Matthew 2024

Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?

On hearing this, Jesus said is not the healthy who need a doctor. But those who are ill. But go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice for I have not come to call the righteous but sinners. Then John's disciples came and asked him.

How is it that we and the pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast? Jesus answered: How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them. Then they will fast. No 1 sows a patch of unshrunk and cloth on an old garment.

For the patch, we'll pull away from the garment making the tear worse. Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No. They pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.

While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said, My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live. Jesus got up and went with him and so did his disciples. Just then, a woman who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years, came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, if I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.

Jesus turned and saw her. Take heart daughter, he said. Your faith has healed you. The woman was healed at that moment. When Jesus entered the synagogue leader's house and saw the noisy crowd and the people playing pipes, he said, go away.

The girl is not dead, but asleep. But they laughed at him. After the crowd had been put outside, he went in, took the girl by the hand, and she got up. News of this spread through all that region. Well, good evening, from me.

My name's Rory. For those who don't know me, I'm 1 of the members of staff here, and, it's a pleasure to be looking at Matthew again. It's such a good story this, so hopefully you're excited, to hear from this. Please do pray for me because I've been coughing, like, nothing. All day long.

So it'll be great. Don't mock me, Karen. Thank you. So, it'll be great if it just holds off, the next sort of, I don't know, 30 minutes or however long I'll I'll speak for. So let's pray together now, and then we'll get stuck in.

Father, we thank you so much for your words, and we thank you that in this incredible book of Matthew, you show us, the very person of your son, the lord Jesus. And so we pray, that as we consider him as we consider his words, that you will help us to see who he is truly and help us to praise him and honor him and glorifying him, for he is totally worth it. And so he prayed these things in his name. Oh, man. Well, we we're we're resuming in this series in Matthew, So we had a week off last week for for our our Carol services.

And so let me just take you back, to what the what we've just seen in Matthew. You'll notice as you go back to to where Abby read there, Jesus has come onto the scene. He's come to a bloke called Matthew, who's a tax collector of all people, and he's called him to be his follower. Once he's done that, he's then gone for a meal. With, Matthew, with all Matthew's friends, tax collector friends, sinners, you'll see in verse 10, which has really, upset the pharisees of the day.

They're they're pretty dismayed at this. They're pretty and disdainful of this, and so they're they're saying why why are you eating with these type of people, Jesus? And you'll notice in verse 12 to 13, he says this. On hearing this, Jesus said, it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but those who are ill. But go and learn what this means, I desire mercy, not sacrifice.

For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. That's what he said. And that's and he then got on to say, I'm I'm coming to bring new stuff. I'm coming to bring a new type of life. And now we come to these verses in verse 18 to the 26, and it's a chance for Jesus to practice what he preaches.

It's a it's a it's a chance for him to put his money where his mouth is. See, there's lots of people that say lots of lots of things. They write lots of things. They come up with great ideas. They they they come up with great boasts.

But very few people are actually able to back up their words. And so is Jesus a good and merciful doctor? Is he a good and merciful doctor? Or is he like a a terrible doctor? Like, we've just seen on the news, who who doesn't do what he should do in terms of his skills, what takes a car and runs it into a market, killing a 9 year old boy?

What sort of doctor? Is he a doctor that he says he is? And so as he's teaching these things, he's presented with the first opportunity to prove that he is the good doctor as Garrett was saying, a few weeks back. He is the good doctor. And so we are introduced to our first character, and this is my first point.

A desperate dad, a desperate dad, notice verse 18. While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came, a synagogue leader, a synagogue ruler, from the other accounts in Mark and Luke, we know that this man's name is Cyrus. He's quite an important bloke. He's a man who has probably got wealth. He's a man who has status.

He's a man who is who is used to people looking up to him for guidance and looking up to him for advice and looking up to him as as someone who is worth praising in some fashion. He's like the pharisees that we've seen already. And so what does he do when he comes into the presence of jes Jesus? He's an important bloke. Right?

