Cody/ B ethany – Sao Vincente Ryan/Shelby – Vajta , HUngary

1. Cody/Bethany – Sao Vincente Ryan/Shelby – Vajta, HUngary Maryanne/Sherri Youngward/Debbie Bryson - Siberia metromissionsbrasil 2008 06.10 – 06.20 CC Philly (training)

2. Matthew 15:29-38 • REVIEW • We saw Jesus CROSSING BORDERS into Gentile territory where he is met by a desperate woman whose daughter was severely demon possessed. • 1.)We saw what it looks like to COME to Jesus…. • She has HEARD of Jesus from somewhere… • We know from Matthew that the NEWS of Jesus has BLAZED out from Galilee all the way to Syria and Lebanon • SOMEONE touched by Jesus has TOLD this woman about Jesus.

3. REMEMBER – Jesus CROSSED borders to MEET her in her desperation! (Challenge to us) • When she comes to Jesus she doesn’t question Him • NO demands…. NOTHING that even resembles – “But I deserve” • No option! No plan “B” for her desperation! • Just keeps PRESSING in… KEEPS asking! • QUOTE: Spurgeon – “When the door is shut in her face, she knocks at it, and when Christ calls her “Dog”, she only picks up what Christ has said, as a good dog will pick up his master’s stick, and bring it right to his feet.”

4. Her 1st plea was trying to approach Jesus on Jewish ground! • BUT - Her 2nd plea struck… not A chord … but the chord in His heart • She simply came as a sinner needing help! • “Lord, Help Me!” • This was her “911”! • 2.)The importance of coming to Jesus for our kids. • KEY QUESTION:Am I as desperate as this woman to bring my kids to Christ? • I need to be.

5. I give them all kinds of things. • There isn’t anything greater that I can give them • If you have a teenager you may have often wondered • “What in the world has gotten in to them?” • “What in the world are they thinking?” • “What has possessed them?” • Jesus IS the same, yesterday, today and forever! • Do like this woman – • Go to Jesus for them! • He’s the same… having mercy on us everyday.

6. 29And Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee; • KEY INSIGHT:(Mark 7:31 KJV) And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. • Decapolis = 10 cities • What you don’t get from this is that Jesus must go NORTH and then head EAST and then SOUTH and ACROSS the Golan Heights to the area of Decapolis (Ten Cities). • This would be a long journey. • A number of days alone with His disciples. How many days journey? We don’t know.

7. and went up into a mountain, and sat down there. 30And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus’ feet; and he healed them: 31Insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel. • THINK ABOUT THIS: It is NO EASY thing to move some one who is chronically or or terminally ill.

8. They can be worse than dead weight! • Their limp, incapacitated bodies almost seem to work against you. • These people had no doubt journeyed many miles carrying their sick loved ones…. Experienced tremendous fatigue. • But they were moved by HOPE in Jesus! • Spiritually – Carrying our spiritually sick friends / loved ones to the Lord …. Can be Fatiguing… fighting against you….. HOPE IN THE LORD! • Like this week’s Bible Bus… 4 friends carried their crippled friend to Jesus! He saw THEIR faith!

9. AMAZING: The language used by Matthew literally reads – They are being thrown down • And as fast as they are thrown at his feet they are being healed…. immediately. • One right after the other. • Some of these folks came with one leg and left with two. • Imagine with one shoe and one bare foot going home. • To grasp how REMARKABLE these things were Matthew says ‘they glorified the God of Israel,’

10. THIS was Gentile territory…. • THESE were the words of non-Jews! • KEY OBSERVATION:It’s more than just cripples being healed. In Mark 7 we find the account of particular individual that is so wonderful to consider. • (Mark 7:32 NKJV) Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him. • NOTE: You have to understand that the guy didn’t know what was going on. • He’s deaf! Nobody could explain to him.

11. They must be dragging this guy to the presence of Jesus. • NOTE:He’s incapable of speaking - • Now we’re not sure if he’s incapable of speaking • because of some anatomical malformation • or because he’s deaf and has never heard a human voice before. • So we’re not sure. • Few do know that this guy is deaf and dumb.

12. KEY POINT:But the bottom line is that a miracle is required for this man’s life to change. • And amazingly the people already have a preconceived idea as to How Jesus has to do it! • and they begged Him to put His hand on him. • They’re telling Jesus how to do it. • They had already formed a denomination. • It’s the put –your-hands-on-and-heal denomination. • Mark 7:33-34And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue. 34Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him,

13. “Ephphatha ,” that is, “Be opened.” • KEY OBSERVATION #1 - He did not deal with the guy in the way the people insisted he deal with him – • Jesus dealt with Him as HE saw BEST! - as HE desired to. • CRUCIAL INSIGHT: He ALWAYS works that way! • He does WHAT He does • and WHEN He does it • and HOW He does it • based upon His perfect wisdom, love and power.

14. KEY APPLICATION: • May we always remember that we HIS WAYS are not HIS WAYS! • May we always remember that we are the apple of His eye – and thus • WHAT he does is the PERFECT thing, • WHEN He does it is the PERFECT TIME, • And HOW HE does it is the PERFECT WAY. • KEY OBSERVATION #2 – HE gets this man away from the crowd…. Alone with Jesus!

15. When Jesus wants to OPEN our EARS and ENABLE us to SPEAK of him He still takes us aside – gets us alone – isolates us • None of us like the feeling of being isolated /alone. • KEY QUESTION: Why does God isolate us? • 1.) Anyone here ever felt isolated and all alone. • And then brothers or sisters in Christ come and say things to you - right on things. • But it doesn’t really seem to matter to you what they are saying. • It can be your best friend in the world.

