God's blessings are great! But are they enough?
Text: Matthew 8:1-22
Hosts:
J. Kent Edwards
Vicki Hitzges
Nathan Norman
Narrator: Brian French
The CrossTalk Podcast is a production of CrossTalk Global, equipping biblical communicators, so every culture hears God’s voice. To find out more, or to support the work of this ministry please visit www.crosstalkglobal.org
Produced by Nathan James Norman/Untold Podcast Production
© 2024 CrossTalk Global
Brian: Botanists tell us that an east african herb known as the sweet prayer can grow to over 13ft tall and its four to eight inch leaves seem to pray every evening. When the sun disappears, the leaves rise and fold together, resembling hands folded in prayer. When the sun rises, the leaves lower and open to capture sunlight. As if that were not enough, these sweet prayer plant leaves are a natural low calorie sweetener that can make bitter food sweet. This plant not only prays every evening, but makes bad food tastes good. Reading about this plant reminded me of some christians ive known. They pray regularly, perhaps every evening, but the content of their prayers is sugary. They come into gods presence with a shopping list asking him to remove the bitter experiences of life. What they really want is the sweet life God can give them, so their conversations focus on what he can give them, not what they can give him. Of course, wanting God's blessings is not wrong. But is it right? Is it enough? Join Nathan Norman, Vicki Hitzkis, and Kent Edwards as they discover Jesus answer to this question in Matthew, chapter eight, verses one to 22. Welcome to Crosstalk, a christian podcast whose goal is for us to encourage each other to not only increase our knowledge of the Bible, but to take the next step beyond information into transformation. Our goal is to bring the Bible to life, into all our lives. I'm Brian French. Today, doctor Kent Edwards, Vicki Hitzkis, and Nathan Norman continue their discussion through the gospel of Matthew. If you have a Bible handy, turn to Matthew, chapter eight, verses one to 22 as we join their discussion.
Kent: Boy, that sweet prayer plant certainly sounds good, doesn't it?
Vicki: It does, and it was a good analogy. It sounds typical. I can identify with that sweet prayer plan.
Kent: Pray every day, fold up your hands in prayer and when you bring them down, everything's sweet. That sounds amazing.
Vicki: Or at least it's what you want.
Kent: Yeah, it's what we want. Anyway. Is it wrong to ask Jesus for help with a sour situation in life?
Vicki: No, I don't think that's wrong. It was where that went. Is that all that we should be praying for?
Nathan: Yeah, all throughout the psalms there are prayers complaining to God about the difficulties of life.
Kent: We also see this in Matthew, chapter eight. God seems to be a giving God in this passage, doesn't he?
Vicki: Well, in Matthew eight it says, when Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, lord, if you're willing, you can make me clean. Jesus reached out his hand and he touched the man. I am willing. He said, be clean. And immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy.
Kent: So when this man comes to Jesus, his sole communication is, can you help me? I got a problem.
Vicki: You know, even more significantly, it wasn't can. He said, you can. He believed that he could, right.
Kent: And Jesus did it. Right. Right then, right then, right now. What kind of difference would Jesus actions here have made in this man's life?
Vicki: Well, I don't mean to cheapen this story, but I was a teenager and my face would break out and I hated, I just hated to go to school if I just even had a pimple. I can't imagine having something where you would look horrible because you had leprosy and you would be contagious. And I don't know that much about leprosy, but I think your skin falls off. So it's a horrible disease. And it's itchy, I think, too, isn't it?
Kent: Well, yeah, it attacks the joints so limbs can start coming up.
Vicki: Everybody else is afraid of you.
Kent: Cartilage is affected, so, you know, you lose your nose and your ears and. Oh, and there was no treatment that day, right? I mean, there just wasn't. So all they could do was isolate these people.
Vicki: Well, so then I noticed this. God didn't just say be healed. He touched him and said, be clean.
Brian: Right.
Nathan: They were required by law. If anyone approached them outside of the leper colony, you were supposed to yell unclean, unclean, so that people knew not to touch you and get infected.
