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If you have your bible with you, would you take it out please and turn to Matthew chapter nine? Matthew chapter nine. And we're gonna begin reading in verse 32 here in just a moment. Matthew chapter nine starting in verse 32. So grateful for everyone's presence.

Glad that you've come our way, especially those who are visiting, and we're always mindful of those who are joining us online as well, streaming these services. We're glad for your interest in spiritual things. By a show of hands, who's familiar with the concept of a director's cut? So like in movies, a director's cut. K.

So it's the idea that you've got the theatrical release, right, which a lot of things were cut out. You've got the director's cut where the director says, man, I really like this extra material. I'm gonna put that in there. And then you've got the source material. I think a great example of that is the Lord of the Rings.

Right? So you've got the source material, the books. You've got the extended editions, which is, like, twelve hours of material or more, and then you got what was actually released in theaters, which was cut down even more than that. Well, this is the director's cut this morning. Because in our bible classes, as we're doing a survey of the life of Jesus, we're able to tell the story of Jesus, but we're just hitting the high notes of some of the things that he did and said and accomplished in his time on earth.

And we're having to leave some things out of that just for the sake of time. And between the calming of the storm and the feeding of the 5,000, there are a number of miracles that Jesus worked in between that I think are absolutely fascinating and helpful to us as we're thinking about Jesus and his priorities and what was important to him. So in the midst of that, this is what we find. In Matthew chapter nine starting in verse 32, as they went out, behold, they brought to him, Jesus, a man, mute and demon possessed. And when the demon was cast out, the mute spoke and the multitude marveled saying, it was never seen like this in Israel.

Now that word in my Bible, the New King James, is the multitude. So the multitude, maybe your translation says, the crowds. So these are the people who are following Jesus around as he's working all of these miracles, and Jesus is on the up. He's almost at the height of his popularity, which will be at the feeding of the 5,000. And all of these multitudes, all of these crowds are following him, and the text says that they marveled.

They were amazed. Wow. This is amazing, they say to themselves. It's never been seen like this in Israel with this man Jesus could do. The crowds were impressed.

And for this moment, they had a high opinion of Jesus, who he was, and what he could do. But Jesus, as he so often was, is unimpressed by the crowds and not concerned with their shifting opinions of him. Jesus' reaction to the crowds after healing all of their physical sicknesses and diseases is looking upon them with compassion and saying they are like sheep without a shepherd. Read in verses thirty five and thirty six. Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people, among these crowds and multitudes.

But when he saw the multitudes, the crowds, he was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd. He had compassion on the crowds, and he wanted them to be healed. And even more, he wanted them to be saved. We see that in verses 37 through 38 and into chapter 10 when he sends out the 12 in order to heal these people, but even more to bring them out of their sins. Because the crowds, that group of people represented many individual opportunities to save souls.

But Jesus knew as we should that crowds are fickle, and crowds were not the goal for Jesus, amassing these crowds of followers. If they were, if it was just about the number of people coming to him, he would have acted so differently. Because here's the reality. Crowds and popularity, there's nothing wrong with that, but it's just not very important. And it can be a barrier to what is really important if that's where our focus suddenly shifts.

And that's represented by Jesus and the crowds and the other stories of healing that Matthew places immediately before these verses that kinda summarize things. Everybody coming to him, and he's teaching, and he's healing every sickness and every disease and looking upon them with compassion. That's true. But it's a summation of what's happened before as we see Jesus interacting with these crowds. And for each of these interwoven interactions with individual people, we're gonna consider a reality about Jesus' attitude toward the crowds, and we're gonna consider a question about one who comes to him in need of his healing power as it relates back to us.

And to do so, we're gonna use all three synoptic gospels, Matthew chapter nine, Mark chapter five, and Luke chapter eight, to think about this concept of Jesus and the crowds versus Jesus and his interaction with individuals that came to him for healing. So that's our road map for the lesson this morning. And I want us to start in Luke chapter eight as we read and focus on what the crowd is doing toward Jesus. So turn to Luke chapter eight in verse 40. That's there on the far right hand side.

