There are many people who come to Jesus for different reasons. We can see at least one principle from each of them from Matthew 15:21-39. They come to Jesus with:
1. Persistence
2. Preference
3. Possessions
All of them have something in common – a need is brought to Jesus, and Jesus meets the need.
"The key to gaining something from God is coming to Jesus."
1. Persistence (Matt. 15:21-28)
Most preachers have pointed out her persistence. She does not have the right to come to Jesus as Son of David. She is not one of the children of Israel, but she calls out to Him, “Son of David, have mercy! My daughter is tormented with demons.”
The phonecians had their own healing arts and traditions about how to bring healing to somebody. They also had some strange demonic practices. We do not really know the history. But she comes to Jesus and seeks mercy. And Jesus is silent.
There are four ways in which she is rebuffed:
1. Jesus ignored her -- And when that did not work, she kept crying out. It was this obnoxious calling out – she keeps crying out.
2. Jesus denied her racial/spiritual qualifications -- His first response and statement to her is a rejection. He says, “I was not sent except to the children of Israel.”
In His first coming, until His death and resurrection, He came to fulfill the prophecies that were given to the Jews concerning the Messiah. So His first statement to her is rejection. “I came for the people of Israel. You are obviously not an Israelite”. Basically He says, “I am not here for you, but for someone else.”
3. The disciples wanted her sent away -- They say, “Lord, send her away – if You are not going to heal her daughter, just get rid of her. Tell her to leave.” Now Jesus does not do what they ask Him to do.
4. Jesus related her to a dog in comparison to the place of the Jews -- As she kept begging Him, Jesus says, “It is not right to take the food from the children and give it to the dogs.” Ouch!
You might have heard this passage many times and read through this, without thinking what it must have been to be this woman. From our perspective Jesus is doing all the wrong things.
He never read the book, “How to win friends and influence people.” He is doing everything wrong. If somebody comes to me and they say, “I need an answer from God.” And I say, “Go away.” And they keep saying, “I need an answer from God.” And I say, “We are not here for you. Go away. Get lost!” And they keep persisting. And I say, “Hey, this is the church. And what we got for the church is not to take it and give it to a dog like you!” What would you think of me if I did that? Can you even imagine me acting like that? But Jesus did! I believe He had a purpose in doing that. He was teaching the disciples a lesson, in the beautiful attitude and faith of this woman. And He knew that He could bring that illustration to His disciples. He was playing the role of a typical Jew, a typical Jew who hated peopled from other races, a bigot.
But we see in her response something very extraordinary! Would you respond in a way she responded? She says, “Lord, but even the dogs get to lick up the crumbs that fall from the master’s table!” In other words, she says, "Lord , You are so good and powerful! What I need is such a small thing for You, it is like a crumb falling from the table. It is nothing for You to take care of my daughter.”
Did Jesus’ disciples have that kind of faith? No in the later instance, where people need food, they do not respond with that kind of faith, even though Jesus had done something similar before. So Jesus responds to her, “Great is your faith!” Such persistence!
A pastor in the US says it like this:
“She came in humility, knowing Jesus did not owe her anything. When Jesus called her a
dog, she did not argue.” In a sense, we are all dogs, not deserving bread from the
Master’s table. But maybe we don’t need bread from Someone of such wealth and
resources. All we need is crumbs.
John Kapteyn said,
“Faith is not proven true by answered prayer but by unanswered prayer that does not
make us waver or give up on God.”
So, she did not seek Jesus with a sense that He owed her something. She sought out His mercy, His grace, even His leftovers.
But it is not JUST persistence. This woman seemed to understand Jesus in ways even His disciples did not. Jesus went to the region of Tyre and Sidon to meet the needs of the people there. He went to meet this woman, she somehow knew this. She knew that Jesus was there for her. And she had an extraordinary faith, and was not going to give up
Illustration:
We talk about persistence. Edmund Halley published article in 1716, d. 1742 that if they were able to look at the transit of Venus, they could get a good idea of the distance the earth was from the sun. So based on the article, in 1761, about 120 plus scientists gathered together to observe this, but it was a stormy June that year. It was a wasted trip for many of these scientists because they were not able to observe the transit of Venus. Maximullian Hell a priest and also a scientist built an observatory later and Captain Cook was commissioned in 1766 to go to Tahiti for scientific purposes. And towards 1767, it took them about 8 months to get to Tahiti, they built a observatory in Tahiti, just to watch Venus – a little dot pass from one side to the other.
Application:
Such commitment – such investment of resources and persistence – for what? To figure out how far the earth is from the sun and to see this little dot go across the sun? What are we willing to sacrifice? What kind of persistence do we demonstrate? In the world you see so much of commitment, sacrifice, and hard work for earthly purposes. There is no kind of eternal consequences, whatsoever! What price are we willing to pay?
In contrast think of some of the characters in the Bible:
a. Think about Job! His life was destroyed and he said, “Though God slay me, yet I will serve Him.”
b. Abraham and Sarah, who were promised to have a child when they are about 70 years old, and they do not get a son until 25 years later! Can you imagine that kind of persistence and faith – not giving up on God!
We pray today and if we do not get an answer from God, we figure out our own way. But this woman knew that Jesus was the only source to the answer of her problem, and she persisted until she got what she needed.
2. Preference (Matt.15:29-31)
When we have a problem, where do we go to get the solution to the problem? We call our best friend, our parents, and say, “I have got a problem, let us talk.” What do you do when you have a problem?
