The Gospel of Matthew

Notes From Matthew

Prologue: The Christmas Family

Imagine it’s Christmas Eve, the celebration of the Messiah’s birth.  You're sitting in a church singing the lovely, timeless carols, candle light illumining enraptured faces young and old, the fresh smell of pine wreaths red and green.  Now someone stands and reads the long list of names at the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew.  The genealogy?  What could be more boring and what in the world has it got to do with the Christmas story?

We know God never wastes anything, especially words, but what significance could we possibly find in these?  Yet there must be some significance because these are the opening words of the New Testament.  Matthew begins the Christmas story by naming the human ancestors of Jesus.  What’s the point?

My first thought is that maybe God wants to impress us with the remarkable heroes and saints in the family tree of Jesus.  After all, the birth of the Son of God on earth is such an incredible story.  Surely His ancestors are worthy of the story.  But no, when we read the list, not so many heroes and saints.  Some of them we know nothing about.  Some are quite ordinary.  Some failed terribly, all sinned.  Yet when Jesus left the glory of heaven, He intentionally entered a human family with these ancestors. 

What is this list of names about?  

First of all, this is God’s way of saying to the Jewish nation, “This Jesus is the Messiah, the royal Son of David, the King you've been waiting for”.  Jews of that day were strict about family lineage.  God honors that tradition by demonstrating the royal ancestry of Jesus.

But some of these folks, kings and commoners alike, were fools and failures.  Some were righteous, to be sure, but some were downright evil, participating in times of national failure and destruction.  Maybe that's God’s way of saying, “No amount of human foolishness and failure, of evil and destruction, can prevent the outworking of my salvation purpose in history.”  God purposed the birth of His Son in human form.  Nothing could prevent that.

Notice also the number of fools and failures whose lives were redeemed, common folk who encountered uncommon grace.  One is reminded of Hebrews 2:11 which says in reference to all redeemed fools and failures, that Christ “is not ashamed to call them brethren.”

We find four women mentioned, which is odd because women were not usually mentioned in genealogies.  In this we hear Jesus saying, “I am not ashamed to call you my sisters, to include you in my family.”

It’s a big family.  The doorway is grace and a Savior stands at the threshold calling to all who will hear, “Come in, I’m not ashamed to include you in my family.”

Christmas is the story of a God who came to earth to include us all in His family.  And whatever our personal history, our family history or our national history, He is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters.  You and I are members of the Christmas family.  It’s an everlasting family and all those fallen yesterdays will not destroy God's everlasting tomorrow. 

This is where Matthew’s Gospel begins.  Think about that.  This first book of the New Testament, the Good News according to Matthew, begins with our family and some wonderful news about yesterday, today and tomorrow.  

Date of Authorship

The Jerusalem temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD and although Jesus prophesied this event, there is no indication in the gospel that it happened. Obviously the temple was still standing when Matthew wrote this account of the ministry of Jesus. Most credible Bible scholars place the date somewhere between AD 50 and 70.

Authorship

The author of this Gospel is the disciple Matthew who also was known as Levi. 

Person

Matthew was a tax collector before Jesus called him to join His group of disciples. This provides an important insight into Matthew as a person. He was Jewish, as indicated by the name Levi. But when he became a tax collector, he was considered to be an outcast, a traitor, a collaborator with the hated Romans. He would have been banned from the synagogue and the temple. But Matthew chose this life — he chose to be an outcast, chose to walk away from the synagogue and the temple. Yet when Jesus called, he immediately left everything and followed. Whatever disillusionment he harbored for the Jewish religion of his day, he was hungry for truth. When he encountered that truth in Jesus, his response was absolute commitment.

Major Themes

The primary audience for this Gospel is Jewish and therefore the major theme is that Jesus is the long awaited Jewish Messiah and King. This is why Matthew opens the Gospel with these words, “The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Abraham was the father of the nation; David was their greatest king and Jesus is the Messiah descended from them.

This is why Matthew constantly refers to Jesus as “the Son of David” and why he continually quotes Old Testament scriptures and demonstrates that Jesus is the fulfillment of those scriptures. This is why Matthew honors Jewish sensitivity to the name of God being written. Instead of saying, “kingdom of God”, as Mark and Luke do, he uses the phrase “kingdom of heaven.”

Another theme in Matthew is his emphasis of the rejection of Jesus as the King of Israel. But he also proclaims the someday return of the triumphant King.

What follows is not an academic discussion.  These are sermon notes, an attempt to trace the path of Jesus as He walked through the lives of folks in first century Palestine; an attempt to recall His teachings and conversations with real men and women who rejected Him or accepted Him, who hated Him or loved Him, who failed and fell and some stood again by grace. 

It’s Good News because we can experience this same Jesus walking through our lives, today, and speaking with us as we fail and fall and stand by grace.

Matthew 1

The Ancestry of Jesus

1:1 “The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”

Why did Jesus choose to be born with a human lineage and be born of Mary? He could have simply appeared in human form as He did several times in the Old Testament (known as theophanies, for instance, in Genesis chapter 18).  Yet the Second Person of the Trinity chose to be born into a particular human family and the New Covenant opens with a list of the human ancestors of Jesus.  Why did God do this?

The answer begins in the beginning, in the Garden of Eden. God created man and woman with a free moral will. We are free to experience His love and free to reject His love; free to love Him or withhold our love; free to do good or evil. God knew that if He created intelligent creatures with a free moral will, we would exercise our will in sinful ways and this would bring about our separation from Him. Separation from God, the Source of all life, creates the condition known as death and if we die physically while separated from God, we will exist forever in that state of separation.

Because God’s nature is love, He did not want humanity to perish in our sin. His gracious, loving desire is to bring us back to Himself by delivering us from our separation and the death which this separation has created. So somewhere in the ancient councils of eternity God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit agreed and decreed that in the fulness of time the Second Person of the Trinity, God the Son, would take human form and through the atoning sacrifice of His own life, would redeem sinful humanity and reconcile to God all who trust in Him.

So it was that the Lord promised Adam and Eve that someday the seed of the woman would bruise the serpent’s head — a promise of release from the reality of separation and death (Gen. 3:15). So it was that the Lord promised through the prophet Isaiah that someday a holy Servant would take upon Himself the sins of the world, making a holy atoning sacrifice (Isa. 53).

So it was that the Lord promised Abraham that, “in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 22:18). To King David the Lord gave a promise of dominion, “I will establish your seed forever and build up your throne to all generations” (Psalm 89:4). It was to human beings that God had given dominion on earth.  When the rule of God through humanity was lost because of sin, God purposed to be born in human form and through this God-Man to restore the relationship of God with humanity and restore the rulership of God in the earth.

Matthew opens his gospel with the genealogy of Jesus’ ancestors not only to demonstrate the humanity of Jesus but in order to establish for his readers, especially for his Jewish readers, that Jesus is the long awaited Messiah and King. Remember from our introduction that this gospel was written primarily for the Jewish community of Matthew’s day.  He wanted to show his fellow Jews that Jesus was descended through Abraham, through David’s royal family and through Zerubbabel, who led the Jewish people after the return from exile.  This is a Jewish lineage through Abraham and a royal lineage through David.

But there is something special in this genealogy for all of us, Jew and Gentile.  You see, there are some terribly failed people in this list: Rahab the harlot, Bathsheba the exploited; David, a man of moral failure; Manasseh, a king involved in demonic activity.  Why were they not left out?  If God were a modern day politician, He would have been advised to put a better spin on His family.  Yeah, but God is not a politician.  God is God and amazingly, perfectly honest and open with the truth. 

The genealogy is God’s way of saying, “I'm not ashamed to include redeemed sinners in my family.”  In fact, Hebrews 2:11 says in reference to all redeemed people everywhere that Jesus “is not ashamed to call them brethren.”  Jesus is not ashamed to be associated with failures.  The New Covenant begins with a list of them.

1:2 “Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.”

The list includes Jacob the schemer who lied to his father, manipulated his brother and stole his brother’s birthright and blessing.  But later, Jacob had a life-changing encounter with the living God, was broken by God and then blessed by God.  He became a new man by the grace of God and was given a new name, Israel.  Today, we remember him, not as a thief who fled for his life but as the father of the twelve tribes of Israel.

1:3 “Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram.”

The list includes women, which is odd, because women were not usually mentioned in genealogies.  The first woman is Tamar who was a daughter-in-law of Jacob’s son, Judah.  She suffered the loss of her husband and unjust treatment by her father-in-law.  In desperation, she then seduced Judah and was made pregnant by him.  When the community gathered to punish her for her immorality, the full truth of her life was revealed and Judah declared her to be more righteous than himself (Gen. 38:26).  It was difficult to be a single woman, a widow, in that culture as it has been any time and in any culture.  The fact that she was neglected and abused by her family does not excuse the immoral choices which she made.  But whatever adversity she faced, whatever poor decisions she made, there is room for her in the lineage of our Lord: neglected, abused, sinful and included by grace in the Christmas family of Jesus.

1:4,5 “Ram was the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon. Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab, Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse.”

Rahab was a Canaanite and a prostitute, separated from Israel by birth, born outside of the covenant family of Israel.  But she, and all the people of Jericho, had heard about God’s deliverance of the Hebrew people from slavery, had heard of the mighty miracles, the defeat of the Egyptians and the Amorites.  When the Israelite spies came to Jericho, faith was quickened within her and she said, “The Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath” (Joshua 2:11).  By faith she welcomed the spies and cast her lot with them.  When Jericho was conquered, she was spared and lived thereafter with the people of God (Joshua 6:25).  Matthew says that she was the wife of Salmon and an ancestor of Boaz who was the great grandfather of David the king.  God is not ignorant of the social forces and personal choices that led Rahab to her life of prostitution and He is not excusing her self-destructive choices.  But God saw her change of heart, the birth of faith in her heart and includes her in the grace that delivers and saves.  He includes her in His family.

We also read the name of Ruth in verse five.  She was a Moabites and a widow, reduced to abject poverty and homelessness with her widowed mother-in-law, Namoi.  But she chose to remain faithful to Naomi and to Naomi’s God, accompanying her to Bethlehem, the city of Naomi’s deceased husband.  Although in the Jewish law it is stated that, “No Moabite shall enter into the assembly of the Lord” (Deuteronomy. 23:3), nevertheless, God rewarded her faithfulness, had mercy on her poverty and rewarded her with an Israelite husband, Boaz.  Ruth’s story is a narrative of loss, grief, desperate poverty.  But her past cannot exclude her from the Christmas family.  Do you hear this?  A woman who was once homeless, destitute, the poorest of the poor, became the great grandmother of David and is included in the lineage of Jesus.  

1:6  “Jesse was the father of David the king. David was the father of Solomon by Bathsheba who had been the wife of Uriah.”

We read of David, “The father of Solomon by Bathsheba who had been the wife of Uriah.”  We know that story well: adultery, contract murder, an unexpected pregnancy.  But in Psalm 51 we read about the brokenhearted repentance of David and a restored David is included in the family of Jesus.

Bathsheba is included.  Talk about sexual harassment and exploitation.  When the king of an ancient culture summoned a woman to his bed, she had no choice but to yield or die.  When King David summoned her, not surprisingly, she yielded.  The result was the death of her husband, an unwanted pregnancy, the death of her baby with David and later, war in the family and chaos in the nation of Israel. One can only wonder at the remorse which this tragedy produced in Bathsheba; the broken and tender heart which opened to God.  But we do know this — she is included in the Christmas family.  

1:7 “Solomon was the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asa.”

Consider Solomon, a man of great wisdom and also great foolishness, a man of extravagant wealth and yet such poverty of spirit that at his life’s end he declared “all is vanity” (Eccl. 1:2).  There are fools in this family but they cannot prevent the outworking of God’s glorious purpose.

1:8,9 “Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah. Uzziah was the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah.”

Righteous and unrighteous stand side by side in the lineage of Jesus: Ahaz, who committed terrible abominations; Hezekiah, a Godly man.

1:10 “Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, and Amon the father of Josiah.”

Manasseh is included, a king of Judah.  He was twelve years old when he began to reign and reigned for fifty-five years.  Five and a half decades to do good or evil.  He chose evil, for most of his life.  He built altars to Baal and the female goddesses and worshipped the stars, built altars for all the host of heaven in the house of the Lord.  He participated in child sacrifice — killed his sons with fire, offered them to demon gods and practiced every form of witchcraft.  “He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger” (II Chron. 33:6).

This was not a matter of private sin: he was misleading the nation.  And not just misleading the nation to sin, but “to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed …” (II Chron. 33:9).  Though God called to him, he did not listen and so God brought judgment on  Manasseh: he was bound with hooks and chains and taken to a foreign prison.

As he suffered in prison, Manasseh came to his senses and “entreated the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers” (II Chron. 33:12).  In humility, he prayed to the Lord and God “was moved by his entreaty”  (II Chron. 33:13).  

What amazing grace!  The king had committed abominations against God, had led his nation, the covenant people, into national sin, calamity and destruction, and yet God was moved by his humble prayer.  Let us not underestimate or misunderstand the grace of God.  Whatever sin a person may have committed, and Manasseh did it all, God is moved by humble prayer.

God not only heard him but “brought him again to Jerusalem to his kingdom” (II Chron. 33:13).  Manasseh then removed the idols from the temple and restored holy worship.  God brought him out of the dungeon, into relationship with Himself, back to the place where he began, to the city of God and into the family lineage of Jesus.

Truly, this is the God who  is “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness and truth” (Exodus 34:6).

1:11-17 “Josiah became the father of Jeconiah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon … (16) Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah. So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.”

“After the deportation to Babylon” refers, in a passing phrase, to the defeat of the nation of Judah, the complete devastation of Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple, the slaughter of countless thousands of Jewish people and the forced deportation to Babylon of many survivors.  Yet in spite of this terrible tragedy, the genealogy continues through the deportation to the time of Joseph and Mary.  The family history of Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary, is a history of saints and sinners, holy and profane, the righteous and the criminal, the defeated and deported.  

To those who failed, fell and called out to God, Jesus says, “I am not ashamed to call you my sisters and brothers, to include you in my family.”  To the unrighteous, who died in their evil, God says, “You cannot prevent the outworking of my purpose in history.”

Notice these themes throughout the genealogies:

1. The destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians and exile in a foreign land did not destroy the purpose of God.  God had promised in Eden that from the seed of the woman would come One who would bruise the serpent’s head.  The prophets and psalmists foretold His birth.  In the fulness of time Jesus the Messiah was born and no power on earth, no force of history, no demonic strategy, no personal or national defeat could prevent that birth.  

Consider this incredible truth: the destruction of the holy city, Jerusalem, the destruction of the covenant nation, Israel, the destruction of the holy places where the sacred memories and traditions were recalled, did not destroy God’s purpose.  It continued to wind its way resolutely, relentlessly, through history.  The cataclysmic forces and failures of the past did not determine the possibilities for the future which God had ordained.

This truth has relevance for our lives.  There have been sins and failures in our national history, destructive social and historical forces that have unleashed powerful demonic forces against the generations that came before us and against our generation.  But this is a Good News principle: neither military defeat, nor the destruction of political institutions nor the corruption of religious foundations will in any way overcome the establishment of God’s purpose in history.

This is also true on a personal level: God will not allow our past to determine our future, if we will surrender control of our life to the One who is Lord over all of time.

2. Notice that women are included in the lineage.  Normally, only men are listed in  the genealogies of Jews.  But in the lineage of Jesus, women are listed alongside men.  Throughout His ministry, Jesus treated women with the same respect and compassion with which He treated men and in this He demonstrates that His purpose for a woman’s life is as profound and as relevant as is His purpose for any man or any nation.

3. Notice the inclusion of Gentiles.  A true Jewish genealogy did not include Gentiles, indeed, Gentile lineage would have disqualified a man from the rights and privileges of the congregation of Israel.  But the lineage of Jesus includes those who were born outside of the covenant family.  There is a wideness to God’s mercy which has not always been recognized, but it has always been present.

4. Notice there are those who were quite wealthy — David, Solomon —  and those who were desperately poor, such as Ruth, a homeless woman.  But rich and poor are welcomed into the family of God.  Neither wealth nor hard circumstance can bar anyone’s entrance into the kingdom purpose of God, if we will enter through the doorway of repentance and faith.

5. Notice there were people who failed but who repented and were restored to the family of Messiah, restored to a heritage which they would never have dreamed.  In the dark depths of their sin and even in the sunshine of God’s forgiveness, they would never have imagined that Messiah would someday be born from their family. The lineage of Jesus reveals the Good News of grace.

6. Notice there were evil people in the lineage, sinners who, as far as we know, refused to repent and who died in their sin.  Nevertheless, the purpose of God was accomplished.  The frailty, failure, evil and rebellion of our ancestors cannot prevent the outworking of God’s salvation purpose on earth or in our own lives.  Neither can the failure of multiple generations of our family destroy the purpose of God in our lives.  We have a choice: surrender to our past and its recycling into our future; or surrender to the God who cancels the past, determines the future, who makes all things new.  We can lay down in the failure of our family past, or kneel into the future of the Christmas family.

7. Notice the outworking of God’s plan across many centuries and generations.  There is a purpose to history, a design to this universe.  The dream that haunts the souls of men and women, a dream that dimly echoes with eternal wisdom behind this brief and violent absurdity and chaos, a dream that pleads for ultimate justice, peace, reconciliation and meaning, that dream began in the heart of God.  And notice that neither the sin and failure of individual men and women nor the failure of nations, could destroy God’s purpose. 

God will not allow our past to determine our future if we will surrender our time into the hands of the everlasting God who makes all things new.  Whatever our personal history, our family or national history, Jesus in not ashamed to invite us into His family and all may enter by grace through faith.

And so we come to the Christmas story, 

the new beginning of time and the springhead 

of our journey toward time’s end.

The Birth of Jesus

1:18 “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.”

In Joseph and Mary’s time, betrothal meant more than what we mean today by “engaged but not yet married.” The betrothal could last for as long as a year, during which time the couple were known as man and wife, though they did not live together nor did they enter into the intimacies of married life.  In this state of betrothal, Mary was found to be pregnant by the Holy Spirit.  This is reiterated in verse 20, “For the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.”  Matthew is very clear on this — Jesus had no earthly father.  His conception was an act of God.

Let’s take a moment and discuss three promises concerning the birth of Jesus Christ.

1. A Redeemer will be born of the seed of a woman (Genesis 3:15)

Before Adam and Eve were evicted from the Garden of Eden, God revealed that Someone born of the seed of the woman will someday bruise the head of the serpent, though He would be bruised on the heel.  We don't normally speak of  the seed of a woman.  This would be a special birth not involving the seed of a man.  This uniquely conceived Man will crush the head of the serpent (a mortal wound) though He would be bruised on the heel, that is, He would be wounded but not defeated. Interpreting that passage from our perspective we see Jesus, conceived without the seed of a man, who, though He was wounded, broke the power of Satan.

2. Jesus would be descended from David (Isa. 9:6,7).

It was necessary that Jesus was descended from King David because the Messiah had to be of royal lineage. As Isaiah prophesied, He will sit on the throne of David and “the government will rest on His shoulders” (Isa. 9:6,7). Paul testifies of this when he says that Jesus “was born of a descendant of David” (Rom. 1:3).

Jesus was of royal descent genetically because Mary was from David’s line (the genealogy in Luke 3 is considered to be Mary’s lineage). He is the Son of David legally because His father Joseph, though not His father by natural birth but His father by human family identity, was also a descendant of David (Matt. 1:6,16). So Jesus inherited David’s royal line from His father and David’s royal blood from His mother. This is why the angel could say to Mary, “And the Lord will give Him the throne of His father David and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever,” (Luke 1:32,33).

Jesus was the Son of Mary in His humanity, Son of Joseph in the legal sense, Son of David in royal lineage and Son of God in His divine nature and essence — Son of God and Son of Mary — great David’s greater Son. God in human flesh.

3. Jesus would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14 ) 

It was necessary that the Redeemer be born of a woman so that He could share the same human nature as those whom He came to save. But it was equally necessary that He be perfectly God because only God can offer to God a perfectly holy sacrifice for sin. Thus Jesus, pre-existent Second Person of the Trinity, was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of a virgin: Son of Man and Son of God, perfectly human and perfectly divine; two natures, one Person. 

God revealed this through the prophet Isaiah 700 years before the birth of Christ. In context, God was calling the Israelite king, Ahaz, to trust Him during a time of adversity. To bolster the king’s faith, the Lord said, “Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God,” (Isa. 7:11). The king replied self righteously, “I will not ask nor will I test the Lord,” (7:12). God responded by providing a sign that would not come into being for seven centuries, “Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son and she will call His name Immanuel,” (7:14).

There are those who argue against the virgin birth of Christ by reminding us that the Hebrew word alma can be translated maiden, which would read, “A maiden will be with child.” But how would that be a sign from God? Young women, maidens, have babies every day. The word alma is usually translated virgin and must mean virgin in this context or it makes no sense that God would use this as a sign.

Matthew, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, testifies that Joseph and Mary, though betrothed (engaged), had not yet come together in intimate union. Yet, “She was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit,” (1:18). 

The angel of the Lord then testified, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit,” (1:20). The clear testimony of Scripture is that the Holy Spirit conceived Jesus in Mary’s womb. 

Matthew then writes, “Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son,’” (Matt. 1:23). Because Matthew was quoting from a Greek translation of Isaiah 7:14, he used the word parthenos, which means an unmarried daughter who has not had sexual relations — a virgin.

Luke, writing in Greek, testifies that the angel Gabriel came “to a virgin ... and the virgin’s name was Mary,” (Luke 1:27). Luke also uses the word parthenos, which, as we have said, is normally translated virgin. The angel tells Mary that though she is a virgin, she will conceive and bear a son. Mary then asks, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34).  Literally, Mary said, “How can this be, since I know not a man.” Mary cannot possibly mean, “Since I am a young woman.” She is testifying of her virginity.

The angel replies, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God,” (Luke 1:35). In other words, you will conceive, even though you are a virgin, because God the Holy Spirit will conceive this life in you. There is nothing ambiguous or unclear about the testimony concerning the virgin birth.

In a manner unexplained but merely stated as fact and truth, we are told that the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, overshadowed Mary and caused her to conceive. In Matthew 17:5, when Jesus was transfigured before Peter, James and John, it says that “a bright cloud overshadowed" them. That was the shekinah glory of God encompassing them on the mountain. That word, overshadowed, is the same word used by the angel Gabriel to describe to Mary the conception of Jesus in Luke 1:35.

God Himself, the sovereign Creator of the universe, surrounded, overshadowed, Mary’s being with His life and creative power. As God encompassed Mary in the womb of His glory, He conceived in her womb the life of Jesus. For that reason, because of this divine creative miracle, the angel said, “The holy Child shall be called the Son of God,” (Luke 1:35).

In summary, Jesus Christ was both God and man.  The traditional, orthodox position on the nature of Christ, first formulated at the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, states that Jesus was truly God and truly Man, possessing two natures, both human and divine.  As the Son of God, He existed with the Father before time and as the Son of Man, He was conceived in the womb of Mary by the Holy Spirit.  Both divine and human natures are distinct but united in one Person.

Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary. In summary, Jesus Christ was perfectly God and perfectly Man.

1:19 “And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.”

Joseph was a righteous man, that is, a man who observed the Mosaic Law.  That law permitted him to bring Mary before a Jewish court or to break their engagement privately.  His righteousness obviously was tempered by mercy, “not wanting to disgrace her,” so he chose the latter course of action — to break their engagement privately.

1:20,21 “But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.’”

Joseph’s plans were interrupted by God.  In a dream, an angel of God spoke to him.

  

1. The angel reminded Joseph that he was a son of David, that is, of royal lineage.

2. The angel encouraged him to refuse fear and to follow through on his engagement to Mary.

3. The angel revealed to him that this child’s conception was miraculous, an act of God.

4. The angel commanded him to name the child Jesus, which means “God saves.”

5. The angel promised him that the child would save the people, not from Roman rule, not from foreign armies, but from their own sins.  Sin is that which separates us from God and brings about the death of God’s purpose in our lives, destroys our relationship with God, destroys life itself.  The saving act of Jesus, then, would have to do with people being reconciled to God.

1:22,23 “Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which translated means, ‘God with us.’”

Matthew was writing, first of all, to convince Jews that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah and King, fulfilling hundreds of years of promises and prophecies recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures.  So he is quick to remind us that this divinely conceived birth is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy.

It was necessary that Jesus be conceived by God and yet born of a woman, that is, that He was born of a virgin whose pregnancy was an act of divine creation.  In this way, Jesus, who pre-existed as the Son of God, remained God while being born as the Son of Mary.  It is a mystery that Jesus could be both God and Man at the same time but this is the truth revealed in the Bible. Because Jesus was perfectly Man and perfectly God, He could die a substitutionary death for humanity, taking our sins upon Himself as the holy Lamb of God.

1:24,25 “And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.”

When Joseph awoke from his dream, he “did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.”  What does this tell us about Joseph?

1. He was a spiritually discerning man, able to hear from God, able to sort through the noise of the world and hear the voice of God.  

2. He was a devoted man, devoted to Mary, devoted to God, seeking the best interests of those whom he loved even if this entailed hardship for himself.

3. He was a strong man, willing to persevere, to endure, even when it cost him dearly.  No doubt there was misunderstanding in the community — gossip, disapproval, rejection.  There was a price to pay in choosing to be loyal to Mary.  Joseph persevered under all of that.

4. Joseph was a faithful man, willing to obey what he understood to be God’s will even if he did not understand God’s purpose.

The proof of faith is obedience, doing what we understand to be the will of God even if we don’t understand what God is willing and doing.  The further proof of faith is commitment, endurance, being willing to follow through no matter what the cost. Joseph was responsible for a child he did not create.  We never read that he understood what God was doing.  It does say he was faithful to accept his role in God’s purpose.

Joseph was a hard working man.  We read later that he was a carpenter.  The word is tekton, meaning builder.  There wasn’t much wood in Israel so he probably worked with stone more than lumber.  He was a blue collar working man who came home every night tired from the job. But he was faithful to His wife, his God and his children. He did not consider his ordinariness to be a disqualification

 to his high calling to be the legal father to the Messiah.

There are men and women who sincerely desire for God to use them in the time and place where they live. But they think, “Surely God could not use me. There’s nothing remarkable about me.”  God’s response is that He doesn’t need an extraordinary person to show His glory.  All He needs is a faithful person.  Three principles to remember here:

1. Joseph surrendered his need to understand.  

We may miss being part of God’s purpose if we demand to understand everything, if we walk away from what we don’t understand.  Jesus said to Thomas, “Blessed are those who do not see and yet believe” (John 20:29).

2. Joseph surrendered his right to possess, before God’s time, what God had given him.

He surrendered his right to take Mary as his wife and consummate the marriage until after the birth of Jesus.  That is, he refused to put his hands on any aspect of God’s purpose until God's time. There would come a time when he would marry her and have normal relations with her.  But he refused to take what was his before God’s time.

3. He surrendered his right to walk away from something that involved shame.  

Surely there were people who gossiped and slandered, who tried to make Joseph feel ashamed.  But he refused to walk away from the shame.  He resembled Moses in this, who chose “to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater than the treasures of Egypt”  (Hebrews 11:24-26).  How like Jesus Himself, “Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame” (Hebr. 12:2).

It would be dangerous, a few months later, traveling to Bethlehem with an expectant wife, fleeing Bethlehem before the wrath of Herod. Though Joseph could not have known all that lay before him, he wasn’t naive.  But he refused to walk away.

In every generation God is conceiving kingdom purpose and birthing kingdom life.  He wants us to experience what He is doing but more, wants us to share in it as instruments of His purpose.  

God invited Joseph, not just to experience His purpose, but to partner in it.  So today, God is looking for men and women who want to share in His creative work.  We will, if we will be men and women of faith, making a fresh surrender of our lives day by day. As we surrender, we will experience the creative power of the Word of God in our day.

God is able to create by the Word which He speaks.  The Word of God contains the revelation of His purpose and the dynamic, creative power needed to bring that purpose into being.  When God speaks, He not only is revealing His purpose but releasing the creative power needed to bring that purpose into being.  Thus in Genesis chapter one we read repeatedly, “God said” and that which God spoke then came into being.  So also in Romans 4:17, we read that God “gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist (or calls those things which are not as though they are).”  

In Luke’s narrative of Mary’s encounter with the angel Gabriel, the angel said, “For nothing will be impossible with God,” (Luke 1:37).  That could also be translated, “Not any Word will be impossible with God.”  Just as an acorn contains in it the life needed for the beginning of an oak tree, so God’s Word contains in it the creative life and power needed to birth that which God has spoken.  Neither Matthew nor Luke attempt to explain, defend or justify this.  They simply state it as a matter of truth.

May we, as did Joseph and Mary, surrender to the purpose of God and trust the dynamic, creative power of God’s Word which reveals His purpose and calls it into being.

Study Questions

1. Why was it necessary that the Messiah be born of a virgin? (see notes, v 18)

2. How would you describe Joseph? (see notes, v. 24, 25)

Matthew 2

The Journey of the Magi

2:1,2 “Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.’”

Matthew establishes the birth of Jesus in a historical setting of time and place: in Bethlehem of Judea, during the reign of King Herod.  Then mysterious visitors enter the story.  There is much we do not know about them.  We don’t know exactly where they were from, only from the East.  We don’t know how old they were, what their names were.  We don’t know exactly what they did for a living, though Magi denotes a class of learned men.  

We sing “We Three Kings” but it does not say they were kings and it does not say there were three.  We do not know what kind of lives they had led or where their lives led after this.  They simply ride into the story and ride out and we never hear of them again.

There is much we do not know about these visitors.  But this we do know: they came to worship the King of the Jews, they were wise enough to discern the time of His birth, they were humble enough to follow directions to the place of His birth, and they were willing to seek Him despite a long, dangerous and taxing journey.

1. Notice their discernment.  Based on their study of the stars, they believe that somewhere a great King has been born.  God does not work in secret.  “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1).  Genesis 1:14 talks of lights in the heavens for signs and seasons. Romans 1:18-20 informs us that God’s eternal power and divine nature are clearly revealed through His creation.  A general revelation of God’s existence is visible for all to see but not all see because not all are looking.  Only discerning people look for God’s Self-revelation.  

And discerning people seek with the light they have. Theses Magi were not Jews and though they may have had access to the Old Testament Scriptures, which are a light unto our feet and a lamp unto our pathway, they did not have the advantage of worshipping in the Jerusalem Temple or hearing the priests teach daily.  Further, there was only one Scripture that referred to the birthplace of the coming Messiah (Micah 5:2).  And there was only one star leading them.  They had a limited amount of light. 

The point is this: whatever light God provides us, that will be enough for our journey if we are truly seekers. Not everyone has the same light, the same advantages of learning and experience.  But God is not expecting us to walk by someone else’s light.  He is expecting us to walk with the light we have and that is enough to lead us to our destination.  The wise men did not have all the light that some possessed but as they followed the light they did have, they found the King, they arrived at their journey’s end.

2. Notice their humility. It’s one thing to believe that God is doing something somewhere, it’s something else to humble ourselves and search for it, find it, participate in it. God wants to be found by all but not all find God because not all seek.  Not all seek because there is a cost: we must let go of lesser kings and lesser gods if we would find the greater. That requires humility. 

3. Notice their perseverance. Seekers of God find themselves on a life-long journey. We must let go of our comfort zones, our safe answers and familiar traditions.  We may have to let go of our reputation — there will be those who will ridicule our journey. Being a seeker after God does not mean we always must leave our home, jobs, traditions. But we do need to let go of anything that will hold us back.

4. Notice the purity of their motive: “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.” They were not seeking to gain anything from this King. They only wanted to worship Him.

These really were wise men — wisdom is revealed in their discernment, their humility, their perseverance, their purity. However, we must also say that it was reckless and dangerous to turn aside from God’s light to seek light from men of mixed motives.  Later in the story we will see just how dangerous.  Yes, it's a good thing to be teachable but we must be very careful who we open our lives to, who we share our visions with, who we listen to.  Not everyone has a Godly word for us, not everyone is walking in enough light to share light.

2:3 “When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.”

King Herod (also known as Herod the Great) was disturbed by the news that a rival king had been born. Herod was a jealous, paranoid, cruel man given to extreme acts of violence. He killed at least one wife, three sons, a high priest and in one fit of rage, the entire Sanhedrin (the Jewish governing body). He tolerated no competition, no opposition from anyone.

The arousal of Herod’s jealousy disturbed all of Jerusalem.  News of the birth of a king was exciting to wise men from another culture but not to the power structure of Jerusalem.  The ungodly political system headed by Herod was troubled by the news of God acting in history.  But so was the religious power structure — “all Jerusalem” was troubled. Why would the priests be disturbed?  Because the religious structure was so closely tied to the political structure.

There is a lesson here for every generation of God’s people. If God’s church is bound up with the political power brokers — indebted to them, in awe of them, subservient to them, seduced by them, held captive by them — then we may also become as deceived and corrupt as they are, as bankrupt and blind. Then who will speak truth to power?

We should honor our leaders, pray for them and obey their laws insofar as we can without violating conscience. We should participate in the political process as the law allows. But we must maintain our distinctiveness from that process. We are sharing in the kingdom of God breaking into history — this is always troubling to the power brokers of the world. When the church is also troubled, then that is an unredeemed church, religious folks who do not know the Lord of the church.

2:4 “Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.”

Herod called together the chief priests and teachers of the law, the leading men of Jewish society, and asked them where Messiah was to be born.  Herod deduced that this king might be the long awaited Messiah.  In his conceit and pride, he believes that Messiah is his rival and that he can use the well honed muscle of his military to eliminate this threat.  What arrogance, that the Messiah, God’s anointed servant, prophesied in Scripture, could be destroyed by a mere man.  Such is the deluding, deceiving arrogance of power.

In this, Herod reflects the arrogance and delusion of Satan, who thought he could overthrow the throne of God.  This resulted only in Satan’s expulsion from heaven.  Evil always over reaches, drunk with grandiose dreams.  Napoleon, Hitler — the list is endless.  Self seduced, they were destroyed by their own impossible reach.  Deception always results in loss. 

In Psalm 2:2-4 we read,

“The kings of the earth take their stand 

and the rulers off the earth take counsel together against the Lord 

and against His Messiah, saying, ‘Let us tear their fetters apart 

and cast away their cords from us.’ 

He who sits in the heavens laughs” 

2:5,6 “They said to him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea; for this is what has been written by the prophet: And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of Judah, for out of you shall come forth a Ruler, who will shepherd My people Israel.’”

The educated men reply that Bethlehem is to be the birthplace of Messiah.  This is clearly prophesied in Micah 5:2.  The scribes and priests knew the Scriptures, knew where the Messiah was to be born but were not seeking Him.  We suppose they could see the star but did not recognize it as a sign in the heavens.  They had knowledge but no revelation as to the time or season for their life.  They knew what God had said but had no idea that it applied to that moment in history. They had access to the Scriptures which identified the birthplace of the Messiah but were unwilling to act on the knowledge they had. They chose not to believe the information. So we see that unbelief is a choice.

But the Magi, men from an ungodly culture hundreds of miles away were acting with greater wisdom than the scribes and priests who worked and worshipped in the Jerusalem temple. I have listened to brilliant professors of theology who had no insight into the Bible, who had information about God but did not know God. Knowledge is not the same thing as wisdom. Wisdom is the ability to live the truth that we know.

The priests of Jerusalem, even if they could not see the star, could have asked to accompany the Magi, to follow those who followed the star. But they were not interested, only troubled. These were secularized politicians who held religious vocations, humanist priests working in the religion business.

2:7 “Then Herod secretly called the magi and determined from them the exact time the star appeared.”

Herod asks for the “exact time” when the star appeared.  He has already formed his murderous plan.  By obtaining the approximate time of Messiah’s birth, he can deduce the possible age of his rival.  It would be helpful to learn the child’s identity but not necessary.  He only needs to kill all the children born within the parameters of the day of this meeting with the wise men and the first appearance of the star.  In our generation we have seen genocide used as a political tool.  The practice is ancient — the political mathematics of murder.

2:8 “And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, ‘Go and search carefully for the Child; and when you have found Him, report to me, so that I too may come and worship Him.’”

Herod pretends to be a worshipper of the Messiah. Satan can cloak himself in the robes of a worshipper, can hide himself in cathedral incense and candle light, bishop’s robes and lovely liturgy, even “disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14).  Though it is politically expedient for kings to kneel at altars, not every king who kneels before the altar and not every bishop who stands behind the altar has been a worshipper of God.  Sometimes, what appears to be holy may truly be profane, even demonic.

2:9 “After hearing the king, they went their way; and the star, which they had seen in the east, went on before them until it came and stood over the place where the Child was.”

“They went their way.”  The Magi reveal their wisdom through their perseverance. They were committed seekers.  

1. Notice that the star went on before them but only after they went their way.  God provided light as they committed to go.

2. The star went before them.  Light shines in front of them, not behind them. Paul said, “Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phlpns. 3:13,14). Forget those things which are behind you.  Press on toward the upward call of God in Christ.

3. The light continued before them until it stood over the child. The journey’s end is Jesus. The Holy Spirit, the light of God, seeks to glorify Jesus and will always reveal Him to all who seek.

We are awed by the precision of God’s direction in the lives of the Magi. Which brings us to the question, why did the Magi stop in Jerusalem to ask directions?  When they resumed their journey, the star continued to lead them “until it stopped over the place where the child was.”  Consider how far they had traveled, yet the light of God’s leading brought them precisely to their journey’s end.  We are awed by the precision of God’s direction in their lives.  

I admire a teachable spirit but there was no reason to ask directions from the disinterested, spiritually complacent, politically compromised priests and scribes. They were learned religious people who knew the Scriptures but not the season; who lived within walking distance of Bethlehem but whose hearts were an eternity removed from God. 

In stopping at Jerusalem, all the Magi accomplished was to momentarily break their focus, interrupt their journey and tragically endanger the innocent children of Bethlehem. In Psalm 32:8, the Lord said, “I will instruct and you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and lead you with my eye upon you.”

God is able to speak His guiding Word to all who follow after Him.  If we will listen for that guidance and follow His direction, we also will arrive at those destinations, those Bethlehems which God has planned for us.  Yes, we should always be teachable and God has placed pastor /teachers in the church and in our lives but not everybody we meet is qualified to speak into our lives.  There is an immense amount of false teaching, heresy and apostasy not only in the world but in unredeemed churches. Be careful not to break your focus by listening to spiritually compromised teachers or endanger your journey by associating with evil in its various disguises.

2:10 “When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.”

The Magi rejoiced to see the star again.  They had been in the company of complacent religious folk and a demonically driven king.  How refreshing to find again the pure and peaceful light of God in their lives.

We are not being unfair in calling those priests and scribes complacent and compromised. Jerusalem is only seven miles from Bethlehem and though the religious community knew the prophecy that the Messiah would be born in that city, they would not make the short journey to investigate the report of the Magi.  When we know the truth but will not act on it, something essential has been lost. In fact, “To him who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin” (James 4:17).

2:11 “After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”

“Coming into the house” — the fact that Joseph, Mary and the child are living now in a house indicates that this is some months after Christ’s birth in the stable.

Seeing the child, the Magi bowed down and worshipped. Notice again the purity of their motive.  They were not seeking political leverage, not lobbying for access to money or position or power. They came to worship the newborn king. Wisdom is revealed in the purity of their motive.

Wisdom is revealed also in knowing when the journey is complete.  They recognized the king and bowed in His presence.  God has placed in our hearts a desire to know Him and life is a restless searching until we do.  When we arrive at journey’s end in the presence of the Lord, the wise heart bows in the presence of the true King.

Wisdom is revealed in the way they honor the King.  “And opening their treasures they presented to Him gifts.”  They had gone out expecting to meet royalty, carrying gifts to share when they did find Him.  How foolish it would be to seek God and not expect to find Him.  How foolish to find God and not be prepared to honor Him.

Through Jeremiah the Lord said, “You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah. 29:13).  Wisdom seeks the Lord expecting to meet Him, prepared to give the worshipful gifts which our God is due. These were not fools. They were wise men.

However, their gifts reveal the wisdom of God more than human wisdom. The Magi could not have known the true identity of the God-King they would find, but God prepared them.  

They brought gold, gift for royalty. In the ancient world, when an ambassador came into the presence of a king, he brought gold, thereby recognizing the king’s majesty. With this gift, the wise men proclaimed the Kingship of Jesus.  They were expecting to meet a king but not the King of all kings. Hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus this was prophesied:

“For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;

and the government will rest on His shoulders;

and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

There will be no end to the increase of Hs government 

or of peace, on the throne of  David and over His Kingdom, 

to establish it and to uphold it with justice 

and righteousness, from then on and forevermore”  (Isa. 9:6,7).

The wise men brought gold because the little baby in the manger, Mary’s child, was born a King and He shall reign forever and ever.

The next gift was quite unusual — they brought frankincense.  This was a sweet smelling incense used in the Temple.  As the sacrifices were offered up, as the people worshipped, frankincense was burned and its sweet smoke mingled with the prayers and praise of the people and priests.  In bringing this gift to Jesus, the Magi could not possibly have known that they were recognizing and proclaiming the Deity, the Lordship of this child.  

The gift of frankincense announces, “This is more than an earthly king.  This is God in flesh.”

None should have been surprised.  Hundreds of years before, the prophet said, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call His name Emmanuel, which means God with us” (Isa. 7:14).  

The Apostle Paul said,  “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form” (Col. 2:9). The Magi brought frankincense for the little baby in the manger, Mary’s child, was born the Son of God, Lord of all lords.

The third gift seems strangely out of place, might even appear to be a mistake but God makes no mistakes and prepared the Magi with perfect gifts. The gift is myrrh, used in the embalming of bodies. It was a burial ointment and as a gift for the child, proclaimed the climax of divine purpose for the child’s life.  He would be the Lamb of God slain for the sins of the world.

As these very wise men knelt before the Christ child, worshipped and laid their gifts before Him, they proclaimed far more than they understood.  They proclaimed the birth of the King of all kings, the Lord of all lords and the sacrificed Lamb.

We too proclaim Jesus to be King as we lay before Him the gold of our time, our treasure, our talents, our praise and our very being. As we surrender to His rule, we proclaim Him King. We proclaim Him Lord with the incense of spiritual worship. We proclaim Him the Lamb of God as we allow His sacrifice to be applied to our lives. When we place our trust in the shed blood of Jesus, we proclaim Him Lamb of God. For nearly two thousand years wise people have, with the gold of our being, the incense of our worship, the myrrh of our faith in His blood, proclaimed Jesus to be King, Lord and Lamb. 

