Category: Sermon Supplements

Tax collectors were unacceptable in every way: socially, politically, and religiously. Some might say that things haven’t changed much, but really the plight of the tax collector is so much better in our day. We might despise the IRS auditor in our own house, but we like the idea of him in the house of a scoundrel. Further, no one ever thinks the IRS employee a Benedict Arnold because of his job. He may be one, but it is not inherently related to his job. But to the Jew, the tax collector was the worst of traitors. Backed by Roman soldiers he extorted his own countrymen to finance the enemy. Rome grew stronger, the Jews grew weaker, all while the tax collector grew wealthier. In addition he would be religiously unclean because of his frequent dealings with Gentiles.

There was only one reason to be a tax collector in this society, money. You were virtually free to charge as much as you want and any surplus collected was pocketed.

Now imagine the kind of company that such a person who has so ostracized himself form respectable Jewish society would keep. They would be the sort of riffraff who have nothing to lose by associating with him. Jesus was dining with the likes of pimps, prostitutes, thieves, and gamblers.

Jesus seems to call the oddest of disciples and keep the worst of company. Isn’t it wonderful that we’ve now refined the church so that such persons rarely have any dealings with the church except perhaps to beg outside its doors? Evidently Paul still had this problem, the early church being made up of those with less than desirable backgrounds (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). Jesus may still call such disciples, but the church rarely does.

But our “health” may come at a cost. If we keep our illusion of health, the Great Physician will have nothing to do with us, He came for sinners.

Sinner, never fear of being too sinful for Jesus, rather, dread thinking yourself too healthy.

Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,
Weak and wounded, sick and sore;
Jesus ready stands to save you,
Full of pity, love and power.

Let not conscience make you linger,
Not of fitness fondly dream;
All the fitness He requireth,
Is to feel your need of Him.

I will arise and go to Jesus,
He will embrace me in His arms;
In the arms of my dear Savior,
O there are ten thousand charms.

– Come Ye Sinners by Joseph Hart

Logic is a powerful tool, but tools can destroy as well as build. Used wrongly a tool can be deadly to the user. The Pharisee’s logic here is valid. They think Jesus is blaspheming. In Mark they are recorded as thinking, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” They are right. God is always the most offended party in our sin, it is ultimately His prerogative to forgive sin. Your sin never hates anyone as much as it hates God. Sin mocks and belittles all that God is. Think of an attribute of God, then meditate a little, it shouldn’t take long to see how even the smallest sin laughs at that attribute. “Your omnipotent God, do something about this! You are all wise; well I think this is the better way to live. All seeing, do you see this? Your gracious, you’ll forgive this sin.” Sin is the hating of God, the seeking to de-god God. So the Pharisees rightly reason thus:

Only God can forgive sin.

Jesus is a man.

Therefore Jesus cannot forgive sin.

The logic is valid; the problem is that the second premise is false. Jesus is more than a man. That’s the point of this text, the healing of this paralytic is a subplot.  Jesus is the God-man with authority to deal with all of our problems at the root.  Jesus doesn’t come as the Great Physician to merely alleviate symptoms, but to do radical surgery by His own wounds.

All sickness is due to sin. It may or may not be due to a particular sin in your life, but all sickness is ultimately due to sin, namely the sin of Adam. Sickness then is a vivid, pervasive picture of the heinousness of a greater plague of which we all suffer, sin. The greatest disease is not to be dreaded as much as the least sin.

Jesus comes to make all things new; a new heaven and a new earth with no more sickness, pain, or death. In order to do this He will have to deal decisively with sin. This He did on the cross, as the God-man. As Anslem would reason, only God can deal with sin, only man ought to, and only in Jesus do the can and ought meet.

So it is the Pharisees, not Jesus, who blasphemed that day. I do not rejoice that the Pharisees blasphemed, but I do rejoice that it was blasphemy. Jesus does have the authority to forgive sin.

Irony: the disciples who after seeing Jesus’ supremacy over the storm, ask, “What kind of man is this?” receive their answer from demons once they come ashore. Jesus is the Son of God, the Sovereign Judge before whom demons fall, beg, and tremble, the One who in the weakness of His exhausted human flesh beats up a legion of demons with a single word. Learn from the demons not only who Jesus is, but that intellectual assent is not enough (James 2:19).

Insanity: the locals learn to tolerate the kingdom of darkness, but when Jesus demonstrates His power over the realm of evil they beg Him to leave.   They prefer pigs to persons and swine to the Savior.

