Mom's Only Hope

If you'd open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 15, we will be looking tonight at verses 21-28. And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon, and behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David.

My daughter is severely oppressed by a demon. But he did not answer her word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, Send her away, for she is crying out after us. He answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But she came and knelt before him, saying, Lord, help me. And he answered, It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. She said, Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table. Then Jesus answered her, O woman, great is your faith. Be it done for you as you desire.

And her daughter was healed instantly. Heavenly Father, we come to you tonight, and Lord God, we thank you for your word. Lord, on this Mother's Day, we thank you for the role that you have given to women to be mothers, to nurture and teach children, to intercede, to come alongside and support to strengthen.

And Father, only mothers who were found in Christ Jesus can offer that role to the fullest. Lord God, your word is written to us to magnify Christ, to teach us about you. And Lord, when you use texts and examples, it is to drive us to look to Christ even more. Lord, tonight as we take a look at this passage on Mother's Day, I pray that we see the truth that you have for us.

Holy Spirit, teach us tonight. Let it be your word that is proclaimed. And may we honor God and Christ through our reading, expounding and hearing of the word. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

You may be seated. The opening this evening to the text, the title for the message, Mom's Only Hope, and I sat and I heard Doug's opening this morning, and we have many similarities as we open our sermons. Today definitely is a day that we set aside to honor mothers. Many times we mistakenly either attempt in churches to deify mothers or we also have a tendency to inadvertently condemn or convict mothers.

Doug shared that many churches this morning would teach on the Proverbs 31 woman and how that could be overwhelming in conviction and condemnation for those sitting and hearing the word proclaimed. Vice versa, we can corrupt the worship if we take either a mom from scripture or a mom in real life that we've encountered and that we raise her through her work as being something meritorious or grander than what she truly is. A prime example, and as I sit and realize the blessing that my parents were to me, I could stand in this pulpit and most likely convince you I had the greatest mother that ever lived. She passed away in 2013 and for her 82 years on this earth, 44 or five or six, whatever I got to share with her, she was to me the greatest of all women that I had ever encountered and my wife and her were very, very much the same in my view. My mom was my greatest cheerleader. My mom was my greatest advocate. My mom drove me to the gospel. And when I lost my mom in 2013, the stories because my dad had passed in 2011, the stories that came from those who came to her casket and shared with us over and over, they shared the way in which both of my parents lived out the gospel. And it was during that time that I got to fully, finally understand that my mom was an instrument used by God to demonstrate Christ Jesus and not the other way around. My mom wasn't the good.

I could stand here now after looking back on all those years and tell you times where sin erupted in her life. But my mother was a believer in Christ Jesus and it was his work and the goodness that she showed my 46 years was a result of him working through her. And so it would be foolish for one to stand from a pulpit and proclaim the goodness of a human mother to the point that there would be no fault or sin found within her. When we sit and realize this, we tend in the church to lose perspective and we shift our proper attention and worship from the creator to the creature. For the past several weeks, every night as I'm going to sleep, I listen to a sermon by James Montgomery Boyce and I shouldn't say for the past several weeks, it's yeah, at least half a year he's been doing sermons on the Psalms and he was just finishing with Psalm 150 this past Wednesday or Thursday and he was talking about what it meant for it to be true worship, that a church coming together congregating and what it means that all things everywhere are to worship God, to praise God. He explained his congregation.

There are people that come up to him and ask, why doesn't your church clap after a choral or instrumental piece that is moving? And James Boyce said, because we are not the audience, we are participants with the choir, with the musician and the audience for that piece is God Almighty himself. Do we understand that when we come into worship tonight, when we go to him in prayer, when we raise our songs, when we expound his word, it is for our building and our edification, but it is all designed to point us to him who is the audience of our worship. He is the one we are coming to and we have this tendency, especially on days that we set aside to honor where we turn from worshiping the creator to worshiping the creature. So am I saying that we should not honor mothers in the church?

Absolutely not. Mothers are a vital role in our society, in our church. That role was created by God himself and we should know in no way belittle or disregard the work. But we should always worship the one who enables mom in the role she is called to. Our focus and I should be directed to the one who redeems, sustains and enables our moms, dads and us in the good that is seen. The text this evening highlights a mom who persistently petitions Christ for the sake of her child.

