Well, tonight I invite you to turn with me in your Bibles first to Isaiah 35. I didn't include that in the bulletin, but it bears upon the sermon we're considering tonight. I'd like to read just perhaps the first six verses or so of Isaiah 35, and then we'll read also from Matthew chapter 9. So I invite you to turn with me first to Isaiah 35. It's a short chapter, but again, just read perhaps the first six verses, and then turn to Matthew chapter nine. So turning first of all to Isaiah 35, and this is the word of the Lord our God. The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the excellency of our God. Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are fearful hearted, be strong, do not fear. Behold, your God will come with vengeance. With the recompense of God, he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing, for water shall burst forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert." Again, we'll end reading from Isaiah 35 there, but turn next to Matthew chapter 9. Matthew chapter 9, and we'll read verses 18 through 34. So Matthew 9, picking up at verse 18. While he, that is Jesus, spoke these things to them, behold, a ruler came and worshiped him, saying, my daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her and she will live. So Jesus arose and followed him, and so did his disciples. And suddenly a woman who had a flow of blood for 12 years came from behind and touched the hem of his garment. For she said to herself, if only I may touch his garment, I shall be made well. But Jesus turned around, and when he saw her, he said, be of good cheer, daughter. Your faith has made you well. And the woman was made well from that hour. When Jesus came into the ruler's house and saw the flute players and the noisy crowd wailing, he said to them, make room, for the girl is not dead, but sleeping. And they ridiculed him. But when the crowd was put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose. And the report of this went out into all that land. When Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out and saying, Son of David, have mercy on us. And when He had come into the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them, do you believe that I am able to do this? They said to Him, yes, Lord. Then He touched their eyes, saying, according to your faith, let it be to you. And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, saying, see that no one knows it. But when they had departed, they spread the news about Him in all that country. As they went out, behold, they brought to him a man mute and demon-possessed. And when the demon was cast out, the mute spoke. And the multitudes marveled, saying, It was never seen like this in Israel. But the Pharisees said, He casts out demons by the ruler of the demons." And thus ends our reading from God's Word here tonight. And may the Lord add His blessing to His Word. congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, one day as Jesus went out preaching and teaching, John the Baptist sent out some of his disciples to meet with Jesus and ask him a very basic question. Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another? In other words, John was asking Jesus, are you the Christ? Are you really the Christ? Now, it seems hard to believe that John would ever ask Jesus a question like this, since you have to think that he had heard likely from his mother about how he once jumped for joy in utero as Mary walked into the home to visit his mother. And not only that, but we also know, don't we, that Jesus was baptized by John, and after he was baptized, the heavens opened up and the Spirit descended like a dove upon Jesus, and a voice was heard saying, this is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased. And if those weren't clear enough signs, even we have the report that when John saw Jesus, he pointed his finger, as it were, at him and said, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. It seems outrageous that John, of all people, would question the identity of Jesus as the Christ. How could it be that John would ever doubt Jesus as the Christ? How could he ever not believe that since he himself had testified to that very fact? Well, it seems that whatever conviction John may have had at one time or another, that conviction began to slowly fade away, you might say, as Jesus carried on his earthly ministry. It seems that John the Baptist likely expected something more, at least something fairly different than what Jesus came to do and what he began to hear Jesus was doing. And so John asks him, are you really the Christ? And in answering that question, Jesus does something very, very interesting. He simply reminds John of all that he has already heard and found out about Christ's ministry. He reminds John of this very thing. He says to John, the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. Jesus tells John what he already knows. But that summary, it's interesting, that summary that Jesus uses, the way in which it's phrased and the way in which it's written, directly refers back to what we just read, Isaiah 35. You see, what Jesus does is he calls John to recognize his ministry as the very one the scriptures foretold. He is the Christ. In other words, he's telling John, I am the Christ because you are seeing in me and through me the very promises coming to fulfillment that God had foretold in the Old Testament. That which the Old Testament says about the