Passion of the Christ: Faith-Filled Hearts
Matthew 9:18-34 (NIV)
18While 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.” 19Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples. 20Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. 21She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.” 22Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment. 23When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, 24he said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. 25After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. 26News of this spread through all that region. 27As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” 28When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they replied. 29Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you”; 30and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.” 31But they went out and spread the news about him all over that region. 32While they were going out, a man who was demon-possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus. 33And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel." 34But the Pharisees said, “It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons.”
As we've unpacked Matthew's biography of Jesus, we see that it has been organized thematically to highlight express emphases of Jesus' ministry. This segment has clearly shown that Jesus is passionate about reaching lost people who do not know Him and healing the broken through His supernatural power. As we continue with the narrative, Jesus is ministering from His base of operations in Capernaum, where we find that He takes multiple moments to emphasize His passion for faith-filled hearts. The Bible provokes us to understand that Jesus is ready to work miracles as we endeavor to understand Biblical faith, learn how to create atmospheres of faith, and position ourselves to allow Jesus to meet us according to our faith.
Understanding Faith
Because of the stresses of life, the changing economy, and the mortality of human beings, we will all hit walls in our lives where we will come to the end of ourselves. People generally turn to either despondency or faith when they reach the emotional limits of their time, talents, and reasoning.
“Life, as we find it, is too hard for us; it brings us too many pains, disappointments and impossible tasks. In order to bear it we cannot dispense with palliative measures... There are perhaps three such measures: powerful deflections, which cause us to make light of our misery; substitutive satisfactions, which diminish it; and intoxicating substances, which make us insensible to it.” ― Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents
At any point on your journey, you may find yourself like one of the four groups of people who encountered Jesus in need of a miracle:
-You may be like the man who came on behalf of his dead daughter - "I feel like something towards life inside of my family member or friend has just died - they've lost the will to live."
-Or the woman who came to Jesus by herself on behalf of herself - "I've gone to all of the best therapists, support groups, and doctors, but instead of getting better, it seems like I've gotten worse."
-You and a co-worker may be like the two blind men, possibly friends who came together - "We have no real direction in life. We don't know where we are going or why we even do the things we do each day."
-Or you may be like the friend who brought the demon-possessed man to the assembly - "My friend is literally oppressed in life. The trauma of life, seemingly otherworldly, has stolen their ability to connect with the world around them. It seems like they've lost both their voice and the capacity to relate to people in a healthy manner."
The good news is that Jesus is the living God who can meet us before, during, and after we hit these challenging times. When we see the people approaching Jesus, these are ultimately prayers synonymous to the manner in which we can relate to Him today. Imbedded in the encounters with Jesus was a recurring expectation of faith which moved the heart of God to intervene on behalf of those who would seek Him.
What is the faith to which Jesus responds?
Biblical faith is not just wishful thinking. Though believing in yourself or having a positive attitude is a far better posture than walking around hopeless, not every fantasy that we have, or even the hard work that springs from it, can produce a miracle.
Life in God is not reduced to motivational speaking. It is only the intervention of God that can restore sight to the blind, raise the dead, and even free us from our sins. Biblical faith is defined as trust - nothing more, nothing less. It means that you have believed not only in the testimony of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, but that you continue to entrust yourself to the person of Jesus as He works in and through your life today. This begins as we submit to obeying his commands and continues as we make relational requests as we walk with Jesus.
If you are going to pray, you have to know the disposition and character of the one to whom you are praying. In this manner, the woman with the issue of bleeding was able to take a stand of faith, and Jesus rewarded her resolve. To persist in prayer and accompanying action, we need to offer at least three answers to the troubling question:
What happens when we have faith for something and it does not happen?
1) It may be a matter of fully comprehending the big picture of God's will (Jesus at Gethsemane).
God's plan is always redemptive as we maintain the posture, "Not my will, by your will be done." i.e. - Could it be that in your years of singleness, God needed your undivided attention to form your character and have your devoted time for the greatest amount of Kingdom advance?
Atmospheres of Faith
Seeing as He Sees
“We modern people think of miracles as the suspension of the natural order, but Jesus meant them to be the restoration of the natural order. The Bible tells us that God did not originally make the world to have disease, hunger, and death in it. Jesus has come to redeem where it is wrong and heal the world where it is broken. His miracles are not just proofs that he has power but also wonderful foretastes of what he is going to do with that power. Jesus' miracles are not just a challenge to our minds, but a promise to our hearts, that the world we all want is coming.” ― Timothy Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism
Our best decisions are never our first response decisions. We need to get before the face and in the counsel of God.
Nothing creates an atmosphere of faith more than a functioning discipline of worship and prayer. It is here that you are not limited to your immediate and limited assessment of a relationship, financial state, or area of health, which more often than not is negative. Instead, prayer brings you into the counsel of Jesus by first discovering the will of God through His Word.
