Chapter 9

Chapter 9: the ministry of the King. In verses 1-8 we have the ministry of our Lord to the paralytic; in verses 9-13, the ministry to the tax collector and the prostitutes; inverses 14-17, the ministry to the disciples of John; verses 18-26, the ministry to the Jewish rulers; verses 27-31, the ministry to the blind; verses 32-35, the ministry to the demon-possessed; verses 36-38, the ministry to the disciples. Seven ministries of Jesus are covered in this passage.

Firstly, the ministry to the paralytic. The man with the palsy [Greek: paralytic] was a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ but he did not believe in eternal security. He had four friends who did believe in eternal security and when Jesus came to town they just picked him up and carried him to Jesus, not to be cured. Repeat, they did not bring the paralytic to be cured. They brought him to Jesus so that Jesus could explain eternal security. His physical problem was nothing compared to his spiritual problem. Whenever you find a believer who doesn’t believe in eternal security that person has problems up to their ears, problems which are never resolved until they believe in eternal security.

Verse 1 — “And he [Jesus] entered into a ship.” He had been invited to leave the country of the Gaderenes; “and passed over.” He crossed back over the Sea of Galilee, and on the other side there is a port called Capernaum; “and he came to his own city [Matthew 4:13; Mark 2:1].”

Verse 2 — “And, behold, they brought” — “they” refers to four men; “to him a man sick of the palsy [Greek: paralytic], lying on a bed,” perfect tense: lying on a bed with the result that he didn’t get out of that bed. This man had for a long time been immobilised by his paralysis; “and Jesus seeing their faith.” He saw the faith of the people who carried him, not the person on the bed. The person on the bed is a cluck, he doesn’t believe in eternal security. Jesus saw the faith-rest of the people who carried him, and their faith-rest simply claimed the doctrine. He saw that they believed in eternal security so because they were straight, and He knew of course that they had been arguing about this thing, so He turns to the man who is lying on the bed there (by the way, the religious theologs are all there. Capernaum was about to have a big religious blow-out! Lots of ashes, fasting, agonising, etc., all of the paraphernalia of religiosity) and He said to the paralytic: “Son [the Greek word is teknon, which means kid out of fellowship!], be of good cheer.” You don’t say, “Be of good cheer” to a person who is paralytic. It isn’t “Be of good cheer” at all. The Greek says: “Be confident.” “Have confidence.” This is important because this man’s problem is that he doesn’t believe in eternal security and therefore he has no confidence, and Jesus says to him: “Have confidence.” It is a present active imperative: Keep on having confidence. Then He tells him why — “thy sins [past, present, and future] are forgiven.” The word “forgiven” means dismissed, cancelled. Present tense: they are always cancelled; passive voice: he received cancellation, he didn’t deserve it; the indicative mood is the reality of eternal security; “thee” is dative of advantage, it is to his advantage, as with every believer, to have eternal security.

Jesus at this moment did not heal or attempt to heal the paralytic. What is more important, doctrine in the frontal lobe or health? The Bible says that doctrine in the frontal lobe is more important. Jesus has already provided for this man eternal life. He is paralytic, so he suffers for ten years or twenty years or thirty years. So what! What is thirty years compared to eternity? This man’s problem is not his illness, it is doctrine in the frontal lobe. So Jesus takes care of his problem. Anything God does is permanent, eternal. We should not short-change God. Anyone who doesn’t believe in eternal security doesn’t give God any credit.

Verse 3 — the theologians had to get into it, they couldn’t stand this. Here is the opposition of religion, the “National Council of Churches of Israel” was on hand! “And, behold, certain of the scribes.” They have come up to observe this great religious fast, this “holy” day, and they are the theologians of Judaism. They didn’t say anything out loud. Like many of the religious types they will think it but they won’t say it. So they thought it; “said within themselves.” This means to think it, they are critical of Jesus but they do not express it overtly. “This one [not man] blasphemeth [slanders].” The word “blasphemeth” means to slander.

Verse 4 — Jesus, being omniscient, reads their thinking. “And Jesus knowing their thoughts” — “knowing” is a perfect tense used as a present for information that He always had; “said, Why do you think evil [slander] in your hearts.” The heart is the frontal lobe, the mind.

Verse 5 — “For which [not whether] is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise and walk?” Which is easier? To say his sins are forgiven, or rise up. In other words, heal the man? Which is easiest? For Jesus to forgive the man or to heal the man? The hardest thing for Jesus to say is the first one, “Thy sins are forgiven.” Why? Because Jesus cannot say this to anyone except a person who believes in Christ. Jesus can heal anyone, their volition isn’t involved. They don’t have to have faith to be healed or anything else. All they have to have is a disease. What their mental attitude happens to be or whether they have faith or anything doesn’t mean a thing. Jesus can heal anyone because it doesn’t involve human volition, it simply involves divine volition. But to forgive sin involves divine volition and human volition — faith in Christ. This man has to be saved and he is saved, he just doesn’t believe in eternal security. So Jesus turns to the theologians and asks them which is the easiest to say.

The theologs would say it is easier, much easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven, because that’s what they have been doing. They go around, someone gives them a donation, and they say: Thank you, thy sins be forgiven thee. But they can’t heal, you see. So they wouldn’t dare say to this paralytic to get up and walk because he couldn’t .But they could walk around and say, Thy sins be forgiven — of course they’re really not — it is much easier. Religion offers forgiveness of sin on the basis of human works and human merit which is, of course, blasphemy. Jesus can only forgive the sins of those who personally trust in Him. Faith in Christ precedes forgiveness, but Jesus can heal with or without faith on the part of the recipient — believer or unbeliever. It is easier for Jesus to heal than for Jesus to save. Even though Jesus died for the entire human race each individual must personally receive Him as saviour — John 1:12.

In verses 6 and 7 Jesus presents His credit card to these religious people about to enter in their great religious holiday.

Verse 6 — “But that ye may know that the Son of man keeps on having the authority on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the paralytic,) Arise, take up thy bed and go into the house.”

Verse 7 — “And he arose and departed into his house.” So Jesus just gave them His credit card and said: “Look, I’m the saviour.”

Verse 8 — the crowd reacted. They thought that this power had been given to a man and this is the God-Man, so they were all mixed up. This is what happens when the religious crowd gets control.

The ministry to the tax collector and prostitutes, verses 9-13.

Verse 9 — There was one person in that crowd who just hated the hypocrisy of the religious crowd and Jesus in that crowd saw him and recognised positive volition, and so He went to this man to lead him to Himself — Matthew.

We now go to the people who were ostracised. You have to remember that in all the great cities of Galilee and Judah they have this big religious push and there are two kinds of people who are completely ostracised by society — the tax collectors and the prostitutes. Jesus had His greatest ministry to these people and by contrast He had His worst ministry to the Pharisees. Two conversions in three years among the Pharisees. Jesus is going where the positive volition is and before this night is out He is going to one of the most wonderful parties, and He is going to stay at this party all night and there is going to be a revival at it while the religious crowd are chanting through the streets with ashes on their faces are wearing their sackcloth and their phoney front of hypocrisy.

“And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew.” He had already seen him, and when it says He saw him it is an aorist tense, meaning He saw him back in the crowd. Matthew was on positive volition but how did he know that Jesus had the message for him? He didn’t know about this. The thing that was so wonderful about Matthew as an unbeliever was that he was honest, he faced the situation. He knew that he was a sinner so why put on all of this religious front. God isn’t impressed with all that sackcloth and ashes and fasting. Matthew was smart.

“sitting at the receipt of custom,” the tax office. Matthew was a tax collector and as such was ostracised by society. Jesus showed us something about the looking-down-the nose attitude to segments of society which are ostracised by society. Jesus spent a great deal of time with these kind of people. Mary Magdalene was a prostitute and after her conversion was the greatest person for doctrine in the frontal lobe during the three years of our Lord’s ministry. She knew more doctrine than all of the eleven disciples put together. Peter had to almost die before he learned any doctrine, but at least he stayed with it until he learned. John was the best of all the disciples for doctrine but Mary Magdalene knew more than all of them and she is the number one student of the Word of God during our Lord’s earthly ministry and she was the only woman alone to see the resurrected Christ. But Jesus doesn’t look down His nose at Matthew because he is a publican (“publican” is Latin and means tax collector, public servant), and He doesn’t look down His nose at the prostitutes.

“and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him.” And you say, isn’t that rather strange for Jesus just to come in and say to Matthew to follow Him. He’s a stranger to him. But He wasn’t a stranger. Matthew was in the crowd, he saw the comeuppance of the scribes. And that one word in the aorist tense — “he [Jesus] saw a man,” tells us that He saw him in the crowd, and He saw his positive volition even though he was ostracised by society. So the response of Matthew wasn’t unusual. Matthew has been challenged because Jesus Christ would not put up with that phoney theological hypocrisy. He wouldn’t put up with legalism and He laid low the phoneys and when he did Matthew just opened his heart to Him. But he didn’t know what to do, and being ostracised he would never approach anyone himself, so he went back to his office and Jesus went to his office and went in and said: “Follow me.” Jesus went after Matthew first, and Jesus goes after every member of the human race. Matthew is saved that day and he is so elated, so happy, and so full of joy with his new-found salvation, to think that he has eternal life, ostracised by society and yet accepted by God. And this thing is so marvellous and so wonderful to him that he wants his friends to be saved, and if you are going to get your friends where they will hear this message you don’t take people to Church! They wouldn’t be accepted in the synagogue or in any of the religious centres of Capernaum because all of his friends were all tax collectors and prostitutes. So he throws a big party in his own house on the same night that they are going to have the religious parade.

There are a lot of Christians who wouldn’t have gone to this party, and if they did they wouldn’t have known what to do with themselves. They would probably stand around and say: Isn’t the Lord wonderful, or something of that sort! And everyone would say: Who is that cluck? It takes a mature, smart believer to walk into a party like this and be the life of the party, and that night Jesus was the life of the party. And while this party is going on, down the street the religious crowd are walking by and chanting these mournful things. And there were born again believers in that line, walking down the street with ashes on their faces, having fasted all day and wearing sackcloth — the disciples of John, they were in this mess. But there is one house where they didn’t stop that night and that was Matthew’s house. When they heard a lot of happy sound and noise they went right on by, and all the scribes were interested in on this “holy” day was to get the owner’s name — they would get him later.

Verse 10 — but in the home of Matthew. “And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house.” To sit at meat means to recline at a table Roman style. The Romans sat up for most of their meals but not at parties. They started by lying down beside the table and ended up by lying under the table! And Jesus was reclined in the formal style for a dinner party, He leaned on one elbow. They ate from a reclining position. The Greek says, “he kept on reclining at the table.” We know from Luke 5:27-30; Mark 2:14,15 that this was Matthew’s house. It doesn’t say so here because Matthew wrote it. Matthew just wrote “the house.”

“behold, many publicans and sinners” — tax collectors and their girlfriends; “came,” aorist tense. This is where the Greek really helps. When it says “came” in the aorist tense it means this: they came and looked in. Why did they look in? These are tax collectors, these are their girlfriends, they always looked in to see who was there before they walked in. This was the way their society was designed and they never barged into a place, they looked around first. And if they liked what was going on then they went back and they got their girlfriends and in they came. If it looked like a dull party the tax collector would take his girlfriend and say, Let’s get out of here, this is dead. But this night when Matthew and Jesus and His disciples were there they came in and sat down. Question: If you as a born again believer had been there that night, would they have come in and sat down? Answer: If you had that phoney front, the Lord this and the Lord that, Hallelujah and Praise the Lord, and all that business, or if you had sat over in a corner looking shocked, they would have got out of there. Maybe that is why the Lord hasn’t sent you to any of these parties! Supposing these people had come to Matthew’s place and Jesus and His disciples were “taking a stand,” as we find legalists doing today. So you have to have a little bit of sense and maturity, you have to know what you are doing. And, above all you have to have “grace poise,” doctrinal poise. You might be sitting in there and living it up a little bit yourself and enjoying things until you see another believer friend come in, and then you switch into your false face, your holy face. In the meantime you are not having any fun any more, someone cooled it for you. Some wet blanket trotted in. You may kid yourself but you never kid anyone else when you live that way. You have to stay loose and relaxed. Doctrine in the frontal lobe and the filling of the Spirit are the things that relax us in all kinds of situations.

“came” — aorist tense, they kept on coming at different times; “and sat down with him” — imperfect linear aktionsart, the kept sitting down with Him and His disciples. There was a great harvest that night.

Verse 11 — notice the opposition of tabooism. “And when the Pharisees saw it.” Here are the chanters outside. Where would you rather be, outside with ashes and sackcloth, nothing to eat all day, and singing one of those morbid chants, or would you like to be inside with Jesus?; “they said.” The imperfect linear aktionsart tells us that they kept on saying. They talked about this for a long time; “unto his disciples, Why does your Master eat with tax collectors and prostitutes?” That is the literal Greek. There was a law in Israel that no one was to eat with a tax collector or a prostitute and it carried as much weight as the ten commandments because of the influence of religion. And yet Jesus just cut right through that law and He went to the people who had positive volition, those who were hungry. He went to the people who were ready for Him because they didn’t have any illusions about themselves and they weren’t trying to put on the phoney front. They didn’t have any false face to take off. The Pharisees who were there with the scribes were the religious crowd; they are the ones who were critical. Their pet area of holiness has been violated; they have been fasting and Jesus has been eating; they have been having ashes smeared all over their faces and Jesus has been all dressed up for the party; they have been wearing rags and He is well dressed. And they don’t like it, they want everyone to be as miserable as they are. Miserable people can only be happy when other people are as miserable as themselves or when they can drag people down to their level of misery.

Verse 12 — Jesus answers the tabooists. “ … He said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.” This is an old proverb which means in effect that the doctor goes to the sick, not to the well. So Jesus indicated that as a spiritual doctor He was going to those who needed the message and who would respond to the message. Of course the Pharisees and the scribes were equally as sick but Jesus would visit them in the synagogues and in the temple. But Jesus doesn’t try to reach the scribes and the Pharisees in Capernaum, He goes to Jerusalem to witness to them. In Capernaum He goes to the house of Matthew, He goes to a dinner party, He witnesses to the tax collectors and the prostitutes.

Verse 13 — Jesus also answers from scripture. “But go ye and learn” — this is what you call rubbing their noses in it; “what that meaneth” — “that” is Hosea 6:6 and they have already studied Hosea. Jesus says to go to the Bible; they have studied the Bible. Now the quotation from Hosea: “I will have mercy, not sacrifice.” The scribes, Pharisees and the priests had sacrifices that day; Jesus said: “I will have mercy, not sacrifice.” What does He mean? Mercy is grace in action. When Jesus went to the house of Matthew that was mercy. The scribes and the Pharisees out in the streets chanting their hymns and so on was sacrifice, ritual. They were going through ritual; He was exercising grace.

“For I am not come to call the righteous [self-righteous].” In Capernaum He will not deal with the scribes, the Pharisees and the chief priests. He will go to Jerusalem and deal with them on their own ground and use a different approach. Here He is dealing with the prostitutes and the tax collectors; “but the prostitutes [not sinners]” — and there is no word “repentance” in the original language here. In other words, what Jesus is saying is that on that night He had led prostitutes to the Lord. And there are prostitutes in heaven now because He went to that party that night and because He spoke to them.

Verse 14 — the opposition of born again legalists. “Then came to him [to Jesus] the disciples of John.” These people are born again, and while Jesus and the disciples were feasting in the house of Matthew they were fasting and joined the religious line in the streets. You see, to them fasting meant spirituality. They thought that there was some spiritual merit in fasting, but there isn’t. Fasting is legalism. God doesn’t give any points for going without food. There is a bona fide fasting which involves this principle: spending time which he would spend for eating in study of the Word and prayer. But it is the study of the Word and prayer that is profitable, not the going without food. These people are born again and they are criticising Jesus Christ. That takes gall. “Why do we and the Pharisees” — the disciples of John are linked with the Pharisees who are legalistic — “fast often but thy disciples fast not?” This is a criticism the next day because of what happened, and they think they are being so clever. Principle: Legalism always puts the believer in direct opposition to Jesus Christ. Legalism causes the believer to imitate the unbeliever and legalism causes the believer to be linked with the unbeliever — “we and the Pharisees.” Where were they last night? They were going through the streets with the religious crowd.

Verse 15 — Jesus gives three answers to this slap in the face, this criticism from legalistic believers. The first answer in verse 15 has to do with inner happiness or true spirituality. The illustration is the honeymoon. “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?” This could never be sorted out unless you understand one or two little things. You have to understand that the wedding guests stayed in the home with the bride and the groom during the honeymoon. And they feasted and had a great time. This was the custom and it was a very exciting and gay time and everyone had a lot of fun. And, of course, the party broke up when the bride and the groom left.

The wedding guests are believers and the groom is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is on the earth and what Jesus is saying to them is: “As long as I am here personally you ought to be having a wonderful time.”

“ … but they day will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and then shall they fast” — in the true sense of the word [Bible study and prayer]. This is the first illustration, and the illustration is happiness, happiness in the sense of being relaxed.

Verse 16 — the second illustration: garments. If you have an old garment which has been torn and take a new patch, that new patch has not been run through the washing machine a few dozen times so it is not pre-shrunk. The next time the garment goes through the washing machine the patch shrinks and we end up with a bigger hole than was there before. That is the illustration.

“No man putteth a piece of new cloth.” The word for new cloth in the Greek is unshrunk cloth; “on an old garment [the old garment is pre-shrunk], for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse.” The new cloth, the patch which is not shrunk is legalism, and a special type of legalism here: fasting. So if you try to put fasting on the Christian way of life or the believer’s way of life, what do you do to phase two or the believer’s way of life? You tear it up with legalism. In other words, legalism destroys phase two. The same thing is said in Galatians: “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.” A little bit of legalism in phase two destroys phase two.

Verse 17 — the final illustration. It has nothing to do with bottles. “Neither do men put new wine in old bottles.” Actually it wouldn’t make a bit of difference to put new wine in old bottles. But you see they didn’t have bottles in those days. This is a goat skin, a wine skin, not a bottle. When you empty the wine skin it dries out. What happens to leather when it dries out? It cracks. So what happens when you pour wine or vinegar or anything like that in that leather? The cracks break open. And if you take an old wine skin and load it up again you have wine squirting out all over the place out of the cracks. That is what we have here.

“but they put new wine into new bottles [wineskins], and both are preserved.” The new wine refers to phase two, the believer’s way of life. The old wine skin is legalism. You can’t take the Christian way of life and put it into legalism, you have to put it in a new wine skin and the new wine skin is grace. That is the lesson He was trying to teach these people. You have to put a new way of life in a new frame of reference. The Christian way of life only goes in a grace frame of reference, it will not be contained in legalism. When you try to pour the Christian way if life into legalism the Christian way of life leaks out, the cracks open, and there is no Christian way of life. There is a broken, empty, cracked wine skin which is legalism. There is no place for legalism in the Christian way of life.

In reviewing verse 15 the words “then shall they fast” is a prophetical reference. It is a future tense referring to the communion table. The type of fast that we have at the communion table is a legitimate fast; it is remembering the Lord Jesus Christ. When the Lord is taken, reference to His death and burial, “then shall they fast.” The disciples then would enter into this communion concept. This is perpetuated: time used for Bible study and prayer which would ordinarily be used for something else. It anticipates the Church Age.

The great concept of verse 15 is happiness, gaiety, relaxed gaiety. Jesus is saying that we are a happy lot, we have inner happiness, we are relaxed. He is saying in effect: We are going where the positive volition is. And positive volition in Capernaum was tax collectors and prostitutes. So, goodbye to all you self-righteous ones!

Verse 18-26, the ministry to the ruler of the synagogue. There was one man in Capernaum who was a religious man but who had positive volition. He was the ruler of the synagogue.

Verse 18 — “a certain ruler.” We know from Luke 8:40-56 and Mark 5:21-43 that this ruler’s name was Jairus. Notice: What were the disciples of John doing the next day to Jesus? They criticised Him. But what did the ruler of the synagogue do? — “came and worshipped him.” Some of the worst criticisers in the world are believers; the worst people in the world for sins of the tongue are believers. This doesn’t mean that there isn’t a lot of gossiping and maligning on the outside but it just means that the favourite indoor sport of believers is to run down everyone else. They get high and mighty on their pedestal of self-righteousness and there is nothing that will drive people away quicker than that constant criticism, judging, maligning, and running down others.

“saying, My daughter is even now dead.” She has just died is what this says in the Greek. But even though she is now dead; “but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.” This tells us something about the ruler of the synagogue. Here is a man who reads the credentials of our Lord properly and even now has accepted the Lord, or will very shortly. Jesus didn’t heal those people so they could feel better and have good health. He performed acts of healing and the miracles to focus attention upon Himself. The important thing is eternal life, not how you feel in time. This is a religious man who is the ruler of the synagogue and he is about to get out of religion. It took the credentials of Jesus Christ to wake him up. When he said: “Lay thy hand upon her and she shall live,” he knew that Jesus was God, he knew that Jesus could heal his daughter, he knew that Jesus could perform miracles, he read the credentials.

Verse 19 — “And Jesus arose, and followed him.” The word “followed” means he kept on following Him (imperfect linear aktionsart). Of course the disciples all went along too for the ride.

Verse 20 — on the way. “And, behold, a woman which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years.”

She had the type of thing with which medical science could not cope; “came behind him,” aorist tense. Apparently what she had been doing was waiting for Him to talk to Him about her problem but every time she tried to talk those disciples and all of the others were always around. She could never see Him alone, and so the aorist tense means she saw her chance at least to come up and touch Him; “and touched the hem of his garment,” that is all she could do. This woman is expressing a very deep faith. She knows that the Lord can help her and understanding that there is no human solution she looks for the divine solution. So we must recognise that the touching of the hem of the garment is very definitely connected with the faith-rest principle. We must assume then that she is a believer.

Verse 21 — we get something of her thinking. “For she said.” And when we have this phrase it is imperfect tense, which means she kept on saying this within herself ; “If I may but touch his garment I shall be whole.” The word to “be whole” here is not the word to be whole at all. In fact there is no Greek word to be whole. This is the Greek word swzw, which is translated sometimes to save and sometimes to deliver. Here of course it has to do with therapy and therefore it is in the context of deliverance. Swzw means to be delivered from her problem. It is a future passive indicative, and the future tense is logical conclusion. Here is another person who has read the credit card. The passive voice means that she will receive deliverance, she will not earn it or deserve it.

Verse 22 — “But Jesus turned him about.” It means He swung around suddenly, aorist tense; “and when he saw her, he said, Daughter.” He used a word for family relationship which indicates this woman is saved, a relationship exists.

“be of good comfort.” He didn’t say that. It is one word in the Greek, a present active imperative, and it is: “keep on having [what you already have] confidence.” Confidence is what we have to have. When you have the faith-rest technique you have confidence. Your problems are in the Lord’s hands and therefore you have confidence. And He said to her, present active imperative: “You keep on having confidence.” This is important.

“thy faith” — this is faith-rest; “hath made thee whole,” one word again in the Greek, swzw in the perfect tense. In verse 21 we had swzw in the future tense, logical progression. And why was it logical that she was going to be delivered? Because she had put her problems in the Lord’s hands, as per Psalm 55:22 and 1 Peter 5:7. When you put a problem in the Lord’s hands it is logical that He is going to take care of it. In verse 22 Jesus swung about and told her to keep on having this confidence, and He said: “Thy faith hath made thee whole.” Here we have swzw again in the perfect tense which means that you are delivered now with the result that you will never have this problem again.

“And the woman was made whole [swzw],” and now we go to the aorist tense. In that point of time when Jesus uttered those words the problem was over right then, and she didn’t have any problem with it ever again, she was once and for all delivered.

Verse 23 — we go on with Jairus. “When Jesus came to the ruler’s house and saw the minstrels.” Remember his daughter is dead, but these are not minstrels at all, they are flute players that play for funerals; “and the people making a noise” — professional mourners wailing.

Verse 24 — “He said unto them,” imperfect linear aktionsart, which says He kept on saying to them; “Give place.” Isn’t that sweet! He said no such thing. What He really said was: “Get out!” And He kept on saying it.

“for the maid is not dead, she is sleeping.” The only place where the word sleeping is used for death is in the case of a believer, and it indicates the fact that the body sleeps in anticipation of the resurrection. Waking up is a picture of the resurrection. This little girl is saved — “sleepeth,” a word used only for Christian death or regenerate persons dying; “and they laughed him to scorn.” They ridiculed Him by laughter as they left, literally.

Verse 25 — “he took her by the hand and the maid rose up.” The word “maid” here means a little girl not more than ten years old.

Verse 26 — public reaction. Fame went abroad into all the land. The word “fame” isn’t the word fame at all. The Greek word is fhmh, and what the translators of the King James version did was to transliterate this word. But it isn’t fame at all. Fhmh is simply a news report.

Verses 27-31, the ministry to the blind.

Verse 27 — “And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him.” On His way to the door this woman having this problem touched Him. Now who is following Him? Blind people! If this isn’t a thorough roasting of the scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees who have good eyesight. When He left these blind men stumbled after Him. The aorist tense means they started to follow, they couldn’t have followed Him very far because they are blind and no one is leading them. So, as Jesus was leaving them they had to cry out, and so, present linear aktionsart, they kept on crying out, “Thou son of David, have mercy on us.” They repeated these things.

The principle is obvious: If these two blind men could realise that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of David, any resident with eyesight should be able to make the same identification. These blind men cannot see, they did not observe the credit card, the miracles, the healing, the credentials. And these two blind men are witnesses against the unbelievers at Capernaum.

“have mercy” — aorist active imperative. They are not asking for mercy, they are demanding mercy. When you use the imperative mood with Jesus Christ it is an expression of faith. There is no word “have,” and what they actually said if you want the literal Greek is, “Son of David, mercy.” They demanded mercy [grace in action]. And who has the right to demand grace in action? Anyone who is born again who has one smidgen of doctrine in his frontal lobe. This is confidence again. These two, men are blind but they have fabulous confidence.

Verse 28 — “And when he was come into the house the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them.” Jesus did not say this to them for their benefit, He said it for the benefit of those around. Jesus spotted their faith when He walked out the door of Jairus’s house, this is not for the benefit of Jesus or for the benefit of the blind men. The blind men know what they are thinking, Jesus knows what they are thinking, Jesus knows what they have said, He thoroughly understands it. This is said for the benefit of the other people standing around; “Believe ye that I am able to do this?” “Believe ye” is present tense, and the present linear aktionsart here means, Do you keep on believing? In other words, He is saying the same things that He said to the woman, Keep on having confidence.

“that I am able” — present linear aktionsart, “that I am always able to do?” He switches to the aorist tense, He knew that it just takes a second to heal them.

“They said unto him, Yea, Lord.” And notice they called Him Lord — kurioj, deity. Jesus Christ is Lord as of the moment of salvation; they are born again.

Verse 29 — “Then he touched their eyes, saying, according to your faith” — “according to” is the preposition of norm or standard. It is kata in the Greek, the preposition of norm, standard or criterion. And the norm or the standard for this activity is operation faith-rest which gives all the credit to God. He does the work; He gets the credit.

“according to the standard of your faith be it” — “be it” is literally, become — ginomai — and it is an aorist passive imperative. The aorist tense means now and once and for all; the passive voice means received sight, they didn’t earn it or deserve it; the imperative mood tells us it was a command.

Verse 30 — “And their eyes were opened [immediately]; and Jesus straightly charged them, saying, See that no man knows it.” This is a very important verse. “Straightly charged” is one word in the Greek, it means to warn sternly, to give a command in a very stern manner. This is the strongest word for telling someone to do something. Keep quiet! You keep on your toes, no one must know it.

There were several reasons for commanding silence

1. Jesus must first of all present His credentials to Israel — the miracles followed by the content of His message. Then Jesus will use some people who are prepared. These two men had faith and they are operating under the faith-rest technique but they are not prepared, they are still full of emotional zeal. They are just the ones who should keep their mouths shut because they are not prepared to tell people anything. Jesus wants to present is credentials and He doesn’t want these two men to muddy up the water. There are a lot of people around today who do just that. Example: you don’t witness for Christ until you know something.

2. Jesus is faced with a maximum negative volition in the frontal lobes of the people of Capernaum. Where in the Old Testament do you have an illustration of a city with maximum positive volition? Nineveh. Jonah was sent there and told to speak. But now Jesus tells these two blind men to shut up. But because these two men are sentimental and zealous and very stupid, the go right out and open their mouths. As a result, verse 34, the Pharisees got together and said: “He casteth out demons through the prince of demons” — blasphemy.

Verse 31 — their disobedience. “But they, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame in all that country” — the suburbs.

Verse 32 — “As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil [demon].”

Verse 33 — “And when the demon was cast out, the dumb spake: and the multitudes marvelled.” Notice something, and you have to see this in it’s context: the two blind men were unprepared. They had faith-rest technique, they had confidence, but they were minus doctrine and were not prepared in any way to go out. They were full of zeal, full of hot air, but no solid doctrine. So Jesus gave them a command to shut up. Now we have a dumb man, but this man is smart. He is dumb because he is demon possessed and when the demon is cast out and this man goes out, he is permitted to speak. We must draw some conclusions from that: the two men who were formerly blind were not prepared but the man who was dumb was only saved for five minutes, or ten minutes, or a day, and he can go out and talk. It isn’t how long you have been in the Christian life. Some people can go out from day one in the Christian life and make the issue of the gospel clear. Notice: The dumb spake and the multitude marvelled. Are they marvelling because of the miracle? Or are they marvelling because of what he is saying? Obviously, from the next phrase they are marvelling because of the miracle but they are willing to listen him — “It was never so seen in Israel.”

Because the two blind men spoke this is what happened. And how do we know that this verse 34 has anything to do with verse 31? In verse 30 the men were sternly told by Jesus to be on their toes that no one knew about the miracle. He commands obedience. In the next verse: “But,” conjunction of contrast, they went out and disobeyed. They were in status quo disobedience. The conjunction “but” is connected with the word “but” at the beginning of verse 34. The whole point is that in the structure of the Greek language in between you have the fact that Jesus permitted some people to speak but He didn’t let the two blind men speak. Conclusion: they were not prepared in the ways in which people are prepared to witness. Therefore He gets back on the subject and says, Look because these two men spoke you have “but” connected with “but,” and it means that the conjunction is more than just an ordinary conjunction of contrast, it is what is called a connecting conjunctional concept in which you have one “but” as the result of the other.

“But the Pharisees kept on saying, He casteth out demons through the prince of demons.” In other words, they would not accept the miracle of casting out the demon of the dumb man because the other two men messed it up. Have you ever had the experience of witnessing to someone and some nitwit has gone before you and messed it up? It is very hard when someone has gone in and muddied up the water to follow them and make it clear. Now here is a man who can make it clear. He is the dumb man who is now healed from demon possession. And so what do the Pharisees say? Because the two blind men have muddied up the water they say He does this by means of Satan. It is blasphemy. But in spite of that the ministry of Jesus continues.

Verse 35 — “And Jesus went about all the cities … teaching in their synagogues.” Notice what is first — teaching, teaching, teaching. In other words, when you are giving the gospel you have to convey information, and teaching is the communication of correct information; “and preaching.” Preaching is simply proclaiming, it means to announce as a herald; “and healing” — presenting the credit card.

Verse 36 — “But when he saw the multitudes he was moved with compassion,” which means to have a deep reasonable sympathy, it doesn’t mean to get sentimental. You are never going to be successful as a soul winner until you have a reasonable sympathy, and a reasonable sympathy is based on Bible doctrine. You must see people not from the sentimental standpoint but you must see all kinds of people as they really are in the light of divine viewpoint and/or doctrine. And of you don’t see people from the standpoint of doctrine you can’t cut it. To fall into the sentimental trap means you are not going to make the issue clear. People need information, not an exhibition of childishness. Zeal is not a virtue unless there is doctrine involved.

What moved Him with compassion? First of all they were minus divine viewpoint — “they fainted,” perfect passive participle. This is the fainting of Hebrews 12:3 — “Lest ye be weary and faint in your mind.” It means simply that their mental attitude was devoid of Biblical information, doctrinal information; “and were scattered,” perfect passive participle. The word “scattered” was originally used to mean to fall to the ground because you are drunk, and it means to hit the ground because you can’t do anything else. You can’t walk, you can’t stand, you have no control over yourself and so you hit the ground. That is what the word scattered means and it means that mentally they were not capable of taking it in. At the point of God-consciousness they were loaded with negative volition. And yet at this point in northern Israel this was one of the most religious towns. Religion fosters and strengthens the whole concept of negative volition at the point of God-consciousness. The third thing that caused His compassion was that they had no shepherd. A shepherd here is someone to feed them, someone to communicate the right things — doctrine.

Verse 37 — the challenge. “Then saith he unto his disciples.” He turns to His disciples now and He is going to start training them, preparing them to go out; “The harvest plenteous [no verb here], but the labourers few.” The labourer here is a skilled labourer, someone who knows what he is doing. (There are a lot of blind men who can now see and are running around and muddying the water)

Verse 38 — Notice Jesus doesn’t say, Here is the harvest, go, go, go. Why? Because they are not ready to go. He tells them to start praying. “Pray ye” is an aorist passive imperative. Aorist tense: now pray ye; passive voice: you have to have a burden of prayer before you get prepared; the imperative mood: the prayer is a command but it is a command into which you cannot enter until you have the concept of prayer. In other words, He is saying that before you can even pray you have to be sold on prayer. And prayer will be part of the preparation, it is the barrage out in front.

“that the Lord of the harvest.” Who brings in the harvest? Who is the Lord of the harvest? The Holy Spirit is the Lord of the harvest. Who do you think brings you through? Have you ever heard of the doctrine of common grace, the doctrine of the convicting work of the Spirit? Have you ever read the 16th chapter of John? “He the Holy Spirit will convince you of sin, righteousness and judgement.” The Lord of the harvest is the Holy Spirit.

Now you are not praying to the Holy Spirit here because you have the passive voice in Pray ye. You receive the principle of prayer. All prayer is directed to the Father but under the principle of prayer when you are praying for the harvest you pray that God the Holy Spirit will use you, your brain, your doctrine, your wisdom, to deal with these people in the right way.

“that he” — “that” introduces a purpose clause; “will send forth labourers.” The word “send forth” means to throw out or to force out. Force out where? — “into his harvest.” Who is going to be forced out? Clue: passive voice in “pray ye”; the Lord of the harvest is the Holy Spirit, so you are not praying to the Holy Spirit but you are praying about a principle, that He will force out labourers to the harvest. Who are the labourers? The people who are going to pray. If you are willing to pray you are willing to go. So this will be a volitional test. If you are willing to pray you are willing to go. Prayer in this particular verse means you are available. Jesus is not going to use people who are not willing to do it. Prayer is used here as a test of availability.