The scripture reading this morning is Matthew 9/18/26.
It's found on page 764 in the Bibles under your Seat.
If you don't have a Bible, we invite you to take that one as
our gift to you. Again, Matthew 9, verses 18
through 26. While he was saying these things
to them, behold, A ruler came in 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, a woman who had
suffered from a discharge of blood for 12 years came up
behind him and touched the fringe of his garment.
For she said to herself, if I only touch his garment, I will
be made well. Jesus turned and seeing her, he
said, Take heart daughter, your faith has made you well.
And instantly the woman was made well.
And when Jesus came to the ruler's house and saw the flute
players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, go away, for
the girl is not dead, but sleeping.
And they laughed at him. But 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.
It's the word of the Lord. What's going on?
Port City family and friends. How are we doing?
Good. My name is Tanner.
It is joy to be with you. I'm one of the pastors here and
y'all, I'm a huge Sinner. I'm in a, I'm in a life stage of
transition. And sometimes what transitions
do is they just pull out all of the comforts of the rhythms.
The coffee just ain't quite hitting as hard.
You don't get to the gym as often.
And just when all the rhythms go away and you just see who you
are without all the infrastructure of comfort
holding you up and you're like, Oh my goodness, you know, And
the good news is God still loves me like he's still.
And I, I don't know if you've heard the phrase God likes to
use a crooked stick to draw a straight line.
Anybody heard that? Praise God.
And that is always true. Even when your rhythms are there
or not there, you are a crooked stick.
But God is in the business of using crooked sticks to draw
straight lines. So the good news is, I don't
know if you're in that moment. Maybe this morning the coffee
ain't hitting that well and you're like, Holy Spirit, where
are you? Just know that God is always
using crooked sticks to draw straight lines and you're never
a straight stick even on your best day.
You need the grace of God. We just need grace.
This is a church. We, we, we just love mess, like
in a good way. Like we love that kids are in
here. We love that it's a little noisy
and papers are shuffling. We just love life as it really
is. We're not trying to like
sanitize our space and make it perfect and tidy.
We're trying to do it well, but we're trying to own like life is
a crooked stick with a straight line.
Does that make sense? So I just love gathering with
you. I love hearing your voices when
we sing. I love grace.
I just want you to know that God is the one who saves us, washes
us. You will never be enough in your
own strength and that's good news.
OK, So what I'm going to do is I'm going to pray that God would
bless just this regular thing we do week over week over week
where we hear his word and that God would use this time to grow
us into the crooked sticks he can use Amen somebody.
OK, so let's, let's pray our Father, some of us under the
sound of my voice are our feeling how crooked we are.
Some of us think we pretty straight, but God we know that
we need mercy, we need grace and God, we're so grateful this
morning that you give it so Lord, what we have not?
Would you give us what we know not, would you teach us and what
we are not? Would you make us let the words
of my mouth, the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your
sight? We pray in King Jesus name and
everybody who agree with this said Amen.
Yeah. When I say the word authority,
what comes to your mind? What positions come to your
mind? Do you think of a coach, a
parent, the president, police? I bet what you don't think of is
a three-year old in their room playing with their Barbies and
saying don't touch that. I left that there on purpose.
You know what that gets to the heart of that example.
Authority plays into what it means to be made in God's image.
You see God made you in his image to rule and reign with
him, to Co reign with him. Once you think about the root of
the word authority is the word author.
Somebody say author. So to have authority is to
author what you've been given. So to be human is to be author.
That little girl, that little boy is authoring their space and
you've not been authorized to co-author with them.
OK, I bring that up because the series we are in is called the
Authority of the King. What we are seeing week over
week in the Gospel of Matthew, chapters 8 and 9, is that Jesus
is the one with all authority, which means he is the author of
authors, OK? And we're watching him leverage
his authority to make things new, OK?
Everything he touches gets better.
Everyone he touches is made new. And they're not just a new
version of like, they're not the same thing they were, but
better. They're new, OK?
And so the other thing we're seeing week over week over week
is Jesus talking about faith. We're going to see that this
week. He's going to commend somebody
for their faith and it's what this points out to us is that
faith is the hinge point of if you're letting Jesus author you,
does that make sense? Faith is how you let him touch
you. It's how you let him heal you.
It's how you let him cleanse you.
You, you submit yourself to being authored and by being
authored by him, you become an author with him because God made
you to live with him, to Co reign with him as he originally
made Adam and Eve and we blew it.
So the great irony of sin is that you seize your authority
from God and in so doing you lose it.
See how that works? You take your agency and
authority and say I'm the capital, a author, and in so
doing you are the captain of your own misery.
But when you receive the touch of Christ, the healing, saving,
cleansing, atoning death of Christ in your place, touched by
faith, the author of life is making you new.
