A FAITH THAT WON’T FOLD UP
Matthew 15:21-28
Introduction:
He was seven years old when he had to work to support his poor family. At age nine, his mother died. He was 23 when he incurred a huge debt due to a failed business. At 28 and after four years of engagement, he asked his girl friend to marry him but she said “no”. He loved another lovely girl but lost her when she died.
At 37, on his third attempt, he was elected to Congress. After two years, he ran for re-election but failed. Adding to a miserable marriage at age 41, his four-year-old son died.
At 45, he ran for the Senate and lost. At 49, he ran for the Senate again but lost again. He went through a period of depression amidst all the rejection, criticism and rumors.
At 51, he became the President of the United States. We know Abraham Lincoln today as one of the greatest leaders in world history. He set thousands of slaves free by passing a law known as the Emancipation Proclamation. He taught the world that slavery is wrong and that all people should live freely.
When the civil war failed to stop his efforts to abolish slavery, his enemies assassinated him for his beliefs. People remember him today as a man who stood firm despite strong opposition. But his struggles formed in him something that very few of us have developed: character, perseverance, faith. He never gave up.
Are you having a hard time trusting God amidst your difficulties? Are you disappointed when God seems to be silent or slow in responding to your prayers? Is your faith under pressure and you feel like giving up? Are your problems too heavy for you to hang on? and you are desperate for God’s help?
This morning, we will be looking at a person who had a great problem… but she had great persevering faith and trusted a great person. And she was described by Jesus as a person of great faith…
Big Idea: God finds pleasure when your faith persists in spite of pressure.
Read Text: Matt 15:21-28 (NLT)
21 Then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Gentile* woman who lived there came to him, pleading, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! For my daughter is possessed by a demon that torments her severely."
23 But Jesus gave her no reply, not even a word. Then his disciples urged him to send her away. "Tell her to go away," they said. "She is bothering us with all her begging."
24 Then Jesus said to the woman, "I was sent only to help God's lost sheep—the people of Israel."
25 But she came and worshiped him, pleading again, "Lord, help me!"
26 Jesus responded, "It isn't right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs."
27 She replied, "That's true, Lord, but even dogs are allowed to eat the scraps that fall beneath their master's table."
28 "Dear woman," Jesus said to her, "your faith is great. Your request is granted." And her daughter was instantly healed.
Background:
There are three major barriers that she had to overcome.
1. She was a woman
In this time period, women were considered no more than property. This woman had a great barrier in just being female. Not only was she female…
2. She was a Gentile
Salvation had not yet been offered to the Gentiles at this time. That’s what Christ meant when he said that he was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. – vs. 24… Not only was she a Gentile…
3. She was a Canaanite
The people of Israel did not like Canaanites. The Canaanites were the pagans who lived in the Promised Land before Israel came to live there.
This passage is about the faith of a Canaanite woman. As a matter of fact, it is about the "great faith" of a Canaanite woman. This would not be such a big deal if Jesus went around applying this compliment loosely, but this woman was unique in two ways. She was the only Gentile woman Jesus healed in Matthew's gospel, and she is the only person Jesus said had "great faith."
Compare that with the five times he reminded the disciples of their "little faith," and you can see how unique she is. For the disciples to hear about and witness her great faith is a powerful learning experience for them.
Some lessons we can learn from this woman of great faith…
The faith that God favors is a…
Faith DESPERATE for God’s help
21 Then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Gentile* woman who lived there came to him, pleading, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! For my daughter is possessed by a demon that torments her severely."
Desperation leads to strong faith. The story doesn't begin with us knowing about her great faith; it begins in desperation, where great faith often begins.
The Canaanite woman, whose name we never hear, has a daughter whom she describes as "cruelly possessed by a demon." We don't know exactly what this meant, but it easily could have meant she was afflicted with violently insane behavior, like the man who lived among the tombs in Matthew 8, or that she had terrible seizures, like the boy who often fell into the fire in Matthew 17.
Whatever her symptoms, her mother was desperate for her to be healed - to be free from this terrible state. Her desperation led to hope - not hope in the folk cures and remedies she probably had tried before, not hope in the best medical advice of the day, but hope in the God of Israel, hope in the Messiah, God's Chosen One.
