Mat 9:18-26; Reach Out and Touch Someone.

Class Outline:

Sunday November 10, 2024

 

Main idea: Jesus reaches the outcasts and the downcasts asking them to believe in Him, and He commissions us to do the same as Him.  

 

Jesus reached out - outcasts: Those not of your group (whom your group might ridicule you for). The poor, the lost, those who lose, opposite philosophy, opposite politics (sports team). 

 

Jesus reached down - downcasts: the shamed, guilty, and the hopeless. Those society has given up on: homeless, drug addicts, alcoholics, any addiction. Those with sinful pasts. Those in prison. 

 

Jesus reaches the outcasts and the downcasts asking them to believe in Him, and He commissions us to do the same as Him.

 

MAT 9:36-38

 

Both verbs “troubled” (distressed) and “cast down” (dispirited) are perfect passive participles. These people are not just having a bad day.

 

What the Lord does, we are to do. (ROM 8:29).

 

The harvest is God’s harvest, not our own. We are His workers. The workers have always been few and the harvest plentiful. You don’t have to go far, just reach out and touch the lives of those around you.

 

MAT 9:18-26. 

 

Faith that God can, despite hearing and sight, gives us courage and patience while it opens God’s hand to do His will in your life. 

 

Deep faith of synagogue official (Jarius): “My daughter is dead, but You…”

 

Faith of the hemorrhaging woman: “I may make Him unclean, but if I can just touch His garment I will be healed.” (MAT 9:22)

 

Use of sozo (Greek for salvation, deliverance, healing), only here in his Gospel, Matthew uses for healing, nuance of her deliverance from shame.

 

She has to touch Him, though she knows what it will do, faith says: I need Him no matter what.

 

Where is the need, the harvest, in your community right now?

 

While Christ is delayed, Jarius does not falter. His faith gives him courage, despite the bad news and bad advice he gets (MAR 5:36, Faith is courage.)

 

Faith does not give all you want, but everything that God wants. 

 

The theme of following (MAT 8:1, MAT 8:19, MAT 8:22-23) and now Jesus is following a man of faith. What does this mean?

 

The Lord will go forth for those who believe. (PSA 18:6, PSA 18:9)

 

The Lord is active today in healing that which is far more harmful to us. (shame, loss of hope, misery, no joy, no love, no comfort, no future, no purpose, no life). 

 

Faith touches Christ and receives from Him. 

 

A great mass of people is crowding around Jesus and many are touching Him. But only one is touching Him with need and the expectations of faith; MAR 5:30-34. 

 

Everyone has come into contact with Jesus. Many people’s contacts with Christ are no more than curiosity, social pressure, family pressure, cultural exposure. But someone in this crowd is touching Jesus with need and expectancy, and that He knows keenly while the masses press in on Him. 

 

We are the few workers of God’s plentiful field and we do not yet know who are the wheat and who are the tares.

 

Jesus is not made unclean by touching the unclean because He is always giving His divine power. 

 

It is what the outcasts and the downcasts long for and what God longs for them. 

 

A large part of the church’s mission is for each of us to fulfill our ministries, reaching out to the outcasts and downcasts in our own corner of the world. 

 

MAT 9:36-38. 

 

Variety of people in the ten miracles of Mat 8-9. Do we appreciate the number of liberations that Jesus’ ministry unleashed?

 

The miracle of Jarius daughter teaches that Jesus’ ability to help is limitless. Do not limit yourself before you reach out in faith?

 

This Christmas season, let’s all think about giving to someone, some family, who is down or out or both. The reason is to be a giver of the divine to all the unclean and the downcast.