Matthew 9:18–26Scripture
All right. Verse 9. Chapter 9 verse 18 says this. While he was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, now pause.
I try to read the whole text, but I just think this is important. Now you have ones in authority bowing before others in authority. It is giving a comparison between those who have authority and those who have supreme authority or one I should say particularly regarding this text one who has authority and one who has supreme authority.
It becomes increasingly difficult for those in this earth, in our homes, in our workplace, in our society, in our government.
When you have been granted any type of authority, it becomes more difficult to bow a knee to other authority. So what you're seeing here is a picture that there is no question of who has supreme authority. We should take note of this today. Can I just tell you when you have authority, one of the default settings in your life is to go into fixing problems.
It's not to go to one, not to go to another who's in authority to have him fix the problem. So why does this man who's in authority who whose default setting is to fix problems or make decision to fix problems? It is what he does. People come to him with their problems and he finds a solution for their problems. He is one in authority.
Why does he go to Jesus? I think we're left with this.
Introduction
This is a problem he can't fix. Have you ever run into a problem you can't fix? Let me just leave you with this. Who did you reach to? Did you reach to self, your wit, your intellect, your sheer tenacity? I got a lot of that. How many of you have some tenacity in the house, right? Like you just have this nature like you will bite the bit and you will pull it across the finish line. Like you just have that in you and all of that is great but one day you will run into some type of trouble that a bitten bit and full of tenacity will not get you there.
We have in this story a picture of two situations just like that. My daughter, he says, has died. Yes, he it's hard to figure out how to make a decision to make a dead person undead. There's only one who can do that. But come, lay your hand on her and she will live. He understands where the source of life comes from.
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, touched the fringe of his garment, for she said to herself, "if I only touch his garment, I'll be made well." And 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, he saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion. We talked last week about there is a time for everything, a season for everything under the sun. Time to mourn, a time to weep, a time to celebrate. So it's not the weeping and a commotion that's the problem. It's not the mourning that's the problem. It's it's the wrong season.
I like that. He said, "Go away, for this girl is not dead, but sleeping." And they laughed at him.
This is another level of blasphemy when you underestimate the one standing in front of you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 4:42
Now, it seems kind of obvious for us because we're looking back thousands of years and we're we're we're we're seeing a story unfold, a narrative unfold in our Scripture. We know where this goes.
Jesus standing there, we know and we see them laugh at Jesus and we say that's blasphemy. But in our own lives, when you don't see the full narrative, when you're not looking back in time, when you don't know that he overcomes sin and death, when you know that he overcomes the grave, when you forget those things, when you're going through your own set of troubles, it is amazing how quickly blinders get on your life when trouble hits your life, not when trouble hits someone else's life. See, you can be you can evaluate a situation when trouble's hitting someone else's life. When the storm is raging in someone else's life, when they're laughing at the Lord in the midst of their trouble, we see that as blasphemy.
But in our trouble, somehow or another, we have a tendency to not see so well. I love this. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in, took her by the hand, and the girl arose. Can I just say something here? This is Jesus. The crowd could have stayed inside, been negative, been laughing at Jesus, and he still could have raised her. He had the authority to do that.
But there just some people you need to separate from for a moment. But this is God. You. Your environment matters. Parents, some of you want your children to grow up knowing the Lord, but they're not in an environment where that can happen.
Are you with me today? Because it moves beyond saying a thing. Your environment matters. Fathers, you can talk to your kids a lot about what they should and should not be doing, about who they should serve, about who they should run to, about the fact they should be opening up their Scriptures. But if you yell in your house and you're out of control and your emotions aren't in control, and you create an environment that is opposite of what you're encouraging them to, you're not raising them in an environment where true healing can happen, transformation can happen, where your children will move from life into death.
You have a responsibility. Amen. Some of you are wanting to chase the Lord, but your company the company you keep is not it's not it's not helpful.
Can you are you with me? Well, I'm going to be evangelist of all evangelists. God put me here and I'm going to win them all. No, he's going to win them all. He can do it without you. Through dreams, through visions, through his word.