The same account that we see here is found in Mark 7 24-30 and we could easily convert this encounter to a message of the power of a mom for the sake of her family but this text is not teaching about her and her power but rather about Jesus and his power. The text from Matthew points out what I find is five points and we are only going to cover three of the five tonight but I'd be remiss if I didn't touch on two very important points of the text. The first that Jesus was sent to be first and foremost the Messiah to God's covenantal people. We are going to touch on this in one of our points but Jesus makes a statement to the disciples that he has come for the covenantal people first. It was not time for Jesus to open to the Gentiles the gospel.

That is what he is saying when he tells the disciples when they say please dismiss her she's crying out to us and he said I have been sent to the Jews first for their sake. Remember that Christ in his work is doing the will of God as God has given to him. We must always understand that the gospel message itself starting in Genesis and working clear through the book of Revelation is a progressive revelation of Jesus Christ. It is a progressive revelation to the Jews. They have ceremony, they have sacrifice that are pointing them to Christ but it is also a progression and how that word is to go to the ends of the earth.

Jesus is not in any way being callous by making that statement but he is being true as the man Jesus to what God the Father has called him to. The second thing that we see and this comes from from Mark's view of the same and I want to read that to you real quick if you turn over to Mark chapter 7. We are looking at the same story starting in verse 24 it says and from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon and he entered a house and did not want anyone to know yet he could not be hidden but immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth and she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter and he said to her let the children be fed first for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.

But she answered him yes Lord yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs and he said to her for this statement you may go your way the demon has left your daughter and she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone. There is a very important part there in Mark that is noted and it is the second point that we must see which I just spoke about coming out of the first point but the second point is that this bread this gospel would come to the Gentiles by the word first there meaning there will be a time that it will come to others but he is called in his role as Christ as Messiah to the covenant people of God the Jews as he is opening the kingdom of God to them. I wanted to touch on those two points because it is the third through fifth point that I see that I would like to us to meditate on tonight. We see from this passage that the gift of faith given to this woman this Canaanite or Syrophoenician woman is the key theme to her obtaining from God the resultant work desired. So we see the gift of faith teaches us where our eyes where our only hope lies. Our gift of faith should teach us where our only hope rests. Our gift of faith number two should allow us to accept our true condition and rely on Christ alone. And the third point our gift of faith produces is that our gift of faith through persistence in that faith is honored by God.

That is what I want us to look at tonight as we look at this mom who realized who her only hope was. Point one the gift of faith enables us to see our only hope. Matthew 15 verses 22 and 25 say this and behold a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying have mercy on me oh Lord son of David my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon and dropping down to 25 but she came and knelt before him saying Lord help me. There is much debate about how much this woman could possibly understand who Jesus was. In the mark account it says that Jesus went into that region and entered a house and he was looking for respite hoping that no one would know who he was but word got out and she came to the house. And so there are many as you read through different commentaries that put forth that as a pagan that it is just sheer reputation that Christ is a miracle worker out making rounds that causes her to come forward in order to bring her petition before the Lord.

