
And I just love the movies.
I love the franchise.
I love the soundtrack.
I listened to the soundtrack when I sermon prepped this week.
It's amazing.
I love Kung Fu Panda.
Recently, Kung Fu Panda 4 came out, which was not as good as the first
two, but it was still very, very good.
Now the key moment, I'm going to kind of spoil the movie, but I'm not going to try,
I'm going to try to keep it vague enough for you if you still want to go see it.
But it's 2025, came out last year, whatever.
It's your fault, you haven't seen it yet.
But, what happens in this movie is Poe, the panda, makes a friend.
And, at the climax of the movie, his friend betrays him, and goes
back to serve her old master.
She serves her old master, and gives Poe back to be captured by the master.
And so then She gets second thoughts.
She's like, wait, Poe is so kind to me.
Look at him.
He's so nice and friendly and fluffy.
Poe is kind.
He trusted me.
He loved me.
He was so good to me.
He was such a good friend.
He cared about me.
And she realizes that her master, the bad, the bad guy, the villain of the
movie, actually doesn't care about her.
That her old master doesn't love her, doesn't want what's best for her.
He's just using her as a tool, while Poe actually cares about her.
Now you see Every single one of us has a master.
Every single one of us is serving someone.
We all have someone that we're living for, or something that we're living for.
Maybe you'd like to say it was Jesus, but maybe it's your friend's approval.
Maybe it's your own pleasure.
Maybe it's your reputation.
Maybe it's you want to feel a certain way about yourself.
Maybe it's you just want to enjoy life and plug your ears and
just do whatever you want to do.
We're all living for something.
We're all mastered by something.
And what I want to ask you tonight is will your master take good care of you?
Will whatever you're serving love you back?
Will it give you back everything that you're giving to it?
Or maybe it's a person.
Will that person give you back everything that you're giving to them?
I can promise you that if Jesus is your master, if Jesus is your
King, He will love you back way more than you could ever love Him.
And that's why Jesus is the best King.
So we're going to be looking at Matthew 9 tonight.
Make sure you've got your Bibles here every Wednesday night.
Turn to Matthew chapter 9 in your Bible.
We're going to be looking at King Jesus and why we know
that Jesus is the best King.
Jesus is the best King that you could ever serve.
The best person you could ever serve.
Follow.
That's the main point of tonight's sermon.
Last week, Pastor Rod was in Matthew 8.
We talked about Jesus authority.
So Jesus teaches the Sermon on the Mount for three chapters, and
then he comes down the mountain, and he starts healing people.
He starts casting out demons.
He starts doing all these amazing things, and that's to show his
authority, to show that he is the King.
He doesn't just teach with authority.
He can back it up with who he is.
He is God in the flesh.
He is the long awaited Messiah.
He is the King of Kings.
That's what we learned last week, and now this week we're going to be continuing
on in this story of what Jesus is doing after he comes down the mountain.
Now see, if you're a good Bible scholar, you'll remember the last
time that a prophet came down the mountain in Israel, or to Israel,
it didn't go so well for Israel.
It was the prophet Moses coming down Mount Sinai, teaching
God's law, and Israel failed.
They made a golden calf, and they worshipped it.
And then in the book of Numbers, they all died in the wilderness,
because they rejected God's prophet.
They rejected God's word.
And so, they suffered all the curses of their disobedience to God.
Matthew 8 and 9 is showing that this time is different.
This time, God is not just coming down the mountain giving them commands.
God has actually come down as a person to live for them and
to reverse The curse of sin.
So you'll see a lot of Jesus miracles in the, in these two chapters
are reversing the curses of sin.
They're reversing the powers of evil that have come into the world because of sin.
So look at Matthew chapter 9, verse 1.
And getting into a boat, Jesus crossed over and came to his own city.
So he comes, comes back home.
And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed.
And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Take heart,
my son, your sins are forgiven.
And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, This man is blaspheming.
Now that means he's taking what's God's and claiming it for himself.
But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Why do you think evil in your hearts?
For which is easier to say, Your sins are forgiven, or rise and walk?
But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.
He then said to the paralytic, Rise, pick up your bed, and go home.
And he rose and went home.
When the crowd saw it, they were afraid.
And they glorified God who had given such authority to men.
So this first miracle Jesus does is really less about the
miracle and more about authority.
That's what Matthew says the point is.
The point is that these people are amazed, they're shocked, they're
scared of Jesus's authority, and there's a controversy, right?
