25-1012sc Transcript

(0:04) Well, it’s almost time. (0:06) It’s hard to prepare for just a single class and it ends up being more like a sermon. (0:14) I was trying to think, how can I make something interactive and be mindful of time? (0:22) So I made a sermon that I’ll use later and I’ll expand on it later.

(0:32) But it’s something that I was focused on in my own personal studies that I want to share with you. (0:41) And it’s ultimately the story of the faith of the Canaanite woman. (0:48) And I noticed something about the style of Jesus' teaching that hadn’t struck me before.

(1:01) That he not only teaches with his words, but sometimes he’ll teach a lesson without saying anything. (1:12) So through his actions, and he expects his followers to get it. (1:20) And I’ll bring that out when I turn this into a sermon, like maybe a two-part sermon.

(1:30) But anyhow, it’s neat how things can pop out at you at different times. (1:38) And it’s like you read it over a dozen times at least and all of a sudden, (1:45) Holy Spirit will pull the chain of your light bulb in your head and it’s like, (1:49) oh, I see something here. (1:51) It’s like a pattern.

(1:55) So we’re going to look at that today. (1:58) But before we do, let’s pray like David, where he says in Psalm 119, (2:06) you know, open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. (2:11) So that’s how we should approach all Bible study, even Bible reading.

(2:16) You know, the Spirit will hear that and, oh, this person wants to learn something. (2:22) Yeah. (2:23) So let’s pray.

(2:25) Holy Father in heaven, Lord God, we thank you for blessing us today. (2:29) Father, we ask your blessings upon this congregation. (2:34) Lord God, we all have struggles.

(2:37) Please bless Kevin as he’s temporarily furloughed from work and we pray that the (2:44) government will get their act together and come up with a proper budget so that all (2:51) of the government people can be back to work, doing their job, (2:57) supporting their families. (3:00) Please bless them in the interim and we pray this can end quickly. (3:06) And Father, help Kevin personally be able to be sustained through this.

(3:12) And Lord God, help us to help him if he needs help and do what we can. (3:22) Father, we pray for the Tuck family at this time that you’ll bless Warren with wisdom, (3:34) knowledge, and the attitude to correct the wrongs that he let happen by not paying taxes. (3:44) We pray that he’ll make right with the government before they take his home away.

(3:54) And help us to help the poor of the congregation, Father. (4:00) Lord God, we pray that you’ll open our eyes up to your word. (4:05) Help us to understand your word and apply things in our life.

(4:13) Help us to have a deeper faith as you would like us all to attain that mature faith, Father. (4:20) Bless us in Jesus' name. (4:22) Amen.

(4:26) Okay, so here’s what I noticed. (4:31) As I read the Gospels, I was mainly in Matthew 14 and 15, (4:37) and I was looking at Jesus feeding the 5,000, (4:41) and then how he contends with the Jewish leaders all the time, (4:46) and how they had such stubborn hearts and refused to listen with their heart to Jesus' teachings. (4:56) And it was usually the poor and downtrodden whose ears were receptive to his word.

(5:09) And Jesus was preparing his disciples for where to go when they preached the Gospel to the world. (5:21) And so, he did this through overt teaching and by example in subtle ways. (5:33) And we’re going to look at that.

(5:36) And after Jesus completed his ministry on earth, (5:43) after he rose from the dead and he met with his disciples on a hill in Galilee, (5:51) he wanted them to understand plainly the instructions of the Great Commission. (5:59) And in Acts 1, 6 through 8, he says, (6:02) And so, when they had come together, they were asking him, saying, (6:07) Lord, is it at this time you are going to restore the kingdom to Israel? (6:13) And he said to them, (6:15) It is not for you to know the times or epochs which the Father has fixed by his own authority, (6:23) but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, (6:27) and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, (6:34) and even to the remotest part of the earth. (6:45) So, there’s an order there.

(6:46) They were to first go to Jerusalem and witness to the Jews. (6:53) The Jews had priority. (6:59) And then they were to go to the lost sheep of Israel before anyone else.

(7:05) Jeremiah was the first to use that term, lost sheep, being applied to the Israelites. (7:13) Because even as far back as his time, the leaders, the Jewish, or not the Jewish, (7:20) but the Israeli leaders, religious leaders, neglected their job in teaching and guiding (7:30) the people in the law. (7:33) And they themselves ended up not obeying it and ended up serving other gods, (7:38) so they were unfaithful shepherds.

