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[0:00] Now, there's a whole lot of things that happen in there.! That's a busy passage, isn't it?

[0:12] Jesus does a whole bunch of things in a row, but I want us to start by remembering that there are small changes, and there are very, very big changes.

[0:24] So some of you will have been watching the Olympics and will know that one of the things that the Olympics have is judges and umpires, people who are watching what's going on.

[0:36] Sometimes they have to watch to see if everyone's following the rules, make sure there are things like no pesky Canadians extending fingers and touching curling stones when they shouldn't be.

[0:47] And that's not what I'm looking for, but I am looking for some help, someone who's ready to act as a judge like in the Olympics to decide the score of something.

[0:58] So when the snowboarders go down and they do all kinds of flips and twirls and land, the judges say, well, that's worth this many points. And so I want us to remember there are small changes, and there are very big changes.

[1:11] And so I'm looking for people who are ready to act as judges. Judges don't talk. I'm sorry. They just look serious. If you feel like I can put on a serious face and I can decide, is something you put your hand down low, this is a small little change, or up high, this is a big, big change.

[1:26] So you can do it where you're sitting. There is no age limit on this activity. So if you would like to act as a judge, this is a small, itty-bitty change. This is a great big change. Okay?

[1:37] So here's the first example. Maybe a little bit difficult to see. The potential likeness to anyone in this room is completely accidental.

[1:54] But I've just drawn a lovely girl here. And so let's just do something, and then you tell me is this a very small down low to the floor change, or do I make a very, very big change?

[2:04] Okay? So, very, very small change, medium somewhere in the middle, great big change.

[2:19] What do we think? A little change? Medium? Somewhere there? Okay. Yeah, we mostly agree. The low score gets dropped anyway. It's fine. So now I'll do another one, and you tell me if this is a big, big change or a small change.

[2:38] Now, my drawing's not fantastic, but there's a sword in her hand.

[2:51] What do you think? Is this a very, very small change, or is this a bigger, a great big change? Yeah, it does seem like a bigger change, doesn't it? Okay, that's very good. We'll do another one.

[3:10] So, looking at me, right? I'm going to turn around, and I'm going to change something about myself, and you have to decide if it's, again, a very small change or something bigger. Okay?

[3:21] So, what do we think? Maybe you didn't notice anything. Is it a very small change?

[3:32] Somewhere in the middle? What do you think? Somewhere? It's an orange crayon change? All right. Yeah, I have no idea when anyone's judging it, by the way, right now.

[3:50] Okay, I'll try one more. Maybe don't look for a minute, or I'll turn around, but it can be a little... Because it's a... Well, I won't tell you. Okay, you can look.

[4:05] Is this a small change or a very big change? What do you think? Down below? Up high? Oh, yeah. I still have no idea what anyone means.

[4:17] It feels like a big change, but, I mean, it's just a little piece of cloth, so sometimes changes can be difficult to judge and decide about, and so the big question here is, when Jesus came to earth, is this a small change, or is it a very, very big change?

[4:37] What do you think? What's your first answer? When Jesus came to earth, did that make it like a small change, or is it a very big change? Because remember, it's just one person. I mean, you're just adding one...

[4:48] If you added one person to this room, it would change the room, but there's enough of us that you might not notice one new person in the room. But on the whole big planet, just one more person. So what do you think? Small change down low to the floor, big change, medium?

[5:00] What do you think? Yeah. Okay, a lot of people are going with the big change, but I don't know about this. Some people actually change the way the planet looks.

[5:13] Some people have made the planet pointier. I don't know if you know this, but in Egypt, there's a collection of buildings called the pyramids. I mean, that changed the planet forever. The planet earth is literally pointier because of the people who built the pyramids.

[5:28] Jesus didn't do anything like that. As far as I know, he built no pyramids. He probably built some houses and things maybe, but nothing big and pointy like that. So we still think it's a big change? Does that change anyone?

[5:38] Anyone's opinion? No, not really. Jesus also didn't, as far as we know, he didn't write a book. Some people have written books that really changed things.

[5:48] There was a guy named Shakespeare, and he wrote a bunch of stuff, a bunch of plays, and boy, did he change things because now everyone who grows up speaking English has to read them. Everyone.

[5:59] All the time. That's a big change. Everybody has to read. Everyone who grows up speaking English has to read Shakespeare. That's a big, big change. Does that change your opinion? Is Jesus still, you think, big, big change?