They're upset at Jesus.
The the crowds are like, wait, you can't do that.
Jesus, only God can do what you're saying you can do.
That's not okay.
You're claiming to be God, and if you're claiming to be God, we should
kill you because there's only one God.
That's what the Jewish crowds are feeling.
But then what happens next?
We'll, look at verse nine, as Jesus passed on from there.
He saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth and he said to him follow
me and Matthew rose and followed him and As Jesus reclined at table in the house
Behold many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and
his disciples now tax collectors We're like the worst people in Israel like
your parents don't like taxes This was like way worse because tax collectors
weren't just taking people's money.
They were traitors to Israel They were people who had said, We don't want
to be with Israel anymore, we want to be with Rome, the occupying empire.
And they would take way more money than they were supposed to, and
they would keep it for themselves.
So they're traitors, they're robbing their fellow Israelites
to help Rome and help themselves.
These are, like, the worst people.
So, when the Pharisees, verse 11, saw this, they said to the
disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?
But when he had heard it, he said, Those who are well have no need
of a physician, a doctor, but those who are sick need a doctor.
So verse 13, go and learn what this means.
I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I came not to call the
righteous, but the sinners.
So last week we saw that Jesus authority means that he's king over all.
That Jesus authority means that whether you want him or not, He's involved with
your life because he's the king of kings.
You can never say that Jesus is irrelevant to you.
Even if you reject him, he is king.
Regardless of what you think about him or how much you want to listen
to him or not, Jesus is always king.
But now we also see that Jesus is not just authoritative, He is the best
king because he's the perfect king for anyone honest enough to admit
that they are hopelessly sinful.
Jesus wants to be with the worst people in Israel.
That's who Jesus says he came for.
He came for the sinners.
He came for those who know that they can't make it on their own.
That they're not good enough.
That their heart is wicked and evil and they have no hope of keeping God's law.
Jesus is the perfect king for you.
Deep down, you know that you aren't good enough, that you can't do what we
just have been talking about for the past few months in Matthew's Gospel.
You know that your heart is selfish.
Your heart is wicked.
Your heart can't keep up with God's Word.
Jesus is the perfect King for you because He came to save sinners like us.
So point number one tonight, be honest about your spiritual sickness.
Be honest.
Be real.
Don't try to fake it.
Don't try to pretend you're not sick.
See, trying to pretend that you're okay when you're really not is actually one
of the worst spots you could ever be in.
I used to always go hiking with my family on New Year's Day, and
I accidentally made a mistake.
A really, really awkward tradition on New Year's Day.
So what would happen, every time we go hiking, I need to
use the bathroom very often.
I'll just say that.
Every time we go hiking, I would be like, This time, I can make it.
This time I can go up and back and not have to worry about anything.
I'm going to do it this time.
And so I would talk myself into it, because I don't want, you know, you
don't want to be that guy that has to, like, go off the trail and, you know,
do that, and then come back, right?
You don't want to be that guy.
And then everyone has to stop and wait for you, and then it's that awkward, you
come back and join the group, and, like, you know, no one's going to say, they're
not going to be like, oh, how was it?
You know, like, it's super awkward, right?
No one wants to deal with that.
So, every year, I'd be like, you know what, I'm going to make it.
This is going to be it.
And every year, I'm going to make it.
So my parents started packing tissues, just in case I needed them.
And so I was pretending I was okay, but I really wasn't.
I was pretending that I could make it, and because it was my pride, that, oh yeah, I
don't need that, I can make it, I always ended up in the same awkward situation
over and over and over again every year.
Now, that's a funny illustration of that, but see, this could go really bad for
you if you don't admit your spiritual sickness, that you have a problem.
See, the biggest problem in your life is not how you think you should
look and you don't look that way.
It's not how you think you should, how smart you think you
should be and that you're not.
It's not that those people aren't friends with you, or that that person doesn't
want to be with you, or that your parents don't do this, or that you can't be
good enough at that, or that whatever.
That's not the biggest problem in your life.
Because The biggest problem in your life is that your soul is sick.
Your soul is evil.
Your soul has a problem.
Your soul is drawn to things that are poisonous for it.
Your soul is drawn to sin.
You're addicted to poison.
And so, you need help.
But if you're not aware that you're addicted to poison, you're going
to keep drinking it and keep dying.
Look back at the beginning of this chapter.