(7:46) And Jeremiah said in chapter 50, verse 6, (7:50) My people have been lost sheep. (7:53) Their shepherds have caused them to go astray. (7:59) So, secondly, they were to work their way out of the city of Jerusalem into Judea (8:05) and then to Samaria, where the half-Jews lived.

(8:11) And those were the people who mingled with the Gentiles after the Assyrians came (8:18) and took away the people to foreign lands, to Assyria, for one, and treated them as slaves there. (8:29) But they backfilled Samaria with citizens from their own country (8:36) and other countries that they conquered. (8:40) So you have all these Gentile heathens, pagans, if you will, living where the Jews (8:47) or the Israelites used to live in the area of Samaria.

(8:52) And so the Israelites who were still there that didn’t get taken away mingled with those people. (9:01) And so they combined their religions into a hybrid of Judaism (9:08) and whatever pagan religion they were following. (9:12) And it was basically workplace, but they still had Israeli blood.

(9:20) And so they were the next picture, an epicenter in Jerusalem, (9:27) and an earthquake, and it ripples outward. (9:30) Well, that’s how the Word was to disseminate. (9:34) And so then it was to go to Samaria, to the half-Jews, and then to all the ends of the world.

(9:39) That’s how the Twelve Apostles and the believers were to carry the Word. (9:48) So during Christ’s ministry, you can see that order in these verses. (9:54) Jesus commanded his disciples who to preach to and who not to preach to.

(10:00) In Matthew 10, 5 through 6, when he was sending out the Twelve to practice preaching (10:06) the things that he had taught them, he commanded them saying, (10:10) don’t go among the Gentiles and don’t enter into any of the cities of the Samaritans. (10:16) Rather, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. (10:20) And there’s that term again.

(10:22) Jesus viewed the people as the lost sheep. (10:26) He knew their condition. (10:28) They were lost.

(10:29) Even though they might have been going through the motions, their hearts were far from God. (10:39) So go to the lost sheep. (10:41) And we even see Paul following that pattern of going to the synagogues (10:46) where the lost sheep of Israel could be found, specifically the Jews at that time.

(10:52) Because after all of the countries came in and carried people away, (10:58) the only ones that came back were the people from Judah whom Babylon had carried away, (11:06) and they spent their 70 years there. (11:09) So that’s why even today we call them just simply the Jews. (11:13) They’re the remnants that came back from Babylonian captivity.

(11:19) And so we use that term Jews. (11:22) We can use it to apply to all of Israel basically today. (11:28) Once they were dispersed amongst the nations, and then in 70 AD when the temple was destroyed (11:38) and all records lost of genealogies and lineage, they couldn’t prove what tribes they were from.

(11:46) Priests couldn’t prove they were from the tribe of Levi. (11:50) They have a conundrum today because they want to build a third temple. (11:56) And but they have no way of knowing for sure who is from the bloodline of Aaron.

(12:04) And to be a high priest, prove it. (12:06) You know, how can you prove it? (12:08) God made sure of that. (12:11) And the Jews that are in Israel today, most of them are secular.

(12:18) They could care less. (12:20) They don’t believe in the God of Israel from old. (12:23) They’re as left as you can be.

(12:29) And they’re more Marxist than they are actually believers of God. (12:39) And it’s funny when, you know, America wants to defend a country that won’t even acknowledge (12:49) the God of heaven. (12:51) It’s like, why are you doing that? (12:53) Just treat them like any other country, right? (12:56) You know, yeah, okay, they’re a democracy.

(12:59) We should stick with them, defend them. (13:02) But not because of who they are, who they are today. (13:05) They’re just like any other unbelieving nation.

(13:10) Yeah, we should send missionaries to Israel to convert them to Christianity. (13:15) And believe it or not, we here, Paul calls us in the Roman letter, spiritual Israel. (13:27) Isn’t that what Jesus, one of his intentions was to make one flock out of the two groups? (13:37) Right? (13:38) In John chapter 10, where he’s talking about, I’m the good shepherd.

(13:44) I know my sheep. (13:46) My sheep know me. (13:47) I have other sheep that are not of this sheep then.