Kent: In fact, if anybody serves me correctly, you had to be 100ft away from any clean person, 150ft if there was wind blowing. And all the time if you saw someone, you had to keep yelling unclean, unclean, unclean.
Vicki: Oh, think what that would do to your self esteem. And also, you know how you feel when you're lonely. Imagine if you were hideous looking, you hurt, you were contagious. Oh, I just can't imagine a life like that.
Kent: And obviously they're not living with their families, right?
Vicki: You know, they're in a colony of other awful looking, grody, sick people with no noses and, oh, it'd be terrible.
Kent: I can't imagine the separation, the devastation. This man comes and asks for a lot, doesn't he?
Vicki: He does. And he believes jesus can heal him and jesus does.
Kent: That's not generosity. I don't know what is. And it happens again. Look what happens down in verse five.
Vicki: And following it says, when Jesus had entered capernaum, a centurion came to him asking for help. Lord, he said, my servant lies at home, paralyzed, suffering terribly. And Jesus said to him, shall I come and heal him? And the centurion replied, lord, I did not deserve to have you come under my roof, but just say the word. I love the faith these people have. Just say the word and my servant will be healed. And when Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, truly, I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. And then jesus said to the centurion, go. Let it be done just as you believed it would. And a servant was healed at that moment.
Kent: Wow, that's another good news story, right?
Vicki: Yep.
Kent: What difference did this Jesus act of compassion make in that, in his servant's life?
Vicki: Well, he wasn't just sore. He was paralyzed and he was suffering. And then all of a sudden he was healed. A huge difference.
Nathan: All right, so paralysis was a death sentence. It would have been a matter of time until he was infected and succumbed to those infections. And he was on his deathbed. Now he's alive and he gets to live.
Kent: Yeah. Otherwise his family would not have the economic support that they needed, that he would normally have provided. They would not have had the companionship that they wanted, the guidance they wanted. And I can't imagine, although I'm sure some of our listeners have or are experiencing this, I can't imagine the suffering of having chronic pain day after day, month after month. So what was in it for Jesus? I mean, why do it? That was a nice thing, but why did he do that? Again, he was someone coming, say, this is what I want. The leaves of their hands are lowered down like that plant, and they're asking for sugar. Why did Jesus respond?
Nathan: Well, according to the text, it was just because he was asked to do it.
Vicki: Yeah, well, and God. Jesus always seems to respond to faith. That's what he wants from us. He wants us to believe. And these men did.
Kent: They wouldn't have come if they didn't have a measure of faith. But there was nothing in it for Jesus. He just wanted to help. Right?
Vicki: Yes.
Kent: I think we see his character, a character of generosity here. And to keep the theme going, look what happened in verse 14 said when.
Nathan: Jesus came into Peter's house, he saw Peter's mother in law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him.
Kent: So here, she didn't even ask. It doesn't tell us she even asked. In faith, God saw her. Jesus saw what was going on and just reached out naturally because of his character to help. That's the kind of God we serve. And when the world sees the good gifts our heavenly Father gives us, often they want to get in on a good thing, right? But look what happens when Jesus gift giving gets known. In verse 16 and 17, it says.
Vicki: When evening came, many who were demon possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word, and he healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah. He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.
Kent: So when we see God coming to the rescue, bringing sweetness to a bitter experience in life, it has a kind of snowball effect, doesn't it? Other people see that. Other people want that. And there's nothing wrong with that. God loves to pour out his blessings on everyone. We saw that in the sermon on the mount, didn't we?
Nathan: Sure. In Matthew 545, it says, your father in heaven causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous, which is interesting because that's supposed to be a positive, right? The sun goes. The positive sun goes to evil and good and the positive rain, which causes grass to grow and crops to grow, to the righteous and unrighteous. But when I lived in southern California, a place that only gets rain like three or four times a year, everyone interpreted that text negatively. Like, man, God makes life hard for the righteous and the unrighteous.
Kent: Seriously?
Nathan: Oh, yeah. Oh, for crying out loud. When it would rain, people would complain. And I'm like, we need this. We need this.