This hope led to a faith without shame. Many times we can be afraid to let our faith be known. Sometimes we don't want to stand out; sometimes we just want to be polite and not "talk religion." Sometimes we just don't want the added scrutiny that comes when people realize we're followers of Jesus Christ.
This woman was different; she lived out a faith that came from having nothing left to lose, a desperate faith. She approached this band of disciples and their leader, Jesus. She screamed out to them from a distance, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David!" She didn't just shout, she screamed - her cries as desperate as the faith she had that Jesus was the One who could make a difference.
She didn't care that the disciples didn't approve. She didn't care, even as a woman approaching men who were strangers, that she would stand out like a sore thumb. She didn't care about the things that often make us ashamed. She had the faith of a desperate mother - a faith without shame.
This should make us think about our faith. Does it come out of desperation? Does our faith rise out of a confidence that Jesus is the only One who can bring meaning to our lives, the only One who can bring true spiritual and emotional healing, the only One to whom our lives are worth devoting? Or, is our faith just a casual thing we do because it's expected? The Canaanite woman's faith was without shame because she knew Jesus was her only hope and she didn't care what others expected.
“Faith is not merely your holding on to God--it is God holding on to you. He will not let you go!” -- E. Stanley Jones.
Big Idea: God finds pleasure when your faith persists in spite of pressure.
The faith that God favors is a…
Faith DETERMINED to get God’s response
23 But Jesus gave her no reply, not even a word. Then his disciples urged him to send her away. "Tell her to go away," they said. "She is bothering us with all her begging."
24 Then Jesus said to the woman, "I was sent only to help God's lost sheep—the people of Israel."
25 But she came and worshiped him, pleading again, "Lord, help me!"
She cried out, but Jesus didn't say a word - complete silence. She went to Him and made her plea and "He answered her not a word." He practically ignored her, yet He was testing her faith. He knew what was in man, He knew that she had faith. He was waiting for her faith to find full expression.
Some of the greatest lessons of faith are learned when God appears to be silent when we are desperate. Over and over the woman cried out to Jesus for mercy. But He did not answer her, not even a word. Not one word of acknowledgment was uttered. Not even a "Not now," "I’ll speak with you later," "I hear you, let Me think on it," was said. Nothing but divine silence met the pleas and cries.
All of us want to be listened to when we speak. Nothing can spark anger in us quicker than to feel snubbed by a relative or a friend when we are speaking. Even if someone does not agree with what we say we at least want to be acknowledged! Yet here was a lady that felt in the depths of her own soul the desperation of her daughter’s demon possession, and in her crying out to Jesus Christ she found only silence.
Why was Jesus silent to her pleas? His silence tried her faith, but did not conquer it; she pleaded still. The Lord responded the way He did to her, not to destroy her faith, but to develop it. He had a purpose in His silence. The effect was to develop, strengthen, and manifest her faith. His silence was not without purpose, and certainly not out of unconcern for this woman’s need. She was not discouraged to the point of giving up by our Lord’s seeming denial. She waited and held on, believingly.
At this point, the disciples (and many of us) get a little uncomfortable. They shuffle their feet a little, finally speak up and say, "Jesus, umm…maybe You could just heal her daughter and she would leave us alone. You know, it's actually embarrassing us to see her acting like this, and You know what people will say seeing her following us around." To this Jesus said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." How do you think they would have responded? Would they have been as shocked as we are that Jesus said this? Or would they have been thinking this: "Well, yeah Jesus…we don't like Canaanites either, but she's driving us crazy."
We then see something more about her faith. Not only does she have faith without shame, but her faith was without fear. She was not afraid of Jesus or the disciples. She threw herself down at Jesus' feet in total worship. With nothing to lose, she showed a relentless dependence on Jesus. Without shame and without fear, she fell at Jesus' feet and asked again, "Lord, help me." Is this the kind of utter devotion we have, or are we afraid to pray and ask God something because we might be told no? This woman didn't let Jesus' lack of response stop her.