(13:51) I must bring them in also. (13:53) They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one shepherd and one flock. (14:01) So this command to go to the Samaritans, those half-breeds that Jesus looked at with sympathy (14:11) and his disciples looked at with horror as if they were lepers, and that’s a prejudice (14:19) that they had to get over, you know, is to actually bring the word to unbelieving (14:27) half-breeds like the Samaritans.

(14:30) The only time they would have any interaction with them is if they had to do business with them. (14:36) Otherwise, they were considered unclean. (14:40) And then the Gentiles, you know, forget them.

(14:44) They were beyond redemption in the disciples' eyes. (14:49) But through this, Jesus and his teaching and his unspoken teaching was showing them, (14:57) I love these people too. (15:01) Where was I going? (15:04) Anyhow, so Paul, wow, how did I get off on that when I was talking about Paul? (15:11) So Paul followed that pattern as well.

(15:14) And when he would go to different foreign lands and knew that there were Jews there, (15:21) he would enter the synagogue and try and teach them. (15:25) And in Acts 13, 46, Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, (15:33) it is necessary that God’s word should be spoken to you first. (15:37) See the order? (15:39) He’s talking to the Jews.

(15:41) Since indeed you trust it from you, in other words, they rejected it, (15:46) and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, that’s the state Israel is in today, (15:53) except for the Christian Israelites. (15:57) Since you trust it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, (16:02) we turn to the Gentiles. (16:03) So Paul was practicing this pattern also, first to the Jews, then to the Gentiles.

(16:11) So the first time, as far as I can tell, that Jesus taught this pattern of go to the Jews first (16:17) and then to the others is found early in Jesus' ministry in the Gospel of John. (16:25) And after the wedding of Cana, where he turned the water into wine, his first public miracle, (16:33) he left to go to Jerusalem and prepare for the first Passover during his ministry. (16:42) You know, once his ministry started when he was 30, (16:45) it’s recorded this is the first Passover that he dealt with with his disciples.

(16:52) And so he went there and looked around and didn’t like what he saw, and so he cleansed the temple. (17:00) And there he taught the Jews and healed the sick. (17:04) And after a very heated exchange with the non-believing Jewish leaders of the religion, (17:11) he then returned to Galilee.

(17:13) But as they were getting ready to go in the evening, he had his conversation (17:19) with Nicodemus, who was a member of the Jewish leadership. (17:24) It struck his heart what he was hearing. (17:28) You know, he was the only of the leaders to actually want to find out about this Jesus.

(17:33) So they had a very insightful conversation, and Jesus told them how to basically (17:41) enter into the kingdom of God. (17:44) And it was through baptism, believe it or not, the very one that most of them were rejecting (17:53) at the time, making themselves unworthy of the kingdom of heaven. (17:59) So while there they entered into going to Galilee, they had to go through Samaria, (18:09) and they went to Sychar, which has a history in Israel lore, and that’s where Jacob’s well was.

(18:21) And there he had his discussion with a Samaritan woman who came to draw water. (18:27) She was a mix of Israeli blood and the Gentile blood, so she was looked down upon by people. (18:39) And Jesus had a discussion with her.

(18:43) His disciples slept off to go and buy food, and she reveals that the well was built by her father (18:53) Jacob, so that’s how we know she was a mix of Israeli blood with heathen. (19:00) And she didn’t live a very reflective life of being a true believer, if you will. (19:08) She had plenty of men, plenty of husbands, and the man she was living with was not her husband, (19:15) and Jesus revealed that to her.

(19:17) And so she perceived, wow, this guy is a prophet. (19:21) And then they started talking about worship and how the Samaritans worshiped one way, (19:28) and the Jews worshiped in Jerusalem, and that salvation came from Israel. (19:37) And she said, well, when Messiah comes, he’ll tell us all about it.

(19:41) And this is the first time and only time where Jesus, as plain as day, said, (19:48) the man you are speaking with, I am. (19:52) And he used that term, I am, the Yahweh I am. (19:57) And the bells and lights go off in her head, and she runs back to Sychar to tell everybody (20:05) she knew she found the Messiah, the man who told her everything about her life.

(20:11) And at the time she was leaving, the disciples come back with the food, (20:16) and they were astonished that Jesus was talking with this half-breed, if you will, (20:24) this unclean woman, but they were smart enough to hold their tongue and not call Jesus on it. (20:36) And when they come back with the food, Jesus says, I have food you’re not aware of. (20:41) And they look at each other like, where’d he get the food? (20:45) They were thinking in carnal terms, in human thought, like who fed him? (20:50) But he’s talking about spiritual.