You will always have people around who are "professional wailers," those who are ready to mourn over why things are the way that they are. These are the people who will mock and laugh when you say that God can work a miracle in your situation. They laughed at Jesus before He raised the dead girl, but Jesus put them out of the room to create an atmosphere of faith. Whose voice do you need to sequester in your life because it does not align with God's written word of hope that He is offering you?
Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction. (Psalm 1:1-6 NIV)
What happens when we have faith for something and it does not happen?
2) It may be a matter of repentance from sin so that you might not gain the desired thing but lose your soul.
The Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases him. (Proverbs 15:8 NIV)
We only have so much emotional energy and space, so much time in a day. The things of God take focus and investment if they are going to be a completed work. (Rollan referenced the half-completed structures throughout the city as an example.)
The sin of coveting can steal the focus necessary to have a transforming faith.
Some of us need to disassociate with those who are dragging us down in sin. If they're not willing to come now, put them out of the room for a while until you have life and strength enough to be a witness to them. This is what the parents did. They didn't get rid of the family members and wailers forever, but they did have to create an atmosphere to strengthen their trust in Jesus to see their daughter raised from the dead. Practically, bar hopping may not be the after hour activity of choice for a while.
According to Your Faith
"Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance, but laying hold of His willingness." - Martin Luther
What happens when we have faith for something and it does not happen?
3) It may be a matter of timing (i.e. the blind men and Joseph in Genesis 37-50).
Faith can be a process, as we see with the two blind men who did not get immediate answers. The result of faith is not a determination of how spiritual or not you are, it is rather a matter of the privileged decision and intervention of a loving Father who works out all things for the good of those who love Him. Some healings come immediately. Some come gradually. Christian counseling can be a fantastic way to have the Word of God appropriately applied to wounded areas, allowing us to unravel knotted emotions, relieve trauma, and apply the balm of right thinking. God has also obviously allowed medicine to provide relief from pain, help balance body chemistry, and treat symptoms. We always want to allow God to work through the various means that He will to bring us to a place of health and peace, while avoiding addictions that will strip them from us.
We go to either one extreme or the other: We either reduce our faith to a self-help program without real relationship with Christ, or we try to make it an independent study where we forsake the process of healing which includes other relationships in the church. Make sure they are the right relationships.
There are periods when it seems that Jesus is not answering, like the blind men who had no word from Jesus until He went indoors.
During that time of perceived silence, our speech needs to come in alignment with the word of God.
Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. (Romans 10:17 NIV)
From the fruit of their lips people are filled with good things, and the work of their hands brings them reward. (Proverbs 12:14 NIV)
You can only imagine that the two blind men were reminding each other of how Jesus had healed others as they continued to follow Him in his silence, into the house. The persistence of their faith allowed them to gain an audience with Jesus and be healed. In the case of the mute who was delivered, the religious pundits proceed to give their opinion.
And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.” But the Pharisees said, “It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons.” (Matthew 9:33, 34 NIV)
Once again, it was the religious Pharisees, with their lack of exposure to and understanding of the spiritual realm, who began to denounce Jesus and call the very work of God something as having its origins in the devil. The same happens today and we must beware.
Take note that this was the ruler coming on behalf of the dead daughter, yet Jesus chose to resurrect the daughter. There is no mention of the daughter's request, the one who actually needed the resuscitation. This is a clear picture of our intercession which is expressed through prayers and ministry of the Word of God to others. Jesus is good to respond and work with you in the midst of your faith for another person. That faith can be used by Jesus to prepare the way for God's healing when your loved one does not have faith for himself or herself. In the other instances the people had faith of their own. In either case, we need to pray with tireless faith, giving Jesus the opportunity to move, and do so with community who will hold us up until we see the goodness of God.
“The great people of the earth today are the people who pray! I do not mean those who talk about prayer; nor those who say they believe in prayer; nor those who explain prayer; but I mean those who actually take the time to pray. They have not time. It must be taken from something else. That something else is important, very important and pressing, but still, less important and pressing than prayer. There are people who put prayer first, and group the other items in life's schedule around and after prayer. These are the people today who are doing the most for God in winning souls, in solving problems, in awakening churches, in supplying both men and money for mission posts, in keeping fresh and strong their lives far off in sacrificial service on the foreign field, where the thickest fighting is going on, and in keeping the old earth sweet a little while longer.” -S.D. Gordon
Practically:
1) Identify which areas of life you need to take a stand of faith to see Jesus work a miracle on behalf of yourself or another. 2) Find a way to replace the professional wailers with a community that will create atmospheres of faith for your miracle. 3) Establish a consistent time of meditation on God's Word and prayer so that Jesus can grow and meet you according to your faith.
Second City Church- Passion of the Christ Sermon Series 2013