16. EXAMPLE: Malcolm Wild – “Richard, I know that you already know the things that I could say to you. But this is going to be a time between just you and Jesus, and when it’s all over you are going to know Jesus in a way that you’ve never known Him before.” • 2.) He does that because that’s the place where you can’t fool anyone. • We can get our act together in a crowd. • Whatever group of people we hang with we do what we need to do to get their approval. • Christians are great at this! We never admit that.

17. We can be so INSINCERE - so PHONY! THAT is why Paul prayed for the Philippians • (Phil 1:10 NKJV) that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, • But when we are alone in our hearts – alone with Jesus – • How gently Jesus will touch our ears – not physically – but that place in our heart where we hear His voice. • He does it in such a unique and personal way.

18. It is THEN – when we HEAR Him - that • We finally have something genuine to say. • We are freed in our hearts to speak TO Him • We are freed in our hearts to speakOF Him • We are freed in our hearts to speakFOR Him. • 32Now Jesus called His disciples to Himself and said, “I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.”

19. REMEMBER - He’s the same yesterday, today and forever. • He won’t send anyone away hungry today either. • If you’re here this morning and you don’t know Christ personally He will not send you away hungry. • That decision is yours. • Somewhere throughout this morning the offer will be made to your heart. • It won’t be in human language. • It will be God speaking to you… It will be God touching your heart

20. 33Then His disciples said to Him, “Where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude?” • This might seem a bit odd to us…. Didn’t we just see this scene? • It is easy for us to wonder – “Is this a miss print…. Did something get copy and pasted twice by accident?” • NOTE IT WELL: Jesus ALWAYS acted with great PURPOSE… EVERYTHING in His 3+ years of public ministry was DIVINELY DELIBERATE. • Yes He has compassion for the multitude…. but there’s also something very important going on as He’s instructing these guys.

21. They might be a bit slow on the uptake… but I’m certain that they kind have a feeling of what’s going on. • And certainly Jesus knows how many loaves there are. • BUT – Jesus makes them count them so that they remember and learn the lesson better and more fully   • Because they will be sent out as the representatives of the Kingdom to the entire world. • Their mission will be to proclaim to a lost world that • we worship a God who never sends us away fainting….. we worship a God Who will not turn away those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.

22. They will be sent out to a lost world to say that God will supply in a miraculous way. • 34Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?”And they said, “Seven, and a few little fish.”35So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. • There are 4000 men (+ women and children 8-9K) • Jesus is up on this hill and so He must raise His voice to get everyone’s attention. • Jesus personally starts signaling and getting them to all sit down. • I would have loved to have been there and watched.

23. 36And He took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitude. 37So they all ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets full of the fragments that were left. 38Now those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. 39And He sent away the multitude, got into the boat, and came to the region of Magdala. KEY INSIGHT: The tense is continually gave them.

24. He continually gave to His disciples and they continually gave to the multitude. • They were filled, ‘glutted,’ stuffed. • CRUCIAL INSIGHT: THAT is the ESSENCE of genuine ministry. • RECEIVING from Jesus and then GIVING it away. • CRUCIAL LESSON for them and us to grasp! • THE INTERESTING THING about this second feeding is that there are seven loaves and afterwards there are seven baskets full. • REMEMBER - At the end of the first feeding it says they took up twelve baskets.

25. The word for basket there (Ch. 14) is the word for a little hand held basket. • The FIRST impression made on the hearts of the disciples at the end of THAT day back in Matt. 14 was that as they gathered up all of these fragments there were 12 baskets… a basket for each of them. • KEY INSIGHT: NowMatthewuses a different word for basket. • It is the large reed basket usually with two handles. • It’s the same kind of basket that we find used in Acts 9:25 Then the disciples took him by night and let him down through the wall in a large basket. 

26. It was a large basket and a Gentile basket. • NOTE: Now there are seven huge Gentile baskets filled with leftovers. • In the Scriptures the number seven is the number of completeness. • It’s very interesting to look at the New Testament and see that • In the book of Revelation we have letters to seven Gentile churches. • Paul writes to seven churches.

27. This SECOND FEEDING is a picture of the the GRACE of Jesus being extended to the Gentile world. • Isaiah 52:15 So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider. • Acts 10:44-45 While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. 45And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. • Acts 11:18 When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.”

28. 39And He sent away the multitude, got into the boat, and came to the region of Magdala • As we go into the next scene the disciples are going to misunderstand Jesus! • Jesus is going to say,“Don’t you remember the five loaves and the five thousand people that were fed and what was left over? Don’t you remember the four thousand men and how many baskets were left over?” • And He is going to kind have reprove them. • You would think that these were the kind of lessons that would take an impression upon their minds.

29. LISTEN – These guys are NO different from us! • God does some incredible… even miraculous things in our lives…and afterward we find that we hadn’t really been changed the way we thought we were. • Or maybe we had not taken hold of it the way we should have. • WHEN that happens (not if) we often think that the opportunity is forever lost. • After all, God was gracious to let us be a part of this incredible thing and we failed to learn the lesson, and now it’s over.

30. Yet this is NOT what we find at all in the Scripture. • I find they got two lessons on the stormy sea. • I find that He took them back on this scene again. • TWICE instructed on the essence of ministry… • Jesus GIVES to us… we GIVE it away. • PAUL: That which I received from the Lord… that I gave to you! • The idea is that the Lord is never done with us.

31. He is never withholding from us. • He never denies the humble hungry believer. • He’s so gracious to repeat His lessons in all of our lives. • Aren’t you glad? • No doubt there are some lessons you want to try to get the first time around. Some of the lessons we don’t want to go back and learn. • But here we see Jesus being so gracious to take them back to this scene. • “Gracious Second Lessons!”