(20:54) And so they have a discussion, and Jesus sees the woman coming back with half the town. (21:01) So they all had white tunics, if you will, back then. (21:08) That was their main garb.

(21:10) Maybe the shawl they put around them might have been covered, but their garments, (21:15) the standard garments, people couldn’t afford expensive dyes and stuff like that. (21:21) So they were basically the white, creamy-colored cotton or flax. (21:29) And so they see all these, you know, Jesus sees this herd of people coming across the fields (21:36) that probably at the time, it was spring, so it had a crop of grain growing.

(21:44) And here’s all these people in white coming through them. (21:47) And he states a metaphor to his guys, and he says, you know, behold, you know, (21:56) look upon the fields. (21:58) It is white and ripe for harvest.

(22:01) And he mentions to them, you’re going to benefit and reap this harvest, but others planted. (22:11) And who’s the one who planted? (22:13) Well, Christ’s first, but that woman, the woman at the well who ran off to tell everybody, (22:20) she was the one who was planting. (22:23) Jesus gives the increase.

(22:25) They all come. (22:26) And it’s the disciples who started working with these people, and they were so impressed (22:33) with Jesus as being the Messiah, they stayed for two or three days, and he taught them there. (22:41) And he never spoke to the disciples about preaching to the Gentiles.

(22:54) It was an unspoken lesson. (22:57) Yes, I’ve gone to come to the lost sheep of Israel, but where opportunity arises, (23:06) God doesn’t hold back. (23:08) Didn’t God send Jonah to Nineveh when they were steeped in sin and God was going to destroy (23:18) Nineveh? (23:19) And where’s Nineveh? (23:20) It’s in Assyria.

(23:22) They were enemies of Israel, but God loved those people, and he sent Jonah. (23:29) Jonah didn’t want to go. (23:31) He had the heart of the disciples.

(23:33) Oh, they’re unclean. (23:34) They deserve destruction. (23:37) That’s the attitude Jesus is trying to eliminate out of his disciples.

(23:45) He’s trying to see that all people have value. (23:50) And so even though the message is, go out to the Jews first, then to the Samaritans, (23:57) then to the full-blown Gentiles, don’t miss opportunities to save a soul. (24:05) And so Jesus cleanses the temple, and there he taught the Jews and healed the sick, (24:10) and after a heated exchange, once again with the Jewish leaders, he went to Galilee (24:17) and had this discussion with the Samaritan woman, and they had a wonderful harvest, so to speak, (24:29) and they had a lot of believers in Samaria.

(24:43) Jesus saw that the Samaritans were ready to hear the word because they believed this woman. (24:52) She believed, and then they believed. (24:57) So Jesus was establishing a preaching pattern to his disciples.

(25:06) Go to the Jews first, and if they reject the message, wipe the dust off your feet and go (25:12) elsewhere. (25:13) And in this case, it happened to be the Samaritans and the Gentiles. (25:20) And isn’t that exactly what Jesus taught in the parable of the wedding feast? (25:27) Now, the father of the groom decided to have a marriage feast for his son who was getting (25:35) married and wanted to invite all of the blood relatives, so to speak, and so he sent his (25:44) servants to go and tell them all to get ready for the marriage of his son and his bride, (25:51) and they all came up with lame excuses.

(25:56) Servants came back, reported to the father, and the father was angry, so he says, (26:05) go out into the streets and tell everybody they’re invited to my son’s wedding. (26:13) And isn’t that a metaphor in this parable for the word, the invitation of salvation (26:23) to be a part of the church, the bride, and be a part of this wonderful wedding celebration? (26:32) The Jews rejected it, and that’s what you see happening often is a large body of the Jewish (26:39) population at the time of Christ rejected his message. Yeah, there were a lot who believed, (26:47) but many of them rejected, and so what’s the next thing they do? The pattern.

(26:53) Jews first, then go out and tell the rest of the world. And so that’s basically the gist of, (27:01) you know, that parable was to, you know, whether the disciples made that connection (27:09) as to what they were doing here in Samaria, it’s hard to say. So anyhow, (27:17) Jesus is establishing that pattern.