Messiah, you are now seeing and hearing. Believe that I am the Christ. Understand that I am the Christ because while you might be disappointed somewhat in what I'm doing, confused somewhat by what I'm doing, This is exactly what the scriptures foretold would come to pass. I bring the deliverance of the Messiah. And you see, what we find here in Matthew 9 is proof of that answer Jesus will give. What we have here in chapter 9 is the proof that Jesus fulfills Isaiah 35, that he fulfills the prophecy of the Messiah, that he brings the deliverance of the Messiah. shows that he is absolutely right as he tells John, look at what I'm doing, see what I'm doing, and understand the scriptures are being fulfilled. And so what we, again, find here in Matthew 9 is that Jesus has come, Jesus has entered into this world to bring the deliverance of the Messiah. And we want to look at this deliverance. What kind of deliverance does Jesus bring as our Messiah, the one promised by God? Well, as we see here, he first of all brings a deliverance from death. Secondly, he brings a deliverance from blindness. And then thirdly, he brings deliverance from demonic forces. So he brings deliverance from death, from blindness, and from demonic forces. But as we begin to look at this passage together, one thing that we should note and keep in our mind is that Matthew writes his Gospels somewhat differently than the other men, than the other Gospels. He doesn't write his Gospel in the same way that Mark or Luke do. In fact, Matthew, it seems, groups his material more thematically. He's not as concerned for the chronological order. He's not so concerned to say, this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened. But Matthew sort of condenses things, and he may take something that's later in Jesus' ministry and bring it to an earlier point to make more of a thematic statement in order to impress upon us something that Jesus certainly does and accomplishes and reveals the glory of what he's done then. So, as a result of that, you can find that Matthew is much more succinct in his storytelling. If you read Matthew and then you compare maybe with Mark or Luke, you'll find that Matthew uses a lot less words to tell his stories. He's not so interested in the details. He's more interested in stressing specific points to us. And that's the case here when we have these miracles. Matthew uses less than half the words the other Gospels do. And again, the reason is to drive our attention, to drive our focus to the heart of what Jesus does and what he accomplishes. So when you look at these other Gospels, for instance, you are told the name of the man who comes to Jesus, and you discover that the daughter isn't actually dead when he comes to Jesus. You say, well, how can Matthew then say that the daughter is dead when the other Gospels say, well, Jesus goes, and then the other woman comes, and then he continues on to the man's house, and then on his way, then a servant comes and says, now she's dead. Why is it that Matthew has the girl dead at the very beginning? Why does he bring this father to Jesus saying, my daughter has died, please come and heal her. Why does Matthew do that? Why does he say that and have the man, the father, doing this? Because Matthew doesn't want us to miss what Jesus does. This father, you see, will believe that Jesus can raise his daughter from the dead. And Jesus, as he knows, will raise the girl from the dead. And so he brings this deadness of the girl to the very beginning so that we don't miss what Jesus does and sets out to do and what the father believes Jesus can do. He wants us to not lose our focus on the heart of the issue, which is nothing other than death. The problem here is death. But before we get to this little girl, you notice the story is interrupted. It's interrupted with a woman who suffers from a discharge of blood for 12 years. More than likely, this was some kind of menstrual disorder, which means, according to the Old Testament, that this woman has been unclean for 12 years. Anyone who touched her would themselves become unclean. Anyone who sat on what she sat on, who touched her clothing, who maybe touched a blanket she had laid upon, they would all themselves become unclean, which means that this woman likely was suffering in a very isolated kind of life. And she would make everyone unclean and so they had to sort of stay away from her and not interact with her. There's a sense in which she probably had to live a kind of life not that different from what lepers had to go through. They're separated from everybody. And she herself likely was experiencing something like this. And for her to come to Jesus then was a remarkably bold move because she is potentially making everybody in the crowd as well unclean. What's most curious about this story, this event, is that when Jesus sees her and responds to her, he says, be of good cheer, daughter. Your faith has made you well. Or more literally in the Greek, your faith has saved you. Now, this is significant because it's the only time in the entire Gospel of Matthew where the language of salvation is used after a physical healing. This is the only place where Matthew uses saved in response or after a physical healing. And why is that? Why is Matthew here, out of anywhere else in his Gospel, concerned to use this language of salvation when it comes to this woman? Why is it? And the reality is, because this woman herself is as well trapped