Jesus' Authority Over Death

Heat. Heat. Well, good morning, Cross Church Phoenix. How are you? >> Good, good. I'm Pastor DJ. I'm the pastor here at Cross Church Phoenix and uh I want to first welcome you. If you're new here um and I haven't met with you, come find me afterwards. I'd love to get to know you more and chat about our church, whatever you want. Um make Jesus known. That's what we're all about. Um and at this time, I want to invite you to open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 9. Matthew chapter 9. And if you don't have a Bible, there are Bibles in the seat back in front of you. And that is our gift to you. If you need one, uh you can take that home. You can highlight it, mark it up, do whatever. Um take notes, and then bring it back next week. Uh but that is our gift to you. If you need a Bible, please take it. As you turn over there, I wanted to save this story for uh the pulpit. But um as you know, we at Cross Church are all about making Jesus known. And not just here in Phoenix, but in Surprise, and Elmari and Cornville, around the world, in the Philippines, and Myanmar. And we are launching two new churches. I say launching. One has already launched. And so we got some pictures to share with you, but Elesia de la Cruz uh launched last Sunday uh uh at 5:00 p.m. out of Elmarrage. That's Pastor Jav. And they had 120 people show up for that launch. Isn't that great? That is awesome. If you see right there, Paul, go back to the other slide. They're not in here, but I had to embarrass them last week. But our very own Kevin and Christie are part of this team. And Kevin's right there singing. Yeah. So that's what's up. Uh but so be in prayer for them. I was there. I sat there with my Google Translate right on my lap and listened to Pastor Jav's entire sermon just reading through it. He did a great job. And I learned, you know, like they you recognize the song and then you start singing it in Spanish. You start learning that's all right. That's what's up. So, I learned some Spanish. I read uh the his transcript and it was a a great time. Uh so, be in prayer. And then, uh coming soon is cross church mayor. Uh so, be in prayer for Pastor Lyall um and his wife Heather as they prepare. There's a lot of work going on up there in Mayor to get the building up to uh par and and looking better and uh more presentable and just awesomer, right? I can make up words, right? It's going to be awesomer and then they'll launch here in a couple months. So, um, cross church mayor be in prayer for them. And that's what our collective really is all about, the cross church collective. And if you saw our let's go, uh, sign out there, that is what we are about is making Jesus known. And we do that uh, in planting churches everywhere that God leads us. So, we go to Elesia Dilla Cruz and Mayor and beyond. So, well, we're about halfway through our miracles uh of Jesus series, and I want to recap what we've seen thus far. Jesus has authority. We've seen over nature, uh over demons, over sin, and what we'll see this morning over death itself. We left off at verse 8 last week where Jesus, if you remember, healed and forgave the paralytic. Before he even healed him, he said, "Have courage, son. Your sins are forgiven." The more important, eternally more important miracle. Well, there are some important details that we need to know become before we come to verse 18. We're going to be picking up in verse 18, but I want to give a really brief synopsis. So Jesus after verse after healing and forgiving the paralytic of his sin calls our man Matthew the writer of this gospel he's a tax collector and Jesus says Matthew follow me and Matthew yep >> don't follow you and actually what Matthew does is he throws Jesus a great a grand banquet the other uh gospels tell us he throws a party and he invites his other tax collector uh friends over and sinners like you and I. He invites tax collectors and sinners over for a great banquet and hosts Jesus at his house. And of course the Pharisees as we know um who are um who have a negative view of Christ already. They accuse him and they complain as they are known to do. Whining and complaining Pharisees um and they say this man, this Jesus they complained eats with tax collectors and sinners. And so Jesus response is this. It's not those, his response to the accusation. It's not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick. Friday didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners. So keep that in mind as we go through. By the time you get to verse 14, there's a crowd gathering around Jesus. You know, people have questions. And one of those questions was about fasting. So why they came to Jesus and said why do John's disciples John the Baptist's disciples and the Pharisees fast but Jesus your disciples don't um and Jesus then says uh he asks this question can the wedding guests be sad okay so just remember that can the wedding guests be sad while the groom is with them right and so a wedding is a joyous time of celebration not a time to mourn and fast which is fitting because Jesus just came from a grand banquet over at Matthew's house. And then Jesus gives the parable of the wine skins, which we'll come back to in our parable series. But the reason I want to go over at 30,000 ft level, verses 9-1 17, is because these I want you to keep in mind these are the things quote unquote that Jesus was telling the people when J. Iris comes to him. So let's pray. Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for your word. Pray now, Lord, that you would um speak through me. Get me out of the way, Pastor DJ out of the way. And I pray that you would speak your word to your people, God. Pray that you give us ears to hear what the spirit has to say to the church here at Cross Church in Jesus name. Amen. If you would stand, we're going to, if you're able to stand with us, we're going to read Matthew 9:18-26. So, I'm going to read the whole passage, but we will be breaking it up. But just so we kind of have some context there, Matthew 9, beginning at verse 18. As he Jesus was telling them these things, suddenly one of the leaders came and knelt down before him. This leader is his name is J. Iris, saying, "My daughter just died, but come and lay your hand on her and she will live." So Jesus and his disciples got up and followed him. Just then, a woman who had suffered from bleeding for 12 years approached from behind and touched the end of his robe. For she said to herself, "If I can just touch his robe, I'll be made well." Jesus turned and saw her, "Have courage, daughter." Sound familiar? "Have courage." He said, "Your faith has saved you." And the woman was made well from that moment. When Jesus came to the leader's house, to Gyrus's house, he saw the flute players in the crowd lamenting loudly. "Leave. Don't you love Jesus?" "Leave," he said, "because the girl is not dead, but is asleep." And they laughed at him. After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. Then the news of this spread throughout the whole area. Thanks. You can be seated. Amen. So, although this passage contains two miracles, we're going to focus on one this morning, the raising of Gyrus daughter, showing Jesus authority over death. And we will revisit the uh healing of the woman in verses 20 to 22 next week. But the reason I read the whole uh scene is because I want us to have the whole picture of what's going on. Have you ever been desperate before? Truly desperate. As you think through that, a Google definition of what that would mean to be desperate goes like this. Quote, "A state of extreme need, anxiety, or hopelessness, often prompting reckless or dangerous behavior. It signifies an urgent, often last resort attempt to change a bad situation. End quote. Have you been there? Maybe you're there right now. How did you or how do you respond to your own desperation? Those times in your life where you are desperate. Some deal with desperation by turning to substances, alcohol, drugs, or sexual immorality, pornography, sinful indulgences to numb the pain or to take away the hurt or any number of other idols that people will turn to. But that only leads to more desperation, right? Uh turning to those things piles desperation upon desperation. It's not helpful. It just stacks pain upon pain and leaves one more hopeless and more anxious and more desperate than when they began. For some reason, even among Christians, running to Christ seems like the last resort, right? Like after you've tried everything else, then come give Jesus a shot, right? I'll try Jesus cuz hey, I've tried everything else. Right? And even amongst Christians, sometimes Jesus is the last person we turn to. We can understand a non-Christian might turn to many other things before they come to Christ. But even among Christians, Jesus is the last one we'll run to. This morning we get to learn from a man whose first resort was to come at his most desperate time in his life straight to Jesus. And so our main heading this morning, if you have a handout, if you don't, they're in the back on the table there. Faith in the midst of desperation. That's the main heading this morning. Faith in the midst of desperation. And the first thing we see is that faith in the midst of desperation will come to Christ in humility. Come to Christ in humility. While Jesus is talking about, remember now the discussion going on is this talk about coming for the sick and not being sad and new wine suddenly, right? or behold a leader Gyrus who's a synagogue ruler in Capernaum the other gospels tell us comes to Christ and kneels before him the Greek procstrate yourself to bow down and worship the same word is used for worship he comes kneels bows before Christ in a worshipful manner and says my daughter just died if anyone has a reason to be sad distraught. At this time, it would be Gyrus. Luke tells us that this is J Iris's only daughter, and she's about 12 years old. I have a 12-year-old daughter. Her name is Claire. I'll embarrass her. She's sitting right down here uh pretending to pay attention. No, I'm just kidding, honey. See, she is. She is taking notes diligently. But I have a 12-year-old daughter now. I can't imagine what this felt like for him. Your only daughter just died. I would be a complete mess if any of my daughters or my son died or my wife or anybody. I would be a disaster. A complete mess. And here's G. Iris coming to Christ. Gyrus's position you need to understand as a ruler of the synagogue is very important to note. The scribes and the Pharisees already consider Jesus what? We talked about this last week, a blasphemer and a fraud. They already hate Jesus by now. It's not in process. They already hate Jesus. And here we have a Jewish leader, a guy who runs operations at the local Jewish synagogue. He's in Jewish leadership coming to Jesus, the one the scribes and the Pharisees hate and think is a blasphemer. We have a religious Jewish leader coming to Christ in humility. One commentator wrote this that I appreciated. He said that when J Iris came to Jesus and knelt before him, you can kind of imagine uh a job posting going up immediately. uh Capernium synagogue ruler position open taking resumes to replace Gyrus right and we don't know if it cost him his job for sure that's not in the Bible but