And now you get to be an author with him once again.
And it all hinges on faith. So what we're going to see in
today's text is this hinge point of faith in the touch of Christ
making things new. And it's so beautiful.
And what I hope you walk out of here with is knowing that God
wants to live life in Co reign with you, author with you.
He doesn't just touch you so that you're a better version of
what you used to be. He touches you so that you can
live with him. Amen.
So to do that, we're going to take our story from three
angles. We're going to just zoom out and
look at like what all is happening here.
Then we're going to zoom in on the the faith of the two people
involved. And then we're going to talk
about what Jesus did for for each of them.
If you are ready, let me hear you say I'm ready.
OK, point #1 mute flutes and disciples notes.
OK, that's a fancy way of saying we got to zoom out.
OK, have y'all ever like, so much happens in a day and then
you'll be talking to a friend or your spouse or something be
like, yeah. And you remember so and so got
in a car accident. They did what?
And like, like, so much is happening that you forget that
it happened, that you didn't actually tell them.
Have you ever experienced that? You're like, I thought I told
you my bad. And it's like earth shaking news
that you just glossed over. Like, why do you never tell me
anything? It's like I just life is lifing
so much that I forgot I didn't tell you that.
Are y'all with me? When you're walking with Jesus,
it's kind of like that for the disciples.
In one day, they're going to see like 50 things.
He's going to do a little teaching here and there in
between. And you're going to be like,
remember Jesus said that the other day, Like, Oh yeah, he did
say that. So that's kind of like what
happens week over week is like we take for granted that these
things aren't just happening in a vacuum.
When we get to go back and they didn't have a sermon after this
happened, it just kept happening.
Are you with me? So look with me at verse 18.
I want us to I just want us to feel the weight of the
compounding picture of Jesus that is being layered on top of
layer on top of layer. So I'm going to fire hydrant you
for a couple minutes and then we'll zoom in on faith.
Does that make sense? OK, Look at verse 18 while he
was saying these things to them. So, so everything we're reading
today is a double miracle is immediately after what Pastor
John preached on two weeks ago. I'm going to give you the Cliff
Notes version, which is basically Jesus having a
conversation with really good religious people, fasters.
They're reading their word. They know everything.
OK. That conversation is interrupted
at its climax. And then today's story happens
and at the climax, Jesus says something.
He says I am the bridegroom. It doesn't say that if you look
up, but that's what he's saying indirectly.
Somebody say bridegroom. So I'm going to hit you with
some quick theology of what this means.
OK? The biblical picture of what God
wants to do is he wants to have a people who belong to him the
way a couple of spouses belong to one another.
It's like they're betrothed to one another is what Pastor John
walked us through. OK, now Jesus is the God man.
OK, somebody say God man. So as God to us to to to us,
he's him to him. He's us.
That's what it means down he's God up he's man.
Like he's both. OK.
So what that means is the bridegroom is he is both wedding
himself to his people and in him making the people being wedded
to God. Do you understand that?
Like that's a trippy concept, but what God is doing is he is
making the betrothed through the son of God.
So it's all who are united to God become the ones that God is
betrothed to. OK.
You're like, why does that matter?
You're about to find out. Just stay with the whole story.
The idea is that Jesus is saying, I came to make a people
in myself that God is married to, OK.
And he's the God, man as God, He's marrying those people as
man. He's making the people that God
could be married to. That's the idea.
OK. That conversation with religious
elites, John's disciples, is interrupted by the people today.
OK, So stay with me verse 24 OK, at the end of today's story
right So the dad comes, he kneels, my daughter's dead,
please come, Jesus is walking. Woman comes grabs the back of
his his cloak. She gets healed.
He turns and looks at her says something shows up to the house
with the dead daughter and there's a bunch of flute
players. Do you see that in verse 24?
It says verse 23 shows up, saw the flute players in the crowd
making commotion and then he says go away.
The girl's not dead but sleeping.
They laugh at him. Y'all caught that right?
Y'all in this time period when somebody died, people would
literally pay for people to come and mourn.
Like basically like imagine like a, a musician group, like come
like just start weeping and like play this instrument like create
this environment of mourning and weeping.
OK, so Jesus shows up on that scene and he says y'all are
tripping. Think about it.
Bridegroom era. This is not the era for weeping.
That's basically what Pastor John just walked us through two
weeks ago is everything is changed in light of my coming.
He puts the crowd away. So the the flutes have gone
mute, if you will. Jesus is in the business of
putting people out of a job. Have you all noticed that back
in chapter 8? He put a priest out of a job
right now he's putting the mourners out of a job, right?
So keep that compounding picture of, OK, now flute players go
away, the mourners go away, The priest has gone away.