in her own kind of death, a bleeding disorder for 12 years. She's the living dead, so to speak. She's losing her lifeblood continually for 12 years. She's dying while she lives. She's living in this perpetual death. You think as well of the fact that she's unclean, so she's cut off from communion with God's people. She's barred from access to the holy things of God because she's unclean. If she's married, she can't have children. If she's married, she can't even have relations with her husband. And what is death? Think about it for a moment. What is death? Seems like a weird question perhaps, but death is being cut off from the living. It's the loss of earthly fellowship. Eternal death is also being cut off from communion with God. You're cast out, you're unclean, you're always dying, but you're never dead. And you see, that's what this woman's life had become. She was, again, living this kind of perpetual death, no fellowship, no communion, isolation, no access to God, no access to his favor and his ministry. This woman was living death. And so as Jesus heals her, Matthew wants to understand that her healing is, in a certain respect, a deliverance from death. She's been saved from death. Again, which is the focus of our passage and is more clearly pictured then as Jesus arrives at the Father's home. He comes to the Father's house. He drives away the crowds that are mourning. He dismisses them. He takes the little girl by the hand and he raises her back to life. And Matthew, again, is very condensed. He gives us the bare minimum, the fewest details. But what's significant here as well, again, is Jesus' statement. He says, go away to the crowds, go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping. Now, usually the language or the word sleep is used as a euphemism for death. It's simply a nicer way of saying someone's died. Not that they're actually sleeping, but that it's just a nice way of saying they've died, they've passed away. But that's not the case here. If that's what Jesus meant, then Jesus is effectively saying, go away because she's not dead, she's dead. It makes no sense. So Jesus isn't using the word sleep in that way. But neither is Jesus saying, well, go away because she's just comatose, you know, that she's just got, you're mistaken, she's just passed out in a coma and I'll, you know, I'll just wake her up. That's not what Jesus is saying either. What does Jesus mean then when he says this little girl is sleeping? Well, you see what our Savior's doing here is he's pointing out that the kind of deliverance he brings as the Messiah is a deliverance which means not even death is permanent. By his work, by his power and authority, death itself must flee. You see, through Christ or in Christ, death loses its power. That when Jesus and death come face to face, it's death that loses. And you see, that's what he came to accomplish as our Messiah. He came to finally and fully and completely defeat death so that all his people may be able to live and live forever. See, that's what's pictured with this woman who's in this kind of place of living death. Jesus frees her, and she has salvation. She has life. She's restored to life. This little girl that's dead in her father's home, Jesus takes her by the hand. He drives death away, and she lives again. And again, the picture is to stress to us that as our Messiah, he brings us that deliverance from death. which is why even if we should die in this life, even our own death is kind of like falling asleep. Not that we actually fall asleep, but the idea is even our own death is kind of like a sleep because one day Jesus will come and he will speak with the voice of an archangel and it's like we'll be awakened up, we'll rise from the grave, like we're rising out of bed and we will have our new bodies and dwell everlastingly in the presence of our God through Jesus Christ. See, Jesus here is revealing to us and impressing upon us that as the Messiah, as our Deliverer, that's been foretold by the Scriptures, He brings us deliverance from death, our great enemy, death, defeated, finished, so that we no longer need to fear it, that we no longer need to dread it, because in Christ we are more than conquerors. So Jesus reveals here that he came to deliver us from death. But this second miracle, or if you're wanting to count it perhaps more strictly, this third miracle, then shows us that he came also to deliver us from blindness. So he's dealt with death, but now he's confronted with these blind men. Jesus has just recently left this father's home, and he's quickly approached by two blind men who cry out, son of David, have mercy on us. Now, if you look at the very beginning of Matthew's Gospel, you'll notice that the title, Son of David, is very significant. Matthew uses it as an indicator that Jesus is the Messiah. In Matthew 1, verse 1, you read, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. So again, in Matthew's Gospel, Son of David is a messianic title. It's another way of saying he is the Messiah or he is the Christ. And so these two blind men, for as much as they cannot see with their physical eyes, they are able in some way to grasp that Jesus really is the Messiah foretold and promised by God. But at the same time, there's this question perhaps sort of raised here, that they are maybe not so convinced about that. It's interesting that Jesus seems to ignore them. He meets them on the road. They cry out for mercy, and Jesus