Jesus, initially, This is, when you stop and think about it,
this is, this is really weird.
Jesus sees this, this group of people bringing a para,
a paralyzed person to him.
Now if you're the paralyzed person, and his friends, and Jesus says,
your sins are forgiven, but doesn't heal you, would you feel let down?
I came all this way for Jesus who's been doing all these great
things, and what does he say?
I forgive you.
What?
That's not why I'm here.
And so the scribes though, that's not what they're, what they're upset about.
They're upset that Jesus is saying, I can forgive sin.
That's what this story is about.
This story is about forgiving sin.
Jesus does tell them, get up and walk, but that's not his biggest problem
because remember what Jesus said earlier in the Sermon on the Mount,
he said, it'd be better for you to cut off your hand and gouge out your eye.
So it's better if this paralyzed person is forgiven and stays paralyzed and
goes to heaven versus has this miracle happen to him, get up and walk, and goes
to hell if his sins aren't forgiven.
This is about forgiveness.
This isn't about Jesus healing someone.
Your biggest problem is unforgiven sin.
If your sins aren't forgiven, you'll die forever in hell.
It doesn't matter what else, you could have the perfect life
that you could always dream of.
And if your sins aren't forgiven, you'll regret it.
It won't be worth it.
That's your biggest problem in life.
And Jesus is the best king because he came to address this problem.
He alone can forgive your sins.
The Pharisees couldn't forgive anyone else's sin, but Jesus
said, I forgive your sin.
The biggest problem in your life is unforgiven sin.
Jesus isn't just offering forgiveness, he actually comes
to his people with forgiveness.
Look right there at the bottom, verse 13.
For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.
If you're honest with yourself, this is one of the best verses in the Bible.
If you're not honest with yourself, this verse doesn't matter.
And then, you're not honest with yourself, you don't admit you
have a problem, you don't come to Jesus, and you end up in hell.
If you're honest with yourself, you know that this is you.
You know that you're a sinner.
You know that you break God's law.
The problem is, if you're never honest with yourself, you
think you're in this category.
And so then, you never come to Jesus.
And you never get forgiven.
But I also want you to know that Jesus comes for sinners.
Jesus is not saying, clean yourself up, then come to me.
Start reading your Bible more, then I can forgive you.
Start showing up at church more, start being more respectful to your
parents, start obeying me more, be a better person, then I can forgive you.
That's not what Jesus is saying.
Jesus came for sinners, not people trying to be better.
Jesus came for sick people, not for people starting to take meds.
Jesus does not shrink back from your sin.
Maybe some of you don't feel like you can become a Christian because
you feel like you're not good enough.
You're not as good as your friend.
You don't know the Bible like that person.
You're not nice like that person.
Jesus didn't come for nice people.
Jesus came for sinners.
If you're a sinner, Jesus came for you.
Jesus isn't scared of your sin.
Your sin's not going to be too big for Jesus to forgive.
He's not going to see your sin and be like, Oh, sorry, you're on your own.
That's too much.
I'm out.
He's not scared of it.
Jesus can forgive it.
And also, if you're a Christian, you have been saved.
You can't.
Sin your way out of that.
Jesus isn't saying, oh, you sinned too many times, you're
not a Christian anymore.
Jesus isn't scared of your sin.
He came for sinners.
Every time you sin as a Christian, you can always come back to Jesus.
Because that's the exact type of person He came for, is the sinner.
This story you probably heard before in Luke chapter 9.
There's two people that Jesus talks about, there's a Pharisee who's bragging about
how righteous he is, and then there's a tax collector, right, the worst person in
Jewish society, who's standing far away.
He won't even look at God.
He can't look God in the eye, he's so ashamed of his sin, he's so
heartbroken over what he's done.
And he says, God, please be merciful to me, a sinner.
He's honest.
He gets it.
He knows I don't deserve to be with God.
I am terrible.
I'm wicked.
I'm evil.
And what does Jesus say about this person who's honest?
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.
So it's not just that the sinner gets justified.
It's the self righteous Pharisee doesn't get, the self deceived Pharisee who's
not honest with himself, who doesn't bring his sin into the light, who covers
it, who hides it, doesn't get forgiven.
See, Jesus will not save anyone who thinks they are righteous without Him.
If you don't think you need Jesus, you're in a bad place.
Even as a Christian.
Even if you're a Christian and you think, now I'm good enough.
Now I have a good relationship with God because of, look at
all the stuff I've done, God.
