A Nonstop Day of Miracles, Part 1

Pharisees were religious zealots who valued their traditions to a fault.

Rigid, unbending, and self-righteous, the Pharisees were widely known for their legalistic ways. And they were threatened when Jesus entered the scene and stepped onto their turf. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll cites a dynamic encounter between Jesus and the Pharisees. In an obvious effort to discredit his growing influence, they tried to trap Jesus with a trick question.

What followed, however, was a series of sensational events that would sabotage their plan. Chuck titled today's message, A Nonstop Day of Miracles. We're working our way through Matthew's Gospel. We've come to chapter 9. We're looking at a rather long section of Scripture, so allow me to read excerpts from it, verses 14 through 34. 914 begins, One day the disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus and asked him, Why don't your disciples fast like we do and the Pharisees do? Jesus replied, Do wedding guests mourn when celebrating with the groom? Verse 16, Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth?

Verse 17, And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Verse 18, As Jesus was saying this, the leader of a synagogue came and knelt before him, My daughter has just died, he said, but you can bring her back to life again if you just come and lay your hand on her. So Jesus and his disciples got up and went with him. Just then, a woman who had suffered for 12 years with constant bleeding came up behind him. She touched the fringe of his robe, for she thought, If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed. Into verse 22, And the woman was healed at that moment. When Jesus arrived at the official's home, he saw the noisy crowd and heard the funeral music. Get out, he told them. The girl isn't dead.

She's only asleep. Verse 25, After the crowd was put outside, Jesus went in and took the girl by the hand and she stood up. 27, After Jesus left the girl's home, two blind men followed along behind him, shouting, Son of David, have mercy on us. They went right into the house where he was staying. And Jesus asked them, Do you believe I can make you see?

Yes, Lord. They told him, We do. Then he touched their eyes and said, Because of your faith, it will happen. Then their eyes were opened and they could see. 32, When they left, a demon possessed man who couldn't speak was brought to Jesus. So Jesus cast out the demon and then the man began to speak. Finally, verse 34, But the Pharisees said, He can cast out demons because he is empowered by the prince of demons.

You're listening to Insight for Living. To study the book of Matthew with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to download his Searching the Scriptures studies by going to insightworld.org slash studies. And now the message from Chuck about a nonstop day of miracles. We are moving through the story that Matthew has recorded and we have come to one day in the life of Jesus that is sort of nonstop, one event after another, one conversation after another, especially one miracle after another.

How easy it is for us to read these things and not see how significant those events were because they appear back to back as he is presenting himself as Messiah, showing the authority of the Lord God, as was prophesied by the ancient prophets. He would come. He would set prisoners free. He would heal those who were sick.

He would give sight to the blind and raise those who had died. All of this in proof of his being Messiah. It all begins in the version I'm reading in words like one day the disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus and asked him, Why don't your disciples fast like we do and the Pharisees do?

That's found in Matthew 9 verse 14. It's a question about fasting but in reality it's a question of comparison. You and your disciples fast at these times and in this way. We have been taught by those above us around us to fast this way. And you don't do it the way we do it.

Now hang on to this because I'll come back to it. Their words were based on traditionalism, not tradition. There's a difference. Yaroslav Pelikan of Yale put it better than I've ever read from anyone else. Tradition is the living faith of those now dead. Traditionalism is the dead faith of those still living.

Don't miss that. Tradition is the living faith of those now dead. Paul, Peter, John, Jude, and the other prophets that we could name that lived in the ancient days. Tradition is the living faith of those now dead. Traditionalism is the dead faith of those still living. It is easy in the process of gaining a knowledge of religion that we miss the message of Christ. Christ came with a new fresh message, a message that brought hope and renewal and change, in fact transformation.

But the traditionalism crowd, Pharisees at all, were embracing what they had been doing based on their long-standing rules and regulations. Not just Ten Commandments, but they had put together over 600 of them, all the way down to the most incredible, needless details of life. And so they come to fasting, and they're saying, you and your disciples don't fast like we do.