Does he go in and start ordering Jesus around? Listen you. Come with me. I've got a problem. You need to come now.

You. You come. Now. Did he do that? Well, don't Jamie?

No. He doesn't. No. It's just me and Jamie, 1 of my youth. Yeah.

We're just having a conversation. No. He comes, and he kneels before Jesus. He gets on his knees before Jesus. He's he adopts a position, a posture of inferiority, a posture that says you are worth worshiping, a posture that says I'm begging you.

I'm pleading with you. Now you can imagine the forest, because the pharisees are in this, in this presence here. They're probably thinking, what are you doing, mate? We don't bend the need to people like this? Do you know who he eats with?

He eats with tax collectors and sinners. But he doesn't care about his position at this point. Does he? He doesn't care about what the social norms are. He doesn't care that he is seen as high and mighty in the society.

He he is a completely desperate man, and desperation leaves people to humility. And humility leads him to have faith in Jesus. Now why is he desperate? Well, look, verse 18 again, My daughter has just died. My daughter has just died.

This my my loving I, like, my loved daughter is dead. The the word is she has come to an end. I'm desperate. I love her, and she's dead. But he's not without hope, gyros, is he?

Look what he believes about Jesus. Next part, but come and put your hand on her, and she will live. See, all All the doctors couldn't help when she was alive. All the medical professionals couldn't help. But now that she's dead, I believe that you Jesus can.

The doctors, no use, but you're the good doctor. And even death cannot stop you, Jesus. And so he asked Jesus to come and bring life into a desperate situation of death. Now if we're followers of the lord Jesus Christ, surely this should be us. Surely, this is how it start.

I mean, this is actually how conversion starts, you come and you realize that I am actually I'm not superior. I am inferior to Jesus. He is worth my, me, me, adopting a posture of worship and of begging and of pleading with him. Because I can then ask him to bring life into a death situation. And if we're Christians surely, we should be praying this for our our loved ones, no.

I come into the very presence of Jesus. I get on my knees, and I say, Lord. All the rest of them. I can't do it. I can't bring life to you.

I can't do it. But lord, Jesus, you come. You put your hand on her, and she will live. That should be our prayer for our our loved ones and those around us. And so what is Jesus's response here?

Or verse 19? Jesus got up and went with him and so did his disciples? Here he is practicing what he preaches. This is the merciful doctor. This is Jesus whose heart when he sees faith moves towards that person with faith.

He never just goes, no, not today. No. You have faith. I I I'll move towards you. I I I I I wanna come and help you.

Sparegeon says this about Jesus. The preacher and it might come up now. The preacher steps down from his pulpit and becomes a visiting surgeon taking his rounds. From discussing church questions, our great rabbi very readily turns aside to go and see a sick day, a dead girl. He is more at home and doing good than in anything else.

He's not just a a a man with ideas and words that are grim. No. He's gonna go in and he's gonna use his skills to go and help those who are sick and in need and in desperate need, even dead. It's like, that's what doctors do. Right?

They before they go into surgery, they don't just get they they clean their hands. They get them really clean. And you got that horrible sort of what's that smell? Alcohol, what's it called? Thank you.

I don't want to listen to it. Iyer Dean. Beautiful. Didn't know what that was. There you go.

Good to have medical professionals here. Clean them up. Why is it gonna clean them up? So they can then take those hands. And get them dirty in helping people.

They can cut them open and fix them up so that their hands are made dirty to go and help people, and that's what Jesus is doing. He's so pure and clean yet. He doesn't use his purity and his cleanliness and his skills just to serve himself here. Now he goes. And he goes to help.

Those in need. And so there you are. Here he comes. Jesus, the action starts to to proceed this hustle and bustle. They're grabbing the gear the disciples are coming, the the crowd is is growing in anticipation about what Jesus might do.

And it's in that hustle and bustle that we are introduced to our second character. And so here's my second point, a wretched woman. A wretched woman. First 20, just then, a woman who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. This woman couldn't be any diff any further away from gyrus.