But that little ship did present a figure of the Church, in that she is disquieted ‘in the sea,’ that is, in the world, ‘by the waves,’ that is, by persecutions and temptations; the Lord, through patience, sleeping as it were, until, roused in their last extremities by the prayers of the saints, He checks the world, and restores tranquility to His own.  – Tertullian

So the boat is the church, the sea the world, the waves persecution and temptation, Jesus’ sleeping His patience, the disciples cries the prayers of the church, and Jesus stilling the storm His deliverance? Nope. That is a horrible way to read this text.  The boat is… a boat. The sea is the sea, the waves are waves, Jesus is Jesus, and the disciples are disciples. What then is the point of this story? How are we to relate to it?  You are meant to with these disciples, as disciples, marvel at the Christ.

While few may be in danger of allegorizing the text as Turtullian did, many may spiritualize the text and make application in a similar way.  “Come to Jesus when the storms of life suddenly arise and you will have peace.” There is truth in that, but that is not the point of this text. Jesus says, “Peace, be still” and all is calm except for their hearts.  Luke says “they were afraid and they marveled.”  Mark adds further insight recording they were “filled with great fear.” The storm is stilled but they are still in awe. Something more awesome remains in their presence.

“Awesome” has to be one of the most abused words in the English language. Films are awesome, CDs are awesome, clothes are awesome, gadgets are awesome, you might even have a friend who is awesome. No, that which is awesome arouses a complex mixture of dread, wonder, and veneration. Storms are awesome, tornadoes are awesome, hurricanes are awesome, earthquakes are awesome, volcanoes are awesome, tsunamis are awesome.  Here these disciples encounter the exceedingly awesome. When sinful men encounter the glory of the holy Christ, they are filled with awe.

The tragedy of their fear and little faith is that they were more in awe of the storm than the Sovereign, but that soon changed. They caught a glimpse of Jesus, and when they did faith flourished, worry wilted, and fear was properly redirected.

The tragedy of all humanity is that we were made for the Awesome, but we are enamored with the trivial. No wonder our faith is so small and our fears are so big.

Nothing, in fact, has done more harm to Christianity than the practice of filling the ranks of Christ’s army with every volunteer who is willing to make a little profession, and talk fluently of his experience. It has been painfully forgotten that numbers alone do not make strength, and that there may be a great quantity of mere outward religion, while there is very little real grace. Let us all remember this. Let us keep back nothing from young professors and inquirers after Christ. Let us not enlist them on false pretenses. Let us tell them plainly that there is a crown of glory at the end. But let us tell them no less plainly, that there is a daily cross in the way.  – J.C. Ryle

Jesus is redeeming a vast people for Himself from every tribe, language, people, and nation, but he is not after a crowd, he is after disciples. Jesus is not after a million-man-militia ready to run at the first hint of danger, He is after the 300 of Thermopylae ready to lay down their lives, and He lets you know the terms up front.  Jesus does not refuse either one of these would-be disciples, nor does he eagerly accept their proposal, rather he calls them to think. He calls them to count the cost.

You cannot barter the terms of you discipleship. You may not build your own custom Christ desiring the benefits of knowing Him as Savior without the demands of His being Lord. What are the terms?  All. Your heart, your mind, your will, in totality, are to be His.

Discipleship costs, but it is a blissful bankruptcy. In sacrificing all we are the ones who receive. We give up the finite for the infinite. So yes, count the cost, but also consider the Christ.

Initially, as he approached, He seemed to be just yet one more joining the crowd to see this One who spoke with such authority and worked wonders. But as he drew nearer they noticed that his clothes were torn, his hair hung loose, and his upper lip was covered.  He was an outcast. He was a leper! Surely he would divert his path, at least he would soon cry out, “Unclean, unclean!” so that the crowd could divert theirs.

***

Leprosy could refer to several diseases that could affect the skin in a particular way including Hansen’s Disease (Leviticus 13). Hansens’ disease is a peculiar disease. It is not dreaded for the pain it causes (though in the initial stages there is some), but for the pain it anesthetizes. Leprosy does deform, but the most severe damage comes precisely because the leper doesn’t feel any pain. But to the Jew  the most dreaded aspects of this disease were not physical, they were religious and social. According to the law the leper was unclean. That is why the leper asked to be cleansed rather than healed. You were healed of other diseases, but you were cleansed of leprosy. Being unclean he dwelt outside the camp. He dwelt alone. He was a picture of sin, cast away from God and God’s people.

***

Perhaps others started to slow down and murmur. They didn’t want to touch this leper and render themselves unclean. Jesus’ pace and trajectory didn’t change, neither did the lepers. The holy Christ and the unclean leper were on a collision course. The crowd gasps, they are shocked, they step back. This is taboo. The leper’s boldness was matched only by his reverence and humility. Now “Lord” could mean nothing more than “sir” in this culture, but when applied to God it was a title of supreme sovereignty. This bold leper, this bowing leper was not simply being polite, he recognized in Jesus a supreme kind of authority. The question was not whether or not Jesus could heal him, but would He heal him?