OK, then verse 19, the one other note just just embedded in this
story that Matthew is really trying to help us see.
Look at 19. So when the dad comes and begs,
it says and Jesus rose and followed him with his disciples,
somebody say with his disciples. So the disciples are just all
along, they're paying attention. They were there with the
religious convo and the bridegroom.
Now they get interrupted. They don't get to go off in some
coffee shop and just talk to Jesus.
They're on the go following the Jesus who's following the dad
back to the place getting interrupted.
They're watching all of this in the verse 26 and the report of
this went through all that district.
So here's the question I want to beg.
What is spreading? What are people saying?
Obviously they're saying people are getting healed.
They're saying the basic stuff, but what picture is being
painted? OK, here's the picture.
I would say that is being pieced together that the disciples are
catching, that we don't catch as much because we're not as Jewish
and understanding of the Old Testament story.
But this is what Matthew is screaming.
You ready? Jesus is the prophet, priest and
king we've been waiting for. He's the prophet, He's the
priest, He's the king. OK, you say, where's that coming
from? Well, in the Old Testament,
little kids being resurrected by a prophet happened.
It happened in Elijah and Elijah so that Matthew is screaming,
this is the truer and greater Elijah, Elijah.
And he doesn't lay his body on top of people and have to ask
God to do it through them. It's just he touches a girl and
they race. Jesus isn't a conduit of God's
power. He is God's power.
Are you with me? What Jesus says happen happens.
What he does happens. OK, he is the truer and greater
priest. OK, we're going to we talked
about this with the the leper back at chapter 8.
You can go listen to that sermon.
But in a similar way the the woman to today's story, her main
issue is she's unclean. She has a physical problem, but
in a bigger way, she has a spiritual problem.
Well, she does. He doesn't give her a cleansing
process and go talk to a priest. He just, he doesn't just declare
her clean, he makes her clean. He's the truer and greater
priest and y'all, he's also the truer and greater king who
doesn't only reign over his people.
Remember, he's the bridegroom. He is making the people that
he's king over. And listen, y'all remember
conversation was interrupted with religious elites.
And who interrupted the conversation?
A dad with the dead girl and a woman who is unclean.
So the idea is that the truer and greater king isn't
recruiting those who want to talk theology in a backroom with
him. He is making them in his blood
for people like these people interrupting him.
Do y'all see that picture? Do you see how that's coming
together? We have the truer and greater
prophet, priest, and king, and people are rushing to him
because the access you get to him isn't through what you know
is through how desperate you are.
Does that make sense? Come and see a king who can
change your life. But if you come, you better come
desperate. Does that make sense?
This isn't a king who has accessed through impressing him.
It's not a king whose accessed through your knowledge.
He's accessed through your heart and through desperation.
So go back and study all that. Prophet, priest, king is dope.
But we're going to zoom in on faith now.
Are you all ready? Point #2 the dads kneel and the
woman's touch. The dads kneel and the woman's
touch. Let's read verses 18 through 22.
While he was saying these things to them, behold, A ruler came in
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, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of
blood for 12 years came up behind him and touched the
fringe of his garment. For she said to herself, if I
only touch his garment, I will be made well.
Jesus turned and seeing her, he said, take heart daughter, your
faith has made you well. And instantly the woman was made
well. OK, let's zoom in on the dad and
the woman. OK.
It says that the ruler came and knelt before him in verse 18.
Some of y'all know your Bibles. You know that this man is
Jairus. Like in in Mark and Luke's
account, there's a lot more details.
OK, we've talked about this throughout the series, but each
gospel writer has their own agenda right?
Like Matthew's account of this double story is 8 verses and
Luke is like 23 and Mark is like 15.
When that happens, don't pick your favorite version.
I like the Mark one more. Can we just can you go preach
the Mark one? I liked it when they said his
name. I liked when it said she spent
everything she ever had. I like those things, too.
What we've got to ask is why is Matthew choosing to trim those
details? It's not that he didn't know
them. The picture he's trying to show
us of the truer prophet, priest and king is his full agenda.
Are you with me? So Matthew is trimming some
details. We know who this man is.
He comes before him and he comes and says please.
He kneels down, right? I don't know.
The last time you kneeled, somebody say kneel.
Like if somebody just comes up at you and said kneel before me,
you'd be like, no, kneeling is just so, like it's just so.
I mean, it's humiliating, right? Send me all older siblings in
the room. It probably made your little
sibling beg for something before kneeling.
I love how he just came and just threw himself down before he
said anything. And then he says the words come,
my daughter is dead. I imagine when he knelt down,
probably just a huge hush went over the crowd because if
somebody kneels before everybody, you're like, it's not
a light moment, right? The, the, the kneel is a
vocalization of desperation before you even have to say it.
Desperate people kneel. This dad is desperate.