He chooses to use us, but he don't need you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 8:14
Sometimes you need to separate even from those you came to save.
And the report of this went throughout all the district. I love this. Okay. All right. Let me say this. We have been for the last several months, we have been in a section that I like to call, okay? God or Jesus has authority over sickness and death and everything. He has authority over it all. Okay? As much and as uncomfortable as you may as this may make you feel, whatever is hitting your life, he has authority over it.
So if it hit it, if it hits you, he has authority over it. If it's lifted, he has authority over it. He is supreme. He is above all things. He is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.
He perfects what he begins and he initiates what he chooses.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 9:31
He is God as many pastors say all by himself.
He's not dependent on any other. He is the man. I like that. So what we do in our life and I just think this is important to lay out is we have in our culture specifically in America because we are such a prosperous nation as we celebrate our 250th year. I want to say we have a lot to be thankful for being in this nation. Can I get an amen up in here?
Okay. I ain't going to be this. Listen, this I'm not I have zero I have zero desire to glorify this nation.
But I am thankful I live in it. Yes. The glory only goes to God. It does not go to men. It does not go to leaders. It does not go to any of those things. It only goes to God. And every nation rises and falls one day. I will just say this just so you understand.
The more prosperous a nation becomes, the more at risk we are of denying the one we should be celebrating.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 10:46
Yes, we read a story of the Israelite nations separating into the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. Northern kingdom became so prosperous, so successful in battle, so successful in war, so rich and so wealthy they denied the God they once served. Idols began to be erected. Idols began to be worshiped. And prosperity. Listen, they were wealthy beyond measure but spiritually bankrupt.
Sound familiar?
We have people in churches today that come they do they participate in religious form but they are spiritually bankrupt.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 11:51
There was no shortage in the northern kingdom of worship, of sacrifices, all types of religious form, but spiritually bankrupt. And it's very easy. It's very easy because the moment you begin to think that what remedies and satisfies your soul, what remedies your problem and satisfies your soul is finances. We have a problem. It's prosperity. It seeped its way into the gospel. It has a name.
It's called the prosperity gospel. Entire movements are built on it. Entire denominations are constructed by it. It has found its way into every denomination in America. And we as missionaries have trans have transferred that to other nations. Trust me, I've been there.
Track with me. I please hear me out entirely because it I will make some demonstrative statements that you can take and run with and you it will not be good. It will not be good.
Jesus here's here's a demonstrative statement.
Jesus did not die to get you out of trouble.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 13:37
Jesus died because God sent him and he was commanded to his entire life just marked by obedience. Track with me. I know you want to make it about you. I know. I know you want to make it about you. I know you want to make the cross about you. But the cross is not about you. The cross is about him.
Him coming. Jesus obeying, doing exactly what the father said, obeying every part of the law unto death.
Jesus died for God, and you're a benefactor of it.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 14:38
You see, the moment we begin to take everything and make it about us, we strip out and strip away the glory that was meant for him. This text, it's not about you. It's about the one who walked into the room. It's about the one that was reached out for by Jarius.
It's the only one who can remedy your trouble and your problem. It's about him. Try with me today. So many sermons are constructed and built on the idea of this woman's faith because she reached for Jesus in a crowd. We sip the attention from Jesus and his healing authority, his ability to deliver where doctors couldn't deliver. And we emphasize this woman's faith over the God of the universe who can remedy any illness.
Why are we celebrating that which is broken over that which is holy?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 16:02
Why do we do that? I'll tell you. Because we live in a prosperous nation that's fixated on self to the detriment of the God of the universe standing in our presence. It's a problem. Trouble should be a conduit that gets you to him.
Now, here's one thing that you need to know that might be contrary to what you believe because you live in a prosperous nation because you have been immersed in prosperity gospel language. You might have come this morning with this idea that the more you walk with God, the more you talk with God, the more that you come to church, the more faithful you are in serving him, that you will avoid trouble.