So let’s look at what leads Jesus to this Canaanite woman, (27:28) an actual full-blown Gentile. You know, he was fruitful with the half-breed Samaritan woman, (27:37) but here’s a 100% Gentile. And even though Jesus is establishing the pattern of Jews first, (27:47) then Gentiles, he’s God, and he loves people, and so he can, by his own authority, (28:00) save whom he wants.

And so in Matthew 14, 13, we have Jesus having compassion on the crowd that (28:10) followed him across the lake because they were sheep without a shepherd, and he says, (28:17) I have compassion on these people. And he even says, they’re sheep without a shepherd, (28:23) and that was an indictment against the religious leaders of that time, because they were awful (28:29) leaders who didn’t care for God’s sheep, didn’t instruct them, didn’t take care of them, (28:38) just the worst of shepherds. They were more wolves than shepherds.

So Jesus, being the good shepherd, (28:51) you remember him feeding the 5,000. Well, those were mostly Jews. And afterwards, (28:57) you know, they collected 12 basketfuls of leftovers.

And that’s a little bit of an (29:07) important thing, too. Isn’t Psalm 23 about the good shepherd, and the Lord is my shepherd? (29:19) What does the Lord do for his people? He feeds them and waters them until their cup overflows. (29:27) And that collecting of, you know, 12 large baskets of leftovers of bread (29:36) is sort of what was being spoken of as the good shepherd there.

You know, (29:46) their cup overflowed. Jesus was giving them more than they needed to be satisfied, (29:55) and their cup overflowed. They filled 12 baskets of food.

They started out with five loaves, (30:01) two fish, and boom, you know, they had all this leftover. So that was a sign. (30:08) Okay, after that, they got in a boat and went south from, at the time they were in Capernaum, (30:15) the next city on the west side of the lake, they went down and went to Gennesaret.

(30:22) And Jesus began to teach and heal the sick. And again, here comes the scribes and Pharisees and (30:30) contended them about the laws of the Jews and the traditions of cleanliness. He saw the disciples (30:41) eating with unwashed hands, and so they were saying, they’re unclean.

And so Jesus has a (30:48) big discussion with them, what truly makes somebody unclean. And it’s not eating food (30:56) with unwashed hands that makes a person unclean. And he describes the condition of the heart.

(31:03) You know, the good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart. But the evil man (31:09) brings evil things out of the evil flowing out of his heart, or out of the mouth, the heart speaks. (31:17) And he says, it’s what’s in the heart that can make a man unclean.

And he was pointing basically (31:26) to the religious leaders. And so anyhow, in this story of the Canaanite woman, I’m going to combine (31:34) how long do I go to? Okay, good. So in this story, I’m going to combine Matthew’s account (31:46) with Mark’s account.

So about the faith of the Canaanite woman. So for Matthew 15, 21 to 28, (31:59) and Mark 7, 24 to 37. So it’s going to sound different if you’re going to try to follow along (32:05) in your Bible, because what one doesn’t say about the incident, the other one adds (32:12) information.

So I combined them all. So it would read this way. (32:18) And departing from there, Jesus went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon.

He entered a house and (32:26) did not want anyone to know it yet. He could not keep his presence secret. In fact, as soon as she (32:33) heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at his (32:40) feet.

The woman was a Greek born in Syrian Phoenicia. She cried out saying, have mercy on me, (32:48) Lord, son of David. My daughter is severely possessed by a demon.

But he did not answer her a (32:56) word. And his disciples came up and asked him saying, send her away because she’s crying out (33:02) after us. But he answered and said, I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

(33:12) First let the children eat all they want, he told her. For it is not right to take the children’s (33:19) bread and toss it to their dogs. Yes, Lord, she replied.

But even the little dogs under the (33:27) master’s table eat the children’s crumbs. Then Jesus answered and said to her, oh, woman, (33:36) your faith is great because of this answer. Go your way.

The demon has gone out of your daughter. (33:45) Let it be done for you as you want. And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

(33:51) And going back to her home, she found the child lying on the bed, the demon having departed. (33:59) So here, once again, he has a heated discussion with the Jews, Jewish leaders. And, you know, (34:10) he saw that their hearts were hard.

So he left there and went northeast along the Mediterranean (34:17) Sea, the Great Sea, to the towns of the area between Sidon and Tyre, which is about 25 miles (34:27) of area. And originally that was part of the land of Canaan. And (34:35) the Phoenicians, they weren’t called that.