That's green. Green means go, if you didn't know that. Luke chapter eight and verse 40, and let's read verses 40 through 42. Now as we read, here's what you're focusing on. What is the crowd doing, especially as it relates what they're doing toward Jesus?

Okay? Read with me verse 40. So it was when Jesus returned that the multitudes, the crowds, what were they doing? The crowds welcomed him for they were all waiting for him. If this was a bible class, this is where I would ask, what are the crowds doing?

They're welcoming him and waiting on him. And behold, verse 41, look, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue. And he fell down at Jesus' feet and begged him to come to his house for he had an only daughter, about 12 years of age, and she was dying. So our first thing that we see with Jesus and his crowd here, we know what Jesus does is he goes with Jairus. And yet, as we think about the three kinds of crowds and the response of Jesus to these crowds, the first thing that we see is that Jesus didn't allow the welcoming, waiting crowd to keep him from helping a lone pleading that's the word that's used in Luke chapter eight.

This pleading, begging man who came to him seeking healing from his daughter. And I think there are lessons to be learned there. Though this man had likely been an opponent previously, we know that he's a synagogue ruler, and most of the synagogue rulers were Pharisees opposed to Jesus. He comes to Jesus because he's desperate, because he has someone that he loves who is in need of this healing. And Jesus was more concerned about the one man in need who perhaps have been hostile to him before.

We don't know, but certainly the pharisees and rulers had been hostile. He was more concerned about that lone man and his desperation, his pleading than with the crowd who at this point was friendly to him. In fact, Jesus leaves the welcoming crowd who had been waiting in anticipation of his arrival. He gets there, the first thing he does is he leaves them to see to the needs of the one who really could have been his enemy as we think about it in physical terms. What's the lesson?

Well, you think about that. A lone individual who you view as as maybe even hostile to you, but certainly not someone who is welcoming and waiting on you think about that one person and interacting with them versus the group of people who all love you and are welcoming you and are waiting on you, we know how easy it is to gravitate toward those with whom we feel comfortable. The groups that welcome us and like us and maybe are like us. So do we take the time, like Jesus, to look to the ones who really need our help, not just those who desire our comfortable presence. And there are lots of applications that we can make to that, but here's one that I want us to think about this morning.

Do we, when we come together to this welcoming crowd, right, this is a place where we're all waiting to come together, and we love one another, and we enjoy being with one another, and we sit in the same places, and we have the same friends, and we talk to the same people. Do we seek out visitors to this assembly, to this crowd, or those whose attendance is irregular and yet we see them? Here they are today when maybe they're not normally here. Do we seek those people out before we talk to our friends that we see every time? And do we encourage other people to do that same thing when we come together in this assembly, in this crowd?

Recently, when I was going and preaching a gospel meeting, I'd send out invitations to a bunch of friends that I knew who lived in that area, And one friend came came to that gospel meeting where I was preaching, and then they confessed to me after the first night that they came to this gospel meeting. They confessed to me. They said, boy, that church is unfriendly. I'm like, what? Like, they've been super friendly to me.

They gave me a basket. Everybody was talking to me, but I'm the visiting preacher. Right? And this person said they said, I came in. They've even got greeters at the door, and they're all talking to one another.

And I walk by, and I go, and I find my seat, and I sit down, and I'm there and I worship. And then I leave and I kinda just wind my way through all of those people and I leave. Nobody talk to me. Now there's some self examination there. Right?

Maybe it's because nobody's talking to me because my face is like this or because I'm trying to sneak through everybody. But maybe nobody talked because they were too busy talking to one another. Well, I said, well, why don't you come back? These are good friendly people. I'd kinda gotten to know them a little bit.

I mean, these people are awesome. So come back another night. Give them another chance. And so they did. They came back another night.

You know what I did when I saw them walk through the door? I went and I shook their hand. I said, so glad you're here. Let me introduce you to some people because I wanted this visitor to meet all of these wonderful people that I had met. And you know what happened?