And the crowd hushes. And then he says the desperate
situation was that his daughter has just died.
Come and lay your hand on her and she will live.
And we learned the situation is not desperate is dead, she's
dead. But the faith he has is he says,
but come and lay your hand on her and she will live.
He didn't say if you come, he said come.
Y'all see that? I don't see no if in mind, but
if you come right, he just says come, lay your hand on her and
she will live. There's a boldness a a shameless
asking. He had heard something about
Jesus that led him to say come. He didn't come and kneel and
he's not performing to get Jesus to do something.
He's actually kneeling in alignment with.
He knows Jesus will do. Are you tracking with me?
He's not like, maybe if I do this right, he'll come.
He's operating a certain way because he knows he'll come.
He's confident he'll come. That's what faith does.
Faith is not a performance. Faith is alignment with reality.
You're not performing. We're going to be talking about
that a little bit. So he throws himself on the
ground and kneels and goes all in verse 19 says, and Jesus rose
and followed him. So he will verbally affirm the
woman here in a moment. But this is an affirmation of
this man's faith by walking after him, right?
Like he tells her. He turns to her and says,
daughter, your faith has made you.
Well, he didn't tell the dad that, but he followed him after
this demonstration of faith, which is an equal affirmation,
if you will. And during that time, the woman,
verse 20, who had suffered from a discharge of blood for 12
years, I might say 12 years. We talked about this back in
Chapter 8, but somebody with a, a blood discharge issue, it's
hard for us to understand the Jewish conception of this.
Their main issue is they're unclean, OK?
So it's really twofold issue. It's a real practical health
side and then it's like a spiritual side, OK, so on the
health side, she has anemia. I don't know if you notice your
body is not built to just bleed all the time, OK?
It's not in fact, like if you, if you have a situation where
you got to be on blood thinners or something, they're like don't
do nothing, stoop and get cut and just be bleeding all the
time. You know, like that's a big
concern because your body was not meant to discharge blood
perpetually. So she's probably dizzy, light
headed. I'm going to be honest with you.
If you bleed that often, you stink.
Blood does not smell good, right?
You're clothes, you gave up on getting new clothes a long time
ago. What's the point?
So there's just an utter practical anemic.
Misery, a smell, the clothes, all of it.
And that has nothing to do with the unclean status she was under
as a spiritual outcast, which means for 12 years she has not
worshipped in the temple. So she is both functionally and
practically like the girl in this story is dead.
But in a lot of ways, this woman is just a dead woman walking.
That's really what she is. She is an outcast.
She's on her own and verse 21 makes a lot of sense, doesn't
it? If you if you have that
background and that mindset, you're unclean.
It says she came up behind him and touched the fringe of his
garment. For she said to herself, if I
only touch his garment, I'll be made well in her mind, she wants
a private healing. She doesn't want to shame the
teacher. She doesn't want to draw
attention to herself. She comes behind him.
She she might even think maybe I'll make him unclean if I touch
him. So let me just touch his
garment. She's filled with this thinking
of of what has been going through her mind for 12 years.
So she's in some kind of way scholars debate.
Is this tons of faith and she's honoring Jesus or is it sort of
like a magical thinking like all I have to do, he's so powerful
just touch his cloak like sort of like a a magic process.
She thinks she can get his healing without his volition.
You know what I mean? Like he's not going to choose to
give it to me. But if I just touch his garment
because he wouldn't choose to give it to me.
Are y'all tracking? See how that works?
She wants this in private. And then verse 22 just turns
this whole story on his head, doesn't it?
Look at what Jesus says. Jesus turned and seeing her, He
said take heart daughter, your faith has made you well and
instantly the woman was made well.
Matthew's version here makes it clear it wasn't her touch that
healed him, healed her. Are you with me?
It goes out of its way to make it clear that he turned, saw,
said, and instantly she was made.
Well, he's trying to point out that Jesus volitionally gave her
what she saw. She didn't get it because she
touched it in private. She's getting it because he sees
her. Are you with me?
He says your faith has made you well.
So I'm going to talk about faith a little bit.
We got to talk about faith. I think.
We think we get it, and then you start to think you get it and
you don't get it. Like, what is faith?
All right, I got 2 notes on faith I want to give you.
OK, here's #1 faith is instrumental, Jesus is
effectual. Those are big words.
You can handle it. You're smart people.
OK, Faith is instrumental. Somebody say instrumental.
Jesus is effectual. Somebody say Jesus is effectual.
OK, what's that mean? Tam, let me break it down for
you. OK?
You know what this means is that her faith is not the agency of
actually getting healed. Jesus heals her, but her faith
is instrumental to Jesus healing her.
OK, I was talking about this with Isaac this week and he gave
me a dope illustration which I will now give to you.
