Mt. 9:32: "32 As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil."
God's Word contains statements from the perspective of God. The Bible is not the private view of a person who has special ideas. Therefore, it is necessary to study God's word in all submissiveness and humility. The reader needs a lot of grace from God to know the things that describe God's word. "But when they went out." The Lord Jesus was incessantly in action. They were going away when the following happened: "they brought to him a dumb man who was possessed." There were very many possessed people in the time of Jesus. The proof is right here in the Gospel. We have a similar message in Matt. 12:22 Then he said, "He was filled with a devil, blind, and dumb. Here we find a man who was dumb and, moreover, blind. That must be a terrible thing. When we reflect on its situation, we notice that. And for believers who are not satisfied, one should recommend reading such New Testament stories intensely, so that they become grateful and content. Imagine we are blind and dumb and moreover obsessed. So that's the last thing that can happen to a person. It is not only because of the problems in daily life, but such people are more or less dependent on the mercy of other people. And that's a cruel thing. These people were brought to the Lord Jesus. Nothing has changed since then, not even when clever ignorant people know the truth better than God. Even today, these people have to be brought to Christ. It's interesting how the Lord takes care of these things. Today there is much discussion in the church of Jesus. But measured by truth and authority, that's just hot air. So the Lord Jesus did not talk around, but He let the mute speak! At that time, these people were dumb, physically. That was in the time of the gospel of the kingdom. There are still dumb people today. But our emphasis today, in the time of grace (in the time of the church) is in the spiritual field. That is, such people who are dumb, these are the Christians who can not testify to Christ. It does not matter if they have or do not have Jesus, they should be brought to Christ. That's what the word teaches here. Everything else is shifts of the truth. Shifts in Scripture are always at the expense of truth. We do not know anything about this man of whom we are talking. All we know is that he was poor, because of the things that plagued him daily. The Bible communicates that in just one sentence. But what kind of need is behind it. And as soon as the Lord Jesus has changed a child of God so much that he has become like him, then those believers have a need in their hearts for such people. Here we find V.35 mentioning the gospel of the kingdom. "And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and disease."Primary at that time was liberation from the body of the flesh. Now we could say: that is no longer necessary today. But! That's exactly what is needed. Even if we serve God in spirit, there are still diseases today.
They brought a dumb man to Christ. Today we have no orders to fight all diseases. We do not have this order. And we also have to distance ourselves from the idea that every illness is devilish. It's not like this. The Bible speaks differently. And only those who do not know the Scriptures sufficiently come to such conclusions. But we do not have to orient ourselves on people who have a different view. The Bible says nothing here, but it says one thing: Mt 9:33"And when the demon was driven out, the dumb man spoke. And the multitudes were astonished, saying, Never was it seen in Israel. ""And when the demon was expelled, the dumb man spoke." The cause of his dumbness here was a spirit of darkness. Jesus threw out this spirit. We are much too weak, and too little, to penetrate the spiritual causes. We do not realize how God recognizes. We are unable to assess whether a medical condition exists or whether there is a different background. For even such things as a hidden mind becomes so disease-like in the persistent permanent state that even the Bible speaks of illness in such cases, because things can no longer be separated. They become chronic. But it is wonderful that the Lord Jesus is accepting this dumb and possessed man. The normal human would have said to the possessed person: "You just have to tear yourself together; you just have to want it; you just have to believe! "But that does not work anymore. The burdened person can not. A possessed man is so controlled that he can not obey. If a house burns, that would be the foolhardiest thing to say to the people who are in it, "But you must be careful not to burn yourself. And then I have something else to say to you: The senior physician in the city hospital has a very excellent burn ointment! "This does not help people when it burns. No, you have to help. Of course, not all children of God understand that because they are too involved in the things of darkness. They do not want that, they do not know. But it is so. For that too, one needs God's light and grace to know these things. Realize how God sees you. Do as the Lord does, not like humans do that. After Jesus intervened, the dumb man spoke. The evil had been eliminated, "and the crowds were astonished and they began to speak." Now the crowds are talking, too, before they were calm, and when these people were brought to the Lord Jesus, we read nothing of the opinion of the crowds.They were silent. But now, after this had happened? I can imagine what these people thought: "Now let's see what happens there. We know him, the guy there: This is a hopeless case. "We want to learn from this that there is no hopeless case with the Lord at all. Or we think so, and know it better than God. Through this story, we know that the Bible gives such hope. And yet there are hopeless cases. Then we know one who once said, "I will rise and rise above the throne of God." Had he been humble, that would have been 100,000 times better. So the Lord wants us to be quiet so that we do not talk when we think we know something. The Old Testament says that such speakers are fools. "The crowds were astonished and said: Never was it seen in Israel." Right. There has never been such a thing in Israel. Actually, people should have asked. They should have asked the Lord Jesus in conversation the necessary questions. Whoever did not know who this Jesus of Nazareth was would have had to follow him from now until the question had been clarified for him. We see from the whole situation: Israel was then in a spiritual depression. A spiritual low also brings