Number 1, she's a woman. And so women in those days were lower in society. They were considered not as high in society as men, but not only is she a a a woman, but she has been bleeding for 12 years. She has this continuous bleeding. And now for a for a for a Jewish person in these days, that's a that's a travesty.

Because that means that she is seen as unclean and impure, ceremonially, she cannot take parts. In Temple Life. She's someone who would be cut off from others. She's excluded from everyday society. She's isolated She's alone.

She probably has a feeling of shame, of embarrassment of guilt that she's not able to take part. She's someone that had probably cast out and shunned by society. And so here she comes. I've had this 12 years of bleeding. It's cut me off from everybody.

Nobody has a time of day for me now. I can't be a part of god's people as I wish I could be part of god's people And so I just wish. I'm so desperate. I so wish to be to be healed of my my sickness. And so you can imagine her there, as Jesus has been teaching, she's just trying to find the moment when was the right moment to to steal myself and and get in and just get in and and do what I need to do?

And I was it now? Is it then? And and then suddenly Jesus is about to leave, and she's thinking, oh, my chance is slipping away. So, furtively, maybe maybe hesitantly, she she creeps behind him. And as he's about to leave, she lurches forward just to touch the hem of his cloak.

See, spiritual says this, great fear kept her from facing him, but great faith led her to believe that in a touch of his robe behind him would cure her. See, although she's very different to Jairus, she's also very similar to him, isn't she? She's desperate, and she has faith in this 1. All the doctors. If you read the I think it's Luke, but it could be Mark.

If you read that, she tries to get every doctor to help her. She's been caused so much suffering that all these doctors have tried to poke away and and and probe and give a different medicines and give a different remedies. And none of them have worked. All the doctors have failed, but she knows that the good doctor is the 1 that can heal her. Now she might be scared that he he might not like her, but she knows that he is the 1 that if I just touch his cloak, maybe then I'll be healed.

And so she reaches out and she touches the hem of his cloak. That is quite a thing to do. Because for an unclean person to touch another person like this, you are putting their purity in their cleanliness and their ceremony cleanness in jeopardy. What does she think she's doing? And so verse 22, Jesus turned.

And I I remember we did we talked about this with, you know, the leper, the story of the leper in chapter chapter a. And it it it would I can imagine in a film this would again be coming coming slow motion. He turns. What's he gonna say? If he was like a fire, he said, what do you think you're doing?

Get your hands off me. You could land faster. He say, you disgust me. How dare you? But it doesn't say that.

I love this verse. This has been 1 of the most moving verses for me. He turns, and he sees her. I love that sentence. He turns.

And he sees that. The whole crowd, the whole crowd, all the important people, and he turns and he sees her. It's what everybody wants in society. We want to be seen. We wanna be seen.

We want connection. And Jesus turns and he sees And so maybe her head's bad or maybe she looks up to see what sort of look she's getting, and she sees a man whose eyes are full of compassion and love and grace and mercy, and he sees her, and he sees that she's been in pain for 12 years. And he sees that she she suffered, not just pain, but isolation and loneliness and and are cutting off from the people of gods. And he sees that He turns, and he sees her. He doesn't think, oh, Jairus is worse seeing.

You're not worse seeing. He says, I see you. And then look what he says, Take heart daughter. Take heart daughter. Not only am I not gonna cast you away?

I'll see you. I'll heal you, and I'll bring you into my family, daughter. In chapter 9 verse 2, he called a man's son. Here, he calls a woman who was suffered immensely daughter. And he says it's not magic superstition that saved you.

Your faith in me has healed you and immediately healed. All the doctors, for 12 years, haven't been able to do this. And Jesus with a word says you are healed and she is healed immediately. 12 years of bleeding and in a moment healed. And now a daughter.