OK, if you want to go to Tokyo, you got to get on a plane.
So you get on the plane and the plane takes you to Tokyo.
OK. You getting on the plane is
instrumental. The plane is effectual.
Are you with me? How'd you get to Tokyo?
The plane. How did the plane get you to
Tokyo? You got on it.
OK. Who deserves the praise for you
getting to Tokyo? The plane.
Did You're getting on the plane have a role in you getting to
Tokyo? Yes.
Would you ever praise yourself for getting on it?
No, fool, you would not, OK? You would not do that.
Here's a question though. Why is this the way that God has
set it up? Why?
Why does faith matter if the plane gets us there?
So does everybody get to Tokyo? No, only the people who get on
the plane. Y'all with me?
You got to get on the plane. Plane.
Don't take everybody. It takes the people on the
plane, but the plane could take anybody.
Are you with me? It's available to all effectual
for some. The idea is that faith is the
God appointed means where you grab everything He wants to give
you. He wants to take you to Tokyo.
You just got to get on the plane.
Are you with me? So God has created an
instrumental but not effectual means so that no human being can
boast that they got to Tokyo. God gets all the praise that we
go to Tokyo. God gets all the praise for
everything that comes to you. Y'all?
They would not have come to Jesus if they had not heard
about Jesus. Why did they come?
They came because they heard. They heard a word about the
Jesus bird and they came to get a piece of the pie in on the
action. They heard enough, they knew
something. So even what they knew they were
not effectual in getting. They had to their ears
instrumentally allowed them to hear it.
But we're always receiving what God initiates.
You are not the initiating cause of why you're in the seat you're
in. Which means no human being
should boast. Let the one who boasts boast in
the Lord. OK, faith is a gift.
OK, it's by grace through faith in Christ, but is necessary.
Get on the plane. Are you with me?
Like you got to get on the plane?
And here's the thing. Jesus will commend you for the
faith you wouldn't have if He didn't give it to you.
Isn't that crazy? He commends her for her
instrumentality. Though she didn't heal herself,
He did. Isn't that crazy?
So you don't have to commend yourself for your faith.
God will commend you. Isn't that amazing?
Many of us live to be commended by anybody but the Lord.
He wants to commend you for what He did for you.
That crazy, one of my favorite stories is when he says Peter,
who do you say that I am? He's like you're the Messiah.
He's like you're the man and you didn't get that God gave you
that. It's like, so am I the man or is
God good? It's like focus on God being
good. Let me tell you, you're the man.
Does that make sense? But we live to be told I'm the
man and then we ignore how good God is.
Faith is instrumental, Jesus is effectual.
Jesus is the healer, Jesus is the cleanser, Jesus is
everything. And if you are in the position
to get on the plane, please in the name of the Lord, do it.
OK #2 Faith involves self talk about Jesus.
Faith involves self talk about Jesus.
One of the coolest phrases in the text is in verse 21.
For she said to herself, If I only touch his garment, I'll be
made. Well y'all listen, faith is
talking to God about you, but it's also talking to you about
God. You talk to you about God, you
talk to God about you, but you talk to you about God.
What are you telling yourself God is like?
Let me tell you a verse that changed my life right now.
Hebrews 11/6. Faith must believe that God is
and that he rewards those who seek him.
OK, Faith must believe that God exists and that he rewards those
who seek him. Yeah.
One thing I'm realizing is that faith is a word that has been,
it can be used in a lot of contexts, but it it's been
hijacked from what biblical faith is.
Like I saw, I was telling one of my guys in here the other day, I
saw this shirt at the gym the other day.
Not a lie. This is the shirt.
Faith on the front, on the back for all individuals that hustle.
I'm like, I'm like, I just, I was like, Lord, I want to tear
my shirt, I want to scream, I want to ask him a question, but
I also like I get it. OK, here's the basic idea that
faith has been hijacked. OK?
I want to achieve X thing in my life.
I have faith that it will happen that way.
So I live that way. It will come about if I believe
enough that it will happen, right?
So your faith is in yourself and the process and the outcome.
You want all the things, OK for all individuals that hustle.
And at some level he's right. I'm just like, can we use a
different word? Can we just like, can we, can we
just do you get how that's so infuriating because it's
hijacked a word that is a a faith in Christ word and we've
hijacked it for you achieving your life's goals and dreams.
And then it gets confusing because you could throw a Bible
verse on it because Hebrews 11 what does does say faith is the
evidence of things not seen. It's convictions of things not
seen right. But in Hebrews 11 he's making an
argument that goes the whole chapter and you need verse 6 in
it. Help me somebody.
So here's what I'm trying to say.
Faith involves self talk about Jesus.
What are you telling yourself about Jesus?
