Matthew: Jesus is Different

Listen in as we look at Matthew 8:18-34 and see just how different Jesus is and how that's really good news for us today.

Sermon Notes/Quotes:

Reading: Matthew 8:18-3

 

“to be a disciple of Jesus, it seems, requires such dedication because what Jesus is and does means that “normal” is reconstituted. The one who would be a disciple of Jesus stands in the presence of life itself, yet remains captured by death, wanting to bury the dead. Jesus, who will die on our behalf, requires that those who will follow him not let death determine their relationship to the living.” -Stanley Hauerwas

 

“demons recognize the son because they—more than we—are able to recognize who threatens them. Demons draw their existence from death and are, therefore, able to recognize the one who is life. They fear that Jesus has come before the appointed time, but they discover that the appointed time is now. The disciples fear of Jesus’ absence as he sleeps in the boat the demons fear his presence”  -Stanley Hauerwas

 

“This dramatic incident is most revealing. It shows what Satan does for a man: robs him of sanity and self-control; fills him with fears; robs him of the joys of home and friends; and (if possible) condemns him to an eternity of judgment. It also reveals what society does for a man in need: restrains him, isolates him, threatens him, but society is unable to change him. See, then, what Jesus Christ can do for a man whose whole life—within and without—is bondage and battle. What Jesus did for these two demoniacs, He will do for anyone else who needs Him.” -Warren Wiersbe

 

“Humanity often holds onto their bondage and evil rather than yield to the pain of transformation by Christ’s power and grace.” -Sinclair Ferguson

 

Do my crying underwater

I can't get down any farther

All my drowning friends can see

Now there is no running from it

It's become the crux of me

I wish that I could rise above it

But I stay down

With my demons

I stay down

With my demons

-The National

 

“we would rather be ruined than changed,

we would rather die in our dread

than climb the cross of the moment

and let our allusions die”

- W.H. Auden

Questions:

1. Am I following Jesus?
2. Is it always comfortable? 
3. Is Jesus sovereign over the things I hold most sacred? 
4. Have I limited Jesus to mere human categories?
5. Am I choosing the familiar instead of being free?