They started talking to all of these people. My question is, where are we on that spectrum? Are we so busy with those that we enjoy being with that we miss out on and fail to see those who are really in need? Those people in that congregation, they are not bad people. I can attest to that.

They are good godly people. They were just distracted by their own crowd. We have a welcoming, waiting crowd of people to share time with, but the one in need is the priority. And based on his actions, Jesus thought the crowd could wait. Why?

Because this man had a need, and he knew it. And he was seeking the only one that he could think of who could possibly do something about that need that he had. And, ironically, the ruler's actions put him in the same group as the sinners of Luke chapter 15 that the Pharisees were critical of. Turn over there to Luke chapter 15, just a few pages to the right in your Bible. These are ones with whom that ruler likely would not have associated.

And yet what is the lesson that Jesus is teaching? In Luke chapter 15 starting in verse one. Luke chapter 15 starting in verse one. Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to hear him, and the pharisees and scribes complained saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them. So he spoke this parable to them saying, what man of you having a 100 sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the 99 in the wilderness and go after the one that was lost until he finds it.

And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoice. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors saying to them, rejoice with me for I have found my sheep which is lost. I say to you that likewise, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 just upright persons who need no repentance. And it was not that the shepherd didn't love the 99. It was the one that needed his attention in that moment and at that time.

And Jesus left the 99, the crowd of sheep, to seek the one that was straying. And that's really the point to be made in all of the miracles that we're studying this morning. Do we do the same thing? Where is our focus on the welcoming waiting crowd or on the lone pleading person who is in need? Well, what do we ask ourselves when we think about this ruler and his actions?

I want us to ask a question about each of these people who come to Jesus. And my question for the ruler is like is this. Are we like the ruler who is willing to break with his crowd for something that was really important to him? I mean, he's breaking the picket line here, isn't he? The scribes, the pharisees, the rulers of the Jews, they're all anti Jesus at this point.

That's his crowd. That's his people. But he's willing to break that crowd because there's something really, really important to him, his daughter, and her life. And when he saw the importance of that, he said, I don't care what my crowd is doing. I wanna seek what's truly important.

Is Christ that important to us? More important than our than our cronies? The people we grew up with, our little tribe of believers? Are we willing to come pleading, realizing Christ is the answer to all of our needs and problems, however others might view us? I've seen Christians through the years, however long I've been preaching now.

Bad when you can't remember. Right? It's not as bad as forgetting an anniversary, but it's bad. All the years I've been preaching, I've seen lots of Christians mocked by their friends and their families. They're crowd of people after coming to Christ.

I've seen that many, many times. In just the last several weeks, I was told of another occasion where this happened. Someone comes to Christ. They put Christ on in baptism. They're so excited about their new life in Christ, and a family member mocks what it is that they have done.

And that's sad, but it is not unexpected. And if we see what Christ can do, what he offers to us that nobody else can offer, we are willing to endure such hostility, endure such persecution like this ruler because of what's on the other side of that hostility, true healing in Jesus. Is Jesus that important to us? Where we're willing to break ranks with our crowd, with our tribe in order to come to him. Okay.

So that's the first crowd and description of a crowd and how Jesus responds to it. I want you to turn to Mark's gospel now. Turn to Mark chapter five. Mark chapter five. Mark chapter five and verse 24.

Mark chapter five and verse 24. Again, be thinking about, okay, how is the text describing the crowd and what the crowd is doing to and around Jesus. Okay? Mark chapter five verse 24. So Jesus went with him, with Jairus, and a great multitude followed him and thronged him.

Now thronged isn't a word that we use a whole lot. They're they're pressing all around him. Right? They're surrounding him. Everybody's there.

It's this great mass of humanity as my dad would say. Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years. So he's on the way to heal this 12 year old girl, the crowd's all around him, and there's this woman there who's had this issue of blood for twelve years. And she had suffered many things. It's interesting the text says, not that she had suffered many things from the flow of blood.

No doubt she had, but it says she had suffered many things from many physicians. Somehow they had made things worse instead of better. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. So she has physical problems. She has financial problems.