I came to Del today to tell you whether you're poor or whether you're rich, whether you're beautiful or whether you're ugly, whether you have a lot or whether you have little, whether your IQ is good or whether your IQ is bad, whether your job is great or whether your job is a torment to you, regardless of who you are, whether you're good at sports, whether you stink at sports, trouble will hit all of you.
That's a promise you can take to the bank. There are some things in life that no amount of money is going to buy you out of.
No amount of status or planning or your strength will get you out of and keep you away from trouble.
Trouble enters every life. Every life. If it were up to me, because I think I love you, I'd make sure none of you experience trouble, including myself. If I were to write a script for my life, it'd be void of trouble. But I'm not writing the script. I'm not writing it. I believe that trouble has a way of giving God glory and teaching us who we glorify. Amen.
True. I don't know about you, but
I truly believe that one of the greatest teachers is trouble.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 19:07
You're like, "Sean, I know a Scripture. I know a Scripture. It said the Holy Spirit would be our teacher." Well, yeah. It also says it's fire that burns everything away. I call that troubling. I call that a little troubling. Today, if a fire erupted in this building and began to work its way through and burn everything and you down to ashes, would you be like, "Yay!" I would say that's troubling.
It is a purifying fire. He's not scared to let that be your teacher. And you know what it actually says in the Bible that God is love. What is he doing here? If God has authority over sickness and death and he is teaching us something through his life, then that means he was involved in this situation a little bit.
And this is a trouble. He had authority over. You can believe or disagree with this in the initiation of it and the delivery of it. He's saying something here. He's teaching us something here. Can I just say this?
It's better to turn to Jesus than your bank account because there's just some things that money can't buy you out of.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 20:49
I would say Jarius was pretty wealthy.
A matter of fact, I knew he was. I know he was. History tells us he was. But he couldn't write a check to get his dead daughter undead. Are you with me today? It's important for you to understand it enters every life of those far from God. Track with me. And not just them, those closest to God. Some trouble is self-inflicted.
Some trouble comes directly from God himself. How many of you have ever experienced some self-inflicted trouble? Yeah. Amen. Yeah. Yeah. If you're sitting if you're sitting by somebody, this will be fun, that you love and trust, I want you to lean in real close to them. I don't normally do this stuff because I don't I'm not necessarily a large participant. Brooke would whisper to me and I'd wink at her.
If you but if you would like, if you would so be inclined, if you trust the person next to you, I want you to think for just a moment and I want you to lean in and I want you to tell them a time you experienced trouble because you did something. Just think for a moment and I want you to whisper.
It's brave. You got to be brave because it because you're outing yourself right now. You're outing yourself.
Y'all a chatty bunch, aren't you? Huh? Y'all have a lot of things that you've done wrong that cause you trouble. I guess I can I just say this that what you just shared is not what this is. Well, we have several times up to this point, we've heard the question, who sinned that this man would be in this condition.
That's not what this is. This is not an ailment connected to sin. That's not what this is. That's not what Jesus is trying to say. There is some trouble that we experience because we just make some choices that are just not so great. And then there's just some trouble that hits us just because we live in a fallen world.
Amen. You're not the benefactor of some bad choice you've made. We live in a fallen world and there's just some bad things that happen because of it. Now here's where our hope comes from. Our hope longs for the day where that trouble will be eradicated off the earth, off our lives. The curse will be fully removed. Now, I know some of you believe that some of you might believe that because you believed in Jesus, the curse is fully removed. If you're young enough today and you're pregnant and you're going to have a baby, I promise you the curse is still there.
Men, you're still working by the sweat of your brow. The curse is still there. One day, that portion of the curse will be lifted. That's good news. See, that's what we long for. So, what God is trying to help us do with this Scripture is to move our longings to their appropriate place where joy exists.
See,
Some of you today live a joyless life because you're focused on the wrong thing.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 24:47
Your hope is focused on the wrong. You hope in something that will never bring joy.
Trouble hits all of our lives. That is the kind of trouble that we see here in this text. A father loses his daughter. A woman loses her health, her community, and her hope. One child is dead physically. One woman has been dying socially for 12 years. It was a 12-year-old girl and a woman who had been dying socially for 12 years.
