Matthew 9 Discussion

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The divine authority of Jesus unfolds dramatically throughout Matthew chapter 9, revealing a Savior whose power extends far beyond physical healing. When confronted with a paralyzed man, Jesus does something unexpected—he forgives the man's sins first, then heals his body. This deliberate sequence demonstrates Christ's ultimate mission: spiritual restoration takes precedence over physical healing. The religious leaders immediately recognize the implication—only God can forgive sins—and their accusation of blasphemy sets the stage for the central question of this chapter: Who exactly is this man?

Jesus continues breaking religious and social boundaries by calling Matthew, a despised tax collector, to follow him. When criticized for dining with "tax collectors and sinners," Jesus delivers the profound statement that defines his ministry: "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick... I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." This reveals both a fundamental truth about humanity—we are spiritually sick—and about God's character—he comes with mercy specifically for those who recognize their need. Self-righteousness becomes the greatest barrier to receiving divine help.

The chapter culminates with Jesus raising a dead girl to life after mourners laugh at his statement that "she is not dead but sleeping." Their mockery represents the natural human response to the seemingly impossible claims of Christianity. Yet Jesus demonstrates that nothing—not even death—lies beyond his authority. The final verses reveal Jesus looking at crowds with compassion, seeing them as "harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." This tender portrayal of God's heart leads to his urgent call for prayer: "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few." This remains our challenge today—many are spiritually ready, but workers are scarce. Will you pray for more laborers? Better yet—might you be one of those workers the world desperately needs?

Episode Transcript

Pastor Plek (00:11):
And welcome back to a chapter a day keeps the devil
away.
I'm pastor Plek, along withpastor Holland, and we're
talking Matthew, chapter nine.
Jesus does a lot of healing inthis chapter, holland.
He heals and then forgives aparalyzed man.
He then calls Matthew and eatswith sinners.
Then Jesus answers questionsabout fasting.
Then Jesus raises a girl, healsa bleeding woman.

(00:33):
Then Jesus heals two blind men,casts out a mute demon.
Then Jesus has compassion onthe crowds and urges prayer for
workers.
All right, workers of theharvest.
That is Now.
What were some things thatstood out to you, holland, about
this text?

Pastor Holland (00:51):
Well, I loved the prayer at the end, the last
two verses where he sees thecrowds harassed and helpless,
like sheep without a shepherd,and he says the harvest is
plentiful, labors are few.
Therefore, pray earnestly tothe Lord of the harvest, send
out more labors into his harvest.
That is a prayer that I haveprayed for many, many, many

(01:13):
years, understanding the needfor people to go out and
shepherd and teach andevangelize and serve and care
for those who are lost, and sothis is a verse that, yeah, just
really sticks out to me withthe shepherd heart of Jesus.

Pastor Plek (01:29):
Yeah, I love that.
I think that there is adesperate need for workers and
we should be always praying formore workers.
I think that's a consistentprayer for the day.
How about the one that'sinteresting why does Jesus get
into forgiving sins when hecould have just healed the guy
and not caused a stir?

Pastor Holland (01:49):
Yeah, I think there, you know, he's
demonstrating his authorities wesaw in previous chapters over
the natural world, over the body, over the spiritual world, and
now he's demonstrating hisauthority over sin, over, you
know, human, our standing beforeGod.
He cannot, he's not just ahealer, he's, he's a forgiver of

(02:09):
sins.

Pastor Plek (02:10):
Right and I think that's important, because why do
you need your sins forgiven?
Because without your sins beingforgiven, there is a hell
waiting for you, and if you arestill in your sins when you die,
then that is your lot in life,and I think that's why it
becomes so important Jesus.
He does address healingphysical ailments only to point

(02:34):
us toward his ability to haveauthority over our spiritual
state.

Pastor Holland (02:38):
Yeah, even going back to the Sermon on the Mount
, where you know he's sayingit's better to enter heaven with
one eye, you know, than to keepyour eye and be thrown into
hell, when he was talking aboutgouging your eye out if it
causes you to lust, and so youknow, if you have your whole
body healed but still get throwninto hell, it's not what you

(03:00):
want, right?
If you're healed of yoursickness and you can walk,
you're no longer paralyzed, butthen you go to hell.
It's like man you got to enjoysome good things in this life,
but what Jesus wants is for youto ultimately enjoy eternal life
, and for that you needforgiveness of sins.

Pastor Plek (03:16):
All right, so let's talk about then, Matthew
choosing to follow Jesus.
It doesn't get into, you know,when you read this, obviously
Jesus is saying follow me from astandpoint of being his
disciple, but do you thinkMatthew knew that?
Or, hey, follow me, and he justthinks he's going to go around
the counter and ends up at hishouse or at his own house or

(03:36):
somewhere.
It was sort of a strange dealthat Jesus.
It would seem like like withPeter and Andrew and James and
John there was some context ofJesus beforehand, but here it
looks like he just randomlywalks up to Matthew and calls
him and he comes and follows him.
Any thoughts there on deepermeaning or anything else?

Pastor Holland (03:57):
Well, I think Jesus, you know, I think it's
apparent who he is he's atraveling teacher To follow me
is, you know, essentially sayingcome study under me, come be my
pupil, my disciple.
And so, I think Matthew, eventhough he's not in the same kind
of position as Peter and Andrewand John and stuff like that, I
think Matthew probably had anunderstanding of what was being

(04:19):
asked of him.
Mm-hmm, you know, at least in ageneral sense, you know,
probably didn't realize at thispoint, he's the Messiah, the
savior of the world.
But you know, hey, here's a,here's a teacher who wants me to
come and be his student and I'mgoing to follow him, yeah, and
lesson number one it comes rightto Matthew and he gets asked

(04:41):
the question.