God's mercy. And in every epoch, when the lowest level is reached, God gives help again. When Israel was at its deepest, we read, "When the time was filled, God sent his Son." There was the low point at zero, and there was that time of help. The church is in the process of reaching its lowest point today! In many places the freezing point has already been reached. Where it has not been reached, it will happen in the next few months and maybe in a few years. And it is in this time that God will again give help, and help for those who need help Mt. 9:34, "The Pharisees said, He drives the demons out by the chief of the demons."Yes, then of course comes the enemy. The enemy is revealed through the scribes, through Pharisees, through Pharisaism. They face Him because they do not want Him to bring this help. One might have accepted the help if it had been the High Priest. For the high priest came from a recognized house; he had a tradition. This disease is also present in the church of Jesus - for nearly 2,000 years and until today. It is the traditional disease. And there God gives help again. Whenever those low points are, God sends help. And whenever God's help comes, there are some who are sent by Satan who have the job of working against it. And that is a dangerous thing. When depression is, God gives new power from above. It's a force that can handle things, not another. And as it looks today in the church of Jesus worldwide, we know. The crowds say, "Never was it seen in Israel," and the Pharisees work against it. At that time there was no New Testament; that time belonged to the Old Testament. It was still the time of the law. And consequently, it is said about the Lord Jesus that He is born under law. He was under law. And he himself has subordinated to the law. The Lord Jesus also needed to submit to this. Otherwise He could not have been the model for us. He submitted to the law. From the Word of God, therefore, those Pharisees were not in the truth. They say, "He drives the demons out by the chief of the demons." We have a similar word in Matthew 12:22. We see that their speech is already spirit, a spirit state. They say, "This does not drive the demons differently than by the Beelzebub, the supreme of the demons." This is the problem that in things, because you can not classify them, you are not in humility, but in a verdict ( against God). With the judgment in misjudgment of the situation, the Pahrisäer are 100% wrong. They are wrong; and they ultimately fight against God. They oppose the Christ and thereby bring judgment upon themselves. And the Lord Jesus also explains in the next V.25 that this is not possible, because such a kingdom would then be divided against itself and could not exist. But that does not interest the Pharisees. That is also the sign of such a Pharisee mentioned here: He has his own ideas. And there is not the value placed on the truth, but on the tradition. Also tradition of the word can be wrong. For they took up the written Word of God's Old Testament and were one hundred percent wrong in it. Mt 9:35, "And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and disease."
"... healed every illness and every affliction." We do not have this mission today. But we have to be careful that we do not fall into another extreme, that we say we do not care about the physical well-being. That's not true, although we do not live in the time of the Gospel of the kingdom.
- Here we see first of all the physical illness
- Today we first see the spiritual diseases in the church of Jesus
In the Old Testament, in the time of the law, one had justification in the work. This is taught in many places by the Holy Scriptures. He who does the law will live by the law. So it was not a time when jurisdiction was in the faith. But we would not have had any heroic heroes listed in Heb. 11 if these people had said, "Today we have justification from work, that's none of our business!" One has to keep that very strictly apart. That's not how it works; that's not what the Bible does. The Bible also leaves things of the Old Testament era in the age of the church. Today we recognize: is the time of Jesus is the time of the gospel of the kingdom. This gospel is related to Israel. Not with us. But the effects affect us as well. No one should say that would not affect us. That would be bottomless ignorance of the word. So, too, does the Lord of us want us, guided by his Holy Spirit, to enter into dependence. In His Humility and Beings, we understand things. Today we live in the time of the gospel of grace (Acts 20:24). We can not simply say that the body is nothing; we do not need to worry about that at all. No, no, that's not the teaching of the New Testament, let alone Paul's. But God will hold us accountable for what we have done in the body. So the body is part of it too. Interesting: Not in other things, but in the body. God does not care what state we are in over our body. We should not do one thing only: we should not set the importance of the body today over the importance of the recovery of the soul. These are the orders that we deal with. The Lord wants to give grace that we recognize that. A wonderful word, which we have in Acts 10:38, where the Lord is spoken: "Jesus, that of Nazareth, as God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power that went about, beneficent and healing to all those of the devil were overwhelmed. Because God was with him. "
And the question of these things is to be seen in the power of the Holy Ghost, as it is written here, not otherwise. And so is this mission to face things in sobriety. Not in mysticism. But in the power of the Holy Spirit through faith. And the Lord by no means gave birth to us, but put us there. And today we are more than 130 years ago, even more than 80 years ago. The Lord does not want us to withdraw from the truth through stoic behavior, like those Pharisees. Of the Pharisees, not many who came to Christ were because of their immobility. Not everyone had the grace of Paul, who as a Pharisee moved to Damascus in his resistance. We see what makes resistance: not only do you stand against believers, but the Lord says, "What are you persecuting me?" Well, meeting Christ in this Damascus hour was truly given to Paul. And today we can not expect that we would get into such a Damascus lesson. She was given to Paul and not to others. But the Lord wants to give us a lot of mercy, that we do not ignore it, but that we record and examine the things we are told here. Let us guide us from the Lord and understand