Open Eyes & Closed Hearts (Matthew 9:27-34)
Open Eyes & Closed Hearts
Matthew 9:27-34
May 15, 2011 am
Matthew is in the midst of a section in which he is presenting to you
The undeniable power that Jesus has over sin.
• It started with the cleansing of a leper.
• From there he healed the centurion’s slave.
• He cast a fever out of Peter’s mother-in-law.
• He calmed the storm on the see
• He removed a legion of demons from a man
• He healed a paralytic
• He healed a hemorrhaging woman
• He raised a little girl back to life
It has obviously been one miraculous proof after another.
Each of these were meant to show that Jesus has power over sin,
Because He systematically reversed the effects of sin in people’s lives.
We have seen His power, but something else we have seen
Is that He is in very high demand.
Just consider this one day.
It started by preaching in a home
That was so crowded no one could get in.
It was then that four men tore a hole in the roof
And lowered their paralytic friend down to Jesus.
(9:9) “As Jesus went on from there…”
He saw Matthew
Banquet in Matthew’s home
Interrupted by debate with Pharisees and John’s disciples
(9:18) “While He was saying these things…”
The debate was cut short by Jairus who wanted his daughter raised
(Even a woman interrupted this while He was on the way)
Eventually He did make it to Jairus’ house and raise his daughter
(9:27) “As Jesus went on from there…”
These two blind men follow Him back to the house.
Jesus heals them.
(9:32) “As they were going out…”
They show up with a mute demon possessed man.
It is obvious that Jesus has had quite an exhausting day.
Of course we have seen this before.
Back in chapter 8
• The day started by preaching in the synagogue and casting out a demon.
• He then came to Peter’s house where He healed his mother-in-law
• He was then bombarded by a crowd He sought to escape
• That night He calmed the see
• The next day He healed the demoniac
• Then He was pushed back across the see
It has literally been non-stop for Jesus.
One need right after another, and often times several needs at once.
It sort of makes sense what we see next from Jesus.
Matthew 9:36-38 “Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”
Is it any wonder that Jesus asks for help?
Furthermore it makes perfect sense to us why in chapter 10
He will send out the 12 to seek out the lost sheep of Israel.
Not only has Jesus been powerful,
But He has also in high demand.
The bizarre thing is out of all the people that flocked to Him,
True followers are shockingly few.
And think about it for a moment.
Of all the responses that Matthew has shown you in this section, how many positive ones has Jesus received?
Answer: 1 (Matthew)
Aside from him
We have the scribe who loved comfort
We have the disciple who wanted his inheritance
We have the town of the demoniac who wanted Jesus to leave
We have the arrogant Pharisees who don’t understand compassion
We have John’s disciples who love legalism
We have the crowd at Jairus’ house who laughed at Him
Everyone else is completely missing the point.
And this final set of miracles only reiterates that sad truth.
And this morning we see the final proof in this section.
(Not the last miracles Matthew will show you, but the last ones in this section).
These seem to be the miracles that Matthew has been waiting for.
WHY?
While to you and I, overcoming death looked like the pinnacle miracle,
It really wasn’t to the Jews.
Matthew saved his biggest proof for last,
And that was the healing of the blind men and the mute man.
WHAT MADE THESE SO GREAT?
These are direct fulfillments of Messianic prophecy.
Isaiah 29:17-19 “Is it not yet just a little while Before Lebanon will be turned into a fertile field, And the fertile field will be considered as a forest? On that day the deaf will hear words of a book, And out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see. The afflicted also will increase their gladness in the LORD, And the needy of mankind will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.”
Isaiah 35:3-6a “Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble. Say to those with anxious heart, “Take courage, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance; The recompense of God will come, But He will save you.” Then the eyes of the blind will be opened And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy.”
Isaiah 42:5-7 “Thus says God the LORD, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath to the people on it And spirit to those who walk in it, “I am the LORD, I have called You in righteousness, I will also hold You by the hand and watch over You, And I will appoint You as a covenant to the people, As a light to the nations, To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the dungeon And those who dwell in darkness from the prison.”
A man might come and do many amazing things,
But they knew they would spot the Messiah
When He gave sight to the blind and speech to the mute.
Remember when John was doubting?
Matthew 11:2-6 “Now when John, while imprisoned, heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to Him, “Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: the BLIND RECEIVE SIGHT and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the POOR HAVE THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO THEM. “And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.”
It is clear that Matthew saw these miracles
As the undeniable proofs of Jesus Messiahship.
