EPISODE 221 GOSPEL OF MATTHEW CHAPTER 9 "Go and Learn What This Means!"

Welcome to Share the Word. I am always excited to hear the incredible lessons that Pastor Paul and all of those who sit behind this microphone bring. We release two episodes per week, but you can access every single episode simply by going to sharetheword.org. So let's get started as Pastor Paul Nitz dives deep and brings you a great lesson on the Gospel of Matthew chapter 9. Matthew chapter 9. Now go and learn what this means.

Bear with me for a brief civics lesson, please. Many people refer to the United States as a democracy. That's partially true. But more specifically, the USA is a constitutional republic. A constitutional republic is a form of government where citizens elect representatives to make decisions, but the representatives' powers are limited by a written constitution. So in America, there's a charter of laws that is above the will of the majority at any given time and even above the legislators who are elected.

The U.S. Constitution is the final word, or at least that's what the founders of the country envisioned. There's debate in the country now, really this started in the 1980s, so it's been going on a while, about whether the original intent of those who wrote and ratified the Constitution can even be known today, and even if it could be, if it should be the final word considering the changing mores of modern American society. Interesting topic, but it's not what Share the Word is about. However, the question is analogous to something we are very much about, and it comes up in Matthew chapter 9, so hold on to that idea and I'll explain the correlation in a few minutes. In Matthew 9, he continues showing us Jesus' amazing ability to do miraculous things, building kind of a crescendo from the last chapter.

There, remember, he told about Jesus healing a man with leprosy, healing a Roman centurion's paralyzed servant, and casting out a legion of demons from a wild man at Gadara on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. In today's chapter, Matthew continues to tell about Jesus healing a different paralyzed person back in Capernaum, restoring sight to two blind men, and actually resurrecting a dead girl, the daughter of a synagogue official. All of these miracles, signs, as the apostle John would call them, pointed like a big flashing neon arrow to Jesus as the promised Messiah, because the prophets had written that the ability to do those kind of unheard-of things was one mistakable aspect of the Messiah's ministry when he appeared. The jealous religious authorities, much as they would have liked to, could not dispute that what was going on was supernatural.

But their lame explanation for it all was, slanderous accusation really, that Jesus was supernaturally empowered all right, but from Satan. It couldn't be from God, they reasoned, because, well, he was not one of them. Tucked amongst Matthew's recollections of these exciting early days of Jesus' public ministry in Galilee is a beautiful scene described at verse 20 and following. The leader of a synagogue came, knelt before Jesus, saying, My daughter has died, but I believe you can bring her back to life again if you just come and lay your hands on her. So Jesus and his disciples got up and went with them. Just then, a woman who had been suffering for 12 years with constant bleeding came up behind him.

She touched the hem of his robe, thinking, If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed. Jesus turned around. Luke, in telling this incident, says he turned around because he felt power leave him, like a power discharge. And when he saw her, he said, Take heart, daughter. Your faith has made you well. And the woman was healed from that moment.

That woman had suffered with constant menstrual bleeding for 12 years, gone to every doctor around without any relief. Because of her malady, she was viewed in her culture as unclean and shunned. Current gospel song called Tear Off the Roof, based on these scenes here in Matthew 9, in part goes, There's power in the presence, power in the blood, power in the name of Jesus, and he has more in the hem of his garment than in the camp of the enemy. Jesus was demonstrating unheard-of supernatural power, healing people of every imaginable thing. Although supposed to be a sign to Israel that the one who displayed such obvious divine power was the Messiah, for the most religious men of Jesus' time, they chose to deliberately attribute it all to the devil, rather than admit Jesus and what he was teaching was really from God. Why?

He was bringing unwanted change. Their religion, which was rooted in the Old Testament scripture, the Old Testament law, and also a lot of added traditions that they had developed over the several hundred centuries prior. But then this Jesus arrived out of nowhere and claimed to be initiating something new from God. He was teaching new ideas, making audacious claims for himself. And the existing Jewish religious leaders were very, very uncomfortable with that. Matthew recalls something Jesus said at that time that spoke directly to this tension between them—the old guard and Jesus, I mean.