Yet, both are brought before the same savior.
Point 1Trouble is inevitable in a fallen world
We're going to go through these points really quick. Number one, trouble is inevitable in a fallen world. Matthew 9:20, "and behold, a woman who had suffered from discharge of blood for 12 years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment." Before we can feel the weight of this text, we need to understand where trouble comes from. We listen, we live in a gen Genesis 3 world.
God did not create this world with sickness, with bleeding, with death, with grief, shame, and funerals and disease and separation. That's not way he created this world.
These things entered because of sin.
You want to hate anything because of the trouble you face. Don't hate God. Hate sin.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 26:34
Sin is the found fountain head of all human misery. I'm trying to help you understand something because some of us innately in our flesh long to sin. But I want you to understand it is the fountain head of all your misery.
I promise. Every tear, every funeral, every diagnosis, every betrayal, every broken body, fearful night, stressed out evening over dinner. Every dying child reminds us that the world is not as it should be.
This does not mean every specific suffering is tied to specific personal sin. Jarius did not necessarily do something wrong to kill his daughter. The woman did not necessarily do something wrong to bleed for 12 years. But their pain exists because the whole creation groans under the curse of sin.
I truly believe that this text presses each of us to hate sin with a furious type of hatred.
And not just sin in other people. Come on, man. Sin in you.
Sin in me. I'll tell you this.
Sin is not some pet to keep in your house.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 28:25
I just want to cuddle it and hug it and squeeze it and squish it. I love it. I want to feed it till it gets bigger and bigger so I can hug it and squeeze it and cuddle it and squish it.
It's amazing how many of us keep sin as a pat. It's because we don't understand that sin is your misery.
The trouble you face is due to sin. Either directly or indirectly. The trouble you face is due to sin. And Jesus came to rectify this. Come on now.
That's who's standing before Jarius.
Point 2Trouble must drive us humbly to Christ
Number two, I told you quick. Trouble must drive us humbly to Christ. That's the point. We must see it this way. Matthew 9:18 says, "A ruler came." Who where did the ruler come? Who did he come to?
Who did the ruler come to? Jesus. A ruler came in and knelt before him, Jesus, saying, "my daughter has just died, but come lay your hand on her and she will live." He's the ruler of the synagogue. He had status, responsibility. He had religious influence and a public reputation.
Yet status could not shield his home from trouble. Religion could not keep death from his daughter. Track with me here. In this prosperous nation, in this prosperity gospel world we live in, influence could not stop grief from entering his house. His daughter died.
That's heavy. This is not an idea or a theological category only. This is a father whose daughter is gone.
His desperation becomes greater than his reputation. I could take some time, but I won't to tell you what kind of trouble it could have got him into running to Jesus.
Look that up for a second.
He does not stand above Christ as a ruler. He bows before Christ as a beggar.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 31:15
Track with me. One of my one of my top one of my top Scriptures in all the Bible is when Jacob the heel grabber is a conniving lion cheating little final little rascal finding a way to get his committing his whole life to figuring out how to get over his friend, get over his brother, get over on the blessing that was coming to him just to get over. But there does come a place when God has chosen you, when God has called you, when God has placed purpose on your life, when God has ma was made you his and he has marked you as his. Even from the beginning, even before he's called you, redeemed you, renewed your heart, transformed you, made a new heart in you, put his spirit in you. He listen, even before of all that, he marks you as his before he makes you his. And let me tell you, if he marks you're already his before you're actually his. But he's marked Jacob.
It's crazy because he's saying things like, "Jacob I loved, Esau I hated, and Jacob is a conniving, lying, cheating little fool." Then that don't make no sense. How do you love him and hate another when he looks just as bad, if not worse, than the other? Because he's marked co- because
God doesn't judge you based on who you are in the moment. He judges you based on his holiness and what he's decided about you in spite of you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 33:01
That's good news. Well, you won't hear that much from me. That's good news though.
