This is a Bible study on two similar journeys Jesus takes with His disciples that have opposite results and the lesson it teaches us on the topic of faith.

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Heritage Academy

Dee Casper

A Tale of Two Journeys

Father in heaven, I thank you for this privilege to pray.

God, I pray that you would bring the comfort of your presence into this room.

Lord, I pray that this room would be something that's comfortably habitable, not having air conditioning, and that you would just bless us 1 more time with the message from you that can be a blessing to all of us.

Guide my thoughts, guide my mind as I'm sharing, and Lord we just pray that you would bless us indeed.

Show us your glory I pray and I ask this now in Jesus name, Amen.

So kind of an overview leading into Matthew 8, which is where we're gonna have our first journey.

So in Matthew's chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, we see Jesus doing things that Jews just aren't supposed to do.

In Matthew chapter 8, there's this guy who's a leper.

He comes up to Jesus and says, Lord, if you're willing, you can make me clean.

And the text literally says that Jesus reaches out and touches the man.

But Jesus reaches out and touches the man and heals him completely of his leprosy, completely restores him.

The problem is in Jewish culture and in the law you're not supposed to touch people with leprosy.

It'll make you unclean, but Jesus is willing to do so.

There's another situation where the Pharisees and Sadducees kind of blow a gas hit because Jesus didn't wash his hands and his disciples didn't wash their hands before they eat.

Now before anyone gets freaked out, this is not like what your mom said, wash your hands.

This literally is the type of hand washing they're referring to.

Water is poured into the palm of the hand, little puddles in both palms of the hand, and you do this, and then you do this.

And that's a ceremonial washing of your hands.

And you know what they did when they didn't have water?

They put water in the palms of their, they put no water in the palms of their hands and did this, and this, without any water.

And that's the hand-washing that they didn't partake in, doing, you know, not doing Jewish things that people thought they ought to do.

Jesus is in another situation, I believe in Matthew chapter 8, where a centurion comes to Him and says, Lord, my servant is sick.

I believe it's his servant, it's his servant not his son.

And his servant is sick and so he's asking Jesus to heal him and Jesus literally, and then whenever Jesus says, yeah I'll come to your house, he says no no no no no I'm not even worthy of having you come under my roof.

Just say the word and he'll be well." And this is a big example of biblical faith, trusting that the Word of God will do what it said that it will do, and relying upon the Word only to do what it said that it would do.

And so Jesus rewards this man with a public compliment by saying, I've not seen faith like this in all of Israel.

And Jesus is complimenting him and that his faith is better than any of ours?

Jesus seems to be kind of challenging the worldview of the nation leading into the first 8 chapters of Matthew.

I just lost my train of thought because I heard this loud rumbling sound.

I thought we were being invaded, and we're not.

So there's 1 more situation that I just lost.

Oh, so in the Beatitudes, Jesus begins many of his teachings on the Mount.

He says, you have heard that it was said, but I say to you.

And then you have heard that it was said, but I say to you.

You have heard it was said, but I say to you, challenging the worldviews of the nation, turning the worldview of the nation right side upside down or technically right side up.

And it's kind of ruffling some feathers here, but it seems as though all throughout this process, Jesus is more concerned with the faith of the people than he is their lineage.

I don't care how clean the paper trail is between you and Abraham, I'm wanting to know if you have faith.

And In Matthew chapter 17, whenever Jesus comes down from the Mount of Transfiguration, just imagine this, guys.

When Jesus comes down from the Mount of Transfiguration, just reveal His glory to Peter, James, and John, but when He comes down the mountain, 9 of the disciples are down there, and the Pharisees and Sadducees are kind of laughing and giving them a hard time and there's this boy convulsing on the ground and foaming at the mouth.

And the guy says, I brought my son to your disciples but they could not heal him.

Now just imagine being the disciples in this situation.

Jesus has said that you have power to cast out demons, to cast out all evil spirits, and to heal people, and do all kinds of amazing things.

And so you're called by this guy, would you please come heal my boy?

And they roll up and they say, demons be gone!

And the boy continues to roll on the ground and foam at the mouth.

Imagine how depressed and discouraged the disciples would be feeling at this stage.

And the Pharisees are rubbing their noses in it at this stage.

So Jesus comes down and he says, what's going on?

I brought him to your disciples and they could not heal him.

And then Jesus says something that initially I thought, man, Jesus was really hard on this guy.

But then I came to better understand that's not who he's talking to.

Matthew 17, 17 He says, oh faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you?

Jesus is actually rebuking the disciples, not the man.

And we see this in the text because he says, Then the disciples came to Jesus privately after the fact and said, Why could we not cast it out?

Because of your unbelief, your lack of faith.

For assuredly I say to you, If you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, I have a shirt that says faith can move mountains.

For assuredly I say to you, If you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain...

I have a shirt that says faith can move mountains.

For sure, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move and nothing will be impossible for you.

Jesus here seems to be deeply concerned with the topic of faith.

Our unbelief literally limits God's ability to move.

When we have unbelief in our experience, it actually ties God's hands.

Matthew chapter 13 and verse 58, we're just going to lay in a groundwork here, foundational level, and then we'll jump into our actual study.

Matthew chapter 13 and verse 58, Just 2 brief examples here of our unbelief limiting God.

Jesus is traveling and preaching, he's rejected at Nazareth.

Yeah, Nazareth, no prophet is welcome in his hometown, yeah?

Verse 58, it says, now he did not do mighty works there, many mighty works there, because he didn't feel like it.

Because he didn't like them, is that what it says?

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A Tale of Two Journeys

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