It's at verse 17. He said, No one puts new wine into old wineskins, for the old skins will burst from the pressure, spilling the wine, ruining the skins. New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved. Wine was often first stored in leather pouches because leather has the ability to give, to stretch some. As the wine fermented and the gases were given off, the leather wineskins stretched enough to accommodate that. But after a leather wineskin had been used once for that purpose, it couldn't be used for that purpose again.

An old wineskin had already been stretched to its capacity. To try and use it again would cause it to crack apart and literally burst, and everything you had saved—the wine, valuable product—was lost. So for a new batch of wine, you had to use new wineskins. Fascinating, Paul, if you're into the history of winemaking, maybe. But what was Jesus' point? He was using that as an illustration of the fact that he had come to initiate something new, and it could not be contained by the old ideas, certainly not the religion of Judaism that had become, you know, the religion of the Pharisees.

It was new truth, what we call now the New Testament, the New Covenant, new things God was about to do. We'll get into this more when we reach the Epistle of Hebrews soon. But with his wineskin example, Jesus was saying, God says it's time for new things between you and him. Out with the old, in with the new. If the Jewish religious leaders did not accept Jesus and the new revelation from God he was bringing, they themselves would be shown to be the old, dried-out wineskins, which would be useless going forward. Needless to say, most of them reacted badly to all of this and so to Jesus.

The religion of Judaism, as it had evolved over the previous centuries, was familiar to them, precious to them. It was theirs. Their lives were intertwined with it. It was their culture. People are very reluctant to let go or even rethink things like that. Maybe Jesus would have been more gentle and more accommodating to those religious leaders if he believed they were sincere and if they were doing a reasonably good job of leading Israel spiritually.

But he clearly did not think they were. Most of them he viewed as hypocrites or just hirelings, to use one of his words, and he wasn't shy about saying that, which brings us to the big idea I'd like to underscore today. It comes up in verses 9 and following. There, Matthew, our author, first recalls how he himself was called to be one of Jesus' twelve disciples. By the way, I'm pretty sure Matthew was a believer in Jesus prior to that. He was already a follower, but he's mentioning when Jesus formally invited him to join his inner circle of disciples.

And then what happened next? Listen. As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting in the tax collector's office, and he said to him, 'Follow me.' That was Matthew's formal call to become a disciple, and he got up and followed him. Then as Jesus was reclining at table in the house, this is Matthew's house, many tax collectors and sinners came and began dining with Jesus and his disciples. These were Matthew's associates.

And when the Pharisees, those religious leaders we've been talking about, saw that, they said to Jesus' disciples, Why is your teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners? Jesus overheard that, and he said, It's not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. Now go and learn what this means: I desire compassion rather than sacrifice, for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. Now go and learn what this means, Jesus said. And then he quoted a key idea from Old Testament scripture, namely, that God values how we care about people, that we treat people with understanding and kindness more than how we carry out our religious activities. The Jewish religion at the time had largely devolved into ceremonies, rituals, meticulous law-keeping, as the gospel writers keep pointing out.

Here the religious leaders criticized Jesus for socializing with, in their view, irredeemable people like Matthew and his friends. That's what provoked Jesus' rebuke, You need to go and learn what this scripture means. These were the very lost people he had come to seek and to save. And other times, they criticized Jesus for healing someone seriously hurting on the Sabbath day because it violated some arcane religious rules of theirs. Another time, they criticized his hungry disciples for picking grain when they were hungry on the Sabbath day. The religious types who saw that code violation called Jesus out over it.

Jesus corrected them there by pointing back to how David ate holy bread and wine from the tabernacle when he was hungry, the Old Testament scripture. Those guys were badly out of tune with God, although they were supposed to be the Bible scholars and spiritual leaders of his people. Let me zero in on this big idea that jumped out at me from this chapter. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees on this occasion by something they, of all people, should have known. He rebuked them with God's Word. Go and figure out the meaning of this scripture.

He responded to their criticism that way. God desires compassion more than sacrifices. That line was written by the prophet Hosea to his generation several hundred years earlier, was part of the Old Testament, was also a truth repeated by the prophet Micah to his generation and recorded in the Old Testament. Listen to Micah chapter 6, verses 6 through 8. With what shall I come to the Lord and bow myself before the Lord God on high? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, with yearling calves as sacrifices?