12 years probably resembles the 12 tribes of Israel maybe, cut off from being part of the people of god, people of Israel, but now a daughter in the family of god. So this is conversion. Maybe you're here and you've never trusted in the lord Jesus Christ. Maybe you've experienced some of what this woman has experienced. We've all experienced, I think, at times, this the shame or exclusion or or isolation.

We've all experienced not being seen or or or being not being heard or not being listened to. Or maybe you think, actually, I don't think I think, geez, I he looks attractive, but I'm not good enough for him. I'm unclean. I'm guilty. I'm ashamed.

Well, listen here. If you just reach out your hand. And touch and trust that he can heal you. He will see you. He will heal you, and you will be a part of the family of god.

So turn reach out, touch. And Christian, isn't it true that often when we I think Tom was talking about this this morning. We get it wrong time at times, and we think actually I'm not good enough to come to church or come back to god or come in prayer. And it's the same. Reach out again.

Trusting Jesus again. No 1 is to be seen by the lord, Jesus Christ again, be healed by Christ again, enjoy being part of this family. And so you can imagine here he's helped this lady who's suffered for 12 years, and Jairas has seen that and thinking, oh, there is great hope here. He's just helped this lady for 12 years. And so Jesus goes from 1 daughter to another daughter.

And this is my third point. A dead daughter. It's quite a dark point, isn't it really? A dead daughter. So here he comes.

He enters into the the synagogue leader's house and he's confronted by this commotion as it were. There's people playing pipes or flutes Because in the ancient days, they would quickly gather everybody together to to mourn and lament. And so you'd have professional people that were good at that to make it feel more, mournful because the body would decay. So we need to get this over and done with quite quickly. And so as he goes in, Jesus is probably confronted with not just this noise, but it's a it's a picture of wailing and mourning and despair and hopelessness.

And so what does he say in verse 24? Go away. Give place is how the old translations take I love that word. Give place. Get out of here.

Give place. The girl is not dead, but asleep. And so how do the crowd respond at the end of verse 24? But they laughed at him. That word laughed is actually laughed with scored or derision or or to be to to be dismissive.

They see that clearly this girl is dead. What are you talking about Jesus? Are you an idiot and they reject the lord Jesus himself for what he says? But out they go, they have to give place. Because there is no place for that despair and that hopelessness in this room.

And there's the pity for this crowd, isn't a pity? Because they've rejected Jesus because they've scorned Jesus, They miss. What a miracle. Although, could it look any easier for Jesus? Look at it.

Verse 20 25. After the crowd had been put outside, he went in. He took the girl by the hand as she got up. As easy as waking a child up. Some of you might have fallen asleep in this talk right now, and Jesus could come to you and he could just get you and pick you, maybe maybe do a better job than me, and he'd pick you up and just get you up.

That's all it is for Jesus. A dead person there, they are. They're dead. They're asleep. Yeah.

And Jesus comes in, takes you by the hand up you get. You know, when your mom used to get you, what? What I love you to actually wear my mom used to get me up. It was like, Rolly. And then getting whacked over the head.

Last because I was quite a heavy sleeper, but often you might have a nice stroking of the cheek time to get up darling, not for me. Rolly. Late for school again. But for Jesus, he's just getting them by the hand, taking them up. And for Jesus, death is just sleep.

It's just sleep for him. It's like waking someone up. That's what giving life to dead people is life for Jesus. That's his work in this world. Jesus comes to bring life to dead people.

Jesus comes to bring those who are spiritually dead. That's what Ephesians chapter 2 says we all were. We were dead in our transgressions and sins, but Jesus comes to die on a us and to rise again to give us life to breathe life into us so that then physically we have a great hope that we will be resurrected again. 1 thessalonians chapter 4 verse 13 to 14 says this. Brothers and sisters.

We do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind who have no hope. There's no room for despair, no room for hopelessness with the Christian. We might grieve, but we grieve with hope for we believe verse 14, that Jesus died and rose again. And so we believe that god will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. The great hope of the Bible is that spiritually Jesus can raise dead people to life, and that physically we will be raised with him to eternal life.

