God's Abounding Mercy

Introduction

As we continue our monthly theme this March “Know God, Know Mercy”, we have learned last week about the mercy and grace of God towards us. As we recall, Ptr. Mildred emphasized on how God showed His mercy and grace to His beloved people. Ephesians 2:4-5 “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

John 1:16 “Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.

There is an abounding mercy of God to His people because of His great love Who is rich in mercy and grace upon grace we have been blessed by God. Not only He saved us by His grace, but he blessed us continually due to His abounding mercy.

Now last week, we have defined mercy from grace. And as a simplest definition, mercy is the act of God not giving us what we deserved, while grace is the act of God giving us what do not deserved.

God’s abounding mercy means His mercy is without end, without limit, it never stops, and always available.

Today’s passage, we will see an instance where we can see God’s abounding mercy and grace to one of His mission here on earth, and that is to show His love and compassion to the needy. Let’s read

Matthew 15:21-28 NIV:

21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.

22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”

23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”

24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.

26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

27 “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

28 Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.

Today we are also celebrating “International Women’s Day” where we see the power and effect of women in our society. Coincidentally, our story is about a woman who has an incredible faith to Jesus and because of that she experienced one of the great attributes of our Lord Jesus which His abounding mercy and grace. We will see and expound how this woman was able to get what she wanted from God and what God saw in her that He was able to give to her what she deserved.

What did Jesus saw on this Canaanite woman that Jesus wanted to see in everyone of us?

1. Her Persistency. – v22-24

22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”

23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”

24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

What were the factors why this woman needed to be persistent in her request to God.

A. She was a Canaanite (v22). A Canaanite is a part of the Gentile nation and once a tribe is part of a Gentile nation, the Jews do not associate with them. Remember the Samaritan woman in John 4? Now, why is it that Jesus loves to go to these areas where Gentiles lives? Because His abounding mercy is not only for the Jews but also for the lost sons and daughters of Israel which pertains to the Gentiles.

So she knew that Jesus would not attend to her because of a different race, the more that she needs to be persistent so Jesus could meet her needs. It is the more that she needs to squeeze in herself to come to Jesus by shouting at Jesus “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me” which leads to another reason of her persistency.

B. There were a lot of opppositions (v23). Here we can see many oppositions on her actions.

1st from being a gentile herself, we saw that she needed to use the term Lord, “Son of David”. The term “Son of David” pertains to a Messianic title of Jesus. We know that in 2 Samuel 7:12-13, there was a promise of God to David stating that David’s offspring or children will be his successor and that God will establish his kingdom forever. (ask Joza to project the verse indepedently)