She's desperate. But when she heard about Jesus, she came behind him in the crowd, in the multitude, and touched his garment. For she said, if only I may touch his clothes, I shall be made well. Immediately, the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that power had gone out of him, turned around in the crowd and said, who touched my clothes?

But his disciples said to him, you see the multitude? You see the crowds thronging you? You say, who touched me? Looked around to see her who had done this thing. He looked everywhere seeing who was it that had done this to me.

So here's what I would like us to see from this interaction with the crowd. Jesus didn't allow the thronging Luke's account says uses a different word, almost crushing crowd to keep him from this moment with a lone committed woman of faith. I mean, this is almost like anybody in here ever been pick pocketed been pick pocketed? No. Andy's not here.

I think it's happened to him three times. How does it happen? Well, Andy's huge. Right? If you don't know Andy, he's, like, six five.

It always happens on the crowded subway. Right? So he's in the subway, maybe in Europe somewhere. Right? He's in the subway.

He's standing like this. The crowds are thronging around because he's so tall. The people are right there at his pocket where they can get something. Right? Well, this is what's happening.

Imagine being on that that crowded subway where everybody's pushing in. Right? Everybody's thronging around, and somebody touches you in the midst of that. Yeah. Everybody's touching you.

But Jesus feels it in this moment, and he stops the group. We were all going over to this ruler's house to see what Jesus is going to do. And he didn't allow this thronging, almost crushing crowd to keep him from this moment with this lone committed woman of faith. She was a little unimportant woman from a physical perspective, but not so for Jesus. And little unimportant people from a physical perspective can be inconvenient to us, Children and the elderly, sinners and outcasts, the sick and the shut in, the socially awkward or the totally unself aware, the poor or the lonely, widows and orphans and the like, people from whom we can hope to receive little back physically.

They're not doing anything for us for what we're doing for them, especially when we have somewhere else to be and everybody else is headed in that direction, it's inconvenient, these little people. But not so with Jesus. He stopped, and he sought her out. The NIV says he kept looking around for her until he found her. And maybe sometimes we feel like the crowd is thronging around us, almost crushing us.

We feel that we're almost crushed by the expectations of the crowd. What's the better portion that we can choose to never be too busy or too important in our own mind or too pressed by the cares of the world that we can't stop and help someone who really needs it? A brother or sister in Christ, a child, a spouse, a parent, a friend or coworker who's going through a tough time, a stranger who needs our hospitality. These people don't keep us from the work of the kingdom. They are the work of the kingdom in large part.

Every preacher who's ever preached says, I'm preaching to myself. Brent said that this past week. Well, on this one, I have to constantly remind myself of that. I'm pressed by the things that I need to be doing in God's kingdom. This is important work.

And the text or the phone call or the knock at the door sometimes comes at the worst possible time. Jesus is going to heal this girl, and she is on death's door. In fact, we're gonna read here in just a second. They come and say, too late. She's already dead.

But he stops in this moment as the crowd is carrying him along and says, no. I'm gonna find this woman, and I'm gonna talk to her. Is that is that what we do? Is that what we strive to do, busy though we are? And her reaction in this moment is so beautiful.

Keep reading with me verses thirty three and thirty four together. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your affliction. Are we like this woman who is willing to fight through the crowd to get to Jesus?

And then when he calls her out on it, she tells the whole truth, Matthew five thirty three, before all the people, Luke adds in chapter eight verse 47, of what he has done for us. Do we have that same reaction? Because there are always those who will seek to stand in our way, who discourage us from coming to Jesus, who try and block our path. And some of those very same people are those who, the whole time, are claiming they're coming to Jesus. I'm sure everyone in this crowd would have claimed, yeah, I'm following Jesus too, and yet here they are a barrier to this woman trying to come to him.

And we see that sometimes. I remember when I was preaching up in Lindale, my next door neighbors, I got to be close with them and have a lot of conversations with them, this young couple, and I was young myself. And so I'm studying the Bible with them. And I'd had three or four studies. And the wife of this couple, she had an aunt who was very religious, a follower of Jesus, and she found out that that her niece and nephew in law were studying with the Church of Christ preacher.