I think myself included, the average person is a lot more
Pagan in our thinking than we realize.
Let me tell you what, for all individuals that hustle means
that's really Pagan. Really what it is y'all is it's
a random set of thinking that if I rub the bottle the right way,
the genie will do it. It's this way it's a system of
thinking that you are the means you doing things right gets God
to do right by you. That's really and God could be
anything by the way, OK, just turn on any TV show right now
and you going like people going to say, I mean, you just hear
people's like belief about God come out.
They're like, I'm the word manifest, the word karma, the
word God is going to do this, my God with this and it's gods of
our own making. But if we do our system of our
own making right, my God will do right by my own thinking.
We're creating a world unto ourselves.
That's how pagans think. There's millions of gods.
Who are you to tell me who the real God is?
I have my own I have my own system.
My own religion is really what it becomes.
And as long as I'm faithful within my own set of practices,
it will all work out well. Does that make sense?
It's just it's vibe based, energy based lightning in a
bottle. If you do it right and get the
practices right, it'll all go well.
And y'all I just want you to hear this.
Faith is relational trust in the real God.
Biblical faith is relational. It's not random based on your
performance. It's trust in who God is God.
He's a person, not an energy. He's not a vibe.
He's a real person, OK, He, he is Father, He is Son, He is Holy
Spirit. He's eternally been Father, Son
and Holy Spirit. He sent the Son, The Father sent
the Son to die in your place and be resurrected, and sent the
Spirit to convict us of sin so we could be in actual
relationship with Him. And it has nothing to do with
how well your life goes thereafter.
He died to live with you. So faith is relational trust.
It's not belief in myself as follower of some arbitrary thing
of my own making whereby karma will work out for me.
But that is in the bloodstream of the American DNA right now.
It's like faithfulness unto something of randomness, and as
long as you're faithful to it, it will go well by you.
But you get to define the terms. You know, that's paganism at its
core. And in that way of thinking,
you're fine with being more spiritual.
You'll do more practices, you'll start fasting, you'll do all
kinds of stuff, which is what Pastor John was trying to
highlight for us last week. Our, our culture will get more
spiritual. It's going to happen.
But it's Pagan. It's just absolute random
lightning in a bottle, whatever I say it is.
Does that make sense? Jesus is a real person and when
we demonstrate faith, that doesn't mean we get to dictate
who He is for us. Not all of our dead relatives
will raise right now just because we tell Him to do
something. We all the full experience of
what He wants to give us. Some will come now.
The full expression of new life is coming in Christ one day.
Ah, but here and now. He wants to take you by the
hand, save you, walk with you in life, and one day all things
will be as they really should be.
Amen. So faith is grabbing God, who is
a real person. It's not grabbing an energy.
OK #3 let's talk about Jesus touch and Jesus look and we'll
be done. Verse 22 Jesus turned and seeing
her he said take heart daughter, your faith has made you well.
And instantly the woman was made well.
And when Jesus came to the ruler's house and saw the flute
players in the crowd making a commotion, he said go away for
the girl is not dead but sleeping.
And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put
outside, he went in and took her by the hand and the girl arose.
Y'all just want to finish looking at these two pictures
which are just amazing. We got the touch, we got the
look, we got the touch, we got the look.
Let's start with the touch. I know it's last in the text,
but I want to finish on the look.
So the touch is when he went in and took the girl by the hand
and she arose. Scholars debate exactly what
Jesus meant when he said she's not dead but sleeping.
But what he doesn't mean is that she's not dead.
I know that sounds silly. What she doesn't mean is like
she had a pulse. OK?
You know, some people are like, that must mean she was in a coma
or something. They didn't know.
And they take all these angles. It was a play on words a little
bit. But these people are laughing
because she's dead. Does that make sense?
Like they can they can they they she was dead all right now
exactly what she meant. Maybe he's alluding to like the
final resurrect. You know, there's all kinds of
layers to what he could mean, but it's just a Jesus ISM for
I'm Jesus, I'm the bridegroom. Like just watch this y'all be
y'all are tripping. Get away.
So he touches her. Y'all.
Do you remember what the father asked him to do though?
Come in, lay your hand. Look back at verse 18.
Come in, lay your hand on her and she will live.
I love that He didn't layer his hand on her.
He took her by the hand y'all. That's such an image for me.
He didn't lay his hand on her, He took her by the hand in my
mind. The image that came to my mind
is like, I think the Father just wanted his daughter, the way he
thought of her back. What she got was a resurrection
with Jesus. Y'all listen to me.
You don't just need a resurrection, you need
resurrection with Christ y'all. You don't just need to be saved
from your sins, you need to be saved to Christ like we we think
of new life is like a better plus 10 version of what I think
you need resurrection with Christ.
You need him to take you by the hand.