That's a bad spot to be in too.
Jesus will not save anyone who thinks they are righteous without Him.
So we need to be honest, transparent.
Don't hide it.
Don't cover it up.
Jesus doesn't want you to cover up your sin.
He wants you to bring it to Him, admit that it's wrong, and ask for forgiveness.
So what's different about honest sinners who admit their sin
and sinners who go to hell?
Right?
If everyone's a sinner, what's the difference then?
Does Jesus just let sinners keep on sinning?
Oh, yeah, I know Jesus, I'm a sinner, I'm just gonna keep sinning.
Is that what Christians do?
Well, I think the rest of our passage actually answers that
question, so keep on reading with me.
Verse 14.
Then the disciples of John, John the Baptist, came to him, to Jesus,
saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don't fast?
And Jesus said to them, Can the wedding guests mourn as long
as the bridegroom is with them?
The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from
them, and then they will fast.
No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for
the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made.
Now, so you know when you put stuff in the dryer too long, or you put the
wrong thing in the dryer, it shrinks?
Jesus is saying, if you have an already shrunken thing, And then you
try to, like, patch a hole and put, like, a not shrunken thing on it.
When you put it in the dryer again, so to speak, if Jesus had dryers,
then they'll shrink at different rates, and they're different sizes,
so it'll just mess up your shirt.
That's what Jesus is saying, okay?
So verse 17, Neither is new wine put into old wineskins.
If it is, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed.
So same idea, right?
Just a different picture in case you didn't get the first time.
But since I'm pretty sure none of you even have seen a wineskin
before, don't worry about it.
But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, so both are preserved.
So the point here is old stuff and new stuff don't mix.
Now, I don't know if you're like me, but sometimes I read the Bible and I'm like,
what does it have to do with anything?
Like I read these two verses, the last two verses, and I was
like, I have no clue what it does.
So what do you do?
You just keep going, and maybe when you keep going, it'll sort itself out.
That's what I did the first time I read it.
So that's what we're gonna do right here.
Verse 18.
While he was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in, so an
important person, and knelt before him, saying, My daughter has just died.
But, come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.
And Jesus rose and followed him with his disciples.
And behold, so she's on the way to, this is like 9 1 1 Jesus, right?
This would be pretty epic if you could do this.
Hey Jesus, this person just died.
Get in your ambulance and come down here.
Verse 20, And behold, the woman who had suffered from a discharge of
blood for 12 years, bleeding for 12 years, that's, that's almost as
long as most of you have been alive,
came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment.
For she said to herself, for if I only touch his garment, I will be made well.
Jesus turned, and seeing her, so imagine you went up to an ambulance, you're
like, hey ambulance, please help me.
Please help me.
Will the ambulance stop for you?
No, they'd probably run you over, right?
But Jesus ambulance stops for this person, which is much less of an emergency,
because clearly there's a, there's someone dead versus someone bleeding.
Right?
This is where the word triage comes in.
If you're, if you're an EMT, like Hudson, you don't do this, right, Hudson?
I mean, I guess you wouldn't go to a dead person anyway, so never mind.
All right, verse 22.
Jesus turned and seeing her said, take heart, daughter.
Your faith has made you well, and instantly the woman was made well.
And then when Jesus came to the ruler's house and saw the flute
players in the crowd making a commotion, now pause for a second.
Why are there flute players at this dead person's house?
They have like professional mourners.
And this time period, so there's people that, like, come to express
how sad the family is and how sad, like, their friends are.
That's why there's flute players at this random dead person's house.
Cool?
All right.
So.
Saw the flute players in the crowd making a commotion.
Verse 24.
He said, Go away!
For the girl is not dead, but sleeping.
And they laughed at him.
Which, by the way, if you've ever been laughed at before,
Jesus knows what that's like.
And you can talk to him about it, because he cares about you.
And he lives a real human life with real interactions with people.
Verse 25, So when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took
her by the hand, and the girl arose.
And the report of this went through all that district.
So so far, the common theme here, right, Jesus has authority over
death and disease, but also, these two people are desperate for Jesus.
This ruler come up to him, Jesus, please come.
My daughter's already dead.
I need help.
This woman, who's been waiting 12 years for someone to help her, comes to Jesus.
Jesus, please help.
And he does.
Then, in verse 27, we see a similar situation.
As Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud,
Have mercy on us, son of David.