And she comes and she starts warning them about all of the things that they need to be aware of, need to be careful about, and you don't need to be studying with him, and all these sorts of things. And I will never forget what that niece said to her. All these years all these years, I haven't been doing what's right, and now is the time you finally say something? The reality is there may be those who are trying to be a barrier to you coming to Jesus who even claim to be followers himself themselves. Will we allow them to keep us from him?

And when he does heal us as he promises, will we step forward and be willing to confess it before all to held it to tell the whole truth of the matter? Well, keep reading a few verses for our last point this morning. Keep reading there in verse 35 of Mark chapter five, then we'll go back to Matthew chapter nine and finish up. Mark chapter five and verse 35, he said to her, verse 34, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your affliction.

While he was still speaking, some came from the ruler of the synagogue's house and said, your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further? As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he said to the ruler of the synagogue, keep this in your mind, do not be afraid. Only believe. She's already dead.

Don't trouble the teacher anymore. Jesus says, do not be afraid. Only believe. Okay. Now turn back to Matthew chapter nine, and we'll finish up this account of healing.

Matthew chapter nine. Let's read verses 23 through 26. Matthew says it very succinctly, but twice he mentions the crowds. And I want you to think, okay. What are the crowds doing to and around Jesus?

Verse 23. When Jesus came into the ruler's house and saw the flute players and the noisy crowd wailing, he said to them, make room for the girl is not dead but sleeping. And they ridiculed him. They made fun of him. They laughed at him.

But when the crowd was put outside, he went in and took her by the hand. He speaks to her. We read in the other accounts, and the girl arose. And the report of this went out into all that land. So what do we learn about the crowd and Jesus' response?

Jesus didn't allow the noisy, ridiculing, or laughing, depending on your translation crowd, to deter him from his purpose with this lone little girl. Now notice what he does with the crowd. He doesn't argue with them. He doesn't seek to show them up. He just sends them away so he can get to doing what it is he came to do.

And he wasn't trying to save face before the crowd. You know, he says, hey. She's sleeping. They make fun of him. He's not saying, no.

I'm about to heal her. He's not going into any of that saving face before them. He's just there to do the work that needed to be done. And maybe that's the attitude we should have toward the crowd. Maybe we're too quick to try and please the crowd, especially when they ridicule us when they're the noisy ones, the squeaky wheel that gets the grease.

Sometimes we just need to put it out of our mind and out of our life and get back to the work that we were sent to do. So what? So what if scoffers and atheists and academia and those caught up in a sinful life ridicule us? You know, something that drives me crazy, it drives me crazy when people have no intention of following Christ, when they're antichrist. They're against Christ.

They don't believe that he came and lived as a man, maybe. They don't believe certainly that he died on a cross or that he was the son of God, and they're the ones who are telling us noisily the way Christians are supposed to behave. Who cares what you think? All that noisy crowd, put it out of your mind, out of your heart, put it out of your life. So what if our culture is so noisy in trying drag us as Christians into their drama, trying to drag us into their their political culture wars?

I've got work to do, and I'm not gonna be distracted by all of that because we aren't working for them. We're seeking to do our work for God. So what does that look like to send them away and focus on what we're supposed to be doing? Well, maybe it looks like this, turning the TV off. Maybe it looks like logging out of that computer.

Maybe it looks like logging off of that social media because the crowd's noisy and opinionated, and they are quick to scoff and mock and ridicule those who are seeking to do what's right. Turn down the noise and replace it with things like praying, praying for everyone on the keeping in touch, writing a card or making a call, reading your bible, or spending time fully engaged with your family that God has given you. And speaking of family, well, are we like this father? Jesus says, you gotta do two things. Right?

Don't be afraid. Only believe. Are we like this father who believes without being afraid despite what the crowd says or thinks? He goes in with Jesus. And like this woman with the issue of blood, he believes.

