Matthew 15:21-28. The Canaanite woman and her faith.

good morning good afternoon or good evening whoever you are wherever you are this is mr. monk oh and I have been quite sick with some kind of tonsillitis laryngitis combination which is throwing my voice out completely I can't sing so instead I thought I would do something a little different so as some of you might know just a quick introduction I am a Christian I was an atheist and I was reading the Bible and trying to prove that God didn't exist and he had other plans for me and part of those plans are for me to apparently preach once a month on a Sunday evening at my local church so I thought I'd take some of these sermons that I've been doing and I put them in a format that's suitable for YouTube and hopefully they might help somebody okay we're going to be looking at Matthew 15 verses 21 to 28 this is the faith of the Canaanite woman here's what we're going to do go to start with a quick introduction to the verses so we can get some context where and when and what's going on at the time then we'll look at the verses verse by verse and then we'll finish off by drawing some conclusions so starting off we're around the Sea of Galilee if we were to go back to Matthew 14 from verse 13 we see Jesus have been drawing large crowds to him because of his miracles he was drawing so much attention that he was struggling to get any time by himself and this was because he was doing things like healing the sick feeding large crowds you've had 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish and we heard how Jesus met his disciples out in the Sea of Galilee by walking out in the water to their boat so it's no surprise in all these things that he was drawing so many people toward him so Jesus and His disciples have come to the region of Ghana surrett that's west of the Sea of Galilee as we see here and it was in this region where Jesus was challenged by the religious leaders of the day these were the Pharisees the Pharisees berated him because his disciples didn't follow their traditions of washing before eating so the implication being in not following these physical traditions of the elders that they were unclean not only physically but spiritually also so according to the Pharisees if you didn't follow their traditions you couldn't be holy enough to be part of God's kingdom but more than that they would have viewed anyone outside of their religion to be unclean which included anybody who's not Jewish or otherwise known as Gentiles so Jesus corrects them and points out that actually they disregarded the Word of God rather than adhere to it the beginning of chapter 15 tells us that the source of truth defilement or uncleanness isn't a physical thing but a matter of the heart and this brings us up to our text Matthew 15 verse 21 so Jesus being in Galilee he leaves that place and he heads west to the coast of Tyre and Sidon and I want you to notice the key word in this text I think is withdrew the greek word has the implication that's not just to travel but it's to retire to take refuge so jesus wasn't simply continuing his journey he wasn't just travelling about healing people and working jesus was experiencing some human physical thing so he needed a little bit of time out and this is what he was seeking the same word is used in Matthew 14 13 where Jesus withdraws to be alone in the boat in mark's account of this event mark 724 mark tells us that jesus had entered a house at tyre but didn't want anybody to know so it's likely that Jesus withdrew to these areas because they were on the outskirts of Jewish territory and far away from the Pharisees but Jesus miracles made him extremely famous and the text says that he couldn't keep his presence there a secret Sura in verse 22 and a Canaanite woman comes to Jesus distressed and requesting healing for a daughter who's demon-possessed the point is stressed that she is a Canaanite woman marks account it says that she was a Greek so the text is stressing that she's not Jewish she's a Greek she's a Gentile she's the kind of person that the Pharisees would see is unclean and despised look at what the woman addresses Jesus says she says Lord which is Master and son of David which is of the root of David so what the woman is doing is calling Jesus by his messianic title let's look at a couple of verses the point to the coming of Jesus as master and as Messiah if we look at 2 Samuel 7 verses 12 to 14 we see God talking to David the king of Israel and a part of this text points to David's immediate son Solomon but the latter part points forward to Jesus who is a descendant of David and it says I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever I will be to him a father he shall be to me a son so we have an eternal throne which would belong to an eternal Authority or king and this king will be the son of God the Father that is clearly Jesus in revelation 22:16 Jesus himself says as a point of authority that I am the root and the offspring of David so the woman isn't just coming to Jesus randomly she knows who she comes to she's coming to the prophesied eternal king she's coming to Jesus and calling him son of David recognizing his authority as Lord and Master and as the Messiah the son of God and so she cries out to her Lord and Master for help but Jesus response was silenced so that takes us to verse 23 and we see because of Jesus silence the woman starts crying out to the disciples and becomes quite a nuisance the Greek says she's crying out from behind or at the back of and the disciples begged Jesus to send her away but Jesus responses I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel Jesus here is referring specifically to the Jewish people if we look back at the Old Testament the twelve tribes of Israel or of Jacob were God's chosen people favored by him out of which came the Jewish people Deuteronomy 14 - explains how God has chosen these people to be his treasured possession so the disciples are begging Jesus to send a woman away in his response being I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel is really Jesus saying at this particular point in history his mission priority is the Jewish people not that the Gentiles were not important they were there was simply a secondary factor at this point in time in Matthew 10 verses 5 to 6 we could see the mission boundaries that Jesus sent His disciples were for them to not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans but rather go to the lost sheep of Israel so this Canaanite woman who was standing behind the disciples and behind Jesus probably overhearing all the