You don't just need to be raised you need to be raised with
Christ. Y'all the gospel is that Jesus
Christ. I love how in the text did you
notice Matthew could have used a lot of words here.
Y'all look at it with me. Let's find it.
Verse 19 come my daughter is dead and Jesus rose and followed
her. I love that I love it says that
she he rose and then in verse 25 he went and took her by the hand
and the girl arose. He could have said and the girl
was made alive. The girl there was lots of
language, but y'all the the idea of the biblical gospel is that
Christ dies for you and then he was risen so you could be risen
like the idea is this is a foreshadowing this girl would
die again, right? He let he took her by the hand.
She she might die of old age, something like that.
But the the imagery here points to one day where Jesus would
rise a a resurrection where he will never die again.
Jesus rose a resurrection that isn't AI get 50 more years.
You know Jesus rose and will never die again.
He has defeated sin, Satan, and death forever.
And when he takes us by the hand, when you allow by faith,
when you grab him, when you get on the plane, you get
resurrected with him, It's as if the Son of God died in your
place. It's as if you died 2000 years
ago. That's literally what the
biblical idea of salvation is, is that his death counts for
yours effectually and his resurrection counts for yours.
It's as if He died your death and gave you his life.
That is the picture that this ultimately points to.
And some of y'all need to experience that.
You need to experience. You think you're getting around
the Bible and you think we're saying let the Lord lay his hand
on you. What we're saying is let him
take you by the hand. You need resurrection so that
you can live with Jesus. The goal isn't just you're a bad
person. You need your sins washed away.
You were made to live with Christ for his authorship to
come over you and you to live life with Him.
And that's what God wants for you.
That's what we want for you. You have to admit that he's
right, that you're dead. Before you can receive
resurrection, by definition, you have to be dead.
You know that, right? To get resurrected, you have to
be dead 1st. And some of us just haven't
acknowledged that we're dead in our sin and we need
resurrection. You still think Jesus is here to
help you, that you're sick and you need a dose of some
medicine? You know, the biblical picture
is that we were the girl. We are dead in our sin and we
need resurrection. That's what we need.
Not just a little help, not just a little coaching.
Now let's talk about the look. Let's talk about the look.
The woman comes up behind him and touches the fringe of his
garment because she's so filled with shame.
And he turns and looks at her and says, take heart daughter,
your faith has made you. Well, somebody say shame.
Y'all shame. Because a lot of times when we
talk about the gospel, we just talk about guilt.
Guilt is the idea of you've done something wrong and blood
atoning payment has to be made. And that is true.
Shame is the idea that even when your guilt is absolved, you
don't just think you have a problem, Guilt, you think you
are a problem. Shame is that my existence is
not worth something that makes sense.
That's what she's oozing from this story.
She's oozing. I don't just have a problem.
I am a problem. I don't want to inconvenience
this teacher, this healer. I will come up behind him and
get it and I'll go on my way. Shame is thick in this story.
I don't. I love how Jesus turns to her
and says daughter and looks right at her.
Just looks at her, looks through her, looks in her.
This is Jean Valjean and Les Mis.
Somebody getting called brother by the priest.
One of my favorite singers is like, oh, you're just melted by
it. Called me brother.
But seriously, nobody talks to this woman.
No one looks here. You know, one of the evidences
that shame is at work in your life is when you can't make eye
contact with people. Shame.
People struggle to be looked at. There's nothing more shaming to
a shame person than to look at them.
They can't look at themselves. That's the idea.
You can't look at me. I can't even look at me.
Don't look at me. That might even be something you
say. Sometimes it's a very normal
experience. You feel unworthy to be looked
at. I've heard intimacy defined it
as defined as into me, you see. So some of us struggle with
intimacy with people, friendships, all kinds of
relationships because we don't want to be seen into.
So we're really good at casual party conversations, but we
struggle with real life substance because we're at war
with ourselves. We hate ourselves many times.
And what can happen even in a church setting where you hear
God loves you every week, you think that means he was willing
to die for you and absolve your guilt, but he don't like you.
He can't take your shame. You can take your guilt, but not
your shame, but y'all the gospel is that in Christ your guilt is
taken and your shame is absorbed in the touch of Christ.
Y'all he looks at you in you uncomfortably squirmy for all
y'all that say thanks instead of thank you much love instead of I
love you for all of us who just all the squirm and all the
levels he just this is this is what God came to do is look in
US. And at some level y'all being
squirmy about being looked at makes sense because when we look
in, what do we see? We see a lot of stuff that ain't
great. We think we have a clip of all
the things we blew. I should have said that there
and I didn't. I said that to my mom and I
shouldn't. I had an opportunity there and I
blew it. We just look and we see failure.
We see mess ups, we see things that we just don't like.