2:12 “And having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, the magi left for their own country by another way.”

One closing note.  As we have said, though it is wise to be teachable, the Magi had not acted wisely when they left their guiding light and asked directions from people who were neither led by God nor seeking God.  They opened their journey to the religious and political powers of that region and in doing this, they exposed themselves and the people of Bethlehem to those powers.  God mercifully warned the Magi of the danger to their lives and they returned home by another way.  For the innocent babies asleep in the cradles of Bethlehem, there would be no escape from the reality of this evil world. No escape except for One.

Into such a world, Jesus the Messiah was born, and we also were born. The Good News is that in the midst of this violence and tragedy, God is with us and someday His peace will be established across the earth. The star of Bethlehem reveals wise folk who seek God, fools who ignore God and evil folk who hate God. But also, the star of Bethlehem reveals a God who beckons to us, calls us to Himself and to that day when the kingdom of this world will have become the kingdom of our God and of His Messiah.

Fleeing Bethlehem

2:13 “Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.’”

Again an angel appears to Joseph, this time to warn him of Herod’s murderous intent.  Does God warn everyone or only some?  Was Joseph more deserving or more discerning than the mothers of Bethlehem?  I don’t believe he was and I do not understand the how and the why of tragedy. But I do see two truths here:

1. Jesus escaped death in this instance, and did on other occasions because He had an appointment with death.  Before His birth, the angel said to Joseph, “You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).  He would provide salvation from sin by dying in the place of sinful humanity, as the holy Sacrifice for sin.  Jesus knew He had an appointment with death, knew that He would die an atoning death for the sins of the world. In fact, He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8, see also I Peter 1:19,20).

The point is that no one took His life from Him, He gave it, but only in God’s time.  Jesus  escaped death as a child so that He could give His life on the cross at the appointed time. 

“For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life 

so that I may take it again.  No one has taken it away from Me, 

but I lay it down on my own initiative” (John. 10:17,18).

2. Mary escaped heart breaking grief here, but not forever.  It had already been prophesied to her that a sword would pierce her heart (Luke 2:35), not a literal sword but the sharp pangs of grief.  And so it was, thirty-three years later, when she saw her Son crucified.

2:14 “So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt.”

Joseph obeyed without any delay. He arose “while it was still night” and fled with the child and his mother.  When Joseph hears from God he is quick to obey.  

1. He does not question the command or direction of God: “Did God really say ... ?” After all the prophecies and testimonies of angels, Magi and shepherds, wouldn’t it be tempting to ask, “Can’t God protect us where we are?  If God is God, and this child is who we think He is, why should we flee?”  But Joseph did not question.  He obeyed.

2. He doesn’t pause to meditate on the command: “Hmmm, let me think about this, maybe there’s a deeper truth here.”  It is sometimes easier, more convenient, more comfortable, to pause and meditate on truth than to act on it. We do need times of reflection but the angel seemed to speak with an urgency, indicating the necessity of quick, decisive action.  There’s a time to meditate on truth and a time to act and if we miss the time for action, it can cost us. Joseph did not pause.  He obeyed, immediately.

3. He does not rationalize: “Did God mean what he said or is there some hidden meaning here and does this literally apply to me?”

It’s easy to evade truth by rationalizing it, to persuade ourselves that it applies to someone else but not to us.  This is especially tempting when responding to truth will require that we step out of our comfort zone, leave our familiar surroundings, go where we’ve never gone before mentally or spiritually, culturally, racially or even geographically.

Joseph did not evade the truth by rationalizing it.  He obeyed and went where he had never been before — they journeyed to Egypt.  This was no small journey.  Though there were large communities of Jewish people in Egypt, they were aliens in a foreign land.  It’s not likely that Joseph or Mary had family there.  In a time and culture where the roots of family, kin and clan were tightly woven, it was no small act of courage to leave everything and everyone.  

2:15 “He remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘Out of Egypt I called my Son.’”

The family lived in Egypt until the death of Herod. No doubt the gifts of the Magi served to provide for the refugee family. Matthew then records their return from Egypt as a fulfillment of prophecy, “When Israel was a youth I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son” (Hosea 11:1).

2:16 “Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the magi.”

Herod, psychotic, enraged murderer that he was, sent his executioners and killed all the male children in Bethlehem, from two years old and younger.  His bloody mathematics was based on the length of time that the Magi had seen the star. That glorious star, for a band of seekers, was a golden guide post in the sky illuminating their journey toward this greatest mystery, the wondrous birth of the God-King in human flesh. But for Herod, the star was only a cold, essential factor in his deadly political equation.  The light has been visible for two years, then every male child in Bethlehem two years and younger must die.  Thus he would eliminate any potential rival to his royal throne.

A lovely light shining in a clear winter sky causes some to seek God and another to commit unspeakable savagery.  There is no logic in this, no explanation.  It is the reality of a fallen world, where one man’s political agenda is more precious than a baby cradled in his mother’s bosom or in her womb; where some souls worship while others conceive bloody plans; where political, personal and career expediency is more sacred than the life of an innocent child.

In our world and in our life time, more than a few despots have used genocide as a political tool to establish their power.  The massacre of innocent civilians, including children, has too often been rationalized as a strategic instrument of political policy and national security.  And how many politicians, who would not dream of mass murder, have excused or ignored the extermination of millions of unborn children because their election seemed to require it?

2:17,18 “Then what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: ‘A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; and she refused to be comforted, because they were no more.’”

Again, Matthew hears the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy in the life of Jesus.  Truly, there was no comfort for the mothers of Bethlehem.

2:19-21 “But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, and said, ‘Get up, take the Child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel; for those who sought the Child’s life are dead.’ So Joseph got up, took the Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel.”

Again, the angel speaks to Joseph in a dream, assuring him of safety in his native land. And again, Joseph obeyed, unquestioning, immediately.

2:22,23 “But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Then after being warned by God in a dream, he left for the regions of Galilee, and came and lived in a city called Nazareth. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets: ‘He shall be called a Nazarene.’”

While he was traveling, the angel spoke again and Joseph continued his journey into Galilee, to a city called Nazareth.  Sometimes God does not give us all the directions for our journey, only enough to begin.  In fact, it didn’t make sense to settle in Judea because the son of Herod, Archelaus, was even more violent and dangerous than his father.  So the plan to leave Egypt may not have made sense at first.  Joseph didn’t have the whole plan but he obeyed what he knew.

1. Notice that God added to the plan while Joseph was moving.  God speaks to us while we are obeying what we know.  But if we are not even doing that, why would God tell us more?  It’s easier to steer a moving vehicle than a stationary one.  Let us walk by the light we have and trust God to shine more light as we need it.

2. Obedience does not require that we understand everything.  Obedience is an act of faith based on surrender to God, trusting that God has our best interests at heart and is able to guide our lives.  Since God’s directions may not be entirely complete to start with, it’s only natural that we may not understand the whole plan.  But as we obey what we know and follow the directions that we have, God continues to speak and our understanding grows.  If we refuse to begin because we don’t understand, we will never begin, will never fully understand and we will never arrive at journey’s end.

Any journey with God, any act of obedience, does not begin with understanding everything God is saying or doing.  It begins with an act of surrender.  The principle here is to obey what we know, walk according to the light we have.  As we live and walk, God will shine more light and we will arrive at our journey’s end as did the Magi and as did Joseph and Mary and the Child.

Study Questions

1. What are some character qualities that we see in the Magi? (see notes, v. 1,2)

2. What is the significance of each of the three gifts which the Magi brought? (see notes, v. 11)

Matthew 3

3:1 “Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”’

Matthew chapter three introduces John the Baptist. We know several revealing truths about Him.

1. We know where he preached: in the wilderness of Judea.  

This was rugged country, hot, dry, forbidding.  It was a lonely place, lacking in comforts.  His willingness to lay aside all distractions, to embrace the sacrifice necessary to answer God’s calling on his life, speaks of his discipline and commitment.

2. We know what he preached: repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.

a. Repent

Repentance is a turning, a reorienting of mind and heart.  It is sincere remorse for the sins of the past and an equally sincere refocusing of hope and faith in the God who opens new tomorrows and new possibilities to us. Repentance is not simply the confession that we are going the wrong way. It is turning around and making a commitment to go the right way.

There are many ways to avoid repentance.  The secular mind denies that we have sinned, indeed, denies the very category of sin, saying, “We only make adult choices.”  The hypocrite condemns the sins of others while accepting and rationalizing his own sin. The falsely religious trust in ritual to dispose of sin or cover sin, rather than humbly surrendering to God.

True repentance is a gift from God: “With gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim 2:25).

True repentance is an expression of God’s mercy to creatures who could not turn from sin except that God leads us to turn: “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4).  

True repentance is a gift which God bestows on those who are willing to listen to the Word of God which cuts through our masks, our denial, our self-righteousness. After Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, we read, “Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brethren, what shall we do?’ Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’” (Acts 2:37,38).  True repentance is a gift which must be received and acted on (Acts 2:38-41).  

b. The kingdom of heaven is at hand.  

Though there are no details as to John’s concept of the kingdom of heaven, we know he was expecting the imminent appearance of the Messiah. A kingdom is where a king rules and John was obviously expecting Messiah to come, overthrow earthly governments and establish God’s rule on earth.  

We know John recognized Jesus as the long-awaited Savior, the holy Lamb of God, because in John’s Gospel we read, “The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’” (John 1:29).  But it also appears that John was surprised, maybe even disappointed, at the delay in the establishing of the kingdom. After he was imprisoned, he sent word to Jesus, “Are you the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?” (Matthew 11:3 also Luke 7:19).

John did not understand that Jesus came not to overthrow corrupt governments but to transform corrupt hearts, to reconcile sinners to a holy God. If Christ had established His kingdom on earth before He made an atoning sacrifice for sin, no one could have entered His kingdom.

However, if John misunderstood the nature of the kingdom of God, he was right in proclaiming its closeness.  Jesus said, “The kingdom is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is’ or ‘There it is.’  For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst”  (Luke 17:20,21).  The kingdom was as close as the presence of Jesus and John understood that.

Notice the subtle difference between John’s message and Jesus’ message.  John said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”  (Matt 3:2).  He was preparing hearts for the ministry of Jesus by calling people to take ownership of their sin, confess and turn from it.

Jesus preached, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel (good news)”  (Mark 1:15).  Jesus announced that the kingdom of God “is at hand” but He also said “the time is fulfilled.” Jesus not only called people to repent but to “repent and believe” because the time was fulfilled — it was now the season of God’s grace. 

(We must note that Matthew seldom used the phrase, “kingdom of God,” preferring to use “kingdom of heaven.”  However, the other Gospel writers never use “kingdom of heaven,” always using “kingdom of God.”  While some Bible scholars delineate a difference between the two terms, they are in fact synonymous.  Matthew was writing primarily for a Jewish audience who considered the name of God too sacred to write.  Out of respect, Matthew substituted the word heaven — “kingdom of heaven”.)

3:3 “For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said, ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Make ready the way of the Lord; make His paths straight.’”

As is often the case, Matthew sees the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy (Isaiah 40:3).  John the Baptist also applied Isaiah’s words to himself (John 1:22,23).  He recognized that the purpose of his ministry was to call people to prepare an entrance in their hearts for the Lord, to make straight paths for Him. The full passage in Isaiah calls for the low places to be lifted up and the mountains, high or exalted places to be brought down.  We are to change those attitudes and habits in our lives that prevent or hinder the Lordship of Christ.  

The kingdom or rule of Christ does not begin with outward signs, it is not a military conquest, not a regime changing event. It is a heart changing event. The Lord enters our life when we turn from that which would refuse Him, when we pull down that which would exalt itself against Him, lift up into the light those things of darkness which are unworthy of Him and open our lives to His redeeming grace and power.

Repentance is not a one time prayer. It is a lifestyle.  John shows us this life in exaggerated detail.  He renounced anything that would hinder God’s access to his heart, anything that would hold him back from fulfilling God’s calling on his life.

3:4 “Now John himself had a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey.”

Again we have a glimpse into John’s commitment. Though his life is an example in the extreme — not many are called to live in a desert, wear camel’s hair or eat locusts — there is a valid principle here. The principle is that commitment requires focus; focus requires simplicity — refusing the clutter that would break our focus. If we would complete our journey with God, we must learn to refuse the journey that is not ours.  If we would use the gifts and resources which God has provided us, we must refuse the gifts that are not ours. If we would fulfill the Lord’s unique design for our life, we must refuse the design that is not ours. John’s life is the life of simple focus, free from the clutter which would diminish his ability to fulfill God’s calling. This is a principle we all would do well to learn.

3:5 “Then Jerusalem was going out to him, and all Judea and all the district around the Jordan;”

John’s ministry might not have played well in today’s religion business. His ascetic lifestyle was so contrary to the prosperity Gospel; his uncompromising call to repentance surely would offend many. He was not seeker-friendly. Yet we read that people were flocking to him.  In every age there are multitudes who respond when someone speaks truth empowered by God.

3:6 “and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, as they confessed their sins.”

Notice that they were not simply baptized but baptized as they confessed their sins.  Baptism is an outward sign of an inner work of grace. The word confess means “to say the same thing”, in this case, to say the same thing about sin that God says. Confession of sin demonstrates that God is performing a work of grace in the heart of the person being baptized.  Apart from this inner work of grace, the mere water of baptism means nothing.

There was no historical precedent for Jewish people being baptized.  Converts to the Jewish faith (proselytes) were baptized, but not Jews.  Baptism was a ritual for the cleansing of sins but Jews were children of Abraham, participants in the sacrificial system proscribed by the law of Moses. 

That system was instituted by God for the covering of sin and pointed ahead to the day when the sacrifice of Jesus would truly cleanse. However, most Jews believed that they needed no further cleansing beyond the sacrifices which they offered.

Yet now, for the first time in their national history, multitudes recognized the limitations of the sacrificial system, recognized the reality of their sinfulness before God and were flocking to John, confessing their sin and submitting to the waters of baptism. Soon, the inadequacy of the temple sacrificial system would be revealed and a holy Lamb, the Lamb of God, would be sacrificed for the sins of the world.  The old covenant would be superseded by a new covenant entered through repentance and faith in Christ (see Hebrews 9:8-14, 24-28,  10:1-4, 10-14).  In fact, the Jerusalem Temple would be destroyed in AD 70, after which the priesthood and sacrificial system were laid aside.  

John ministered between the old and new covenants and how symbolic that he stood in the Jordan, as if one bank represented the covenant age that was passing away and the far bank signifying that which was coming. The people, hearing the call of God through John, entered into the waters, as if pressing forward into the season of the new covenant.

3:7 “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, ‘You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?’”

The most religiously scrupulous people of Jewish society were the Pharisees. The most powerful were the Sadducees, who were wealthy, conservative, politically connected.  These were the parties which would someday pursue Jesus to His death. (Jesus would later say of them that they were outwardly religious but inwardly corrupt, mouthing religiously correct rituals while their hearts were far from God.)  

They were coming for baptism but evidently, trusting in the ritual without truly repenting of their sins. As we have said, there is nothing magical about the words or water of baptism. It is an outward sign of an inner work of God which we access through repentance. Participating in any external religious ritual apart from a sincere work of God in the heart is futile, useless. 

John was not afraid to speak truth to these powerful men, calling them a “brood of vipers.”  He didn’t accommodate himself to power, didn’t compromise.  He spoke truth to power.

3:8 “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance;”

John’s message to them and to us is that we must bear fruit in keeping with the repentance we have professed.  Repentance is a turning of mind and heart, a reorienting of life away from sin and toward God.  If we have truly been changed by the grace of God, then this change will be reflected in the way we live.  Jesus said that the tree is known by its fruit and John says, “Show the fruit that demonstrates the reality of your repentance.”

There is an old rabbinical saying, “If a man is carrying an unclean thing, all the water in the world will not cleanse his hands.  But if he throws away the unclean thing, a little water will suffice.” John’s message was that it is time to turn and be cleansed and be right with God. It is not the water that cleanses and makes us right with God; it is the inner work of God that makes us right with Him and that work is evidenced by the throwing away of the unclean things in our lives.  

The Apostle Paul spoke of putting off the old life and putting on the new (Colossians 3:5-14).  The fruit of our living demonstrates the reality of our repentance. We can’t see the roots of a tree but we know about the health, depth and strength of the roots because of the fruit we can see.

3:9 “and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.”

There was a tendency among the people of John’s day to presume on their religious heritage. They would say, “We’re children of Abraham — of course we’re righteous.”  The same is true in our day: “Our ancestors were Godly, therefore we are Godly.”  People are guilty of this, nations can be guilty too, saying, “God has blessed our nation in the past; surely then, God’s blessing is on us today.”  This is presumption, presuming on the grace of God.  

Our relationship with God must be current and fresh, based on our own repentance and faith.  Praise God for the Godly inheritance given to us by righteous ancestors. Their righteousness may inspire and motivate us, may teach and nurture us. But we will stand before God, righteous or unrighteous, based on our own response to the call, “Repent and believe the Good News.”

3:10 “The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

John proclaims in stark language the reality of judgment: the axe is already laid to the root of the tree. Unless there is good fruit, the tree will be cut down. This generation was entering a season of decision and the response of the people would determine not only their personal future but also the future of their nation.

Jesus taught this too. In one of His parables, He told of a man who planted a fig tree that bore no fruit for three years.  He told his gardener to cut it down.  The gardener asked permission to care for the tree for one more year and if it did not then bear fruit, he would cut it down (Luke 13:6-9).  Notice the grace — give it another season of preparation.  Notice also, that though Jesus proclaimed grace, He also said clearly that there will be judgment. There will be accountability. 

Though Israel rejected its Messiah, God gave another 40 years of mercy. But in AD 70, the nation was destroyed by the Romans and did not exist again until 1948. John proclaimed the truth, “The axe is already laid at the root of the trees.”

3:11 “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

John contrasts his baptism and ministry with the baptism and ministry of Jesus.  John’s baptism is preparatory, calling people to repentance, to prepare hearts and minds for the Messiah. The baptism which Jesus will bring, the Holy Spirit and fire, does not necessarily refer to final judgment but to present cleansing.  When we receive Jesus as our Lord, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within the believer for the purpose of guiding us into truth, convincing us of God’s cleansing grace, and empowering us to throw off the yoke of sin. Fire refers to the work of consecration, preparing a people holy unto the Lord.

3:12 “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Likewise, the image of the winnowing fork and the chaff burned in the fire do not only refer to final judgment.  The winnowing fork speaks of the present ministry of Jesus working in harmony with the Holy Spirit, separating out of our lives those sins, habits and characteristics which are as useless as chaff, while confirming the wheat, which speaks of the life of Christ in us.  The fire refers not merely to the final fire of judgment but the purifying fire of the Divine Refiner, that is, the present work of the Holy Spirit cleansing us of sinful habits and attitudes which work death and destruction in us.

However, there is also an end time meaning to these words.  When Jesus returns to earth, it will not be to offer salvation but to gather His people and pour out judgment on those who have rejected Him.  The fire of that judgment will be all encompassing and everlasting. 

The Baptism of Jesus

3:13,14 “Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent Him, saying, ‘I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?’”

Jesus came from Galilee intentionally for the purpose of being baptized by John, who tried to prevent Jesus, instinctively recognizing the perfect holiness of the Lamb of God, “I have need to be baptized by you.”

3:15 “But Jesus answering said to him, ‘Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he permitted Him.”

Jesus’ response is that His baptism fulfills all righteousness.  It’s not that Jesus needed to be baptized for sin — He was sinless but He was identifying with sinful humanity. 

Jesus was publicly submitting to the calling of God on His life to be the holy Lamb who takes upon Himself the sins of the world. This was the first step in the outworking of the redemption plan, whereby “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him,” (2 Cor. 5:21). 

Here, at the Jordan River, at the beginning of His ministry, Jesus surrendered to His calling to be the Lamb for sinners slain. At the end of His ministry, in the Garden of Gethsemane, He would surrender again.

Notice that the holiness of Jesus never caused Him to recoil from humanity.  Perfect holiness was expressed in perfect love.  The fulness of Christ’s love drew Him to those who knew nothing of holiness, who were lost in sin.  In baptism, Jesus was submitted to His Father and identifying with, standing in the waters with, sinful humanity.  It is a portrait of the way He lived His life.

3:16 “After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him,”

Matthew does not say that anyone else saw the Spirit of God descending on Jesus as a dove (though John, in his gospel, says that John the Baptist saw — John 1:32-34).

Doves were used in sacrificial rituals in the temple, especially by the poor who could not afford a lamb. It may be that the Holy Spirit was depicting the someday sacrifice of Jesus.

The Holy Spirit may also have taken physical form to provide visual confirmation to Jesus of the anointing of God that came upon Him at His baptism. That anointing represented empowerment for service, as we read in Isaiah’s prophecy of the Messiah, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted (humble); He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord” (Isa. 61:2a). Jesus quoted that passage at the beginning of His ministry and applied the text to Himself (see Luke 4:18,19).

3:17 “and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.’”

God spoke, though there is no indication that anyone heard this but Jesus. It would be consistent with the life and ministry of Jesus that no one else saw or heard. Three years later, as He went to the cross, few understood Him or stood by Him. Though a public baptism, it is a solitary moment for Jesus, in preparation for a solitary ministry.

It is important to note what God said.

1. “This is my beloved Son,” is a quote from Psalm 2:7.  Psalm 2 is a Messianic Psalm, a Psalm which refers to, looks forward to and describes the coming Messiah.  With these words, God the Father identifies Jesus as His Son, the long awaited Messiah.  Son also refers to the Deity of Christ. This is God in human form.

2. “In whom I am well pleased” is a quote from Isaiah 42:1, part of a prophetic reference to the Servant of God, the coming One whose kingly ministry would establish the justice of God on the earth (Isa. 42:4).

Whether anyone other than Jesus heard the voice is irrelevant.  With these words, God the Father and God the Holy Spirit are commissioning and confirming Jesus in His Messianic call. 

Study Questions

1. How would you describe the message and ministry of John the Baptist? (v. 2)

2. Why was Jesus baptized? (v. 15)

Matthew 4

A Season of Testing (4:1-11)

4:1 “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”

Immediately following His baptism, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.  (Luke adds that Jesus went into the wilderness full of the Holy Spirit.  Mark adds in 1:12 of his Gospel, “And immediately the Spirit impelled (drove) Him to go out into the wilderness”). We sometimes assume that when we go through wilderness seasons, times of temptation or testing, we must be out of the will of God.  But Jesus was led by the Spirit specifically for the purpose of being tested.  One of the great truths of life is that often, following any great victory, there comes a test. 

Jesus had just been baptized by John and when He came up out of the water, the Holy Spirit had descended upon Him.  He heard the voice of His Heavenly Father affirming His Sonship.  He was fully conscious of His divine mission, His sacred humanity was filled with the abiding presence and power of God.  It was in this context of strength and confirmation that Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness for a confrontation with Satan. 

It was a satanically initiated and God-approved confrontation.  Satan wanted to tempt Jesus in this moment of victory and God appointed this test for His Son. 

Notice the word tempted in verse 1. The word is peirazan, from the root word peirazo, meaning to tempt or test.  A peirasmos is a temptation, trial or testing, a proving of something or someone.  The word is neutral in meaning.  It can be used of something evil, a temptation; or something good and valuable, a test.

 

In English we make a distinction between tempting and testing, in fact, we use two different words, one word carrying a negative connotation, the other word holding a more positive meaning.  But in the Greek it is one word which can be positive or negative depending on the context. From God’s viewpoint, this is a test. From the devil’s viewpoint, it is a temptation. 

From God’s viewpoint it is a way to prove that Jesus is worthy. From the devil’s viewpoint it is a way to tempt Jesus into unworthy actions. God wants to demonstrate the victorious power of Jesus, the true King, over Satan. Satan wants to demonstrate his victorious power over the King.

Satan’s temptation in your life is God’s test.

When you overcome Satan’s temptation, you pass God’s test.

God wants to demonstrate His righteousness in us.

Satan wants to demonstrate his evil and malice through us.

What Satan determined for the demonstration of your weakness,

God allows for the demonstration of His power at work in you.

What Satan releases against us to prove the superiority of his strategies to destroy us,

God allows to prove the reality of His promise to perfect what He has begun in us.

What Satan intends to cause us to fall, God intends to cause us to stand.

The Apostle James exhorts us, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials” (James 1:2). The word trials is peirasmos, certainly not temptations with a negative sense — we don’t rejoice at temptation; but we can rejoice in our trials for the following reason: “Knowing that the testing (dokimion: a test or trial for the purpose of proving) of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:4). 

God allows tests in our lives so that we may have the opportunity to prove what is in us and so that we may grow. On the other hand, the same word, peirasmos, is used in James 1:13, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death” (James 1:13-15).

Temptations are not from God.  They occur as the devil or the fallen world around us stimulates our own unredeemed desires which arouse our lusts which then lead to sin. However, God allows temptations as tests to reveal our strength or weakness, our true motives, the reality of our faith and character.  And God allows tests as a means to strengthen us and perfect His virtues in us.

God will allow a test to prove righteousness, but God will never entice anyone into sin.  Certain events come into our lives, which, from Satan's viewpoint are enticements to evil.  But from God's perspective, they are opportunities to prove our righteousness.

So, looking again at our text in Matthew 4:1, Jesus was “led by the Spirit … to be tempted by the devil”.  We can say this about tests:

1. They are times and places of spiritual confrontation.

Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness of confrontation.  He was not out of the will of God.  He was led by the Spirit of God into this season.  The word led is anago: to lead, sail away, launch, loose, depart, set forth.  

2. Confrontation is inevitable and necessary in this life.  

Everyone wants the victory without the battle but there are no victories without battles.  If we are led by the Holy Spirit, our battles are a point of departure for victory.  Confrontation with evil is an opportunity to see truth about ourselves and the world around us, to be strengthened and confirmed in righteousness, to overcome and move on to something higher and better. 

 

What do we need to confront and overcome?

1. We need to confront and overcome the flesh: our unbalanced, unredeemed desires, our immaturity, our experiences from the past which left us feeling inferior, depressed, guilty, corrupt, angry, vulnerable to sin or motivated by false pride.

2. We need to confront and overcome our attraction to the world in ways that compromise our discipleship; confront and overcome our tendency to glorify creation instead of the Creator.

3. We need to confront and overcome the strategies of Satan who desires to seduce, mislead and destroy our lives.  Satan goes about like a roaring lion seeking open gates into our lives.  In the life of Jesus, we see confrontation and victory.

Before we leave verse one, let’s notice the place of confrontation — the wilderness.  That was quite a different setting than the place where Satan met the first Adam, wasn't it?  The first Adam was confronted by Satan in an absolute paradise, a beautiful, peaceful, sinless garden but Jesus encountered Satan in a desolate wilderness located in a sinful world.  The first Adam abandoned his calling for a piece of fruit. The second Adam was tempted to abandon His mission for a piece of bread. What the first Adam lost in a perfect environment, Jesus, the second Adam, won in a barren desert, and the difference was the character of the individual. 

4:2   “And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.”

After His baptism and commissioning, Jesus needed time alone with His Heavenly Father to prepare for the ministry ahead.  When this time of communion was over, when He was hungry and weary, then the tempter came to Him.  Satan confronts us in our vulnerable moments.

Jesus was vulnerable in two ways.  As we have said, He had heard the commissioning voice of His Father affirming His identity as the Son of God; He had received the commissioning anointing of the Holy Spirit poured out upon Him.  There is a vulnerability in moments of high triumph.  Also, Jesus was physically and emotionally vulnerable after forty days of fasting.

However, He had just spent forty days communing with His Father.  His discernment was sharp, He may even have been anticipating an attack from the devil.  Temptations which are seen in advance, which are anticipated, temptations which have been watched for and prayed against, have less power to seduce and destroy.  This is why Jesus taught His disciples, “Keep watching and praying, that you may not come into temptation” (Mark 14:38). 

The first attack.

4:3 “And the tempter came and said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.’”

Notice the first word Satan spoke: “If.” “If you are the Son of God,” if you are who God testified that you are (3:17).  The tempter is trying to entice Jesus to doubt His identity which had just been verified by the voice of God.  

Remember in Genesis 3:1, the serpent (Satan) approached Eve with these words, “Indeed, has God said ...”  Satan knew what God had said and Eve knew because Adam had told her.  But Satan began the conversation by casting doubt on the truthfulness of God’s Word.

In the same manner he begins his conversation with Jesus, trying to create doubt about the reality of God’s conversation with Him.  Satan comes to us breathing doubt into our souls, doubts about who we are in Christ, doubts about the trustworthiness of God’s Word, doubts about God’s power, His love for us, doubts about our faith.  Satan’s approach is through doubt.  

Now let’s look at the temptation itself.

“Command that these stones become bread.”  The first Adam abandoned his calling for a piece of fruit. Jesus, the second Adam, was tempted to abandon His mission for a piece of bread. The first Adam encountered his temptation while he was satisfied by the abundance of the garden; the second Adam encountered His temptation while hungry after 40 days of fasting.

1. Satan is suggesting that Jesus’ hunger is incompatible with His being the Son of God.  It’s not about being hungry.  It’s about doubting the Father’s goodness and doubting his identity as the Son of God.

“God said that you are His beloved Son — well, then why are you hungry?” 

“God poured out manna in the wilderness — why is He letting you be so hungry?”

“If you’re the Son of God then you’re living beneath your true station in life. You can’t trust a God who would let you be this hungry.  You better second guess God because He’s not fulfilling His promises to you. Or maybe you are not who you think you are.”

This was Satan’s approach to Eve. First, he probed her understanding of God’s word —“Did God say?” He then proceeded to call God a liar, saying in effect, “You surely will not die if you eat that fruit. God wasn’t telling you the truth. How can you trust a God like that?”

 

Does the devil whisper that to us also? “You’ve suffered enough — you should be a little bit irritated with God for the way things have gone in your life. If you are a child of God, how could He let this happen to you?”  

Recall these words of Jesus, recorded in the Old Testament and quoted in the New Testament, “I have come to do your will, O God” (Hebrews 10:7). Jesus came to do the Father’s will. To allow seeds of distrust to be planted in Him would have prevented Him from perfectly accomplishing the will of His Father.  

The climax of God's purpose for the Messiah was the cross and how often there were temptations to doubt the wisdom of that plan.  Peter said, “This shall never happen to You” (Matt. 16:22).  Jesus rightly attributed those words to Satan.  When He was on the cross, the crowd hurled the temptation of Satan at Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, come down and save yourself.”

Hours before the cross, in the garden, Jesus prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me, yet not as I will but as You will”  (Matt 26:39). Jesus’ willingness to deny Himself and trust His Father began in the wilderness when He was hungry and continued through the final hours and minutes of His life.

2. A second point of temptation is for Jesus to use His gifts and power to serve Himself rather than His Father.  We may translate the word if with the word since. In this case, Satan was saying, “Since you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 

Satan was saying, “We both know who you are — you’re the Son of God. We know you have power and we know you are hungry. Use your miraculous power to serve yourself.”

Satan was suggesting to Jesus that He would need to use His power to take care of Himself because His Heavenly Father would not. It is as if the tempter was saying, “God led you out here into this desert and you are hungry, thirsty. But I don’t see any food or water. God has forgotten about you. You’ll have to do this on your own.” 

Again, we hear the echo of Satan’s temptation with Eve — “If God really loved you, He wouldn’t deny you anything in this garden. He doesn’t want you to have the fruit from that one tree because He doesn’t want you to grow into all you could be. So have it your way — use your God-given hands and strength and will to reach out and take that fruit.”

The temptation here is for Jesus to fulfill His mission apart from His Father and use His gifts and power to serve Himself. But although Jesus did not cease to be God when He became Man, He voluntarily surrendered the independent exercise of some of the attributes of Deity and humbled Himself to depend on His Heavenly Father. He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner” (Jn. 5:19). 

Jesus exercised His ministry in union with and in submission to the Father. He would not even provide bread for Himself after 40 days of fasting unless the bread was from His Father. Surely He was hungry after a forty day fast but He would not serve Himself. He was God in human flesh, but He came to serve, not to be served.

We need to always remember who we are in Christ and who He is toward us. Otherwise, it will be easy to misuse the talents and gifts which He gave us. The servant of God may trust in the goodness of God: “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you” (Matt. 6:33).  Here’s the principle: spend yourself for God and God will provide.

4:4 “But He answered and said, ‘It is written, Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’”

Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy 8:3, in which Moses reminded Israel of God’s tender care for His people during their journey through the barren desert of Sinai. Jesus applies the Scripture and the principle to Himself: God cared for Israel in their wilderness, He will care for me in my wilderness. 

This means that obedience to the will of God, prioritizing the will and Word of God, submitting to the purpose of God, is better than meeting my own needs. Waiting for the timing of God is better than setting my own schedule.  Waiting for the provision of God is better than grabbing my own provision by my own means. We do not need to doubt God or use our giftings to serve ourselves. The Lord will provide as we serve.

Satan was saying, “Never mind what God has said to you — what is important is your hunger — so use your power to make bread.” Prioritize your need.

Jesus’ reply could be paraphrased, “No, my priority is what God has said because His word is creative, powerful, sustaining.  God’s word expresses God’s power and establishes God’s purpose.  God's purpose in My life will be established as I seek first His kingdom and obey His Word.  He created a universe with that Word.  He can surely meet My needs.”

This universe is upheld by God's Word of power (Hebrews 1:3).  What keeps us alive is the sustaining power of God, not our bread.  It is by God’s creative power and wise purpose that we are alive, that we are redeemed, that we are kept and sustained.  It is good to affirm our trust and our thanks for the Father’s gracious care in our lives.  When we take matters into our own hands and seek our prosperity apart from God’s plan, we are in effect declaring our distrust of God.

Jesus here affirms His confidence in the Father’s care and declares His refusal to pursue His own satisfaction through disobedience, distrust or self-serving.  He declares that the governing motive of His life is to do only the will of God, to use His gifts and power to serve and bless others and trust His Father to provide for Him. 

Jesus offers us a gracious example in responding to temptation with the Word of God, for it is in the Word that we remember who God is and who we are. How does Satan attack?  With lies and deception.  How do we respond to lies and deception?  With absolute, transcendent truth: the Word of God. 

When we are tempted to place our own needs ahead of the kingdom of God, to seek our way before we seek God’s way, a good truth to remember is this, “And God is able to make all grace abound unto you so that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good deed” (2 Corinthians 9:8).

Second attack.

4:5,6 “Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple and said to Him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command His angels concerning you and on their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

Notice again the lead word of Satan’s conversation, “If (or since) you are the Son of God.” 

Notice the subtle play on the last temptation: If or since you are the Son of God and if you trust God so wonderfully as you said, then cast yourself off the pinnacle of the temple, for it is written.  Now the devil quotes Scripture.

Notice: 

1. The temptation is based on Jesus’ previous response, that He would trust God.

2. The devil quotes Scripture in response to Jesus’ reliance on the Word (the devil actually quotes Psalm 91:11,12).

The devil is saying: “OK, you won’t act independently of the Father, then jump from the highest point of the temple (the drop was about 450 feet) and force the Father to save you, thereby demonstrating that you really are His Son. Trust God to reveal who you are, to protect you from all harm.  Do something spectacular and trust God to validate you, force God to establish your prestige.” The devil did not need to add that the people of Jerusalem would certainly have been impressed with such a spectacular demonstration of Jesus’ identity.

This is like someone unnecessarily placing his or her life in harm’s way, quoting Scripture and trying to force God to respond.  But that isn’t trust — it’s presumption, presuming on God.  Or it’s like a ministry constantly employing spectacular events to establish prestige and credibility, asking God to validate their ministry through the spectacular.

In the first temptation, a legitimate need existed because Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to fast.  He was hungry, not because He was irresponsible but because He was obeying God.  He rightly trusted God to meet His needs.  In the second temptation, jumping off the pinnacle of the temple, Jesus would be creating the need.  

There are times when needs arise as we serve God and live a righteous life.  But there are other times when irresponsibility creates the need and looking to God to meet that need is not an expression of faith or trust but presumption. The Psalmist said, “Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins; let them not rule over me” (Ps. 19:13).

By the way, false Messiahs and false prophets are always claiming or attempting something fantastic as a way of gaining prestige.  One of the simple ways to distinguish a false messiah from the true Messiah is that the false ones have spectacular dives but not such good landings. Meanwhile, true servants of God live quiet lives of faithful obedience.

4:7 “On the other hand, it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God, to the test.’”

Jesus’ response is again to quote Scripture (Deuteronomy 6:16). Jesus was well aware of the Old Testament portrait of the Messiah. He understood from Isaiah chapter 53 and other Scriptures that He would be despised, rejected, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, that He would die for the sins of the people. 

Jesus understood that He must not tempt God with His own plans or try to force God to fulfill plans that were not His.  How often people, nations, even churches, devise blueprints and purposes that are not God’s will and then whistle for God to come and bless them, presuming in self righteous vanity that God will bless plans that are not His.  

Far better to discern the purpose that God is blessing, and committing to serve and obey God in the fulfilling of His plan. God’s plan for the Messiah was a cross, not a carnival; self-sacrificing, servant love, not sensational, self-serving displays of power.

If we use carnival means to legitimize our ministry or build “our” church, we will need ever greater carnivals to hold whatever attention we’ve gathered.  We always need to ask, “What is it that people love about this ministry or this church? Is it spectacular events that arouse emotions?  Is it a particular personality or preacher?  Or is it God Himself who is loved first and foremost?”  

We have utterly failed if people love our preaching more than the One we preach about, if they love our worship music more than the One we worship.

In John 6, Jesus fed five thousand people but we read in 6:15, “So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone.” Jesus would not receive adulation for the wrong reasons.  He would never use the Father’s power to exalt Himself, only to serve and bless others and glorify God.  He would not allow His ministry to be established or legitimized by anything other than servant love which glorified the Father.  

We do not need to pressure God to act like God. God is perfect love. He loved us while we were His enemies. He poured His love in gracious blessing upon us when we did not know His name.  He will express His love where, when and how He chooses. We cannot and we will not force God to be who He is. Rather, we can live responsibly and trust God to be God.

Third attack.

4:8,9 “Again the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and he said to Him, ‘All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.’”

Look at the subtle linkage of the three temptations.

1. Don’t trust the Father’s purpose (make your own bread).

2. Presume on the Father’s purpose (make God act).

3. I’ll give you the Father’s purpose (but not by the Father’s means).

The first temptation was an inducement for Jesus to serve Himself, “Turn the stones to bread.” The second temptation was for the purpose of making the Father serve Jesus, “Force God to rescue you.” Now we arrive at Satan’s true objective, “Serve me. Worship me and I will give you what you came for — the kingdoms of this world.”  (It is revealing that the word worship — proskuneo — means to prostrate oneself. Satan is saying, “Bow down before me, prostrate yourself before me and I will give you all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.”)

Regarding this third temptation, recall an important promise of the Father to the Son: “Ask of me, and I will surely give the nations as your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as your possession” (Psalm 2:8).  It is a promise of God the Father to His Son that someday, Jesus will rule this world as King of kings and Lord of lords.

Satan says, “OK, I’m not denying that the Father has promised you the kingdoms of the world.  Just compromise and do it my way.  You want to inherit the kingdoms of the world?  Worship me.  No cross, no offering of yourself for the sins of the world, no rejection, no agony.  Just bow down and worship me.”  

Notice that Jesus does not argue the point as to whether Satan can provide these things. In fact, He later referred to Satan as the prince or ruler of this world (see John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11). But if Jesus had done this, had refused to be the Lamb of God, instead becoming the Messiah who worshipped Satan, then the Lamb would have become the Beast and the entire salvation purpose of God would have been destroyed.  Satan offered glory without the cross, kingship without suffering, Lordship without first being the Suffering Servant.  That would be an empty glory, a hollow kingship, a false Lordship.

Had Jesus surrendered to this temptation, He would have disqualified Himself from ruling anything other than a fallen world. He could not have redeemed the world; rather, He would have been the sinful king of a sinful world.

Satan was tempting Jesus to avoid the cross, to take what was rightfully His in a manner contrary to the plan of redemption. If Jesus had established His kingdom on earth without first redeeming sinners, no one could have entered the kingdom.

Here’s how this temptation looks in our lives:

1. Satan offers power, glory, wealth, fame within the context of the world system.  

This is always the devil’s offer: “Your talent, your creative intelligence, your sense of purpose — submit it all to me and I will give you the success you desire. You can have everything you wanted, just bow before me.” He offers reward, promotion, as long as we work within the boundaries of the kingdoms of this world and outside the boundaries of the kingdom of God.

2. There is a price: worship the devil.  

Conveniently, he doesn’t require a literal act of worship. He simply requires that we abandon God’s way and have it our way, that we seek fulfillment outside the context of God’s Lordship and purpose in our lives. When we enthrone our self will above the will of God, when we live as autonomous beings as if there is not a God who designed our lives, when we use our gifts, our talent, resources and time to exalt ourselves, we have worshipped at the devil’s altar.

3. That is the trap:

In worshiping Satan, Jesus would lose relationship with the Father and would bring Himself under the judgment of the true God who alone possesses ultimate authority over this world.  Jesus would thereby remove Himself from any possibility of fulfilling the Father’s redemptive purpose or reclaiming true dominion over this world.  The same is true for any who surrender to Satan — we cannot fulfill the Lord’s design and purpose for our lives.

4. That is the ultimate cost: 

We cannot fulfill God’s purpose apart from His Lordship. Whatever glory we gain in the arenas of this world, we lose ultimate fulfillment apart from God. Solomon gained immeasurable wealth and fame but departed from God and in the end he said, “All is vanity, emptiness.”

This temptation speaks to the true motive of Satan’s rebellion against God. He wanted to overthrow the throne of God, replace God, wanted to be the object of worship in place of God.  Throughout history, he has attempted to deflect worship of the one true God and become the focus of worship himself.  He does this through the institution of false religions; by seducing the creative arts for his own glory; through persecution of and violence toward true worshippers of God; through enslaving delusions and by offering power and riches and fame to coerce and seduce people away from God.

Satan doesn’t care whether people worship at the altar of a false religion or a celebrity or a political messiah or their own success.  All idol worship is demon worship, satanically inspired.  And this is Satan’s consuming passion, to deflect worship from God Almighty and ultimately, to draw worship to himself.  His worshippers may experience a measure of this world’s riches and power but they will experience the judgment of God through the ultimate lack of fulfillment which their success provides. Or they may experience judgment as they fall into abject slavery and curse.  But all idol worshippers come under the judgment of God in this life and the next unless they turn from their idols and turn to the true and living God.