And so Matthew places them as sort of the icing on the cake
For us here in this chapter.
THE TRAGEDY IS THAT IT DOESN’T SEEM TO BE ENOUGH.
#1 JESUS HEALS THE BLIND MEN
Matthew 9:27-31
Now as we study each of these miracles, you will notice that
They are very similar in the way Matthew presents them.
Matthew shows us the same four things about each of them.
The blind men
1) MESSIANIC RECOGNITION (27)
“As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”
It is obvious that even though these men were blind
They knew what was going on around them.
It is possible they were even listening to the debate
Jesus was having with the Pharisees and John’s disciples.
And certainly they were aware of what Jairus did
In coming to get Jesus and the desperate act of the hemorrhaging woman.
These men had spotted Jesus as someone special.
And so the second Jesus leaves Jairus’ house, these men are after Him.
And what is obvious to us is that they are after Him
Because they have recognized Him to be the Messiah,
And therefore the One who can restore their sight.
Notice what they say to Him, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”
“Son of David” is a Messianic title,
Clearly linking Jesus to the throne of David.
2) EXPRESSION OF FAITH (28)
“When He entered the house, the blind men came up to Him, and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.”
Jesus “entered the house” presumably He went back to Matthew’s house,
And these blind men just follow Him right inside.
They have the same type of desperation
That the leper, the centurion, the four friends, Jairus,
And the hemorrhaging woman all had.
They were not being turned away from Jesus.
And then Jesus asks a bizarre question.
“Do you believe that I am able to do this?”
Does that seem strange?
At this point we should think it was obvious what they believed,
And yet Jesus asks anyway.
What Jesus does is unequivocally reveal
That these men knew He could heal them.
Whatever questions we have about these men in a moment,
We know that they came to Jesus believing He could make them see.
“They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.”
And so we see and expression of faith.
3) MIRACULOUS HEALING (29-30a)
“Then He touched their eyes, saying, “It shall be done to you according to your faith.” And their eyes were opened.”
And there we have the miracle.
And once again we marvel at what Jesus can do.
Even in our world of technology,
Restoring sight to the blind is an impossibility.
I spent no less than 5 trips to an optometrist just trying to get contacts to work,
Let alone restoring sight to the blind.
And yet all Jesus does is touch their eyes
And instantly these men can see.
We can definitely declare that Jesus is the prophesied Messiah.
And only if the story had ended there.
4) BLATANT DISREGARD (30b-31)
“And Jesus sternly warned them: “See that no one knows about this!” But they went out and spread the news about Him throughout all that land.”
Now we don’t know why Jesus told them not to tell anyone.
But He did and He was stern about it.
This was no insignificant command from Him.
He was serious.
And therefore regardless of His reasons, He expected these men to obey.
Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.”
But these men didn’t.
“they went out and spread the news about Him throughout all that land.”
Now look, we can all sugar coat this if we want.
We can all offer them a pass if we want.
“Oh, but these guys were just so excited that they couldn’t keep it in.”
Listen, Jesus always had a way of going after the heart of a man.
Jesus always has a way of testing our love and true devotion.
And obviously for these men
Jesus wanted that love proven by their silence.
Now Jesus didn’t tell everyone to keep quiet.
Remember the demoniac?
Luke 8:38-39 “But the man from whom the demons had gone out was begging Him that he might accompany Him; but He sent him away, saying, “Return to your house and describe what great things God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.”
Obviously Jesus’ command to these men
Had as much to do with their heart condition as it did anything.
As a sign of love, as a sign of commitment, He wanted silence from them.
But they wouldn’t give it.
They delighted too much in telling their story,
And so their story ends in disobedience.
#2 JESUS CASTS OUT A MUTE DEMON
Matthew 9:32-34
“As they were going out, a mute, demon-possessed man was brought to Him.”
If you read in the King James it says, “they brought to Him a dumb man”
And it has led many to assume that it was in fact
The blind men who brought him.
No, they clearly went out to spread the word,
This was someone else who brought this man.
No sooner does Jesus finish that miracle than here comes another one.
And again we see the same four aspects.
1) EXPRESSION OF FAITH (32)
Now this expression of faith is different than the first.
There the blind men came to Jesus openly declaring their belief in Him,
But this miracle is more like the centurion’s slave,
The paralytic with four friends, or even Jairus’ daughter.
All of those received Jesus’ healing benefit
Based upon the faith of someone else.
And so did this man.
We don’t know who believed, but someone obviously did.
2) MIRACULOUS HEALING (33a)
“After the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke;”
Apparently it was the demon who was mute,
And when he left the man could speak.