dialogue and hearing how the disciples were complaining about her she circumvents the disciple she goes around the disciples to fall at the feet of Jesus so in a way that's almost worshiping she's at the feet of Jesus and she speaks the words Lord or master help me and then we see part one of the response that Jesus gives to the woman he says it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs so it's Jesus insulting this woman I'm going to say absolutely not what Jesus is doing is he's using this language as a synonym to what he was saying about the lost sheep in verse 24 he's saying that the children in this picture represent the Jewish people and the dogs represent the Gentiles so in a nutshell Jesus is reiterating to the woman that at this particular point in time while seeds on the earth his mission priority is to be ministering to the Jewish people now let's just draw that out a little bit more detail and paraphrase what Jesus is saying so the first part of the phrase it is not right - so what he's saying is at this time it is outside of my mission boundaries - the loss of Israel which is the Jewish people and that takes us to the next part of the sentence take the children's bread so these are the kingdom things prioritize for the Jewish people like healings and miracles and he's saying it's not right to take these things and toss it outside of those mission boundaries to the dogs or to the Gentiles so as Jesus using this word dog well it's not an insult the Greek word is actually closer to puppy or companion than it is to the Greek word used for the wild dogs the scavengers so this is actually a compassionate statement and it may be linked to her posture that she's on the floor and she's begging much like a puppy would do for food and I think this is part one of Jesus response to the woman so in verse 27 we have the woman's response to Jesus now it's just worth noting that in the NIV it almost makes it look like the woman contradicts Jesus when he says it's not right - the woman says yes it is actually the word uses better translate is simply just yes in agreement with Jesus so she says yes Lord but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table so the woman's language here reaffirms her position of recognizing Jesus as the Son of God and master over not just her but over matters of the spiritual and the physical she pleads for a daughter's healing just also she's confirming her own position as not being worthy to receive the priority blessing that she's asking for as a Gentile so this is an act of completely humbling herself in submission to the highest authority on earth and in heaven and then we see what I believe is part two of Jesus response so the first part Jesus commends the woman Jesus's woman you have great faith in the second part of his response - yes your request is granted and a daughter was healed from that moment Mark's account makes an addition to this but confirming that the woman found her child lying on the bed and a demon had gone so Jesus had compassion on this woman this outsider this Gentile who is unclean and defiled are not worthy of God's blessing according to the Pharisees human traditions this woman had been recognized as worthy by Jesus the Son of God through her faith she been made clean in a sense by him which was ironically the very thing that the Pharisees were lacking so she came to be on the inside of Jesus boundaries by faith and by Jesus mercy and grace and this projects forward to the relationship as Christians that we have with Jesus now so that's our text now let's make some conclusions so the first conclusion I would make would be to the person who isn't a Christian a person who doesn't follow Jesus I would say to you that in John Jesus said this just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness so the Son of Man must be lifted up that everyone who believes may have eternal life in Him so when Jesus went to the cross dying he went for our sins he took all the sins of everyone Jew and Gentile and he United them through having faith in Him also granting the gift of eternal life and that was the point that he came to defeat evil and he came to defeat death and he did exactly that because on the third day he rose again death could not hold him and he did that for us he did that for people all people and speaking as someone who's made the journey from atheism into a place of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ I can tell you 100% that my life has been absolutely changed as so much joy there's so much pleasure and so much hope because I know that whatever I face in life I have the Son of God there with me and if you are a Christian if you do know this joy and this hope here's a couple of things that we can take away from this text firstly we can take notes from the qualities of this woman this is what a godly woman looks like she was a caring person who is a hundred sent active in seeking help for those that she loved she was a person who even when met with silence would not stop calling out to the Lord she was a person not ashamed to humble herself who worshiped Jesus as son of God a messiah she was a person who wouldn't let anything stand between her and Jesus so we can forget everything that the media is telling us about what a strong woman looks like because to be frank they wouldn't know their foot from their elbow this here is what a strong woman looks like and she's strong because the only person that she's relying on is the Lord is God himself and men this goes for us as well when Jesus says everyone who believes he means every one woman man Jew Gentile so let's take this example of determined faith into the weak praying that God will give us increase in measures and my main point with this text is if you're a Christian listen there are gonna come times in your life where we plead with God but we're met with silence silence isn't the same as ignorance God hears you Jesus drew out the faith of the woman with silence but it was purposeful of silence and it was rewarded that doesn't mean we're always going to see the answer to prayer that we want that's up to God he knows better than us what we need thanks to Jesus there is no physical condition that can keep you away from his kingdom if you have faith in Him Jesus who took our sins to the cross and rose again by faith Jew or Gentile welcomed you into his everlasting kingdom amen

Channel: Mr Muncle

Views: 10,910

Rating: 4.954802 out of 5

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Id: VE0VlRRX1mk

Length: 14min 51sec (891 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 28 2019