Bishop Noel Jones - WHEN GRACE SUSPENDS THE RULES
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:30Thank you for lifting St. Matthew's Gospel chapter 15 and I'd like to begin reading
00:52at verse 21. Very interesting passage. Then Jesus went thence and departed into the coasts
01:07of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts and cried
01:16unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is grievously vexed
01:25with the devil. But he answered her, Not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying,
01:35Send her away, for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, and it doesn't say to whom
01:42he's speaking, because there is no object. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the
01:49lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he
02:00answered and said, It is not me to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs. And she
02:11said, Truth, Lord. Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table. Then Jesus
02:20answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy fame. Be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her
02:31daughter was made whole from that very hour. I want you to look at somebody just very carefully
02:42and very, you know, not very emphatically, but just say to your neighbor, When grace
02:51suspends the rules. Look at somebody on the other side and say, Grace suspends rules.
03:06I think it's important to grasp the fact that all of us have a very traditional way of evaluating
03:28and understanding the scriptures. And generally, when we approach the scriptures, we always see a
03:39solution with Jesus, but we never see a problem. And you would almost get into very serious trouble
03:52if you saw any kind of problem with Jesus. You see how quiet it is? Because it's a serious problem
04:06whenever you approach a particular text and you don't look at it in the traditional way. And that
04:15is, whatever is going on that's wrong, why Jesus is hesitant and somewhat taciturn in responding
04:25to this woman. The problem has to be her. I was taught that if somebody spoke to you, you should
04:38speak back. I was taught that as a little child. Say something, Noel. Your auntie is talking to you.
04:47Say something. So I was taught as a little child that if I'm being spoken to, that I should respond.
04:55I was also taught not to speak until. You're not too old to forget that. Shut your mouth, boy.
05:07Nobody's talking to you. But in any kind of communication, you have to listen and then you have to respond.
05:16And in this case, Jesus is not responding at all. And he answered not a word. So from the traditional
05:32point of view, if we approach this text, then immediately we will search to find what is wrong
05:40with this woman, why Jesus is not responding to her, particularly and especially when we know
05:50that he is used to people approaching him with faith. Why isn't he responding? So if we look at it from the
06:04traditional, then we'll fall into a trap. And we need to get out of that trap to discover the truth of this didactic
06:16narrative that Matthew is giving us. So what I'm saying essentially is instead of us focusing on the woman right now,
06:28let us focus on Jesus. And let us forget the blackness of this woman. Let us forget where she's coming from for most part.
06:41And let us focus on how Jesus is reacting to having to deal with this woman who does not fall within the parameters of the Jewish nation.
06:56So we have to then recognize the humanity in Jesus as key to understanding what's going on here.
07:10Because the average one of us, if we had made any kind of approach like this, and we were totally ignored, the first thing we would do is walk out the door and decide we'd never come back.
07:28You know how we are. I don't know why you're looking at me like Alice in Wonderland. You know how we are. We wear our feelings on our sleeves.
07:40And if somebody just says something to us that seems a little bit disrespectful, we immediately go into a tirade and we get really upset.
07:54And we walk out the door and declare we'll never be back because I was speaking to him and he wouldn't even answer me.
08:03And he disrespected me in front of everybody else. His disciples were right there looking. And I'm going to leave and not come back. But now you've got to take a look at his humanity.
08:15In order to understand what the message is to us, we have to see this as a Gethsemane experience.
08:25We have to see his humanity in contradistinction to his divinity. And we have to see him warring within himself to figure out how to respond to her when his mission is to the house of Israel.
08:47Ah, I think I've got you where we need to be. It is important now because there is a war going on within him as it relates to dealing with this woman.
09:00If you remember and if you go to Matthew chapter 10, you will find where he had told his disciples that they shouldn't enter into any place where the Gentiles are, but they were sent rather to the house of Israel.
09:18So what is the situation here? The situation here is that Jesus has a mission and he has a divine appointment to deal with the children of Israel.