Does the Lord take pleasure in thousands of rams or ten thousand rivers of oil? He has told you, mortal ones, what is good and what the Lord requires of you: do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God. Jesus distilled that, as Hosea had before him, to God desires compassion more than sacrifices. And then he told his critics, Go learn what that passage means. I don't know, but he sounds exasperated to me, like, How in the world could you be criticizing me for caring about and showing compassion to people God loves? Don't you know the scripture?

This reminds me of a very important fact. For Jesus, Scripture was always the final word. Think about this. In the New Testament's 27 writings, total of 260 chapters we're working our way through, there are over 300 direct quotes by Jesus and the New Testament authors of Old Testament Scripture. And more than a thousand additional allusions to Old Testament Scripture. Why do you think that is?

Just in the Gospel of Matthew alone, he himself, or in quoting Jesus, quotes or alludes to Old Testament Scripture more than 120 times in only 28 chapters. Why do you think that is? Whenever Jesus was in a debate or a conflict with his opponents, whether religious leaders of his day or the devil himself, how many times do we read him saying, It is written, and making the salient quote something from God's Word over and over and over? He does this. Why do you think that is? Going back to my intro today, remember the civics lesson?

Some people today still believe it's critical to decide what should be legal in our country based on the original Constitution, the document our republic was founded upon, the Constitution of the United States. Originalists is what they are called in constitutional law circles, while others are contending that that old document and its ideas are not sufficient any longer. And that's an important debate because it has a lot to do with where America is going in the future. But in comparison, it's small potatoes. The Bible is far more crucial than any country's governing document. It claims to be God's very Word.

And when it came to Scripture, you can mark Jesus down as an originalist. He and the authors of the New Testament definitely believed that what was written was inspired Scripture. It should always be the final word. Think back. We saw Jesus in one situation already. We discussed this a while back.

I think it was Mark 12, actually, contradicting the Sadducees, the leading priests who ran the temple in Jerusalem, over the question of whether there would be a resurrection from the dead, a life after this life. They were liberals. They didn't believe there would be. But Jesus told them, You are wrong because you do not understand the Scripture. And then he quoted to them from the book of Exodus to back up his point. Another time, we were shown in a debate with some Pharisees.

They were hoping Jesus would back their lax views regarding divorce. Remember that? Far from it. He pointed them back to Genesis, how God designed marriage to be a permanent relationship from the beginning. Have you never read this? he asked them.

Scripture, for him, was always the final word. This happened again and again between him and his religious opponents. The Pharisees, often as sharp as critics, were supposed to be the teachers of Scripture. They were the local religious leaders in the towns and villages of Israel at the time, the preachers, we would say, in the synagogues. But they often conveniently ignored the written word of God if it didn't jibe with their practices and their attitudes. Jesus called them out for that hypocrisy often and sharply, as happened in Mark chapter 7 when they were excusing not taking care of their elderly parents.

Remember that? He said, You nullify the word of God in favor of your pet traditions. You do this in so many ways. That's exactly what had exasperated him on this occasion in our chapter today, as he socialized with Matthew and his friends there in his house. What provoked him to chastise them? Go learn what this Scripture means.

I desire a compassion rather than sacrifice. Today's big idea. Jesus believed that inspired Scripture is always the final word on whatever it speaks. It is the inspired and infallible revelation of truth from God to us. I think you've shared this big idea before, Paul. No doubt.

Among the New Testament's biggest ideas. Of course, in these passages in the Gospels where Jesus repeatedly points to the written Word of God as the final authority, he was quoting from the Old Testament writings because the New Testament didn't exist yet. But the New Testament writings are a part of the new wine Jesus was talking about that was coming, a big part of what he came to inaugurate. He promised his disciples, including our author Matthew, that when he was gone, the Holy Spirit would lead them into all truth and bring everything to their remembrance. Those men, his apostles, became the authors who wrote down New Testament Scripture with the help of the Holy Spirit. For our time, this is the final word.