There are many ways to sell our souls, to destroy the purpose of God for our lives, but they all come down to worshipping the evil one rather than God.  When we compromise with evil, we have worshipped Satan.  Jesus focuses on the heart of the matter with His reply.

4:10 “Then Jesus said to him, ‘Go Satan!’ For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’” 

The most important reality in all of the universe is that God and God alone is to be worshiped and Jesus would never compromise that.  Notice also the link between worship and service.  We will serve whomever we worship.

In maintaining His focus on worshipping and serving God, Jesus insures that He will inherit the kingdoms of the world.  So will His followers.  In the new heaven and the new earth, all of the  universe will be our inheritance with Christ.  Who inherits the earth?  The meek, the humble, those who have bowed before the true and living God, who have worshipped God in a lifetime of holy service.

Satan is a liar.  When we compromise with evil, whatever we gain is temporary and the loss is everlasting.  When we submit our lives to God, whatever we lose is temporary and the gain is everlasting.

James and John sent their mother to Jesus, petitioning Him that her sons might sit on the right and left hand in the kingdom (Matt. 20:20-23). The Lord had already purposed to give them a place of rulership in the kingdom but they would gain that place as they submitted their lives to Jesus in humble worship and sacrificial service.  They did not need to seek by ambitiously scheming to grasp what God had already purposed to give them.

Satan understands the hunger of the human heart for food and shelter, for meaning, fulfillment, affirmation, for a sense of personal significance and power over our circumstances and so he says: “You’re hungry, employ your gifts for yourself and fulfill the hunger.” 

“You want meaningful identity, fulfillment? Go for the spectacular and force God to validate you.”

“Power, wealth, glory?  I’ll give you the kingdoms of the world.  Just bow down to me.”

With Jesus, the temptations failed but the test succeeded.  Jesus proved that He is worthy to be King of kings and Lord of lords who receives the kingdoms of the world as His inheritance; proved Himself to be the second Adam who overcomes. 

4:11 “Then the devil left him, and, behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.” 

Surely the angels’ ministry included spiritual renewal and the nourishment that Jesus required after His long fast and spiritual conflict with the adversary. His needs were met by the God to whom He was submitted in humble obedience.

This is the reason humanity was created — to worship and serve God.  It is the reason for our existence.  It is the eternal destiny of the redeemed, what we will be doing forever and ever.  The worship and service of God brings us into the realm of God’s kingdom.  It is where we experience God’s presence, power and provision.  We don’t need Satan’s promise of bread or prestige or power or riches when we are actively worshipping and serving God.

God allows seasons of testing in our lives because they reveal our faith, reveal our weaknesses and bring about the possibility of deeper faith and greater strength.  When we overcome, when we move faithfully through the season of temptation, testing and spiritual conflict, we find the provision of God, the present ministry of God, abundantly poured out.

Luke adds an important truth to this narrative.  He says that Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit (Luke 4:14).  He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness but having overcome Satan, He returned in the power of the Spirit.  When we overcome the devil in any area of life, when we move faithfully through the season of testing, we come back walking in the power of the Holy Spirit, and in greater measure than before the testing. 

Again, what are the lessons here? 

1. Satan will tempt us to distrust the providential care of God: solve your problems by centering your talents and gifts on your own needs, grab satisfaction and fulfillment your own way. 

2. Satan will tempt us to presume on God’s care, act irresponsibly, establish identity and meaning by forcing God to validate our lives through the spectacular or irresponsible.

3. Satan will tempt us to fulfill our ambition for ourselves in submission to his means, to fulfill the purpose that God has already promised but on our terms which are Satan’s terms.

Some points of exhortation:

1. Watch for temptation at the high points of your spiritual life, or when you just embark on the beginning of a new ministry.  No sooner was Christ out of the water of baptism than He was in the fire of temptation. 

2. Be discerning of times of vulnerability. Jesus was in the wilderness and He was hungry. Watch for the subtlety of temptation. Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.

3. Know the Word, the truth revealed in God’s holy Word.  Truth is referred to in the Bible as the sword of the Spirit because it cuts down to the heart of the matter in our own soul and in the world around us.

4. In times of temptation and testing, look more at Jesus than at the temptation or test. We look to the Lord in worship, in His Word, in prayer.  In the light of His truth, deception is revealed for what it is and darkness melts away.  In the word and in worship and prayer, the everlasting beauty of Jesus overshadows the temporary allure of this world’s enchantments.

Study Questions

1. Jesus was led by the Spirit into a time of testing. Does God allow tests in our lives and if so, why? (see notes, v. 1).

2. What were the 3 temptations and how do they apply to you? (see notes v 3 - 10)

3. How do we overcome temptation? (see notes v 3 - 10)

The Ministry of Jesus Begins (4:12-25)

As Matthew records the beginning of the ministry of Jesus, we see four major themes: 

Jesus, The Fulfillment of Prophecy

Jesus, Proclaimer of the Kingdom

Jesus, Fisher of Men

Jesus, Revelation of the Kingdom

A. Jesus, The Fulfillment of Prophecy

4:12-16 “Now when Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, He withdrew into Galilee; and leaving Nazareth, He came and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles — the people who were sitting in darkness saw a great light, and those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death, upon them a light has dawned.”

Following the season of testing in the Judean wilderness, Jesus moved north into Galilee. Matthew quotes a prophecy from Isaiah: “The people who were sitting in darkness saw a great light”  (Isaiah 9:2).

Fulfillment: 

“I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).

We read in John 8:20 that Jesus’ statement was made in the temple treasury, located in the outer court of the temple.  Some have suggested that this was at the conclusion of the Feast of Tabernacles.  During this Feast, a massive array of candelabras was set up in the temple and each night during the feast, the temple was illuminated by these candles.  This was to commemorate the pillar of fire that led their ancestors in the wilderness.  

Jesus stood in the midst of it all and said, “I am the Light of the world.” The Bible is very clear about the darkness of this world and of the human heart.  In Ephesians 2:1 we are told that all are dead in sin.  To be dead in sin is to be separated from God and that is a place of darkness.  In Proverbs 4:18,19 we read, “The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day.  The way of the wicked is like darkness.  They do not know over what they stumble."

There is life and power behind that darkness. The Apostle Paul reminds us, “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4).  

He adds in Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

This world is dominated by satanically infused darkness, a darkness that has infected every corner of the human heart and every aspect of human endeavor.  World finance and business, creative arts, political systems, world religions and philosophy — the darkness incarnates and expresses itself in and through all human institutions and every form of communication.

Since humanity has been unable to deliver itself from the darkness that blinds this world, God took the initiative to shine His light into our hearts — the light of the glory of Jesus: “For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

God, in Christ, has delivered us from spiritual death and darkness by revealing Jesus to us, literally, shining the light of the glory of Jesus into our hearts.  Again, Paul says, “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son”  (Colossians 1:13).

This is why Jesus was born: “I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness,”  (John 12:46).

If you’ve ever wondered, “Why didn’t I see the truth for so many years?” Because we were spiritually blind.  Why don’t others see the truth?  Because they are spiritually blind.

Actually, some light is available to everyone through creation and through conscience. The Apostle Paul reminds us, “Because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.  For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without  excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened” (Romans 1:19-21).

God has revealed Himself, His eternal power and divine nature, through creation and there is something within the human heart that is still capable of recognizing this. While this is not  sufficient revelation to bring a person to salvation, God has promised that any person who acts on the light they have and seeks after God with all their heart will find Him. Some people have more light than others but when we act on the light we have, God will reveal Himself to us: “You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart” (Jere. 29:13).

The problem is not lack of light but the fact that sinful humanity prefers to suppress the light and embrace the darkness: “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed” (Jn. 3:19,20).

  

The human heart refuses God’s revelation, blows out the candle, as it were, and chooses the darkness. Because we have an instinctive need to worship something or someone, humanity exchanged the glory and truth of God for lies and idols (Romans 1:22-25).  The result, without exception, is humanity gathered into the darkness of spiritual death and deception.

Hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, Isaiah prophesied that someday, a great light would shine into the darkness and death of this world.  Matthew proclaims that Jesus is the fulfilling of that prophetic word. Jesus declared Himself to be the Light of the world.

B. Jesus, Proclaimer of the Kingdom 

4:17 “From that time Jesus began to preach and say, ‘Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”

(Note: Matthew uses the phrase kingdom of heaven while the other Gospel writers use kingdom of God.  See Matthew 3:2 for notes.)

The kingdom of God was Jesus’ central theme. According to Matthew, Jesus began His ministry preaching the Gospel of the kingdom. Mark also records this statement early in the ministry of Jesus, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). 

On one occasion, when the people tried to keep Him from leaving them, Jesus replied, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose” (Luke 4:43).   We have more than 100 recorded statements about the kingdom from His lips. He told parables to illustrate the kingdom: its like a mustard seed, a pearl, treasure in a field, seed sown, leaven.  He taught principles of kingdom life.

1. Kingdom Defined: the rule of God  

For Jesus, the kingdom of God / kingdom of heaven is more of a verb than a noun.  It is far more than an idea or place somewhere, someday. It is the dynamic, present rule and reign of Almighty God.  It is not institutional religion: not the church, its wealth, its power nor its possessions.  It is not the heaven we go to when we die.  It is God’s rule of redeeming grace, forgiveness, liberty, healing and deliverance breaking into the life of each person who receives Him through repentance of sin and faith in His Son Jesus Christ. The kingdom of God is where God is ruling; it is where He is manifesting His gracious desire to bless and to redeem.

“Thy kingdom come” is not a prayer for the second coming of Jesus as much as it is a prayer for the rule of God’s grace to be established in the affairs of people today: in my home, in my heart, my life, my city. Yes, there is a future fulfillment of the kingdom at the end of history but that future reality does not fill up what Jesus meant by kingdom. The kingdom is also the active, dynamic rule of God here and now.

2. Kingdom Presence:

a. The kingdom of heaven is “at hand” (eggizo — pronounced engidzo):  

Eggizo means “approaching, drawing near.” But the same verb is used in Mark 14:42, as Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, said to His disciples, “Rise ... he that betrays me is at hand.” We see in the following verse that the mob which intended to arrest Him had arrived in the garden, so it is not simply that they were near but that they had arrived, were present, close enough to touch.

The kingdom has entered history in the person of Jesus — present in Him. Therefore the kingdom is within the grasp of your life, within reach of where you are and when you are — not someday / somewhere. This is not the concept of the someday rule of God in a millennial kingdom nor in Heaven.  It is a kingdom that is present to function here and now.  Wherever people acknowledge with faith the presence and rule of God in Christ Jesus, the power of God is released to break the power of the kingdom of darkness. Jesus establishes His Lordship in us as we surrender to His redeeming grace.

The kingdom of heaven is present, even if many people refuse to recognize or receive it, because God has entered human history in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ.  People can refuse to enter the kingdom but they cannot destroy its presence in us and among us nor can they prevent its final consummation someday when Jesus returns.

b. Time is fulfilled: 

Mark records Jesus saying, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15).  Fulfilled is a perfect tense verb, pleroo, meaning filled to the top. From God’s point of view, time and history were filled up when Jesus was born in human form: “But when the fulness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman” (Philp. 4:4).  

There is a sense here of God’s perfect timing as He orchestrates the events of history. Everything that needed to occur prior to the birth of Jesus — the pronouncements of the prophets, the convergence of cultures, the rise and fall of empires — everything had taken place to prepare the world for the presence of God in human form. Time was filled up. 

Also, time was filled up with the presence of God. The eternal God fit Himself into time and history in the birth and life of Jesus.What God enters, God fills. God spoke and the world was filled up with light and life. God wants to speak His fulness into our lives, where we live, in our time. Receiving the kingdom of God means letting God enter our lives with His fulness. When we surrender to the Lordship of Jesus, our time and our history are filled with His presence.

3. Kingdom entrance: repent and believe

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus said, “Repent and believe” (Mark 1:15).

a. The kingdom of God is established in the souls of people: Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst (or “within you”)” (Luke 17:20,21).

b. The kingdom of God is established spiritually, supernaturally: “Unless one is born again (or from above), he cannot see the Kingdom of God” (John 3:3).  Entrance into the kingdom of God requires a spiritual birth.  We enter by turning from whatever has separated us from the Lordship of Jesus, turning to Him in repentance and faith, surrendering to Him the lordship which we formerly exercised over our lives.

c. The kingdom of God is established intentionally.  Like all births, we must be intentional about it.  If we wait passively for this inbreaking rule of God, we will never see it.  “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matt. 5:6)    

d. The kingdom of God is established as we repent and believe the Good News.  Repentance and believing are intentional actions.  Repent means we take accountability for who and where we are, letting our mind be filled and dominated by the new possibility that God has filled up time with Himself and is at hand, within the grasp of my life and faith.  Believing means we accept with faith this Word of the kingdom which declares Jesus to be Lord and Savior. 

Children of the kingdom are those who receive the good seed of the kingdom (Matt. 13:38). That seed is the Word of God which pierces our hearts, convicts us of our need for a Savior and convinces us that Jesus is that Savior. Entrance into the kingdom is humbling. I must admit that there is something wrong in me, that I have believed false truth and am heading in the wrong direction. “There is a way which seems right to a man but its end is the way of death” (Prov. 16:25).  I must turn and reorient my belief. Repent means turn, change, make room in my heart and mind for Jesus to break in upon me and convict me of my sin.

Believe means we choose to place our faith in the person, presence and promise of God as revealed in Jesus Christ. We believe that He did what the record declares — took our sins upon Himself as the Holy Lamb of God, died our death and rose from the dead.

Mark adds that this is Good News, “Repent and believe the Good News” (1:15).  Why is this Good News?  Because the rule of God means the over rule of everything which is not God.   

Early in His ministry, Jesus entered the synagogue in Nazareth and read from the prophet Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me” (Luke 4:18). He was anointed “to proclaim release to captives.” How? Because the powers that had bound the captives are being overruled.

Jesus was anointed to bring “recovery of sight to the blind.” How? Those who formerly could not see truth are being set free to know truth.

Jesus was anointed to “to set free those who are oppressed (bruised).” How? Those who have been bruised by the trauma and oppression of this world are being set free from the rulership of whatever has traumatized them, are enabled to enter into wholeness and abundant life.

Jesus’ ministry constituted a binding and plundering of Satan (Matt. 12:29). This does not mean that Satan is powerless. He still tempts, steals the Word of God from hearts, oppresses and invades human souls.  But Jesus in His earthly ministry and now through His church continually nullifies Satan’s evil purpose and recovers human lives from his rule.

This is Good News.  Yes, someday the kingdom of God will be consummated, fulfilled, perfected, will cover the earth and every eye will see the glory of the King but there is also a present tense to the kingdom. Though that someday is not today, the King is present now and is ruling and reigning in and through the lives of those who receive Him.  

He wants to establish His kingdom presence in us so that He may manifest His kingdom presence through us.  He wants to establish His kingdom rule in our lives so that He can release His kingdom rule through us into the lives of others in our generation.  

C. Jesus, Fisher of Men: 

4:18-22 “Now as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. And He said to them, ‘Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ Immediately they left their nets and followed Him. Going on from there He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and He called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.”

1. A Savior who searches: 4:18

Jesus said He came “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).  He told many parables about a Savior who searches but He also awakens us to seek Him. In John 1:35-42 we read that Andrew and Peter were actively seeking the Messiah.  Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist, Peter may have been. They were spiritually hungry, ready to follow and be involved in whatever God was doing.  

God knows every heart, knows who is hungry for Him, who is seeking Him.  Jesus is seeking those who have been awakened to seek Him.  “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.  I will be found by you, declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 29:13,14).

2. A Savior who calls:  4:19-21

a. Jesus knows where to find those who are looking for Him.  He found these men at their work place.  They were seekers and as Jesus walked along the shore of Galilee, seeking those who were seeking Him, He called to Peter and Andrew, to James and John, called them to follow and they left their boats and followed Him.  Many years later, John remembered Jesus saying, “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit and that your fruit would remain”  (John 15:16). 

b. Jesus knows how to communicate with those who are listening for Him. He called in a voice they could hear, in a manner they could respond to. He does so with us.

c. Jesus has a ministry for each of us but it can only happen as we commit to follow Him.  He chose them so that they would bear fruit, that they would be fishers of souls even as He fished for souls.  He calls us to be His hands reaching out to the lost, His voice calling, even as He reached and called to us. These were His first words to His first followers, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” These were His last words, according to Matthew, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:20). But the ministry which the Lord has designed for each of us can only be fulfilled as we commit to follow Him.

3. A Savior worth following: 4:22

So many people, events and causes are clamoring for our attention. Only One is worth following.  We follow, not because we chose Him but because He chose us, set His love upon us and called us.  “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (appeasement, satisfaction) for our sins” (I John 4:10).

D. Jesus, Revealer of the Kingdom 

4:23-25 “Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people. The news about Him spread throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them. Large crowds followed Him from Galilee and the Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan.”

1. “Teaching … and proclaiming” (4:23)

As we have noted, the kingdom of God was the central message of Jesus. He preached the Kingdom, taught principles of kingdom living and taught parables to illustrate the kingdom. He also revealed the kingdom with miracles.  Jesus went about proclaiming the inbreaking presence of the kingdom while showing what it looked like in deeds of mercy and power, healing diseases and setting people free from demonic intrusion into their lives.  

The very meaning of the word “salvation” reveals the purpose of God.  The New Testament word for salvation, sozo, means to save, deliver, protect, heal, preserve or make whole.  Matthew says that the healing, delivering ministry of Jesus was in fulfillment of the words of Isaiah, “He Himself took our infirmities and carried away our diseases” (8:17).

It’s as if Jesus was saying, “The kingdom of God, the rule of God’s grace is breaking into history and this is what it looks like: lives set free from demonic rule, broken bodies made whole, sins forgiven, relationships reconciled.”

It was the same when He sent His disciples out. In Luke 9:1,2 we read, “And He called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases. And He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing.”

2. “Healing every kind of disease” (4:23)

There was nothing too trivial, difficult or complex for Jesus then and so it is now.

3. “They brought to Him all who were ill … and He healed them” (4:24)

Great multitudes came to Jesus and He healed them all. In addition to healing their diseases, Jesus also ministered to those who were demon possessed.  Those whose lives had been invaded by Satan to the extent that they no longer had control over their choices or will, whose lives were ruled by Satanic impulses — these were set free by the authoritative command of Jesus.  Jesus considered this ministry in particular to be a sign of the inbreaking kingdom, “But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Luke 11:20).

4. Multitudes were drawn, even from beyond Israel (4:25)

Now we begin to get a glimpse of the ministry of Jesus expanding beyond the borders of Israel.  Crowds were flocking to Jesus not only from Galilee, Jerusalem and Judea, but from the Decapolis (Gentile cities east and south of the Sea of Galilee) and from beyond the Jordan.

People of different cultures, races and nations were coming to Jesus and they continue to come.  Today, Jesus greets them through His church but His message is the same, “The kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe.”

The Old Testament prophet, Malachi, prophesied of the coming Messiah, “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze, says the Lord.  But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall” (Malachi 4:1,2).

Malachi did not see the time gap between the first and second comings of Jesus.  He saw only the brightness of His appearance in history, saw the glory of the Lord rising in the world like a furnace, a righteous sun burning up evil.  He also saw the healing that would flow to those who humbly reverence the Lord.  

What a paradox in this prophecy — God will step into history in a glorious way and His presence will be like the sun of righteousness with healing in His wings, and like a fiery furnace. Some will be burned up like chaff, some will dance in celebration and thankfulness for the healing, saving, restoring power of God breaking into their lives.

From our perspective, we understand that the first coming of Jesus displayed His saving grace, mercy and power.  It was not the year of God’s vengeance, rather, the year of God’s favor, good news to the afflicted, the binding up of the brokenhearted, liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners, as Isaiah prophesied (Isaiah 61:1,2a).  The second coming of Jesus, at the end of history, will reveal the fire of His judgment and rising from that fire, the kingdom of God will be established on earth.  

Today is still the day of light and grace.  The kingdom is present in the lives of those who have received the King.  We shine forth His light, share His grace, and show what His kingdom looks like in deeds of truth and mercy. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden … Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 14,16).

Study Questions

1. What did Jesus mean when He said, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand”? (see v. 17)

2. How do we enter the kingdom? (see v. 17)

Matthew 5

The Blessed Life (5:1-7)

5:1,2 “When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. He opened His mouth and began to teach them, saying,”

The teaching ministry of Jesus flowed out of His perfect communion with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Though equal to the other members of the Trinity in His divine nature, in His earthly ministry Jesus depended on the Father for the inspired wisdom that permeated His teaching: “For I did not speak on my own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment, as to what to say and what to speak” (John 12:49 also 14:10, 24). 

In His pre-existence, Jesus cooperated with the Father and the Holy Spirit to inspire the Old Testament writers. This is why He said, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill” (Matt. 5:17). Jesus would never abolish that which He inspired. Rather, He fulfilled the truth of the Scripture by keeping it perfectly and by teaching it perfectly.

When Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said ... but I say to you” (Matt. 5:27,28), He was not intending to nullify the Law of Moses but to abolish the non-Biblical traditions that had attached to the Law and to point people back to God’s original purpose in giving the Law. During the many centuries between God’s gift of the Law to the Israelites and the ministry of Jesus, thousands of non-Biblical traditions had been added to God’s word. These traditions were so terribly burdensome and oppressive that they obscured the truth of God’s word and deadened the hearts of the people to God’s love for them. 

The purpose of the teaching ministry of Jesus was not to contradict or nullify the word of God. He lifted that word out of the dead, religious traditions that had buried it.

Another purpose of our Lord’s teaching was to point people to the deeper impulse behind our actions. For instance, the Old Covenant condemned murder and adultery — Jesus condemned the hidden attitude of violence or lust which create the visible or outward action. The Old Testament established acceptable boundaries for revenge. Jesus taught that we should love our enemies. The law focused on the outward act. Jesus focused on the heart that conceives that action. The law dealt with the final result. Jesus dealt with the attitude that gives birth to the final action.

The Old Covenant proscribed rituals and outwards acts of piety — Jesus focused on the inner motive that produces piety.  It is good to fast and pray and worship God but what is my motive —  to be seen by people or to love God and commune with Him?  It is good to give to the poor.  But what is my motive, to be merciful and generous or to impress people?  All that we do should be done unto God, for His glory and not our own. Doing the right thing for the wrong motive is to do no good thing at all.

The word blessed which Jesus uses in these teachings is makarios. It has to do with happiness, joy, a state of being which only God can bestow and is not dependent on the world or our circumstances. It is His gift to His children, to those who love Him and are faithful. Makarios is in stark contrast to the world’s definition of happiness which is based on power, fame, riches, pleasure, all of which are temporary, easily diminished and eventually lost.

True blessedness is celebrated in the realization that we were born for a high purpose designed by God from eternity; in the realization that this wise, loving God chose us, called us, entered time to awaken us to His mercy and by His grace redeemed us and called us into the reality of a living relationship in which we may know Him and enjoy Him forever

True blessedness is experienced in the realization that the combination of gifts, talents, personality and opportunity which the Lord designed for each of us will never again be duplicated, that we are entirely unique, a once in a universe event. True blessedness begins as we are regenerated from spiritually dead sinners to living children of God who experience transformation into mature, holy men and women who can fulfill the purpose which our Lord has designed for our lives.

In the following verses Jesus expands on the concept of true blessedness.

5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Jesus does not say, “Blessed are the poor.” We’ve all been through times of hardship and I’m sure we would agree that financial poverty is not a blessing. If that were so, why would God commend giving to the poor? (In Proverbs 19:17, Isaiah 56:7,8 and many other passages, we are exhorted to acts of kindness and generosity to the poor.)

It is the poor in spirit who are blessed.  Who are they? 

The poor in spirit are those who are awakened by the Word of God and the Spirit of God to realize that they are spiritually dead and separated from God by their sins; who know that they stand condemned before God, stand under the weight of God’s righteous judgment and will be separated from God forever in hell.

The poor in spirit recognize their spiritual poverty, realize that there is no human work which can be done that will reconcile them to God, rather, it is entirely by the riches of God’s grace that any are saved.  In this teaching, Jesus is stating the eternal truth which the Apostle Paul declared to the Ephesian church, that salvation is entirely a work of God.  As Paul said,

“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins ... But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus ... For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one should boast” (Ephesians 2:1-9).

Those who confess to God their condemnation and separation from Him, who confess their spiritual poverty, that they are bankrupt and helpless to change and are entirely dependent on the riches of God’s mercy and grace, will be blessed, will be made happy with a happiness which only God can bestow: “For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Through faith in Christ, the poor in spirit inherit the true riches of the kingdom: forgiveness of sin, reconciliation with God and everlasting life when this life is over.

Having been reconciled to God by faith, the poor in spirit are those who, day by day, realize their continued dependence on God, that true riches are always and only a gift from God to His children.  In our poverty, we come to God daily seeking what we lack: wisdom, holiness, strength of spirit, courage to stand in the evil day, humility, lovingkindness, peace that endures through storms and trials, joy from a deep well which the fires of this world cannot burn away.  Those who seek these gifts from God will be filled and blessed, for God pours out the riches of His kingdom into their hearts.

“Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The kingdom of heaven is the rule of God, a rule which reflects His infinite qualities of holiness, wisdom, mercy and grace. Blessed are those who know that the greatest riches of life cannot be obtained by self-effort, who come to God seeking what only God can give, who humble themselves before God.  God will rule over their lives with perfect wisdom expressed through perfect grace.

Jesus left the riches of heaven, forsook popularity with the masses, endured the loss of His friends. He wept at the tomb of Lazarus, sweat drops of blood in the garden. Humbling Himself even to death on the cross, abandoned, forsaken, rejected, He gained the blessedness of fulfilling the kingdom purpose of God.

5:4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

Of the numerous New Testament words for mourning or sorrow, this is the strongest, pentheo, which speaks of the deepest possible grief. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, it is used for Jacob’s grief over what he believed to be the death of his son Joseph. It is used in Mark 16:10 of the disciples mourning the death of Jesus. 

Sorrow is something the world attempts to avoid, obsessively pursuing happiness. Yet the more people chase the shallow, temporary happiness of this world, the more mournful and unfulfilled they become. In contrast, Jesus says, “Blessed, happy are they that mourn.” Mourn over what?

 

We mourn our sin and self-centeredness; we shall be comforted with forgiveness.  We mourn over our spiritual lostness, our separation from God; we shall be comforted with salvation, reconciliation with God our Creator. We mourn over the lost souls around us, the condition of a fallen, suffering world; in this we share in the sufferings of Christ and shall be comforted by His fellowship now and by His reward in heaven.

The mourning that results in blessing is a God-centered sorrow. The Apostle Paul reminds us that there is a self centered, worldly sorrow which results in death but the sorrow that the Holy Spirit produces in us leads to life (2 Cor. 7:10). What he means is that the unbeliever is sorry only for the result of sin, the consequence, but not for the sin itself and so the sinner continues on the path of self destruction. But when the Holy Spirit produces genuine sorrow for sin as an offense against God, this leads to repentance which results in forgiveness and everlasting life.

5:5 “Blessed are the gentle for they shall inherit the earth.”

 

Jesus does not say, “Blessed are the aggressive, the self-centered who stand up for their rights, who go for the gusto, who have it their way.”  Rather, He says, “Blessed are the gentle.” The word which we translate gentle is praus which can also be rendered as meek. Jesus used a related word to describe Himself in Matthew 11:29, “For I am gentle (praos) and humble in heart.”

Gentleness or meekness is considered almost a weakness in our culture today. But it has nothing to do with softness or weakness. It is a quality of the character of Christ which God produces in the inner being of a growing disciple and which expresses itself first toward God in humble reverence and toward other people in self sacrificing love.

Gentleness, praus, is closely related to the concept of humility, though these are different words. Humility, tapeinoo, is used to describe Jesus’ attitude in leaving the riches of heaven to be born in human form, “Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phlp. 2:8).

Jesus uses the same word, tapeinoo, to describe the attitude of heart that is consistent with our citizenship in the kingdom of God, “Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:4). Jesus implies that humility is necessary even for our entrance into the kingdom of God, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (18:3).

Gentleness, meekness, humility — these are primary virtues. If pride is the root of all sin and rebellion against God, then gentleness and humility are its opposites. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. The proud resist the Lordship of Jesus and refuse His grace. The gentle and humble submit to their gracious Lord and celebrate the lavishing of His grace upon their lives.

The gentle and humble trust not in their own wisdom but humble themselves before the Word of God. They put to death their own self will and humble themselves to the purpose of God.

The gentle and humble do not debase themselves before God with religious rituals of self-humiliation. Rather, they recognize the truth that their sin has already debased them but the Lord has graciously chosen to lift them up. 

Gentleness and humility are not qualities that we can produce in ourselves. Rather, the Holy Spirit cultivates them in us as we submit and cooperate with His sanctifying work.

Peter’s exhortation, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time” (I Ptr. 5:6) demonstrates that there is a human side to every command. Only the Holy Spirit can produce the life of Christ in us but He does so only as we commit ourselves to the discipline of the holy life.

What does Jesus say that these gentle, humble ones will inherit?  The earth.

The power brokers of the world build their mega-empires but ultimately, their empires perish and they perish. In the end, they gain nothing and lose their souls. The humble follower of Jesus inherits the earth and everlasting life with God.

In the thousand year reign of Christ on earth and afterward in the new heavens and the new earth, those who humbled themselves in repentance and faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior, will reign with Him.  We will literally inherit the earth.  Indeed, when we humble ourselves to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, we then become joint heirs with Him, that is, we stand to inherit that which Jesus inherits: “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:16,17).

There is also a present tense reality to this inheritance.  Jesus promises to resource the lives and ministries of those who in gentle humility commit themselves to fulfill His kingdom purpose on earth. This is not a pretense for greed or covetousness. In fact, in Proverbs 30:8,9, the writer asks God to protect him from riches, lest he be full and deny God, saying, “Who is the Lord?’’  He also asks the Lord to protect him from poverty, lest he be in want and steal and profane the name of God.  

We don’t want money / resources to become an adversary to us but neither can these things become a god or idol.  Just as poverty can rob us of the resources needed to fulfill the purpose of God, so riches can rob us of our dependence on God, thereby also denying us the ability to fulfill His purpose. Blessed are those who in gentle humility depend on God for the resources needed to fulfill His purpose and who then choose not to use their gifts and resources to glorify themselves.  They will inherit all that God intended to pour into and through their life.

The Apostle Paul exhorted the Corinthian church with these words: 

“And God is able to make all grace abound unto you, so that always having all sufficiency in all things, you may have an abundance for every good deed ... Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.  You will be enriched in everything for all generosity” (2 Cor. 9:8,10,11).

Why does God pour abundance into our lives?  So that we will “have an abundance for every good deed.” God supplies seed for bread but also seed for sowing, so that we can give into the lives of others. We are enriched by God, “for all generosity” — so that we may be generous with others.

The gentle, humble followers of Christ inherit, now in this world, later in the Millennial reign of Christ and finally in the new heavens and new earth.

5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

Every day we experience a multitude of appetites which demand fulfillment.  Jesus says we are blessed if we hunger after righteousness.

People are hungry for so many different kinds of experiences but there is a God-shaped emptiness in each of us which demands to be filled, to be satisfied. Only God Himself can fill this deepest longing; it is the way we were created. The world is filled with frustrated, anxious, angry, unfulfilled people because they are trying to fill this hunger for God with everything except the true and living God.

Through the prophet Isaiah the Lord asked, “Why do you spend money for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good and delight yourself in abundance” (Isa. 55:2).

What does it mean to hunger after righteousness?

It means to hunger for a right relationship with God. Humanity is separated from God because of sin against God and we will never experience true fulfillment or lasting satisfaction while living apart from God. People pursue wealth, fame, power but arriving at their goal, they still lack the peaceful sense of having arrived at their journey’s end.

The beginning of a meaningful, fulfilled life is being reconciled to God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus, the holy Lamb of God, bore our sins and paid the death penalty which our sin demanded. Through repentance and faith in Christ’s atonement on our behalf, God by His grace restores us to righteous relationship with Himself. Though we were spiritually dead because of our sin, God rebirths us in Christ. In that act of spiritual regeneration, God declares us to be righteous. This is the beginning of the satisfied life. 

Then begins the process whereby God imparts His righteousness to us, progressively transforming us into righteous persons. If we are truly alive in Christ, we hunger and thirst to grow in righteousness. We gladly submit to the disciplines of life lived in relationship with Christ.

We also hunger and thirst for His presence in worship. The Psalmist understood this craving:  

“How lovely are your dwelling places, O Lord of hosts. My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the Lord ... The bird also has found a house and the swallow a nest for herself ... even your altars O Lord of hosts … How blessed are those who dwell in your house … For a day in your courts is better than a thousand outside. I would rather stand at the threshold (be a doorkeeper) in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord is a sun and a shield, the Lord gives grace and glory and no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly” (from Psalm 84).

We hunger and thirst for God’s holy word. Jesus said, “Man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4).

The Apostle Peter adds, “Like new born babies, long for the pure milk of the word so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,” (I Peter2:2).

The Psalmist said, “As the deer pants (longs for) the water brooks, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for the living God” (Ps. 42:1,2). It is our responsibility to hunger and thirst. It is God’s responsibility to satisfy. 

Mary rejoiced in God’s outpouring into the lives of those who hunger and thirst after Him, “My soul exalts the Lord and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior ... He has filled the hungry with good things” (Luke 1: 46,47, 53).

David testifies, “You prepare a table before me ... My cup overflows” (Ps. 23:5).

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for a right relationship with God.  Blessed in what way? God will draw us into an ever deepening relationship with Himself, wherein is true blessedness, true fulfillment and satisfaction.  And in this righteous relationship with God, all other things that are needful shall be added unto us (Matt. 6:33).

5:7 “Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy.”

All of God’s redeeming work in our lives is an expression of His mercy. God, in turn, requires us to share the mercy we have experienced from Him. God’s mercy has been generously poured into our lives but we cannot continually receive from God what we will not share with others.  If we live in His kingdom, we must act in a way that is consistent with the values of His kingdom.  Jesus said,  “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give” (Matt. 10:8).

“Give and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, they will pour into your lap.  For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return” (Luke 6:38).

When we share mercy with others, we prove that we have experienced the mercy of God.  As God pours His merciful blessings into our lives, we must allow Him to pour through us into the lives of others.  Freely we have received, freely give.  The measure we share is an expression of the measure we have received.

Of course, the typical attitude in Jesus’ day, as in ours, is that we share mercy with those who are merciful to us. But this in no way reflects the character of a Savior who loved us while we were yet His enemies (Rom. 5:8,10).  

This is not a merciful world. It is a world fallen from grace, exercising brutality everywhere. So it was in Jesus’ day yet He wept over the city that rejected Him. He looked on the indifferent multitude with compassion. He ate with sinners and forgave the sinner who turned to Him. He lifted up the fallen and healed the sick, held babies in His arms and blessed them, touched the untouchable leper and set at liberty the demon bound outcast, forgave the condemned criminal dying next to Him as He forgave the self righteous priests and calloused soldiers who crucified Him.

Yet the more Jesus lavished mercy on the world, the more the world hated Him. He who forgave the guilty was declared guilty. He who healed the wounded was beaten. He who raised the dead was put to death but He never ceased to pour out mercy on the world.

Because Jesus was committed to lavish mercy on a fallen world, He was obedient to His Father’s purpose, dying on a cross as a holy offering for the sins of the world. Therefore God highly exalted Him, raising Him from the dead and giving Him a name above all names.

Jesus’ outpouring of mercy and grace on a fallen world did not result in the world pouring out mercy on Him. Rather, it was His Father who rewarded Him. So with us. We are commanded to share mercy with the world around us. The world will not repay mercy with mercy but our Lord will. It is the Lord Himself who blesses the poor in spirit with their reward, the kingdom of heaven. It is the Lord who comforts those who mourn, who blesses the gentle and satisfies those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. From whom? From God.

Be confident that we will never exhaust the storehouse of God’s mercy, as Jeremiah reminds us, “The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness” (Lam. 3:22,23).

God’s mercy flows out of His love for us, His fallen and redeemed sons and daughters. The mystery of God’s love is hidden in the heart of God, but that love is the wellspring of all mercy that He lavishes upon us.

However, God’s mercy is not unrelated to God’s justice. God offers redeeming mercy to sinners but in order to experience the mercy of salvation, we must first deal with sin’s violation of God’s justice and mercy. On the cross, God shows Himself to be both just and merciful. There, Jesus bore the wrath of God’s violated justice, enabling the outpouring of God’s abundant mercy on repentant sinners.

But mercy is not free. The Good Samaritan purchased the cost of the wounded man’s healing — used his own wine, oil and money. So it was that Jesus bore the cost of sin — took upon Himself the wrath of His Father against sin, separation from His Father and death. He bore our sin debt so that mercy could be poured out on the repentant sinner.

Remember that when the Apostle Paul said, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them” (2 Cor. 5:19), he did not say that God did not count our trespasses. He says that God did not count our trespasses against us. Paul goes on to say, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). 

God counted our sins against Jesus. Jesus bore the cost of mercy. When we turn from our sins and place our faith in Christ, God then releases His mercy to us. We, in turn, are commanded to share mercy with others, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36).

How can I show mercy in such a brutal, violent, unforgiving world? “We love because He first loved us” (I John 5:19). “The love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rom. 5:5).

It is God’s mercy toward us that enables us to share mercy. It is a work of the Holy Spirit in us and an expression of the character of Christ, a fruit of the Spirit, which the Holy Spirit cultivates in us (Gal. 5:22,23).

Mercy is shared as we pray for our church, our adversaries, our leaders, the people groups of the world. But mercy is also action — we show mercy, share mercy, lavish mercy on the world around us. We share mercy with those who have sinned against us by forgiving them and acting toward them in a manner consistent with forgiveness. 

We share mercy with those separated from God by proclaiming and living the Gospel. We share mercy with those who lack worldly goods by sharing our abundance. We share mercy as we lift up the fallen and encourage the weak; as we minister powerful deliverance to those who are helplessly bound in addictions. Blessed are the merciful. The promise is that we shall receive mercy from the heart and hand of God.

Study Questions:

1. Who are the poor in spirit and what is their reward? (see v. 3)

2. What does it mean to hunger and thirst for righteousness and how are they satisfied? (see v. 6)

The Blessed Life (5:8-12)

5:8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

The Jewish religion of Jesus’ day emphasized obedience to the Law and the performance of ritual. The Law had come to include not only the Law of Moses but thousands of rules added over the centuries by rabbis and scribes, which Jesus called “the traditions of men.” The result was a religious system that bound men and women in guilt and frustration. They could not keep all the laws and the rituals could not cleanse them of their guilt.

In contrast to this religion of external conformity to Law and ritual, Jesus emphasized the inner reality of holiness, of a heart undivided in its devotion to the Lord. This was nothing new. Centuries before, Solomon had said, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life” (Prov. 4:23).

David understood this. After he was convicted of his sin with Bathsheba, he confessed to God, “For you do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; you are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, God, you will not despise” (Ps. 51:16,7).

It is not that God rejected the sacrificial system and its rituals. It was God who gave this to Israel. But offering sacrifices for sin without true repentance is empty religion. David knew that what God wanted from him was not the performance of mere ritual but a heart sincerely broken by the realization of his offense against God. 

Therefore he confessed, “Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight” (Ps. 51:4). What David brought before God was a broken heart. What David desired from God was true cleansing, “Purify me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow” (Ps. 51:7). What God desired from David was “truth in the innermost being” (Ps. 51:6). A truthful heart is honest about sin, repenting of sin and open to the cleansing, restoring grace of God.

“Blessed are the pure in heart,” Jesus said. Blessedness is the state of happiness and well being which God bestows on the redeemed. Pure translates the word kathores from which we derive catharsis, referring to that which has been cleansed. It was used in reference to metals that had been refined of impurities; what remained was unmixed metal.

Applied to a person, this is a heart which is undivided by conflicting motives or contradictory desires, singleminded, devoted, uncompromised. It speaks of integrity, that which is integrated, in which all the parts are functioning as a whole. It is a heart with one focus, whole, wholly committed to know and love God.  It is a cleansed heart, undiluted by darkness, transparent, clear as light.  

There are many people today who are pure hearted in their devotion to the wrong god or expressing their devotion to the right God in wrong ways. Before the Lord redeemed us, such were we all. But when we surrendered our lives to Christ, the Lord began a work of cleansing and new creation in us (Acts 15:9, 2 Cor. 5:17).

Only God can create a pure heart but He does so as we participate in the discipline of holiness. This discipline includes honest accountability for our sins and failures. John exhorts us, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I Jn. 1:9).

This discipline also includes refusing to practice the old ways of our fallen nature while continually practicing our new life in Christ. Paul refers to this as putting off the old and putting on the new (Col. 3:1-17).

This discipline includes presenting ourselves to God daily as living and holy sacrifices, refusing conformity to this world and accepting God’s work of transformation (Rom. 6:12-14 12:1,2) as we meet Him in His Word.

What is the blessing obtained by those who have a pure heart? “They shall see God.” This speaks of daily, intimate communion with God. The writer to the Hebrews exhorts us, “Pursue peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14).  

If we would draw near to a holy God and have fellowship with Him, then we must be cleansed of that which would separate us from Him. David clearly understood that it was against God that he had sinned (Ps. 51:4) and it was this sin that would continue to separate him from God if that sin was not dealt with (Ps. 51:11). Therefore David says, “Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord and who may stand in His holy place?  He who has clean hands and a pure heart” (Ps. 24:3,4).  

The Apostle John points out that if we say we have fellowship with God while walking in darkness, we are liars, but if we confess our sins and ask God to cleanse us, He will forgive and cleanse (I John 1:6-9). It is that holiness, that purity, which will allow us to enjoy uninterrupted fellowship with God.

There is also an eternal sense to these words, “They shall see God.” Sin separates humanity from a holy God but when we are cleansed and made pure by the blood of the Lamb, we are reconciled to God and can enter His presence. When the pure in heart die, they are able to stand before God and see Him face to face.

5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God.”

The Lord who spoke peace to the storm offers us His peace, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful” (John 14:27).  

This peace is Jesus’ gift to all who come to Him in humble repentance and childlike faith. Since it is His gift to us, the world can neither take it from us nor diminish its reality within us.  The world cannot take from us that which the world did not give.

This peace is, first of all, peace with God, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). The purchase of peace with God was costly; Jesus “made peace through the blood of His cross” (Col 1:20). The judgment of God which was due to us because of our sin was laid upon Jesus, the holy Lamb of God, who made a full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice for sinners. Now instead of wrath, the grace of God is lavished upon us and we are at peace with God.