Now, why don't you fast like we do? Look at Jesus' reply. Do wedding guests mourn when celebrating with the groom? Of course not.

Would you and I go to a wedding? There's joy. There's laughter.

I mean, a man even kisses a woman right in front of the public, right there. They've taken their vows. When it's over, there's celebration, often dancing, and often a meal is served. And everybody's all excited about it, and pictures are taken. I mean, that's what we're talking about. I mean, that's no time to mourn.

That's the time to celebrate. So Jesus draws on that analogy when he says to them, of course not, but someday the groom will be taken away from them and then they will fast. There's a lot in that I'll not get into, but weddings in those days are different than our day.

And he had that in mind. He says, besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before. And while he's dealing with analogies, no one puts new wine into old wine skins. In ancient days, wine was not bottled, but was held in skins, often in an entire organ from an animal that had been made supple, soft. And when there was new wine put in, it needed to leave room for that wine to expand as the gas would increase while it was fermenting. Now, you don't put new wine in old wine skins or you'll split the old skins. And he said that new wine is stored in new wine skins so that both are preserved. It's a beautiful thing.

And by the way, before I go any further, there's application. Let me warn you about expecting everybody else to do all the things you do in the details of your Christian life. Be careful about style. We have a certain style of worship that we're comfortable with here at Stonebriar. Now, nobody died and left Stonebriar Community Church in charge of all other churches, so that every church must worship exactly as we worship. Now, we certainly are to believe in the scriptures, and we certainly are to teach the truths of the Word of God, and we certainly are to live out the Christian life, but there's a lot of room for flexibility. So don't write somebody off because they worship in a different way or manner than you do, or you fall into the trap of comparison and you'll find yourself continually unhappy until you're just around those people who do it just like you do it.

I thought about this when I read the words of that great theologian Gilda Radner from Saturday Night Live, known as Rosanna Danna. Don't act like you didn't watch her because you did. She's gone now, but she wrote this. When I was little, my nurse Dibby's cousin had a dog, just a mutt, and the dog was pregnant. I don't know how long dogs are pregnant, but she was due to have her puppies in about a week. She was out in the yard one day and got in the way of the lawnmower, and her two hind legs got cut off. They rushed her to the vet. He said, I can sew her up, or you can put her to sleep if you want, but the puppies are okay. She'll be able to deliver those puppies.

Dibby's cousin said, we'll keep her alive. So the vet sewed up her backside, and over the next week, the dog learned to walk. Now, she didn't spend any time worrying, she just learned to walk by taking two steps in front, then flipping up her backside, and then she'd take two steps in front and she'd flip up her backside. She gave birth to six little puppies, all in perfect health. She nurses them and then weaned them, and when they learned to walk, they all walked just like her. Two steps up, flipping your backside, two steps, flipping your backside.

You got the point. They walked just like she walked. Heard a cute story about newlyweds that hadn't been married very long, and the bride decides she would fix a ham. And so she got the ham, and she cut off this end, and she cut off that end and put the ham in and began to cook it.

Her husband's there, and he's watching a little bit of his money going down the drain. He's thinking, how come you cut off the ends of the ham? She said, well, my mother always, always cut off the ends of the ham when she cooked it. So one day he was with his mother-in-law, and he said, by the way, my wife always cuts off the end of the ham when she fixes it. Why did she, why did you always do that? She said, well, I had a short pan, so it wouldn't fit in the pan.

I had to cut the ends off like that. Silly little illustration, but it's an example of how we cling to things that we think are the truth, when in fact they're often traditionalism. It's not based on what Scripture teaches. The Lord gives us a lot of flexibility. I've said for years, he's a lot easier to live with than most Christians. God gives you liberty. God frees you in grace. So how about doing the same for others?

