An expository sermon on Mathew 9:18 to 26

1. Jesus power over death
Mathew 9:18 to 26
Parallel passages
Mark 5:22 to 43, Luke 8 40 to 53

2. INTRODUCTION to the topic and contextual background
Death, the great equalizer of men and perhaps
one of the constant things in life and greatest fear
that all men face. Death is a result of sin. Sin was
not God’s purpose for man. All things in the world
were created for the good and blessing of man,
but sin corrupted that blessing and brought a
curse instead.
In our study today, Mathew gives the first miracle
in his third set of three miracles a miracle that
was actually a double miracle, a miracle within a
miracle. He raised a young girl from the dead,
and during the process restored health to a
woman who was considered by dead by society.
Once again Jesus confirmed his messiah ship by
exercising power even over man’s seemingly
greatest enemy, death. Within this text we not
only see a miracle within a miracle but also a
beautiful picture of Jesus’ response to people in
need.

3. I – Jesus was accessible
“While He was saying these things to them, behold, there came a synagogue official,
and bowed down before Him, saying, “My daughter has just died; but come and lay Your
hand on her, and she will live.” (9:18)
The official referred to here is Jairus, the highest ranking religious official in Capernaum,
responsible for the administration of the synagogue. Despite the fact that the religious
leaders of the day were in opposition to Jesus, Jarius risked his reputation and sought
Jesus. We are not told what he then thought about Jesus’ messiahship, but the fact that
he bowed (proskune) indicates his reverence for Jesus. Jarius daughter was twelve
years old, in the first year of her womanhood according to Jewish custom.
God obviously had already been working Jarius’ heart, because his request evidences
absolute conviction that Jesus was able to do what was asked: His faith was without
reservation or a hint of doubt. He swallowed his pride and his fear. He did not care what
his neighbors, his family, or even his fellow religionists thought.
The first thing that brought Jairus to Jesus was deep need. Often some great tragedy
drives a person to Christ. The verse also shows Jesus accessibility. Even if he is the son
of God, he was readily accessible to the ordinary people.

4. II – Jesus was available
“Jesus rose and began to follow him, and so did His disciples.”
Jesus responded to Jairus by being available as well as accessible. Jesus could just as
well have sent the power to raise the girl from where He was, but in a demonstration of
self-giving love and compassion He rose and began to follow the grieving father to where
his daughter now lay dead. Jesus was willing to be interrupted and to go out of His way
to serve others in His Father’s name. There were doubtlessly many other sick and
hurting people where Jesus was, but the need of the moment demanded that He go with
Jairus.
In somewhat similar fashion, in the midst of a highly fruitful ministry in Samaria, the Lord
sent an angel to Philip saying, “Arise and go south to the road that descends from
Jerusalem to Gaza” (Acts 8:26).
God not only is sensitive to the needs of the multitude but to the cry of an individual. He
sometimes leads His servants, as He often led His own Son, to temporarily put a
seemingly larger ministry aside in order to concentrate on one person. Joining Jesus in
the short trip to Jairus’ house were his disciples, along with “a great multitude” (Mark
5:24).

5. III– Jesus was touchable
“And behold, a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years,
came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak; for she was saying to herself,
“If I only touch His garment, I shall get well.” But Jesus turning and seeing her said,
“Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well.” And at once the woman was
made well.” (9:20-22)
Like Jairus, this woman knew that only Jesus
could help her. The woman’s hemorrhage, caused
her to be ceremonially unclean according to Old
Testament law. Jewish men were to “make for
themselves tassels on the corners of their
garments” and “put on the tassel of each corner a
cord of blue” It was probably such a tassel that
the woman with the hemorrhage took hold of.
The common Greek word for physical healing was iaomai, the term used by Mark when
he explains that this woman “was healed of her affliction” Another word for physical
healing is, therapeu (Luke 8:43), from which we get therapeutic. But the three references
to being made well in Matthew 9:21-22, as well as those in the parallel passages of Mark
5:34 and Luke 8:48, use sozo, the usual New Testament term for being saved from sin.
The two things that bring men and women to Jesus Christ are deep-felt personal need
and genuine faith, and the woman with the hemorrhage had both.

6. The fact that Jesus ministered equally to the outcast woman and the leading elder of the
synagogue certainly reveals His divine impartiality. He was not offended by the
woman’s taking hold of His tassel with her unclean hands. No person in need ever
interfered with Jesus’ ministry.
In their book Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, Paul Brand and Phil Yancey quote from
the novelist Frederick Buechner, who wrote:
“Who could have predicted that God would choose not Esau, the honest and reliable, but
Jacob the trickster and heel, that He would put the finger on Noah, who hit the
bottle, or on Moses, who was trying to beat the rap in Midian for braining a man in
Egypt and if it weren’t for the honor of the thing, he’d just as soon let Aaron go back
and face the music, or the prophets, who were a ragged lot, mad as hatters most of
them . . . ? “
Then Brand and Yancey add: “The exception seems to be the rule. The first humans
God created went out and did the only thing God asked them not to do. The man He
chose to head a new nation known as “God’s people” tried to pawn off his wife on
an unsuspecting Pharaoh. And the wife herself, when told at the ripe old age of
ninety-one that God was ready to deliver the son He had promised her, broke into
rasping laughter in the face of God. Rahab, a harlot, became revered for her great
faith.

7. And Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, went out of his way to break every proverb
he so astutely composed. Even after Jesus came the pattern continued. The two
disciples who did most to spread the word after His departure, John and Peter, were
the two He had rebuked most often for petty squabbling and muddleheadedness.
And the apostle Paul, who wrote more books than any other Bible writer, was
selected for the task while kicking up dust whirls from town to town sniffing out
Christians to torture. Jesus had nerve, in trusting the high-minded ideals of love and
unity and fellowship to this group. No wonder cynics have looked at the church and
sighed, “If that group of people is supposed to represent God, I’ll quickly vote
against Him.” Or, as Nietzsche expressed it, “His disciples will have to look more
saved if I am to believe in their Savior.” (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1980, pp. 29-30)
“
How wonderful that God is more gracious than men. God never excuses disobedience,
unfaithfulness, or any other sin. But He will forgive every sin that is placed under the
atoning death of His Son, Jesus Christ. Position, prestige, or possessions give no
advantage with Him, and lack of those things gives no disadvantage.

8. IV – Jesus was powerful
“And when Jesus came into the official’s house, and saw the flute-players, and the
crowd in noisy disorder, He began to say, “Depart; for the girl has not died, but is
asleep.” And they began laughing at Him. But when the crowd had been put out, He
entered and took her by the hand; and the girl arose. And this news went out into all that
land.” (9:23-26)
Unlike funerals today, Jewish funerals were accompanied by noise disorders because of
professional mourners who constantly wail, mourn and tear their clothes and flute
players who played disconcerting music. When Jesus arrived it was this noisy crowd
that he was addressing. What annoyed them more was not only the fact that Jesus
asked them to stop the mourning traditions that they revered by that Jesus insisted that
the girl is not dead but merely asleep hence their mocking laughter at him. When the
crowd of hired mourners had been put out, Jesus resurrected her back to life.
In Christ there is no longer reason to fear sickness, disease, demons, deformity, tragedy,
or even death. As believers, we can even rejoice in dying, because our Lord has
conquered death. Though we will not be brought back to this life, we will be raised to
new life. In Him is fullness of joy and life everlasting.