Secondly, it is the peace of God, a living peace established within us by the God of peace who indwells us. Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you so that in Me you may have peace,” (John 16:33). As we said above, it is Christ’s own peace which He shares with us. This peace of God cannot leave us for God will not leave us. Because it is of divine origin, it transcends our mind, surpasses our limited emotional resources and is infinitely more mighty than our most terrible storms and trials.

The peace of God will guard and over-rule our unruly thoughts and emotions, if we will allow this.  God quickens His peace within us every time we call upon Him: “Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Phlp. 4:7).

Whatever storms we encounter, we know the peace of God. Now, the God of peace, who has planted His peace within us, calls us to be peacemakers.

This ministry of peacemaking begins by maintaining peace in our own lives, then sharing our gift of peace with the people around us, “So then let us pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another” (Rom.14:19).  

The ministry of peace extends even to our enemies.  We are directed by Jesus to pray for those who persecute us (Matt. 5:44) and to forgive those who have sinned against us (Matt. 6:14,15). 

We are to pray for peace among the nations, “I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, in order that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity” (I Tim. 2:1,2).

We are exhorted to maintain peace in God’s church.  Jesus prayed for unity in the church (John 17:11-23) and that is a labor of peace.  Paul entreated the church to be diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph. 4:3).  He reminds us that the ministries of the church are for the building up of the church until we all attain to the unity of the faith (Eph. 4:11-13).  That is a labor of peace.  

Jesus asked, “Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49).  If we are sons and daughters of the Prince of Peace, we must be about His business — we must be peacemakers.

Remember the context, though. We are to be peacemakers in a fallen world which is in violent rebellion against its Creator and burning in its self destructive rebellion. A peacemaker is someone who disturbs the natural order of things in a world at war with itself.

Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace but a sword” (Matt. 10:34). The peace which Jesus brings is rooted in righteous relationship with a holy God who speaks only truth. To be at peace with such a God results in conflict with those who hate God, profane holiness and make war against truth. To live in peace is to live in the light of God’s presence. This brings us into conflict with a world which hates light and loves darkness.

The sword which Jesus brings is the sword of God’s word, the sword of truth and light. The writer to the Hebrews reminds us, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do,” (Hebr. 4:12,13).

When the truth of the Gospel confronted our sin, we were convicted, we repented and placed our faith in Christ. But this confrontation was not an act of peace. It was an act of war resulting in peace. This is an ongoing process — the Lord continually revealing our sin and calling us to repentance. As we respond, we enjoy peace in our souls and with God.

Just as God brought peace to our souls by confronting us with truth, so it must be with the world around us. The world is not at peace. It is at war and the primary cause of conflict is that people are separated from God and from one another. The root of this separation is sin. What robs the world of peace is sin. What delivers anyone from sin? Confrontation with truth.

The Bible reveals clearly that there will be no lasting peace in this world until sin has been finally and conclusively dealt with. The rule of peace will not be established until the Prince of Peace returns and establishes His kingdom on earth. 

However, even in a world at war, we may still be at peace with God and through God, we may be at peace with ourselves. We may then be used of God in establishing peace in our communities. Peace making begins as we speak the truth in love. Truthful, loving confrontation will bring peace to those who are willing to receive God’s gift. We must temper our expectations, though, in the light of reality. Whatever peace we build in this world will be temporary and imperfect.

Our state of peace with God and our peacemaking in God’s name gives proof that we are His children, “They shall be called sons of God.” Faith is displayed by its works. The tree is known by its fruit. 

“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,” (John 1:12). If this is so, that we are indeed children of God by faith in Christ, then there will be visible manifestations of our relationship with the living God. Peace with God, the peace of God and peace making in God’s name demonstrate that we are who we say we are — children of the God of peace.

5:10-12 “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Living the blessed life in fellowship with God does not bring about the friendship and approval of the world. The world loves its own but it hated Jesus. When He multiplied bread and fish and fed the multitudes, the people loved Jesus.  But when He shared hard teachings, they grumbled and abandoned Him. When He forgave sinners and healed on the Sabbath, some of the religious folk despised Him. When He raised Lazarus from the dead, the power-brokers began to plot how they might destroy Him.

If we are living by the righteous principles outlined in the preceding verses — exercising mercy, walking in purity, making peace, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, shining light in the midst of darkness, speaking truth in a context of lies, loving in a sea of hatred — these actions and attitudes are confrontational. They generate hostility. 

We should not be surprised at the response. The Apostle Paul reminds us, “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim 3:12).

A church that is not persecuted may not be confronting anything. It may only be reflecting its culture. We try to avoid confrontation and hostility but Paul, who suffered such great hardship as a follower of Christ, had an interesting perspective on suffering. He said, “To you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe Him, but also to suffer for His sake” (Phlp. 1:29). 

The word which we translate granted is charizo which is from the same root as the word for grace, charis. Charizo means to give, to grant in grace. The opportunity to suffer for Christ is a grace-gift from God.

Suffering is also an inevitable reality when living a righteous life in an unrighteous world. Jesus said, “You will be hated by all because of my name” (Matt. 10:22). The disciple is not above his teacher; if they slandered Jesus, how much more will they slander his disciple (Matt. 10:24,25). 

Jesus reminds us of the reason for the world’s hatred, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you” (John 15:19).

James reminds us that friendship with the world is enmity with God (James 4:4).  Jesus came to His own and they did not receive Him (John 1:11).  So we should not be surprised at the world’s rejection, at persecution. 

However, we may consider ourselves blessed if we are persecuted for the sake of righteousness and we may rejoice because our reward is great. What is that reward? 

“Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” 

Jesus does not mean that we gain the kingdom of heaven through persecution. We do not gain eternal life with God in His kingdom through our own works or the works of our persecutors. Rather, persecution proves that this world does not have a claim on us, does not call us its citizens. Persecution demonstrates that the kingdom of God is our true home.

The kingdom of heaven is the rule of God in our lives now and forever.  It is a rule of grace in place of judgment; a rule of peace in the midst of strife; a rule of joy while the world mourns its passing pleasures, its decaying idols and its corruptible wealth.  The kingdom of heaven is the guiding rule of a Shepherd who will not forsake or abandon us; it is the merciful rule of a great High Priest who always prays for us; it is the victorious rule of the Risen Lord who overcame death, hell and the grave; it is the gracious rule of the Divine Beloved who chose us, pursued us, redeemed us from slavery and made everlasting covenant with us that we might enjoy intimate, loving communion with Him forever.

The Apostle Paul viewed persecution as a form of communion with Jesus, a means of deeper fellowship with Him. Paul wanted to know Jesus, not only in “the power of His resurrection,” but also “in the fellowship of His sufferings,” (Phlp. 3:10). Persecution, ridicule, slander, insults, these are but a few of the ways that we share in the fellowship of Christ’s suffering.  

The Apostle Peter wrote to believers who were being persecuted for their faith: “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you. But to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exaltation. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.  But if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed but is to glorify God in this name” (I Ptr. 4:12-14, 16). 

1. Peter says, first of all, “Do not be surprised.” Persecution is not some strange event. It is normal that the follower of Christ should be reviled, ridiculed, persecuted for the sake of the Gospel.  As we have noted, if the world hated Jesus, why would it love His followers?

2. Secondly, we are not to retaliate when we suffer for Christ’s sake. Rather, we are directed by God to rejoice because of the reward that awaits us “at the revelation of His glory.” That will be when Jesus comes again to conclude history and establish His rule on earth.  

3. Also, rejoice because we are blessed and the Spirit of glory rests on us. Consider this awesome truth: when we are reproached, ridiculed, insulted for the name of Christ and we bear it humbly, patiently and joyfully, God’s glory is resting on us, is manifest through our lives. Peter says, “Consider yourself blessed — the Spirit of Glory rests on you.”  

How is the glory of God manifest in the persecution of His people? God is displaying His mercy, His patience, humility and kindness through a church that proclaims Good News in spite of the cost. Isn’t this illustrated in the cross? While hell was having a carnival and Jesus was bleeding and many were mocking and spitting and reproaching, God was being glorified in this open display of His humility, goodness, mercy and grace. When we are content to bear Christ’s own reproach, content to suffer for the privilege of sharing the Gospel, we are glorifying God.

Also, persecution is a testing of our character and God will use any test to further refine and purify our lives. In Psalm 105:19, we read of Joseph, the Old Testament saint: “Until the time that His Word came to pass, the Word of the Lord tested / refined him.”  

God had given Joseph, at a very young age, a clear sense of destiny, of the purpose of God in his life. Yet Joseph endured years of mistreatment as a slave and then as a prisoner unjustly accused. But this was not wasted time.  God used this time to prepare Joseph for his years of crucial service as Prime Minister of Egypt.  Joseph had an important role to play in the redemption plan of God and his years of persecution did not prevent the outworking of God’s purpose.  Rather, it was a time of purifying.

When Paul needed to defend his credentials against those who were questioning his apostolic authority, he did not list his revelations or the miracles God had worked through him. He recounted his suffering and persecution (2 Cor. 11:23-30). His was a resume’ of suffering. The fire of persecution did not destroy or even diminish Paul. Rather, because it was an expression of kingdom fellowship with Jesus, persecution became a means of transforming grace.

So with us. God will use the test of persecution and ridicule to further refine and purify us for service.  In fact, this process of purification or consecration is very deeply imbedded in the definition of a disciple of Jesus.

One of the most common New Testament words for a follower of Christ is saint (hagios) which means sacred, blameless, consecrated (implies being set apart). The word is found in the salutation of many of Paul’s epistles to the churches (Romans 1:7,  I Corinthians 1:2,   2 Corinthians 1:1).  It is not limited to those whom the church designates as saints because of their exceptional deeds of service or devotion to Christ.  It is used of all who have believed in and followed Jesus. 

We consecrate a person for sacred purpose — that is, we set the person apart and dedicate him or her to a holy purpose.  That is the New Testament sense of a saint but it is used of all who have believed in and followed Christ — God has set us apart for salvation.  Persecution is one of the ways that God more deeply consecrates / purifies / refines His saints for service that will glorify His name.

So rejoice, Jesus says, when you are persecuted, reviled, insulted for the sake of His Gospel. If we bear this with grace, it will be a means of great blessing. We demonstrate our citizenship in the kingdom of God; we enter into deeper partnership and fellowship with Jesus; the glory of God will rest upon us and we will experience deeper consecration, fitting us for greater service on earth.

Notice also in verse 12 that Jesus says, “Rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven is great.” The rewards that we earn in this life are temporary, they fade away, they perish or if they remain until we die, we will not take them with us. But the reward which we store up in heaven will be waiting for us and will endure forever.

Therefore the Lord exhorts us, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in or steal” (Matt. 6:19,20).

Jesus promises the persecuted that our rewards are great. Surely they are, for these rewards are forever and because they are given from the heart and hand of God.

Finally, in verse 12 Jesus reminds us that the prophets were persecuted before us. When the world exercises hostility against us, we stand among that glorious multitude who spoke God’s life giving Word to a scornful generation and suffered for the truth.

Study Questions:

1. What does Jesus mean when He says that the pure in heart will see God? (see v. 8)

2. How does persecution result in blessing? (see v. 10-12).

Salt and Light (5:13-16)

5:13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.”

Jesus says that His followers are salt. Salt is used to preserve food from putrefying and is used as an antiseptic, a purifier. The analogy for the church is obvious. The ministry of the true church, through the centuries, has had a purifying and preserving impact upon every civilization with which it has come in contact. It is not by its own power that the church preserves and purifies. It is God Himself releasing His truth and wisdom, His power and authority, His mercy and grace, His light and life through His true church.

There have been times, though, when religious institutions have been co-opted by greedy, oppressive power brokers who knew nothing of Jesus; times when unredeemed men and women have seized the cathedral, profaning holy altars and sacred rituals. In these times the church has lost its identity as an instrument of God’s redeeming purpose in history. These religious institutions may be called “the church” but they are not God’s church when they cannot be distinguished from any other worldly power.

Jesus reminds us that salt, by nature, is distinct from whatever it is sprinkled on. But if salt has lost its distinctiveness, it is good for nothing and will be thrown out and trampled. The implication for the church is obvious. A church that is no longer distinct from the world around it is a church that has nothing to offer the world and that church will be rejected by God. And why would it not be rejected? A corrupt church cannot redeem a corrupt world.

There is a personal truth here for each of us. Peter reminds us, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (I Peter 2:9). We have been redeemed out of the values of a corrupt world to be a separated people fulfilling a distinct function — proclaiming the excellencies of the God who redeemed us, shining light in a context of darkness. But if we lose our distinctiveness through culture-conformity, then we are unfit for service to the Lord. 

5:14-16 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

Jesus says that individually and corporately we are light, light that must not be hidden, light that must be released for the purpose of illumination.  The question is, what does the church illuminate?

The church is commanded to let its light shine in such a way that God, and God alone, is glorified (Matt. 5:16). We are not to spend our light glorifying ourselves or the corrupt culture around us. 

Light is surely distinct from darkness, just as salt is distinct from whatever it is sprinkled on.  The church carries the life and truth and presence of the living God and so by nature is distinct from the world. The church represents a God who is just in an unjust world; a God who is loving and merciful in a violent, vengeful world; a God who speaks only the truth in a world of constant lies and deceptions; a God who is holy and pure in an evil, twisted world; a God who creates life in a death-infested world.

The Apostle Paul expresses this truth with these beautiful words, “But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life” (2 Cor. 2:14-16).

We are the fragrance of Christ. He releases His purifying life and saving light through us. Jesus is able to do this because He has planted His purifying life and His redeeming light in us. However, He is able to release through us only that which He has first established in us. In this regard, the Apostle John warns us, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of His Son cleanses us from all sin” (I Jn. 1:6,7).

A church that has rejected the guiding authority of God’s Word, led by unredeemed leaders, filled with unredeemed members, leading lifestyles as corrupt and immoral as the world outside the cathedral, is a church that exists in darkness.There is no light of Christ within and so there is no light of Christ shining out. The words of Jesus to the Pharisees of His day would apply to compromised churches, its leaders and its members. They are nothing more than “blind guides of the blind” (Matt. 15:14).

God is distinct from, separate from, other than, this world.  Yet God is present in this world.  The presence of this transcendent God is the church’s gift to the world.  But if we try to accommodate ourselves or our message to the compromised standards of a lost and dying world, we will only hide the light and cause the salt to lose its savor.  When we lose our distinctiveness,  as we have said, then we have nothing to offer the world and God Himself will reject that church.

There are many ways that a church can cease to be salt and light.  One is through the seduction of relevance.  The idea that we must make Jesus relevant is absurd.  Jesus is the One by whom, for whom and through whom all things were created.  He is the One in whom all things consist; who upholds the universe by His Word of power. In Christ’s birth, God was incarnating Himself in human form.  Through Christ’s death, God offers salvation from sin. Through His resurrection, God offers liberty from the power of death. In Christ, history began and will conclude. While Christ transcends history, He has never been absent from it.

Jesus does not need to be made relevant.  He is the most relevant Person in all of time and creation.  It is we who must ask:  Is our church relevant to Christ and to His purposes?  Is our theology, our worship, our preaching and the witness of our lives relevant to Christ?

If we are rightly related to Christ, then we will be rightly related to the world.  But many churches, in a vain attempt to conform to that which is politically correct and culturally acceptable, have reduced their witness to grievous irrelevancy.  

There are so many ways to fall into the trap of irrelevancy. 

1. There is the subversion of the political left or right which would deceive us with the lie that if we will vote “the righteous” way, if the right legislation is passed, if the righteous candidate is elected, God’s kingdom purpose will be advanced.  How we vote and who we elect are important issues, but the sad truth is that many churches have been co-opted by the right or the left and their salt has lost its savor, the light has been hidden.  Insofar as these churches are indistinct from any other political instrument of the right or left, they render themselves irrelevant.

Today, the religious left and the religious right are being replaced by less religious, more extreme factions; less characterized by a love for Christ, more characterized by hatred of people; less informed by a Biblical world view, more informed by worldly perspectives of anger, bitterness and resentment.

Our goal as a church is not to become politically indifferent. But too often, politically active saints are becoming spiritually and Biblically indifferent. Insofar as we demonize our opponents, hate our adversaries and use the Bible as a proof text for the smashing of opposing ideologies, we have allowed our politics to seduce our faith and reduce our faith to irrelevance.

Jesus reminded His listeners that we are to love the Lord our God and love our neighbor as ourselves. We cannot love God and despise our neighbor.  Who is my neighbor, some patriot asked Jesus? Someone as different as a Samaritan from a Jew, Jesus replied. Today’s version of the parable might say that my neighbor is a Democrat or Republican; an immigrant or a descendant of the Pilgrims.

The point is that I cannot love God and smash my neighbor with political expressions of my religious doctrine. The goal is to win people for the everlasting kingdom of God, not to win arguments for the temporal kingdoms of the right or left.

Related to the seduction of the right and the left is the seduction of “leadership idolatry.”  God does gift some men and women for political leadership and we are told in the Bible to honor leaders, obey them insofar as we can without compromising faith and pray for them. But the kingdom of God is not breaking into history through any senators, presidents or prime ministers. We must guard our hearts, lest honor and obedience become idolatry.

We are not called to forfeit our political responsibilities but we must place our politics within the proper relationship to Biblically formed faith.  The questions is, will my faith form my political activism or will my activism, and the ideology that undergirds it, shape my faith?  Again, if our political beliefs and agenda cause us to hate, demonize and smash, then our faith has been subverted and we have become irrelevant to the kingdom of God.

2. There is the subversion of the culturally / morally popular.  When society has been aflame with racism, have fires of hate broken out in the church?  When society is immoral, has the church become morally compromised? When society is so confused that men and women don’t even know who God created them to be, has the church also surrendered to confusion?

Have we in the church, imitating the world, soiled our garments and seared our souls?  Insofar as we are conformed to a fallen world, we are irrelevant to God’s desire to redeem this world.  How ironic, that the church can become captive to its desire to be relevant.  We cannot preach a message of salvation to our culture while we imitate that culture. When the church becomes captive to its culture and conforms to the values of that culture, then it is reduced to irrelevance.

3. There is the subversion of artistic giftings.  God has gifted men and women with profound artistic talents with which to glorify Him but often the artist is glorified and that which the artist creates becomes an idol and we give glory to the artist and to the creation instead of to the God who gave us the gift.  When does the artist or the gifting become an idol?  When the person or the gift receives glory, displaces God, and steals our affection. 

When creative giftings and gifted people replace Creator God, God becomes an enemy of our gifts and removes His blessing from the gift. Godless giftings are irrelevant to a lightless world.

If the church is just another political action committee, compromising itself with the political left or right; if the church is so intent on acceptance that there is no longer a moral distinctive transcending time and culture; if we make idols of our creative gifts and artisans, have we not lost our salt and light?

Centuries ago, when the church began to baptize people as a social / political ritual, whether or not they had entered into relationship with Christ through repentance and faith, the salt began to lose its savor and the light began to set behind the fog.  When the church has attempted to conquer nations rather than convert hearts, employing armies rather than truth and mercy, the salt has lost its savor and light was lost.  When churches hide, dilute or compromise the Gospel, we become salt that has lost its savor, we become a hidden light.

In Revelation chapter 2, Jesus speaks to the Ephesian church, a church founded and nurtured by no less a luminary than the Apostle Paul and Timothy and John the Elder. But half a century after its founding, Jesus warns the church, “Therefore remember from where you have fallen and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent” (Rev. 2:5).

Today, Ephesus is an archeological dig, an ancient ruin.  There is no church there, no light.  Jesus removed the lampstand.

There are cities in the world today in which you will find beautiful, empty cathedrals, religious museums testifying of bygone light.  Few people attend the services and why would they?  The sermons are dead, devoid of truth, preached by religious professionals who believe little or nothing of the testimony of Jesus.

The world around these dark cathedrals has not been salted or illumined with any truth that would purify or enlighten because the salt lost its savor and the light was hidden. Having denied Christ, having compromised and diluted His Gospel, Jesus cast out the worthless salt and removed the darkened lampstand.  The cathedral is empty because God rejected it and most people will, ultimately, abandon a church that is devoid of the presence of Christ.

There is the ultimate irony.  A church that sought relevance to the world rather than faithfulness to Christ, will have no impact on the world, will be rejected by Christ and abandoned by the world it sought to imitate.

Yes, we can be politically engaged; we are artistically gifted; we must be culturally responsive, but only as followers of Christ, faithful to Christ, transformed by Christ, proclaiming and reflecting Christ.  We are called to represent Christ in the market place of ideas, in every arena -- in politics, the arts, business, government.  But doing the work of Christ from a worldly motive, with a worldly mindset in a worldly way, accomplishes nothing of relevance.

The values and priorities of the kingdom of God must inform and shape every aspect of our life, including our politics, our art, our business ethics.  Every aspect of life must be submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the values of His kingdom.

We are called to proclaim Christ, presenting His life and truth in a way that shines His light on the choices that people are making, and delineates the consequences of those choices.  We worship Christ, demonstrating His rightful enthronement over every ideology.  We join in Christ’s intercession for a lost world, praying that hearts and minds will open to the light of His truth and the power of His love.

In our lifestyle witness, in our proclamation witness, in our artistic giftings and political witness, in our worship and our prayer, we offer salt and light to a lost, dark and dying world.

Study Questions:

1. What does it mean to be salt and light? (see notes v 13,14)

2. What is the cost when a church loses its distinctiveness and becomes conformed to the culture around it?

Relationship With God and People (5:17-26)

5:17,18 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”

There is in the teaching of Jesus a continuity with the Law of Moses and the words of the prophets.  He respected every word in the Old Testament because it was the inspired, revealed Word of God.  Jesus, the Word made flesh, had existed with the Father and the Holy Spirit from eternity and had, with the other members of the Trinity, inspired Moses to write and the prophets to speak God’s Word.

Jesus did not come to abolish the Law or the prophets but to fulfill every truth and every prophecy. He fulfilled the Scriptures by keeping them perfectly and by satisfying every prophetic word concerning His birth, life, atoning death and resurrection. Those prophecies which are future will be fulfilled and Jesus declared that nothing of God’s word shall pass away, not the least letter of it, until all is accomplished.

5:19,20 “Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

In fact, whoever annuls even the least of those words will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.  And whoever keeps and teaches those words will be great in the kingdom.

However, by the time Jesus was born, thousands of non-Biblical traditions had been added to God’s word. These traditions obscured the Law and deadened the hearts of the people to God’s truth. In the Sermon on the Mount and other teachings, Jesus did not intend to nullify the Law but to abolish the non-Biblical traditions and point people back to God’s original purpose in giving the Law.

He called His disciples to surpass the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees and said that unless we do, we shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.  How will Jesus enable us to surpass the righteousness of those religious puritans?  By calling us back to the core truth of God’s Word and liberating us from those enslaving religious customs and traditions which had attached to the Scriptures.  

Jesus calls us back to the truth and the truth is that the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees was a self-righteousness which can never satisfy God.  They were trying to justify themselves before God by keeping the Law, but no one can obey God’s Word with the standard of perfection which God requires of us.  

The Word of God reveals that we are separated from God by our sin and cannot save ourselves by keeping the Law because we do not keep it. The Law reveals that we need a Savior. Those who respond to this revelation by repentance and faith in Christ Jesus will be forgiven of sin, declared righteous by God and the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us.

In the following discussion of the Law, Jesus often begins with these words, “You have heard it said, but I say to you ...”  At no point will He deny what had been taught in the Law of Moses but He will liberate the Scriptures from centuries of interpretations which resulted in codes, customs and traditions which have the appearance of righteousness but in fact bind people in religious slavery and obscure the truth.  

Secondly, He will apply the Scriptures to our thought life, our attitudes and motives.  Whereas the rigid holiness of the Pharisees was based on external obedience, Jesus will demand inner obedience, the conformity of our thoughts and desires to God’s Word.

The result will be intimate, covenant relationship with God and more transparent, truthful, loving relationship with people.  

5:21,22 “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.”

Principle: The internal thought or motive is the beginning of the outward act.  

Jesus does not nullify or contradict the Old Testament teaching on murder but He reminds us that what we conceive in our hearts has life and power and will be expressed in some form, in words and actions.  A desire, an idea or concept is the beginning of an action.  

In other words, sin is not merely an outward act but a progression of acts which begin in the mind. James, in his epistle, shows the obvious influence of Jesus’ teaching: “But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lusts (strong desire). Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death,” (James 1:14,15).

Before we proceed with the Lord’s teaching on this matter, let’s briefly examine the progression from desire to sin.

1. Sin begins with the conception of desire within us for something. 

Desire is not sin but it can become sin if it motivates us to violate moral law. Desire is often initiated by sensory stimuli from outside of us, something we see or hear or smell. For instance, when we pass by a bakery the smell may stimulate a desire for fresh baked bread. For the sake of this discussion, let’s say that this bread is harmful and therefore illegal. But having smelled it, we begin to think about the bread. It becomes a part of our imagination. Desire may also be stimulated by words or actions that we have experienced from other people which may provoke us to anger or bitterness.

2. Desire conceives reasons to satisfy the desire.

We now begin to reason, to explain to ourselves, to justify, rationalize why it would be good to buy and eat the bread. At this point, our desire is conceiving the act of purchasing the bread. Any prohibitions such as health or legality are being pushed aside by our desire. We have justified buying and eating the bread no matter what it may cost or how it might harm us. If the problem is words and actions that have hurt us, we may begin to entertain thoughts of revenge against the person who hurt us and we begin to rationalize why this would be acceptable.

3. Rationalized desire begins to conceive an action. 

We now begin to formulate a plan to act on what we have desired and rationalized. Our will is involved now. We do not merely desire the bread. We do not simply rationalize buying it. Because we have justified having it, we now will to have it. It is not now a matter of being tempted by the smell of it. We are drawn to it by our own will. It is the same with revenge — rationalized desire leads to the design or conceptualizing of action.

4. Finally, we exercise our will.

We purchase the bread and eat it. The fact that it is illegal and harmful means that we have violated the law and our own personhood. We have sinned. Or we act against our adversary.

5. Sin always results in the death of something.

By the time we purchase the bread and are holding it in our hands, it is virtually impossible to resist the temptation of eating it. It would be somewhat easier to resist the temptation while we are formulating a plan to purchase it; somewhat easier during the process of rationalizing why I need that bread. But the best place to resist is when the desire first occurs.

The earlier we begin to resist temptation, the easier it is to overcome it. The longer we allow the process to continue in our mind the less likely that we will overcome it.

Better still to avoid the neighborhood where we smell the illegal bread. If the battleground of sin is in our mind, then what is more important than controlling the gates that lead to the mind? Don’t go where the bread will impact your senses. There are a thousand baited hooks that will not entice you but there are a few that will. Guard the gates that lead to the mind.

If “illegal bread” is your problem, then we don’t watch movies about illegal bread. Don’t read the book. Don’t stand outside the bakery. Don’t go to the neighborhood where that smell fills the air. Don’t position your life in ways that expose your particular vulnerability to that temptation. Instead, we must saturate our minds with the life and truth and light of Jesus. How valuable the exhortation, “Watch over your heart with all diligence for from it flow the springs of life,” (Prov. 4:23).

Returning to Jesus’ teaching on murder: 

“But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty.”  

Our thoughts, not just the acting out of our thoughts, are holy or unholy, pure or sinful and God holds us accountable for the invisible reality of our thought-life just as He holds us accountable for the visible reality of our actions.  Jesus begins with the traditional teaching, “You shall not commit murder,” and links it with the internal thought process of anger that can lead to murder and then calls for a higher standard of thought and action.

The Lord is not prohibiting all thoughts or expressions of anger. There is such a thing as righteous anger which the Lord exhibited on more than one occasion (see for instance Matt. 21:12,13   Mark 3:5).  But this is a brooding resentment that we hold onto, refuse to release. That simmering rage is itself an act of violence — it is not simply that it leads to violence but the thought itself is violent and God holds us accountable for our internal violence as surely as he does for external expressions of violence.

Jesus then warns against words that condemn, accuse and ridicule, “And whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing’ shall be guilty.”

Why?  Because words have life and power; they represent ideas which have life and power.  With words we bless and we curse, we tear down and build up, we create and we destroy, we lead and we mislead, we shine light and we create darkness.  Jesus’ teaching is rooted in Proverbs 18:20, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.”  But He carries the Old Testament truth to a deeper level of fulfillment, linking our thoughts and our words with actual harm and warning of the judgment of hell. 

In summary, Jesus says that to think or speak evil of anyone is the beginning of the doing of evil toward that person.  The outward, visible act of evil is only the birthing of the sin which was conceived in the inner, invisible realm of the soul.

Does this teaching have any relevance today in our divided society, where public debate and the conversation of political and religious dialogue is filled with condemnation, ridicule and lies, where the demonizing and belittling of opponents is the norm? 

Teaching on Relationship and Gifts

5:23-26 “Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Truly I say to you, you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last cent.”

Principle: Our relationships with people, who are created in the image of God, are more important to God than our gifts to God.  

Jesus said that if we are alienated from a brother, someone with whom we are in spiritual or family relationship, and we realize this alienation while bringing an offering to God, we should lay down our gift, go and first be reconciled.  Then bring our gift to God.  

It is not that God despises our gifts; He invites our offerings of worship and treasure, time and talent.  But God places the highest priority on our relationship with Himself and those around us.  The Apostle John reminds us, “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen” (I John 4:20).

In Matthew 23:23, Jesus pronounces woe on the scribes and Pharisees for tithing the herbs out of their garden while neglecting “the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness.”  Jesus doesn’t say, “Don’t tithe, don’t give.”  He says, “Learn mercy, get right with God and people, then bring your tithe from the garden.”

In summary, Jesus is not nullifying the Law of Moses. He is validating the Law but applying it to a deeper level of our being. It is not enough to abstain from sinful actions. We must also overcome the sinful thought process that results in our actions. The law focused on the outward act. Jesus focused on the heart that conceives that act. The law dealt with the final result. Jesus deals with the attitude that gives birth to that result.

We are reminded in this that what the living God wants from us is intimate relationship. In order to experience and enjoy intimacy with a holy God, we must be holy. Purity of heart is not a function of religious ritual. It is a quality of being that enables fellowship with a God who is pure in all that He is. Purity of heart is not expressed in merely abstaining from outward acts of sin. It is expressed by an unwillingness to will those acts of sin, lest we mar our fellowship with the Lord who knows our thoughts as well as our deeds.

Study Questions:

1. According to Jesus, where does murder begin? (see notes v. 22)

2. What is the relationship between thoughts and actions?

Relationship With God and People (5:27-37)

5:27,28 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery;’ but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

Principle: The internal thought or motive is the beginning of the outward act.  

In God’s sight, the will to sin is the beginning of the actual doing of the sin.  C.S. Lewis said, “If you look at a muffin and cup of coffee with desire, you have committed breakfast in your heart.”  That’s the idea Jesus is articulating.  Holiness is not merely abstaining from an outward act; holiness is when we do not wish to commit that act.  This is purity of heart, as opposed to abstaining from sin because we do not have the opportunity or fear the consequences.

5:29,30 “If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.”

Principle: It is better to do without something than be destroyed by its misuse.  

Jesus did not mean that we should literally cut off members of our body. This would cure nothing, since ungoverned desire arises from the soul, not from the individual parts of the body. He is using exaggeration to demonstrate the seriousness of unregulated desires which conceive and give birth to sin and which then bring forth death. He is saying that it is better to go to heaven with less than to go to hell with more.

Jesus is commending a disciplined ruthlessness in gaining mastery over thoughts, attitudes, activities, relationships, appetites and habits that could cause us to destroy our own life or others.  Anything that would gain mastery over us and thereby diminish our ability to fulfill God’s purpose for our lives, even if it is not evil in itself, must be cut off, denied.  

Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake, he is the one who will save it” (Luke 9:23,24). This is about bending our will to the Lordship of Jesus, loving what He loves, hating what He hates, refusing to allow anything to exercise destructive lordship over our life.

The cost of compromise is that we grieve the Lord and invite his chastisement. We miss answers to prayer which the Lord wants to pour out upon us. We quench the flow of His power and anointing and grace. We limit the outworking of His purpose in us and through us. We turn away the blessing which the Lord desires to lavish upon us and through us into the lives of others. 

Paul often used the example of an athlete or soldier in referring to the discipline required to fulfill God’s purpose for our lives. How sad that we admire the strenuous training, sacrifice and self denial of athletes and soldiers while tolerating self indulgent, destructive habits and thoughts in our own lives. While we should avoid making our own personal prohibitions into laws for others, we must understand that the habits and preferences which become ingrained in our heart will shape our character and character will determine destiny. Therefore, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life” (Prov. 4:23).  The very course of our life, insofar as we can control that course, begins in our heart, our soul (see also Matthew 15:18-20  and  Luke 6:45).  

The Psalmist prayed, “Search me O God and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me and lead me in the everlasting way,” (Psalm 139:23,24).  That same Lord who said that He came not to bring peace but a sword will search our hearts and remove from us that which would destroy us, if we ask and submit.  

There is a process, a holy discipline, through which the Lord examines us and performs spiritual surgery. The writer to the Hebrews said, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than a two edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

As we read the Bible carefully, thoughtfully, as we ask the Holy Spirit to apply what we read to our lives, as we surrender to the Lord in prayer and worship, He will show us every attitude, every habit, every desire that grieves Him and resists His good purpose in our lives. Then as we confess this to the Lord as sin (confession is not telling God what he does not know; it is agreeing with what the Lord shows us) He will then begin the process of removing this from our life and giving us the power to resist it.

5:31,32 “It was said, ‘Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce;’ but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”

Principle: Covenants and vows which God has blessed are sacred.  

God takes seriously the vows we make and the covenants which He blesses. When we ask God to bless something, if it is within the parameters of His will and purpose, God will bless and He regards as sacred that which He has blessed. “What therefore God has joined, let no man separate” (Matt. 19:6).

However, because of our hardness of heart produced by the fallen world around us, because of our fallen human inheritance and fallen human nature, and because of our own sins and the sins of others, we are sometimes unable to rise to the level of God’s blessing. Therefore, in the Law of Moses, divorce was permitted for the cause of indecency (Deut. 24:1-4). 

Jesus interpreted indecency as sexual infidelity. He taught that if a marriage has been broken by immorality, a man and woman may divorce (Matthew 19:7,8). In other words, given the reality of our sinful world and our sinful hearts, there are times when sacred covenants are broken beyond repair and God recognizes that. 

  

This is not to say that God approves the casual breaking of covenants. In Matthew 19:7, the Pharisees spoke of divorce as a command of Moses. Jesus corrected them saying, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way,” (Mat. 19:8). God permits divorce because of the reality of sin, but it is certainly not His perfect will for any man or woman.

The teaching of the rabbis, which allowed casual divorce, was in contradiction to the word of God given through Moses and certainly a denial of God’s original purpose for marriage. In the beginning, the man was to be joined to his wife / cleave to her (Gen. 2:24). The Hebrew word which we translate cleave, dabaq, carries a sense of bonding, glueing, clinging. It also carries a sense of following closely (as in Joshua 22:5, referring to Israel holding fast to the Lord).

Cleave speaks of a permanent attachment. The man and woman were intended by God to become one flesh (in Matt. 19:5 Jesus is quoting Gen. 2:24). This carries the idea of physical, spiritual and emotional union, a blending of two lives. In calling the Pharisees back to the Scriptures, “Have you not read?” (19:4), Jesus was calling them back to God’s fundamental intent for marriage — the joining of two into one.

The fall of Adam and Eve from grace resulted not only in separation from God but also a breaking of the perfect union between themselves. Though God has continued to bless the union of those who seek His blessings, the fallenness of men and women and sin’s continuing destructive impact creates imperfect union. In saying, “What God has therefore joined together, let no man separate,” Jesus reminds us that it is God who joins. It is people who separate.

In addition to covenants broken by adultery, we also need to acknowledge that there are circumstances today wherein a spouse, a woman in particular, may need to exit, for her well being and / or the well being of her children. Physical or emotional abuse is a form of unfaithfulness — a spouse is being unfaithful in caring for, nurturing and protecting other members of the family.  Certainly, if sexual abuse is taking place, this is adultery.

But to restate the principle, God does not excuse or condone the casual, frivolous breaking of sacred covenants.  In Jesus’ day, a woman could be divorced for any reason that caused displeasure to her husband. In fact, he was not even required to name a reason, only to present her with a certificate of dismissal and this placed her life in jeopardy. There were no financial safety nets, other than family.  If a woman had no family, divorce was a sentence to a harsh life of poverty, begging, slavery, prostitution or starvation.

Even today, though there are programs in place that ease the burden of poverty, the single largest class of poor people in America is single working moms. In less developed countries, divorce is still often as dangerous for the woman as it was in Jesus’ day.  Given the displacement and suffering that divorce creates, we should never condone the frivolous breaking of covenant.  People suffer because of it, especially women and children.

Jesus’ teaching here is a call for men and women to return to the original intent and purpose of God in marriage. Jesus’ teaching is an expression of mercy for women who were being exploited by frivolous divorce. This is not an example of Jesus being harsh or cold toward divorced people. Rather, it reveals the compassion of Jesus for those who suffer and it reveals His reverence for the blessing of God on covenants.

For whatever reason men and women have divorced, one basic reality of their lives is the same as with those who have not experienced divorce: all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Jesus told a parable of a man who stood in the back of the temple, “Unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner,’” (Luke 18:13).  That repentant sinner experienced the mercy of God. That should be a portrait of each of us: God be merciful to me, the sinner.

We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and all who with humble repentance and faith have sought refuge in the shelter of God’s grace, have been welcomed.  The same mercy that is lavished upon any of us when we call out to God, this very same mercy should be poured out upon this multitude of broken hearts and broken families.

We must continue to recognize the sanctity of marriage while providing compassionate communities of grace for those whose covenants and hearts have been broken by sin. This community of grace is the church and we should all be confident that within this community, we will each experience the outpouring of God’s grace on our brokenness.

5:33-37 “Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord.’ But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.”

Principle: Let your yes be yes, your no be no.  Tell the truth as if you are standing before God, which we are at all times.

Satan, the father of lies, has created a world culture in which distortion of truth is normal. For this reason, when anyone testifies in a court of law, they are required to take an oath in which they swear to speak the truth. Lying under oath, perjury, is a crime. 

Because of the human tendency to lie and the distrust which this produces, God made allowance under the Law of Moses for oath taking in His name. In Deuteronomy 5:11 we read, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain” and in 6:13 we read, “You shall fear only the Lord your God and you shall worship Him and swear by His name.”

In other words, there were times, under the Old Covenant, when it was permitted to take an oath in the Lord’s name as long as it was not in vain, that is, insincerely or falsely. This would hopefully promote a greater reverence for the truth and a greater credibility for the one taking the oath. The prohibition was not against making an oath but against swearing falsely in God’s name and thereby profaning God’s name (Lev. 19:12). There are, in fact, examples throughout the Old Testament of saints using the name of the Lord when making an oath (for example, Gen. 14:22-24, I Saml. 20:16, Psalm 132:1-5). 

In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul called on Jesus and the Holy Spirit to bear witness of his truth (Rom. 9:1). Even the Lord God Himself has sworn by His name (Gen. 22:16,17  Luke 1:73  Hebr. 6:13-17). 

As was often the case, what the Law of Moses commanded and what was actually taught and practiced, were two different realities. The problem in Jesus’ day was that people were making non-binding, insincere, frivolous oaths. They were not swearing in God’s name but swearing by heaven or by the earth or by Jerusalem or by their own head. They were swearing by the temple or its gold or by the altar or the offering on the altar (Matt. 23:16,18).

The command, “You shall not swear falsely by my name” (Lev. 19:12) had been perverted to mean that if people do not swear in God’s name, then they may swear frivolously or falsely by any other name and this is acceptable.

In response to this, Jesus said, “But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King, nor shall you make an oath by your head …” 

This is not an unconditional condemnation of all oaths at all times. Jesus had said that He did not come to abolish the Law and that not even the least letter or stroke of the Law would pass away until it was fulfilled (Matt. 5:17,18). Given the history of righteous saints invoking oaths, not to mention God Himself swearing by his own name, it seems reasonable that Jesus is not specifically prohibiting all vows in God’s name.

He is prohibiting frivolous vows, non-binding vows and dishonest vows in names other than God’s name. He is forbidding vows intended to impress others or to justify a lie. Those vows are not only dishonest but, in a sense, they are taking the Lord’s name in vain, for He is Lord of heaven and earth and of the city and watches over our heads and our lives.

What Jesus commands instead is simply telling the truth. When we say “yes” or “no,” our word should be trustworthy. All that we say is said in the presence of God. Therefore, every word is sacred and binding. There are no half truths or white lies — “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord” (Prov. 12:22).

When Jesus returns to establish His kingdom on earth, He will be mounted on a white horse and He will be known as Faithful and True (Rev. 19:11). If we are His people, redeemed by His blood, called by His name, we should then be people of truth in all we say and do.

Study Questions

1. According to Jesus, where does sin begin? (see v. 27,28)

2. Are you confident of God’s grace when you fall short of His glory?

Teaching on Revenge:

5:38-42 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.”

5:38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for eye and a tooth for a tooth.’”

Principle: The goal is justice, not vengeance.

The battle cry in our society today is, “Demand your rights, assert yourself, protect your interests.” The dominating principle in relations among nations is self interest and retaliation. But if everyone is clamoring for their rights and retaliating every time they think they have been offended, many will be trampled and the rights of all will be diminished. Rightly does James remind us,

“What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel” (James 4:1,2).

Society begins to disintegrate when self interest dominates. Where selfishness and jealousy prevail, justice is perverted and mercy is forgotten. A just and merciful God seeks to establish a balance of justice and mercy in human society.

The principle, “An eye for an eye,” was just because punishment was equal to the offense. It was also merciful in limiting the response and preventing revenge, which usually exceeded justice. God’s justice and mercy never contradict, always being exercised in perfect balance. The same God who says, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” (Rom. 12:19), also says, “If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink,” (Prov. 25:21).

Justice in Old Testament Israel was carefully prescribed and regulated (see for instance, Exodus 21) and was carried out by judges and elders, that is, by civil authority.  The Law permitted fair and just compensation for the victim, punishment for the perpetrator while denying the barbaric excesses that often accompany personal retaliation or revenge. The principle of “an eye for an eye,” (Exodus 21:24,25), means that the person responsible for injury will either provide compensation or be punished in like manner but the victim cannot exact unrestrained vengeance. Justice was dispensed with limits, regulated by law and administered by civil authority, not by individuals or families.  

The Law of Moses was clear. Justice was administered by the state as God’s representative. But gradually the tradition developed which interpreted “an eye for an eye” as license for personal vengeance. What the law prohibited, man’s tradition perverted.