“Little faith will bring your soul to heaven, but great faith will bring heaven to your soul.”
-- Anonymous
Big Idea: God finds pleasure when your faith persists in spite of pressure.
The faith that God favors is a…
Faith DISTINGUISHED by God’s approval
26 Jesus responded, "It isn't right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs."
27 She replied, "That's true, Lord, but even dogs are allowed to eat the scraps that fall beneath their master's table."
28 "Dear woman," Jesus said to her, "your faith is great. Your request is granted." And her daughter was instantly healed.
On top of a faith without shame or fear, she showed a faith without stopping, a faith that wouldn't quit. As she bowed down at Jesus' feet, He told her something very strange. He said, "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." Everyone there knew what Jesus meant, the disciples and the woman. He was saying in effect: It isn't good to take the blessing meant for Israel and give it to the Gentiles.
The woman said, "Jesus, master, as always You're right, but even the dogs eat from the crumbs that fall off the master's table." In other words, on her face in worship at the feet of Jesus the woman said, "Lord, I know Your blessings are for the entire world. I know Your blessing is so great that I'll gladly take the leftovers and be satisfied." At this final response from the woman whose faith won't quit, I can see the scene. Jesus' serious face broke into a smile; He reached down, grabs her by the hands, helped her off her feet, looked her in the eye and said, "Great is your faith woman, your daughter is healed!"
The Lord was testing her faith, and she passed the test well.
Big Idea: God finds pleasure when your faith persists in spite of pressure.
Conclusion:
This is where this particular story ends. We don't know what the disciples were thinking. Did Jesus remind them of what He previously taught? In chapter 7, Matthew wrote, "Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you." Here, from one they never would have expected, the disciples saw this kind of faith lived out. They got a living lesson on asking, seeking, and knocking. They saw great faith embodied, a faith that didn't quit with asking, a faith that wasn't ashamed to seek diligently after Jesus, a faith that wasn't afraid to keep knocking even in the face of no response.
Do we have a faith that won't quit, or do we have a faith that gives up when we don't see a quick response? The disciples left that place after having seen a faith that wouldn't quit, a faith they imitated as they spread the gospel later on in the face of persecution.
The tradition of the church tells us nearly every disciple died a martyr's death for his or her faith in Christ. Could it be that the great faith they carried until death was learned from the Canaanite woman? May God grant us such faith, a faith so great that it won't give up even in the face of uncertainty, a faith so great that it seeks Jesus Christ relentlessly, a faith so great that it believes God's blessings are too big for one nation, a faith so great that it never quits. May God grant us the faith of a woman who had nowhere else to turn except to worship at Jesus' feet.
Bethany Hamilton has become a source of inspiration to millions through her story of faith, determination, and hope. Born into a family of surfers on February 8, 1990, on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, Bethany began surfing at a young age. At the age of eight, Bethany entered her first surf competition, where she won both the short and long board divisions. This sparked a love for surf competition within her spirit.
At the age of thirteen, on October 31, 2003, Bethany was attacked by a 14-foot tiger shark while surfing off Kauai’s North Shore. The attack left Bethany with a severed left arm. After losing over 60% of her blood, and making it through several surgeries without infection, Bethany was on her way to recovery with an unbelievably positive attitude. Lifeguards and doctors believe her strong faith in God helped get her through the traumatic ordeal.
Miraculously, just one month after the attack, Bethany returned to the water to continue pursuing her goal to become a professional surfer. In January of 2004, Bethany made her return to surf competition; placing 5th in the Open Women’s division of that contest. With no intention of stopping, Bethany continued to enter and excel in competition. Just over a year after the attack she took 1st place in the Explorer Women’s division of the 2005 National Scholastic Surfing Association (NSSA) National Championships – winning her first National Title. In 2007, Bethany realized her dream and turned pro.
Are you having a hard time trusting God amidst your difficulties? Are you disappointed when God seems to be silent or slow in responding to your prayers? Is your faith under pressure and you feel like giving up? Are your problems too heavy for you to hang on? and you are desperate for God’s help?
God calls us to have a faith that won’t fold up... a faith that does not quit.