apparently doesn't engage them. He doesn't answer them. He doesn't turn to them. He doesn't go to them. But we see Jesus going into a house, and then the blind men pursuing him into the house, and Jesus then questioning them. He questions them. Do you really believe I'm able to heal you of your blindness? It seems that these blind men may have been somewhat like many people today who think that it at least can't hurt to try seeing if Jesus can do something for them. Maybe some of you have heard or know about Pascal's wager. It's basically the idea that it's better to believe God exists and to live like God exists because if God doesn't actually exist, you don't really lose anything, but if God does exist, then you're okay. Whereas, you know, if God doesn't exist, you lose nothing, and if you refuse to believe in Him and He does exist, you stand to lose everything. In other words, Pascal's Wager is the idea, it's safer to believe in God and act as if He exists, because if He truly does, you're safe. Right? It's better to at least live this way so that you can be saved and delivered and have some kind of life than to be caught, as it were, not believing in God when he really does exist. It's better to play it safe. Better to play it safe. And these blind men may have been acting something like that. They think of themselves, well, he might be the Messiah. And so it doesn't hurt to try asking him for help, right? Because if he ignores us or if we're wrong, we lose nothing. But if he actually is the Messiah and we cry out to him, he could actually do something for us. So it's better for us to at least try and to maybe flatter him or say we believe he's the Christ, because if he does something, we can actually be delivered from our blindness. And so we see Jesus here putting some pressure on them. Do you actually believe I can do this for you? Are you just coming to me, you know, in this sort of wager, this kind of bet that I can do something? Or are you actually convinced that I am this Messiah and can give you this deliverance? And when push comes to shove, they say, Yes, Lord. Yes. It's very simple, but it's also very beautiful. Just think for a moment of what they say when they tell him yes. They're saying, yes, we believe you are merciful and you are willing to do this. And they're saying, yes, we believe you have the power and authority to do this. And they're saying, yes, we believe you are the son of David, the promised Messiah. See, they are showing here at Christ's initiative, at Christ's sort of pushing, a true faith. A faith that says, yes, I believe you are merciful. Yes, I believe you can save me. And yes, I believe you are this Messiah of God. And you see, that is really even what's at the heart of all true faith. What is true faith? True faith says, yes, I believe God is merciful and gracious and is willing to forgive me of my sins. Yes, I believe that Jesus is able to save me from my sins. He has the power. He has the authority. He has accomplished the work necessary to save me from my sins. And yes, I believe that this Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. That's true faith. I believe God is merciful and gracious, willing to forgive me of my sins. I believe Jesus is able to do it because of his perfect work, and I believe he is the Son of God who took on my flesh to save me. That is true faith. And what does Jesus then do as he meets with his faith? He doesn't only deliver from death, he delivers from blindness. Jesus says to them, according to your faith, be it done to you. according to your faith. Now, that's not to say that their faith has made them deserving of this healing. It doesn't mean that their faith itself has the power that can free them from blindness, but instead about impressing upon us that there is no life, there is no healing, there is no deliverance in Jesus apart from faith. We have to come to him in faith. Faith is that instrument by which we lay hold of Jesus and we receive then his deliverance. Salvation and healing and deliverance come to us in Christ through faith. And that's what Jesus is making very clear here. As you come to me in faith, through this faith, you have my mercy and my kindness, my healing power. And so he delivers them. He delivers them from their blindness. The same was true of the woman with the bleeding disorder. Jesus said, your faith has made you well. It's through your faith. And I think what's so encouraging about this, too, is to notice how this wasn't perfect faith by any means. You look at this woman, and she superstitiously believes she had to touch Jesus' clothing. Right? If I just touch his clothing, and you see that even in acts where, you know, someone grabs Paul's sweaty handkerchief, and they take his handkerchief, and they raise someone from the dead, or they heal someone of their sickness, and you think, well, that's weird, grabbing his sweaty handkerchief, but there's this kind of superstition even operative in this woman, and yet, And yet, she's saved. She believes in Jesus. She thinks she has to touch him, but she still receives his deliverance. And these blind men, we're told, they disobey Jesus. Jesus says, don't tell anyone about this. And they turn around right away and disobey him. They directly contradict His very clear order and command not to tell people, and yet, despite their weak faith, their imperfect faith, they still have the deliverance of Jesus. What an encouragement to us. We have our