That's good news. That almost made me want to shout myself. That almost blessed that almost blessed me till I wanted to shout myself. But then I would get embarrassed cuz I lost control for a second. You know, like he marked you. You know what happens in this story? He wrestles all night to get a blessing. And God troubled his hip with a touch. Dislocated it.
I ain't dancing. I'm dying. He went from wrestling with God to clinging on to God as a beggar. He went face to demand something as an equal, to begging for something as a subordinate.
Sometimes God's touch is painful. Sometimes it's troubling.
Sometimes his ble his greatest blessing flows through your greatest pain.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 34:29
Track with me here today. I came to say something today on our 250th in a blessed nation where we're immensely wealthy and immensely br blessed. I came here today to tell you be careful to not trust in that. Reach for that and deny him while he's in the room.
Trouble drives Jarius to the feet of Christ as a beggar.
He says, "my daughter has just died. Come lay hands and she will live." See, that is faith. He believes Jesus can touch death and life will return. He believes Jesus has the power where every other man is powerless, including himself. He believes the hand of Christ can restore where religion can't.
Come on now.
The best place to bring what you cannot control is to the feet of the one who controls all things.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 35:39
Point 3Trouble shows where our faith is reaching
Number three, trouble shows where our faith is reaching. Oh yeah. Yeah, it does. Oh yeah, it does. Trouble is not just a teacher. Trouble is revolary. Revolary of who you trust in. Revolary. Revelatory. Tory. Matthew 9:21. For she said to herself, if I touch his garment, I'll be made well.
Can I just say something here? This is this might be a smidge off topic. You know what I love about this? You know what I love about her? You know what I love about Jarius is both of them are in this position.
I love that right there. That's guys, that's really awesome. I'm afraid in a prosperous nation, we're in this position. If I don't have a meeting with you as an equal, it's hard in a prosperous nation to get in that position. We really do think we're such some of us talk about our faith, but we do it from an egotistical place.
I'm okay. I want to I'm actually okay having conversations about great faith as long as it looks like that.
We have conferences and camps and seminars trying to inspire people to have greater faith. But it ain't a faith that looks like that.
It's not a humble faith. It's not a faith as a beggar. It's an arrogant faith of I've arrived.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 37:58
I am somebody. I should be respected in the church. Don't you know who I am?
How many of you have heard your prayers echo through the room and back into your ears and hear things like, "Don't you know that I've served you all these years?" They don't need a face to face with Jesus. They just need to touch the hem of his garment. I like that. I like it. Trouble shows where our faith is reaching.
Jesus can't even get over to Jerus's house and he's got somebody else just clawing at him. This means something to me because I'm just kind of like it just means something to me. I'm introverted so like J let me just say this. J.R.'s a huggy type of guy. And when he hugs me I'm like Jesus had people pawing and clawing after him.
And he was just he just had this neverending flow of love.
That says something to me for me specifically as a introverted guy that sometimes life is not about you. Are you with me today? I'm looking a lot at my wife because it's just a safe zone, but I'll look over here. I'm talking to you. I don't even see any of you out there. Somebody messaged me after church and was like, "is there a reason you stared at me the entire time?" And I was like, "I can't even see past the second row." So, if you were past that, I all I see is a big giant blur ball blob out there.
This woman suffered for 12 years. Mark tells us that she had suffered under many physicians. Can I just say something? The issue with this woman was not her faith. That's not what's being talked about here. She had faith in physicians. For in 12 years, her faith caused her to reach in a direction where healing could not be found.
How many of you can think back where you reached out to this, you reached out to that, you reached out to this to remedy something in your heart that when you reached out to Jesus only that remedied the issue is not faith, it's what the faith is in. I believe today all of you have faith. But in what?
I can see what you have faith in most by what you reach to in trouble.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 41:27
I don't even have to be filled with the Holy Spirit and anointed upon high to see that in you and have an image.
I just see your trouble and I see where you reach and your trouble and I know where your faith is. But something happened. What happened to her that made her go from reaching to doctors and reaching to Jesus? What happened there?