09:37As he said, but I'm not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And he is caught now between what his mission is and what this woman is asking him to do when she does not fall within the parameters of what his mission is about.
10:06All of a sudden, I'm on my way to take care of the house of Israel, which I was born to do. And on my way, I'm interrupted by no less person than a Canaanite.
10:22But you have to understand that if Jesus was human at all, that the same way he struggled in Gethsemane, he had other struggles as he began to operate and began to do what he was sent to do.
10:41Now notice where he is. He is in Tyre and Sidon and it is a complete pagan environment. So here is the master, here is the holy one of Israel, finding himself in proximity to some of the very worst people and the worst group of people that you could find who are near the Israelites.
11:12It's important for because it gives us a message and that is that Jesus doesn't only say stay in safe places, but he moves into places that are questionable.
11:28Can I go over that again? You see, oftentimes when you get to a certain level of sainthood, which is actually no level at all, you feel as if certain people should not be in your presence.
11:43And there is an attitude that we have about checking people out before we have any kind of, might I say, motivation to deal with them.
11:56If they don't fall into a certain category, if they don't fit certain molds, if they're not the kind of people that we want to be associated with because of how other people look at it.
12:10We have a general attitude to withdraw ourselves or to make ourselves distant from certain people unless they're our relatives.
12:22Amen. We can find fault with everybody else outside the family, but we have a tendency to cover those people in our family who are oftentimes worse than the people that we're making judgments about who are out of our family.
12:42Amen, amen, amen. I'll say amen to what I said myself.
12:47The truth is that we have a tendency to want to tell Jesus where he ought to go.
12:57Isn't it the disciples who very quickly were wondering why was he dealing with the woman at the well?
13:07Why is our master talking to this woman when it is known that Jewish men are not supposed to talk to pagan women or heathen women?
13:19And here is the master dealing with somebody who they didn't think he ought to be dealing with.
13:27Isn't it the same Jesus who went to Zacchaeus' house?
13:32He went to the publican's house and the publican was the scum of Israel as they thought because he was a collaborator with the Roman government because he was the one who was taking their taxes.
13:51And yet Jesus said to Zacchaeus when he climbed up into the tree that I am coming to your house today.
14:02In other words, Jesus will go where the uppity saint won't go and Jesus will talk to individuals and touch the lives of people who we regard as nothing.
14:21It's the same Jesus that they accused of being a wine bibber and a glutton and they said very negative things about Jesus because of who he associated with.
14:36But he had an answer for that. He had a very wonderful answer and the answer is simply this and that is that the well have no need of a physician.
14:50If you ever want God to stop visiting you in the cool of the night. If you ever want God to stop visiting you in your bedroom at 3am in the morning when he moves on you to strengthen you for the next day.
15:10If you ever want God not to ride with you in your car and protect you on the highway. If you ever want God not to bother with you while you're sick in your body. Just act like you don't need him.
15:27I feel a preacher coming on. Just act like you don't have to have him. Because the attitude that we have often times is we are so enveloped in the wonderful things of God that we no longer need the God who supplies what we are bragging about.
15:54The truth is no matter what level of child of God you are you will always need God.
16:05I feel the spirit here. It's a critical thing because he is now moving into very pagan country. I looked at that last night and I searched out and I found something out about these pagans.
16:26And that is that they were one of the worst group in the whole Middle East environment.
16:35And one writer said it like this. I think Bruner said it. He said the adjective Canaanite to all readers of the Hebrew scriptures meant everything dangerous to the faith of Israel.
16:53What Matthew sees is that here is a millennial struggle in a new skirmish. What he's seeing now is that this woman is starting something that they have had to fight off for thousands of years.
17:14And that is God said when you get into Canaan I don't need you fraternizing with anyone of the heathen nations.
17:29Because Israel had a proclivity to want to go after their gods. And the Canaanites worshipped Baal and Ashtoreth. And they had a tendency to go after their gods because their gods were visible even though they were made by man's hands.