I would agree with that thought process if we only had Mark 7. Mark 7 that view of the story gives us a very generalized overview of what drew her to that house to make her petition. Some others put forth that she had a basic understanding of the extended blessings that were offered through Abraham that we find from Genesis 12 three in that when God was talking to Abraham how he would bless his children and the covenant children he adds in there I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you I will curse and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed so a lot of commentators say this is the generalized knowledge of who Jesus was to this Canaanite woman. For me the text demonstrates that it's much deeper than just a surface level understanding and I would like to work through with you why I hold that. If you would look at verse 22 verse 22 begins with a plea have mercy on me the word used is asking Jesus to have pity for her to offer something that she has no right to ask for she is asking Christ to put grace into action which is what we call mercy. She is asking for this Lord and many will say and will touch on it sir or even a deeper form of master she is asking for him to act for no reason on her part just at a request so we see that she is coming looking to Christ for grace and mercy the second from verse 22 that can we continue with an address oh Lord son of David this is more than a respectful sir or master if we would find in that text just Lord then yes we could apply just sir or master but this designation of Jesus gives the designation as the Christ or the Messiah when son of David is added excuse me second Samuel 7 12 through 16 when your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers this is Samuel speaking to David I will raise up your offspring after you this is what God's going to do who shall come from your body and I will establish his kingdom he shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son when he commits iniquity I will discipline him with the rod of men with the stripes of the son of men but my steadfast love will not depart from him as I took it from Saul whom I put away before you and your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me your throne shall be established forever this is a reference a dual reference to both the natural offspring coming from David but also the one who will come that will establish that throne forever Matthew 22 41 through 42 now while the Pharisees were gathered together Jesus asked them a question saying what do you think about the Christ whose son is he they said to him the son of David if we would jump to the triumphal entry that when they laid their cloaks on the road they cried out Hosanna in the highest son of David it is a declaration not just of sir or master but it is a declaration also that he is the Christ the Messiah if we move down to verse 25 we see what's demonstrated as an act of worship she knelt before him and verse 25 ends with the plea Lord help me come to her aid rescue her deliver her asking for grace and mercy from the Lord son of David the text clearly demonstrates the woman had more than a superficial knowledge she demonstrates that her hope is resting in one she knows can deliver three miles down the road was the temple of the healer of the pagan heathens I believe the name was shaman or Schumann but instead she goes to the Christ to Lord son of David and she lays her petition before him faith has opened her eyes and we know that faith is not a work of her own doing you know we we love to try to take and one of the ways we corrupt is by taking people and making it a meritorious work her demonstration of faith is the very gift of God that we give praise and glory to God for the work of the Holy Spirit for in Ephesians 2 verses 8 and 9 we read for by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing it is the gift of God not a result of work so that no one may boast in Philippians 1 29 for it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake it is not our ability to comprehend the word of God on our own and make a determination it is the Holy Spirit coming into us and opening our eyes opening our ears and opening our hearts to an understanding of who Christ is and that we can believe and rest on him the very faith that causes us to believe scripture clearly indicates is the working of God not ourselves so we see in this first the gift of faith enables us to see our only hope even that faith is a gifting of God in Acts 3 16 and his name by faith in his name has made this man strong whom you see and know and the faith that is through Jesus has given this given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all this woman came forward with faith in Christ the Messiah being told that it is not time for the heathen for the pagan to receive the goodness of the gospel and the goodness of Christ but her persistence remains because she knows it is the only hope that she has because the Spirit has given her the faith to understand who he is point to the gift of faith allows us to accept our true condition and rely on Christ looking at verses 26 and 27 of our text we read this and he answered it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs she said yes Lord yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table there are many people who take these verses as I was reading different takes on what Jesus is speaking to her and they try to make it that Jesus is insensitive or callous to the woman and what's funny then you read some commentators on the other side who says the term here used is little dog which would reference a house pet and it makes sense because it's talking about being at the table it's not a wild dog running and and and causing issues outside in the streets but the point being here is that Jesus does compare this woman this pagan woman to a dog whether it's a house pet or the ravenous dogs running around outside and so how do we deal with that is Jesus being insulting is Jesus being callous towards this person and the answer is absolutely not what we see is if we note in the text the woman is not offended but rather accepts her condition outside the covenant people understand that these regions of Tyre and Sidon they have been pagan and heathen all along as Israel has been in the land and declaring the good right and holy God Jehovah they have not had the ability unless brought in by God into the camp to understand or know who God is and this woman instead of being offended accepts Jesus's truthful statement about the condition she is in not only that but she accepts that in her state it is only what Jesus has to offer her that can meet her true needs and I think we need to understand that we live in a time where we have lost recognition of our true self Doug touched on it this morning we touch on it many times in Sunday school but if you look at the world around us we the culture declare that man is good before I was getting ready to come here I was watching the Carolina Hurricane hockey game and a commercial came on with John Denver singing I can't remember any song you fill up my senses and it shows these great majestic pictures of the world God created and it says beauty at the end of it and then it says pass beauty on to others something like that and it's the association of people for good morals or something the point being is they believe little ditties or thirty second or sixty second commercials I saw another one where a woman was leaving for college her dad was standing at the curb waving they stopped she ran back gave a hug said I love you dad thanks for everything you did and she walks back and it's be kind and