Stop comparing who fast when or how. It's the same message Jesus has for them and a number of others, I'm sure, if we had the time to get into them. Now please observe how quickly something else happened. My version, verse 18, begins as Jesus was saying this. So right after he has finished explaining this to the disciples of the baptizer, along comes a leader of the synagogue. We know from the other books, Mark and Luke, that the man's name is Jairus. He's not the rabbi of the synagogue. He's an officer in the synagogue, and he came and knelt before Jesus. Now look at this. Right out of the blue, my daughter has just died, he said, but you can bring her back to life again if you just come and lay your hand on her.

Listen to that. This is a Jewish officer from a Jewish synagogue. He did not represent the majority opinion among the Jews in that day or this one, but he's been listening, and he's got a sick daughter.

We know from the other books, Mark and Luke. In fact, it's his only daughter. She's 12 years old, and his heart has been knitted to hers like father with daughters often are. She's died, and he's seen enough and he's heard enough to know this one represents a power that no one else I know has. And he's seen enough and he's heard enough to know this power that no one else I know has. He can do what no one else can do.

I'm going to go to him. Can you imagine the shock of the Pharisees and fellow Jews when they saw this officer from the synagogue showing up and bringing his case before Jesus and pleading for the life of his daughter? She's dead, but you can bring her to life. If you just come and lay your faith as that. Now, this is in a what I call a sandwich miracle because there's a need presented, but before the need is met, another need appears.

Then later the need of that first need is met. So look in the middle of the sandwich. He's on his way to Jairus' home to raise the daughter from dead from from death. And out of the blue, we read verse 20 just then, a woman who had suffered for 12 years with constant bleeding came up behind him. Don't go any further. Learn to do this when you read your Bible.

Live it in your mind. 12 years this woman has lived with the constancy of hemorrhaging. She has no intimacy in her marriage if her marriage even stayed together.

She's viewed as unclean by people who viewed the woman as unclean at her time of the month. She's lived with this for 12 years. She is desperate. In fact, one of the writers, I think it's Mark, says that she had been to several physicians and had spent all of her money and had only gotten worse.

This is a desperate woman. Heartbreaking situation. When you read your Bible, let the truth of the setting land hard in your imagination. Now you've got a feeling for the woman you didn't have earlier, quite likely. And the woman comes and touches the fringe of his robe for she thought, verse 21, if I could just touch his robe, I'd be healed. 12 years, no physician could help her.

In fact, she only got worse. But she knows there's something different. Just as the officer from the synagogue knew there's something different about this one, this man, this remarkable individual, we call Jesus. If I could just touch his robe, I'd be healed. Jesus turned around, and when he saw her, look at the response.

It's beautiful. She didn't interrupt him. She didn't offend him.

She didn't cause a delay. I'm sure Jairus is very uneasy that he would take time for someone else with this urgent, acute need at home. He says, daughter, be encouraged. Your faith has made you well, and the woman was healed at that moment. Mark it down almost without exception when there is a divine healing, truly a healing in its instant. Be careful what you call miracles, okay? Be real careful.

Don't throw the word around lightly or frequently. I have a friend who says, if they happened all the time, they'd be called regulars. They're miracles. Finding a parking place at Nordstrom's during Christmas is not a miracle. I could name a half dozen other silly examples that we say, boy, man, a miracle took place today. I get a miracle a day. No, you don't. You're just living disillusioned.

You're jumping to a false conclusion. Miracles are very, very, very, very rare. And I shock you. In my entire 50-plus years of ministry, I maybe have been aware of five, perhaps six true miracles where God broke into the realm of reality and broke all the rules and did the impossible. A couple of them were healing miracles that took place, not because there was a healer. There aren't divine healers today.

There's one healer who does healing on occasion, rare though it may be that he alone does without any fanfare, without any cost, without trying to call attention to the large number of people. He simply said, your faith has made you well. And the flow of blood stopped. Imagine that.