17:51So when the woman comes up and she hollers at Jesus. What Matthew is seeing here why he said behold look at something that is totally unusual and that is here is a woman from a pagan place
18:13hollering at Jesus who already told his disciples not to enter into the way of the Samaritans. And yet still here is Jesus being hollered at by a woman who we have been told for centuries not to be involved with.
18:37And this woman comes and she comes on cooth. She comes screaming at the Lord and she's shouting according to the Greek in voluminous on cooth way. She is hollering at him and she's saying Lord, excuse me, Lord thou son of David have mercy on me.
19:05My daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. Now notice that she obviously has had some relationship with folk who are in Israel.
19:20And she obviously knew something and this is going to help us later that there is a expectation of the Messiah. And based on what she heard about Jesus she realized that he may very well be that Messiah that Israel is expecting.
19:45Can I go deeper before we go higher? When you consider that then you understand that she had an insight as a pagan that the Sadducees and the Pharisees that the Herodians and the Libertines didn't have.
20:04Because they were questioning the authenticity and the credulity of who Jesus is. And yet still she comes from pagan country and she is saying Lord thou son of David.
20:24Now notice if you will she is on cooth. She has no church class. She does not understand church decorum. She does not understand how to behave in the house of God because she's coming and she's screaming at the wrong time.
20:47Can I preach like I feel it? You know every now and then we need somebody to come into this church and upset the decorum.
21:01Every now and then we need somebody who doesn't know when to be quiet. Who doesn't know when to speak up. Who doesn't know when to sit siddity. We need somebody to come in here and upset our usual cool attitude towards God.
21:26You can tell when somebody is seriously in need of a blessing. Oh you can tell when somebody is hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Oh you want me to act real siddity and you want me to act like I've got it all together.
21:50Oh yes you want me to act like everything in my life is just all right. Well I didn't come to church because everything was all right. I came to church because I needed a blessing from the Lord and I refuse to act like I got it all together so that you can be comfortable with me.
22:17I intend to holler until I get a blessing from the Lord.
22:26I feel the power of God in this house. Oh yes Lord thou son of David. Oh yes I haven't been raised in the church. Oh there are a few people in here who haven't been raised in the church.
22:42There are a few people in here who weren't brought up like I was in the church. That's why certain things escape me that are world oriented because I wasn't brought up in the street. I was brought up in the church.
23:02But sometimes being brought up in the church it makes you unappreciative of really what God is doing to the lives and in the lives of people that we look down on. I feel like preaching now you see because you haven't been there you don't have
23:26the capacity to go after him with everything you have. You have alternatives but she had no alternative. If you don't bless me I will not be blessed. If you don't help me I will not be helped. If you don't deliver me I will not be delivered.
23:53If you don't bring me out I can't come out. So I'm not going to leave here until you bless me.
24:03Oh I feel some move in me here. I noticed very carefully then that this woman is taking on the weight of her child. That's another thing I noted when I looked at it again last night and that was that she has an intense desire for the healing of her child
24:33as if it were her who was in need of the deliverance. My daughter is terribly demon possessed. My daughter might not know what is wrong with her but I know what is wrong with her and what is going on with her is so painful to me that it's just like it's happening to me.
25:03I wonder is there anybody here that prays for somebody else like you're praying for yourself.
25:18Listen I want you to touch somebody. I'm only going to do it seven times. I want you to touch somebody and say that is intercession.
25:29Intercession is when you're praying for somebody like you're praying for yourself.
25:39Intercession is when you go to God like you're going for yourself but you got somebody else
25:47in mind. It's like you're going to fast and go hungry so that God will bless somebody else
25:56like you're going to give up your enjoyment so that God will bring somebody else out. I've got
26:05news for you. Anytime you pray for somebody like that you'll never be envious when God brings them
26:13out. You will rejoice when they rejoice. You will give him praise when they are brought out.
26:24You will lift him up when they have been lifted up and you will not be envious. You will not be
26:32jealous. You will be glad because he answered your prayer for their benefit.