And so Jairus had faith in this Jesus that he is the 1 who can bring life to dead people, and Jesus delivers for he is the good doctor here. And so John 3 16, what a verse? That is. That's worth remembering. That's why we all had to remember it if you were went to church growing up, we all had to learn forgotten of the world.

But what? For what? Apparently, you're the only 1 who learnt it. These these losers here. Yeah.

That whoever believes in him may not die, but have eternal life. We mourn when we lose people, when people die, and we've we know that's a reality. But for the Christian, we mourn with hope. We mourn with hope that we will see those who have fallen asleep for they will be risen to eternal life with us. And so can you imagine the joy in this story?

Can you imagine the love for Jesus with these characters? So often we we get these characters and we just sort of think about them and we think they've just that's it. They would sort of left. No. They this daughter must have thought, do you remember the time?

I died. You know, you do 2 truths in a lie, that game. Yeah? Heard 1 of her truths that no 1 would believe was that I I was dead. Yeah?

And not just that, oh, die my heart stopped for a bit. No. I was dead. Yeah? I was dead, but Jesus raised me to life.

What? Lie? No. It's true. Yeah?

It would be remembered. The gyrus and his wife would be like, never forget daughter. You were raised to life by Jesus, the good doctor. You know, that woman 12 years. I was bleeding.

Maybe they maybe Jared remembered this woman. Maybe he used to get her over and go dream about that the the same day that you were healed. 12 years. 12 years bleeding. You were healed.

By Jesus, and he looked, and he saw you, and he loved you, and he called you daughter. And then and then my daughter was dead. And then she's but then she was raised to life again. They would reminisce about this, wouldn't they? They would they would tell anybody and everybody so much so verse 26, news of this spread through all that region.

They would tell everybody and anybody that Jesus, the good doctor can help desperate people, wretched people, dead people. Jesus helps the rich and the important the middle class, the upper class, the lower class, the nobody class. Jesus helps those whose society hates the women, and the girls. He loves them so much. And he comes and he heals for he is the good doctor.

And so here's the question, how will you respond? How will you respond? There's lots of different responses to Jesus here. You might, and I pray you won't. You might be like the crowd.

Laughing at Jesus in scorn, rejecting Jesus and his words. But I would hate to be the crowd. They missed the greatest miracle that day. They're outside and they don't see Jesus go and treat death like sleep. So don't be like the crowds.

Or maybe you'll be like the daughter. Maybe maybe you realize that actually I'm helpless and hopeless and dead. Well, will you have Jesus come and take you and just wake you up to spiritual life to eternal life. Or you could be like the woman, suffering, but reached out. Touched the robe, had faith in Jesus, was seen by Jesus, was healed by Jesus, was brought into the family of Jesus.

And Christians, we must keep on coming back to him to deal with our shame and our sin and our pain. Or maybe you're gonna be like gyrus. Realize that you're nothing. Bless at all the poor in spirit. Come before the lord Jesus, kneel before Jesus.

He is the king. He is the lord. He is the great physician, and ask him to help. And maybe he'll be like, all all of these people apart from the crowd. Once you've seen just how great Jesus is, and he is, I he is so lovely Jesus.

Go and tell people about him. That's really what Christianity is. Come and see someone who saw me. Come and see someone who brought life to me. Come and bring come and see someone.

He would help and love me. And so we come to Jesus, praying that he will bring life to death, and we go and spread the news about his fame. That will be a great thing to do from this passage. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the lord Jesus Christ.

And we thank you that he is so lovely. We thank you that he is truly the good doctor. We thank you that he moves towards those who have faith, that he loves to see faith in people, that he brings life to death, that he brings healing to suffering. That for those who are isolated and alone, they are brought into the very family of god. And so father, we pray that we will get such a vision of this Jesus for that is what he has done for us as Christians.

And so with that vision, we pray that we will go and we will preach the news of his fame, and that we will come to Christ in in faithful prayer that he will save many people into your family. And so we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.