No doubt he feared for his daughter, but Jesus is the one who's bringing him comfort. Now I want you to hold on to that thought because we're gonna make application to parents here in just a second because I have two admonitions at the end of our lesson for those not in the crowd. That's us. Right? We're the ones coming to Jesus.

We're the ones seeking him. We're not this nameless, faceless crowd with all of their noise and opinions and so forth. We're the ones coming to him. So here are my two admonitions for those of us not in the crowd to these that's what we are. We are lone people seeking Jesus for salvation.

Number one, Jesus has the power to save the helpless and the persistent. The helpless and the persistent. And there's a reason why these stories are grouped together. Jesus saves the helpless girl. Why?

Because of the persistence of her father. And he saved the woman with the condition of blood who knew the helplessness of her condition after all the years and all the doctors and all the money. He saved her at her own persistence. They saw the value of what Christ was offering them. And we've gotta see that same value if we're gonna have that same kind of persistence in our helplessness.

I love the way the value of Christ and his kingdom is expressed in Matthew 13. Maybe this is five or six pages to the right in the gospel of Matthew depending on the size of your bible. Just read a couple of verses with me. Matthew chapter 13 Matthew chapter 13 and verse 44. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid, and for joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

He's just cutting through a field. That's the image on his journey, and he stumbles across this treasure that somebody's buried and forgotten. And he's excited because he's found something of great value. He goes and sells all that he has to buy that field because he sees what he's receiving is so much greater than what it is he has to give up. Here's somebody who just stumbles on the value of Christ's kingdom.

But if we keep reading in verses forty five and forty six, we see another image with the pearl of great price. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. This is unique. I can't find this anywhere else. But he's seeking it, and then he finds it.

How old was the girl? Do you remember? She was 12 years old. I have a 12 year old daughter right now, which kinda impacts the way you read the story a little bit. Is there a single father in this room who would not do what this father did for his child?

I doubt it. May I suggest that all of us need to be persistently seeking Jesus on behalf of our children? From my perspective, as someone who grew up in a in a Christian home, I really resonate with this idea of the treasure in the field. I feel like I just stumbled on to this idea of I'm a sinner. I need to be safe from my sins.

I know that sounds silly. I was raised in a Christian home, but the age of accountability to me was like turning on a light switch. One moment, I'm innocent. I don't know what sin is. Not really.

The next moment, I realized that I'm a sinner, condemned, unclean, and I need to be saved from my sins. I just stumbled upon that, and here it is. I find this gift. I mean, I took care of that really quickly as when I was a teenager and I figured those things out. I stumbled across that that treasure there in the field.

But my question is, who put the treasure there? Who buried it? May I suggest that it was my parents who buried it there? That they had for years been laying this groundwork for me to come to Christ. And when I come to the realization that I need Christ, all of that stuff that they had taught me suddenly made sense.

And not just that it made sense. All of a sudden, it applied to me. I'm the sinner. I'm the one, and I'm the one in need of salvation. They had buried it, and I just I stumbled across it.

I think about what he says later in chapter 13 in verse 52. Then he said to them, therefore, every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old. I have been instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven. And then when I saw my own sin, all of these things that I have learned, I'm bringing out treasure. I'm like, oh, that's what that means, and that's what that means for me, and this is what Jesus is offering me.

And I am so grateful that my parents had been seeking Jesus on my behalf for all of these years. So when that moment came and I had to make my own choice, my own decision to follow Christ, I had all of this background and all of this knowledge of what that looked like. Parents, may we lay that groundwork for our children. May we see the value of the kingdom. May we be persistent in seeking that value for them.

Do not be afraid. Only believe. I mean, there is nothing in this world. I don't think I'm afraid of much. Just maybe that's partly the way I'm wired.

I'm just not scared of much. Don't have a lot of anxiety about things. Not worried and troubled about many things. But you hold that baby girl in your arms for the first time. I'm scared of everything.

And then they reach an age where they're accountable before god, do not be afraid. Only believe. And if you believe, what are you gonna do? Everything in your power to show them how great the treasure is so that in that day, when they realize they realize what Jesus is offering them, they might be ready. We need to believe without fear that Jesus can save them too.