The 27 writings completed in the first century we call the New Testament. And when John wrote the last of them, the Revelation, he made the point that it was not to be added to. What we have in the Gospels, the Acts, the Epistles, and the Revelation are the completed Scripture for our time, God's Word for the Christian era. There's not a single verse in any of it suggesting that future generations of Christians would be given authority or inspiration to add more additional truths. There would be no need to. Jesus' promise, His Word would never pass away.

That means become obsolete. It was permanent, even more permanent than the physical world. That's why we're told to contend for the faith that was once for all time. Delivered to God's holy people. Several times a week, it seems, I find myself in discussions, debates over spiritual truth, just as Jesus so often did, mine usually with online critics. Some do not take the Bible as inspired and authoritative.

Others claim they do, but that their religions' traditions have been practiced for centuries and so by now, I guess, are equally authoritative with God's written Word. And still others come at me from religions that have added additional ideas to what the Bible teaches, additional writings, and they're often contradictory ideas. They claim their prophets have been given newer revelation from God. And I find myself constantly quoting Scripture back to them in response, just as Jesus did with his critics, and often getting exasperated with them in the process, as Jesus did with his critics. Your argument is not with me, I tell them. Here is what God's Word says.

Then I just quote relevant verses of Scripture that are not that hard to understand, as if to say what Jesus said: Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture. I hope that if Share the Word is clear about anything, it is that we, like Jesus, like the apostles who authored the New Testament, believe that the Scripture is the final word when it comes to what we should believe about every spiritual and moral question. Not any self-proclaimed prophets since then. Not any additional religious writings. Not any traditions that have been practiced for who cares how long. Not any prelates or denominational councils' pronouncements.

None of that. We believe what Jesus believed, and that is in the reliability and the sufficiency of the Word of God. It is the only sure source of spiritual truth. I'll leave you with this final thought. Gird up the loins of your minds, as the Apostle Paul would say. Even the apostles of Jesus, aside from the special times when they were under the Holy Spirit's influence—he was overseeing their written words when they were writing the New Testament, I mean—aside from that, even they were not infallible, nor did they claim to be.

I know this because when the Apostle Paul was teaching the early churches in a couple Macedonian cities—this is something we learned back in Acts chapter 17—Luke wrote this: When Paul and his team arrived in Berea, they went into the synagogue of the Jews there. Now these people were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. Luke, writing under the influence of the Holy Spirit, says those who listened to the Apostle Paul in the town of Berea at the synagogue there were more noble-minded, meaning more willing to listen, more open to the new ideas he was presenting. Yet, and this is why he is commending them, after listening to Paul's message, they searched the Scriptures daily to determine whether what he was preaching and teaching was true.

The Bereans are remembered and commended in the New Testament because they listened to an apostle of Christ with open hearts, yes, but even more so because they fact-checked him. They checked whether Paul was indeed telling them truths that were consistent with the written Word of God. Wow. Bottom line: the Bible is the only foundational, unchanging truth. That's the position assumed and defended by Jesus and believed and taught by his apostles, the authors of the New Testament. Don't let anybody persuade you otherwise.

At the end of this chapter, Jesus, seeing the great crowds of curious and spiritually hungry people that were following him, told his disciples, Look, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are so few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out more workers into the harvest. Jesus wanted everyone to hear, understand, and respond to the new ideas he had come from God to share, the big ideas of the New Testament we've been sharing. So at Share the Word, we've been asking you, and I'm asking you again today, help us do that by praying for this ministry and by sharing this teaching podcast with your friends and family. We'd appreciate it very much. Thanks for listening.

This has been Paul. Such great insight, chapter after chapter, week after week, and with 221 episodes recorded so far, I'd be remiss if I didn't at least recognize the enormous amount of work and passion that Pastor Paul, Margie, and all of those who've contributed to the amazing library of podcasts, blog posts, and information that's offered here at ShareTheWord.org. But going back to this lesson, Pastor Paul spoke about the people of Berea who, even though listened intently, they still went back to search the scriptures to verify that they were being taught the truth. And with all of the false teachers today who are spreading the almost truths, we implore you to do the same. Make it a habit, because as you verify and open the Bible and read the Word of God, your life will change. Here's the challenge.

There was a study that said that those who read the Bible four or more times a week had dramatic changes in their lives. Try it and let us know how your life changes. Email us at info@sharetheword.org. Go, learn what it means. Thanks for listening.