I'll tell you what happened. She heard of a man who had authority over the earth, over storms, over blindness, over sickness, and over death. She heard of a man. Let me ask you something.
When was the last time you talked about that man to somebody?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 42:30
See, some of you want the transaction of completion upon the declaration of that man. So when you go out to tell about Jesus, you don't see the transaction of completion upon the declaration. You stop declaring because you think the problem rests with you. But I'm here today to tell you that the proclamation, the declaration of that man may not bring completion in the moment, but God will orchestrate a trouble that will make them stop reaching towards doctors and reaching toward their wife and reaching towards their husband and reaching towards their children and reaching towards their bank account and reaching towards their job and reaching towards their accomplishments and reaching towards their success and reaching towards churches and reaching towards their religion. Because none of that satisfied. And if you've talked about a man who has authority where all those other things don't have authority, when trouble hits their life, they might just reach towards Jesus.
See, the issue is not faith. The issue is what it's in. The issue is not reaching. The issue is what we reach to. Amen. What are you reaching to? Some of you are sitting in today. The wind has been knocked out of you.
What are you reaching to? I came today to tell you about a man who is unlike any other man.
He breathed life into dirt. And if the wind has been knocked out of you today, he can breathe life into you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 44:22
Point 4Trouble reveals our need for restoration
Who are you reaching to? Number four and the final one. Trouble reveals our need for restoration. Amen. Because everybody here, man, you need to be restored. The miracle in this passage points beyond physical healing. This woman was healed. But one day she will die. Track with me here. I can prophesy something in the house today. All y'all dying.
The reason I can say that with all the confidence in the world and you don't have to you don't have to wait to see that one out is because God promised that's going to happen. He promised in his word that's going to happen. She was healed in this moment, but she's going to die later. The girl was raised from the dead, but she is going to the grave at some point.
These miracles are signs of something greater. Please today, please, I beg you,
Do not let your heart be satisfied by what's happening in the flesh. Because what happens miraculously in one moment will let you down in the next.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 46:03
He will perform miracles in your life. But your hope is not in the miraculous here on earth and in the flesh. It is what he does for you spiritually that is to be celebrated.
The girl was raised but one day she will die. These miracles are signs. They show us who Jesus is and what his kingdom brings.
He is the one who restores unclean people. He is the one who comforts the desparing. He is the one who welcomes the outcasts.
He is the one who raises the dead. He is the one who reverses the curse. One day. But the greatest restoration is not merely health and wealth and restoration to the body. The greatest restoration is sinners restored to their father. And this is a sign of what he does in the spiritual realm. Jesus is pointing to something greater that's coming.
Every person in this room needs more than circumstantial relief, temporary relief of the body and the mind. We need eternal relief of our spirit. We need reconciliation with God. We've sinned against him. We've broken his law.
We're not merely weak. We are guilty. We are not merely wounded. We are sinners.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 47:56
And if we die in our sin without repentance, we will be separated from him forever.
And that is the greatest curse the world will ever know. That is the greatest trouble you will ever face. But the father sent his son for you. Jesus is his name. He entered our fallen world. He touched the unclean. He bore our sin. He died in the place of sinners. And he rose from the dead. And now everyone who turns from sin and trust in him will be saved. Praise the Lord.
Maybe trouble has exposed your need today. Maybe you've been trying to control what only God can handle. Maybe shame has kept you hiding. Maybe grief has made you hopeless. Maybe you know how to do church, but maybe you don't know Christ. Come to him. Reach to him. Have faith in him. Listen,
Don't wait till you're clean. Come to the one who cleanses. Don't wait till you're strong.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 49:22
Come to the one who's stronger than you. Don't wait to until you explain your trouble. Come to the one who steps into your trouble. Don't wait till you can fix your own life. Come to the one who restores sinners to God. The same Christ that looks at the woman and says, "Daughter, he can receive you." Same Christ who took the girl by the hand can raise you from spiritual death into spiritual life.
The issue is not faith this morning. The issue is what you place your faith in. And
In a prosperous nation, it's very easy to not reach to him.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 50:23