So we've quit on ourselves. We're at war with ourselves, so
let me just touch the fringe of his garment.
But y'all, there's something about the gospel where we have
to let Jesus look at us. We have to.
It's hard, it's squirmy, But to my fellow caged animals, the
littlest things could just make you feel backed in a corner so
quick. Y'all, what's going to change
your life is letting Jesus look at you.
It's going to On the cross, Jesus is looking at you.
He is absorbing your guilt. He is touching you.
He's cleansing you. Doesn't mean you're your He's
not looking at you because you are the stuff.
He's looking at you because he sees you and is making you the
stuff. Does that make sense?
I love Psalm 25. It says this.
Remember not my sins, O Lord, but Remember Me.
It's this idea, this biblical idea that there is a you that is
not attached to your sin. He can remove it and see you as
far as the east is from the West, so far as you remove your
sin from you. Some of us only relate to God as
taking away our sin. We don't even know how to relate
to Him once it's gone, you know, and just being the beloved,
being adored, being received. But that's the gospel.
So here's the last thing I want to say, and I'm done.
Come to Jesus just as you are, with faith that He will give you
new life. Come to Him just as you are
right here, right now. This is what changed my life 15
years ago. Every second of every day you
are looking to be looked at. You live to be looked at.
What if we try to impress people because we want to be looked at?
What if we give lives to put a ball in a basket because we want
to be looked at? What if we want to impress a
boss so bad? What if we are avoiding our
family because I need the applause of other people?
What if much of the shame in our life, much of the things that
plague us, is actually we're looking for the look that only
Christ can give? Here's the idea, y'all.
This is not just Bible talk. This is what you live for.
You live to be looked at. You long to be looked at.
You long for somebody to see you for who you really are and not
run. And there's only one who can
make you clean. We can resurrect you.
I love how in this picture we get a woman cleansed and a girl
resurrected. I don't know which one you think
you need. You need both.
The idea is His cleansing is resurrecting.
In his resurrection He cleanses you and taking your guilt, He
takes your shame. So y'all unbelievers, I need you
to hear you are looking right now.
You are. And the biblical idea is you're
looking won't stop until you look to the one who's already
looking at you. OK, the looking won't stop until
you find the one who's looking for you, and that is Jesus
Christ. He's looking for you.
You're not going to find it in that boy, that girl, that title,
that award, that raise, that thing.
The next phase, it comes in Christ.
Our souls are restless until they find the rest in you.
I would say the path of your life.
I can put it like this. Look, be looked at and then
look. OK, you looked and your sin
didn't find. You were looked at by Christ.
You got found and now look at Him.
Y'all. Here's the idea.
He looks at you first so you'll look at him.
He looks at you when you wouldn't look at him so that now
that he looked at you, you'll look at him.
Y'all with me? She wouldn't look at him.
She came up behind him. He turned and looked at her.
Now she lives looking at him. Who looked at her.
You were looking. You didn't find it.
You got looked at. So start looking.
I'm serious. You'll think I'm playing.
You are looking now. You got looked at.
So look. And your life will change if you
change your look. But your look won't change till
you get looked at. Does that make sense?
Yeah, I appreciate that. All right, I'll say this and I'm
done. We look.
It's what we do. I look.
You look too. We live to look.
That's a fact. We look.
We look, hoping to be looked at back.
Then comes Jesus, not living to be looked at.
You see that He lives to look. What's the deal with that?
He's the God man, content in His Father's look.
He came to give looks and he looks through the book.
So today, look for the Son of God until you see his look.
He's looking for you and looking at you, waiting for you to look
back at him too. His look is strongest at the
cross for where for our sake he died.
He look. His look takes our guilt and
shame. They're in the grave where He
lied. Now welcome to the new life of
the look. We look now as those who have
been looked at. We can look at our friends, not
needing them to look back. So go look as the Son of God
keeps looking at you, as we give away looks for free.
Let's look what He can do. Let's pray our Father, we love
you. I pray that that makes sense
what I just said. But Father, we praise you that
you came to look into us and see us, cleanse us, make us whole,
resurrect us. God, we need your resurrecting
look that absorbs our shame and our guilt on the cross.
God, I pray that somebody in this room will be looked at for
the first time and just break today and walk with you.
Would you take them by the hand to walk out of here with them?
And God, I pray for the believers in this room.
Help them to know that the ongoing life of the beloved is
just to be looked at. And then as we go to our friends
God, would we look at them? Would we speak words over them?
Would we encourage them? And when people look back at us
and say, why are you looking at me, we could say it's because
I've been looked at by Christ. So God, may we be a church that
doesn't need blessing from others, but can give it away for
free. And would people get saved by
you, Almighty God who makes us clean, we love you.
We pray this in Christ's name, Amen.