Sep9
Matthew 15:21-22..Working
15:21 Leaving that place, (Gennesaret or Galilee-(14:34). Following the heated exchange with the religious leaders on ritual purity-(15:1-20)) Jesus withdrew (Expresses a strategic withdraw to avoid further conflict with the Jewish leaders. Or to find a quiet place to rest and teach His disciples-(Mark 7:24) to the region of Tyre and Sidon. (Gentle Phoenician cities on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Today southern Lebanon. A 50 mile journey on foot. This was the only time Jesus left Israel during His earthly ministry.) 22 A Canaanite woman (Expresses a outdated term as Israel’s old enemies. She had a lot going against her. Not only was it in appropriate in that culture for a woman to talk to a Rabbi. But she was also an unclean pagan gentile who was hated by the Jews) from that vicinity came to him, (Having heard about Jesus’ healing powers. With no newspaper, no Facebook, no Instagram, no social media, no Twitter, “Look what Jesus can do”. There was none of that, it was all by word of mouth-(New) crying out, (imploring, pleading, begged-{Mark 7:26} Expresses her dire desperation.) “Lord, (Sir/Master) Son of David, (Expresses a Messianic title signifying the Messiah’s royal descent from the seed of David.-{2-Sam. 7:12} She understood Jesus as the promised Savior of the Jewish Nation.) have mercy on me! (Expresses her willingness in making her child’s misery and torment her own by identifying with her daughter’s plight.) My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.”(Suggests her daughter was being severely afflicted and tormented.)
Extended Sermon Notes
“Displays the great distance Jesus will go to in breaking every barrier that we get the healing we so desperately need.” ⇒ To Jesus no one is outside the limits of God’s love. Jesus didn’t care if she was a woman, He didn’t care if she was a Gentile, He didn’t’ care if she was from Tyre. He didn’t care if she wasn’t a follower of the Old Testament. Nor was Jesus going to allow His position as God to become a barrier in dying for all sinners. Think about it Jesus could have said “You know what to hell with all of you should have listened to me, you should have done what I said. I gave you my Ten Commandments., you broke all of them, I’m done with you.” But what did Jesus do instead, He broke the barrier, the dividing wall that came between us and God by going to the cross and dying for our sins. He took our punishment on Himself that we stand Saved and forgiven by God. Jesus is willing to go completely out of His way even if it’s just for one individual He needs to interact with. Even if it’s one person He needs to talk too. Like Jesus there should be no barriers in keeping us from loving and helping other people. Are you allowing political barriers to keep you from helping people? Are you allowing cultural barriers keep you from loving others? Are you allowing social barriers to come between you and other people? Are you allowing Transgender and Homosexuality barriers keep you from reaching out with the love of Jesus? Are you allowing a person’s criminal history to be a barrier in hiring them, trusting them, or believing the best about them? Are you allowing your own importance to be a barrier in sacrificing for the good of others? Or maybe not getting recognition and fanfare for doing something is a barrier?
“Calls for not allowing race, gender, upbringing, history, culture, or background keep us from seeking Jesus.” ⇒ No matter our sinful history or sordid past, we can always go to Jesus. Have you ever thought of yourself as a outsider, unwelcomed and unwanted. That you have everything going against you. Have you ever thought yourself as not good enough. You think of all the things I’ve done, and the people I’ve hurt, why would God forgive me now. Look at how bad this women was, that she was called a “Canaanite”. She made all kinds of mistakes, and yet she believed that Jesus would heal her daughter. She believed in the love, kindness, and compassion of Jesus that He would help her despite all she had done. We too can focus on the wrong things when we think about our failures, and not realizing how great His love and compassion is for us.
“Teaches the importance of intersensory prayer in bringing our children to the Lord for healing and delivery.”⇒ As parents will you take your children to the Lord who are caught in a life of sin, addiction, and destruction. Will you take them to the Lord when they’re in a moral and spiritual decline? Will you take them to the Lord when they’ve fallen into some sort of perverse and deviant behavior. Will you take them to Lord whatever it may be. Maybe they’ve fallen into sadomasochisms or cutting themselves. Maybe their narcissistic. Maybe they’re suffering from depression or suicidal thoughts. Maybe they’re acting bizarre or antisocial.
“Calls for a love that is sharing in other people’s miseries. (True love gets caught up in other people’s condition.)” ⇒ Will you make other peoples pain your pain. This is what intercessory prayer is all about. When we pray for other’s needs we pray as if they are our own needs. We mourn for those who mourn. We hurt for those who hurt. Their need is our need.
“Teaches how oftentimes God uses trials and difficulties to draw us to Himself.” ⇒ Often the last thing we usually find in a times of trouble and difficulty is anything good out of it! Sometimes were so eager to be delivered from our troubles and present circumstances that were begging and pleading with God to get us out of this mess that we often miss something good that may be found in it. It’s often trouble that brings us to Jesus. Not when things are going well and times are prosperous. If God didn’t use hardships and afflictions to bring us to Himself we would have surly died in our sins. Think about it if not for some affliction, addiction, or crises we would not have met the Savior! Even for believers if not for the trouble and mess we were in we would have been led astray and far from God. But in the end, it ended up being the tool to bring us back to God! It opened our eyes in see the danger we were and brought us back to God. Sometimes we need the chastening or discipline to teach us and get us back on track. Sometimes you have to learn things the hard way. Health is good, but sickness is better if it brings us back to God. Better to be afflicted a thousand times over if it makes us flee to Christ. Than to live at ease and comfort and die without Christ and without hope. This does not mean were to embrace and look forward to tragedies and hardships, but rather were to see them in a different light, that some good will come ou to it in the end, though we might not see it right away. We might have to walk through troubles that we might learn His love, His mercy, and His grace. That we may grow in faith and be strengthened in them. That we may come out the others side a better person
Additional Notes & Applications
Calls for humble posture of heart in bringing our issues to Jesus, that we got a problem that we can’t solve on our own without God’s help.
Displays how by going to Tyre and Sidon, Jesus was demonstrating that God’s kingdom knows no ethnic, racial, or national barriers.
It should be noted that the Gospel of Mark identifies her by the less theologically-loaded term as a Greek born in Syrian Phoenicia.-{Mark 7:26} In Jesus’ time, Gentiles from this area were known as Syrophoenicians. “Canaanite” is a outdated term, and had not been used for centuries. The word “Canaanite” has theological overtones. The Canaanites were those who lived in the Promised Land prior to the arrival of the Israelites. The Canaanites worshipped idols and sacrificed their children to pagan gods, and thus were a threat to God’s people, whose first commandment ordered them “You shall have no other gods.” The Canaanites were Israel’s long-standing enemies, the people who had stood between the early Israelites and their promised land.5 The Canaanites’ “idolatrous religion was a constant threat to the religious purity of the people of Yahweh indeed, the enemies of God. To call this woman a Canaanite is make her a total outsider, unworthy of God’s grace.
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