the things that are described to us. They are written for exhortation. Mt.9,36: But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. These few statements contain tremendous messages. They are landmarks, also for our personal life in the faith. They take us to the heart of the gospel and the nature of our Lord. Here it says: "And when he saw the crowd ...". That was the crowd that we have already heard about in this chapter. They came with all kinds of needs, illnesses and problems. We could actually say that Israel is here like the state of today's church. There is only one difference that people are born again in the church of Jesus. At that time there was no rebirth. Israel, however, was already the people of God. The Lord Jesus saw the crowd. And as He saw them, He was, as it is written, "moved inwardly." This is a misery in the church of Jesus today, that firstly, one does not see the crowd and, second, is not moved inwardly. I want to say, they have stony hearts. The goal of our Lord with each and every one of His disciples is to open their eyes to the crowd, whether it is saved or not. And besides, the Lord wants to give us an inward movement to love these crowds and not to breed them. The Pharisees were responsible for the breeding. We should love the crowd as the Lord did. And there is a huge difference. In this chapter, we have all sorts of these people, such as the blind, the sick, the blood, and so on. In this chapter, too, "all sorts of diseases," whatever it may have been. These people feel exactly when we want to help them. And they feel it, whether we approach them in the spirit of the love of Jesus; they realize that one hundred percent. And we will only be able to help them if we meet them in the love of Jesus, otherwise we will not be able to help them. They do not need nice words, they also need help. These people would not have benefited if they had been told nice words. But they needed help, then and now. In order to be help to others it does not need a huge head knowledge but a heart full of love for one's neighbor. This is the mercy indicated by our Lord. He does not want sacrifices, but mercy. That is addressed here. And then we would have to ask: where in the church of Jesus are those whom the Lord Jesus sees with the inner compassion. What does that mean to be moved inside? Moving means not to be stubborn anymore. Wherever the inner movement is lacking, stubbornness, stagnation, tediousness, poured into concrete through tradition and self-will in idolatry rule against God. We see here the image of Jesus. He is said to have "seen the crowd". To see the crowd in their state, open eyes are needed to see the distress. And you need hearts that can be moved. The Lord Jesus wants to give both. The condition for this is that we let our hearts be fulfilled through Christ beforehand, that we may lighten our eyes by His word, that we may ask of that eye-salve that is able to take away the blindness of the believers. We read this in the letter to the church in Laodicea. There is talk of eye ointment that we need. It is interesting that this does not mean: "But when He saw the crowd, he was moved over them." Here is spoken of the inner movement. For those people who are crowd here needed an inner movement; this inner movement is that of mercy and compassion. He was moved internally. And the cause was: this crowd was exhausted and sickened. This is the state of the church of Jesus today. And we know that it is these very people who have a responsibility for the Lord who has equipment but does not use it. God does not want perfectionism. God wants us to help others as we are able to do with what we have. God does not ask anyone for something he can not. God does not do that. But God is expecting what we can do. And if we bring that up, many of the crowd are helped. Exhausted, dimmed. What does that mean, we understand a bit. Here it says: "... exhausted and sickened like sheep that have no shepherd." Well, that would not be so bad if those images we are dealing with were taken from the landscape of England. I was in England for a few years and know each other there. There is a lot of green pasture, lots of streams and rivers. These things are quite enough to keep the sheep in good pasture. Here it is said that these sheep were exhausted and sickened. The sheep do not have the pasture in the Orient like here with us. The curse that Israel brought upon itself brought them land that flowed of milk and honey as they moved in, wastelands, deserts, and fruitlessness. This is exactly where we recognize what curse is among other things. In the Orient, there are situations when you push the sheep out and there is no shepherd, that they sink, that they are exhausted on the ground - they break. We use the word in children when they break a toy: It's "broken." Something's broken there. It is said that these sheep, which are spoken here, have broken down. But these are only sheep that have no shepherd. And as such, the Lord finds them there. These sheep are a picture of the people. The Lord Jesus says more than clearly in various places, among others in John 10, of His sheep, who know the voice of the Good Shepherd. These sheep need a shepherd. And that is a responsible matter in every local community. Where there is no pastoral service, the sheep diseases multiply. This is nothing new. Moses knew that very well. He was instructed by his father-in-law Jethro, how to run sheep, how to bring sheep to good pastures. And when Moses realized that even the Israelites were such sheep after all, he was moved inside. We read about it. There he was so moved that he called to God. Moses was already old. For this we propose a word from Numbers 27:16: Let the LORD, the God of spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation. And now comes a peculiar expression, "... the spirits of all flesh make a man over the church, who go out before them, and lead them; so that the church of Jehovah is not like sheep that have no shepherd. "That's it. Did we get along well? A church that does not have a shepherd breaks down. The spiritual hunger is far greater and more dangerous than the bodily, bitter as it is. As we read the story in Numbers 27, we find that God names the shepherd, Joshua. This word Joshua has the connection with Jesus. God shows him Joshua and with Joshua he also shows him Jesus. Moses did not understand that at the time. God did not ask for it. But we can see it today and realize how necessary a shepherd is, so that the sheep do not exhaust and languish.