[6:11] Yeah, okay. I'm not overly surprised. Also, Jesus didn't invent anything. Like, there was somebody at some point who invented light bulbs, which are a fantastic invention because it means that we can read books later at night, and we don't have to just burn candles.

[6:27] We can stay up late reading books. What a wonderful invention that is. You guys still, that doesn't change? Jesus is still way up there? Yeah, okay. Well, I think you're probably right, and here's why.

[6:40] Jesus makes the biggest change of all because Jesus is the king who defeats death. Jesus is the king who defeats death. So if you remember from the passage we just read, the first thing that happens is there's a man that comes up to Jesus, and he says something pretty crazy.

[6:59] He says, my daughter has just died, but come and put your hand on her, and she will live. Now, you've got to think, how in the world did he decide to do that?

[7:11] How does this man come to Jesus and say, my daughter has just died, but if you put your hand on her, she'll live. On the one hand, this man would have been terribly, terribly upset.

[7:25] You could imagine he maybe would have wanted to just stay home and mourn and be terribly sad, but you can also think, well, when someone is sick, we can do things.

[7:36] Even when someone is very, very sick, we can give them medicine. We can give them surgery sometimes. There's lots of things we can do as someone is sick, even as they're very, very sick, but after somebody dies, well, then it's too late.

[7:51] There isn't anything left that we can do, and yet this man, he doesn't come and say, my daughter's very, very sick. He says, my daughter has just died, but if you come and put a hand on her, she'll live again, and this man would know how this works.

[8:06] He wouldn't be thinking, well, she's died, but people don't stay dead after they die. He would know how this works. He would have been around people who had died before. He would know this, and yet he still comes to Jesus, and he says something that sounds sort of crazy, which is, my daughter has just died, but if you come and put your hand on her, she will live.

[8:30] He doesn't just come to Jesus and say, do you think there's anything you can do? He doesn't say, I think it's probably too late, but maybe you can come. He just says, or he doesn't say, I know it's a long, long shot.

[8:43] I know I'm too late. He just says, if you come, and you put your hand on her, she will live. This is part of what the Bible means when it talks about having faith, where this woman is looking at Jesus and knows if he just comes and does this thing, it's going to happen, because Jesus is amazing, and he can do things like this, and so he comes and just says, if you put your hand on my daughter, even though she's died, she will live.

[9:19] I know that you can do this. Now, Jesus is at a big dinner at this time. He's not all by himself. He's sitting around a table or in a room with a whole bunch of different people, and I mean, this could be sort of embarrassing.

[9:32] Maybe you've got some kind of special trick that you can do, like you can balance a football on your head for two minutes long or something, but if you're in a big crowd and someone comes to you and says, hey, do the thing with the football on your head, but there's like 30 people watching, it's like, ooh, I don't know if I want to try it now.

[9:48] What if it doesn't work? What if it goes wrong? And so Jesus is in the midst of this big crowd, a man comes up to him and says, my daughter has died. You just put your hand on her and she'll live, and Jesus doesn't say, I don't know, let's not get ahead of ourselves.

[10:04] He just says, well, he doesn't say anything here. He just gets up and goes, which is pretty amazing, but the story's not done yet because on the way there, when he's going to this man's house where this man's daughter has just died, somebody interrupts him, someone who's been sick and who's been very sick for a very, very long time.

[10:27] It said, a woman who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years touched the edge of his cloak. And just like with the man whose daughter had died, we should think, what's this woman thinking?

[10:39] She's been sick for so long, she's probably tried to have help from doctors and other people and no one's been able to heal her, but she thinks Jesus can. And she just thinks, she doesn't even think, I've got to get around front of Jesus and I've got to get his attention and I've got to tell him everything that's wrong and then he'll do something really special.

[10:58] She just thinks, if I can just catch up behind him and reach out my hand and just catch the edge, just the edge of his robe, Jesus is so amazing that that's going to work.

[11:13] And just like with the man who came and said, if you come and put your hand on her, she'll live. This is what the Bible means when it talks about faith. This is someone who said, I'm sick, I've been sick for a long time and it's miserable, but Jesus can do this.

[11:32] I know Jesus can do this and so all I've got to do is get close enough, reach out and touch just the very edge of his cloak and I'll be made well.

[11:44] That's what she's thinking and she's right because what happens is Jesus knows she's there and he turns around to her and he says, take heart, daughter, your faith has healed you.