She'll never be the same. She would tell that story the rest of her life, first her family, and then she would tell her friends, and then others, because of this one who took time to speak a word to her. When Jesus arrived at the official's home, he saw the noisy crowd, and he heard the funeral music. You might wonder, what's that all about? In those days, there were hired mourners.

Families would hire a group of people to come with their songs, their dirges, and their words, and their prayers, if you will, and they would carry out the responsibility of their being hired. So he says to them, get out, get out. The girl isn't dead, she's only asleep. But the crowd laughed at him.

I'm not going to go any further before I ask you the direct question, would you have laughed? The girl's dead. She's dead.

And he says, no, no, no, no, no. I'm here to tell you she's merely asleep. After the crowd was put outside, they, with their laughter, can imagine what they must have joked about when they were outside. Were they in for a shock? However, he went in and took the girl by hand. She stood up. Talitha Coom, the word used over in, I think it's Mark's gospel, she stood up.

She's a 12-year-old girl, and she's now resuscitated, brought back to life. If I read no further, we've got enough to go on for half a lifetime. Look at that power. Don't ever, ever, ever doubt God's power. In his time and in his way and for his purpose, in his time and in his way and for his purpose, he demonstrates it rarely when we expect it, and usually in ways we would have never imagined.

This incredible miracle by Jesus goes beyond its physical implications and the joy it brought to this girl's parents. So please keep listening. It's important that you hear the remainder of Chuck Swindoll's message about a non-stop day of miracles.

This is Insight for Living, and to learn more about this ministry, please visit us online at insightworld.org. As your daily radio companion, we invite you to take your understanding of Matthew's gospel to a deeper level. To guide you in this personal journey, you'll be glad to know Chuck wrote a commentary on this first book of the New Testament. In fact, because of its depth, the commentary for Matthew comes in two volumes.

The format is clear and easy to navigate, and the material is integrated with articles, practical application, and a variety of helpful pictures. So whether you're a serious student of the Bible or you're just beginning to learn what it means to follow Jesus, we believe Swindoll's Living Insights commentary on Matthew will help you. To purchase both volumes, go to insight.org slash store, or call us.

If you're listening in the U.S., dial 1-800-772-8888. In addition to the commentary, each of the messages you hear on this program is complemented by an interactive online lesson. We call them Searching the Scriptures. These study notes are absolutely free.

You can even print out the PDF files and share them with your friends. Pastors and professors have used these studies to help them prepare outlines for their sermons as well. So again, to study with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to take advantage of this creative resource called Searching the Scriptures.

To access these documents, go to insight.org slash studies. As God prompts you to contribute to this nonprofit ministry, we invite you to participate financially. To give a donation today, call us.

If you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888 or give online at insight.org. Travelers who want to take a tour to Israel have lots of choices, but few measure up to the thoughtful journey prepared by Insight for Living Ministries. With a proper mix of historical information and biblical context, we provide ample opportunities to pause and let the wonder in.

Our goal is to create special moments when you deepen your love for the Bible and draw closer to your Lord. Experience an unforgettable 12-day tour to Israel with Chuck Swindoll and Insight for Living Ministries, March 6th through 17th, 2022. To help you grasp the significance of each site, you'll be accompanied by hand-picked Israeli guides, and we choose the best, along with seminary-trained pastors and professors to enhance your spiritual journey. No organization I know of offers this level of exceptional, in-depth instruction and personal care for Holy Land travelers.

To learn more, call 1-888-447-0444. Just imagine walking along sacred sites and watching the Bible come to life. Make your reservation by calling 1-888-447-0444 or go to insight.org slash events. Insight for Living Ministries tour to Israel is paid for and made possible by only those who choose to attend. Tomorrow, Chuck Swindoll will describe a non-stop day of miracles when deity was on display. Join us again Wednesday to hear Insight for Living. The preceding message, A Non-Stop Day of Miracles, was copyrighted in 2016 and 2021, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2021 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.