this would be seen coming to Christ kneeling at his feet showing Jesus Christ's reverence respect and worship flies in the face of what the other Jewish leaders thought of Jesus and would quite possibly cost him his position as a synagogue ruler, but he is coming in a worshipful manner before Jesus regardless of what anyone thinks of him, humbling himself, his job, his position, everything to Jesus. The scribes and the Pharisees would consider this preposterous and really an act of defiance against them, the scribes and the Pharisees. But because Jesus is a believer or I'm sorry, because Gyrus is a believer in Jesus and what he can do, he comes humbly before Christ. And when he kneels before Jesus, he says, "My daughter just died, but don't you love that?" "My daughter just died, but but come and lay your hand on her and she will live." That's faith, friends, in the midst of desperation. His daughter just experienced the most irreversible event known to mankind, death. There's no cure for death, right? You don't manage death's symptoms. You don't get medication to manage your symptoms of death. She's dead. Now, think about what Gyrus is asking Jesus to do. Go touch a dead body. As a synagogue ruler, J Iris would know the law, right? And so would Jesus, of course, that anyone who touches a dead body is unclean. And especially a a leader, a priest was not was commanded not to. But anyone, the book of Numbers and Leviticus tell us that anyone who touches a dead body is unclean. Under normal circumstances, this request would be completely ridiculous. Hey rabbi, go make yourself unclean and touch this dead body for me, will you? But what does J Iris believe will actually happen? This is the transformation of his life happening before his very eyes, his own eyes. He doesn't think that Jesus will be made unclean by touching his daughter. He believes that his daughter will be made clean, restored to life as a result of touching his daughter. This is Gyrus coming humbling himself and acknowledging Jesus Christ is the one with the power and authority to raise the dead. He Gyrus is nothing. Jesus is everything. and he's acknowledging that and coming to grips with that fact and his actions speak for themselves coming before Christ. It took great humility for him to come kneel and make this request. What about you? What about us? Do you come in times of desperation? Do you humble yourself at the feet of Jesus? Do you come before him, pour out your heart to him without reservation? That's faith in the midst of desperation. It'll humbly come to Christ. Number two, faith in the midst of desperation will trust God in the face of ridicule. It's number two, trust God in the face of ridicule. So when we put this whole scene together with all of the gospels, the order of events goes like this. This is from Luke 8, which is the parallel. And then Mark 5. Luke 8 says this, and I want you to see it. And there came a man named Gyrus, who was a ruler of the synagogue. And falling at Jesus' feet, he implored him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter about 12 years of age, and she was dying. Okay. Dying. As Jesus went to his house, the girl is dying. And then there's a crowd. There's people pressing around him. So, initially when Gyrus came to Jesus, his daughter's on the brink of death, but hadn't died yet. Then, right, behold, just then, the woman with the issue of blood comes to Jesus, and there's a brief delay. There's a pause in the scene and this is purposeful. They're going to Gyrus house. Gyrus must be exhilarated, right? Then they get held up. What would you be thinking? What would be going through your mind? Jesus, we ain't got time for this. We got to go like right now. Hurry. She's about to die. My daughter is dying. And we got to go. And then he and they're going, "Yes, Jesus is coming over to my house." And then he stops and he starts talking to a woman like, "Jesus, hurry up." Like, "We got to go, dude." And Jesus stops to address the woman in verses 20 to 22, which will be in next week. But what happens while Jesus stops to address the woman? This is Mark 5. Mark 5:35. It says this, "While he Jesus was still speaking, while he's speaking with the woman, while he's paused on the journey, there came from the ruler's house, Gyrus house, some who said, "Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?" But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, he turns to Gyrus and says,"Do not fear, only believe. So while it is while Jesus was talking to the woman that some folks come from Gyrus's house and arrive with devastating news, it's too late, bro. It's too late, Gyrus. Sorry, bro. She died. Don't bother Jesus anymore. No need to bug or trouble the Lord anymore. Not any longer. Your daughter died while you guys were on the way over. Apparently, while Jesus was talking to this lady, um, your daughter died. But Jesus simply looks at J Iris and says, "Don't fear, only believe." Right? I know that you, Gyrus, just received devastating news. Your daughter died while we were on the way over during this chat with this woman. your daughter died but keep on believing. This is the the word believe. There is an imperative command. Believe Girus. Believe. And we pick up in verse 23 back in Matthew 9 where Jesus arrives at his house and what's going on? Flute players and a crowd lamenting. What is the point? The point is this. There is zero doubt in anyone's mind that that young girl is dead in that house. That's the point. Some people try to refute the Bible saying she was just like in a coma or passed out or whatever, but the Bible leaves no room for that. She was dying when Jus first