[12:02] But even there, I mean, that's amazing. The story is not done yet. Do you remember where Jesus was going? He was on his way to the house of the man whose daughter had just died.

[12:14] He gets interrupted on the way there by this woman who he then heals and so he gets to the house where the daughter had died and the courtyard of the house, the sort of front area, is all full of people who are mourning, who are very sad, who are doing the things that you do after somebody dies.

[12:36] And Jesus says to them, you all need to leave. All of you need to get out. You're in the courtyard, you're in the house, get out of the courtyard, go on. This girl is not dead.

[12:48] She's only asleep. Now I've wondered for a long time what that means and what Jesus is thinking and what's going on there. It's a bit tricky and I think this is what it is.

[13:01] I think it looks like Jesus is saying, because I'm here, death is like going to sleep.

[13:13] He knows that the girl has actually died. He knows that she's not just sleeping. I think what he's saying is, because I'm here, her death isn't like real death, which lasts for on and on.

[13:25] This death is just like taking a nap, going to sleep, and then you get back up. And the reason he tells all of the people mourning to go is because they're doing the wrong thing. You don't need to be mourning.

[13:38] You don't need to be making all of this noise and crying out because this girl isn't gone. Yes, she's died, but she's coming right back. And so, just like when someone takes a nap, you wait for them just to wake up.

[13:53] Jesus sends the mourners away. It said he goes into the house, he takes the girl by the hand, and she got up, which means the man who came to Jesus was right.

[14:06] When he thought, if Jesus comes into my house and puts his hand on my daughter who's died, my daughter will live. And he was right, which is absolutely amazing, amazing.

[14:21] Because when Jesus is there, everything changes. You guys are right. It's a big, big change. It is the biggest change of all when Jesus comes because Jesus is the king who even defeats death.

[14:37] But, we're not done yet. Because it says, after he had raised this girl back to life, he leaves the house. And as he leaves the house, there are two blind men who follow him, crying out and saying, have mercy on us, son of David.

[14:56] Now again, just like the man who came to Jesus after his daughter died, just like the woman who followed Jesus to grab hold of the hem of his robe, what are these two men thinking? They will have been blind for a long time.

[15:09] They won't have been able to see. Maybe they tried to get help from doctors or some kind of medicine and nothing had worked. But for some reason, they think, well, if we just get to Jesus, then things can actually change.

[15:23] And so they call out, have mercy on us, son of David. And Jesus came to them and he asks them, do you believe that I'm able to do this?

[15:36] He wants to know, are you like the man who came to me whose daughter had died, who said, if you just put a hand on her, she'll live? Are you like this woman who came following behind me thinking, if I just touch the hem of his robe, I'll be made well?

[15:51] He comes to these men and says, do you think I can do this? Do you believe that I can actually heal your eyes? And they say, yes, Lord, we do.

[16:04] We do believe that you can do this. And so Jesus touched their eyes and says, according to your faith, let it be done to you. And it worked. Imagine what that would be like.

[16:17] If you want now, close your eyes as tight as you can. Close them, nice and tight. If you're peeking, I can tell because I'm looking at you and my glasses are on my face again. You can close your eyes as tight as you possibly can and imagine, not just for right now, but what if all day it was like this?

[16:34] What if all day long you weren't able to see what was going on around you? And when you were walking, you weren't sure what would be in front of you. You'd have people who could help you, but you couldn't see.

[16:46] And you didn't know right now, maybe it's snowing outside, but you don't know because your eyes are shut tight and you can't see anything at all. And it's not just all day today, it's all day the next day.

[16:59] And it's all day the day after that, and it's all day after that, and after that. And it's been like that for as many days as you can remember. But then you hear about Jesus, and you come to him, and he touches your eyes, and suddenly, go ahead, open them back up, and you can see again.

[17:18] Even if you kept your eyes closed the whole minute or two I was talking, it's like, oh, what a relief to open my eyes again. Most of you couldn't keep them closed. Most of you opened them. Imagine being years and years and years without being able to see.

[17:32] Even if it's not like total darkness, even if it's just your eyes were like me without my glasses, or even worse, so you could sort of see, but nothing very well. Like if you do have glasses, you know when your glasses get all smudged up, and you get to wash them off, and it's like, oh, what a relief, I can see properly.

[17:48] This is amazing that Jesus has been able to do this, and he's done this absolutely wonderful thing for these people, but he's not done yet.