it's saying that within ourselves there is a goodness that we can tap into and that we can be good we can find beauty we in ourselves are able to be what we should be culture teaches that man can make all things better if he just tries harder culture teaches that man is valuable it is humanity itself outside needing nothing more but then we turn to the text of scripture and we've touched on him so many times Romans three declares we clearly do not want God and we do not seek him Ephesians two teaches us that we are so corrupted by sin that we are dead our spirit is dead in sin Romans one teaches us that we deceive ourselves by suppressing truth and looking to ourselves and we suppress that truth so far that we good men because we begin to call evil good and good evil have we seen that playing out in our culture are we struggling with that very issue in our culture today where we are calling evil good and good evil when we sit and realize that the culture just drives sin more and more into us we do not want to see the truth that the scripture teaches about us the need for us to understand our true condition is paramount because this understanding which truly again only comes by a movement of the Holy Spirit it is amazing to me every Sunday morning when I walk into Sunday school and see a hundred and some people in adult Sunday school class and I moved down here and see 280 if I were to take the world's logic Grace Church should have about 12 people and I don't know why they would show up but what we hear is that we are sinners and there is no good in us the culture doesn't want to hear that folks the culture doesn't want to hear the truth of the condition but we are called to declare that truth and what we see is the beauty of the work of the Holy Spirit because as the truth of the gospel is preached and as the truth of our condition is preached we see God calling his people in to come under conviction and come to Christ because they are given by the Holy Spirit the faith needed to understand what they are outside of Jesus the woman in our text understands that even the crumbs of the Lord God Almighty is enough for the condition from which he needs deliverance we realize that we realize that it is not the exposition of this word at all it is the actual reading of God's word that the Holy Spirit can take and drive into a heart and convert a person from being dead in sin to being alive with Christ we must understand our true condition and rely on Christ it drives us it drove this woman in a sense this mom to the butt God from Ephesians 2 to 4 just as the woman cried out Lord have mercy on me and Lord help me she is crying out the one true need that we have that Christ is the only hope that we have for redemption righteousness healing whatever you want to put in there that cry out to Christ is the only hope for us all the final thing we see from tonight's passage is the perfect persistence and faith is honored by God verse 28 then Jesus answered her a woman great is your faith be it done for you as you desire and her daughter was healed instantly God honors that persistent faith of the mom in our account she has come by faith to Jesus Christ for the sake of him saving her daughter from a demon demon possession she has accepted that there is nothing in or of her that is meritorious but rather she acknowledges she is less than acceptable she accepts the title of a dog compared to the rest of society around her but her faith enables her to seek for the morsels of life that come from Christ Jesus tells her that it is due to her faith that he is performing what she came to him desiring but that very act is even God's work in ordering him to move to meet our very need we see this same commendation to faith from Jesus in the healing of the centurions son in Luke chapter 7 and the same type of statement I've not seen in all of Israel faith like this man and that faith is given by God I encourage us tonight to look to Christ just as the mom in our text did you and I are continually bombarded by this world we are tempted so many times to respond as the world would respond when crisis or conflict rises up or when issues seem to overwhelm us there is a tendency within us to say not to use what Christ or God has for us but let's use the weapons of this world let's bite back let's fight back let's punch back that's not what the scripture calls us to do when we sit and see what the scripture calls believers to rest in what scripture calls for believers to do in the time of conflict or trial we use the term those who wait on the Lord stand waiting for him because he will move but even more than that there are certain things that this faith allows us to do that we may be persistent in the first is that we must rest in his work three Romans 3 24 and you are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ tonight you and I no matter what the world does around us no matter what government raises up and how they may treat us we are children of God Almighty through the work of Jesus Christ who died on our behalf and if the world comes and shuts us out of participation in this life we live on with Christ right now we are not to worry we are not to be fearful because God has us and he has done the work necessary to sustain us we must feast on the word and that feasting of the word will enrich us even more in Christ listen to these passages John 6 68 and 69 Simon Peter answered him Lord to whom shall we go you have the words of eternal life and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God Jesus was asking his disciples do you want to leave me also as he was making hard teachings and people were following falling away and Peter utters that statement where would we go tonight if you are a believer there are many times the world's ways and tactics raise up and we think that might be a good way but they are the way to death and destruction Jesus is the one as Peter said who has the words of life he is the one the Christ the Holy One of God and that's where we must rest second Timothy chapter 1 verse 12 which is why I suffer as I do but I am not ashamed for I know who I am believed and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me Philippians 1 6 I am sure of this that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ we see that it is not mom in our text or the good in us but rather it is the goodness righteousness and power of God that enables us to live in his power and his strength what do I hope this mom's faith as a gift of God delivered in this context in this passage of scripture teaches us tonight that we should continually cry out as the disciples did to our only hope Lord help us have mercy on us and increase our faith because it is his working that is this mom's only hope that is your only hope and it is my only hope we serve a tremendous living right God and he loves us enables us to love him back through his spirit and through the work of his son let us give him praise let us give him honor on this mother's day and on every other day that we come together let's pray father we thank you for your word because your word is life we have no other hope as this mom came before Christ Jesus and raised her daughter up to him Lord we we just praise you that you give examples where the faith that you implant in us enables us to do the works you have called us to Lord we praise you that you acted on this woman's request and we praise you that you act daily on sustaining and keeping us father forgive us for our unbelief and Lord as we close tonight I pray that you increase our faith that we continually look to Christ as our only hope our only sustainer and it's in Christ's name we pray amen.