Believe it enough to be more persistent than we are now in showing them the treasure of life that's found in Jesus Christ, not for our not for ourselves, but for them. But when we consider ourselves, all of us, whether you're a parent or not, all of us need to consider ourselves, and we need to be seeking Jesus as well, forcing our way through the distractions and crowds and opinions of so called experts to find real healing in him like the woman with the issue of blood, in our spiritual lives, but also in our marriages and for our anxieties and for our temptations and sins. Those things that perhaps we've been struggling with and suffering from for a long time, Jesus offers healing. When we see our helplessness that we can't solve it ourselves and we are persistent to come to him. And at the same time, we know that we are helpless to save ourselves or even our children without the power and grace of Jesus Christ.

So our last thing this morning is that we must see ourselves as helpless if we are to find healing from him, and yet at the same time, be persistent in seeking Christ's healing that can only come from him. Go back to Matthew chapter nine one final time. Matthew chapter nine. Matthew chapter nine, and let's read verses 27 through 31. Now all of those other things that we've read are found in the three synoptic gospels.

This account is only found in Matthew. Matthew chapter nine and verse 27. When Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed him, crying out and saying, son of David, have mercy on us. And when he had come into the house, the blind men came to him. And Jesus said to them, do you believe that I am able to do this?

They said to him, yes, Lord. Then he touched their eyes saying, according to your faith, let it be to you, and their eyes were opened. Jesus sternly warned them saying, see that no one knows it. Don't tell anybody about this. But when they had departed, they spread the news about him in all that country.

What a what a funny little account this is. They are following Jesus how? Blindly. Literally, they are following him blindly. What an image.

But they tracked him down all the way to the house where he was staying. They were relentless in this. They were helpless in so many ways. They're blind. But they were persistent in seeking their healing.

Now let me ask you a couple questions. I need your head to nod this way or that way in response to these questions. Did they heal themselves? No. Of course not.

Did their persistent following, the works that they're doing here in following Jesus, negate Christ's gift of grace? No. Of course not. But they still had to seek him, and seek him they did because they saw their helplessness. And notice Jesus tells the blind men not to tell anybody.

Isn't it funny the first word that he says to them after opening their eyes, verse 31, see see that you tell no one about this. And I'm inclined to think this goes back to Jesus' purpose with the crowds. He's dividing hearts. You know, if somebody puts two and two together that blind men see and they're with Jesus, fine, but I'm not out for easy popularity. While the miracles attracted the crowds, they didn't bring about the deep rooted faith in those same crowds.

And John chapter six and the feeding of the 5,000 is the perfect example of this. They wanted to make him a king after that, but they came seeking physical bread. And Jesus responds by refusing to make more bread and then giving these hard sayings where many of the crowds turn away from them. He's not there to be a politician or to be a physical king. He is seeking belief.

Belief like Peter that says, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And, also, we have come to believe and to know that you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Peter saw that there was nowhere else to go, and he was persistent in seeking Christ. Did these healed blind men disobey Jesus' command here?

Maybe so. That's the natural reading of the text. But I have a hard time believing they did. Instead, consider the possibility that they were so obviously changed that the news couldn't help but be spread. Anybody who saw them, who had known them before, instantly could have seen the difference in them.

Their new site was testimony enough. And when asked, no doubt, they gave the credit to Jesus. May it be that way for us, and may the foolish crowd see the difference in us after coming to Jesus without us having to say a word. May they see our new sight, and may they come to Jesus or at least come closer to him because of it. Jesus was annoyed by the crowds.

I think annoyed is a good word. They're in the way so often. But he loved each and every individual in those crowds. He had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, And he came to be the shepherd for all who would follow his voice. So I ask you this morning, are you willing to leave the nameless, faceless crowd of the lost and join the known and healed disciples even this morning because that's what Jesus is calling you to do.

Once you hear his voice above the noise of the crowd and obey him in whatever way you need to. And we encourage you to do so as together we stand and as we sing.