Jesus responded by saying, “You have heard it said ... but I say.” He was not rewriting or nullifying the word of God. He was calling people back to God’s original intent revealed in holy Scripture. Then, as was His custom, Jesus call us into a deeper, spiritual interpretation of the heart of God behind His word. Jesus calls us back to true justice and authentic mercy.

5:39 “But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. “

Principal:  Confrontation and retaliation are different responses.

“Do not resist an evil person” sounds strange. We need to carefully understand what Jesus means and what He is not saying.

First of all, Jesus is not saying that a government should never confront or resist evil. At no time does He, or any New Testament writer, prohibit the state from exercising authority against criminal or military threats. God has established governments for the purpose of maintaining justice, order and peace (Rom. 13:1-7  I Ptr. 2:13,14). Because of sin, and the evil and chaos that sin generates, governments are necessary for the restraint of evil and the maintenance of peace.

Further, Jesus is not advocating an entirely personal pacifist stance against evil. He continually confronted and resisted evil whenever it diminished others and when it diminished His Father. In His teaching He confronted the evil of wrong thinking. In healing the sick He confronted the evil of diseased creation. In casting out demons He confronted the evil of demonic intrusion into human personalities. In rebuking Pharisees, He confronted the evil of false, enslaving religion. In cleansing the temple, He confronted the evil of oppressive economic practices.

Jesus also taught the church to resist evil by carrying out necessary discipline (Matt. 18:15-18). We are exhorted us to “resist the devil” (James 4:7  also I Ptr. 5:9) and wrestle against powers of darkness (Eph. 6:10-20). So we know that Jesus’ commandment here applies neither to civil governments nor to churches nor to individuals as we see evil impacting the lives of people or profaning God.

What Jesus is dealing with is our personal response to the evil that impacts our lives when we are persecuted for the sake of the gospel. When the Lord was ridiculed, beaten and spat upon, He spoke not a word. When the mob came to arrest Him and Peter drew His sword, Jesus commanded him to put his sword away, saying, “Or do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father and He will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matt. 26:53). Jesus did not ask His Father for legions of angels. He did not retaliate or defend Himself. 

Peter, no doubt inspired by that memory, exhorts us to follow Christ’s example, “Who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously” (I Ptr. 2:22,23). 

The command, “Do not resist an evil person,” applies to our own personal experience of evil when we are proclaiming the gospel to an unbelieving world. Jesus is extending the Mosaic principle of personal non-retaliation to a deeper level. Far more than limiting or regulating the violence of our response to sin, injury or evil, Jesus calls us as individuals to confront evil by abandoning our rights and disarming evil with mercy and truth.  Again, the Lord is not counseling us to ignore evil.  He calls us to confront and disarm evil with complete self abandonment and forgiving grace.

One of the dangers in meeting evil with force, is the possibility that we will only multiply the power and scope of evil. However, when we confront evil with mercy and truth, we may see a softening of hearts and a diminishing of the evil itself. For instance, in Gethsemane, when the mob came to arrest Jesus and Simon Peter drew a sword and wounded a man, Jesus immediately healed the wounded man (Luke 22:50,51, John 18:10).  It is unlikely that the recipient of His kindness was able to mistreat Him later.  

Whereas the human impulse is to meet evil with equal force, Jesus disarmed evil with self-sacrificing love. Who won the sword fight in Gethsemane? The man without a sword, Jesus.  On the cross, Jesus, surrounded by armed guards and demonic armies, “Disarmed the rulers and authorities” (Colossians 2:15).  Jesus disarmed the powers of darkness with the gift of His life.

Another issue here is Jesus’ definition of our identity as His followers. He calls us servants and slaves, neither of whom have any rights and therefore cannot demand their rights. On one occasion, when Jesus’ disciples were arguing as to which of them was greatest, Jesus gathered them to Himself and said, 

“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and their great men exercise authority over them.  It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant (diaconos: waiter, attendant), and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave (doulos: slave); just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:25-28).

Jesus said that if we want to be great in His kingdom, then we are to be self-abandoned servants.  He used Himself as the supreme example, who came, “Not to be served but to serve and to give His life.” The Apostle Paul further exhorts us to imitate Jesus in this:

“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave (doulos) ... Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death” (Phlp. 2:5-8).

Jesus abandoned His rights as the Son of God, humbled Himself to serve His Father’s purpose and confronted the evil of this world with self-abandoned mercy. God’s response was to exalt Jesus, as Paul continues: “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow” (Phlp. 2: 9,10).

Jesus defines greatness in servant terms. This is in direct contradiction to the prevailing view in all societies, that greatness is defined by power, by the acquisition of wealth, fame, leverage over other people. 

We should not fail to note that this radical call to self abandonment and mercy has seldom been applied by followers of Jesus. The institutional church has often bought into the world’s definition of greatness, has often confronted the world through the exercise of political and economic power, rigid controlling dogma, the manipulation of armies and governments. But we wonder, how would this world be changed if it were confronted by a church denying its rights, laying down its life as a servant and showering mercy on its adversaries?  

In abandoning our rights and exercising mercy, are we then abandoning the principle of justice?  No, we are affirming that only God can establish true, lasting justice.  

“Vengeance is mine; I will repay saith the Lord,” (Romans 12:19). That doesn’t mean evil goes unpunished. It means we place matters of justice and judgment in God’s hands. God may execute justice through ordained authorities and we have the right to appeal to the governmental authority as Paul appealed to Caesar (Acts 25:10-11). Or we may appeal to God directly as did the apostles when they were threatened (Acts 4:23-31).

If we are God’s servants, we must give our desire for personal justice over to Him.  Jesus set an example for us, who, “Being reviled, did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously”  (I Peter 2:23).

Again, this does not require us to be silent in the face of injustice. We are servants of Jesus but our Lord is not silent and He uses His servants to speak His truth.  But we must speak the truth in the proper context, humbly and in love.

Within the church, Jesus gave clear direction on the resolution of disputes. He said that if a brother sins against you, go to him and discuss the matter.  If he will not listen, take witnesses and go again.  If he will not listen, then go to the church (Matt. 18:15-17).  If he refuses to listen to the church, then he is to be removed from the church and is no longer a brother.  Therefore he can be dealt with either by the hand of God through God’s ordained authorities or by God directly. We are not to ignore evil. Rather, we confront it, but the goal, Jesus says, is to win our brother, not to win our case against our brother. 

Regarding matters outside the church, Jesus spoke up when unjustly struck (John 18:22,23) but He spoke reverently to those in authority. Paul spoke with more emotion (Acts 23:1-5) but apologized for any disrespect. When dealing with matters of social justice, we have not only the right but we have a mandate to speak the truth publicly. But we should do so in appropriate times and places, without demonizing our opponents, with humility and love and without a spirit of vengefulness.

Later in this conversation He will counsel us to love our enemies and pray for our persecutor but He never directs us to tolerate evil. Rather, confront evil with truth and forgiving grace.

5:40 “If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also.”

Principle: We disarm our legal adversary with generosity.

Jesus is not directing us to submit to robbery. We are not to give way to thieves. Rather, He is speaking of an adversary in court, “If anyone wants to sue you.” If we have incurred a debt and the judgment of the court is fair and just, stipulating that we really do owe this debt, then we should freely surrender our goods in excess of our debt rather than resist the one to whom we are indebted. In choosing to manifest humility and generosity rather than bitterness, we manifest the goodness of our God whose desire is to lavish the riches of His goodness upon everyone (Eph. 2:4-7).

5:41 “Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two.”

Principle: We win souls with humility.

Roman law gave a soldier the right to require a citizen to carry his pack for a mile. It was a demand on the liberty of a Jewish citizen and an affront to his pride. Carry the pack of a despised enemy? Never! 

Rather than respond with anger or resentment, Jesus calls us to respond by giving even more generously than what is demanded of us. In our humility and selflessness, we show forth the heart of our Lord who came to serve and to give. In our humble service, the Lord may use us to draw a lost soul to Himself. Isn’t that more important than our pride?

5:42 “Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.”

Principle: We demonstrate Christ’s living presence in our generosity.

Whereas our society extols the virtue of acquiring and possessing, idolizing the rich and famous, and even the church has overvalued wealth and possessions, throughout the Old and New Testaments the Lord extols generosity: “One who is gracious to a poor man lends to the Lord and He will repay him for his good deed” (Prov. 19:17).

 

“It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).

In saying, “Give to him who asks of you,” Jesus is not referring to every selfish, foolish request made of us. We have been given discernment and wisdom in the Holy Spirit. But when confronted with legitimate need, we should not turn away, as the apostles exhort us, “But whoever has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?” (I Jn. 3:17).

“If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so, faith without works is dead, being by itself” (James 2:15-17).

A tree is known by its fruit. The presence of Christ in us is revealed in the way we live and never more truly than as we give into the lives of others. Jesus said,

“When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment. But when you give a reception (banquet), invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:12-14).

I knew a small group of men and women who met in a home for prayer, Bible study and fellowship. Once a month they would cook a lavish meal for 150 homeless people. It was a bountiful, nourishing meal and they spared no expense. What a clear, loving, gracious proclaiming of the heart of Jesus to people who are enduring a difficult time in life.

Teaching on relations with enemies:

5:43-48 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Principle: Loving my neighbor may require that I love my enemy.

5:43-45a “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” 

In the first half of that statement, “Love your enemy,” Jesus quotes Leviticus 19:18. The second half was a rabbinic interpretation of Scripture but not the word of God.

The Old Testament was not silent on the issue of showing mercy to enemies. For instance, in Exodus 23:4 we read, “If you see your enemy’s ox or his donkey wandering away, you shall surely return it to him.” In Proverbs 24:17 we read, “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles.”

While it is true that God commanded Israel to destroy the Canaanite nations which inhabited the Promised Land when Israel entered, it was because of the complete spiritual, moral and cultural corruption of the nations and only after the Lord had called to those nations for centuries. They had sunk so low in their deceived , perverted misunderstanding of God that they sacrificed their children and infants to their false gods. God commanded their destruction lest they pollute and pervert Israel’s worship of the true and living God. In fact, Israel’s failure to eradicate those nations did lead to the corruption of Israel.

In those holy wars, Israel was an instrument of God’s righteous judgment. The goal of those campaigns was the preservation of Israel’s purity and did not negate God’s command to love one’s enemies. But the rabbis and Pharisees reinterpreted “love your neighbor” in the light of those wars and so they excluded enemies from their love.

The teachers of Israel also allowed certain verses of the Psalms to color their response to enemies. There are Psalms in which the writer pronounces curses over his enemies or the enemies of Israel (Ps. 69:22-24  137:9). But again, these verses were not personal expressions of hatred. Rather, they expressed the righteous judgment of God against those who were unrepentant in their opposition to Him. 

The words, “hate your enemy,” do not appear in the Old Testament. Instances in which God sovereignly punished His adversaries, or used Israel as an instrument of divine justice, do not provide an excuse to hate.

The word of God’s impending judgment on the world was both bitter and sweet to the Apostle John (Rev. 10:10). It was sweet to know that God would establish His sovereign, righteous purpose in this world. It was bitter to know that so many would perish under divine judgment.

God’s mercy and judgment are never in opposition. The same God who loves us perfectly also exercises perfect judgment on evil. The same God who judges also provides long seasons of grace and warning. We are called to proclaim the truth of His judgment and the truth of His grace and do so with love. Many of the rabbis and Pharisees of Jesus’ day had lost that balance. They loved heir neighbor, whom they defined in very narrow ways, and hated their enemies. There was no Scriptural justification for this.

In the parable of the good Samaritan, Jesus defined a neighbor in the broadest terms and exhorted us to love even the needy stranger who passes within the circle of our influence (Luke 20:25-37). 

Here, He extends the circle even further: “But I say to you, love your enemies.” The word which Jesus uses for love is aggapao, which is the love of God for people and of people for God. Why should we love our enemies with God’s love? “So that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” Godly love is how we demonstrate the presence of God in our lives.

 

Principle: We are called to love our enemies with God’s love, thereby giving God the opportunity to change them. 

What kind of love is God’s love?

a. It is faith-love, love that sees by faith the humanity of our enemy; sees through the bitter words and actions, through the propaganda and poisonous passion of the culture around us, and sees a human being for whom Christ died. We are not called to demonize our enemies or win a culture war in which we crush them with our arguments. We are to manifest God’s love to them with such reality that they may be drawn to Christ.

b. It is sacrificial love, which gives up its own will and even its own life for the visionary hope of introducing our enemy to Jesus. The Good Samaritan expressed compassion in the life of the wounded man but compassion was costly. He sacrificed his time, his oil and wine and his money. By definition, sacrificial love costs us something.

c. It is redeeming love, love which not only sees the possibility of my enemy becoming something more, something other than my enemy; sees not only the possibility of our enemy being reconciled to Christ, but because it is God’s love in us flowing out to our enemy, it carries the power to redeem those whom it touches.

d. It is, ultimately, conquering love. In the Old Testament, Israel was called to conquer its enemies by force of arms, by the violence of warfare. In the New Testament, we are called to conquer our enemies with God’s own love.  This does not mean that we excuse their crime, their evil, their sin.  Rather, we disarm them in their evil purpose by loving them with God’s perfect, faithful, sacrificial, redeeming grace and mercy.

Principle: If we love our enemies, we will pray for them.

Not only are we to love our enemies; we are also to pray for our persecutors.  So Jesus did on the cross and so Stephen did as he was being stoned.  Stephen’s prayer was answered in the conversion of Saul and God only knows which of our persecutors may someday be turned to righteousness through the prayers and the Godly witness of Godly people.

It’s not easy to love enemies, to pray for people who are seeking to destroy us.  It requires that we crucify our natural desire for revenge.  But it was at the point of their greatest pain that Jesus and Stephen released such great grace.  Only the love of God in us can inspire such selfless prayer.

5:44,45 “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven, for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

Principle: We show ourselves to be children of God when we love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.

We are to pray, not just for enemies, but for enemies who persecute us. What greater expression of love for anyone could we possible share than this — to bring them before the throne of God in prayer. In prayer we are standing beside our enemy in the very presence of God, interceding on their behalf. This serves also to remind us of why we love them — certainly not because of their hatred for us or their sin against us but because they are lost and in need of the redeeming love of Jesus breaking through into their lives.

In loving our enemies and praying for them, we show visibly that we are truly children of the God who showers His mercy on the righteous and the unrighteous. And we are showing people what this God is like. The Lord Himself sets the standard and example for this, loving each of us with redemptive, sacrificial love while we were His enemies. If we would be God’s children and live in His kingdom, then we must be like Him, loving even our enemies and praying for our persecutors.

5:46,47 “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?”

Principle: If we love only those who love us, we have failed to show any sign of God’s redemptive activity in our lives.

If I love no one outside my family or my circle of friends, then I have shown no more evidence of God’s redeeming work in my life than any lost sinner. Even evil people are capable of loving those who love them and greeting / embracing those who are friends. We are to proclaim the Gospel of the kingdom of God not only in words but especially in our lives.  If we show nothing more of love than those who do not acknowledge God, how can we expect them to see the presence of the kingdom of God in us? If they cannot see the presence of the kingdom in us, how will they hear the message of the kingdom?

5:48 “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Principle: The goal of salvation is to be like our Father in heaven.

Jesus says that we are to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect. The word perfect, in the language in which Matthew wrote, is teleios. It has to do with completeness, reaching the end point or fulfillment of something. It is often translated as maturity, for instance in Ephesians 4:13, “Until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and to the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ.”  

The ultimate teleios is “the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ.”

But there is a level of maturity in Christ that is appropriate to each stage in our journey of discipleship. There is a fullness of maturity which is appropriate to a five year old who is learning about the love of Jesus and learning to love Him and there is a maturity which is appropriate to a fifty year old who has known the Lord for many years. 

As we said, there is also an ultimate goal in attaining Christ-likeness, a someday aspect to this truth, an ultimate fullness and completeness of God’s purpose in us. In I John 3:2, we read, “Beloved, now we are children of God and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.”

Someday, we will be perfected in the image and likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ because we will be with Him and will see Him as He is. As we cooperate with the sanctifying work of the Lord each day, we will surely arrive at the ultimate goal, complete and perfect in Him. But even now, in our incompleteness, in the storms and trials of life, we show the presence of Jesus in our lives as we love and pray for our enemies.

I would like to summarize this teaching on loving our enemies and praying for them with a story from the life of Corrie ten Boom.

Corrie was raised in a Christian home in Holland.  She grew up loving God and loving God’s people, especially Jews. When the Nazis invaded Holland during World War II, her family helped to hide Jewish refugees. They were eventually discovered, arrested and a number of her loved ones died in Nazi prisons and concentration camps.  

Corrie and her sister Betsie were sent to the women’s death camp known as Ravensbruck.  Though they endured terrible cruelty and humiliation, they gradually came to see Ravensbruck as a divine appointment. God met them there, faithfully pouring out grace in that darkness and their barracks became one glorious prayer meeting. Many hundreds of women came to know Jesus Christ and entered eternity with God through the gates of that camp.

Corrie was released from the camp by a clerical error only days before all the remaining women were put to death. In the ruins of Europe she traveled from city to city telling the story of God’s grace and mercy, inviting people to come to know her Jesus.

At one service in Germany, after she spoke and gave a call for salvation, a man stood in the back of the church and began to walk forward, tears streaming down his cheeks. Corrie froze with horror. He had been the cruelest of the guards at the death camp. As he walked toward her, all the unspeakable memories of that place flooded into her mind.

When he came near to her, he held out his hands, and asked, weeping, “Is it true that your Jesus can forgive me? Can you too forgive me?”

She said later, “I realized that I had no forgiveness for this man. I also realized that if I could not forgive him, then I could not go on preaching the Good News of God’s forgiveness toward me.”

She prayed a silent prayer, “Lord Jesus, I cannot lie to you. I have no love or mercy for this man. Would you please pour out some of your mercy into my heart?” As she prayed, a warm current of grace began to flow through her, melting the cold hardness of her heart, washing away the bitterness and grief that still throbbed in her soul. She stood there for several moments, eyes closed, then slowly held out her arms, embraced the man and as her tears mingled with his, she whispered, “Yes, Jesus forgives you and so do I.”

In that moment, the war was finally over for the guard and the prisoner.

Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you.

Study Questions:

1. We are called to love our enemies with God’s love. What kind of love is that? (see v. 43,44)

2. What does Jesus mean when He says that we “are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect”? (see v. 48).

Matthew 6

Teaching on Giving

6:1-4 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

Principle: Giving is a private act of communion between God and the giver.

  

The words to be noticed are a translation of theomai, from which we derive the English word theater. Jesus is saying, “Beware of practicing your righteousness as a form of theater,” a performance for the purpose of impressing others. This robs us of our reward in the kingdom of God.  In particular, our gifts and offerings for the support of ministries and for works of mercy should never be given in a way that draws attention to ourselves. Practicing our righteousness before people, to be noticed by them, is really worship of self. We are not glorifying God; we are glorifying our own person.

God has stated emphatically that He does not accept praise, sacrificial offerings or the exercise of sacred rituals when they are offered insincerely. Through the prophet Amos the Lord said, “I hate, I reject your festivals, nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer up to me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; and I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an everflowing stream” (Amos 5:2-24).

Who gave Israel those rituals, festivals and songs?  God did. Who called them to bring those offerings and celebrate those solemn assemblies? God did. But when people come before God insincerely, covering unconfessed sin with religion, glorifying themselves in front of others, God does not call this true worship. He calls it hypocrisy.

There is a reward for insincere givers — the praise of those whom they fool. But Jesus warns, “You have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.” In verse two, Jesus calls such givers hypocrites. The word is hupokrites which was the Greek word for an actor. In order to play different roles, the actors in Greek theater wore a variety of masks. Such is a hypocrite.

“Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” simply means that we should give as humbly and quietly as we can. In fact, Jesus counsels us to give secretly, as if we are giving to our heavenly Father. God sees and He will repay. In Proverbs 19:17 we read, “He who is gracious to a poor man lends to the Lord and He will repay him.”

This is fundamental in the teaching of Jesus — all that we do should be done unto the Lord.  We live for God, not for people.  Our primary motivation is pleasing God, not people.  All of life can be an act of communion with God. All giving is really giving unto God Himself, as we sing in this ancient hymn, 

“All things come of Thee O Lord

and of Thine own have we given Thee.”

However, not all righteous works of mercy can be hidden, any more than light can be hidden. Jesus did say, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they will see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:14-16).

We cannot hide every good thing we do and that’s not the point. What matters is the motive. Motivated by love for God and people, we give to glorify God and to bless others.

Jesus closes by reminding us that God will reward the pure-hearted giver. He does not say it is wrong to want reward or approval or praise. Those are normal desires. But it is wrong to seek reward or praise with a wrong motive or to seek it from the wrong hands. In fact, that can become a dangerous snare. But if our motive in giving is to please the Father and if our gift is given to the Father, then our reward, our praise and approval will come from the Father and this is certain. 

Let’s also remember that although the Bible is filled with exhortations to give, it is not because God lacks or needs anything. God is Self-existent, uncreated Being. He exhorts us to give because we were created to give, we need to give and as we give, we experience the Self-giving of God into our lives. Paul said to one of the churches, “Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek the profit which increases to your account” (Phlpns. 4:17). 

Jesus said, “Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return” (Luke 6:38).

Whatever rewards we receive from the Lord in this life, we may be sure that if we give with a pure heart and pure motive, in the resurrection we will hear Jesus say, “Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master” (Matt. 25:21).

 

Teaching on Prayer

6:5,6 “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

Principle: Don't pray to be heard or seen by people.

If the proper focus of prayer is God, then prayer that focuses on anything else is false. If we are trying to impress people, then obviously our focus is self and not God. Prayer can become just another expression of pride but pride-motivated prayer will have no impact anywhere in the world. Jesus says that people who pray to impress others with their spirituality will not be rewarded by God because God does not listen to or respond to insincere prayer. They do have a reward: it is the admiration of the few shallow people who are fooled by false spirituality.

True prayer should be an expression of our communion with God, the conversation of two beings, creature and Creator. The “inner room” can be any place that we are — it is the secret place of intimate fellowship and conversation with God. In that secret place, “Your Father who is in secret ... sees what is done in secret.” What is it that our Lord sees? He sees our heart, our true motive in praying.

He “will repay you.” What is our reward? 

God Himself is our reward. It is God who meets us in the secret place and opens His heart and mind to us. He opens the storehouse of resources which He has stored up us. He lavishes upon us His wisdom, His grace and kindness and mercy. He heals the broken and sets at liberty the captive. He cleanses the guilty and restores that which was lost. In the secret place of prayer, the Lord flows His life through us like a river. The greatest answer to prayer is God Himself.

6:7 “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.”

Principle: Don’t try to impress God with words.

“Meaningless repetition” can mean using more words than are needed, embellishing with flowery phrases, religious sounding words.  It can also mean repeating ritualized phrases over and over or memorized prayers.  Jesus assures us that we will not be heard because of the multitude of our words. Yet how common the practice, in world religions and in Christianity.

The priests of Baal, when opposing Elijah, leaped about their altar “and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon saying, ‘O Baal, answer us,’” (I Kings 18:26). They actually continued into the evening, hoping to be “heard for their many words.”

Buddhists spin their prayer wheels endlessly, believing they are launching prayers into the universe. Roman Catholics count their beads, reciting the assigned number of Hail Marys and Our Fathers. For many Christians, prayers are pre-written and prescribed for every possible circumstance, requiring only that we read them at the proper time.

It’s not that it’s wrong to read or recite prayers, as long as we are sincere and engaged from the heart but God is not impressed by the multitude of our words or any words recited without a conscious engagement of the heart. Think about it: how could our words impress a God who created a universe with His spoken word? 

God is impressed by the soul that truly, deeply longs for communion with Him.

6:8 “So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” 

Principle: We pray to an all-knowing God. 

Pray in the assurance that God knows us perfectly, none of our needs have surprised Him.  We’re not telling God what He does not know. Then why pray? 

1. We are accepting accountability for the need God has revealed to us.  Any truth we see about ourselves or our world is a revelation from the Lord.  Accepting accountability for that truth is a necessary precondition for the meeting of that need by God as we pray.

2. We are expressing faith that God cares enough to listen, hears us, and will act in our lives and in our world based on perfect wisdom and perfect love.

3. We are entering into conversation, communion, with a personal God who desires to have personal communion with His children.

4. We are opening our innermost being to God in such a way that God can change us in conformity to the answer that He desires to release in response to our prayer.

5. Prayer, then, becomes a partnership between God and the one who prays. God has not only ordained the end of all things but also the means to arrive at that end. Our prayers are part of the means the Lord has ordained for the establishing of His purposes in history. He has limited the exercise of His sovereign power to include our prayers in the establishing of His purpose.

6. So prayer reveals a paradox: only God can answer prayer but God only answers in response to prayer. And He does answer. In prayer, we are partnering with God in the outworking of His purposes in history, in the lives of men and women and families and nations.

6:9 “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven.’” 

Principle: Pray to a God who is both personal and transcendent.

We pray to a God who has invited us into personal relationship with Himself, adopted us into His family, calls us His children and invites us to call Him Father.  He is present in all places at all times and is responsive to the prayers of His children. 

But He cannot be controlled, conned or manipulated by prayer, religious ritual or any other means. He is our Father who dwells in heaven. He transcends my culture, my ethnicity, the age / era I live in.  Indeed, heaven and earth cannot contain Him; He fills all of creation and yet transcends creation, time and eternity.  He is holy, other than, more than, distinct from, all created things.

6:9 “Hallowed be your name.”

Principle: Worship is an essential aspect of prayer.

God’s name represents His being, His attributes. His name is the summation of His glory. To hallow God’s name means we reverence God as the Holy One. It is good to move into our prayer time through worship, confessing our adoration, our awe at the majesty, greatness, wisdom, mercy, power and beauty of God. We are saying, “Lord I recognize your holiness, I bow in worshipful surrender before your loving, holy authority.”

6:10 “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Principle: Pray for the kingdom purpose of God to be fulfilled.

Before we pray for daily bread, we should widen our focus and pray that the kingdom purpose of God will be accomplished on earth as perfectly as it is in heaven.  Our prayers should include whatever we know about God's purpose on earth, whether it touches our life or not.  “Thy kingdom come” is not a prayer for the return of Jesus and the end of history (that prayer is “Come Lord Jesus” Rev. 22:20).  This is a prayer that the dynamic rule and reign of God will enter the lives of people and the affairs of nations.

Also, since my body is composed of the stuff of earth, praying for the kingdom of God to come on earth is a prayer that God’s kingdom purpose will be accomplished in and through me this day. We may be confident that if we “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness … all these things will be added” to our lives (Matt. 6:33).

6:11 “Give us this day our daily bread.” 

Principle: God invites us to pray for our own personal needs.

1. Praying for daily bread means I accept accountability for my needs.  I confess that I have needs and I know what they are.  I am accountable before God.

2. I am opening myself to partnering with God and recognizing that God is my Source.  It is God who provides, gives and blesses as I work, give, pray and receive.

3. I am inviting God to search my heart, to make sure I have pure motives and to change my heart, if necessary:  “You have not because ask not.  You ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, to spend it on your pleasures” (James 4:2,3). 

4. Praying for daily bread means knowing the will of God for my circumstance and believing that God is willing and able to meet my needs.  The Bible is filled with promises of God’s care (see Matt. 6:28-33, 2 Cor. 9:6-8).  We may believe these promises and pray with confidence.

6:12,14,15 “And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors … For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.”

Principle:  Seeking and granting forgiveness is part of the discipline of prayer.  

In order to partner with God in kingdom work and enjoy fellowship with God, there can be no unconfessed sin separating us from God.  We need daily to confess sin, asking and receiving forgiveness.  But we also need to be willing to grant that same forgiveness to others.  In verses 14 and 15, we read that our forgiveness of others impacts our experience of God’s forgiveness to us.

We must understand the cost of refusal.  Unforgiveness is like drinking poison and hoping my adversaries get sick.  They may but the greater sickness will be mine.  Unforgiveness has a binding effect on our lives, shutting off avenues of blessing, closing doors of opportunity.  

Sometimes God’s best for us is bound, not by outward circumstances, but by the inner reality of our unforgiveness.  Forgiveness is an act of loosing someone from their sin against us and in doing so, loosing our own heart from the binding reality of bitterness.  As we are released in our spirit, there is a release of God’s purpose and promise toward us.

It is not that God is waiting to release grace upon a believer’s life, based on our work of forgiveness.  His blessing was released through the finished work of Christ on the cross.  My act of forgiveness does not earn God’s forgiveness toward me.  None of my works, including forgiveness of others, will earn or merit any of God’s grace toward me.  Every expression of God’s grace toward us, including forgiveness of our sin, is an act of unmerited favor released through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

But lack of forgiveness can block or resist the grace that God has released toward us.  A little tadpole swam into a water pipe, fed on the algae and grew to such a large frog that the flow of water was stopped. There was no lack of water but it could not get through the pipe. So with our unforgiveness —  it will stop up the flow of grace which God has already released toward us.

If I am living in the kingdom of God, a kingdom characterized by mercy and grace, I must be willing to share that same mercy and grace which canceled my debt and opened my entrance into the kingdom.  Insofar as I deny kingdom blessings to others, I deny them to myself. 

Remember that unforgiveness is sin.  Any unrepented sin in the life a child of God grieves God, interrupts our fellowship with Him and brings His chastisement.  Unforgiveness, or any unrepented sin, resists the outpouring of God’s grace into our lives.

The Apostle Paul exhorted the church, “Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32). This attitude of grace breaks the cycle of hate and releases kingdom possibilities.  

This teaching on forgiveness is given by the Lord who washed the feet of Judas on the night Judas betrayed Him; who forgave those who crucified Him during the agony of the cross. That's what God’s forgiveness looks like and it was released to all of us.

I cannot possibly repay to God what I owe and God does not ask that I do.  He asks that I be willing to respond to others as He has responded to me.  As I release mercy, I find the door is open to God’s mercy flowing in to me.

6:13 “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

Principle: Pray to a God who delivers us from evil by His power and for His glory

How we understand God will determine how we pray to Him. If we believe God to be the source of the tragedy and temptation that comes our way, that will produce one kind of prayer.  If we understand God as the Lord our Deliverer and Savior, that will produce another kind of prayer.  

If I believe that God is the source of the temptation or hardship or evil that comes against me, then how can I pray to Him at all?  The Bible teaches emphatically that God does not tempt anyone: “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone” (James 1:13).

The word which we translate temptation (peirasmos) may also be translated testing, putting to the proof, discipline, trial. God does not tempt us but He does allow tests in our lives.  We may ask Him not to lead us into particular trials, even as Jesus prayed, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet not My will but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). However, it is often God’s will that we do encounter tests. In fact, James exhorts us, “Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:2-4).

Tests reveal areas of weakness or immaturity in our personality, areas where we are vulnerable to temptation.  The Lord wants to reveal those areas so we can confront them, call upon Him for grace and thereby grow. We can be sure that Jesus never taught us to pray, “Lead me not into discipline or testing” because tests and trials are part of the reality of living in this world and God allows them for His purposes.

Then what was Jesus teaching us to pray? Jesus is saying that when we pray, we may pray with confidence that God is not the source of tragedy or temptation in our lives but there will be situations that challenge and test us and our Father will allow these so we can grow. There will be other situations that the evil one has designed to destroy us and God will meet us there to bring us through as we call upon Him.

This is a prayer of thanksgiving: “I thank you Father that you will never lead me into any situation that violates your love for me but you will deliver me from the evil that comes against me and you will sustain me in every test, by your power and for your glory.”

6:14,15 (These verses were covered along with 6:12).

Fasting

6:16-18 “Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

Principle:  Fasting requires a right motive.

Jesus warns against fasting merely for the sake of making a religious show. However, He does not question the practice. He says, “When you fast,” not “If you fast.” But why do we fast?  What is the motive? Is it merely ritualistic, because someone said it is time to fast? 

Fasting is primarily for the purpose of pushing away the clutter, the noise, the distractions of our lives so that we may enjoy greater intimacy with our Heavenly Father, so that we can hear from Him more truly and serve Him more whole-heartedly. It may involve abstaining from certain foods or all foods for a time. It may mean putting aside the television or radio or internet for a season. The point is not that we do without something.  It is so that we may obtain something far more precious than food or entertainment: regaining and protecting intimacy with God.

Fasting is not about cutting out chocolate, as if that earns points with God. It’s about the tuning of our heart. We sing that old hymn, “Come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy praise.” Fasting allows the Holy Spirit to tune our heart to the voice and presence and purpose of the Lord. It’s not that God’s presence or voice drifts, like a radio signal that fades in and out. It’s not God who has the problem — it’s me, my mind, my heart. I tend to become so busy, so distracted, allowing so many voices to flood my heart. I need times of retuning.

The manner of this tuning may differ from person to person.  What dulls my awareness of God’s presence may not be quite the same as in your life.  The Holy Spirit is our spiritual director and will show us the what and when and how of fasting.

As with most things spiritual, it is easier to ritualize fasting, to make it into a law, doctrine or seasonal ceremony, than to actually practice the spirit of it. But we will find it immeasurably precious to learn the skill of pushing aside whatever is dulling our sensitivity to God’s presence in us and among us.

Jesus says that if our motive for fasting and prayer is to be seen by people, to impress people with our spirituality, then we have our reward from people, at least from those whom we fool. But if our desire is communion with God, God will reward us with Himself.

The New Testament church practiced fasting as part of their spiritual discipline (Acts 13:1-3). Paul fasted during his conversion experience (Acts 9:9) and as he established churches and raised up leadership (Acts 14:21-23). 

It is not that we impress God or change God’s mind when we fast.  It is we who are changed from busy, self willed, self indulgent persons who fail to discern God to spiritually disciplined, discerning servants who can hear and obey God. 

Although God will not be manipulated by anything we do, including fasting, we also know that, “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). When we humble ourselves before the Lord, we are touching the heart of God and He does respond.

Study Questions

1. If God knows what we need before we pray, then why should we pray? (see v. 8)

2. Why is forgiveness an important part of our prayer life? (see v. 12,14,15)

Teaching on True Wealth

6:19,20 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;”

Principle: We are not to store up treasure for ourselves because it is not our treasure.

A key word in verse 19 is the word “yourselves”. We are not to store up treasures for ourselves because we are not owners of anything — we are stewards, “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God” (I Peter 4:10). Paul reminds us, “For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” (I Cor. 4:7).

Jesus told a parable about a man who stored up treasures for himself. He tore down his barns and built bigger ones and said to himself, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry. But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’ So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:19-21).

The man was not condemned because he was rich. He was condemned because he stored “up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” He thought he was the owner, thought his treasure was for himself. That error leads to much unhappiness on earth and great loss in heaven.

Principle: We are stewards and will be held accountable for our stewardship. 

In Luke 16 Jesus told a parable about a man who was a steward for someone else’s wealth and was called to give an account for His stewardship. So shall we all be called to give an account to the Lord for our management of His resources which were never ours to own but to manage. Jesus told a parable about a rich man who gave his servants charge over his possessions and went on a journey into a far country (Matt. 25:14-30). When he returned, he demanded an accounting. Why? Because his possessions were never their possessions. It was their stewardship.

Jesus told another parable about a nobleman who journeyed to a far country. But first, “He called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business till I come’" (Luke 19:13). In the same way, Jesus has entrusted each of us with resources. Doing business until He returns means sharing love in a context of despair, praying for those bound by powers of darkness, pulling down strongholds and investing our resources of time, talent and wealth in kingdom ministry.

Principle: Life does not consist of possessions.

Jesus introduced the parable of the man whom God called a fool with these words, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions” (Luke 12:15).

It is a grave error to define our lives by that which we acquire and possess. Jesus warns us that even when we have an abundance, that is not the true definition of who we are. We are eternal beings and must not define ourselves in such limited, finite, corruptible ways. When this life is over, we will leave behind all our possessions and three truths will be obvious then:

1. Treasure on earth is vulnerable / insecure, subject to corruption, theft, loss through cyclical economic downturns and will eventually be left behind. Where are the riches that people fought for centuries ago?  It was gained and lost, passed from hand to hand and then it perished, corroded, corrupted.  Those who lost and those who gained the treasure perished with their fame, their ambition, their greed, their gold and their power.

2. Treasure in heaven is eternally secure. Whatever we invest in the kingdom of God is eternally present before God. Every prayer, every kind deed, every gift of mercy, every righteous tear, is recorded in heaven.  Cornelius was told that his offerings and prayers had ascended as a memorial before God (Acts 10:4).  The prayers of the saints, mixed with heavens incense, rise before God (Rev. 8:4,5). 

3. Kingdom investments result in eternal reward. Jesus said, “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father and with His holy angels and will then repay / reward every man according to his deeds” (Matt. 17:27). Peter reminds us that our reward or inheritance, “is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you” (I Peter 1:4). A cup of cold water does not go unrewarded (Matt. 10:42).

What we invest in the kingdom of God bears eternal fruit: you can’t take it with you but you can send it ahead of you.

6:21 “for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Principle: Our heart is connected to the way we invest our treasure.

Treasure on earth causes an earthward focus.  Treasure in heaven causes a heavenly focus.  Therefore Paul exhorts us, “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” (Col. 3:2).  Where I invest my treasure will influence how I live my life.

Principle: Money is not evil. Love of money is evil and a desire for wealth can lead to evil:

“But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (I Tim. 6:9,10). Paul advises Timothy, “But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness” (6:11)

Money does not corrupt — money provides corrupt people with the opportunity to manifest and spread their corruption.  Money also provides righteous people with the opportunity to manifest and spread their righteousness.  But money itself is neutral.

Principle: Gathering wealth for the sake of wealth itself is a vain, empty pursuit.

“Do not weary yourself to gain wealth, cease from your consideration of it” (Prov. 23:4). Why is this vain? Because wealth is corruptible, capable of diminishing and will all be left behind someday except for that which we have planted in eternity. 

The Psalmist speaks of  “those who trust in their wealth and boast in the abundance of their riches … even wise men die; the stupid and the senseless alike perish and leave their wealth to others. Their inner thought is that their houses are forever and their dwelling places to all generations; they have called their lands after their own names. But man in his pomp will not endure; he is like the beasts that perish. This is the way of those who are foolish, and of those after them who approve their words” (Ps. 49:6,10-13).

Principle: Riches can mask our need for salvation.

We need to be careful and prayerful in the way we handle resources because wealth can blind a person to their spiritual lostness. This is why Jesus said, “Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Matt. 19:24). It is not that riches prohibit entrance into the kingdom of God. But wealth can deceive a person to believe that they need nothing from God, can numb a person to their spiritual emptiness, their inability to save themselves and their need for a Savior.

Principle: The deceitfulness of riches can choke our spiritual growth. 

Jesus said, “But the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful” (Mark 4:19). Riches, material possessions can consume our time and energy like weeds to the point that we have no time or energy for the growth of our soul. Riches can choke the word of God by causing us to compromise the truth of the word, can lead us to a compromised life wherein we gradually lose our fruitfulness, our usefulness to God.

Principle: Wealth can mask immaturity.

Abundance of riches can hide a lack of spiritual growth; can deceive us that we are someone we are not; can lead to the conceit that we are more mature, more virtuous, more spiritual than we really are and can cause people to base their confidence and their hope in their wealth rather than in the Lord. Again, Paul exhorted Timothy, “Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy” (I Tim. 6:17).

While it is wrong to trust in our resources, it’s not wrong to enjoy the resources which the Lord has blessed us with — He has given us us all things to enjoy. As long as we live on earth, we will need to use resources. As we exercise God-given skill and wisdom, the Lord provides for us so we can live a peaceful life and give into the work of the kingdom.

Paul wrote to one of the churches about an offering and he said, “Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account” (Phlpn. 4:17). Kindgom giving results in eternal reward. Our giving reaches into eternity and multiplies back to us — it’s the way God designed the universe: “Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure — pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return” (Luke 6:38). 

Paul said to the church at Corinth, “Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness; you will be enriched in everything for all liberality (generosity), which through us is producing thanksgiving to God” (2 Cor. 9:10,11).

As we sow into the kingdom of God, the Lord blesses our resources so we can continue to be a blessing. And as we have said, there is an eternal reward for every gift of time, talent and treasure that we have ever placed on the altar.

Resources are neither evil nor good.  It is the way we use our resources that is evil or good.  Selfless use of resources can result in great good.  Our problem is that resources tend to attach themselves to us.  When God has a steward who is detached from his treasure, then that steward and that treasure can be a valuable instrument in the kingdom of God.

Six principles in the acquisition and use of resources: 

1. Acquiring wealth through oppression or injustice brings the judgment of God.

“Wealth obtained by fraud dwindles, but the one who gathers by labor increases it” (Prov. 13:11).

“Do not trust in oppression and do not vainly hope in robbery; if riches increase, do not set your heart upon them” (Psalm 62:10)

“Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of armies” (James 5:4)

2. Transfer ownership of wealth to God.

“And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need” (Acts 2:44,45). This doesn’t mean they gave everything away but no one claimed that anything was his own — held their possessions with a loose grasp — as a stewardship from God.

3. Make it the goal of your life to advance the kingdom of God with your resources. 

The goal is not to gather enough money to be able to do nothing. The goal is to have enough resources to fulfill the purpose which God designed for our lives.

4. Realize that all your giving to God is an investment in eternity.

“For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints” (Hebr. 6:10).

5. Understand God’s priority of mercy to those who lack resources. 

“One who is gracious to a poor man lends to the Lord, and He will repay him for his good deed” (Prov. 19:17)

6. Be confident that the generous will be blessed 

“He who is generous will be blessed, for he gives some of his food to the poor” (Prov. 22:9)

“And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phlp. 4:19) 

Characteristics of generous givers:

Paul was writing to the church at Corinth and he shared some qualities of the churches at Macedonia which had participated in a recent offering.

1. Giving is motivated by our experience of God’s grace:

“Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia” (2 Cor. 8:1). The primary motive in giving is sensitivity to the grace of God which has been lavished on us, the purpose of God, longing to be part of what God is doing, seeking those things above, not those things below.  God is at work in us to will / and to do His good pleasure and this includes our giving into His kingdom ministry.

2. Giving is not limited by difficult circumstances or poverty.

“That in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality” (2 Cor. 8:2). The Philippians were not giving out of their riches — they were poor. The word poverty — tokea — refers to a beggar, not the ordinary word for poverty which refers to a person who has little — this is someone who has nothing. It is the word used in reference to the beggar who was at the gate of the rich man. Their giving was motivated by the transforming action of grace in their hearts, they were prompted by grace during a “great ordeal of affliction.” Generosity is a heart issue — “He who is faithful in a little will be faithful in much.” The widow who gave two pennies actually gave more than the others because she had less.