26:43My daughter, my daughter is grievously vexed with the devil. I need you to work this out. I need you
26:52to fix this. Well, like any one of the saints they are crying send her away because she crieth
27:03after us. When I took a look at Mark to order to in uh yes sort of enhance my presentation
27:12I took a look at Mark and I found out that Jesus had left the street and he was now in a house
27:20which means that she violated the protocol of somebody's house and she went into the house
27:30determined to get an answer from Jesus. Now Paul Tillich looks at it this way. He says revelation
27:40as of the mystery is our ultimate concern unquote. He's saying to us that revelation
27:50is invariably revelation for somebody who is in need. An individual who wants something from God
28:02cannot be laissez-faire about what they want from God. If you want something from God
28:11you have to be hungry for it. Oh yes your faith has to be extremely
28:21persevering for what you want from God. You cannot approach God with uh if you want to
28:30it's okay. If you don't want to it's okay. Oh you ain't under no pressure honey uh you ain't
28:38under no pressure. There are times in your life where you have to have a victory. I cannot lose
28:49this battle. I have to win this battle. I don't know have you ever been there but I've been there
28:58in my life where I was in a situation I could not walk away from. Can I talk to you now? I wish we
29:06were at the restaurant. We could have a nice little conversation but let me put it this this way.
29:13There are times in your life where you're up against something that if you don't get it right
29:21and if you don't overcome it it's going to take you out. There are times in your life where your
29:29mind is on the very edge and if God does not deliver me in this situation I'm going to be
29:41lost forever. I got to win this. I got to overcome this. I've got to get through this. I don't know
29:53have you ever been there but it changes your whole approach. I am not going to let you go
30:02until you bless me. I can't walk away from this. I can't turn my back on this. Now this is not
30:12abstract. This is a concrete situation of concern because need drives the mind into the soul
30:24and need drives the soul into the spirit and when you have needs of that magnitude
30:33it drives you into desperation and it drives you into obsession. I got to get to Jesus.
30:44I got to get in his presence. I got to stay wherever he goes. If he goes in somebody's house
30:54I'm going in the house. I don't have to be invited. I don't care if you throw me out
31:02but throw me out after I get my blessing but I'm gonna stay right here. I feel like preaching in
31:10here. Look at your neighbor for the second time and say neighbor I'm in need of a blessing
31:19and I'm getting ready to holler and I'm gonna holler until God hears my voice.
31:28It's important to understand this because need and faith go together. Your faith has not come alive
31:45until you seriously have a need. I'm losing my mind if you don't comfort me.
31:53I've lost somebody I never thought I could live without. I need you to comfort me. I need you to
32:01replace that in my spirit so I can go on with my life. You see some people don't love like you
32:10loved and some people aren't attached like you get attached and when you lose certain things
32:18I know no let me just make it right when you lose certain people that you can't replace
32:26God has to replace something in your spirit that allows you to go on even though they're not around
32:37everybody hasn't sat in that seat. I cannot preach like I feel it. You know I hear people saying
32:44you lost your husband, you lost your wife or you lost your children. I've sat in that seat.
32:51No honey you sat in your seat. You didn't sit in my seat because you don't know the intensity
33:00that I had and the big way space that is now no longer there. So when you see me hollering
33:11don't you act like I don't have the right. I'll crash every party until I get my blessing from
33:22the Lord. I gotta get my blessing. I didn't come here for fashion. I came here to get a blessing
33:33like the leper, like the centurion, like the woman with the issue of blood,
33:39like the man that was sick with a palsy. Jesus understood faith but he's caught between the need
33:49of his mission and the cry of this woman. I feel like preaching here. It is critical now because
33:58he has a cry that is above the mission. She has a cry that challenges the mission. She has a cry
34:08that's rocking the little church and that is I'm not coming. Don't come close to me with your
34:17anointing if you're not going to bless me while you're here. Don't come down my pew and let me
34:24feel your presence if you're not going to bless me because I'm going to follow that anointing
34:32wherever it is because when I walk away I've got to walk away with my blessing. You did it for
34:41others. Why don't you do it for me? You blessed others. Why don't you bless me? I'm here to tell
34:49you that the fact that he didn't say anything in itself was a blessing because he didn't come out
34:57and say no. He said quietly you've got to keep on praying when you still haven't had an answer.