own imperfect faith, don't we? We're not always so strong of faith. We're not always so obedient to our God and to His Christ, and yet, Through this faith, a true faith that still rests in Christ, that still trusts in Christ and believes Him to be the Son of God, we are yet saved. So it's very encouraging, very encouraging. Although there is strong faith and weak faith, it isn't the strength of our faith that saves us, it's Jesus. And so we see here, even with this weak faith, there is the deliverance from blindness. But now you say to me, I'm not blind. I'm not blind. I'm not looking for deliverance from blindness. What does this have to say to me? What does it have to tell me? Well, you may not be blind, but understand that this blindness is just one expression or one example of all the pains and sorrows we have in the body while we live in this life. And again, Jesus came to bring us deliverance, not just from the great enemy death, but from these broken bodies. Jesus came to, one day again, raise these bodies from the grave to free us of all corruption, to free us from all weakness, to free us from all deformities and disabilities and disfigurements and diseases, that the life Christ gives us, you see, brothers and sisters, is a perfect life. completely free from all the effects of sin and death. And you see, that's what Jesus is revealing here. I have come to bring you that deliverance God has foretold, a deliverance which means a freedom from all the effects of sin, yes, even upon our own mortal bodies, just like Isaiah foretold. The lame to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the mute to speak. In all these ways, Christ would reveal again the abundance of life that he would give us, the deliverance from all corruption. As we live in this world and we're grieved by many pains and sorrows and difficulties, we again turn our minds and hearts to Christ. And why? Because we believe he is the answer to these things. Doctors fail. Medications fail. All these things let us down. They cannot give us this perfect life, but Jesus can. Jesus can. And he proves it right here with these blind men as he delivers them from their blindness. So the deliverance Jesus brings as the Messiah is a deliverance from death, yes, and a deliverance from blindness, yes. And finally, we see as well here deliverance from demonic forces. Now, this is something we see many places in the Gospels, many places, and you can find examples of it as well earlier in Matthew. So what makes this story so different? Well, here we have a demon-oppressed man who we are told is mute. Sometimes in the Bible, demonic possession leads to physical effects, physical disabilities. There are people who suffer effects like epilepsy and other things like that. There's also times where, like with the man Legion, someone has, you know, this almost superhuman strength. So demonic possession at times had physical effects upon people. And here we have an occasion where the possession by a demon affected an individual's tongue so that he was mute. And the remarkable thing is in this miracle is that after Jesus casts out the demon, the mute man speaks. And in reading that, we might find nothing really very remarkable in it, right? Okay, Jesus frees this man of a demon, he speaks again, you know, sort of like, this is amazing, but yet this really doesn't seem all that extraordinary. But the people, notice how the people respond, how the crowds marvel at this, and they say, it was never seen like this in Israel. And the idea is, they're saying, this is something extraordinary, this is something we've never seen before. This is something that's completely unheard of. This is far exceeding anything, anything that we've ever heard about, ever dreamed of. This truly is remarkable to the crowds. They cannot believe what their eyes are seeing. And I tend to think the reason is because of the fact the man suddenly spoke. Think about it for a moment. Children are some of the fastest learners, right? Everybody says it's easy to learn when you're young, right? But even though it's so much easier to learn when you're young, Speech is still something that takes our children quite a long time to learn, isn't it? Right? They're babies and they make their goo-goos and their ga-gas, they begin simply trying to make sounds with their mouths and their tongues, and then eventually they get to the point where they can say, you know, one word or two words and then They begin to put those one or two words together, and then they begin to use very short sentences, and then they build their vocabulary more, and they learn to enunciate better. And all of that takes an incredible amount of practice and time, doesn't it? It takes an incredible amount of practice and time. But here's a demon-possessed man who's mute and immediately begins to talk just like any normal human being. A man who has never said a word his entire life long and suddenly speaks with all the diction, with all the enunciation, with all the capability of a fully grown adult person. But there's even, perhaps, the connotation here. It's interesting, the word for mute is actually somewhat ambiguous in the Greek. It could mean that he's not only mute, but could also mean he's deaf. Now, very clearly, it does mean he's mute because the people marvel at his speaking, but it could be that the man is both mute and deaf. So there's even the possibility that this man was utterly deaf, meaning he