3. Giving is an expression of joy (8:2)

“That in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed.”

There is joy in laying up treasure in heaven and sharing in ministry to others.

4. Giving should be generous (8:2). 

Their giving overflowed in a wealth of generosity — refers to a river in flood — this is an attitude — they were rich in generosity though poor. Generosity was not based on what they had but on a heart attitude. The purpose was to put others first.

5. Giving is a privilege: 

“For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints” (2 Cor. 8:3,4). The Macedonians begged Paul for the favor, the grace of kairos, the fellowship of giving to support believers who they had never met.

6. Giving is an act of worship: 

“And this, not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God” (2 Cor. 8:5). They first gave themselves to the Lord as an expression of worship — then they gave to the ministry.

The Single Minded Life

6:22-24 “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

Principle: Love and serve God with single-hearted devotion.

1. A single eye (single: haplous, can be translated: clear, sound, whole) speaks of single-mindedness, purity of heart, a life fully consecrated to God.  Eye, as used here, refers to more than the physical organ.  It refers to the way we look at life, the perspective that rises out of our spirit and soul.  A single-minded perspective to love and serve God with all our heart will enlighten our whole being.

2. Likewise, the lack of that single-minded perspective can distort our whole being. The unfocused life, or the life focused to the exclusion of God, is a life lived in darkness. 

3. We cannot serve God and any other master.  That is by definition, the unfocused or unconsecrated life.  The unfocused life is listening to too many masters speak too many words.  In particular, Jesus says that we cannot serve God and wealth.  It is God who gives us resources so that we can proclaim His Gospel and advance His kingdom.  But resources tend to attach deeply in our heart and speak loudly in our souls.  This makes it hard to hear and obey God.

We are not to serve our resources.  We are to serve the God who gives us resources.  We are not to listen to our treasure.  We must listen to the God who gives treasure for His kingdom purpose.  Right service and right listening require a continual renewing of our minds.  

This world seeks to transform us and conform us in its own image and this causes us to be useless in service to God.  The Apostle Paul exhorts us to be renewed by the transforming of our minds (Romans 12:1,2).  The entrance or unfolding of God’s Word brings light (Ps. 119:130).     As we allow the light of God’s Word to penetrate into our inner being, it will work God’s purpose of consecration, purifying and focusing us on God Himself.

The Anxiety Free Life

6:25-30 “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!”

Principle: The single-minded life is free from anxiety.

“For this reason” (6:25) refers back to the previous discussion. If my treasure is secure in heaven, if my eye, my perspective is clear, if I am focused on serving one master, then I will not be anxious about God’s provision.

1. Our life in Christ should amount to more than striving to meet basic needs.  There is an eternal, God-ordained purpose for our lives.  If we will commit all of our heart, soul, mind and strength to glorifying God by fulfilling His purpose, God will guide our steps and resource His purpose.

2. Anxiety will add nothing to our life.  Anxiety about the future reveals a lack of faith in God.  It is not that we should fail to plan for tomorrow.  Using the wisdom and administrative skills God has given us, we strategize and plan and pray.  But it is God who forms our plans by revealing His purpose, who undergirds our plans with His strength, releases His resources for the fulfilling of His purpose and guides our steps. 

3. Nature reveals God’s merciful provision: birds, lilies, grass of the field.  Of course, birds are not passive recipients of God’s mercy.  They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns but they do nest and gather what God provides them.  Lilies neither toil nor spin but they do blossom where God’s nature plants them.  So with us.  Refusing anxiety does not mean we refuse to work.  We labor with the talents and skill God has given us, where God has placed us.  But our labor is not undergirded with anxiety; rather, with faith.

4. Refusing to be anxious does not mean that we cease praying for daily bread or deliverance from evil. We pray over the needs of the day trusting that our Heavenly Father hears us and will respond in ways that bring Him glory.

5. Refusing anxiety means we trust in the Lord.

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phlp. 4:6,7). Paul wrote these words from a prison cell to a church that had endured much persecution and poverty. But it is the inspired word of God to them and to all of us. When we refuse anxiety and instead, give thanks to the Lord, we are guarded by the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension.

6:31-34 “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” 

Principle: Seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness and trust Him for necessary resources.

  

1. The single-minded life, focused, consecrated to God, yielded to God, dead to self and alive to God, will believe God for the promise of provision.  Martha was anxious and troubled about many things.  But one thing is needful, Jesus said (Luke 10:41).  That one needful thing? To sit at His feet and hear His Word (Luke 10:39).  

2. God’s promise is that if we are seeking first His kingdom purpose, all these (necessary) things shall be added to our lives.  Therefore, we are not anxious.  Simon Peter must have recalled this teaching many years later when he wrote, “Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you,” (I Peter 5:7).  Good advice for living.

Study Questions

1. What are some reasons to store up our treasures in heaven and not on earth? (see notes on verses19-21).

2. How would you describe the single-minded life? (see notes on verses 22-24 and 25-30)

Matthew 7:1-14

Judging and Discerning

7:1,2 “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.”

Truth Principle: We do not have the right to exercise self righteous, hypocritical judgment over others.

Sometimes people develop codes of morality based on their personal habits and preferences which conveniently ignore their own sins and weaknesses, enabling them to justify their own life.  When they apply their code to other people, they are able to judge and condemn everyone who falls short. Self justification always results in condemnation of others.

In Jesus’ day, the Pharisees did this. They had replaced God’s standard for holy living, revealed in Scripture, with thousands of rules, regulations and rituals based on external performance rather than internal purity. This enabled them to justify themselves because they kept the rituals and obeyed the rules. This also allowed them to condemn everyone else, since it was exceedingly difficult for ordinary working people to satisfy such an oppressive system. 

The result, for the Pharisees, was a self-satisfied, self-righteous view of oneself combined with a highly critical, judgmental attitude toward others, completely lacking in compassion, justice, forgiveness or kindness. Humanistic systems of morality always result in the dual sins of self justification and condemnation of others.

It is this that Jesus is speaking against. He is not saying that we should never exercise discernment, that we should never discern between good and evil, light and darkness. He is calling us back to a God-centered perspective of ourselves and others.

Only God is able to show us the truth about ourselves and others. Only God, perfect in wisdom, is able to know all possible truth about ourselves and others. Only God is perfectly patient and merciful with sinners. Only the righteous God has the right to judge sin.

Truth Principle: We reap what we sow.

Our judgment and mercy are measured back to us, from God and from other people.  As sinners worthy of judgment, we ought not to sow judgment if we hope to reap mercy. Jesus told a parable about a servant who owed the king a massive debt which the king graciously forgave (Matt. 18:21-35). But then the servant refused to forgive a man who owed him a much smaller debt. The result was that the unforgiving servant was denied the grace which the king had extended to him.

This is what Jesus meant when He said, “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you” (Matt. 6:14). He did not mean that my forgiveness of others earns the Lord’s forgiveness toward me. That grace was released through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus which we access through repentance and faith. But my willingness or unwillingness to extend that same grace to others will determine my experience of grace. We really do reap what we sow.

Truth Principle: Every time we judge, we reveal something of ourselves.  

The Apostle Paul said, “Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself, for you who judge practice the same things.  And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things.  But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of  God?” (Rom. 2:1-3).

If I judge someone as ignorant, I confess that I know something about ignorance.  If I judge someone as greedy or immoral, I reveal that I know greed and immorality.  One of the psychological issues in judgment is transference — we judge in others those qualities which we abhor in ourselves and we transfer judgment to them.  Who is less trusting than a thief?  Who is more skeptical of the credibility of others than a liar?  Who is more sensitive to criticism than a person with a critical spirit?

Truth Principle: Refraining from judgment does not demand moral neutrality.

“Judge not” is not a command to be morally neutral, to tolerate destructive choices, to wink at evil.  We must be able and willing to define and discern evil so that we can refrain from evil personally and restrain evil socially.  There are times when we need to deal with an issue regarding another person in the church (Matthew 18:15-18); we have been given specific directives for responding to heresy (2 John 1:10,11); throughout the ministry of the Old Testament prophets we see godly men speaking out against social injustice.  We are not morally neutral but as a daily principle for living, I am not to set myself up as judge over anyone.  Rather, I must tend to my own heart and seek God for my own holiness.  This is a warning against being hypocritical and self-righteous, harsh and unfair in our treatment of others.  We are reminded that ultimate, eternal judgment is in the hands of God.

7:3-5 “Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.”

Truth principle:  Our priority must be dealing with our own sin, not the sins of others.

We cannot respond to sin in anyone’s life until we have first dealt with the sin in our own life.  If my eye / heart / spirit is not focused in holiness, then how can I see to deal with the fault in someone else?  In fact, what better way to cover my own sin than the disguise of the reformer, the crusader, the righteous judge?  God may use us as instruments of loving correction in someone’s life, but only if our own life is free from the same dominating, corrupting influences.  

7:6 “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.”

Truth Principle:  Don’t judge but do discern.

We need to discern the spiritual readiness of others to hear and respond to the Gospel.  We are not to waste the holy treasures of God’s Word on those will only trample it under foot.  Jesus taught those who were ready to hear and receive but to others He spoke in parables. 

“And the disciples came and said to Him, ‘Why do You speak to them in parables?’ Jesus answered them, ‘To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted … Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand’” (Matthew 13:10,11, 13).  When He stood before King Herod, Jesus “answered him nothing,” (Luke 23:9).  The same Lord who said we should not worry when we stand before authorities as to what we shall speak (because the Holy Spirit will teach us what to say), this same Lord, when standing before the piggish Herod, spoke not a word. The Word made flesh, who spoke a universe into being, spoke not a word to Herod.

Even within the fellowship of the church, there are varying degrees of spiritual maturity.  After three years with Jesus, there were truths that even His disciples were not ready or able to receive (John 16:12).  If someone is not ready to hear, then sacred truth will be trampled, we will be ridiculed and our time and resources will have been wasted.

We should balance this teaching with the exhortation of Peter, “But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, but with gentleness and respect” (I Peter 3:15). However, if someone is militant in their opposition to Christ, we do not gain anything by arguing with them.

Persevering Prayer

7:7,8 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”

Truth Principle: God has invited us to press into Him in prayer and He promises to respond.

The Creator of the universe has issued an invitation: ask, seek and knock.  He invites us to be aware of our needs, unashamed to share them with Him and confident of His gracious response. This invitation is a journey and God would have us embark on this journey without fear.

Ask:  The journey begins by asking in the humble, secret place of prayer, a conversation with God that spans heaven and earth.  What may I ask of God?  As He searches our hearts, God reveals needs beyond even our own knowing and calls us to, “Draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

Seek:  Seeking is a pilgrimage inspired by our conversation with God, a pilgrimage of the listening ear: what is God saying to me? A pilgrimage of the discerning eye: what is God doing in my life? This is a pilgrimage into God Himself — God invites us to seek Himself, not mere answers to prayer.  He is the gold that we would mine in prayer.  He will disclose to us far more than wisdom — He will disclose Himself, the Source of all wisdom.  He calls, “Seek my face” and promises, “I will be found of you.” 

Knock:  Knocking is a journey of doorways.  The pursuit of God continually opens into everlasting gates and doorways, urging us on with the still, small voice that says, “I have set before you a door which no one can shut.”

This is a journey of transparency. Jesus told a parable about a man who was unashamed to knock on the door of his friend at midnight, asking for bread (Luke 11:5). Unashamed to admit his need, transparent. So we may be with our heavenly Father.

It is a journey of perseverance. Jesus told a parable about a woman who kept coming before the judge until finally he ruled in her favor (Luke 28:1). So must we press in, persevere.

It is a journey of purity. “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight” (I John 3:21,22).

Prayer is a journey filled with marvelous discoveries and promises — if we press in to God with a pure heart, we encounter a God who is faithful.

Truth Principle: There is a certainty in dealing with God.  

The promise is that the one who asks will receive; the seeker will find; the one who knocks discovers a door that will open. Notice the certainty: everyone who asks receives; the seeker finds; to him who knocks, it shall be opened.  

Truth Principle: There is mystery in dealing with God.

It is certain that when we ask, we receive, though it may not be the gift we asked of God.  It is certain that when we seek, we find, though we may not always understand what we have found.  When we knock, doors open, though not always the door we expected, and quite often, not as we expected nor exactly when.

7:9-11 “Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!”

Truth Principle:  The gifts of God are as certain as the righteousness of God.

Jesus says that if we, with natures corrupted by sin, know how to do good to those whom we love, how much more does the God who is perfect in all His ways?  David the Psalmist understood that God did not bless him because of David’s righteousness but because of God's righteousness, not because David is faithful but because God is faithful, “He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake” (Ps. 23:3).

When the adversary says, “God won’t bless you because of your sin, because of all the evil you have done,” the response is to repent of sin and trust in the goodness of God who is faithful because He is righteous:

“Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications.  Answer me in your faithfulness, in your righteousness.  And do no enter into judgment with your servant, for in your sight no man living is righteous.  For the sake of your name, O Lord, revive me.  In your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble and in your lovingkindness cut off my enemies" (Psalm 143:1,2,11).

The love of God is rooted in the righteous, faithful heart and character of God and that cannot change.  Therefore, whatever we have known of God’s love in the past, we can confidently expect in the future.  This confidence in God’s love gave David the confidence to be a lover of God, a seeker of God throughout all the seasons of his life.  As the deer panted for the waters, David yearned for God.

We too can be confident of God’s loving, faithful response to our prayers.  If we have responded to His love by entering into covenant relationship with Him through faith in His Son, then God calls us “my beloved,” He betroths us to His Son and will someday present us to His Son as His Bride.  

We press into God in prayer for He has invited us.  We ask, we seek, we knock and with the confidence born of childlike faith we expect to meet God in this secret place of prayer.

Relations with Others

7:12 “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”

All that we say and do impacts the lives of others.  Our words and deeds are like seed.  Why not sow into the lives of others the good seed we would like for them to sow into our lives?  Jesus says that all of the Old Testament Law and all that the prophets spoke, can be summarized in this: treat people as we would have them treat us.

Two Ways of Life

7:13,14 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

Truth Principle: There are two gates, two ways, two destinations in life.

Every day we make choices and our life is defined by our choices. Our ultimate choice has to do with eternal life. Jesus says that there are two gates, two ways. One is broad and wide. One is small and narrow. One leads to destruction. One leads to life. 

The way of destruction is the way that denies the existence of God, life lived autonomously as if there is no God. This is life lived against the grain of the universe and always results in ruin. But the way of destruction may also be the way of those who believe there is a God but attempts to build righteous standing with God through one’s own works. This is the way of self righteousness. All the religious systems of the world except one are built on the attempt to establish righteousness through our own efforts. 

The narrow road is the way of righteousness through faith in Christ — faith in His atoning death on our behalf, faith in His resurrection from the dead.

Truth Principle: The entrance to true, abundant, everlasting life with God is narrow.

Jesus says that if we want to get on the road that leads to life, we must enter by the small gate and the narrow way. This gate is Jesus, who said, “I am the door of the sheep.  All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved and go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life and have it abundantly,” (John 10:7-10). 

1. Narrow does not refer to limited access. Peter reminds us that God “is not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Ptr. 3:9). Jesus’ invitation to enter is infinitely great with grace, mercy and opportunity. Narrow refers to the reality that there are not multiple choices leading to everlasting life with God. There is only way, one door, one gate and that is Jesus, who said,  “I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father but through me” (John 14:6).

The narrow way is wide enough to include the most wicked sinner who repents of sin and turns to Christ in faith. However, it is small enough to exclude the most respectable person who refuses to turn from his sin and confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

This narrow entrance opens into abundant life, the unmeasured depths and heights of reconciled relationship with God. Through Jesus, the narrow gate, we enter into life redeemed from sin and from the slavery produced by sin, into the joyful freedom of the life set free.  We enter into the purposed life, the fulfilling of the grand destiny that God planned for each of us. We enter into eternal life which is the quality of life God enjoys. We enter into abundant life.

2. Narrow is not about God trying to bind us, enslave us in this one narrow way.  It is about God offering us freedom through this one door, freedom from the counterfeit ways and words of religious impostors who deceive us and ultimately, lead to our destruction. God in His mercy has offered one door, one way.  We don’t have to spend our lives trying door after door, guessing, being deceived by counterfeit entrances.

3. Narrow is not about God trying to limit our happiness by restricting us to this one door.  It’s about God offering us abundant life and deliverance from the thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy.  It’s about God opening the one door that leads to true, lasting fulfillment in this world and eternal life after death.

4. Narrow means we must enter on God’s terms, through faith in Christ and Christ alone. Neither our religious rituals nor our charitable works can earn or merit salvation. We do not enter the doorway of salvation because we were baptized, joined the church, attended holy communion, gave our time, talent and money to good works or because we were ordained and wore the robe of bishop. We are saved, redeemed by the grace of God working through faith. Faith in whom? Faith in Christ, the crucified, risen Son of God, Lord of lords and King of kings. 

“And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

“For there is one God and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all” (I Tim. 4:5,6).

5. Narrow means we must enter one at a time. We do not enter the kingdom of God because we joined a church with a thousand other people or because our family attends a church or because our ancestors were righteous. We enter alone through our own personal encounter with Christ.

6. Narrow means we enter intentionally. Jesus said, “There are few who find it” (Matt. 7:14). Few find it because many seek it on their own terms — according to their own good works or religious rituals. Few find it because many are distracted by pleasure, wealth and a multitude of other self indulgent behaviors. Few find it because many are self deceived, being wise and righteous in their own estimation. Few find it because many are misled by false prophets and false religions. 

Few find it because it must be sought with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. Those who enter the narrow gate are passionate seekers of God, fervently desiring to know Him, to experience His forgiving, restoring grace. 

Few find it because it is gained through spiritual bankruptcy, the confession that we are spiritual debtors, impoverished sinners, unable to save ourselves and utterly reliant on God to provide the necessary spiritual currency for our salvation. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:3).

Luke recorded Jesus’ statement about the narrow door in response to the question, “Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?” (Luke 13:23). Jesus answered, “Strive to enter through the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able” (13:24).

The word strive is agonizomai from which we derive the English word agonize. It means to fight, to struggle, to labor fervently. In Luke 16:16 Jesus spoke of those who are pushing their way into the kingdom of God. He was speaking of those who are desperate seekers of God, hungering and thirsting after true righteousness, mourning the poverty of their lost spiritual condition, fighting against the current of a world that is running from God.

Through Jeremiah the Lord said, “You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart” (29:13). Whole hearted seekers of God are striving to enter by the narrow way.

However, striving to enter is balanced by the truth that it is God who approaches us, awakens us from spiritual death, opens our spiritual eyes to our lost condition, draws us to Himself, brings us to repentance and gifts us with saving faith. But whom does God draw to Himself? Those whom He has awakened who then use their awakened freedom to seek Him. Whom does Christ feed with the bread of life? Those who have been aroused to hunger and thirst after Him.

It is Christ who comes to us offering the free gift of salvation but there must be a human response even to the gifts of God. It is a narrow way in the sense that we must intentionally turn from our sinful life which the world approves and accept the gift of faith in a Savior whom the world despises.

7. “There are few who find it” implies that the narrow way is a way of discipline. 

1. The discipline of the narrow way involves self control: We may have to wait (delayed gratification) for some of the reward. The narrow way leads to life — some of the life reward is later, not instantaneous.

2. The discipline of the narrow way involves self denial: to fit through the door, we need to lose some baggage, in particular, our self-centered desire to be lord of our life. Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must first deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it;  but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matt. 16:24,25).

In Luke 18:18-23 we read of Jesus’ encounter with a rich young ruler who asked how he could inherit eternal life. Jesus told him to give away all of his wealth and follow Him. The point is not that everyone needs to give away their wealth to enter the narrow way but this was the young man’s baggage: riches and power that insulated him from the awareness of his lost condition. Numbed by his status, he was deceived that he was keeping the law perfectly and was thereby right with God. To gain everlasting life, he had to leave his baggage at the gate. The call is to follow Jesus. Whatever keeps us from answering that call needs to be thrown away.

3. The discipline of the narrow way involves child like dependance on God for the grace to enter and the grace to endure along the way. Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3).

Truth Principle: The entrance to everlasting destruction is wide.

There is a broad way: it is popular, socially acceptable, feels good; it is crowded and so we have much company and there is pleasure in that way for a season but its end is destruction. 

The Gate of Destruction

1. It is the gate of self indulgence: all sins, all lifestyle choices are welcome. 

2. It is the gate of self righteousness: all the proud rituals and religions of human invention open wide to those who would establish their own righteousness. 

3. It is the gate of self deception, opening wide to those who are wise and righteous in their own eyes. 

4. It is the gate of false religion, opening wide to the smiling invitation of the false prophets and counterfeit messiahs.

The wide gate leads to a multitude of doors that are easy to fit through, appear to be pleasing, may be the popular choice, but these doors lead to destruction: “There is a way which seems right to a man but its end is the way of death,” (Prov. 14:12).

Study Questions

1. What is the promise to those who ask, seek and knock in prayer? (see v 7,8)

2. What did Jesus mean when He said that the gate is narrow that leads to life? (see v. 13,14).

Matthew 7:15-20

7:15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” 

Jesus issues this warning in the context of narrow and wide gates because false prophets are dangerous. They deceive people into the harmful choices and the destructive paths of the wide gate and the broad way. They pervert the pathway and poison the streams along the way.

Truth Principle: Not all prophets speak the truth.

The word beware means to hold your mind back from something. Jesus means that we should not expose our minds to false prophets, not listen to them. Instead, we open our minds to the Word of God which is able to build us up, teach us, restore and transform us.

False prophets are characterized by a disrespect for holy Scripture — they twist it, pervert it, deny it. They substitute humanist doctrines and worldly wisdom for the wisdom of God. 

The Apostle Paul contended against false prophets and so he warned and exhorted Timothy, “Evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.You however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:13-15). 

Paul goes on to remind Timothy that, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (3:16).

Since all Scripture is inspired by God, beware of those who deny God’s holy word, who explain it away, who oppose it. Beware of those who quote portions of God’s word but mix it with secular / humanist philosophies and cultural customs which contradict the truth. They are false prophets.

How do we know and recognize the false prophet? That’s not a simple matter because Jesus says they come to us in sheep’s clothing (which doesn’t mean they look like sheep). Shepherds wore garments made from wool, gathered from sheep. To be dressed in sheep’s clothing is to look like a shepherd. This refers to the outer appearance of false prophets which seems to be righteous — they may look like true bishops, pastors, priests. They may have impressive certification. They may say the right things — so politically and culturally correct, so in tune with the wisdom of the world, so cutting edge and relevant. But inwardly they are wolf-like: predatory, ravenous. 

The word ravenous means to snatch or to seize. What they seize is souls and their primary tool is false teaching, false doctrine. They do not do this from outside the church but from within. They prey on God’s church from the inside. Their agenda is self centered, not Christ centered. 

7:16 “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?”

Though they may look like shepherds, Jesus says that we know false prophets by their fruit. What does He mean by fruit?

1. Fruit is not necessarily measured by miracles — signs and wonders.

Paul warned the church about the coming of the Antichrist, “whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved” (2 Thes. 2:9,10). We also need to remember John’s warning, “just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour” (I John 2:18). The end time — which is all time since Jesus died an atoning death, rose from the dead and ascended to heaven — is characterized by false prophets who minister in the spirit of the Antichrist and whose deception may be accompanied by false miracles.

2. Fruit is measured by what a shepherd says. 

The message of a false prophet is not truthful — it is a deceptive, toxic mixture of truth and untruth. How do we measure truth? We measure truth by the unerring standard of God’s inspired word, the holy Bible. Jesus strongly rebuked and warned the churches at Pergamum and Thyatira for tolerating non-Biblical teaching (see Rev. 2:12-17 and 2:18-29). 

However, relatively few false prophets are complete heretics, flagrantly proclaiming outright lies. Few are absolute apostates (knowingly denying the truth and turning from the faith). Rather, they deceptively mix truth and lies, hiding lies inside a savory package of worldly wisdom which appeals to the pride of the listener. They may quote the Bible and talk the talk. They may sound like a believer. The lie is not always in what they say but in what they do not say. It’s a comfortable message — they omit the offense of the cross. They omit the offense of holy living. They omit the offense of a sovereign God who exercises Lordship over His church and His people. It’s a compromised message, accommodated to the beliefs and customs of the surrounding culture, bending the truth of God to embrace the so-called wisdom of the world.

But because this message may sound so attractive, may be so appealing to the flesh, may be so artfully wrapped in the wisdom of the age and so culturally acceptable, our discernment of a false prophet must involve more than their preaching.

3. Fruit is measured by how a shepherd lives.

Certainly we cannot discern false shepherds by their academic degrees, licenses, certification or ordination. All of these are attainable by anyone. We cannot discern them by their popularity, wealth, power, prestige, accomplishments, testimony or their seeming success, for they may be highly acclaimed by this fallen world and by other false shepherds. As impressive as their visions and revelations may sound, we cannot know them by these because visions and revelations cannot be verified.

In 2 Corinthians 12:6, the Apostle Paul was defending himself against false apostles who came into the church boasting of their visions, revelations, gifts and accomplishments.  Paul says that he has had visions and revelations too, but that he does not want anyone to “credit me with more than he sees in me or hears from me.” Yes, he had visions and revelations but he will not build his apostolic defense on things that are not verifiable. Establishing his apostleship on something that nobody could prove would set a precedent for every deceiver to do the same. 

So Paul says, “Don't credit me with anything other than what you see or hear in me.” He is saying that if we attach any credibility to his ministry, it is because of the truth he speaks and especially because of the way he lives that truth. He then talks of his weakness, the insults, distress, persecution and difficulties he has dealt with (2 Cor. 12:7-12). He speaks of his perseverance by the grace of God, of the signs and wonders that God performed through him (12:10).

In that same letter, when defending his credibility, Paul said, “But in everything commending ourselves servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger, in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left, by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; regarded as deceivers and yet true; as unknown and yet well known, as dying and yet behold, we live; as punished yet not put to death, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor and yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things” (2 Cor. 6:4-10).

Later in that letter, when defending himself against the accusations of false prophets, Paul spoke of his imprisonments and beatings, stonings and shipwrecks, the dangers and deprivations he endured — a resume’ of suffering (2 Cor. 11:23-29). He says, as it were, “Here is the fruit that reveals the authenticity of my ministry: my willingness to suffer and endure hardship; my willingness to live sacrificially that others may be blessed; my love for Christ and my purity; my commitment to speak Scriptural truth whatever it costs me and the power of God manifest through me.”

He would say to the false prophets, “Don’t tell me about your visions and your revelations, your popularity or your success. Let me see the truth of your words revealed in the living of your life.” What can be seen in our living is the only credible proof of the authentic nature of our ministry. 

In summary, we may not be able to discern a false prophet by their signs and wonders because there will be lying signs and wonders. We try to measure their teaching against the standard of God’s word revealed in Scripture but that too can be deceiving because the false prophet often mixes truth with non-truth. But we can always measure his or her life against the life of Jesus — do we see a consistent attempt to manifest the life of Jesus.

Returning to Jesus’ illustration, if we are looking at a grape vine, we will see grapes. If it is truly a fig tree, we will see figs. If we do not see the fruit, but instead see thorns or thistles, then we know that this is not a grape vine or a fig tree. By analogy, if we do not see the life of Jesus in anyone’s life, then this is not a credible prophet or shepherd of Christ.

7:17 “So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.”

As a good tree bears good fruit and a bad tree bears bad fruit, so with people. The works that we do, the life we live, the words we speak, reveal the inner life of faith. The inner reality of our heart is revealed by the outer reality of our living. That’s why it is so important that we cultivate a healthy spiritual life. The roots of our invisible, inner life will determine the fruit of our outer, visible life —  “As he thinks in his heart, so is he”  (Proverbs 23:7).  

“Guard your heart with all diligence for from it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23).

“For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart” (Matt. 12:34).

“But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart and those defile the man.  For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders” (Matt. 15:18,9).

“For there is no good tree which produces bad fruit, nor, on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit.  For each tree is known by its own fruit.  For men do not gather figs from thorns nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush. The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fill his heart” (Luke 6:43-45).

What is in us will be revealed in the living of our life. In Galatians 5:19-21 we read about the fruit of the flesh — that’s a life lived apart from God. In 5:22,23 we read about the fruit of the Spirit. That’s the life and character that God produces in the person who is submitted to God.  A healthy faith produces healthy fruit.  This is how we know people —  by the fruit of their living which is determined by the roots of their faith. 

7:18 “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.” 

It is impossible for a good tree to bear bad fruit or for a bad tree to counterfeit good fruit.  We may have to wait a few seasons to see the fruit: it takes time for fruit to grow and it takes time to discern character. But if we watch long enough, we will see true character revealed.

I moved into a house once that had an orange tree in the yard. One day I picked the oranges, squeezed them, took a big drink and it was about an hour before I could unpucker my mouth — it was sour! Sometime in the past, the tree had frozen below the bud and what grew back was a wild orange tree. The fruit was orange and round, the leaves and branches were the color and shape of leaves and branches on a cultivated orange tree. I didn’t know it was a wild tree until I tasted the sour fruit.

In the same way, false prophets will try to disguise themselves as truth speakers but they cannot disguise the fruit of their lives. The Apostle Paul, who fought false prophets throughout his ministry, said, “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds” (2 Cor. 11:13-15).

It is not surprising that servants of Satan disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. But Jesus says, “You will know them by their fruits.”

So, to help us identify the false prophet, the Apostle Peter described their lives. In 2 Peter 2:2 he says that they will be sensual (following the lusts of their flesh while denying the Lordship of Jesus over their lives). In 2:3 he says that they will be greedy, motivated by love of money rather than love of truth. Peter says that they will exploit people with their lying doctrines — using clever but false teachings to manipulate the church for their own financial gain.

In 2:10 he emphasizes the tendency of false prophets to indulge the corrupt desires of their flesh. Peter also exposes their rebellious nature — despising authority, self willed. They do not recognize any authority that would limit their self indulgence or resist their exploitation of the church. We may assume that their disdain for authority includes not only true leadership but also the very authority of Scripture itself. Obviously then, they despise the Lordship of Christ over His church and their lives.

In 2:14 Peter describes them as “having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children.” In 2:19 he describes them as “promising freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption.”

 

In summary, false prophets are false teachers but their lies are often disguised in wrappings of truth — quoting a few favorite Scriptures while denying the authority of Scripture in the way that they live. They may try to disguise their heart by wrapping themselves in robes of light so we must look deeper than their disguises. Peter reminds us that they are typically guided by a proud desire for prestige and popularity; hucksters of the word of God, greedy, self willed, self promoting, sensuous, jealous, self indulgent, rebellious.

Jesus reminds us that there is a terrible judgment awaiting the false prophet.

7:19 “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

A tree which produces bad fruit will eventually be cut down and thrown into the fire. Lives that consistently bring forth evil will eventually come under the judgment of God. Of course, God will offer grace, season after season, patiently calling, offering opportunities for the cultivation of repentance and faith. Notice this marvelous revelation of the kindness of God in Revelation 2 as the Lord confronts the church at Thyatira for tolerating the false prophet Jezebel, “I gave her time to repent” (Rev. 2:21). Jezebel was corrupting an entire church but Jesus gave her time to turn from her error — what a revelation of the depth of our Lord’s love. But if she refused to repent, she eventually experienced the judgment of God. When anyone refuses grace, then as Paul said, their “end will be according to their deeds” (2 Cor. 11:15).

The Apostle Peter warned the church of false teachers, “Who will secretly introduce destructive heresies ... bringing swift destruction upon themselves” (2 Peter 2:1). He says, “Their judgment from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep” (2:3).

They may appear to be successful and may build impressive religious empires but Peter says that they are being kept “under punishment for the day of judgment” (2 Peter 2:9).

Peter warns of their eventual damnation, “For whom the black darkness has been reserved” (2 Ptr. 2:17). And we must keep in mind that the most infamous false prophet of all, he who will partner with the Antichrist, will also be thrown into the lake of fire with the Antichrist (Rev. 19:20).

Jesus told a parable about the owner of a fig tree — this was really a parable about Israel but it is applicable to individuals (Luke 13:6-9). For three years the owner found no fruit on the tree and he ordered it to be cut down.  The vineyard-keeper asked for one more year of cultivation and the owner agreed. This reveals the patient mercy of God. But ultimately there will be an accounting. If the tree does not bear fruit, it will be chopped down and thrown into the fire.

God warned the world of Noah’s day of coming judgment and waited for 120 years while Noah testified. The lack of response resulted in complete destruction.  God warned the people of Nineveh of coming judgment and they repented at the preaching of Jonah and God spared them.  God warns of judgment while offering mercy. But if mercy is refused, then judgment is released. The bad tree is thrown into the fire. The false prophet and all who follow through the broad gates are judged.

Notice the connection between these two teachings. Jesus followed His teaching on the narrow way of life and the broad way of destruction by warning of false prophets who come to us in sheep’s clothing. The linkage is obvious: beware of false prophets because they deceive people into self destructive choices. They seduce people through the wide gates and broad ways of ruin.

Yet in this we see the sovereignty of God, not in preventing false prophets, but in allowing them for His own purposes. In 2 Thessalonians chapter two, Paul is writing about the someday appearance of the Antichrist but this revelation applies to all deceivers and all who have a taste for the sweet doctrines of deception. Paul says, “For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they may all be judged who did not believe the truth but took pleasure in wickedness” (2:11,12). 

God has given freedom to humanity, freedom to love and obey Him or despise and disobey Him. He allows false prophets as magnets to draw away those who refuse the truth but take pleasure in rebellion and disobedience. 

Jesus warns those who hunger and thirst after true righteousness: don’t open your mind to religious deceivers. But for those who despise God, who deny His truth and love that which is false, the deceiver will lead them into the wide gate of their desire.

Narrow gates, wide gates. Truth speakers and false prophets. We make our choices, we enter the gate. Ultimately there will be an accounting.

There are seasons within history and in each individual life when, after seasons of grace, God requires accountability and establishes justice. Finally, there is a time when time is no more, the season of cultivation is complete, history is ended and God’s justice is revealed. The unfruitful tree will ultimately be exposed, chopped down and thrown into the fire.

7:20 “So then, you will know them by their fruits.”

Until that day, you will know them by their fruit.  Notice how emphatic Jesus is: you will know them. The Holy Spirit will give us discernment as we wait and watch and pray patiently.

The Apostle John was writing to the church about the presence of false teachers and he said, “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know … As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him” (I John 2:20,27).

John is not saying that we do not need teachers but that we do not need a teacher to reveal a false prophet. The Holy Spirit who abides in us will enable us to discern the true fruit of the true prophet from the false fruit of the false prophet.

It is crucial that we allow the Holy Spirit to cultivate discernment in us because as we draw closer to the end of time, false prophets will increase. Jesus said, “At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many … Then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ,’ or ‘There He is,’ do not believe him. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect” (24:10,11,23,24).

But they won’t mislead the elect — it is not possible. Jesus, speaking of Himself as the Good Shepherd, said, “To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers” (John 10:3-5).

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand” (Matt. 10:27,28).

Because you know and follow the voice of the true Shepherd, you will not follow the voice of the false shepherd. You will know them. More importantly, God knows them and has marked them out for judgment.

Jude said, “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude 4). They may creep in unnoticed, but they “were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation.” The ungodly, shameless, Christ-denying life of the false prophet unveils his or her true identity. We will recognize them, we will have discernment because the Spirit of truth abiding in us will reveal the truth to us. We will go our way into eternal life and they will go their way into everlasting judgment.

Study Questions

1. How do you recognize a false shepherd? (see notes, v. 15-20)

2. Why is it that you will not be mislead? 

Matthew 7:21-29

Having warned the church of false prophets who may look and sound like true shepherds of the flock, Jesus now shares the ultimate test that reveals our relationship with Him and our eternal destiny:

7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter.”

Truth Principle: Obedience to Christ reveals true relationship and eternal destiny.

Grocery store apples are coated with a preservative which adds sheen to the fruit and slows the corruption process, so when I bite into an apple I am not expecting it to be rotten. But I did once. It looked good on the outside but down under the skin, it was corrupt. (Remember my example last week of a beautiful orange tree which bore only sour oranges).

Jesus rebuked scribes and Pharisees, saying that they “are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you too outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Matt. 23:27,28).

Usually our words and our works reveal the truth of our relationship with Christ but just as it is possible to hide lies inside truth, rottenness inside a bright red apple and sourness inside a beautiful orange, so it is also possible to hide spiritual corruption inside a skin of religious works, at least for a season.  The tree is known by its fruit but just as an apple or an orange can deceive you by its outer appearance, it is possible to counterfeit true relationship with Christ with nothing more than an outer sheen of religiousness. 

Jesus says that there are people who will say, “Lord, Lord” who, in spite of their profession of faith, are not experiencing the reality of His kingdom. In spite of their words and works, they are frauds. Then how do we discern them? Jesus says that the most accurate revelation of character and relationship to God is obedience to God: “He who does the will of my Father.”

He is not saying that our entrance into heaven is gained or acquired by our works. Entrance into the kingdom of heaven is gained through repentance and faith in Jesus, the holy Lamb of God. But our obedience to God reveals the truth of our relationship with Him and our place in His eternal kingdom. The obedient disciple is defined simply as, “He who does the will of my Father.” Obedience to the known will of God reveals the heart of a true disciple of Jesus.  

Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.”  He lived that life in front of His disciples, preferring the will of his Father to His own will.  In Gethsemane He prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will”  (Matt. 26:39). 

That’s how Jesus lived His life, doing the will of His Father. That’s how we reveal our relationship with God. Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15).  “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My Word” (John 14:23, see also 14:21). 

John recorded those words in his Gospel and years later, in his first epistle, said, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments” (I John 5:3).

Our love for God is revealed in our willingness to obey Him, to live His truth. A person may say the right things, they may even do some of the right things (or seem to do them) — miracles, casting out demons, prophecy. But watch for this simplest of all fruit — are they obeying God day by day? The Lord is not expecting perfection of anyone. But are we attempting to practice righteousness, are we attempting to walk in the light, day by day?

7:22 “Many will say to me on that day.” 

Which day? The day when God concludes history and establishes His kingdom on earth, when His justice is exalted against all that is evil and ungodly, when every false prophet is exposed, when every false believer and every unfruitful tree is revealed, judged and cast into the fire. On that day, many will say: 

7:22 “‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’” 

Didn’t we say the right words and do the right works? 

There is such a thing as a counterfeit miracle. In 2 Thessalonians 2:9, as Paul unveils the future appearance of the Antichrist, he says that the deceiver will come “in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders” or “lying signs and wonders.” There have often been false prophets whose works were an expression of the powers of darkness. And even false signs and wonders can be accompanied by powerful preaching — “Did we not prophesy in Your name?”

Then how do we know if a ministry is empowered by darkness?

7:23 “ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.’”

These who are rejected by Jesus are saying the right thing, “Lord, Lord”, preaching / prophesying in His name but their words are insincere. They appeared to do the right things — they cast out demons, work miracles, prophesy, but Jesus rejects their ministries because they are accompanied by a lifestyle of lawlessness. They are lawless because they are not living in a transforming relationship with the Lord. “I never knew you,” Jesus says.

The verb tense, “You who practice lawlessness,” indicates continuous, habitual, established patterns of sin and reveals an unrepentant heart that is set on disobedience and does not seek forgiveness. It is a lifestyle of lawlessness — the opposite of obedience. Jesus is saying that we cannot profess Him as our Lord and continually practice lawlessness. Profession of faith in Christ and the habitual practice of sin are mutually exclusive. We cannot be a disciple of Christ and a disciple of sin both at the same time.

What is it that reveals the truth of a vine? It’s the fruit on the vine. What is it that reveals who we really are? The fruit of our living. Though the fruit may look impressive on the outside, though there may be some noble works of charity or power in a person’s life, disobedience to God reveals that at our core we do not really love Him or know Him. “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit” (Matt. 7:18). Obedience reveals a true relationship with God.

In response to these lawless ones, Jesus says, “I never knew you.” There are people who seem to perform miracles, who speak with prophetic eloquence and seem to exercise authority over demonic powers, yet are not known by the Lord. He does not mean that He does not know the truth about these false prophets. He knows all truth that could ever be known about all people and all events. But this word which we translate “knew”, ginosko, has to do with relationship. It may be used to refer simply to awareness, as in 12:14,15 when the Pharisees were conspiring against Jesus and He was “aware of this.” But it often refers to intimate knowledge of someone, as in 1:25, when we read that Joseph, in his relationship with Mary, “Kept her a virgin (did not know her) until she gave birth to a Son.” 

Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice and I know (ginosko) them and they follow me” (John 10:27). As He prayed to the Father, Jesus said, “This is eternal life, that they may know (ginosko) You, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). Eternal life is to know the Lord as He knows us. It is to share in His life as He shares in our life.

In the same way, the Old Testament word, yada, has to do with intimacy: “Now the man had relations with (knew, yada) Eve and she conceived” Genesis 4:1). Through the prophet Amos the Lord said, “You only have I chosen (known, yada) among all the families of the earth” (Amos 3:1).  The Lord knew all the families of the earth but knew Israel in a special covenant relationship.

What Jesus is saying of these lawless religious folk is that He does not know them relationally — they are not in a true, living, intimate love relationship with Him. They ministered in His name but their ministry was not an expression of relationship with Him. Rather, their continued works of lawlessness revealed a life lived in separation from Christ.  Their life denies their ministry. When our living contradicts our profession of faith, then our profession means nothing.

Jesus’ response is to say, “Depart from me.” He is speaking of the ultimate destination of these deceived deceivers: everlasting separation from His presence. He is speaking of hell. Jesus describes this as “outer darkness” (Matt. 22:13). Paul refers to it as “eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (2 Thes. 1:9).

These whom Jesus rejects have an impressive sounding ministry — they say the right things. They have an impressive looking ministry — they do the right ministry works. The problem is that they do not know Jesus in any sense of relational intimacy. The absence of true relationship with Jesus is revealed in their lawlessness and Jesus declares the reality that He does not know them because they do not know or love Him.

Even when our works of ministry are sincere and true, they do not gain us entrance into heaven because they don’t gain entrance into relationship with God. It is our true relationship with God that opens the entrance into heaven and produces good works. The only work that gains entrance into relationship with God and thereby into heaven, if we would call it work, is that we know Him.  How do we come to know God in a personal relationship?  By turning from our sins — repentance — and by believing with our heart and confessing with our mouth that Jesus is Lord. This is saving faith.

Some people asked Jesus, “‘What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?’  Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent’” (John 6:28,29).

The work of repentance and faith, which is really a work that God produces in those who seek Him with all their heart, is the work which brings us into relationship with the Father.  It is that relationship, knowing the Father through His Son Jesus, that brings us into the dimension of life which the Bible calls the kingdom of God and qualifies us for entrance into heaven when this life is over.

In that relationship, the Lord works His holiness in us: breaks the power of sin, changes our habits and attitudes — changes us from the inside out.  That doesn’t mean we are perfect but we no longer practice unrighteousness, lawlessness.  We still sin but this is not our practiced lifestyle and when we sin we repent, and we then receive God’s outpouring of cleansing, restoring grace.

In this new relationship with the Lord, He establishes His rule in us. The kingdom of God is the rule of God.  How do we know if we have entered the kingdom, the rule of God? As we do the will of our Father, day by day, season after season. If God is ruling in our lives then we are obeying God because we love Him and love His gracious, wise rule in us.  

In this intimate relationship, Christ gives us grace and power to resist sin and to repent when we fail. When we sin, our sincere repentance reveals a living relationship. Confession and repentance are the obedient response of a sincere follower of Christ. But if I am not obeying God, if  I continually practice disobedience and lawlessness, then Christ cannot be exercising Lordship in my life. If He is not my Lord then I do not know Him and He does not know me.

Jesus asked, “Why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not what I say?” (Luke 6:46). That is a very simple, direct question. On the day of judgment, Jesus will say, “I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.”  These lawless ones by their continual commitment to do evil and their disobedient, rebellious lifestyle reveal that they have no relationship with the Lord. Therefore they are not living in His kingdom and have no hope of heaven.

Let’s say again that relationship with Christ does not result in sinless perfection, not in this life. It is not our perfection that proves our salvation. It is our direction — what we desire to be as we live in relationship with Jesus. 

Jesus now tells a story to illustrate the truth:

7:24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.”

He who “hears these words of mine” is the person who listens to God with a receptive heart. He who “acts on them” refers to the person who is actively living the Word, obeying it.

This is a life built on an unshakeable rock. The Holy Spirit applies the Word of God to our heart, changing us on the inside, transforming us and empowering us to live the truth. Christ Himself is building our life, building by His Word.  As we read the Word, meditate on the Word, live it, obey it, speak it, the Lord is working transformation in our inner being. There will be outwardly visible fruit reflecting and revealing this transformed inner life.

7:25 “And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.”

There are storms —  no one can escape testing, trials — but these storms do not destroy that life built on the rock, the life built by Christ and in Christ. The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy but we are in relationship with the God who brings life and who has overcome the evil one.  

Jesus reassures us, “In the world you have tribulation but take courage, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

John reminds us, “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.  And who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God” (I John 5:4,5). Because Jesus has overcome the world and because He now lives His life in us and through us, we are by nature overcomers.

7:26 “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.”

This is the person who hears but does not act on the Word, does not live it. Jesus describes him as a foolish man. He is a fool because he listened to the Word of God but did not listen with a receptive heart and therefore the Word of God did not have any life-changing impact. That Word did not bring him to repentance and faith; did not break his trust in himself and his self righteousness; did not lead him into relationship with the God who redeems, forgives and transforms all who know Him and love Him.  

He heard the Word but did not open his heart to it, did not bend his self will to it and therefore the Word did not bring him into a place of entrance into the kingdom of God. His life remained unchanged and he was unable and unwilling to live that Word.

This is the person Jesus described in chapter 13 who hears the word of the kingdom but allows the evil one to snatch it away (13:19). This is the person who hears the word but allows affliction or persecution to move him away from the word (13:20,21). This is the person who hears the word but allows the deceitfulness of riches to choke out the word (13:22). They heard the word but did not act on it.

7:27 “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell — and great was its fall.”

As a result, storms destroy that life. God’s Word must be acted on to bring results.  It is of no benefit to hear the word and not live it, obey it. God’s Word is not something we merely listen to. When we receive it, surrender to its truth, the Holy Spirit applies it to our heart, changes us, transforms our life. As the Word acts on us, we are able to act on it, able to live it.

The Apostle Paul said to a church, “For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe” (1 Thes. 2:13). Because the word of God is alive, powerful and dynamic, it performs its in all who believe. God created a universe by speaking it into being. The word of God contains in it the power needed to bring about the reality which that word reveals. When we receive it, it acts in us so that we can live it, act on it.

A good example is the word which the angel Gabriel spoke to Mary, when he revealed that she would conceive the Son of God. He said, “For nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37). Another translation could read, “For no word of God is without power.” She submitted to that word and God acted mightily in her.

Just as an acorn contains the DNA necessary to bring forth an oak tree, so the word of God contains the life and power needed to bring into being the purpose of God. One of the more common sayings of Jesus was, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Matt. 11:15).  He also said, “Therefore take care how you listen” (Luke 8:18).  Why? Because what we hear will establish the inner reality of what we believe and what we believe becomes who we are and how we live. What we believe forms our motives and produces our works and it is the reality of these actions, the outward and visible life, which reveals the reality of the inner life. 

Notice that both builders hear the word of God. We might say that both attend church, are part of the visible church, may even serve in the church. Also, both are building a life. And both build in the same way except for the foundation. But you can’t see the foundation once the house is built and you won’t see a difference until a storm comes.

However, one is a foolish builder and one is a wise because one built on sand and one on rock. The word rock is petra, a rock bed. The other man builds on sand. That’s what the false prophets are selling — the sand of lies, half truth and worldly wisdom. The problem with sand is that it shifts with the wind and the tides, just as worldly wisdom is constantly shifting according to the tides of political and cultural correctness. The next storm always undermines that foundation. 

So what is the rock? It is the Lord Himself. The Psalmist said, “The Lord is my rock and my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge” (Ps. 18:2). 

When Simon recognized Jesus and confessed Him to be Messiah and Lord, Jesus said, “I also say to you that you are Peter (Petros, small rock) and upon this rock (petra, rock foundation) I will build my church” (Matt. 16:13). True profession of faith in the saving work and Lordship of Jesus leads to intimate relationship with the Lord which results in transformation which is visible in a life of obedience. Mere profession, followed by a life of lawlessness, reveals a false profession.

In John 8:30 we read that many came to believe in Jesus. But Jesus said to them, “If you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine” (John 8:31). It’s not just hearing the words of Jesus or speaking the name of Jesus or doing religious works in Jesus’ name. It is a life of continual obedience, living His word. It is a life of continual repentance when we stumble and sin. It is in living Christ’s truth that we reveal a living relationship with Christ. James said, “But prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves” (James 1:22). If we are only listening to the truth but not living it, we are deceived.

John said, “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments” (I Jn. 2:3).

Paul said to Titus, speaking of unbelievers, “They profess to know God but by their deeds they deny Him” (Titus 1:16).

Obedience is the validation of our salvation. It shows that Jesus Christ is exercising Lordship in and over our lives. He speaks His word into our hearts and those who hear God’s truth with a listening ear, a receptive ear, will be changed and that change will be reflected in motives, words, actions, our handling of money, our relationships — the outward life. That changed life obeys the will of God and overcomes the storms of this world.

The true follower of Christ recognizes the divine standard for living and grieves how far short we fall. We find ourselves wrestling with unredeemed motives, memories and desires. We find ourselves swimming upstream against a godless culture. In our struggle we cry out to God for mercy and receive grace to live the life.

On the other hand, it’s easy to build on sand. It’s the wide gate and the broad way — popular, quick, simple. The foolish builder, like the false prophet, has no regard for the inner life of intimate relationship with God or personal holiness and integrity. Theirs is a religion of externals, whitewashed tombs filled with corruption.

Luke adds an interesting note to this parable. He leads off by quoting Jesus, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not do what I say?” (6:46). He then tells of the wise man who builds on the rock but adds that he “dug deep” (6:48). He dug deep, through the shifting sand, down to the bed rock. He was not in a hurry, not looking for a quick religious fix, counted the cost of full surrender to Christ and living the disciplined life. The storm did not shake his life.

We close this section with four thoughts.

1. In every life there are storms, trials which test and reveal the foundation on which we have built our life. Finally, at the conclusion of history, there is a day of reckoning before Christ which will reveal the core truth upon which we have built. What is your foundation? 

2. The Lord who chose in eternity past to save lost sinners, will build in us that which we ask of Him.  “He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phlp. 1:6). If that promise is our desire, then the Lord will bring it about.

3. Don’t let your failures or storms destroy your confidence or your peace in the Lord. It is not our perfection that proves our salvation. It is our direction — who we desire to be in Christ. If you truly and sincerely seek to follow Him, He will shepherd you through the narrow gate, into the fruitful life, a life built on an unshakeable foundation.

4. We have been called by God not merely to build our houses on rock but to rescue those who are being swept away in the flood. However, I can’t rescue anyone if I am being swept away.

7:28,29 “When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.”

The crowds were amazed at Jesus’ authority.  Authority revealed in what?  Not only in His words but also in His works.  In the following chapters Jesus reveals the power of God in His works. 

Study Questions

1. Why will Jesus say to many people, “I never knew you” in spite of their testimony of ministry?

2. What is the difference between the man whose house stood and the man whose house was swept away?

Matthew 8:1-22

The Authority of Jesus

Matthew chapter seven ends with these words:  “The crowds were amazed at His teaching, for He was teaching them as one having authority” (Matt. 7:28-29). 

 

What was the source of the amazing authority that echoed through the words of Jesus?  Surely we hear divine wisdom in His teaching but there was something more. Notice that chapter eight, beginning with verse one, records one miraculous demonstration of power after another. It is the works of Jesus that demonstrate the authority of His words.  

Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God breaking into history but the message of the kingdom was revealed in works of power and mercy.  The miracles validated the message. His works authenticated His words. The works of Jesus included authority over nature, authority over disease, authority over demons, and authority over death.

Jesus preached the Good News of God’s rule and showed what that looks like: “And Jesus was going about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every kind of  disease and every kind of sickness among the people,”  (Matthew 4:23   9:35).

Jesus began His ministry saying, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15). The inbreaking of the rule or kingdom of God in powerful signs and wonders is what gives authority to the preaching of the kingdom. The kingdom message is demonstrated in kingdom works.

We may not always understand how God is present or how He is answering our prayers.  We may at times feel that there has been no demonstration of kingdom signs and wonders. Nevertheless, God is present, His kingdom is breaking into history and He invites us to open our lives to His mercy and power.

8:1,2 “When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed Him. And a leper came to Him and bowed down before Him, and said, ‘Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.’”

Notice the accessibility of Jesus. Lepers were considered unclean and were prohibited from social contact except with other lepers. They were outcasts, separated from family and vocation. Yet this man was drawn to Jesus, as were multitudes and Jesus’ response was the same to one and all, “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).

Notice the humility of the leper’s approach: he bowed down. The word bow, proskuneo, means to worship by prostrating oneself. He came to Jesus in an attitude of worship.

Notice his trust in the power of Jesus, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” He’s not sure if Jesus is willing to heal a social outcast but he does not doubt the Lord’s power.

8:3 “Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.’ And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.”

Notice the compassion of Jesus: “Jesus stretched out His hand and touched Him.” In that society, one did not touch lepers. Jesus could have simply spoken a word of healing but He touched the man. Whatever distance there was between the leper and Jesus, Jesus bridged the distance. The love of Jesus cannot abide distance.  He is always crossing the canyon, the divide. He seeks us, He reaches out to us. Under the Old Covenant, God thundered from Mount Sinai.  In the New Covenant, God is born in human form, stretches out His hand and touches, stretches out His arms and dies, all for His beloved.

Notice the willingness of Jesus to heal.  The leper said, “Lord if you are willing.”  Jesus responded, “I am willing; be cleansed.” 

 

Notice the immediacy of Jesus:  “Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.”

Jesus did not comment on the leper’s faith.  It appears that the man had great faith in the power of God.  After all,  he approached Jesus with this request and violated strict social custom.  But his question suggests that he may not have been entirely convinced of the Lord’s willingness to heal.  The point then, is not the leper’s faith but that Jesus was accessible, compassionate, willing and immediate in His response.  

Faith includes not only confidence in the Lord’s power but also in His merciful willingness to exercise that power in our lives.  We are invited to have faith in God’s desire to do good in our lives.  We will not always understand God’s answer but we may approach Him with confidence that He is good and does all things well: “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need”  (Hebrews 4:16).

8:4 “And Jesus said to him, ‘See that you tell no one; but go, show yourself to the priest and present the offering that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’”

There appear to be several reasons why the Lord commanded the man to tell no one. The most obvious, practical reason is that as Jesus’ reputation grew, crowds pressed in around Him and He had no time to rest or to eat. As we read in verse one, “Large crowds followed Him.” On one occasion He was so exhausted that He was asleep in a boat in the midst of a storm. 

A second reason is that Jesus’ priority was to preach the kingdom and disciple men to proclaim the kingdom. This required both public teaching and private discipling, neither of which could be done effectively if multitudes were pressing in. 

Also, the nation was always one spark away from violent revolution, in constant expectation of the appearance of the Messiah whom they defined in political / military terms — He would defeat the hated Romans, overthrow their government and establish the kingdom of Israel. Jesus did not want to incite the crowds by providing a spark which would lead to a false liberation movement.

So Jesus commanded the man to tell no one while obeying the law of Moses. 

The miracles were important. They expressed the compassion of God for hurting people and they provided visible testimony of the presence of the kingdom of God. But at the same time, Jesus did not want people to be so distracted by the miracle that they missed the message.

Truly Great Faith

8:5,6 “And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, and saying, ‘Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented.’”

Notice again the accessibility of Jesus: a Roman centurion, an officer in the army of occupation, hated by the majority of the people, felt he could approach Jesus and ask for the healing of his servant.

8:7-9 “Jesus said to him, ‘I will come and heal him.’ But the centurion said, ‘Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed.’ For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.’”

Notice again the willingness of Jesus to heal:  “I will come and heal him.”

Notice the humility of the Roman officer: “Lord, I am not worthy for you to come.”  Humility is often the companion of great faith.  Great faith does not need to trumpet itself  but cloaks itself in humility and gentleness.

Notice the faith and insight of the Roman — “Lord, you don’t have to come to my house, just speak the Word and my servant will be healed.”  He understood the power of God’s word when it is released.  God created the universe with His spoken Word, “Then God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Genesis 1:3).  He is the God who, “Gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist” (Romans 4:17).  That same dynamic, creative Word sustains and upholds the universe. The Lord,  “Upholds all things by the word of His power” (Hebrews 1:3).  The Word of God is living and active, creative, powerful (see Heb. 4:12).

The centurion understood that if Jesus spoke a word of healing, it did not matter how close or how far He was from the object of that word.  It would be done. Where did the Roman learn that?  From his own experience with soldiers under his command.  He gave them orders and they obeyed.  If Jesus is who He says He is, then when He sends forth His word, all creation must obey.  The Roman officer extrapolated what he knew about command and applied it to Jesus. That’s great faith.  Or rather, that is simple, childlike faith in a great God.

8:10 “Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, ‘Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel.’”

Jesus marveled at the Roman officer’s faith which was greater, deeper than any He had encountered in Israel.  This Gentile entered into the miracle, not because he was a child of the Mosaic covenant, not because he was circumcised, not because he was keeping the Old  Testament Law, but because he believed.  The Apostle Paul reminds us that it is not the racial descendants of Abraham who are his children but those who live by faith, as Abraham did (Galatians 3:6-9  and Romans 9:6-9).  This Roman had become a child of Abraham because he walked by faith and therefore, experienced the blessings of the inbreaking kingdom of God.  

 

8:11,12 “I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

“Sitting at the table” with the great patriarchs is a way of speaking about the kingdom of God. Those who come from the east and west are non-Jews, Gentiles from around the world who enter the kingdom of God through faith in Christ.

“But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness.”  Sons of the kingdom are Israelites, chosen by God and called into covenant with Him. Outer darkness is the state of everlasting separation from God; it is hell.

Obviously the disciples of Jesus were Jews, as were many first generation followers of Christ. And we know there will be a great harvest of Jews in the last of the end times. But why are many Israelites denied entrance into the kingdom and instead are cast into outer darkness?  Because they try to enter by establishing their own righteousness through the works of the Law — circumcision, doing the right rituals and observing the right laws.  

But we cannot make ourselves righteous through the works of the Law. The Mosaic Law was not given to us to save us but to reveal that we are not righteous and cannot save ourselves.  Entrance to the kingdom of God is through faith in the Messiah, a Savior who does for us what we could not do for ourselves.  Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). 

8:13 “And Jesus said to the centurion, ‘Go; it shall be done for you as you have believed.’ And the servant was healed that very moment.”

Jesus said to this Gentile man of faith, “Go, it shall be done for you as you have believed.”  The Roman’s servant was healed that very moment.  The moment that the living, creative, dynamic word left the mouth of Jesus, the servant was healed. 

The Compassion of Jesus

8:14,15 “When Jesus came into Peter’s home, He saw his mother-in-law lying sick in bed with a fever. He touched her hand, and the fever left her; and she got up and waited on Him.”

What a tender story.  Jesus touched her hand so that she could use her hands to serve Him.  Isn’t that what we want?  We want Jesus to touch our lives so we can serve Him.  

When we invite and allow Jesus to touch our lives at our point of need, we are then enabled and empowered to serve Him.  This is our commission, our reason for living.  The kingdom of God (God’s rule), is breaking into history.  We who have experienced this inbreaking are also called to proclaim it.  We proclaim the kingdom in words and in works which reveal and release the power and mercy of God into other lives. Freely we have received, freely we give.

8:16 “When evening came, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed; and He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were ill.” 

Jesus cast out demons, healed all who were sick.  No one was excluded from His touch — He healed all who came to Him.  “Come unto me,” He says. There is  nothing too small or too great to bring to Jesus.

8:17 “This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: He Himself took our infirmities, and carried away our diseases.”

Matthew’s greatest priority is to demonstrate to Jewish readers that Jesus is the long awaited Messiah, so he constantly quotes Old Testament Scriptures and shows how Jesus fulfilled the word of God. Here he reminds us that this healing, delivering, restoring ministry of Jesus is fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, “He Himself took our infirmities and carried away our diseases” (Isa. 53:4, from a longer prophetic passage, 53:3-12, clearly delineating the suffering, atoning work of the Messiah).  On the cross, Jesus bore our sins and our infirmities, carried our grief and our diseases.  He is acquainted with our weaknesses because He bore them on the cross and because He knows us perfectly.  It is His sacrifice, His mighty act of redemption, that releases the power of God to save, to heal and to deliver.

Peter, who was surely present when his mother-in-law was healed and when the multitudes were being healed and delivered, later in his first epistle proclaims the healing power of Christ released from the cross, “And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, for by His wounds you were healed” (I Ptr. 2:24). 

The Cost of Discipleship

8:18 “Now when Jesus saw a crowd around Him, He gave orders to depart to the other side of the sea.”

Because of the miracles, great crowds were drawn to Jesus but He never sought multitudes of admirers. His goal was to make disciples who would live the kingdom life. Though at times Jesus did preach to large gatherings, He also avoided them if their motive was wrong (see for instance John 6:15) or if He had a divine appointment in some other place. It’s exciting when large crowds gather for worship or to hear good preaching, but we should remember that Jesus’ primary work of discipling was done in a small group.

8:19,20 “Then a scribe came and said to Him, ‘Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.’ Jesus said to him, ‘The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.’”

Here is an amazing incident: a scribe, a teacher of the law, is ready to follow Jesus.  A ratings-conscious television preacher would have responded, “Great, follow Me and from now on everything will be easy for you.”  Instead, Jesus said, “The Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”  In other words, Jesus counsels the man to first count the cost.  The Lord is unwilling to gain followers without first confronting them with the cost of that decision.  

What is the cost of following Jesus?

1. Repentance: turning away from whatever has captivated us to the exclusion of Jesus and turning to Him. Repentance is a changing of our mindset resulting in a change of life.

2. Faith: believing in all that Jesus says He is — our crucified, resurrected Savior and Lord.

3. Surrendering all that would prevent us from fully following:

In one case, Jesus said, “Sell all you have, give it to the poor” (Luke 18:18-27). Jesus doesn’t say that to everyone but He did to a man whose wealth was preventing him from following.

Jesus called Matthew to leave his tax business, his livelihood (Matt. 9:9). He doesn’t call everyone to leave their job but He did with a man whose job prevented him from following.

Jesus called some fishermen to leave their nets and boats (Matt. 4:18-20). To all He says that we must love Him more than our own family (Matthew 10:37). 

Salvation is God’s free gift to all who come to Him in humble repentance and faith but there is a cost to following our Savior. Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke  9:23).

Following Jesus does not mean that we must give up all our possessions or change professions but all who repent, believe and commit to follow must count the cost and let go of anything that would hinder our following Christ. Taking up our cross is about self denial, putting to death our own plans and purposes and committing to the plans and purposes of Jesus.

Surrendering to the Lordship of Jesus is an act of the will, not an act of emotional excitement.  There’s nothing wrong with emotion but emotions fade and if our decision to follow Christ is based on nothing more than an excited response to a sermon or song, then when the emotions fade, so may our decision.

Many are called but few are chosen: the chosen are those willing to pay the cost.

Many want to play on a team: few pay the price of discipline and practice.

Many want to play an instrument: few are willing to pay the price of practice.

The way of the cross is not an easy way: it is a narrow way of discipline, of consistently choosing Christ’s purpose over our own. We will have trials and persecutions. However, there are two greatly liberating truths in these words, “The Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head”:

 

1. These verses speak of the freedom of letting go, of leaving behind anything that would hinder the ultimate fulfillment that we find in following Christ.

2. As Jesus was dependent on His heavenly Father for all things, even for the words He spoke, so are we to be dependent on Jesus, abandoned to His care.  Jesus compared our relationship to Him as a branch to a vine (John 15:1-7).  The branch is connected to the vine, draws all of its life from the vine and there is great liberty in this.  The branch is free to bear fruit, to reach its fulfillment without any concern over the issues of survival.  The branch prospers because the vine prospers.  

Every picture of the church in the New Testament is the picture of an organic unity, not an organization but an organism, a living thing.  Jesus is the vine, we are the branches.  Jesus is the Head, we are the Body of Christ.  When we commit our lives to Christ, we are joined to His life.  His life flows through our lives.  It is a source of great comfort and confidence that we can abandon everything to the Lordship of Jesus.

8:21,22 “Another of the disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘Follow Me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead.’”

“Permit me first to go and bury my father” did not mean that the man’s father was actually dead. It was a figure of speech which meant, “I am waiting for my inheritance.” The problem is that he does not know when his father will die. He wants to answer the call of discipleship after all his business affairs are in order, after his bank account is set up.  That may be tomorrow or it may be ten years from now.

In Luke’s account Jesus says, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:60). Jesus is not being disrespectful. He means that we should not be bound to the past or the future in ways that restrict our commission to preach the Gospel.

The man is willing to follow and preach the Gospel someday. But “someday disciples” usually never leave home.  This encounter with Jesus was a divine appointment, a cross roads moment that would never come again.

There are moments in life when Jesus calls us to follow and we must respond in the moment and must not allow anything to hold us back.  Yes, we always need to pray and count the cost.  But we need to be aware of the tragedy of the unseized moment.  There are lives made poor by robbery, by foolish choices and sinful indulgence.  But there is also the tragedy of the life made poor by the unseized moment, destiny unrealized, the road not taken.

When Jesus called Peter and Andrew and James and John to be His disciples, we read that they left their boats and nets immediately and followed (Matthew 4:18-22).  When He called Matthew to leave his tax collector’s booth and follow, Matthew got up and responded at that moment (Matthew 9:9).  Jesus calls us to count the cost but follow, follow now.

Study Questions

1. How would you describe the faith of the Roman officer? (see notes, v. 5-10).

2. What is the cost of following Jesus? (see v. 19-22).

8:23-34

Lord of the Storm

Jesus had been teaching and healing all day, continuing into the night. He must have been exhausted but the crowds continued to come, bringing “many who were demon-possessed; and He cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were ill” (Matt. 8:16). As the multitude increased, Jesus directed the disciples to get into a boat and cross over to the other side of the sea (8:18). He had a divine appointment there and the boat provided His only opportunity to rest.

8:23 “When He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him.”

This is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.  The Lord got into a boat and His disciples followed Him.  The purpose of the church is not to call God to come over where we are, follow us and bless what we are doing.  We are called to discern what God is doing, where God is moving and what God is blessing.  Then we commit ourselves, our time and talent and resources, to the purpose of God, to the advancing of His kingdom, the proclaiming of His Gospel and the glorifying of His name.

8:24 “And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep.”

It is not uncommon for storms to break suddenly upon the Sea of Galilee — it is nearly 700 feet below sea level.  There are mountains to the north and east of the lake which rise thousands of feet above sea level.  Cold winds from the mountains sweep down on the warm air of the lake and create fierce squalls.

Matthew, who was present, recalls that, “The boat was being covered with the waves” (8:24). Mark described it as a “fierce gale of wind,” and records, “The waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up” (4:37). 

The Greek word which we translate storm is seismos which can also be translated earthquake. In Matthew 28:2, the same word is used to describe an earthquake outside the tomb of Jesus as an angel descended to roll away the stone. Jesus used the word seismos to describe events during the last days (Matt. 24:7). Seismos is also used in Revelation 16:18 to describe the greatest earthquake in history, occurring during the tribulation, which will rock the city of Jerusalem. A related word, seio, is used in Matthew 27:51 to describe the moments after Jesus gave up His spirit on the cross and the veil of the temple was split as “the earth shook and the rocks were split.”

So this was more than just a storm. The waves may have been generated, not just by wind, but by some seismic activity beneath the lake. The boat was covered (literally hidden) by the waves.  The picture is of a boat that is being violently tossed by wind and wave. 

8:25 “And they came to Him and woke Him, saying, ‘Save us, Lord; we are perishing!’”

Several of the disciples were experienced fishermen who had spent a lifetime on that body of water and yet they believed they were in imminent danger of death. Meanwhile, Jesus was asleep in the stern, oblivious to the danger, so great was His exhaustion and His peace.

Above the shrieking of the wind and the crashing waves, the disciples awakened the Lord, shouting, “Save us Lord, we are perishing,” (Matt. 8:25). “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” (Mark 4:38). “Master, Master, we are perishing,” (Luke 8:24). They were all yelling at the same time, using every title for Christ that they knew, “Lord, Teacher / Rabbi, Master.” When veteran sailors call on a carpenter to deliver them from a stormy sea, you know they are out of answers.

8:26 “He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?’ Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm.”

Awakened, Jesus stood up and according to Matthew, He first questioned the disciples, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?” (Matt. 8:26). Jesus’ first priority in every storm, every crisis, is to disciple us. We are the first priority. He will deal with the storm later.

Actually, Jesus answered His own question. They were afraid because they were men of little faith. They had seen marvelous examples of the Lord’s awesome power. Could they not apply what they had seen to their own circumstances?

He would ask this of each of us. What you have experienced with Me and what you have learned of Me — can you apply this to the storm you are dealing with today?

I don’t believe Jesus questioned the disciples for their fear.  It is only human to be afraid but they thought they would perish with Jesus close by.  What He questioned was their lack of faith. They had made a commitment to follow, they got into the boat with Him but did not understand or trust His care for them.

“My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me

and I give eternal life to them and they will never perish; 

and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:27,28).

This does not mean that the follower of Jesus will not suffer hardship or persecution.  The Apostle Paul was shipwrecked, arrested, beaten, stoned, ridiculed, imprisoned.  Paul and all the apostles, except for John, died at the hands of persecutors.  Yet in all things, Jesus provided, defended and delivered.  His final act of deliverance is to bring us into His presence forevermore.

Hardship, adversity, persecution, do not deny the presence and care of Jesus.  They prove His strong presence and merciful care, for it is in those times and places that we experience most truly the pastoral ministry of our Good Shepherd.

I heard a pastor from a foreign country testify that he was often arrested for preaching the gospel and spent years separated from his family.  Many mornings he would awaken on the floor of his cell, having been beaten the night before by guards.  But as he awakened, he would hear the voice of Jesus saying, “I’m here.  If you want to talk or if you don’t want to talk, I’m here.”

The disciples committed to follow Jesus, they got into the boat with Him and found themselves in a dangerous storm.  But when Jesus is present, storms will be mastered.  

A little girl enjoyed spending time with her father on their pontoon boat.  The first time they went out on the lake together, her father said, “If you ever fall overboard, stay calm.  I’ll come get you.”   One day his attention was focused on the far shore line when he heard the engine sputter and die.  He turned to the back of the boat and his daughter was gone.  He desperately rushed to one railing, then the other, eyes frantically searching the water, but she was nowhere to be seen.  He dashed to the stern and there she was, beneath the water, her sweater tangled in the motionless propeller.

He paused for a moment and their eyes met.  She stared at him with such perfect peace, completely still.  Fearing the worst, he grabbed a knife, dove into the water, cut her loose, wrapped her precious body in his arms and pulled her back into the boat.

He held her close as if willing his life into hers and as she sputtered and coughed, he gave thanks that she was still alive.  Minutes later, when they had both regained their breath, he whispered in amazement, “Honey, how could you stay so calm?”

She looked at him as if she was amazed at the question. “Daddy, you told me if I ever fell off the boat, to wait for you and you would come get me.”

Childlike trust and faith, that’s what our Lord requires of us.  Peter may have been thinking of this stormy night when, many years later, he wrote, “Casting all your care on Him, because He cares for you” (I Peter 5:7).

The Apostle Paul, who may have endured more adversity than any follower of Jesus in history, wrote these words, “Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phlp. 4:6,7).

8:26 “He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?’ Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm.”

Jesus arose and rebuked (admonished) the wind and the sea “and it became perfectly calm.” Mark records the very words of Jesus, “Hush, be still” (4:39). At the command of Jesus, millions of gallons of water and colossal units of wind power melted into perfect calm. This happened instantly.

Because of the enormous amount of energy generated by a storm, its turbulence diminishes gradually. Slowly, over a period of hours, the wind dies down and the water becomes smooth. But Jesus exerted immediate Lordship over the very energy that was moving the wind and water. He didn’t just still the wind and waves. He stilled the forces that produced the wind and waves causing an immediate, perfect calm.

Creation responded to the voice of its Creator. Jesus not only created the molecular structure of air and water but also created the laws of physics which move and govern air and water. He who created with a mere word can surely govern His creation.

In fact, Jesus continually sustains that which He created: 

He “upholds all things by the word of His power” (Hebr. 1:3b). 

“In Him all things hold together (endure, consist)” (Col. 1:17).

Air and water responded to the command of their Creator.

8:27 “The men were amazed, and said, ‘What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?’”

The disciples were amazed that creation responds to Jesus.  It still does.

Interestingly, Mark says that when the storm ceased, the disciples “became very much afraid” (4:41). They were afraid of the storm but now they are very much afraid. What is more frightening than a storm outside the boat? The dawning realization that the Man in the boat is more than a mere man.

Creation bows before Him! 

They asked one another, “Who then is this, that He commands even the winds and the water and they obey Him?” (Luke 8:25). 

Later, in another storm, they would answer this question (see Matt. 14:22-33)

Authority Over Demons

8:28   “When He came to the other side into the country of the Gadarenes, two men who were demon-possessed met Him as they were coming out of the tombs. They were so extremely violent that no one could pass by that way.”

Two men who were demon-possessed met Jesus.  What do we know about these men?

1. They live among the tombs.

a. This means they lived a solitary life, cut off from family and friends, from work and worship, from the common activities and rituals that bring pleasure and meaning to life.  They have no one and nothing, except each other and both are equally enslaved.  

b. They live in a place of death.  The past is dead, they can’t go back. They’re cut off from all the relationships and memories that connect us to the present.  The future is dead, they have no hope of any new possibilities today or tomorrow.

Notice Satan’s destruction. He destroys time — past, present and future. He destroys the bonds of meaningful connection to family and friends, hopes and dreams, accomplishments, trade and tools, intellect and talents.

2. They were driven into deserted places — no provision, no community of love or care, no purpose, no meaning, no reason to live the day.

3. They were so violent, no one could pass by.

a. Violence directed toward others: they are unstable, unpredictable, dangerous. 

b. Violence directed at their own lives — self-destructive.  Mark’s record of this incident, in 5:1-20, recounts only the experinece of one of the men and he tells us that the man was constantly screaming and gashing himself with stones. Crying out and hurting himself — a portrait of the self-destructive son or daughter of Adam, overpowered by the kingdom of darkness.

“Demon-possessed” refers to control, mastery, ownership. The possibilities of a fulfilling, blessed life were entirely possessed by the powers of darkness.  Relatively few people are entirely possessed by demonic powers but many have wrestled with an addiction that they could not shake or an event that was so grievous, so traumatic that it continued to bind them in fear, bitterness or shame years afterward. There would be no hope except for this: Jesus arrives.

8:29 “And they cried out, saying, ‘What business do we have with each other, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?’”

The men cried out to Jesus but really, it is the demons crying out:

1. The demons recognized Jesus, understood who He was; (ironically, while educated, religious people were refusing to recognize Him). They call Him, “Son of God.” They know who He is but it’s one thing to know facts about Jesus. It is something else to love Him, worship Him and surrender to His Lordship. James, in his epistle, rebukes those who believe there is a God but refuse to submit their lives to Him. James said, “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe and shudder” (James 2:19). A person who believes orthodox doctrine but refuses to worship, obey or love God is no better off than a demon.

2. The demons know that the Son of God is Almighty, that He has the power and authority to command them. In Luke’s account of this incident, the demons begged Jesus not to send them into the abyss (Luke 8:26-37). That is the place of imprisonment for demons awaiting the final day of judgment. They know that their future will be everlasting torment in hell. They understand God’s purpose and power to carry out His purpose.

3. Jesus’ holy presence is a source of torment to these utterly evil beings. “Have you come to torment us before the time” refers to the future day of judgment. They understand that they will spend eternity in hell and the presence of Jesus reminds them of that coming day. 

Notice that the theology of the demons is excellent. They know who Jesus is, the Son of God. They know that Jesus has the right and the authority to judge them, destroy or incarcerate them. They know that the day of judgment is certain. But as we have said, knowing the truth while refusing to obey or live it results in condemnation. In the parable of the two builders, Jesus said, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them (do them) will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand” (Matt. 7:26).

8:30-32 “Now there was a herd of many swine feeding at a distance from them. The demons began to entreat Him, saying, ‘If You are going to cast us out, send us into the herd of swine.’ And He said to them, ‘Go!’ And they came out and went into the swine, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and perished in the waters.”

The demons begged Jesus to cast them into a nearby herd of swine. Why do they want to stay nearby? They don't want to leave the region because it is Gentile, which means that the people live in a context of multiplied false religions, false gods and dead idols devised by demons. All false religions are designed by demons to seduce, entrap and enslave people. The demons don’t want to leave such vulnerable people. It’s a good place to operate.

Why doesn’t the Lord destroy this host of demons? For that matter, why does God not destroy all the demonic legions operating in the world today? God allows evil to express itself so that He can glorify Himself in displaying mercy to sinners, power and compassion to set captives free and so He can display His wrath in judging demons and human beings who persist in evil.

Jesus spoke one word of command, “Go!” and the demons instantly obeyed. When they entered the swine, the herd panicked, ran into the sea and drowned.  (Note: this was a Gentile community, on the far side of the Sea of Galilee. This explains the herd of swine. Obviously, a Jewish village would not be raising pigs.)

Why did Jesus send them into the pigs? This gave visible proof that they had left the men and demonstrates the power and Lordship of Jesus. It also puts on display the destructive power of demons. The pigs become as self destructive as the man once was. 

Someone objected that the Lord was cruel in allowing the pigs to drown. But if they had lived longer, they would have been bacon in someone’s frying pan. There was no question that they would die. The question was whether they would die to provide pork or to bring glory to God.

Matthew doesn’t comment on the two men but they are obviously set free. Luke, recounting the story from the perspective of one of the men, reports that the people came out “and found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting down at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind” (Luke 8:35).

 8:33,34 “The herdsmen ran away, and went to the city and reported everything, including what had happened to the demoniacs. And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw Him, they implored Him to leave their region.”

You would think the people would have rejoiced to see the men set free from demonic torment, their lives changed and blessed.  You would think that the revealing of God’s mercy would inspire gratitude.  Instead, they ask Jesus to leave.  It’s as if they’re saying, “We don't want that kind of mercy or power operating in our neighborhood.”  

Think of it: two men whose lives have been destroyed by demons, who terrorized the entire community, are now clothed and in their right mind.  And the people are afraid.  How could the love of God, displayed in changed lives, make anyone uncomfortable?   

1. Casting out demons is disruptive to a demonically infested culture.  When an entire society is influenced by darkness, then breaking the power of darkness is more frightening than the darkness itself.   The power of God revealing the compassion of God is unsettling to people who know little of God’s power or love but who know a great deal about broken lives.   

They had accommodated themselves to the kingdom of darkness, had made their peace with darkness. But light?  Light was unsettling.  Familiar slavery was preferable to unfamiliar liberty.

2. Casting out demons is bad for business — they lost a lot of pork. Evidently, pigs were more important than people. They lost a herd of pigs but gained two souls. In their value system, this is unprofitable. What does that tell us about their values?  

Pork futures were more important than people futures. But let’s not pass over our own history as a nation.  For many years, cotton was more important than the lives of Africans enslaved.  Coal and textile profits were more important than the withered lungs of coal miners and textile workers.  And so the story goes.

In Revelation, as the judgment of God is falling on a world that has rejected Him, the merchants mourn, “Because no one buys their cargoes any more — cargoes of gold and silver and precious stones and pearls and fine linen ... and slaves and human lives” (Rev. 18:11-13).

How much of our economy is rooted in the kingdom of darkness?  What do we value most, our profit margins or the souls of people?

3. Such a visible work of power calls the people to make a decision regarding Christ’s Lordship.  What will we do with this Jesus?  They did not want to make that decision.  They wanted to get on with business as usual.  Better to tolerate broken people than risk the great unknown of healing, deliverance and wholeness.

Matthew doesn’t tell us what happened to the two men.  But in Mark’s account, as Jesus was getting into the boat, one of the restored men demonstrated that he was a new creation as he begged Jesus for the privilege of going with Him (Mark 5:18). Jesus responded, “Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you and how He had mercy on you” (Mark 5:19). Stay and bear witness.  

This was before Jesus sent out the twelve apostles or the seventy. It may be, then, that the first evangelist was a redeemed Gentile who once was insane and demon possessed. The man proved his love for Jesus through obedience. “And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed” (Mark 5:20). (The Decapolis was a confederation of ten Gentile cities. Evidently, the man preached his way through all ten cities.)

Some time later, Jesus entered the region of Decapolis and the people brought to Him someone who was deaf (Mark 7:31,32). How would they know to do that? Jesus had only been there briefly that one time and had been asked to leave. Was it through the preaching of the man who once was bound but now is free?

We don’t know but we do know this: both men were free to live the life God purposed them to live. They were free to move out of the tombs, out of the place of death and loneliness where they were disconnected from the past and the future.  The God of new tomorrows, the God who makes all things new, had redeemed them.  They were free to walk in peace, leaving behind the violence and darkness of the past. 

The church has been given authority by Jesus to touch people at the point of their brokenness:

“And He called the twelve together and gave them authority over all the demons and to heal diseases. And He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing,” (Luke 9:1,2  see also  Luke 10:17-19;  Mark 16:15-18).

The kingdom of God is breaking into history, one life at a time.  Jesus never intended that the church preach this message with mere words. The word of the kingdom is accompanied by the mercy and power of the kingdom.  The presence of the kingdom is revealed in transformed lives.  

By the way, there’s an interesting story in Acts 19:13-16.  Some men were trying to take authority over the power of darkness by using the name of Jesus.  But they did not know Jesus and the Lord was not present in their lives or in their ministry.  The demons overpowered these religious counterfeits.  Demons know who has authority and who does not.

I was on a missions trip once in a communist nation, in the weeks prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union.  Our bus driver worked for the secret police — it was his job to keep an eye on us.  We all knew that and we welcomed him — we wanted him to experience the reality of Jesus.  We preached and sang, we prayed for those who responded and he watched it all.  He saw our translator, a member of the communist party, commit her life to Jesus.  He saw people hungering and thirsting to know the Lord.

Our driver had encountered the church before, but not always the presence of Christ in the church.  Thinking back over some of those experiences, he commented, “Your Jesus is different.”  We assured him that there is only one Jesus but His presence, and the presence of His kingdom, is obvious to anyone, even a bus driver who had never really encountered the Good News before.

Study Questions

1. Jesus spoke peace to the storm. Are you confident of His willingness to speak peace to your storms?

2. How would you describe the theology of the demons Jesus encountered in the two men of the Gadarenes? (see v. 29).

Matthew 9:1-17

The Authority of Jesus

9:1,2 “Getting into a boat, Jesus crossed over the sea and came to His own city. And they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, ‘Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.’”

Often, but not always, Jesus met people at the level of their faith, releasing ministry into their lives at the point of their ability to believe Him for that ministry.  In this case, it is group faith — Jesus sees their faith —  and releases healing into the man.  

The friends of the paralyzed man are like a church, a community of faith.  They bring their hurting friend to Jesus when he could not bring himself and they joined their faith to his.  In fact, we don’t know what, if any faith, the man had.  Maybe over the years his faith has grown weak through disappointment.  No matter; he’s part of a community.  The faith of his friends will cover what he may lack.  Their mercy and kindness, expressed through the strength of their hands, will carry Him to Jesus. 

Notice, though, that Jesus does not say, “Rise and be healed.”  He says, “Your sins are forgiven.”  Jesus always cuts down to the heart of the matter, diagnoses our deepest need with perfect discernment and prescribes the exact remedy.  It may be that this man had some spiritual / emotional issues which were impacting his health. 

This is not to say that any time we suffer from sickness or affliction, the problem is related to sin and guilt.  There are numerous factors responsible for disease but this man may have needed healing on a spiritual / emotional level before it could manifest on a physical level.  

I read a book by the dean of a medical school who said that a high percentage of the patients he had seen over the years were dealing with diseases which began as emotional or spiritual problems:  guilt, fear, shame, bitterness, anxiety.  These issues manifested in physical symptoms which he treated with varying degrees of success.  But treating the symptom is not the same thing as treating the root cause.

Jesus always deals with the deepest issues in anyone’s life.  He says that this paralyzed man needs forgiveness.  We know that relationships can be paralyzed by guilt and unconfessed, unresolved sin.  Our ability to experience the blessings of peace, love, joy and fulfillment can be paralyzed by guilt and unconfessed, unresolved sin.  Is it so hard to believe that the body can break down due to long term, overwhelming issues of sin and guilt?