And when he entered the house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus said to them,
Do you believe that I'm able to do this?
They said to him, Yes, Lord.
Then he touched their eyes, saying, According to your
faith, Be it done to you.
And their eyes were opened.
Jesus sternly warned them, See that no one else knows about it.
And this is always, this always cracks me up.
But they went away and spread his fame through all that district.
If you had one job, guys, come on.
But, the reason Jesus does this, which, this happens a lot across the Gospels,
the reason Jesus tells people, don't tell anyone about this, is because if
Jesus is going around healing people and raising people from the dead, what do
you think all the Jews are going to say?
Let's make this guy our king, and let's get rid of the Romans.
Maybe he can, like, destroy them all, and use his power and authority
to get rid of them, and we can set up our Jewish nation kingdom.
And that would be bad, because then Jesus wouldn't die on the cross, etc.,
etc.,
etc.
And then we wouldn't be here.
So that's why this happens.
That's why Jesus says, don't tell anyone.
Because it seems kind of counterintuitive, right?
Like, why, Jesus, don't you want people to know about you?
Like, what are you, what are you doing?
But that's why, because Jesus wants to die for us.
So that's why he keeps it a secret.
But, back to what we were saying, this is the third set of people
who are desperate for Jesus.
These blind people are following him.
You know how hard it is for a blind person to follow someone?
They're following Jesus, crying aloud, have mercy on a son of David, and
they keep following him to this house.
And then they trust him, and so he heals them.
So, all of these people, they're running after Jesus.
They know that if we don't get to Jesus, we're done.
No one else can open our eyes.
No one else can heal us.
No one else can raise my daughter from the dead.
They're all desperate for Jesus, which translates into faith.
They all are expressing great trust in Jesus.
Jesus, we need you, and Jesus, we believe that you can help us.
So our second point tonight is cling to Jesus with heartfelt dependence.
Cling to Jesus.
Hold on to him like that woman reaching out to grab his cloak.
Cling to Jesus with heartfelt dependence.
Not just superficial, surface level, oh yeah, I know I need
Jesus, but real, tangible.
Felt desperation for Jesus.
See, the parallel between all of these people
is their faith.
I highlighted all that in green.
Verse 18, the ruler, his name is Jairus, if you read other passages
that, in other Gospels that are parallel to this, he's confident in Jesus.
I know you can do this.
She will live.
And then the bleeding lady.
I will be made well.
She's confident.
And Jesus says, your faith has made you well.
And then, the blind men, do you believe that I'm able to do this?
Yes, we know.
We're confident.
And then, according to your faith, be done to you.
These people all trust Jesus with their life, or with their daughter's
life, or with their health.
They are confident that Jesus can save them, and will.
I think sometimes,
we think mental assent to Jesus.
Oh, I know Jesus can save me.
Is what it is, what, what it takes to become a Christian.
That's not true.
If these people knew Jesus could save them and didn't go
after him, would he heal them?
If there were other blind people, maybe there's a third blind man who says, if
you asked him, yeah, I think Jesus could heal me, but if he doesn't go after Jesus
like these other two and follow him and cry out to him and ask him to save them.
And put all of his eggs in Jesus basket, so to speak, and
say, Jesus, please save me.
Would Jesus have done it?
I don't know.
But these men went after Jesus because they had heartfelt dependence on Him.
They knew they needed Him.
They felt it, and they went to express that.
Being a Christian isn't just checking a box and saying,
I think Jesus could save me.
I think Jesus could forgive me.
Being a Christian is a lifetime of clinging to Jesus, grabbing
onto him, holding on, depending on him, trusting him from the heart.
If I was going to illustrate this in modern terms, trusting
Jesus isn't a vaccine.
It's not just your shot and then you're like, all right, I'm
good for the rest of the year.
And then you get sick anyway.
But it's not just your one time shot for the flu and then you're, you're good for.
For all of your vaccination for the year.
It's not all that's not how Jesus works.
It's not how faith works It's not a one time.
All right, cool.
I'm done.
Don't need faith anymore.
I can just go on living Jesus compares himself to food, right?
He says I am the bread of life You don't just eat one meal and
be like, all right, I'm good.
Don't eat the rest of my life.
I got all my calories Wouldn't work that way you keep coming back to
it because you keep needing it.
You always need food And so you always need Jesus.
You always need to come back to Him, to fill you up, to
express your dependence on Him.
Because if you didn't eat, you would die.