[18:00] Think of all the things he's already done just in this passage. A man came and said, my daughter has died, but if you come and lay your hand on her, she will live. And so Jesus gets up and goes, and on his way, a woman comes and touches the hem of his robe, and Jesus heals her.

[18:16] And then he goes into the house, and he puts his hand on the daughter who died and raises her back up from the dead, just like waking someone up from a nap. And then he goes out of the house, and there's these two more guys who are there saying, we can't see, can you help us?

[18:29] And he does that too. It's still not done. Because after this, there was a man with an evil spirit that had kept him from speaking.

[18:40] The evil spirit made it so that this man wasn't able to talk. And so, maybe this time, it's going to be too much.

[18:52] Jesus has had a long day. I just told you about three of the things he'd done, but the truth is, this day starts at the beginning of Matthew chapter 9. So the things we looked at last week, where they brought Jesus a paralyzed man, and he said, your sins are forgiven, that's all on the same day.

[19:09] And then he went to this big dinner with Matthew and other tax collectors and sinners, that's all the same day. Jesus has done a lot. So maybe this time it's too much.

[19:21] Maybe after doing all of these other things and all of these other people, maybe it's like when you eat a whole lot of food, food, and finally there's a point where it's like, oh no, it's too much.

[19:31] There's no more that I can take. Or maybe it's like when you have spending money, and you go into the store with your spending money, and you say, well I want this and I want this, and you buy those, and then you see that, and you really want that, but your money's all run out.

[19:46] Maybe Jesus has run out, and there's nothing left for this man who has an evil spirit and can't speak. Or it's just like someone who's done a lot of work, like even the biggest, strongest men and women will go lifting weights, and maybe they can do it ten times, but they can't do it eleven times.

[20:04] It's just too much. Maybe Jesus has run out of power. He's got to be tired after all this. But no. It just says again, Jesus drove the evil spirit out and away because it was no match for him.

[20:18] So this man who had the evil spirit making it so he couldn't talk, making his life miserable, Jesus just sends the evil spirit away. Now remember, there's all kinds of people around.

[20:30] They were at a big dinner when they came for Jesus after the man's daughter had died. His disciples were with him. There's all kinds of people around watching, and they say, nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.

[20:42] They're saying, is it a small change or a big change? They're saying, this is a big change. We have never seen anything like this before. Not only have we never seen anything like this, we haven't read anything like this.

[20:56] No one's told us about anything like this happening before. What Jesus is doing is something we've never heard of. This is something brand new. You think of all the things that he did.

[21:07] Can anyone now at this point list all just the things Jesus did in this passage? Might be tricky. Can anyone list one of them? Let's just go through the list again. What has Jesus done? Who has he helped so far?

[21:18] There was a woman who was bleeding. What else has he done? Sorry? Yes, he raised someone who had already died.

[21:32] What else has he done? Healed the blind man. That's right. And then the one he just did? Yeah, that there was an evil spirit in a man who kept him from speaking.

[21:46] He did all of these things and all in one day he can take care of all these different problems and it's important for us right now to say we can't do that. Can we?

[21:59] In fact, we can't even do one of those things. If you look very, very closely I have a small cut on my hand. I was returning a book in one of those book slots and I was pushing it in because I always worry that someone's going to steal the book if it's too close to the edge but I pushed my hand in and the flap came down and I pulled my hand out and it cut my hand and so I was looking at this passage yesterday and so I thought well I'll try and so I stared at my hand and I thought get better.

[22:30] You know? And I can scrunch up my face and try really hard and nothing works. It's still there and even if I think we all stared at it I'm not sure that we could do that either but Jesus can do things that are way bigger than this.

[22:45] Someone whose eyes were blind and couldn't see. Someone who had an evil spirit and he sends it away. Someone who'd been bleeding for 12 years and he can fix it and someone who had died and he can pull them up just like they'd been sleeping just like a nap.

[23:01] Jesus' coming is not a little change. It's not a big change. It is a big change. It is the biggest change of all. You can imagine if there was a panel of judges watching when the man came and said if you put your hand on my daughter she'll live and Jesus gets up and goes you can imagine the judge's eyes would get a little bit bigger.

[23:21] Whoa. And then as he's walking along there's a woman who comes and he doesn't even turn and speak to her. She just touches his robe at first and Jesus says your faith has made you well and their eyes would have gone whoa.

