metromissions brasil 200806.10 – 06.20CC Philly possibility (training)

Matthew 15:29-38

REVIEW We saw Jesus CROSSING BORDERS into Gentile territory where he is met by a desperate woman whose daughter was severely demon possessed.1.) We saw what it looks like to COME to Jesus….

She has HEARD from somewhere…

We know from Matthew that the NEWS of Jesus has BLAZED out from Galilee all the way to Syria and Lebanon

SOMEONE touched by Jesus has TOLD this woman about Jesus.

REMEMBER – Jesus CROSSED borders to MEET her in her desperation!

When she comes to Jesus she doesn’t question Him

NO demands…. NOTHING that even resembles – “But I deserve”

No option! No plan “B” for her desperation!

Just keeps PRESSING in… KEEPS asking!

QUOTE: Spurgeon – “When the door is shut in her face, she knocks at it, and when Christ calls her “Dog”, she only picks up what Christ has said, as a good dog will pick up his master’s stick, and bring it right to his feet.”

Her 1st plea was trying to approach Jesus on Jewish ground!

BUT - Her 2nd plea struck… not A chord … but the chord in His heart

She simply came as a sinner needing help!

“Lord, Help Me!”

This was her “911”!

2.)The importance of coming to Jesus for our kids.

KEY QUESTION: Am I as desperate as this woman to bring my kids to Christ?

I need to be.

I give them all kinds of things.

There isn’t anything greater that I can give them

If you have a teenager you may have often wondered

“What in the world has gotten in to them?”

“What in the world are they thinking?”

“What has possessed them?”

Jesus IS the same, yesterday, today and forever!Do like this woman –

Go to Jesus for them!

He’s the same… having mercy on us everyday.

29And Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee;

KEY INSIGHT: (Mark 7:31 KJV) And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.

Decapolis = 10 cities What you don’t get from this is that Jesus must go NORTH and then head EAST and then ACROSS the Golan Heights to the area of Decapolis (Ten Cities). This would be a long journey. A number of days alone with His disciples. How many days journey? We don’t know.

and went up into a mountain, and sat down there. 30And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus’ feet; and he healed them: 31Insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel.

AMAZING: The language used by Matthew literally reads – They are being thrown down

And as fast as they are thrown at his feet they are being healed…. immediately.

One right after the other.

Some of these folks came with one leg and left with two.

 Imagine with one shoe and one bare foot going home.

To grasp how REMARKABLE these things were Matthew says ‘they glorified the God of Israel,’

THIS was Gentile territory….

THESE were the words of non-Jews!

KEY OBSERVATION: It’s more than just cripples being healed. In Mark 7 we find the account of particular individual that is so wonderful to consider.

 

(Mark 7:32 NKJV) Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him.

NOTE: You have to understand that the guy didn’t know what was going on.

 He’s deaf! Nobody could explain to him.  

They must be dragging this guy to the presence of Jesus.

NOTE: He’s incapable of speaking -

Now we’re not sure if he’s incapable of speaking because of some anatomical malformation or because he’s deaf and has never heard a human voice before.So we’re not sure. For our purposes we just realize that this guy is deaf and dumb.

KEY POINT: But the bottom line is that a miracle is required for this man’s life to change.

And amazingly the people already have a preconceived idea as to How Jesus has to do it!

and they begged Him to put His hand on him.

They’re telling Jesus how to do it.

They had already formed a denomination.

It’s the put your hands on and heal denomination.

Mark 7:33-34 And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue. 34Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him,

“Ephphatha ,” that is, “Be opened.”

KEY OBSERVATION #1 - He did not deal with the guy in the way the people insisted he deal with him –

Jesus dealt with Him as HE saw BEST! - as HE desired to.

CRUCIAL INSIGHT: He ALWAYS works that way! He does WHAT He does

and WHEN He does it

and HOW He does it

based upon His perfect wisdom, love and power.

KEY APPLICATION: May we always remember that we HIS WAYS are not HIS WAYS!May we always remember that we are the apple of His eye – and thus

WHAT he does is the PERFECT thing,

WHEN He does it is the PERFECT TIME,

And HOW HE does it is the PERFECT WAY.

KEY OBSERVATION #2 –HE get those man away from the crowd…. Alone with Jesus!

Jesus still takes us aside – gets us alone – isolates usNone of us like the feeling of being isolated /alone.

KEY QUESTION: Why does God isolate us? 1.) Anyone here ever felt isolated and all alone.

And then brothers or sisters in Christ come and say things to you - right on things. But it doesn’t really seem to matter to you what they are saying.

It can be your best friend in the world.

EXAMPLE: Malcolm Wild – “Richard, I know that you already know the things that I could say to you. But this is going to be a time between just you and Jesus, and when it’s all over you are going to know Jesus in a way that you’ve never known Him before.”

2.) He does that because that’s the place where you can’t fool anyone.

We can get our act together in the world - in a crowd.

Whatever group of people we hang with we do what we need to do to get their approval.

Christians are great at this! We never admit that.