And yet again we have a miracle.
No fight is recorded, no major battle, it doesn’t even appear difficult.
“the demon was cast out”
Again Jesus did what was utterly impossible for man to do.
It was a miracle.
And there is no doubt Jesus is the Messiah.
And this miracle sparked a reaction.
3) MESSIANIC RECOGNITION (33b)
“and the crowds were amazed, and were saying, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”
The crowd was blown away by what Jesus did.
And it is obvious that they spotted Jesus for what He was.
They recognized that He was no ordinary man.
They recognized that He was no ordinary doctor.
This man did what no human could do.
He was obviously the One that Isaiah wrote about.
He is obviously the King of Israel.
The crowd could see that quickly.
And again if only the story ended here.
4) BLATANT DISREGARD (34)
“But the Pharisees were saying, “He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.”
It is amazing how extremely hard-hearted
Man can be towards the truth of God.
These Pharisees were confronted with absolute truth
And yet willfully and blatantly disregarded it.
They actually give credit for His power to Satan the ruler of the demons.
You see, there was no denying His power,
The only thing they could do was deny His source.
And so we conclude this section on Jesus’ power with two undeniable miracles,
And yet two accounts of those who blatantly disregard Him anyway.
One disregarded the command he was given
One walked in outright defiance of the proof he had seen
One abused His mercy
One attacked it
And once again we are struck with that sobering reality,
That despite the truths of Jesus,
Mankind seems to want to cling to his sin.
While Leo, Michael, and I were traveling back this weekend
We had a conversation about the free will of man.
And there is much we could talk about,
But one thing I would remind you of, that whatever you want to call
The will of man, you cannot call it “free”.
Mankind has never had “free will”.
The will of man is most certainly and undeniably bent toward sin.
HE IS NOT FREE HE IS A SLAVE TO SIN.
John 8:34 “Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.”
And this concept is seen all the way back to the beginning.
Genesis 6:5 “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
And even to the times of the New Testament.
Ephesians 2:1-3 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”
Man was anything but free,
And his will was anything but for the things of God.
The point is that if given a choice man has chosen sin
And will choose sin every single time.
The masses clung to Him for healing, and removal of demons,
And for a free meal,
Yet when He asked of them in return
They almost all of them turned and walked away.
WHY IS THAT?
Because they had a refusal to leave their sin.
They all came to Jesus in selfishness, and that will never work.
You must come to Jesus in submission.
Matthew 16:21-24 “From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”
And that is one of the things that Matthew
Has been showing us here in his gospel.
Masses were flocking to Jesus.
They were flocking at such a rate that He could literally get no rest.
You would think that His following would be huge.
But that wasn’t the case.
DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY THERE WERE?
Acts 1:15 “At this time Peter stood up in the midst of the brethren (a gathering of about one hundred and twenty persons was there together)…”
So out of all these crowds that bombarded Him everywhere He went,
Only 120 truly chose to die to themselves and follow Him.
Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
And if those facts do nothing for us,
They should remind us that there is a great difference
Between one who flocks to Jesus out of selfish reasons
And one who desires to submit to Jesus under any circumstance.
It is very easy in this life to be attracted to Jesus.
Especially when we want to be healed…
Or when we want to be provided for…
Or when we want to be protected…
Or when we want to escape hell…
Jesus becomes very popular at those moments.
And that is fine, for Jesus can do all those things.
But the danger we must resist
Is the danger of only coming to Him to get something from Him,
Just so we can return to our former way of life
With a little less difficulty than before.
After finishing this section on the power of Jesus,
There is no way that anyone in here can deny that Jesus is the Messiah.
But the purpose is not just to convince you of who Jesus is.
The purpose of this section
Is to push you to submit your life to the King.
And we must leave our sin behind in order to do it.
This morning let me remind you again that Jesus is the Messiah,
And that because He is the Messiah,
You and I must submit our lives to Him.
Psalms 95 “O come, let us sing for joy to the LORD, Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. For the LORD is a great God And a great King above all gods, In whose hand are the depths of the earth, The peaks of the mountains are His also. The sea is His, for it was He who made it, And His hands formed the dry land. Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you would hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness, “When your fathers tested Me, They tried Me, though they had seen My work. “For forty years I loathed that generation, And said they are a people who err in their heart, And they do not know My ways. “Therefore I swore in My anger, Truly they shall not enter into My rest.”
Multitudes came for healing, but found no rest.
Submit your life to Christ, and find the rest of God.