If you eat today, but you don't eat next day, and the next day,
and the next day, the next day, for three weeks, you'd also die.
That's the same thing with faith.
It's a repetitive exercise of trusting Jesus, of holding on to Him.
Now, Now, what do we do about these verses that I skipped?
Right?
Maybe you read this the first time and you're like, I don't know what to do.
Well, I think what Jesus is saying is the old stuff and
the new stuff don't mix, right?
Well, the old stuff, that's what the Pharisees do.
So I, I think what Jesus is saying here, what Matthew is saying,
is that the superficial surface level religion of the Pharisees.
of fasting, right?
They would fast, but they wouldn't really express any need for God, right?
The point of fasting is, God, I need you even more than I need food.
That's the point of fasting, is you get so hungry and you're like, you know what?
If eating makes me feel this bad, imagine if I didn't have God.
Imagine how that would feel.
That's the point of fasting.
So the Pharisees would fast, but it was, it was just to impress people.
It was just because it's what they did.
It was just to be a religious person.
So their superficial Churchianity, if you will, doesn't mix with the new.
What's the new?
Well, the new is, remember what we talked about with Sermon on the Mount?
Following Jesus is from the heart, right?
You've heard it said, don't commit adultery.
But I say to you, whoever looks on someone with lust in their heart,
or we talk about anger, right?
It's not just about not murdering, but it's about being, whether
you're angry in your heart or not.
So the superficial Surface level, old way, doesn't mix with what Jesus
is really calling his followers to.
So you can't have surface level religion and follow Jesus.
Because following Jesus takes your whole being.
It's heartfelt.
It's with all of you.
All of you is trusting Jesus.
You can't just go through the motions
and expect that to be good enough.
Something else I think we see in these passages is just because
you're around Jesus doesn't mean you have a relationship with him.
I heard one pastor say that there were a lot of people who bumped into
Jesus in the crowd, but only the woman reached out in faith and touched him,
and she was the only one who was healed.
So, similarly, just because you're around Jesus doesn't mean you
have a relationship with him.
Pick up with me back in verse 32,
as they were going away, so that the two blind men, they went away,
they disobeyed Jesus, and they started telling everyone about him.
As they were going away, behold, a demon oppressed man, who
was mute, was brought to him.
And when the demon had been cast out, the mute man spoke, and the
crowds marveled, saying, never was anything like this seen in Israel.
But the Pharisees said, He casts out demons by the prince of demons.
I think there's a reason that Matthew puts the blind people right before this.
Because remember, what did the blind people call Jesus?
They called him the son of David.
They're recognizing Jesus is the Messiah.
Jesus is the Old Testament promised king who's come to make everything right.
The blind men actually see the most about Jesus.
See, their response to Jesus is actually the best response.
I made this like a stoplight, just to help you see it.
The blind men, that's the good response.
Jesus, we want to follow you, we need you, you're the Messiah.
The crowds, remember we talked about the crowds before, these same
crowds are going to crucify Jesus.
But they're impressed by him.
They're like, yeah, Jesus, you're amazing.
You're really cool.
We've never seen anything like this.
But then the Pharisees, they attribute Jesus works to the devil.
So, obviously, that's not what you're supposed to do.
But even these crowds, they're around Jesus.
They see all his stuff, but a lot of them are gonna be yelling,
crucify him, in about 20 chapters.
Just because you're around Jesus doesn't mean you have a relationship with him.
Just because You know a lot, like the Pharisees, doesn't mean you
can see what's really going on.
The blind men actually have the most sight in this chapter.
They see that Jesus is the Messiah.
So I want all of us, point number three, to watch out for spiritual blindness.
Watch out for spiritual blindness.
The blind men were physically blind, but they saw the most about Jesus.
I used to work at a bank.
And at the bank we had some businesses that we would also do banking for.
And one of the businesses, my favorite one that we banked for, was Ray's Donuts.
Now you might already know why they were my favorite.
Because, I guess his name was Ray, I don't actually know if his name was Ray.
He would come in every once in a while and bring in donuts.
For all of us.
Which is pretty epic.
So we got free donuts like once a month from, I'm just gonna call him Ray.
And he would get there at the donut shop super early in the morning and
every day bake these fresh donuts.
Now that, like can you imagine, like your job is to go just make donuts.
And like smell them and, here I'll just, I'll help, I'll help you out.