could never even have heard a single word another person spoke. And yet when Jesus heals him, he not only can hear again, but he actually is able to speak fully and completely, having never heard anyone speak his entire life before. And so the people are utterly amazed. Can you imagine that? Someone has never even heard human language before, and suddenly they speak. But even if that's not persuasive to you, at the very least you can take the crowd's response as a reaction to everything that has just transpired within this one day. You know, it's maybe not very clear when you read it, but within a matter of hours, Jesus has raised a girl from the dead, freed a woman from a bleeding disorder she suffered from for 12 years, cured two blind men of their blindness, and now delivered someone from demonic possession and enabled them to speak again. You see, that has happened. If you read this carefully, you discover that this has happened within a matter of hours. Within a matter of hours, Jesus has done all these things. And you see, there's nothing like this in the entire history of the Old Testament. There is nothing like this time, this day, this moment where Jesus just, you might say, rapid fire, back to back to back to back, boom, raise the dead, boom, deliver from a bleeding disorder, boom, give people sight again, boom, make a mute man speak, boom, drive away demons. And the people are just, their world is being rocked. Because there's nobody who's ever done anything like this before. And here he frees this man from demonic power, delivers them from the mute speaking of their tongue, utterly freeing him from all oppressiveness of demonic forces. You know, it's really remarkable, too, when you step back and you look at all these miracles that Christ gives. Because congregation, what are our three great enemies? Remember what our three great enemies are? What are they? They are the world, our flesh, and the devil. And what deliverance do we find Jesus bringing in these verses? Well, he brings deliverance from death. And I might submit to you again, what is this world? But it is a world of death. It's a world where we're dying, where we're living under the curse of death. Right? Everything dies, everything corrodes, everything corrupts, everything falls apart into pieces. We live in a world of death. What does Jesus do in our passage? He delivers from death. What does Jesus do next? He delivers us from the corruptions of our flesh. He gives men sight again. And what does he do in the third case? He delivers from the power of the devil. And you see, in this passage, we see that here Christ, the Messiah, brings us deliverance from all our enemies, from our three great enemies. He's the one who delivers us from the world of death, from our own sinful flesh, and from the forces of evil. When we are Christ, He rules triumphant over all of our enemies. When we are Christ, we have the ultimate deliverance from every single one of their influences and powers and oppressions and so forth. Of course, they may still harass us. The world still harasses us, mocks us. We see that here in our own scripture passage. We may suffer while we yet live, suffering the painful effects of corruption, but you see, in Christ, these things cannot possess us. They cannot control us. Christ lives in us. He rules over our life as king, and so they cannot stop us from receiving salvation. They cannot break us from his grasp, but we are safe completely safe in the hands of our Savior, because there's no one and nothing that can triumph over Him. And that is true deliverance, is it not, brothers and sisters? True deliverance. You see, that's what God had promised in the Old Testament, what God had foretold the Messiah would bring, and that's the kind of Messiah Jesus reveals Himself to be. That is the kind of Messiah Jesus reveals Himself to be. And yet even as we see in this passage, there are still yet two radically different responses to these miracles aren't there. Find that at the very end of our passage. We know John the Baptist will doubt. Matthew 11 makes that very clear. John the Baptist will doubt. But the Pharisees refuse to believe. And what do they do? They see these miracles and they write them all off as the work effectively of Satan. The crowds are saying, never has anything like this been seen in Israel. And the Pharisees say, he casts out demons by the prince of demons. How wicked and how blasphemous is that? But sadly, that's the way many people respond to Jesus, isn't it? When Christ came and he sent away the mourners saying, you know, she's not dead, she's sleeping, they ridiculed him, they mocked him, they laughed at him. They were suggesting that he was out of his mind, that he was ignorant, that he was dumb. This Jesus, who does he think he is? What does he think he can do? You think he can deliver from death? Liar. He's a lunatic. These blind men perhaps don't completely believe as well at first, and the Pharisees now say that he works by the Prince of Demons. There are many people who look at Jesus and they think, this is what he promises? He can't do it. He can't give what he says. He can't do what he thinks he can. This isn't the Messiah I want. This is not the Messiah I need. There's many people along those lines too, isn't there? They want a different kind of Jesus. They don't want this kind of Jesus that will one day deliver them from death and bring them into the presence of God where they may