35:08I feel like preaching here. He hasn't answered you yet but you don't stop praying because you don't
35:17have an answer. You keep on praying until you get an answer. There's only three answers you can get
35:25from God. You can get no, you can get yes, or you can get not now. I feel like preaching in here.
35:35She was in a not now state while he was working out what he had to do. I'm not saint but unto the
35:45lost sheep of the tribe of Israel. The disciples are sick of her crying. One group of thought is
35:55that they said hurry up and do something for her. Either tell her no or do something for her.
36:04You know I've got one of these watches that's telling me it's too much noise. Well that's see
36:10you see what I mean. Always some interruption when you're trying to get blessed. So you see what I
36:17did? Get rid of the interference so you can get your focus on your blessing. They said get rid of
36:27her because she's screaming after us. I got news for you. When folk are screaming for the Lord,
36:36they're not bothering you unless you're bothered. I feel like preaching. You rode up here,
36:44you rode up here in a Lexus. You walked in here in Steve McQueen shoes. You walked up here in a Gucci
36:54dress. You came in here in a brioni suit. I came up in here with holes in my shoes. I came up in here
37:04from being homeless. You go home to a lovely house so you can sit here and act like everything is
37:13all right. But because of what I'm going through, I can't sit like you and act like everything is
37:20all right. My house is on the street. My shoes have holes in the bottom. I wear clothes that
37:30are hand-me-downs. You can buy what you want and yet still you want me to act like everything is
37:38all right and Jesus is right in my face. That devil is a liar. You can get to the next pew
37:47if you want to. You can go outside if you want to but I'm going to holler until I get my blessing.
37:58I feel the Holy Spirits in here. I am going to call on him as loud as I can until he hears my
38:08voice. I'm not leaving here without a blessing and so it is that you have to have faith and faith must
38:19ignore all rejection. It doesn't matter who rejects you. Faith has to overcome. Can I preach
38:28to you for a minute? Faith has to overcome all insults. You can't insult me when I'm in need
38:38of a blessing. You can't insult me when I'm already down on my knees. You can't hurt me when I'm
38:46already hurting so bad. Your hurt is minuscule compared to what I'm going through. So say
38:55whatever you want. You ain't gonna get rid of me because I didn't come here to hear you. I came
39:03here to hear him and until he speaks I'm staying right where I am. I feel a breakthrough coming.
39:13I feel like giving God some glory. Church people have not learned and I've got news for you that
39:21church people have not learned that you do not reject people because they don't look like you.
39:29Church people have not learned that you don't put people aside because they don't talk like you.
39:37Church people have not learned that decorum is secondary to what people need. Church people need
39:45to learn that when somebody is in need you don't worry about how long their dress is. When somebody
39:54needs the Lord you don't worry about how low the dress is. I feel like preaching in here because
40:02we don't have a haberdashery up front. We ain't dressing people with clothes. We dressing people
40:09with the Holy Ghost and it don't matter how you look when you need a move of the spirit. I feel
40:16like shouting in here I'm so glad I'm so glad that Jesus was not concerned about how I was dressed
40:27when he filled me with the Holy Ghost. He was not looking at my clothes when he baptized me
40:35in the name of Jesus. He was not concerned about where I was coming from when I walked into the
40:42house of God because public decorum does not stand with Jesus. He'll deal with anybody at any time
40:52if they have a hunger and thirst for righteousness. He said they shall be filled. I feel like preaching
41:02in here. She worshiped him because she asked him to do something nobody else could do and when you
41:11worship him you worship him because you put him in a category by himself and every now and then
41:19you gotta ask him for something that nobody else can do. I raise you up as the son of David
41:27but I need you to go to hell for me. I need you to go where nobody else can go and come out all right.