You could see these every day and make them and maybe sample them
make sure they're good Wouldn't that be awesome if this is your job?
Like oh, that would be so good We asked Ray, which he's a larger
man, but we asked Ray Ray don't you just love getting up and working in
this shop that it smells delicious.
You know what Ray said?
I don't smell it anymore
He was around the doughnuts so much, they, they had no impact on him.
He couldn't smell them.
Wouldn't it be amazing to smell doughnuts every morning?
Well, until you stop smelling them.
Because you're nose blind, that's what they call it, right?
You can't smell it anymore.
I think a lot of you in this room are like Ray.
You can't smell Jesus anymore.
You're so used to Jesus.
You're so used to being around Him, and hearing His miracles, and hearing
His Word, and seeing what He does.
It just doesn't really faze you.
I think the Pharisees were like that too.
They, in the crowds, they saw all Jesus miracles,
and they didn't believe in Him.
Because they didn't see the way they were supposed to see.
There's some more doughnuts for you.
See, blindness, spiritual blindness, is a condition that the Bible says affects
everyone before that they're saved.
You can't see God the way you're meant to see him, right?
You don't smell the beautiful doughnuts.
You just work in a doughnut shop.
You're insensitive, you're hard hearted, your heart, it's
like it's got scales over it.
It can't feel what it's supposed to feel.
That's what the Bible says.
And now actually, spiritual blindness is a danger for believers and unbelievers.
Look what Peter says, 2 Peter.
He's talking about Christians who are growing.
He says, if you're not growing, whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted
that he's blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.
So it's not the same as being an unbeliever, right?
You're not completely numb to who God is, but even as a Christian, you
can desensitize your heart to God and to his word and to what he does.
So don't write these down.
I even said, even if you started writing signs of righteousness and then wrote
the subtitle, you would be writing, don't write these down because you
don't have time to write all these down.
But these are some things.
That maybe show that you might suffer from spiritual blindness.
You might be hard hearted.
Even as a Christian.
You might be slowly desensitizing yourself to God and His Word.
Right?
You might be unaware that you need God.
You might be so focused on you and your life and what you need
to do, you don't trust God.
Or maybe you hear the gospel and you're like, yeah, whatever.
Heard that.
Been there.
Believed that.
I'm good.
The gospel is something, even as a Christian, you need to cling to.
Remember, we talked about Jesus food.
Jesus isn't a vaccine.
Or maybe, you're just uninterested in the Bible.
You're just like, whatever, I can read.
Or you look down on it.
You think it's dumb.
You think God's words, or God's people, are losers.
You're maybe numb to familiar Bible passages.
You know, for God so loved the world, He gave His only Son.
Cool.
Or maybe, you read an intense Bible passage, and you're
like, whatever, I don't care.
God's warnings are meant to shake you away, and if you're insensitive to those,
you're in a really, really bad spot.
So these are just some things that maybe show that your heart
is insensitive to God's Word, and that's the worst spot to be in.
See, the Pharisees, they were like, Jesus is a demon.
The crowds, they were a little sensitive.
They're like, whoa, this is so cool.
They didn't trust him, but they were just like, this is really cool.
Where as the blind men, they felt like they needed Him.
They were sensitive to Jesus.
And that actually, I think, is our example of how to fight
against spiritual blindness.
How to pursue sensitivity to God.
What did the blind men do?
They put themselves in Jesus way.
They knew, Jesus is coming, let's, let's get in front of Him.
Let's ask Him for help.
Because ultimately, they knew that We can't unblind ourselves, but if they just
stayed silent and didn't do anything, they're not putting themselves where
Jesus is, where Jesus would heal them.
Today, God has given you paths that he walks, so to speak.
He's given you his word.
He's given you sermons.
He's given you prayer.
He's given you church.
He's given you Maybe a Christian family, maybe Christian friends.
He's given you places where he's active.
Where he's moving.
It's up to you to put yourself in his way and cry out, God have mercy, I need you.
To do point number two, to express your dependence on him.
That's how you fight hard hearted insensitivity to God.
You put yourself in the way of Jesus.
You throw yourself in front of him and say, please change me.
You throw yourself at his word and read it and pray with all your heart.
You just keep going to the places where God has promised to meet you.
You don't shrink back from small group.
You don't stop participating in church.
You don't stop doing the things that God has said to do, even if they don't
seem like they're working at first.
You realize that Jesus didn't heal these people until they got to the house.