came. She died while they were in route. And she's been dead long enough for the hired mourers to start their business. Yep. Their business. In those days, it was expected as Jewish custom to hire no less than two flute players and one whailing woman. A professional whailing woman. That's right. You heard me right. Two flute players, one whailing woman at minimum. Even for the poor. This is in rabbitic Jewish code. It's called the Mishna, but it's just a a rabbitic teachings uh collection commanded command making commandments and all this stuff. And this is part of their ceremonies when a person died. And so there are people flute players and professional whalers um who get paid to mourn at your family's funeral. So they are making a living off of it. And what does Jesus do? He kicks him out. Don't you just love Jesus? He's like he shows up. There's all these professional whalers and he's just like, "Leave, leave." And this the the word leave there is a command. Like he's not requesting, "Hey, Gyrus, do you really like want them here?" No. Jesus comes in, takes control of the whole house. He commands the room and he says, "Leave. Get out." This is not a request. This is a command. He is ordering them to leave. Get these professional mourers out. She's not dead, but asleep. Now, you're probably thinking like, DJ, you just told us like she's dead dead and now Jesus is here saying she's asleep. Which one is it? Yes. Right. The word asleep is always, count it, always used to describe a believer's death. A Christian's physical death is always described as sleep. When Lazarus died and Jesus delayed that resurrection miracle um for 4 days, not just maybe like a few minutes or whatever long it took for him to talk to the woman. Jesus delayed for days on Lazarus death. And you remember the old King James, Lord, he stinkketh, right? He's Lazarus was dead so long he stinkketh. Um, and Jesus came and he says, "I'm going to go to my friend. My friend's asleep. I'm going to go wake him up." That's what Jesus, that's how Jesus described his miracle and raising Lazarus from the dead. My friend's asleep. I'm going to go wake him up. When Steven was martyed in Acts 7, it says he fell asleep. Paul himself talks about Christians who physically died as simply asleep. The Bible purposely talks about the death of believers asleep. Why? Because it's looking forward to the resurrection. That's why it is a guarantee that you will be risen with Christ. So when Jesus says the girl's asleep, he's acknowledging her physical death. Yes, she's dead physically. Her hearts are be she is dead, dead, dead. And the flute players are here and the professional mourers are here, but he's about to raise her. And so he says, "She's asleep." What do the professional mourers do? Laugh. They laugh at Jesus. If you're wondering, well, how can they go from like intense mourning to laughter so quickly? That's why they're hired. They have no personal connection. There's probably other family members there, don't get me wrong, but the ones who are laughing and mocking, they're they're hired to be there. They're getting paid to cry and act sad. Now, what must G Irus have been thinking at this time? I'm not sure, but I submit to you that he continued to believe in the midst of all that ridicule. Have you ever been there? Have you ever been mocked or laughed at for your belief in Jesus or for your belief in what Jesus can do? These people are laughing at what J. Iris believes Jesus can do. They're laughing at Jesus. She's dead. We all know it, Jesus. Whatever. We'll leave. But like, ain't nothing going to happen here. But faith will withstand mockery and scorn. So, this leads to the last point. Faith in the midst of desperation will see what only God can do. See what only God can do. Mark tells us that Jesus allowed only a few people in. He allowed Peter, James, John, and the girl's parents. So about five people witness the miracle. And Jesus goes in. This is all the gospels kind of put together for you harmonized. Uh Jesus goes in, takes her by the hand, and says, "Tellum," which means, "Little girl, I say to you, get up." And she does. And the miracle happens. And word spreads, right? Jesus shows his authority over death. I don't know what you're going through right now. I'm not going to pretend to know how you feel, the pain you're experiencing, or the loss that you've known. This text is not a guarantee that everyone you love will be healed or brought back to life like this little girl was given back to you. But this text is however a guarantee a guarantee that Christ has authority over death both physically and spiritually. Maybe you are hurting. Maybe a family member that you know is on the brink of death. Maybe you're struggling in desperation in some other area of your life. For some, it's financially. For some, it's with their family or it's a diagnosis or it's this or it's that. I can't guarantee what God will or won't do, but I can tell you confident confidently what you should do. And this is not DJ's opinion from the text. What do you What do we do? When we are faced with desperation, we bring it to the feet of Jesus in humility. That's what we do. No matter what anyone else thinks. Think about the judgments that could have been cast against Gyrus from the scribes and the Pharisees, right? Ruler of the synagogue bowing down to this blasphemer that we just saw a few minutes ago. didn't matter to him. Doesn't matter. Who cares what people think? You come to Christ in humility, no matter what anyone thinks, and see what God will do. We know the scriptures say, "We know not all things are good. The passing of a loved one is not good. That diagnosis is not good. That financial strain is not good. But for those who love God, those things that are not good work together for the overall good. That's Romans 8:28. Romans 8:28 doesn't say everything is good. It says all things work together for good to those who love God according to whose purpose? His, not yours. We don't always see it. It's our purpose. We have a we we would have a lot of purposes of our own that we would like Jesus to come do and we want hey this is my purpose for this Jesus. Can you make this happen? Sometimes the answer is no. God has a different purpose but it is good and it is his purpose not ours. But we know that he'll use it for good according to his purpose. You may very well witness a physical mir miracle right in front of your face or you may have to wait patiently to see what God will do. But either way, faith in the midst of desperation, we'll see what God can do. This time, I want to um transition to a time of communion. What better time to commune with our Lord than right now? And if you don't have one of these, they're in the back tables. You can get up and grab one real quick and come back. That's fine. Um, and I want to give a couple of admonitions here as we celebrate communion. If you've trusted Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, you are invited to join as we celebrate the Lord's Supper. This is for for believers, for Christians. So, you say, "This is my first time here and I haven't been to Pizza with the Pastor, DJ." It's okay. Like, if you're a Christian, come to Pizza with a Pastor. but also celebrate communion, right? Um, but I also want to say that if you're here and you don't know Christ, um, the good news is you can today. The Bible says today is the day of salvation. Don't put it off. Don't put it off. Come talk to me afterwards. I'd love to introduce you to Christ. Uh, in the back of the eye said, "Yes, corner after service and wherever. Find me. Come just come get me. Fill out a card, put it in. I'll reach out to you during the week." Um, but I also would invite you to watch and not partake because this is for believers. The scriptures teach that we do this in remembrance of Jesus looking back. We do this proclaiming the Lord's death until he comes looking forward. And then the Bible says, "So therefore, let a person, let a man, let a woman examine themselves. Examine yourself." Looking in, we look, we look back, we look forward, we look in. So, I want to invite you now to take time to examine yourself. Are there sins that need to be confessed to the Lord? Or is there anything in your life that you need to turn over to him? Is there anything you are desperate for? Is there a desperate need that you have, a desperate longing that you have for a family member's healing or for peace and comfort in the midst of loss? Turn it over to the Lord Jesus Christ. Take time now to examine yourself. Reflect on your love for Christ. Do you love and cherish Christ? Is he everything to you like he was everything for Gyrus? I invite you to do that right now. If you're still in prayer, I don't want to interrupt you um as you commune with the Lord. Um but if you will, when you have a second, you can peel back that smaller layer that has the bread and take the bread out. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 11:es 23 and 24. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you. That the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for your word. We thank you for your body which was broken for us. We feel pain. We feel sorrow. We hurt. We suffer. But if we added up all the pain and sorrow that we felt in our whole entire lives, it wouldn't even come close to what you experienced on the cross. Help us to understand that we don't have a high priest who's who who has no empathy for us. No, we have a high priest Jesus Christ who has felt everything that we have felt and has gone through what we have and paid the price for sin on the cross. We thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Let's partake. And if you would peel back the larger layer that has the juice, Paul continues to write in 1 Corinthians 11:25, "In the same way, he Jesus took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." This is a proclamation to a dying world, a world lost without Jesus, that he is alive. You realize you have to kind of be alive to come, right? We proclaim the Lord's death until he comes means he's alive. We serve a risen savior. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins. We praise you. Nothing else could wash away our sin. Nothing else could make us whole. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. We thank you Lord for dying on the cross, paying our sin debt, past, present, and future. And I pray God that if there's anyone listening here online or another day if they don't know Jesus Christ as their personal L Lord and Savior, may today be um the last day that that's true and the first day where they know you in Jesus name. Amen. Let's partake. This time I'm invite the worship team back up as we close in a song and I'm going to uh close us in one more uh collective prayer. Father, we thank you for this morning. We dedicate this time to you. You have authority over death and you are risen savior. You Lord Jesus defeated death. I couldn't defeat death. Paul couldn't defeat death. Muhammad couldn't defeat death. Uh Joseph Smith couldn't defeat death. Gandhi couldn't defeat death. Nobody could could defeat death except the Lord Jesus Christ who was and is and is to come who is king of kings and lord of lords. We praise you in Jesus name. Amen. Let's stand as we sing our last song.