We can be so INSINCERE - so PHONY! THAT is why Paul prayed for the Philippians

(Phil 1:10 NKJV) that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ,

But when we are alone in our hearts – alone with Jesus –

How gently Jesus will touch our ears – not physically – but that place in our heart where we hear His voice.

He does it in such a unique and personal way.

We can be so INSINCERE - so PHONY! THAT is why Paul prayed for the Philippians

(Phil 1:10 NKJV) that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ,

But when we are alone in our hearts – alone with Jesus –

How gently Jesus will touch our ears – not physically – but that place in our heart where we hear His voice.

He does it in such a unique and personal way.

It is THEN that We finally have something genuine to say.

We are freed in our hearts to speak TO Him

We are freed in our hearts to speak OF Him

We are freed in our hearts to speak FOR Him.32Now Jesus called His disciples to Himself and said, “I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.”

REMEMBER - He’s the same yesterday, today and forever.  

He won’t send anyone away hungry today either.  If you’re here this morning and you don’t know Christ personally He will not send you away hungry.  

That decision is yours.  Somewhere throughout this morning the offer will be made to your heart.  

It won’t be in human language.  

It will be God speaking to you… It will be God touching your heart

33Then His disciples said to Him, “Where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude?”  

This might seem a bit odd to us.

It is easy for us to wonder – “Is this a miss print…. Did something get copy and pasted twice by accident?”

NOTE IT WELL: Jesus ALWAYS acted with great PURPOSE… EVERYTHING in His 3+ years of public ministry was DIVINELY DELIBERATE. 

Yes He has compassion for the multitude…. but there’s also something very important going on as He’s instructing these guys. 

They might be a bit slow on the uptake… but I’m certain that they kind have a feeling of what’s going on.

And certainly Jesus knows how many loaves there are.  

BUT – Jesus makes them count them so they remember and learn the lesson better and more fully  

Because they will be sent out as the representatives of the Kingdom to the entire world.  Their mission will be to proclaim to a lost world that we worship a God who never sends us away fainting.  

Who will not turn away the faint hearted or those who thirst after righteousness.   

They will be sent out to a lost world to say that God will supply in a miraculous way.

34Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?”And they said, “Seven, and a few little fish.”35So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. There are 4000 men (+ women and children 8-9K) 

Jesus is up on this hill and so He must start screaming for everyone’s attention. 

Jesus personally starts signaling and getting them to all sit down.  

I would have loved to have been there and watched.

36And He took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitude. 37So they all ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets full of the fragments that were left. 38Now those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. 39And He sent away the multitude, got into the boat, and came to the region of Magdala.

KEY INSIGHT: The tense is continually gave them.  

He continually gave to His disciples and they continually gave to the multitude.  

They were filled, ‘glutted,’ stuffed.

CRUCIAL INSIGHT: THAT is the ESSENCE of genuine ministry.

RECEIVING from Jesus and then GIVING it away.

THE INTERESTING THING about this second feeding is that there are seven loaves and afterwards there are seven baskets full. REMEMBER - At the end of the first feeding it says they took up twelve baskets.  

The word for basket there (Ch. 14) is the word for a little hand held basket.  

The FIRST impression made on the hearts of the disciples at the end of THAT day back in Matt. 14 was that as they gathered up all of these fragments there was a basket for each of them.

KEY INSIGHT: Now it uses a different word for basket.

 

It is the large reed basket usually with two handles.  

It’s the same kind of basket that we find used in Acts 9:25 Then the disciples took him by night and let him down through the wall in a large basket. 

It was a large basket and a Gentile basket.  

NOTE: Now there are seven huge Gentile baskets filled with leftovers.

 

In the Scriptures the number seven is the number of completeness.

 It’s very interesting to look at the New Testament and see that

In the book of Revelation we have letters to seven Gentile churches.  Paul writes to seven churches.

This SECOND FEEDING is a picture of the ministry of Jesus to the Gentile world.

39And He sent away the multitude, got into the boat, and came to the region of Magdala  

As we go into the next scene the disciples are going to misunderstand Jesus!

Jesus is going to say, “Don’t you remember the five loaves and the five thousand people that were fed and what was left over? Don’t you remember the four thousand men and how many baskets were left over?”  And He is going to kind have reprove them.  You would think that these were the kind of lessons that would take an impression upon their minds.  

We are NO different from them! 

God does some incredible… even miraculous thing in our lives and afterward we find that we hadn’t really been changed the way one would think we should.  Or maybe not taken hold of it the way we think should.  WHEN (not if) that happens we often think that the opportunity is forever lost. After all, God was gracious to let us be a part of this incredible thing and we failed to learn the lesson, and now it’s over.  

Yet this is NOT what we find at all in the Scripture.  

I find they got two lessons on the stormy sea.  I find that He took them back on this scene again.  The idea is that the Lord is never done with us.  He is never withholding from us.  

He would never deny us.  

He’s so gracious to repeat His lessons in all of our lives.  

Aren’t you glad?  

No doubt there are some lessons you want to try to get the first time around.

Some of the lessons we don’t want to go back and learn.  But here we see Jesus being so gracious to take them back to this scene.

A “Gracious Second Lesson!”