Pastor Plek (04:41):
He teaches through a little dialogue.
When the Pharisees asked why isyour teacher?
You with tax collectors andsinners?
And he goes like, hey, listen,those who are well have no need
of a physician, only those whoare sick.
Go and learn what this means.
I desire mercy and notsacrifice, for I came to call
the righteous.
I came not to call therighteous but sinners.
So let's talk about that.
In the reality of Christians,not only does Jesus have the

(05:04):
authority to forgive sin.
You have to have the need tounderstand that you have a need
for your sin to be forgiven.

Pastor Holland (05:10):
Yeah, I think.
Moving into the interpretationof, what does this teach about
God?
What does this teach about man?
Number one it teaches about man.
We are sinners, we have asickness, we have a rebellion,
and we have to acknowledge thatabout ourselves, otherwise we're
not going to look to Jesus todo.
What it teaches about God hewants to offer mercy, he wants

(05:33):
to heal the sick as thephysician of our souls.
And so we got to understand weare sinful and we got to
understand there's a punishmentfor sin, and at the same time,
understand about God that he ismerciful and he forgives sinners
through Jesus.

Pastor Plek (05:47):
Yeah, I think that's another truth that I love
.
God has a heart of compassion.
Verse 36,.
Jesus looks at the crowd.
He sees them as harassed andhelpless, like sheep without a
shepherd.
So I feel like that's apowerful truth there that we
need to lean into, that God'snot angry at you because you
can't figure your life out.
I think he is compassionatetowards you that ultimately,

(06:08):
your sin is going to lead toyour own demise and he would
want you to have joy in him.
What about some some moretruths?
I thought that was interestingthat the scribes, the religious
people, accused Jesus ofblasphemy and and then other
people laughed, ultimately, athis power.

(06:31):
So what is that all about?
Remember, because when he showsup to the funeral, they're
laughing at him because he'sgoing to raise the dead.

Pastor Holland (06:41):
Well, he says, she's not dead, she's just
sleeping.

Pastor Plek (06:43):
Yeah, and they laugh Maybe because they really
thought he was joking.
Yeah, we're talking about.
She's not dead, she's justsleeping.
Yeah, and they laugh Maybebecause they really thought he
was joking.

Pastor Holland (06:47):
Yeah, we're talking about.
She's not dead, she's sleeping,she had just died, right, but
they say, come, lay your hand onher and she'll live, yeah, and
so when he gets there, they'redoing the flute players, they're
doing the lamentation stuff,going through the grieving, and
Jesus to say something like thatis like a ridiculous like.

(07:08):
I mean, what a?
Unless you can raise the dead,what an insensitive, ridiculous
thing to say.
Like if my daughter had justdied and I'm in there, just like
completely broken up, andsomeone walks up it's like, oh,
I think she's just asleep, you'dbe like, come on, man, like
shut up, get out of here, youknow like.
And so I think they laugh outof just like the utter
ridiculousness.

(07:29):
And then, and then he goes andraises her from the dead.
Yeah, that's awesome.

Pastor Plek (07:33):
And so not only can he heal Talk about like that
being the greatest day of yourlife, yeah, Doesn't just heal
the sick and cause the paralyticto walk, he can even raise the
dead.

Pastor Holland (07:43):
So it's like progressively getting more and
more like.
Who is this man?

Pastor Plek (07:47):
Give me another any theological truth here that you
see about people or God.

Pastor Holland (07:53):
Well, I think that reality of Jesus can raise
the dead.
You know, when we talk aboutwhat it means to be a Christian,
we're not just saying I agreewith Jesus's teachings, we're
not just saying I align with hismorals, and you know, we're
saying I believe that he rosefrom the dead and he will raise
me from the dead.
It's good.

Pastor Plek (08:11):
Yeah.
So how about some spec you know, sin to avoid, promise to claim
, example to follow, command toobey or knowledge to believe.
How about that first one?
Self-righteousness is somethingthat refuses mercy.
Like I am not sick enough thatI need help, and I think that's
the problem of our culture.
Like I'm not that bad.

Pastor Holland (08:33):
Yeah, yeah, for me, the command to obey is what
I brought up at the beginningabout praying to the Lord of the
harvest, and just a reminder tokeep praying that prayer that
the harvest is plentiful.
It really is that there aremany people whom God is drawing
to himself a plentiful harvestand the lack is not with God and

(08:56):
his desire to save.
The lack is with the workerswilling to go and preach the
gospel.

Pastor Plek (09:00):
Yeah, and along those lines, example to follow
be a friend who brings yourparalyzed friend to Jesus.
And that could be, you know,physical paralysis, spiritual
paralysis.
Bring them to Jesus.

Pastor Holland (09:14):
Yeah, another example to follow.
Be like Matthew.
When Jesus says, follow me, getup and go, you know if you're
listening to this and you're notreally sure if you want to make
that decision, you know it'slike hey, be like Matthew, just
do it.
Look what you know, look whoJesus is, look how amazing he is
and follow him today.

Pastor Plek (09:33):
All right, hey.
Thanks so much for watching.
We'll see you tomorrow on AChapter A Day.