They didn't give up.
They persevered.
They pressed on.
And they're blind.
They don't even know where they're going, but they're following Jesus
because they know Jesus is, is merciful and we believe that he's gonna heal us.
We trust him.
We need him.
There's nowhere else we can go.
We might as well follow him anyway.
If they didn't follow him all the way, would he have healed them?
I don't know, right?
But they did.
They persevered.
They kept going.
So if you feel like God's distant from you, that God isn't answering your
prayers, your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling, they're coming back down, or you
read his word, it doesn't do much for you.
You come to church, you're like, whatever.
You come to True North, you talk to your, your leader, your friend, it doesn't
feel like you're connecting with God.
Keep going to where God has made himself available.
And it might take a while.
You might be walking after Jesus for a long time.
But Jesus is ready and willing to heal, and ready and willing to meet
you with all that He is for you.
And that's the last reason that we see Jesus is our greatest
King that we could ever have.
We're gonna finish up Matthew 9 here, verse 36.
I realized I was looking at verse 35, I was like, why does that not match?
All right.
When Jesus saw the crowds, He had compassion for them.
They were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Then he said to the disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out
laborers, laborers into his harvest.
I think that two of the most important words in this passage are
right here, compassion and shepherd.
Because they tell us what type of king Jesus is.
That word compassion, it's a really strong word in the language
that Matthew's using to write.
It, it means it's like from your, back then they would've said
from your, from your stomach.
But for us we would probably say from your heart.
Right, from everything within you.
That's how much he felt compassion for these people.
He cares, he sees that they're harassed, helpless, they're vulnerable.
They're sheep without a shepherd.
Sheep are some of the stupidest animals you could ever find.
But they need a shepherd.
And Jesus is willing to be that shepherd.
And so what does he do?
He wants to go get the sheep.
He wants to bring them back in.
He, he sees these people who are harassed and helpless.
He sees their, their state.
Maybe they have unforgiven sin.
They're headed to hell.
Maybe they have so many trials that he wants to be their rock.
During and so he says there's so much out there But there's not many people to
bring them in so pray earnestly to the Lord He's sending out people to go bring
them to him Jesus is going after people He's not waiting for them to come to him.
He's going after these crowds these vulnerable people Because He loves them.
So I want you to rejoice in Jesus pursuing love.
Jesus love goes after other people.
It's outgoing.
He doesn't wait for you to find Him.
He even made sure that you were born at a time where you had a Bible in your
language in a country where it's legal to share the gospel, at a place where you
could hear biblical teaching to parents who would bring you to church So that
he could tell you that he loves you, and he wants you to be one of his people.
He orchestrated all of history so that you would hear that right now.
If you were born one hour west of here, you wouldn't be here, hearing God's Word.
If you were born a hundred years before that, or if you were born on the other
side of the world, you wouldn't hear this.
God puts you here because he wants you.
He's chasing after you because he, he wants you to be one of his people.
He's a compassionate shepherd.
And so I want to ask you,
will your master take care of you like Jesus will?
If your master is money, or pleasure, or approval, will that take care of you?
Will that love you back the way Jesus will?
Will money go out of its way to make you happy?
Will pleasure go out of their, her way to satisfy you?
They'll just keep stringing you along, and you'll keep coming
back empty every single time.
But Jesus,
the King of Kings, will love you far more than you can ever love Him.
He'll take much better care of you than you can ever take care of yourself.
He'll provide for you, He'll protect you as your shepherd.
Because He is the best King.
So hold on to Him with all your heart.
Don't let Him walk by and not say anything.
Put yourself in His way and cry out, Have mercy on me, King Jesus.
I want to be one of your people.
Let's pray.
Father, in your word, you compare yourself to a shepherd who goes after a stray
sheep and brings it home rejoicing.
We're so grateful that you love sinners.
If you didn't love sinners, we wouldn't have any hope.
So I pray tonight that you help us to feel that and to believe that.
That you love sinners, not because of anything we do,
but because of who you are.
And that if we cling to Jesus, cry out to Him in faith that we can
experience this love and it will overflow in our hearts and satisfy
us more than anything ever could.
Help us to be focused and attentive in small groups, help us to be honest,
to admit our spiritual condition, to not hide our sin and let it grow in
the dark and enslave us even more.
But I pray that we would be honest and that we would be aware.
And that we would grow to love you and see you as you are.
Pray this in Jesus name.
Amen.