Sermon Tone Analysis

Feed Your Faith on the Miracles of Jesus Christ!

The Gospel of Matthew

Matthew 15:29-39

Sermon by Rick Crandall

(Prepared August 17, 2022)

BACKGROUND:

*Please open your Bibles to Matthew 15.

Last time in vs. 21-28, God's Word reported the story of a desperate mother who had unshakable faith in our Savior Jesus Christ.

This Canaanite mother was desperate because her daughter had been possessed by a demon.

And as a parent, I can't imagine how horrible that would be.

But she never gave up on Jesus, and listen to what happened in vs. 25-28:

25.

Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, help me!''

26.

But He answered and said, "It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs.''

27.

And she said, "True, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.''

28.

Then Jesus answered and said to her, "O woman, great is your faith!

Let it be to you as you desire.''

And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

*"Great is your faith!" Christians: Wouldn't you like to hear the Lord say that to you?

Then keep feeding your faith on the sure truth of God's Word.

Remember that in Matthew 4:4 Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.''

And today we can feed our faith on more of the Lord's miracles.

Let's get started by reading Matthew 15:29-39.

MESSAGE:

*How much faith does God want us to have?

He certainly wants us to have saving faith in Jesus Christ.

But on top of that, God wants us to have more faith.

He even wants us to have great faith, and today's Scripture can help us.

1. THAT'S BECAUSE JESUS' MIRACLES CONFIRM HIS COMPASSION FOR US.

*In vs. 29-30 we see the Lord's compassion in action:

29.

And Jesus departed from there, skirted the Sea of Galilee, and went up on the mountain and sat down there.

30.

Then great multitudes came to Him, having with them those who were lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others; and they laid them down at Jesus' feet, and He healed them.

*"They laid them down at Jesus' feet."

What a great place to be, -- at the feet of Jesus Christ!

This is the best place we can ever be.

And the more we sit at the feet of Jesus, the more we will see His compassionate love.

*Then in vs. 31, "the multitude marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.

And in vs. 32, the Lord spoke of His compassion.

There, "Jesus called His disciples to Him 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.'''

*Why did Jesus want to feed these 4,000 men, plus thousands more women and children?

Simply because He genuinely cared about these people.

He had compassion on them.

*The original word for "compassion" here is found 12 times in the New Testament, and it has the idea of gut-wrenching love and pity for someone.

It's the kind of agonizing heartache that we feel over a sick baby, or spouse, or parent, or anyone else we deeply love.

*It's the same kind of wonderful compassion Jesus had in Luke 7:11-16.

There God's Word says:

11.

Now it happened the day after that He went into a city called Nain; and many of His disciples went with Him, and a large crowd.

12.

And when He came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow.

And a large crowd from the city was with her.

13.

WHEN THE LORD SAW HER, HE HAD COMPASSION ON HER AND SAID TO HER, "DO NOT WEEP.''

14.

Then He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still.

And He said, "Young man, I say to you, arise.''

15.

And he who was dead sat up and began to speak.

And He presented him to his mother.

16.

Then fear came upon all, and they glorified God, saying, "A great prophet has risen up among us''; and, "God has visited His people.''

*Our God is full of compassion for people, and He wants us to know it.

It's the same kind of compassion we also see in the Lord's parable of the Prodigal Son.

In Luke 15:11-24 Jesus said:

11. . .

"A certain man had two sons.

12.

And the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.'

So he divided to them his livelihood.

13.

And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.

14.

But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want.

15.

Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

16.

And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.

17.

But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

18.

I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you,

19. and I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

Make me like one of your hired servants.'''

20.

And he arose and came to his father.

BUT WHEN HE WAS STILL A GREAT WAY OFF, HIS FATHER SAW HIM AND HAD COMPASSION, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.

21.

And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.'

22.

But the father said to his servants, 'Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.

23.

And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry;

24. for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'

And they began to be merry."

*This father must have been looking for his son long before he came walking down the road.

I can see the father working in the morning as he tended his cattle, and he would stop to look down that road.

As he stopped to eat his lunch, he would position himself so that he could look down that road.

And as the day turned into night, as long as he could, he would look down that road.

But why did Jesus tell this parable?

Because our God is a compassionate God!

*I should know, because I was as big of a prodigal son as there ever was.

When I was in college in Georgia 50 years ago, I was just as far away from God as I could possibly be.

I started drinking heavily when I was about 16, started doing a lot of drugs when I was 19, and for about 6 years, I was a firmly committed atheist, a card-carrying member of the ACLU.

*But every time I went home to Macon, when I walked in the door, my dad would say, "The prodigal has returned!"

I didn't have a clue about this wonderful Bible story, and I was as far away from coming home spiritually as I could possibly be.

But every time I went home, my dad would say, "The prodigal has returned!"

*He knew it wasn't true.

But he never lost hope.

And 10 months before my daddy died, I really did come home, because I trusted in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

I have failed the Lord countless times since then, but He has never failed me!

And I found out that our God is a compassionate God.

I hope you do too!

*God is full of compassion for us, and the best place to see this is in our crucified and risen Savior Jesus Christ!

As Paul said in Romans 5:8, "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

*Jesus loves us so much that He died on the cross for all of our sins, and 3 days later, He rose again in everlasting victory over death!

These were His greatest miracles of all: The miracle of all our sin and shame being laid on Jesus, the miracle of His resurrection, the miracle of us receiving a total pardon and everlasting life, when we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, the miracle of His presence in our lives through the Holy Spirit of God, and the miracle of an everlasting home in Heaven.

What a compassionate Savior!

2. THE LORD'S MIRACLES CONFIRM HIS COMPASSION FOR US.