[23:34] And then Jesus goes to the house actually gets there and there's a girl who has died and he just grabs hold of her hand and pulls her up like she'd been sleeping and the judge's eyes would go even bigger.

[23:45] Whoa. And then he goes out from there and there's two blind men who come to him and Jesus goes to them and puts his hands on their eyes and now they can see and now their eyes are going whoa.

[23:57] And then there's a man with an evil spirit who can't speak and Jesus casts out the evil spirit and I think at this point they take their scorecards and they just throw them away. They said this is amazing.

[24:08] All of these things Jesus does all of this stuff he makes the biggest change of all. Everyone can see that he's doing it but some of the people there said it's by the prince of demons that he drives out demons.

[24:22] They say yeah he's doing stuff but he's doing it by the power of the devil and of course that's not true at all. Jesus doesn't change things because he has power that's evil or power from the prince of the demons power from the devil.

[24:36] Jesus does all these things because he has the power of God because he is God coming to us to help us. He is the king who defeats death.

[24:47] But you know how I kept saying we're not done yet? Guess what? At this point of the story we are not done yet.

[24:59] The next verse says this Jesus went through all the towns and villages teaching in their synagogues proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.

[25:11] So all that we just saw remembering that this day goes back to the start of Matthew 9 that we talked about last week this is a normal day for Jesus. This isn't even like wow what a day never had another day like this.

[25:25] At the end of the passage we find out Jesus just does this all the time. That Jesus goes to all kinds of different towns and villages teaches proclaims the good news heals every disease and sickness.

[25:39] Jesus is the king who defeats death. We get to be just like the disciples who are following him around and watching all of these things happening.

[25:51] And a question for us is who are we like? Are we like the man who thought if Jesus just touches my daughter she'll live again? Like the woman who thought if I reach out and touch the hem of his robe I'll be healed?

[26:02] Like the blind men who knew if I just get to Jesus? Like the man with an evil spirit who Jesus could heal? Do we have faith? What do we think of Jesus?

[26:13] Do we know that he's amazing? That he makes the greatest change of all? That he can deal with all these different kinds of problems? If you look back at the start of the passage we read today at verse 18 the first few words of this passage are while he was saying this the man whose daughter had died came.

[26:34] Well while he was saying what? If you go back and read those verses you find out that Jesus was causing people problems. They didn't understand what he was doing.

[26:45] The question they ask specifically is why don't you guys fast like other people and their disciples are fasting? Not eating for a time. You don't fit. You're not doing the things that we expect you ought to be doing.

[26:58] And Jesus' answer is well of course I don't fit. Something new is happening. A really big change is happening here. Like when you buy new Tupperware and try to put the new lids on the old lids nothing fits together.

[27:13] Jesus is saying of course it doesn't fit. It's like if you took newly made wine and put it in an old leather wineskin that was already stretched out the new wine keeps fermenting and bubbling and letting out gas which means it starts to expand and get bigger and then it gets bigger and it gets tighter and it gets tighter and tighter and suddenly boom.

[27:39] The thing bursts open. Jesus said that's what I'm like. It's something new that's coming and that's why I don't fit. Jesus is the king who defeats death and there's never been anything like him before and never been anything like him since.

[27:54] Now, my family has moved houses two times in the last number of years. The last time we moved houses I looked it up we moved one mile which takes about 15 minutes to walk about 6 minutes to drive.

[28:10] It's not a very big move. We're in a whole new house but we really didn't have to go very far so it's sort of not a very big change but the first time we moved from Canada to here I looked that up too that's 3,000 miles away.

[28:26] That's a much bigger change. Do you know if you moved 3,000 miles away from here to the south do you know where you'd be? You would be in Nigeria just below the Sahara Desert.

[28:42] That's a big change. If you moved 3,000 miles from here to the east do you know where you'd be? you'd be in a country with a gold medal for male figure skating called Kazakhstan.

[28:55] There's a city called Astana and that's roughly where you'd be if you went 3,000 miles east. Do you know where you'd go if you went 3,000 miles north from here? You'd go over top of the North Pole and down the other side again.

[29:08] That's a big big change but it's not as big as the change that Jesus makes because he's the king who defeats death.

[29:19]  He's the one who sets all things right. So much so that even death starts moving backwards itself. And so then we look to Jesus and say Jesus is my God my portion Jesus is my living bread he's all that I need to live in him I live I cast all my cares on Jesus he saves me from death he saves me from destruction and he saves me from despair so why don't you join with me and we'll sing these words together