Vicki: Why would they complain?
Nathan: I didn't move to Southern California for this.
Vicki: Oh, oh. Oh.
Nathan: For the rain. Not everyone, obviously, but I heard sermons from people talking about the, you know. Oh, you know, God gives difficulty to the righteous, unrighteous. No, no, this is a positive image. It's a positive metaphor. We need the rain to live.
Kent: Well. As a resident of California, let me apologize for the entire state for having such a wrong understanding of that word. Because the whole point, as you've just said, is that God loves to pour out his blessings on those who deserve it and those who do not. We say that children are a blessing from God and they are. Bad people have children as well as good people. He doesn't take that away. Murderers can become successful business people. Swindlers can have bountiful harvests. The fact is, God loves sinners as well as saints, right?
Nathan: Yes, he does.
Kent: And people can come and ask, and God and his goodness will often give what people don't deserve. But what a theologian discovered in this passage in Matthew is that you cannot enjoy a relationship with God without totally surrendering your life to him. I mean, look in verse 19, look what happens.
Vicki: It says, a teacher of the law came to Jesus and said, teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.
Kent: Whew. That's a big commitment.
Nathan: And then Jesus replied, foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. Another disciple said to him, lord, first let me go and bury my father. But Jesus told him, follow me and let the dead bury their own dead.
Kent: So if you want to be a disciple of Jesus, he's saying that you may have to give up a home that you would prefer. You may have to give up relationships that you prefer, even with your own family. Right.
Vicki: That seems kind of severe, doesn't it?
Kent: Yeah, I think it's totally severe. And why would anyone do that? Why would anyone want to give up all their goals and all their ambitions just to follow Christ?
Vicki: Well, because of the value of the relationship. I'm just surprised to hear Christ say that, given that he cried because Lazarus was dead, knowing he was going to raise him in a minute, knowing how heartbreaking that is. But he says it's a valuable relationship.
Kent: Yeah. So Jesus is not saying it's easy. It's saying it is necessary if you want a relationship with him, if you're going to follow me, if you're going to be my disciple, then that requirement is overwhelming. It requires a total dedication to him. I mean, we're going to see this emphasized a little bit later in Matthew. In Matthew 1344, Jesus says, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. And when a man found it, he hid it again. And then in his joy, went out and sold all he had and bought the field. What does it mean to be part of the kingdom of heaven? Sell everything and follow him. That doesn't mean you can't have some money in the bank or in your wallet. But it is saying it is a complete reorientation of our life that if you're going to be a disciple, yes, God gives blessings to all people, but for to follow him requires a complete commitment of life. Again, in Matthew 13, it said, the kingdom of heaven is like what?
Vicki: Oh, that's the pearl one. The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. And when he found one of great value, he went away and he sold everything he had and he bought it.
Kent: Yeah. So the pearl was so valuable that he spent everything he had. He was not diversifying his portfolio. He was not hedging his bets. He was all in on that pearl because it was worth it. That's what he says to us in life. If we're going to be a disciple following him, it's not just getting good things that God loves to give us and to others. But if we really want to be in relationship with him, then it's his life, not ours. We surrender to him. That's kind of rare today, isn't it? I mean, we don't hear this very often in church, do we?
Vicki: No, we don't.
Nathan: Pastor Bruce Baker, who I grew up under for a few years at the church that my family attended, I remember he talked about this issue. This is going back, man, over 30 years. And he said that I don't have any problem with the word committed Christian or with the term committed Christian. The problem is it's taken place of the word surrendered. When you commit to someone, you are in control. When you surrender to someone, they are in control.
Kent: Wise man. Good observation.
Nathan: Yeah. Just celebrated his 70th wedding anniversary.
Kent: 70Th. 70th.
Vicki: How old is he?
Nathan: 90 something or other. Obviously. Unreal.
Kent: Well, thank you, Nathan, for making me feel young, I think, though. But I think that's one of the reasons so often in churches even we have a lot of topical sermons. Right. What is a topic that people would like to hear? What is something that.