It is interesting that those with sick friends and relatives had many options in their day as today. Even in that day, they could have gone to Greek Physician. They could have gone to the local shaman-the priest. Today we might think of them as witch doctors. People go to these shamans or priest to find a solution to the problem instead of going to a hospital. They could have gone to the Ayurvedic Clinic or homeopathic doctor. But instead of going there, they came to Jesus first!
They gave Jesus the first preference.
They may have exhausted all of these options first we do not know the details of it. But they brought their sick and dispossessed to Jesus, and Jesus met their need.
We need to come to Jesus first!
Illustration:
A man came to Pastor Chuck, the church I went to in California for a couple of years. This
man said he wanted to make a large donation - one million dollar donation. The pastor in
response to that said, “Wow – that is a lot of money. Let me go first and pray about it!”
You don’t say to the person who wants to give you a million dollar, let me pray about it. But
Pastor Chuck prayed about it and the Lord led him to the portion in Genesis where a king
wanted to give Abraham great wealth, but Abraham refused it, because he said, “then you
will say that you made Abraham rich!” Abraham wanted God to get the glory for his wealth.
So the pastor went to the man and said that he cannot receive the gift because as he
prayed he was not at peace and that he did not want the man to say that he made this
church rich.
This church grew from that time. Every morning about 3000 people would gather for
different services. That’s only the adults. They also had an overflow room that seated
about 900 people and was full for all three services. And through the offerings they
collected, Calvary Chapel bought a radio station and has the largest radio station in
Southern California, which is one of the media capitals of the world where you have the
Hollywood, Burbank and all these television and film studios.
And they broadcast bible studies and worship music. The church is able to sponsor all this
and they are able to give without expecting anything in return. They also have a
conference centre where people can go for retreats. And another one that they turned into
a Bible college.
In other words, the pastor decided to honor God for his resources, He gave preference to
Jesus and not to someone who was going to give a million dollar donation – and God is
faithful! God provides – He is able! You give Him preference first, and He will take care of
you.
Kymone Hinds, another pastor in the US said,
“What we need to do is learn that only persistence in prayer can gain the victory. You see
the truth is if God can’t do it, it cannot be done. We need to learn to close the blinds, shut
the door, turn off the phone, stop calling Mummy and Daddy and Auntie and Uncle and
just cry out to the Lord.”
Amen!
3. Possessions (resources) (Matt.15:32-39)
Finally, we need to bring our possessions to Jesus.
This passage is not a passage on tithing or anything. They brought everything that they had.
They brought what resources they had to Jesus and they gave it to Jesus.
And look what He did with it. He took it, He broke it, He distributed it and it multiplied so it was able to take care of the needs of 4000 men plus women and children. Jesus told the disciples to bring Him what they had.
I like to say that He tells us the same thing to us today. “Bring Me what you have.” Not just giving in the offering plate, but bring everything to Jesus on a daily basis – you bring your thoughts – your needs – your cares. Peter tells us in I Peter, “Throw your cares on Him, because He cares for you.”
Illustration:
The man who invented the tarmac laying machines, he was a Christian. People still use
that machine for laying tar on the roads. When he began his business, he made a
commitment to do reverse tithing. Reverse tithing means that you give 90% and you use
10% for whatever you need! His road building machines were really famous and his
friends said that “You can make ten times more and give ten times more to the ministry, if
you would just take some of this money so that you can borrow from the bank, because
you can use it on equity. But giving it all away to the ministry you will not have equity”.
And he did not feel peace about it. But his friends kept persisting him and he kept that
year’s income, based on that he took loans, built a large manufacturing plant and went
within two years completely bankrupt! He lost everything. So now the patent for the
machines lies with the organization who took over when he went bankrupt.
Now in contrast to that:
Have you heard The Lockman Foundation? Lockman was a man who believed in the
principle of business for the sake of ministry. The business itself can be a ministry – you
minister to the employees, to those around you, by setting a standard of righteousness in
your business.
So he began doing farming and committed to giving from 10% to more than 40% of his
income to the Lord. The Lord blessed him and he was able to buy hundreds of property in
California. And with the proceeds he had from the farming company, he established the
Lockman Foundation. Lockman Foundation developed the New American Standard Bible.
They have also now made the New Chinese Bible. They are working on the New Hindi
Bible, a new translation in Hindi. And they are also the ones that made the Amplified Bible.
All of these with funds from his business, which he committed to give to the Lord. And the
Lord multiplied so he is able to be a blessing to millions of people in the world.
What is it that we have that we are holding on to? These little things – you know when you die they do not matter. If I was stressed out about something, my dad often told me,
“A hundred years from now it will not matter.”
What are some of the things that we are holding on to – worrying about – we are concerned about – that 100 years from now will not matter at all.
And these possessions that we hold on to with both hands so ardently, if they were given to Jesus they could be multiplied.
We need to bring Him our possessions. Whether it is disease, or stress or financial problem, or emotion or a relationship problem, we need to bring it to Jesus.
In conclusion:
• We need to bring it to Him with persistence, bring it to Him over and over, until we feel that
He gives the answer, even if His answer is for us to wait for sometime, or even if His answer
is no – because He wants to give us something better and different from what we ask. We
need to get an answer from God. We need to persist.
• We need to come to Jesus with preference – come to Him first not last after everything else
fails, we come to Jesus, when we hit bottom, when there is war, when we go bankrupt – but
no – when we have resources, when we are blessed, that is when we need to come to
Jesus – with preference come to Him first.
• Finally, we need to come to Him with our possessions – with everything we have. Your
mental possessions, your resources of talent, whatever it is that you have, offer it to Jesus
and He can multiply it to be a blessing to millions of people.