***

Later in the 5^th century the Talmud would say to stay at least 6 feet away from all lepers, 150 feet if the wind was blowing. This dread disease is contagious by contact and can be airborne; hence the prescriptions in the law (such as covering the upper lip) had a practical as well as spiritual purpose.

***

The lepers boldness is not the most socially starling thing in our text. Though the leper’s behavior is both shocking and a violation of the law, it is understandable from a human point of view. One can understand the loneliness and desperation this man must have felt. No, the most astonishing actions here are not those of the leper, but Jesus. Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him!

***

Leprosy wasn’t something one was commonly healed from, this is one of the reasons it was so dreaded. In the Old Testament only two persons are healed by leprosy, Miriam via Moses’ prayers (Numbers 12), and Naaman via Elisha’s advice (2 Kings 5:1-4).   Both were healed without touch, from a distance.

***

Jesus would later heal from a distance in this chapter. Jesus didn’t need to touch this leper, He wanted to touch this leper.  Just imagine what that touch must have felt like.  Just to be touched by someone must have been wonderful, but to be touched by Jesus!  Moreover to feel His gracious healing touch, well, we can only speculate as to the bliss that leper’s heart was filled with.  This leper could never come close to God’s temple of stone, but in the temple of Jesus’ flesh God came close to Him.

***

Jesus cleanses more than sin defiles.  Edmund Clowney well writes,

Ceremonial symbolism in the Old Testament uses the fundamental distinction between the clean and the unclean.  The comparison of sin to filth is linked with the need for cleanness to approach holy things of the holy Lord.  The prevailing power of sin is shown in the fact that the unclean pollutes the clean, never the other way round.  Haggai’s message focuses on this feature (Hag. 2:10-14).  In fulfillment, the prevailing power of Christ reveres this principle.  When Jesus touches a leper, Jesus is not defiled, the leper is cleansed…

You are cursed with a greater malady of which leprosy is a fit, but faint analogy.  You have only one hope, His name is Jesus, and He is willing to heal would you reverently bow to His supreme authority.

Some will say that in the Sermon on the Mount we find Jesus at His truest; simply a fine moral teacher, perhaps the best there ever was.  People who offer such analysis simply can’t read. Jesus’ claims to supreme authority are the warp and woof of this fine tapestry, unravel this thread and the beauty is lost.

Jesus says those who are persecuted for His sake are blessed (5:11). Jesus does not simply say he came to keep the law, but to fulfill it, that He is everything that it points to (5:17). Repeatedly, at least twelve times, Jesus says something like “I say to you”, or the more emphatic ‘Truly, I say to you,” emphasizing that He stands as the authority behind His own words.  He does not quote the Scriptures or appeal to other teachers as the scribes do, He does not even say “thus says the Lord” as the prophets do, His words carry their own authority precisely because they are His words. Great men don’t speak like this. Sane men don’t speak like this. If Jesus is not divine He is not a good man, He is the worst kind of man.

With nuclear force you collide with this reality in this text. Jesus calls for a decision. You cannot simply be amazed at His authority as the crowds were, you must bow to it. The doctrine you must clearly face here is the supremacy and exclusivity of Christ.

Concerning the narrow way some may say that it seems so, well, narrow. By that charge I take it they mean arrogant.  Imagine you go to a doctor and he tells you that you have a certain problem, immediately you think of your friend who had a similar malady and only needed minimal surgery with one tiny incision. The doctor explains that your problem is such that it requires intensive and extensive surgery, it is the only way. After further multiple expert collaborations would you deem all such doctors narrow and arrogant?

I think the charge of arrogance is laid before us not because we claim to know the only way, but because people think that like doctors we do it based on our own expert knowledge and authority. But they are laying the charge of arrogance at the wrong feet.  I haven’t found the only way by my own intellectual superiority or spiritual fervor, it was graciously revealed to me as good news. I didn’t make the news, I heard it, and now I tell it. Christians don’t claim Jesus is the only way on the basis of my own authority, I claim it on His.

Ultimately the charge of narrowness and arrogance is self-defeating. When others say that it is arrogant to say that your religion is superior, that all others are wrong, and that you shouldn’t try to convert others, they themselves are making a religious statement they think is superior to yours and trying to convert you to it. So who is arrogant? Upon what authority do you make your truth claim? Ultimately it must be yourself. Oh sure you may read others, but you are the one who has ultimately evaluated and decided.

So let us all lay the charge of arrogance where it belongs, at the feet of all humanity. As Christians we don’t deny our hubris, we admit it, repent of it, and bow to kiss the Son (Psalm 2). In such light, the narrow way isn’t arrogant, it is gracious.

Some scholars think that Matthew has done a massive bit of editing here, leaving out the transitions and connective tissue that would help make sense of unrelated parts. I do not think that Matthew has haphazardly arranged parts of this single sermon or is pulling pieces from several sermons for the following reasons.

1.  If 7:7-11 has no connection to the surrounding verses then why not place them in chapter 6 where Jesus teaches concerning prayer?
2. While Matthews’ account of this sermon certainly is condensed, every other part of this sermon has a flow to it.  I do not think Matthew near the end got lazy and just randomly started throwing pieces in.
3. Even if Matthew was getting sporadic in his selection, the Holy Spirit wasn’t.
4. The scene Matthew gives us in 5:1 and 7:28-29 is that of a single setting.
5. 5:1 forms and inclusio (think parenthesis) with 7:28 marking off the main body of this sermon with the repeated phrase, “the law and the prophets.”
6. Finally the strongest and most meaningful word in our text is the little word with which verse 12 begins, “so”. This “so” is the glue that holdes the sermon together.

Here is the breakdown, Matthew 7:1-6 deals with our relations as disciples of Christ to other people, verses 7-11 teaches us about prayer, then in verse 12 we return to how we are to relate to others.  What the “so” in verse 12 tells us then is that as we are reading about prayer we have not left the heading of personal relationships. The teaching on prayer relates to how we are to relate to others.

So, how then does this section on prayer relate to what comes before and after it? As you read verses 1-6 you realize your need for grace and wisdom and Jesus tells you prayer is for power to love people. You have a loving heavenly Father eager to give you such good gifts. Your love for others then overflows from His love for you. We are able to love because He first loved us.

This keeps the passage on prayer from being abused as a means to get whatever we want, and it makes the golden rule golden, that is, uniquely Christian.

Notice how Jesus deals with worry – He’s logical. Now if you know anyone that struggles with worry you know how insufficient logic is to battle anxiety. Statistics give no strength for the worrier. He only reasons, “I could be the one.” But Jesus isn’t simply logical, He is theo-logical.

Three times we are commanded not to worry in this text, and all three times Jesus introduces the command to worry with “therefore”. In light of what Jesus teaches, you are commanded not to worry.  His teaching should result in you not worrying. This knowledge should result in you not worrying. Jesus does not exhort you to pray for deliverance (you should, but this is not the primary way to deal with anxiety). Jesus does not tell you to seek an experience. Jesus tells you to think. The worrier may riposte that thinking is exactly what he has too much of. But when you worry, are you really thinking? Are you controlling your thoughts, or are your thoughts controlling you? Lloyd-Jones expresses this well when he writes,

I suggest that the main trouble in this whole matter of spiritual depression in a sense is this, that we allow our self to talk to us instead of talking to our self. Am I just trying to be deliberately paradoxical? Far from it. This is the very essence of wisdom in this matter. Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment was this [the man in Ps. 42]; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul?’ he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: ‘Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you’….The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself.

Now why is thinking so crucial? Why does Jesus call us to think, and then abandon worry as a result? The answer lies in another question. What is Jesus calling us to think about? We are to consider the character of the Sovereign God, our Master and Lord, who is also our Heavenly Father.  If I lack anything it is not because He is unloving or incapable. God is to be my Treasure, my Vision, my Master, and my Ambition. Worry therefore is God-belittling, that is, blasphemous, as it doubts His providence, and idolatrous as it reveals what we fear and therefore what we love, value, and treasure.

Worry wars against faith; big worry, little faith, big faith, little worry (Matthew 6:30). You fight against worry by fighting for faith. It is true that we cannot make faith happen, it is a gift of God. But God does use means that we can avail ourselves of to increase faith, namely His Word (Romans 10:17) coupled with prayer (Psalm 119:18). Why does the Word increase faith? Because there God speaks to us of Himself. Our faith is not ethereal, it has an object – God. Our faith is in Jesus Christ and all that God is for us in Him. By thinking God’s own thoughts of Himself, given to us in Scripture, we gather wood for the fire. The Spirit sovereignly ignites faith in our chests using the logs of Scripture as fuel. Faith flourishes as it looks to Christ and all that God is for us in Him. Jesus here is directing our gaze to God, who  is our Father in Him (Ephesians 1:5) so that our faith might flourish and our worry wilt.

The theological bedrock that you are meant to stand firmly on in this text is not that you will never hunger, but that God always cares. In Christ He is your Father.

God doesn’t give us our money, He entrusts us with His money.  It’s not a question of how much of our money will we give to Him, but how much of His money are we bold enough to keep for ourselves.  When Jesus uses strong language to rouse us to this reality He is not seeking to rob our joy. This command and the reward for obeying it are not about merit – they both come as further lavish grace in Christ – they are grace upon grace. Jesus wants us to unfurl our sinful fingers and give away temporal pebbles so that our hands are open to receive eternal diamonds.

Live on less, give more, and receive even more, this is heavenly math.