They were normally called by the city they (34:40) were associated with. But in the land of Phoenicia is where this woman came from. (34:50) And at the time it was Syro-Phoenicia because when the Syrians came in, they conquered that.

(34:59) So since that time, they had put their own people in there. And that’s why it has that name, (35:05) just in case you were interested in history there. So as Jesus was traveling with his disciples, (35:14) this Gentile woman heard about Jesus and sought him out and found him.

Now, (35:21) can you imagine how difficult that was? This is a, you know, 25 square mile at least. Well, (35:30) 25 miles by 10 miles. This is a huge area.

And this woman heard about Jesus being (35:43) the son of God, the son of David rather. What does she know about that? You know, she’s (35:51) a Greek, a Gentile, and poor and living in a remote area. So when she heard about this (36:06) son of David coming, that was her ticket.

She was hoping beyond hope that he is who they say he is. (36:16) She doesn’t know him, okay? She’s only parroting, repeating what she heard others, you know, (36:25) say that pricked her to want to motivate, oh, maybe this guy will be able to heal my daughter, (36:31) because apparently nobody in that region could do it. And her little daughter was severely (36:37) demon-possessed.

And if you remember, the one man who came to Jesus and said, (36:44) my child is severely possessed, that demon was throwing the child into fire and just doing the (36:54) worst of things. I mean, can you imagine living back at that time and seeing that kind of behavior? (37:04) It’d be frightening for one. When I used to work for the Sheriff’s Department, I spent almost a (37:10) year on the psych floor.

And the criminal insane, let me tell you, if you ever thought maybe you (37:18) had problems or were having some issues of your own, just observe people who are actually (37:27) criminally insane. And there were some people that I would almost swear were demon-possessed. (37:36) I saw some things at the jail and heard things that would make your goosebumps (37:43) march off your body.

It was so creepy. So if you ever doubted your own sanity, just be around truly (37:54) borderline demonic people. You’ll say, okay, I’m fine.

I just had a little rough patch. (37:58) I’ll get over it. But this poor lady, her little daughter, I don’t know how old that makes a child (38:08) to be a little child, but I think my granddaughter is four and six.

That’s little to be demon-possessed. (38:17) Wow. So this woman’s desperate to have her child healed of this.

And so when she hears there might (38:26) be a guy who’s the Jew’s Messiah, she’s got hope. So she seeks out Jesus. And how long did it take (38:38) her? She immediately loved.

And she found Jesus. And I’m sure that when you think about the large (38:48) area she had to travel to find Jesus, the Spirit guided her there. Jesus expected this to happen.

(39:00) It’s beyond chance that she happened to find him in such a short time. And so Jesus was expecting (39:13) this to happen. You know, a lot of commentators said that that wasn’t the case, but how else could (39:21) you explain that, right? It was an opportunity to show his superiority over the demons, those who (39:38) originally rejected God and followed Satan.

Jesus is establishing himself, I am Messiah. (39:48) Every knee, human and Spirit, will bow to me. And so this is an opportunity for God to be glorified.

(40:01) So this woman finds Jesus and is following him and saying, have mercy on me, Lord. She at least knew (40:14) to give him the respect of Lord, Son of David. How would she even come up with that unless she heard (40:26) from others? So she thought that was how to address him, which actually was right.

(40:32) But she didn’t have a claim on that, you know, calling him that. You know, she was an unbelieving (40:39) Gentile up until she heard about, oh, there’s somebody who might be able to help my daughter. (40:45) And so Jesus remained silent.

And the disciples urged Jesus, send her away. (40:59) What were they saying to him? Send her away. (41:05) She has no business being here.

She’s not included. (41:11) Yeah. And she’s a Gentile.

She’s unclean. She’s unclean. And it was annoying them that she was (41:20) right at their heels calling out to Jesus.

They felt uncomfortable with it. It bothered them and (41:28) annoyed them. It was a lot like when all the mothers were bringing their children to Jesus (41:36) to have him lay his hands on them.

And what did the disciples do? Get out of here. Get out. You (41:41) can’t bother Jesus.

Get out of here. Get these kids out of here. And what did Jesus do? In the (41:49) words of Jackie Gleason, bang, zoom right to the moon.

He let them have it. Let the little children (41:57) come to me for such as these is the kingdom of heaven. You know, the disciples' hearts (42:09) would have been like maybe our own before we knew Christ, hardened, (42:15) prejudiced, easily annoyed, wasn’t loving.

