Great Faith
Matthew 15:-28
In this sermon we are going to look at the woman from Canaan who desired for Jesus to cast a devil out of her daughter. It is noteworthy that there are two people who Jesus connected with great faith during his earthly ministry and both of them were Gentiles. Let us look at this example a see some simple truths regarding how we can have a great faith.
What can we learn from a woman of great faith?
1) Note the person of her faith (verse 22)
- This woman had her faith in the right person, Jesus Christ. Note the connection between Jesus Christ and the word of God concerning the source of faith (John 1:1-3 ; Romans 10:17).
- Even an atheist has faith in something even if it is himself. Many believe that science will eventually answer all the question of man, but once again that is still faith in something.
2) Note the persistence of her faith (verses 22-25)
- The woman just keep trying even though she seems to be getting nowhere (Luke 18:1-8).
3) Note the Position of her faith (verses 26-27)
- When Jesus answers the woman he refers do her as a dog, and she accepts this position.
- But when the woman accepts this position she claims that Jesus would then be her master. Here we see both humility and her acceptance of authority.
- In Luke 7:1-10 when Jesus is dealing with the centurion he claims that he is under authority and has men under his authority. Jesus marvels at this and declares that he has not found so great a faith in Israel.
- Here we see that the key to great faith is a willingness to submit to authority in both of these examples. Submitting to authority takes great faith.
4) Note the place of her faith (verse 27)
- In Proverbs 12:10 the word of God says “a righteous man regards the life of his beast”.
- Jesus is definitely a righteous man, so whether she knew the proverb or not she stated the principle found in the proverb.
- The place of our faith must be the word of God. It never ceases to amaze me how saved people will read an article or two on the internet and stop taking drugs given by the doctor, change their diet, or believe some of the wildest ideas when they do not even know the person who wrote the article. And yet at the same time they will read the Bible and not do anything.
- Our faith must be in the right source, which in point number one is Jesus Christ who is the word of God.