Vicki: This wouldn't make the cut.
Kent: Disturb the complacent. No, this wouldn't make the cut. And loads of people have never heard it. And that's the tragedy, because Jesus says, the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. And unless you are willing to make that commitment, you cannot be my disciple. I find it interesting, some of the metaphors that are used in the Bible to talk about this kind of surrender. In ephesians five, what does he call the church? What does he call christians?
Vicki: The bride of Christ.
Kent: Huh? They're not the friend of Jesus, just. They're not a neighbor of Jesus. They are a bride of Christ. Well, that's a whole nother level of commitment, isn't it?
Nathan: Oh, it sure is. Because if you get married and you spend all of your time with your friends, you've got a problem, right? You have a relationship with your spouse greater in depth than anyone else. Or at least that's the way it should be, right?
Kent: Because we're in love with them. We've said that's going to be this person will be my primary relationship in life. And of course, the greek word that's always used to describe the love between a husband and wife is what?
Nathan: Yeah, agape. The unconditional love. Love that puts aside its own wants, needs and desires for the greater good of the other individual.
Kent: And it results in a total life change. I mean, one of the ways that we see that just in our culture, is that a woman gives up her maiden name.
Vicki: That's a big deal.
Kent: That's a big deal. So I am now part. I am committing myself to this other individual. The alternative is just a transactional relationship where you give only a part of yourself to your partner and see what you can get for them. That's not agape, that's just marketplace trading. So we're to be the bride of Christ, who gives up everything in order to have a deep relationship. I think of Galatians when the apostle Paul said in chapter two, verse 20, I have been. Do you remember that verse?
Vicki: Crucified with Christ? And so I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, the life I now live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
Kent: Wow. I have been crucified. I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. Aw. Tozer, that great preacher of days gone by, told a story that I found interesting. He said in his book, total commitment to Christ. One time, a young man approached an old saint and asked him, what does it mean to be crucified in Christ? The old man thought and answered, well, to be crucified means three things. First, the crucified man is facing only one direction. If he hears anything behind him, he can't turn around and see what's going on. He has stopped looking back. The old man then scratched his scraggly gray hair and said, another thing, son, about someone on a cross, he's not going back. The person going out to die on the cross doesn't say to his wife, goodbye, honey. I'll be back shortly after five. No, when you go out to die on a cross, you say goodbye. You're not coming back. It's a permanent reorientation of life. And then Tozer said, the old man continued, another thing about the man on the cross is that he has no further plans of his own. Somebody else made his plans for him. And when they nailed him up there, all his plans disappeared. I heard a metaphor recently that brought this home to me. They said, people think that when they accept Christ, it's like they see a hitchhiker in the side of the road. They pull over and open the passenger door to allow that person in. But in this case, Jesus says, nah, you scoot over. I'm sitting on the other side of I'm behind the wheel now. That's what it means to be a disciple of Christ. God is a generous God, but none of us will ever enjoy a flourishing relationship with him by just going after his gifts. Go after him when we want him more than his stuff. When we listen to his voice in the morning, instead of looking for his trinkets, we will enjoy an abundant life and a loving relationship that will last for eternity. And this includes every good and perfect gift that God can give us. The ultimate gift God can give us is himself, but we can only enjoy it by giving ourselves to him.
Brian: Physical healing and personal comfort are great, but enjoying a personal relationship with Jesus is even greater. I trust that today's discussion of God's word has been helpful and served as an encouragement to not just be hearers of the word, but doers together. Let's bring God's word to life, to our lives this week. The Crosstalk podcast is a production of crosstalk global, equipping biblical communicators so every culture hears God's voice. To find out more or to support the work of this ministry, please visit www.crosstalkglobal.org. you can also support this show by sharing it on social media and telling your friends, tune in next Friday as we continue our discussion through the gospel of Matthew. Be sure to join us.
Kent: And of course, the greek word that's always used to describe the love between husband and wife is what?
Nathan: I'm assuming you're going with agape. I'm going with agape, not arrows. We're going to talk about that. I'm sorry. Okay.