And so they had lessons to learn. (42:25) And this Canaanite woman had a lesson to learn. She couldn’t make claim (42:34) and get Jesus' attention just by giving him the title of Messiah.

And so Jesus said, you know, (42:44) I was only sent here for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And that’s when the woman just (42:54) got down and bowed and said, Lord, help me. That was the turnaround point.

She humbled herself, (43:15) acknowledged him as her master. Lord, help me. She needed help.

Nowhere else to turn. (43:30) And that’s where Jesus said, well, he’s pushing it even further to test her. (43:38) You know, it wouldn’t be fair, you know, to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.

(43:45) And this woman, you know, this is the love of a mother who wants so desperately to have her child (43:54) healed of demon possession, answered so wisely. She recognized her place as a Gentile (44:06) against any claim that the Jews have. She knew she wasn’t part of, you know, that religious order, (44:17) if you will.

But she was human and recognized that we’re all a family. (44:26) Even if she has to consider herself not just a dog, but a little dog under the master’s table. (44:40) And her faith said that even if a little, and remember, bread represented the word of God.

(44:47) And even if a little plum fell on the floor, who’s ever had a dog before (44:55) begging at the kitchen table knows if it’s on the floor, they get claimed to it and they gobble it (45:02) up. That’s how I got rid of a lot of liver when it was served to me as a kid. And the dog, (45:12) I don’t care, Max.

Anyhow, she knew that even just a little blessing from Christ (45:26) would be enough to heal her daughter. And Jesus was blown away by her answer, (45:36) showing she actually had understanding. She knew her place as a Gentile, was not invited to the (45:44) table where the children, the Jews sit as a family.

They were to get first dibs on the loaf (45:53) of bread, the word of God. But if a crumb happened to fall on the floor, (46:00) that little dog could lay claim to it from her master’s table, under her master’s table. (46:12) What a beautiful image that is of this woman getting it.

The big light bulb went off in her (46:21) head, knowing her place and realizing who Christ is. And by Jesus' answer, he was so happy with (46:34) her answer, he actually praised her on how great her faith was. Woman, your faith is great.

(46:46) Bam, right then, right there, her daughter was healed. He, (46:54) with a thought, commanded that evil spirit out of that woman’s child. And the woman (47:02) went home, obviously directly home, to find her daughter healed.

What do you think that did for (47:10) that woman, seeing her daughter healed in her belief of Jesus as the Messiah? I would say (47:22) just as great as the woman at the well, maybe even more appreciative, because something was (47:30) actually done for her. And who was it? It was a Gentile, a Canaanite woman, (47:39) someone whose family may have been practicing pagan religion, but when she heard of the God of (47:47) Israel, the title Messiah, you know, that son of David is the title of the Messiah, (48:00) made everything right in her life. What a great story.

And so those disciples (48:12) witnessed also that this person who was even more unclean than the Samaritan woman (48:21) received such praise because she had faith. There must have been a light bulb going off, (48:31) in his disciples' heads, too. Wow.

Even the lost are saved. Remember, (48:40) Jesus can do that. He’s God.

He loves everybody, even if it’s outside of the order of Jews first, (48:51) and then the Gentiles. Doesn’t this story explain that? He had just argued with (48:57) the leaders of the law. They rejected him because of their hard heart.

So what did Christ do? (49:04) As he’s going to Galilee to speak to the Jews, he’s going through Sidon. Let me back that up, (49:13) get it straight. As he’s leaving Galilee, going through Sidon, deals with this woman, (49:20) he’s then heading to the Decapolis.

And what is the Decapolis? (49:26) The ten cities. What side of the lake were they on? East side. Who lived on the east side? (49:38) It was mostly the Syrians.

And the Decapolis was all the Gentile cities. So he went from one (49:47) Gentile place over to another. And what did he do when he was there? He taught and healed the people (49:57) and he fed the 4,000 there.

And who made up most of those 4,000? Gentiles. Jesus fed us. (50:16) And so when you step back and you see the big picture, yeah, Jesus was doing his order, (50:23) but he was also silently speaking to his disciples.

And don’t forget, after you do our (50:31) people, you go out to the Gentiles. So Jesus was covering all bases through example, a silent (50:39) example. So that’s my lesson.

The time is up. So this will be the crux of my next sermon, (50:46) and we’ll finish lots of thoughts then. Any questions or comments?