41:35I need you to go. We might as well have church, Pat. I need you to go where nobody else can go
41:45and that is go down in the pits of hell and tell the devil leave my daughter alone. Do I have
41:55anybody here that has the power of anointing that can say to the Lord I need you to go on a mission
42:05for me and tell the enemy get out of my son, get out of my child, get out of my house. You got to have
42:18power with God when you can tell the enemy. The Lord told me to tell you that your days are numbered.
42:29The Lord told me to tell you that your appointment has been canceled. You will not continue
42:39to mess with my child. I heard Jesus when he said but I can't take the children's bread
42:48and give it to the dogs. Now normally the Jewish people would say street dog but Jesus modified it
42:59and said house dog and the woman said truth Lord. I had to study what she meant. She meant this.
43:08She said I know that I'm not one of the children of Israel. I know that I'm not one
43:19of your chosen children. I know that you're telling the truth but I don't want what belongs
43:28to them. I want what belongs to me. I'm an outsider but I'm sure you have something
43:39for the outsider. Give somebody a high five and say neighbor I wasn't raised in church
43:48but I'm so glad God's got something for somebody that's not raised in church. I want to talk to you
43:59that's in the prisons right now. You're not out here like everybody else but God told me
44:08to tell you he's got something for you too. You might not be liked by a lot of people
44:18but you're still loved by God and people can't bless you like God can bless you.
44:31Give somebody a high five. Say excuse me but I'm not leaving without my blessing.
44:39Excuse me but I'm not leaving without my anointing. Excuse me but I'm not leaving
44:48without being lifted up, without being joy, without my power, without my anointing.
44:56I'm not leaving like I can but I
45:09Give somebody a high five and say go home. It's already done. It's already done. While you were
45:17calling him, while you were praising him, while you were begging him, he had already fixed the
45:24situation. Go home. It is already.
45:37Oh woman. Oh woman. Oh woman. Great is your faith. It's already.
45:54Touch three people real quick. Say it's already done. It's already done. He heard your cry. He
46:08heard your voice. He made a way. He opened the door. He made a way. He opened the door.
46:16He made a way. She's healed. She's delivered. She's free.
46:24Don't let him go. Don't let him go. Don't let him go. Don't let him go. He's getting ready.
46:54So
47:04so
47:21don't let him go.
47:22So
47:41when I think of his goodness, what he's done for me, think of his goodness, how he set me free.
47:52Jesus. He went home dancing. When I picked up his goodness. He went home shout at him.
47:58Oh
48:07I can't
48:16All night, I can tell
48:19All night, I can tell
48:22All night, I can tell
48:25Yeah!
48:29Don't let him go
48:33Don't let him go
48:47Don't let him go
48:50Don't let him go
48:52Don't let him go
48:55What do you know about Jesus?
48:58Know about Jesus
49:00He's alright
49:01What do you say about Jesus?
49:03He's alright
49:04What do you say about Jesus?
49:06He's alright
49:08Say about Jesus
49:10What do you know about Jesus?
49:13What do you know about Jesus?
49:16What do you know about Jesus?
49:19He's alright
49:21He's alright
49:23He's alright
49:24He's alright
49:26He's alright
49:27He's alright
49:29Alright!
49:39I can hear
49:41The woman going home
49:44And I can hear
49:46Her saying to her daughter
49:50Did not tell you
49:52It will be alright
49:53Did not tell you
49:55It will be alright
49:56Did not tell you
49:58It will be alright
49:59I said everything's gonna be alright
50:02Did not tell you
50:04It will be alright
50:05Did not tell you
50:07It will be alright
50:08Did not tell you
50:10It will be alright
50:13Everything is gonna be
50:16Alright
50:19Alright
50:22Alright
50:23Alright
50:24Alright
50:26Alright
50:28Alright
50:29Alright
50:31Alright
50:32Alright
50:34Yeah!
50:39When Christ
50:42Suspensable
50:52All right, all right, all right
50:58All right
51:00Yeah
51:03All right, all right, all right
51:12So
51:39You