live forever. They want a Jesus who makes them rich. They want a Jesus who frees them from all sickness in this life. They want a Jesus who gives them some other kind of deliverance and some other kind of salvation. Even like John the Baptist seems to be in some sense expecting a different kind of Messiah himself. And Jesus, you see, looks at us, he looks at the world, and he asks us a question. And Jesus says, what do the scriptures teach? What do the scriptures say is the kind of Messiah God gives? And these Scriptures tell us, behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. And Jesus is saying, look at what the Scriptures say and understand that I am that Messiah. I am the Messiah that the Scriptures foretold. This is who I am. This is what I bring. This is what I offer. Believe. Believe. Look to me for this salvation. Don't come to me looking for a different salvation. Come to me looking for the salvation the scriptures hold out to you. And trust that I am the Messiah who gives you such deliverance. that he is the only one who can free us from death, who can wash us with his blood so that we are acceptable in the eyes of God, that he's the one who can free us and our bodies from all corruption, that he's the only one who can protect and deliver us from all evil and who can turn all evil to our prophet, and who will see to it that we are ultimately brought into the presence of God where all sorrow and sighing flee away. What can Jesus do for you, congregation? I know sometimes we can sort of belittle that kind of approach. You know, what can Jesus do for you? And we kind of say, oh, we shouldn't think in those ways, we should simply think of what Jesus does. Well, there's truth in that, but scriptures as well are not fearful of saying, what can Jesus do for you? And understand what Jesus can do for you. Understand that Jesus can heal you, that Jesus can forgive you, that Jesus can free you from death, that Jesus can deliver you from all demonic forces. What can Jesus do for you? And what are you looking for Jesus to do for you? What kind of salvation are you looking for him to give? True messianic deliverance, I hope. The deliverance that the scriptures proclaim and foretold. The deliverance the scriptures say the Messiah will bring. That you look to Jesus and you trust him to bring you this kind of salvation. And the world may laugh at you. The world may laugh at you thinking that you are trusting in someone who will only let you down. The world may laugh at you thinking that there is so much better a kind of salvation to know and to enjoy. No, but the true Christian, the man and the woman of faith, say, this is what Scripture says. This is what God has foretold. And I believe that Jesus, yes, Jesus and Jesus alone, will bring me such salvation. The world may laugh, brothers and sisters, But you see, Christ and this deliverance, this deliverance makes Him worthy of all our faith and all of our worship. This deliverance makes Christ worthy of all our love and all of our affection. And so may your hearts be drawn evermore to Christ in love and in faith, seeing the beauty of the messianic deliverance He brings you. Amen. Let's pray together. O Lord, our God, as we draw near to you tonight, we again are mindful, mindful of the deliverance you bring to us in Jesus Christ. And oh, Father, what a marvelous deliverance that is. The world's true Father is often looking for a different kind of blessing, a different kind of life. They do not want that which Christ alone can give, but Lord, you through your Word would draw our minds and hearts to the true deliverance of your Messiah. A deliverance from death, a deliverance from corruption, from our own sinful flesh, and from Satan. from His demonic forces, Lord, You would reveal to us that this is the deliverance that we need, and that Jesus, yes, Jesus alone can give. And so, Father, we pray that You would draw our hearts and minds to Christ in faith, and that You would persuade us of this glorious deliverance that He, yes, He and He alone can give. And Father, help us to be glad and joyful in this deliverance, to know that although we yet suffer in this life, and although we may at times question whether this deliverance is true, may we come back to Your Word and believe, Father, that yes, this deliverance truly is yet ours through faith. And it is a salvation that we will know in full when Christ returns on the clouds of glory, when we will be raised from the grave imperishable, when we will be raised from the grave and put on incorruption, when we will be raised from the grave and know that marvelous victory over death and all corruption, yes, over Satan, even as we watch him thrown to the eternal lake of fire and go on into the land of glory where Christ alone rules, where you, O Lord, are known in glory and peace and in love forever. Oh, Father, how we desire this deliverance, and would you bring this day of our full salvation. In the meantime, give us patience and give us good hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. Bless us then, Father, and Jesus, give us strength as we leave this place to serve you in a new week. And may it be, Father, that as we serve you, we are ever more convinced of the deliverance yet to come in your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, work within us by your Spirit and supply our every need in Him, your Son. We ask it in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen.