Grace Thoughts

Guest (Male): Hello friends, welcome to Grace Thoughts, the radio ministry of Grace Connection Church with Pastor Tim Kelley. Grace Thoughts has been dedicated to preaching a clear gospel of grace for over 20 years. Here is Pastor Kelley.

Tim Kelley: I've been asked numerous times where some of the information has come from for this series that we've been doing as we give a lot of historical background to some of the gospel messages. I decided to show you the book right here. It's really good. It's called *What is God Like?*. This came from the Long family. I'll read a few verses of it.

Are you strong or gentle or ever sad? Do you have a temper like me when I'm mad? Where do you live? In a house in the sky? How do I know you are somewhere nearby? What is God like? So, let's close.

Sincerely, this is funny because we've been talking about this and this is a cute children's book on how to describe who God is. But that's quite a question: what is God like? That's why we had the series, *Discovering God*. We want a clear picture of what God is like. Who is God? How does He think? What are His values? How does He look at us? I know how I filter that information. How I think about God, the image that I create in my mind, will directly impact my relationship with you, it will directly impact my relationship with myself, and it will directly impact my relationship with God.

What do I filter my thoughts through? That's been the purpose of this series. What is God really like? We have been taking some gospel parables and some gospel accounts like we'll do today, and we've been framing it back into 2,000-year-old Palestinian peasant culture. That's where these things happened. When Jesus taught the parables and when Jesus did some of these miracles, you have to understand His audience was not a 2015 audience. It was an ancient audience that had certain norms and customs, values, and prejudices that these stories were filtered through.

What we read in our English Bibles, though we get significant points and understanding from that, sometimes falls far different or at least not as thorough and complete as when you frame it historically and in the customs of the day. The problem is most people answer the question, "What is God like?" and they filter it through their own experience or through denominational religion.

I'm not a church basher because I'd be bashing myself. I do church. A lot of people want to write books about how bad the church is. I don't believe that. I believe you're God's children. To bash the organized church is to take a swipe at the very thing that God created. I don't want to go there, but sometimes we relate God to people in the church or maybe a particular control thing a church may have.

Religion has often failed to bring its followers to a full and correct image of the God that we worship. This message won't do that either unless we take it home and think about these things and reflect on them. I've been on this road for 30 years as a grace-based teacher and preacher, and I am consistently untangling wrong concepts about God in my own mind and heart. I go legal on myself just like that if I give myself any time at all. Usually, we reduce God down to behavioral practice, missing the heart of what He wants us to see.

In week two, we went through John 1:1-18 where John equates Jesus with the Father numerous times. Anyone who has seen the Father has seen me. John 14:6, Jesus said to the disciples, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." He said, "If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him."

What do you mean you have seen Him? You've seen Him through me. I am the Father let out. I'm the exegesis of God. If you're wondering what God is really like, then I am living out God's life on earth. My name is Jesus. I'm the Son of God, co-equal with the Father. If you want to see what God is really like, then look at my life, my values, the things I said, and the things that I did. Then you'll find out and get a clear picture of what God is really like, apart from my own spin on things.

This morning, I want to look at the story of two ladies. I had three ladies, but I wanted to have lunch today and I realized it was going to go a long time if I did the third lady. We'll do the next lady next week. These are not famous people; they're average people. They weren't teachers; they were just people like you and I. They brought their lives to the feet of Jesus and they needed God to intervene for them. They needed an advocate. Jesus gives us a great picture in these stories of the Father's heart, and I pray that this will minister to you as it did for me.

Matthew chapter 15, starting in verse 21. In your NIV Bible in front of you, that's on page 1025. If you're in this section and have the gray English Standard Bible, that's on page 566. I'm making it easy on you. In a few weeks, we're starting a new format and the verses may not even be up here. If you don't have a Bible, we have them on sale for $299 in the bookstore. A special bargain just for you.

Verse 21: "Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon." Those were Gentile areas. That's the bad side of town. You didn't travel down there, but He was there. "And behold, a Canaanite woman from the region came out and was crying, 'Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.'"

I'm going to stop there and talk a little bit about this because if you're a parent, and most of you are or have parented at one point, and you see a sick child, it occupies your mind, especially if they're really sick. Imagine if your child was demon-possessed. I don't know if you've ever seen demon possession. I personally haven't. I've seen a few people I think are demon-possessed, but that's just my opinion. I've read accounts of it and seen it. You can imagine it's a pretty oppressive thing.

It would be a pretty scary thing to watch your child being thrashed about, doing unnatural acts, saying unnatural things from a supernatural realm. What would that do to a parent? Enter into the heart of this dear woman here. She finds the Lord and says, "Have mercy on me, Son of David." She's saying to Jesus, "You're the Messiah. You're the one that's sent for the Jews." She's not a Jew.

The Pharisees didn't see that in Jesus. The disciples were probably just getting convinced, but this woman saw it. "You're the Messiah of the Jews. Have mercy on me, for my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon." Very strong language. This girl was in a horrible situation, painful emotional and every which way. But He did not answer her a word.

His disciples came and begged Him, "Send her away, for she's crying 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." He answered, "It's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." She said, "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table." Jesus answered and said, "O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire." And her daughter was healed instantly.

The first lady I want to introduce you to is a needy and broken woman that meets God. She had two barriers to overcome. She was a woman. That's the first barrier. Back in that day, Jewish men did not have to acknowledge an unknown woman. They didn't even really have to acknowledge their Jewish wives. They could ignore their Jewish wives, and that was a cultural norm. Some of the ladies here are thinking right now, "I didn't know I married a Jew."

That was normal. They just ignored them. If a Canaanite woman went to a Jewish man, she would most likely get the hand. There wouldn't be a conversation going on because a Jewish man didn't have to talk to a woman anyway, never mind a Canaanite woman. So, there's a barrier she had to overcome. You can see Jesus' behavior here wasn't over the top. The disciples weren't saying they couldn't believe the Lord was snubbing her like this.

In that culture, that was normal. That's what they did. It wasn't really anything out of the ordinary here. So, the first thing she had to overcome was the fact that she was a woman. As we'll see in a moment as we get through the rest of this story, Jesus gave great dignity to women. In fact, it was the only religion of the day. If you look in the world today and in other world religions, you'll find the woman's dignity is still compromised and muted around the world.

Christianity came in and changed the value of women and gave value and equality to women. Christianity is not repressive to the female gender. Just the opposite, it's freeing the female gender. Read 1 Peter chapter 3. There's a difference of genders, don't get me wrong, but in Christianity, a woman finds her freedom and finds her totality there.

She was a Gentile, the second barrier she had to overcome. A Gentile woman was supposed to be ignored. Jesus had this interaction and this story was directed at two targets. He had this lady that was making a ruckus: "Be merciful to me, Son of David." He had these disciples over here too. He wanted to teach these disciples something they didn't realize about God, and that was part of what He did and why He said what He said.

Jesus didn't go easy on her. First, He ignored her. Second, He insulted her nationality, putting Himself as a Jew above her. Third, He equated her to a dog. Again, that was not culturally abnormal. Jews equated Gentiles as dogs. Dogs were not the little white fuzzy pets we have today. They were scavenger beasts. They were not well-respected. No one looked for dogs. Dogs ate the garbage off the streets.

He focused His attention on His disciples because what did they do? They had a bit of a gang mentality. They looked at Jesus and saw He was ignoring this woman, but this woman was not giving up. "Lord, send her away. Get her out of here. She's ruining the us time that we have with you."

They're saying to the lady, "We don't care about your Gentile daughter. We don't care that she's demon-possessed. We don't care that she's racked with pain. We don't care. Go away. You're just a Gentile. Go away. Send her away. We don't care what your problems are. Lord, will you do that? Will you send her away?" This is what He wanted the disciples to learn here: that God cared for this lady and that every human life has value.