However, it may not be that the man’s paralysis was rooted in any spiritual / emotional disorder. It may be that Jesus was simply responding to the most pressing need in the man’s life, as He does with every human being. More than healing, the man needed to be forgiven of the sin that had separated him from a holy God. All healing is temporary but separation from God is forever unless the sinner is reconciled to the Lord.

Jesus will deal with the physical problem later. First, He deals with the spiritual need. Knowing the man’s greatest need and sensing his heart’s desire, Jesus forgave his sin. 

According to the angel Gabriel, this is why Jesus was born, “To save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). Jesus said that He came “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). The Lord was expressing His primary reason for ministry when He said, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” 

What a fire storm was ignited in that room when He spoke those words!

9:3 “And some of the scribes said to themselves, ‘This fellow blasphemes.’”

The religious folks accused Jesus of blasphemy. In Luke’s account we read: “The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, ‘Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?’” (Luke 5:21). 

The scribes and Pharisees did not doubt that God could forgive the man’s sin but they understood clearly that Jesus was claiming to be God. Since they did not recognize Jesus as the Son of God, doing the work of God on earth, they considered this claim to be blasphemy.

Notice their fatal mistake. They said, “Who is this?” They saw only a man, not Messiah and certainly not the Son of God. In claiming to have authority to forgive sin, Jesus was either deceived, insane or truly God in human form.

9:4,5 “And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, ‘Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, and walk’?”

Jesus, by His divine omniscience, was aware of their thoughts and says that their lack of faith in Him is evil. He then asks, “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk?’”

9:6 “But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins — then He said to the paralytic, ‘Get up, pick up your bed and go home.’”

Jesus states the case clearly: “So that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” He then speaks to the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your bed and go home.” If Jesus is a deceiver, He will now be exposed. If He really does have authority to forgive sins, that too will be evident. How so?

There can be no outward evidence, no proof, that a man’s sins are forgiven but if this paralyzed man gets up, picks up his bed and walks, who could have accomplished that except God? Healing a paralyzed man would prove that Jesus really is God and if He is God, then He also has authority to forgive sin.

What happened?

9:7 “And he got up and went home.”

Luke is even more dramatic: “Immediately he got up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home glorifying God” (Luke 5:25).

The man’s healing is a visible demonstration of the authority and the deity of Jesus. The man who once has been paralyzed now stands up and walks home, praising God. He recognizes that it is God Himself who has touched him and surely he did glorify God for it was not merely his body that was renewed. He was forgiven of sin and thereby his spirit was raised from death to everlasting life, reconciled to God. 

Not only did that man glorify God:

9:8 “But when the crowds saw this, they were awestruck, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men.”

The people “were awestruck and glorified God.” There was no question — God was in their midst performing wonders which only God can do.

In this miracle, Jesus gives evidence that He is truly God in human form and the kingdom of God is breaking into history. God’s kingdom is where God rules. It is a rule of grace, forgiving the guilty, setting the captive free, restoring the broken. Jesus proclaimed the good news of the kingdom and showed what it looks like in mighty works of compassion and mercy. 

Matthew includes this story to demonstrate the authority and mercy of Jesus.  But he is also reminding us of the responsibility of the church that bears Christ’s name and commission.  We are the community of faith and mercy.  With faithful witness and prayer, with deeds of loving kindness, we carry broken lives and broken cities to Jesus.

Jesus, Friend of Sinners

9:9 “As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man called Matthew, sitting in the tax collector's booth; and He said to him, ‘Follow Me!’ And he got up and followed Him.”

As Jesus was walking down the road, He saw a tax collector named Matthew.  This was probably not the first time Jesus had seen him — if a tax collector set up his table there then this must have been a main road.  More than likely, this was not the first time Matthew had seen Jesus.  But this occasion was different from any other.  Jesus stopped, looked at Matthew and called to him, “Follow me.” Matthew arose, left everything and followed.

I don’t know what is more extraordinary — Jesus calling a tax collector or a tax collector leaving his lucrative business and following a rabbi. A tax collector in Israel, in Jesus' day, was hated for two reasons.

1. If he was Jewish, then he was a traitor, because Israel was an occupied country.  The Romans had conquered Israel and set up an occupation government, imposing their own laws and a system of taxation.  Anyone who cooperated with the conquerors was a collaborator with the enemy and was hated, as traitors are always hated. (We know Matthew was Jewish — his other name was Levi. So he was considered to be a traitor.)

2. Tax collectors were also hated because the system lent itself to abuse.  The Romans would assess a region or city an annual tax, then sell the right to collect that tax to the highest bidder.  The tax collector could charge whatever he wanted, above and beyond what the Romans demanded.  At the end of the year, he would turn in the assessment and keep the rest. As a result, they were quite wealthy and truly despised by the people.

Robbers, murderers and tax collectors were classed together.  One ancient Roman writer tells of a monument to an honest tax collector.  It was such a rare event, they built a monument.  Tax collectors were banned from the local synagogue, which meant they were excluded from the religious and cultural life of the community.  Matthew was an outcast among his own people.

Jesus didn't wait for Matthew to come to Him.  The Lord went to him and spoke two words: “Follow me.”  Matthew left everything and followed.

Then Matthew did what people always do when they have truly encountered Jesus.  He shared Jesus with His friends — he gave a banquet for Jesus in his house. Who did he invite?   

9:10 “Then it happened that as Jesus was reclining at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were dining with Jesus and His disciples.”

Matthew invited “tax collectors and sinners.”  Notice, as always, the accessibility of Jesus.  Just as the hurting, the broken, the demon-possessed, the leper and the lame crowded around Jesus, so did the sinner and the outcast.  They were drawn to Jesus for He was the mercy of God in human form.  The only people who were repulsed by Christ were the power brokers, the religious elite, the spiritually complacent and those who were too busy with the affairs of this life to be concerned with the state of their souls. 

9:11 “When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, ‘Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?’”

While Matthew hosted Jesus, the Pharisees gathered outside the house, peeping in and harassing the disciples of Jesus, asking, “Why is your Teacher eating with sinners?”  The Pharisees, hyper-religious folk that they were, could not understand what Jesus was doing — associating with people who were separated from God and lost.  They believed that keeping company with common sinners would make them unclean, not realizing that they already were unclean, separated from God by their sin and in need of a Savior.

9:12 “But when Jesus heard this, He said, ‘It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.’”

Jesus is not saying that there are some people who need a Savior and some who don’t. He is not saying that this tax collector and his friends are spiritually sick but the Pharisees are not. He is saying that this is why He came — to seek and to save the lost, to call to all who are willing to hear. Jesus told a story once of a shepherd who had a hundred sheep and though ninety-nine were safe, he went and searched for the one that was lost (Matt. 18:12-14).  That story reveals the heart of God and the motive for the ministry of Jesus.

9:13 “But go and learn what this means, ‘I desire compassion and not sacrifice. For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’”

Again, it is not that some people are righteous and some are sinners. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). However, some sinners have attempted to cover their sin with religious ritual but their practice of religion is devoid of love for God or relationship with God. This is what the Pharisees were doing and this is abhorrent to the Lord.

Jesus’ responds to the Pharisees by quoting from the Old Testament prophet Hosea (6:6). God instituted the rituals of sacrifice and songs and prayers which were practiced in the Jerusalem temple so that His covenant people could live in right relationship with Him. But as we have said, the practice of religious ritual devoid of love for God and people is abhorrent to the Lord. The essence of a right relationship with God is love, as the Lord revealed through Moses: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deut. 6:5).

When a lawyer asked Jesus which is the greatest commandment, Jesus quoted that verse (in Matthew 22:37-39), though He substituted “mind” for “might.”  Then Jesus added another verse from Leviticus: “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Lev. 19:18).

More than anything else, God wants us to know and love Him intimately, as He knows and loves us.  Sincere love for God is reflected in love for people.  Without such love, religious ritual is a meaningless, empty formality. 

Isaiah expressed the heart of God with these words later quoted by Jesus: “This people honors me with their lips but their heart is far away from me” (Matt. 15:8). God is not interested in outward forms of religion divorced from the inner reality of devotion to Himself, expressed in kindness to others.

In quoting Hosea, Jesus is saying, in effect, “More than offerings, rituals, sacrifices on the altar, I desire that you learn compassion.  You've learned religious law and ritual.  Now learn about love, love for God and love for people.”

Love is a learned response.  The best way to learn love is to experience love.  When we experience God’s love, we have encountered perfect, everlasting love.  How could Jesus speak two words and Matthew, a traitor and an outcast, stand up, let go of his life and wealth and follow?  Because he had met the beautiful, overwhelming, transforming love of God in Christ Jesus.  It was that compassion, that mercy, that irresistible, hard-heart-breaking grace which caused Matthew to get up from the tax table, leave everything and follow.  

9:14 “Then the disciples of John came to Him, asking, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?’”

The scribes and Pharisees fasted, partly out of piety and partly out of religious slavery, trying to gain approval with God by doing good works.  They hoped also to demonstrate their spiritual superiority to common folk who were not able to fast so often.

The disciples of John fasted, partly out of devotion to God and partly because John had been arrested — they were grieving their leader’s imprisonment.  However, at this time the disciples of Jesus did not fast.  This was not because Jesus did not believe in fasting.  

1. During His temptation in the wilderness, Jesus fasted.  At that crucial time as He began His ministry, He set food aside so He could focus on His relationship with God and obtain a clear sense of the calling and direction of ministry.  

The principle here is that during times of crisis or new beginnings, when we need to obtain direction from God clearly, fasting is a way of removing the clutter from our lives and a way of humbling ourselves before God for the purpose of obtaining spiritual clarity.  Fasting is not necessarily about food.  It‘s about laying aside distractions so we can hear God more truly and serve Him more fully. (Refer to the notes on Matthew 6:16-18 for a more complete discussion of fasting).

2. When He came down from the Mount of Transfiguration and was confronted by the father whose son was so oppressed by a demon, Jesus said, “This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting” (Matt. 17:21).  The principle here is that in certain instances of spiritual warfare, fasting seems to bring about a greater release of spiritual power or anointing as we pray.

3. When Jesus was speaking with the woman at the well and His disciples came with food, He said, “I have bread that you know not of” (John 4:32).  The principle here is that there are times, for the sake of kingdom work, when we abstain from food or other necessities or pleasures,  simply so we can accomplish the work.

So, even though the disciples of Jesus are not fasting at this time, it’s not that Jesus does not believe in fasting.

9:15 “And Jesus said to them, ‘The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.’”

Jesus compares his disciples to friends of the bridegroom.  When a couple married in that culture, their friends came not for a two or three hour ceremony but for a week of feasting, dancing and celebration.  In a culture where most people were poor and lived quite simply, this might have been a once in a lifetime festival of abundance and joy.  They certainly would not eat that well for the rest of the year, maybe not ever again.  They would never again be so carefree, so untroubled by the storms of life.

Jesus is saying that this is how it is for those who are close to me in this day —  a time of great joy.  But there is coming a time, Jesus says, when the Bridegroom will be taken away and then His followers will fast.  And how surely they did fast in sadness, grief, fear and discouragement when Jesus was arrested and crucified.

Their sadness turned to joy when the risen Christ met them there in the Upper Room and at the Sea of Galilee.  In the Upper Room He broke the fast by asking for something to eat and surely invited them to join with Him.  At the sea shore, He invited them to bread and fish.

There are times today when Jesus calls His followers to fast, for the same reasons that He fasted: in order to hear from our Heavenly Father more clearly; to join Him in grieving the destruction that lays waste to so many lives; to join Him in intercession for the overthrow of the kingdom of darkness and the release of His kingdom breaking into the lives of the lost. 

More often he calls us to celebrate the presence of the Bridegroom, to rejoice in Him and feast at the table of His delights.  “In thy presence is fulness of joy,” the Psalmist exclaims in Psalm 16:11.  Walking with Jesus should be a walk of great joy.

New Life, New Wine

9:16 “But no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear results.”

Jesus did not come to patch up Judaism but to bring a new garment.  He was not a reformer of the Old Covenant.  He was the long-awaited Messiah bringing the promised New Covenant (see Jeremiah 31:31-34).  

He was not a reformer of the priesthood or the sacrificial system.  He was and is the great High Priest of our confession (Hebrews 3:1), a better High Priest (Hebr. 7:23-28), bringing a better covenant (Hebr. 8:1-6), offering a better sacrifice in a greater temple (Hebr. 9:11-14, 23-28,  10:11-14).  Jesus is the High Priest who offered Himself as the holy Lamb of God, the one true redeeming sacrifice for all people for all time.

In the early church, there were those who tried to fit Jesus onto the old, worn out cloth of Judaism.  They insisted that converts to Christ follow the Mosaic law regarding circumcision, dietary restrictions and on and on, submitting to the Law.  But the Mosaic Law cannot save us, cannot make us righteous before God; it serves only to reveal our sin and our need for a Savior.  It was a yoke which none could bear. Jesus did not come to repair that yoke but to break it off of our lives. We are saved, not by keeping the Mosaic Law, but by placing our faith in a holy, unblemished Lamb who took upon Himself our sin and God’s judgment against our sin.

There have been times when the Lord has renewed the old garment, when the old church has been made new in beauty, holiness and passion.  But across the centuries, there have also been many occasions when the church has refused renewal and God has created a tapestry altogether new and beautiful.

This parable of new cloth / old cloth also has a personal application.  There are those who try to put a patch of Christian teaching or religious ritual and respectability onto their old sin nature but their hearts are unchanged.  The transforming grace and power of God has not penetrated their inner being.  They have simply placed religious cloth over their former life of sin but in essence, nothing is different.  

The problem is that our lives have been entirely corrupted by sin and evil. This evil has separated us from God, the Source of all life, and has released the power of death within us. We don’t need a patch of cloth over our death.  We need to be regenerated from the inside out.  

Jesus said, “Unless one is born again (or from above) he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). He came to give us a new life recreated in His image.  When we confess our sinfulness to Him, confessing our inability to save ourselves and cast ourselves upon His mercy, inviting His Lordship into and over our lives, He brings us new life, everlasting life.

The Apostle Paul said, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creature; old things are passed away, behold the new” (2 Cor. 5:17).  Paul said that as we look to the Lord,  we “are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory”  (2 Cor. 3:18).  The word transformed is metamorphoo from which we derive the English word, metamorphosis, which describes the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly.  

A butterfly is not a reformed caterpillar or a highly motivated crawling bug.  A butterfly is a new creation.  A Christian is not a reformed sinner or a patched up failure or a junkie with wings.  We are new creatures in Christ, being transformed in His image.

9:17 “Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”

In the time of Jesus, wine was poured into goat skins, not bottles.  As the wine fermented, it gave off gasses which caused the skin to expand.  If the skin was old and hard, it would lack the flexibility to expand with the wine and might burst, spilling out the precious contents.  New wine required a new, flexible skin or an old skin that had been massaged with olive oil and made pliant again.

The Judaism of Jesus’ day was an old wineskin and could not contain the Gospel of the kingdom of God.  The dynamic power and presence of God was pouring into history through the ministry of Jesus: forgiving grace outpoured into the lives of guilty sinners, delivering power breaking demonic bondages and setting captives free, healing mercy lavished upon the sick and the broken, truth washing away blinding lies and deceptions.

Some people gave thanks to God for this outpouring of grace, power, mercy and truth.  But many were indifferent and many of the religious leaders were outraged at the manifesting of the kingdom of God in their midst.  Jesus was rejected, ridiculed, opposed, eventually arrested and put to death. In other words, the Judaism in Jesus’ day was an old wineskin that could not contain this Good News of the inbreaking kingdom. 

After Jesus rose from the dead and the Holy Spirit was poured out on the church, it was not long before arguments arose in the church.  Religious traditionalists argued that the church should be subject to the Mosaic Law and the traditions of the Old Covenant.  They were opposed by those who rightly understood that the old wineskin of Jewish form and ritual could not contain this Spirit-filled, Spirit-empowered church.  The  kingdom of God was breaking into history and breaking out of every religious restraint.  What was required was this new wineskin — the Spirit-birthed church of Jesus.

In the history of the church, there have been times when it was entirely appropriate to rub olive oil into the old wineskins of sacred forms, ancient, holy rites and revered ministries.  But there have also been times and seasons of new beginnings, new wineskins. 

The Protestant Reformation was a Holy Spirit-inspired response to the spiritual deadness and apostasy of the existing church.  No doubt God’s first choice was to revive and reform that church.  But when reform was refused and persecuted, a new church was born.

One of the leaders of the Evangelical Revival in eighteenth century England was John Wesley.  He was an Anglican priest and never left the Church of England, instead, laboring and praying for the renewal of that church.  But when renewal was refused, new churches were born.  

We rub the old wine skin of the church with the oil of the Holy Spirit as we make fresh surrenders of our lives and ministries to the Lord of the church, inviting the Holy One to recreate His church as He recreates in us a pure heart. The Spirit of the Lord gladly infuses the old wineskin with the oil of His presence and we see the church renewed in beauty, holiness and passion. But across the centuries, there have also been many seasons when the church has refused renewal and God has created something altogether new and beautiful.

This is true of people, individually.  When God is doing something new in any generation, there are many people who reject the new direction, the new form, the new idea.  They are hard, rigid, inflexible.  They can’t contain the new wine. 

  

The only people who can contain the new work of God are those with a fresh, flexible heart and spirit.  They are pliant in God’s hands (able to be stretched).  They are malleable in God’s hands (able to be molded).  If we have become hard, we need to ask the Lord to massage the oil of His Spirit into our lives and make us soft again.

This is also true of the forms and instruments which we use to carry and proclaim the Gospel.   The Gospel will never wear out but methods and programs wear out.  It is not disrespectful or irreverent to set aside a wineskin that is no longer useful.  

Someone said, “The best way to kill a church is to do a better job of what worked ten years ago.”  That does not mean that everything old is useless or that everything new is good.  But whether old or new, we need to constantly discern and ask, “Lord, is this form, this instrument, a new, fresh wineskin in your hands?” More importantly, we need to ask, “Is my life, my heart, a new, fresh wineskin in your hands?”

Study Questions

1. In healing the paralytic, how does Jesus prove that He has authority to forgive sin? (see v. 1-6)

2. What did Jesus mean when He said, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners”? (see v. 13)

Matthew 9:20-22

9:20,21 “And 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 will get well.’”

In the opening verses of this section, a desperate synagogue official implores Jesus to come to his home and minister to his daughter who just died. What an incredibly bold request! On his way to this ministry appointment, Jesus is interrupted by another opportunity.  A woman with a hemorrhage, an issue of blood (some kind of chronic internal bleeding), approached Jesus from behind.  She approached in this manner because she was considered ceremonially unclean, due to the flow of blood, and would have been breaking the law in touching Jesus.  (In touching a rabbi, a Pharisee or any religious leader, she would have rendered him ceremonially unclean).

Notice how long she had suffered: twelve long years. Mark adds that she “had endured much at the hands of many physicians and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse” (Mark 5:26).  Luke, a physician, does not specifically mention the futility of the medical practice but adds that she “could not be healed by anyone.” In other words, her condition was incurable by the standards and practices of that day.

Whereas the ruler of the synagogue was a leader in his community, this woman was an outcast.  Her affliction would have excluded her from synagogue and temple activities, from many social and community occasions and she might even have been shunned by her own family.

But notice her faith.  This is persistent faith. The phrase, “She was saying to herself” could be translated, “She kept saying to herself.” The continual repetition reveals a resolute faith, a faith that compels her to press on, push in.

This is revelatory faith. She does not believe that Jesus needs to touch her or even pray over her.  She has faith that if she can only touch Him, she will be healed. We don’t read anywhere that anyone other than this woman was ever healed simply by touching Jesus without His knowledge. But she believes it. This is revelatory faith, faith that comes not from seeing or hearing or reading. It has been deposited in her by God.

This is faith that has been nourished in the secret gardens of communion with the living God. It couldn’t have been nourished in the synagogue, at least not for the past 12 years — she was not allowed to attend. But somehow, somewhere, she found the doorway into the secret garden where the Lord whispers, “Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know” (Jere. 33:3).

This is faith that speaks more loudly than the testimony of twelve years of affliction, “You don’t think this is ever going to change, do you?” This is faith that hears the Lord testify, “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?” (Jere. 32:27).

This is faith that replies, “Ah Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You” (Jere. 32:17).

This is faith that believes against the testimony of social custom and law: “You are unclean, you can’t touch this rabbi”. This is faith that hears the testimony of a living Savior, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).

This is faith that replies, “When You said, ‘Seek My face,’ my heart said to You, ‘Your face, O Lord, I shall seek’” (Ps. 27:8).

This is stubborn faith. There is a tendency to lay down, give in, surrender to our crisis but Jesus counsels us:

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened” (Matt. 7:7)

The verb tense indicates a continual asking, seeking, knocking.

This is God-focused faith. There is a tendency to focus on our crisis but she focused on the God who could resolve her crisis:

“Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Ps. 37:4).

“I sought the Lord, and He answered me, and delivered me from all my fears” (Ps. 34:4)

This is hope-filled faith:

“And the redeemed of the Lord will return and come to Zion with joyful shouting, and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away” (Isa. 35:10)

“Those who sow in tears shall harvest with joyful shouting” (Ps. 136:5)

This is unwearied faith:

“Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary” (Gal. 6:9).

“He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed, shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him” (Ps. 126:6)

This is faith that finds its resting place in the Lord:

“Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; like a weaned child rests against his mother, my soul is like a weaned child within me” (Ps. 131:2).

This is faith that refuses to give in to fear, even when everything is being shaken:

“God is our refuge and strength, a very ready help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth shakes and the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. There is a river whose streams make the city of God happy, the holy dwelling places of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns. The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered; He raised His voice, the earth quaked. The Lord of armies is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold. Come, behold the works of the Lord, Who has inflicted horrific events on the earth. He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariots with fire. ‘Stop striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted on the earth.’ The Lord of armies is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold” (Ps. 46). 

This is child-like faith, faith that simply believes God to be who He says He is:

“Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you” (Isa. 49:15)

This is faith that grows stronger in the journey, like the faith of Abraham, of whom we read, 

“Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform”  (Rom. 4:19-21).

Abraham could hear the testimony of his own body, and the testimony of Sarah’s womb but he believed the testimony of God’s promise.

That’s how this woman is:

she hears the contrary testimony of her body and of society and religious custom 

but somehow God’s promise to her speaks with greater authority.

Where did she get that faith?  In the secret garden and that faith is God’s gift to willing hearts, to souls that seek Him.

Notice that her faith is not just theoretical belief but she acts on her faith: she went looking for Jesus and touched Him.  She got up from where she had been, left her place of prayer and went searching for Jesus.  Of course, she did not have to search far and wide.  When we truly desire to find the Lord, the Holy Spirit will grant us a divine appointment: “‘You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.  I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 29:13,14).

But the Holy Spirit cannot grant me a divine appointment if I will not step out and seek and knock and ask.  Faith must lead to action.

This woman acted on her faith and she spoke her faith: “If I only touch His garment, I will get well.”  Where did she learn that?  In the secret garden of communion with the Lord and her confession reveals her faith. How often Jesus said, “Be it unto you according to your faith.” I’m grateful that God meets us before we have faith, meets us when we have little faith, plants faith in our hearts like seed, cultivates our faith and then meets us at the level of our faith.

She believed, searched for Jesus confessing her faith and finding Him, she reached out and touched Him.

9:22 “But Jesus turning and seeing her said, ‘Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well.’ At once the woman was made well.”

In Mark’s account (5:30), Jesus sensed the release of healing power or anointing, “Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments?” His disciples replied almost disrespectfully, “You see the crowd pressing in on you and you say, ‘Who touched me?’” (5:31). But Jesus felt the anointing flow from Him in response to one woman’s faith. Many were touching Him but power flowed to the one who believed and acted on her faith and Jesus felt that.

But notice these words in Matthew’s account, “But Jesus turning and seeing her.” Jesus turns and sees her. There was a great crowd pressing about, but in the multitude He saw her. I’m reminded of one Sabbath day in the synagogue when Jesus was teaching. There was a woman there who had been bent over for 18 years. But it says, “When Jesus saw her, He called her over and said to her, ‘Woman, you are freed from your sickness’” (Luke 13:12). It was a crowded synagogue but Jesus saw her. Not a sparrow falls without His knowing. 

The crowd is pressing around Jesus but in the midst of the crowd Jesus sees this one woman and He felt the touch of her faith. This same Lord feels the pull of your prayer. “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things just as we are, yet without sin” (Hebr. 4:15). He sympathizes with your crisis, knows your need and feels the tug of your prayer.

Jesus saw this woman in the crowd, felt the touch of her hand, felt the pull of her faith, even with all the other people pressing in. He knew her need and knows that God has already answered her need.  He said, “Daughter, take courage, your faith has made you well.” Has made you well — it’s done. Her faith has connected with the mercy and power of Jesus.

Notice she was made well “at once.” There are long seasons of travail and there are sudden explosions of grace.

Notice the words of Jesus, “Your faith has made you well.”  Made well could be translated made you whole or saved you.  It is the same word used in reference to salvation from sin. This suggests that the woman’s encounter with Jesus led to the placing of her faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord, resulting in her redemption from sin, her reconciliation to God as Creator and Father and the gift of resurrection into everlasting life as a daughter of God.

Her affliction led her not only to encounter Jesus our Healer but also Jesus our Savior / Redeemer. Her great disability led her to greater blessing. Her great shame led her to greater glory. Her crisis led her, drove her to her salvation. Praise God for the crises that lead us to blessing. Therefore Paul exhorts us, “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus” (I Thes. 5:18).

Notice the unconcern of Jesus for His own reputation. He does not care that in the eyes of some, He has been rendered ceremonially unclean by the touch of this woman. He does not care that He is now devalued by some because of His association with this woman. He does not care at all for public opinion. He cares about this woman. He cares about His Father’s purpose to release kingdom power and kingdom presence and kingdom kindness into the lives of hurting, lost people. This is the same Christ who touched the unclean, outcast leper when He could have merely spoken a word of healing. Jesus does not care about social custom or political correctness. His priority is people.

Notice the humility of Jesus. Most of the time, the wealthy, the powerful, the ultra-religious, rejected Him, opposed Him, slandered Him. But He gladly associated with the poor, the outcast, the unclean. He had time for the ruler of the synogogue and for the outcast.

Paul reminds us, “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God” (I Cor. 1:26-29). Such we are and Jesus is not ashamed to call us His brothers and sisters, not aahamed to touch us or be touched by us.

Notice the accessibility of Jesus. This woman couldn’t go into the temple or the synagogue so Jesus met her in the streets. He meets us where we are.

Notice the amazing love of Jesus, picking this one woman out of the crowd.  He sees us and hears us as individual persons even as we live surrounded by millions of others.  Are we reaching out in faith, stretching our faith to touch God?  He sees us, He hears us, He understands us. He knows the sound of your voice and mine. He feels the tug of your prayer and mine.

Study Questions

1. How would you describe the faith of the woman with the issue of blood? (see v. 20-22)

2. Are you confident that the Lord Jesus is sensitive to your prayers, your needs?

Matthew 9:18,19, 23–38

9:18 “While He was saying these things to them, a synagogue official came and bowed down before Him, and said, ‘My daughter has just died; but come and lay Your hand on her, and she will live.’”

The word bowed is proskuneo which is often translated worshipped. He is a ruler of the synagogue and in Mark’s gospel we are told that his name is Jairus.  What do we know about him?

1. He must be a devout man.  It’s unlikely he would have been promoted to a position of authority in his synagogue unless he was devoted to the Godly traditions of the Jewish people.

2. He’s a leader.  Being a ruling officer in his synagogue, we know that he is a man of some standing and authority in his own community, a spiritual leader.

3. He’s humble. He’s in leadership but he knelt or bowed before Jesus.  His attitude of worship reveals his humility.

4. He’s a man of courage and conviction. The religious authorities were becoming increasingly hostile to Jesus and yet here is one of their number, bowing in humble confession of his need.  He sees Jesus from a perspective that other religious leaders do not share.  So we know he is a man who is capable of thinking for himself, capable of new insights, able to stand against prevailing opinion.

  

5. He’s a man of extraordinary faith, not merely believing that Jesus is the Messiah, he believes that the touch of Jesus will raise his daughter from the dead: “My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her and she will live” (9:18). 

How did he arrive at this faith?  The people of Capernaum were certainly familiar with the miraculous ministry of Jesus. The Lord had cast a demon out of a man in their own synagogue (Luke 4:33-35) and it is likely that Jairus personally witnessed that event.

However, it is one thing to know that Jesus has power to do mighty works. It is something else to believe that He can overpower death. This represents a radical departure from the traditional faith of his community.  There might not have been anyone else in his synagogue, his community or his family with that level of belief.  

This is resurrection faith, the same kind of faith which Abraham possessed, faith that God can give life to the dead and call into being things which are not (Romans 4:17).  We don’t know how this came about, but faith is always God’s gift to those whose hearts are yielded to Him.

9:19 “Jesus got up and began to follow him, and so did His disciples.”

Notice the immediate and humble response of Jesus.  He is so instantly motivated by love.  He is the Son of God, King of kings and Lord of lords but He “got up and began to follow” Jairus.

9:23 “When Jesus came into the official’s house, and saw the flute-players and the crowd in noisy disorder,”

Jesus continued on and came to the official’s house.  A crowd had gathered quickly, since burial could not be delayed in that climate. There would have been professional mourners present — they probably had been waiting for a final word from the family. This was normal in that day. The heartfelt emotions of family grief and anguish were amplified by professionals. Other relatives and neighbors would also have gathered.

The house was in “noisy disorder.” Surely the scene would have been chaotic — loud cries and dissonant flutes adding to the confusion. Mark says that they were greeted by “a commotion and people weeping and wailing” (5:38). Mark adds that Jesus allowed no one to accompany Him inside except Peter, James, John and the child’s father and mother (5:37,40).

9:24 “He said, ‘Leave; for the girl has not died, but is asleep.’ And they began laughing at Him.”

Jesus was not denying that a physical death had taken place.  He was prophesying that her death was only temporary and would be reversed by the power of God.

Jesus then dismissed the crowd.  In Mark’s Gospel, it says that He put them out and there is a sense of forcefulness in that.  For several reasons, Jesus removed the crowd from the room.

First of all, God does not work in the midst of noisy confusion or disorder.  Also, Jesus was never a performer, never tried to impress the crowds with His power.  Many of His greatest miracles were done with few onlookers.  In our lives, much of what He desires to do is best done in the secret place of communion and prayer. The secret place is never a place of disorder or confusion.

There is another reason why Jesus put them out — the mourners laughed at Him.  There is a sense of scorn or ridicule in their laughter and there is certainly unbelief.  When anyone ridicules the power of God and scorns the possibilities of faith, they may exclude themselves from the wonderful revelation of God’s mercy and power.  God delights in releasing His possibilities into our impossible circumstances, delights in exploding His power and mercy into our hopelessness.  This brings Him glory.  But unbelieving ridicule may exclude us, disqualify us from the experience of that miracle. Ridicule won’t stop Jesus from releasing the miracle; but it may prevent others from witnessing it and experiencing it.

9:25 “But when the crowd had been sent out, He entered and took her by the hand, and the girl got up.”

Only when the crowd had gone out, only then did Jesus begin to minister.  Very simply, He took the child by the hand and she arose.  In Mark’s Gospel, we read the very words that Jesus spoke, “Talitha, cum” which is translated, “Little girl, I say to you, get up”  (Mark 5:41).  The word little girl, talitha, is related to the Hebrew word for lamb.  It’s as if Jesus said, “Little lamb, arise.”

What tender mercy Jesus is able to release into the midst of our grief.  You have not seen the instantaneous resurrection of the little lamb whose death broke your heart nor of the elderly loved one who died full of years.  But in this child’s miracle there is great comfort, for in it we are reminded that every righteous soul in the universe will be resurrected someday. So will the unrighteous be raised — all souls will be raised, clothed in a resurrection body and invited into everlasting fellowship with God in the joy of heaven or consigned to eternal separation from the presence of God in the torment of hell.  

This truth should inspire us to build healthy churches where the Gospel is preached, to send out evangelists and missionaries who will proclaim glad tidings to every nation, tribe and tongue. This truth should inspire the passion of our prayers and our witness on behalf of those who do not know and love this Lord of resurrection.

Notice that in Mark’s gospel Jesus spoke to her.  In death we do not lose our personhood. Though her spirit had left her body, Jesus spoke personally to her spirit. God knows us as persons in this life and the next.

Notice also that Jesus took her by the hand and raised her up.  Resurrection is always by the hand of God upon our life.  Multitudes will be raised into eternal life with the living God but still it always a personal event.  It is the hand of God raising us up.

9:26 “This news spread throughout all that land.”

In this violent, dangerous world where we are constantly assaulted by the ear-shattering clamor of fallen, grieving humanity, it’s impossible to restrain the Good News.  Dictators and tyrants, skeptics and cynics, atheists and priests of false religions, all have tried to bury the Good News beneath their noisy deceptions.  But they cannot.

Even the silence of God resonates with more clarity than the tumult of this world.  In Matthew’s account of these miracles, Jesus spoke not a word to the girl and spoke to the woman with the issue of blood only after she had touched Him.  It was only the touch of His garment that one needed; the touch of His hand raised the other. But the unspoken word of Jesus was enough to heal one and resurrect another.

And what of us?  If we never hear the audible voice of Jesus, is it not enough that He would touch us, silently, and allow us to reach out in prayer and touch Him?  Communion does not always require words.

If Christ’s silence releases miracles, who can measure the explosion when God speaks?  He spoke and a universe burst into life and light.  And when God shouts?  The Apostle Paul says,

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God and the dead shall rise first.  Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the air and thus we shall always be with the Lord.  Therefore, comfort one another with these words”  (I Thess. 4:16-18).

An outcast woman and a leader of the synagogue encountered the silence of Jesus and the word of Jesus. An outcast and a leader, both welcomed by Jesus. A man of power and a powerless woman, both humbled by crises and needs beyond their ability or resource.  Jesus loved them both, met them at the point of their need and released into their lives the mercy and the power of God. He is the same Jesus today.

9:27 “As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, ‘Have mercy on us, Son of David!’”

A Pharisee would not ask for mercy, he didn’t think he needed any — in his self righteous opinion, God already approved of him. If he had sensed a need for mercy, he would not have asked Jesus, since most Pharisees did not believe either the words or the miraculous works of Jesus. 

How ironic that the most highly educated, religious men of that generation did not recognize Jesus.  But two blind men see Him clearly. How do we know? By their manner of address, “Son of David.” That is a Messianic title. They believe they are encountering the long-awaited Messiah and they boldly ask for a gift of mercy which only God’s Anointed One can provide.

Notice their boldness. They know that Jesus is the holy Messiah sent from God, yet they are bold to approach Him and though they do not ask outright for the miraculous restoration of their sight, we know that is what they desire. Or maybe this is not boldness.  Maybe it is just simple, humble, child-like faith. Maybe they already understood the invitation which God extends to the humble faithful, though it was years later that the writer to the Hebrews expressed the invitation, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebr. 4:16).

Notice also their persistence. They followed Jesus, who, evidently, did not stop immediately. This required that they press on. We don’t know how far they followed but this was not a momentary encounter. Perseverance reveals true faith. 

9:28 “When He entered the house, the blind men came up to Him, and Jesus said to them, ‘Do you believe that I am able to do this?’ They said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord.’”

Jesus enters a house and they follow. Notice again, boldness and perseverance, motivated by faith. Why did Jesus not stop and minister to the men in the street? Maybe so they would follow and enter the house with Him. Now the setting is private, personal, intimate. This is where Jesus’ greatest ministry is lavished on all of us, in the intimacy of prayer, worship and His written Word. In this holy communion, He is able to pour His infinite riches into our yielded hearts.

Jesus does not ask their need, though sometimes He did, even when it was quite obvious. Evidently, there were times when He wanted to know if the person was ready to take ownership over their need. But in this case, He does not ask what they need. He does ask if they believe that He is able to do this.

Not always, but often, Jesus releases ministry according to the level of a person’s faith. In the previous encounters, the grieving father said, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her and she will live.”  The woman with the issue of blood said, “If I only touch His garment, I will get well (be saved, be made whole).”

Jesus asks them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” Their reply, “Yes Lord,” reveals not only their faith but also their reverence, their respect for Jesus.

9:29,30 “Then He touched their eyes, saying, ‘It shall be done to you according to your faith.’ And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them: ‘See that no one knows about this!’”

Jesus touches their eyes, saying, “It shall be done to you according to your faith.” Their eyes were opened. Dysfunctional eyes were recreated in the moment that Jesus spoke and touched. Creation responds to the voice and hand of its Creator.

Notice the mercy of Jesus. He did not turn them away; He touched and spoke and healed. 

Notice the power of Jesus to recreate dead flesh and send light pouring into darkness.

Jesus then sternly warned them not to tell the news of this miracle. Why? Probably for several reasons. First, the crowds were becoming so great that it was difficult to find any time to be alone for prayer and prayer was the heart of Christ’s ministry. Jesus would rise long before dawn and go to a quiet, private place to have fellowship with His Heavenly Father. Once the sun came up, the multitudes pressed against Him in the streets and even pushed into whatever house He was staying in. Also, the constant demands of ministry left little time for rest. On one occasion, Jesus was asleep in the back of a boat in the middle of a storm, so great was His exhaustion.

Another reason is because of Jesus’ priority of teaching and discipling and the crowds were making it difficult to preach, to teach and to disciple. Even when sitting in a house and teaching, Jesus was interrupted as men cut a hole in the roof and lowered a paralyzed man into the house. 

Yet another reason for Jesus directing the men to not spread the news of their miracle is because the multitude completely misunderstood the nature of His Messiahship. They were looking for a military hero who would conquer the Romans, drive them out of the land and restore the kingdom of David. They had no concept of the true salvation which they needed and which Jesus came to offer. They were blind to their sinfulness, their separation from God, their need for a sacrificed Lamb. Miracles sometimes inflamed their misguided desire to force Jesus to play a role of their own making. So Jesus warned the men against sharing the news.

9:31,32 “But they went out and spread the news about Him throughout all that land. As they were going out, a mute, demon-possessed man was brought to Him.”

The two men couldn’t contain the Good News, spreading it everywhere. No sooner had they gone out than another needy soul was brought to Jesus — a mute, demon possessed man. This in no way implies that the inability to speak is always demonic in its origin. However, this man’s demonic possession was so severe, it had rendered him speechless (and probably also deaf).

9:33 “After the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke; and the crowds were amazed, and were saying, ‘Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.’”

We have no details of the encounter, only the result and the response. The result is simply that the demon was cast out and the man’s ability to speak was restored. Matthew reports this with the simplest of language, as if to say, “Of course the demon was cast out and the man spoke.   After all, this was Jesus ministering. Could there be any other outcome?”

The people were amazed and rightly exclaimed, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.” No one had ever exercised authority over the demonic realm. This was visible authentication that Jesus was God in human form, Deity, Lord of lords and King of kings. He exercised Lordship over the natural realm and the supernatural realm. No storm, no diseased human flesh, no demon, not even death could resist His power.

9:34 “But the Pharisees were saying, ‘He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.’”

The Pharisees could not deny this supernatural demonstration of power in the ministry of Jesus. So they attribute His power to Satan, saying, “He casts out demons by the ruler of demons.” It is not that they were ignorant or unaware. They had, by this time, seen enough and heard enough to have a clear idea as to who Jesus was. They refused to recognize Him as Messiah and Lord, not out of ignorance, but out of self righteous pride and jealousy. In attributing this miracle to the devil, they were close to committing an unpardonable sin. In fact, in Matthew 12:22-37, when the Pharisees again attributed a miracle to the power of Satan, Jesus confronted them with their blasphemous sin. He said that this was blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and was unforgivable.

What is this sin against the Holy Spirit and why is it unforgivable? We will cover this more fully in chapter 12, but here is a brief summary.

Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, filled with the Holy Spirit, led by the Spirit, empowered by the Spirit. Everything Jesus said and did was empowered by the Spirit of God.  As people saw the miracles, heard the preaching and teaching, there was no question about the evidence, about the manifestation of divine power. But when the leaders attributed this power to Satan, they blasphemed the Holy Spirit, since it was the Holy Spirit who empowered all that Christ did.

This is unforgivable because we can’t be forgiven apart from the work of the Holy Spirit.  It is the Holy Spirit who convicts us of sin, brings us to repentance and gifts us with saving faith in the atoning work of Jesus. If we reject the Spirit’s ministry there is no way we can repent of our sin and believe in Christ. There is, then, no way to be forgiven. If I cannot or will not respond to the Holy Spirit, then any and all sin is unforgivable.

Further, there is no other means to be forgiven than through faith in Jesus, the unblemished Lamb of God.  Peter said, “Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ” (I Peter 1:18,19). If I reject this only means of salvation, if in fact I say that this Savior is only an instrument of Satan, then there remains no other way to salvation. This sin, this rejection of Christ, is unforgivable because there is no other Savior, no other means by which I may be cleansed from my sin and delivered from the righteous wrath of God.

The writer to the Hebrews said, “How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Hebr. 10:29).

The Pharisees, having clearly seen the works of Jesus and having heard His words, were knowingly rejecting God’s Messiah. They were entering in to the unpardonable sin. This would come to a critical confrontation in the coming months (see Matt. 12:22-37). For now, Jesus makes no reply.

Lord of the Harvest

9:35 “Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.”

Notice the three fold ministry of Jesus. He was teaching in their synagogues, preaching the Good News of the kingdom of God breaking into history and performing miraculous demonstrations of the power and mercy of God. His ministry was never in words only. It was words and works. The truth that the kingdom of God is at hand was visibly demonstrated through works which validated the presence of the King before whom creation, disease, death and demons and all other petty princes must bow.

This is how the church must present the Gospel. We proclaim the presence of the kingdom, we teach principles of the kingdom and we show what the kingdom looks like as we meet a broken world with the lovingkindness of Jesus.

9:36 “Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.”

When Jesus saw the multitudes coming to Him, He saw them as they truly are — distressed (literally, harassed, bewildered), dispirited (literally, thrown down) like sheep without a shepherd. The sight of their hopelessness and helplessness moved Him with compassion. Compassion is the common response of Jesus to the human condition. Over and over again in the Gospel accounts, we read that He was moved with compassion. When our Lord sees a lost soul dead in trespass and sins, a soul enslaved to self-destructive habits, a heart broken by grief, a child pressed down by poverty and hunger, a widow oppressed by injustice, God’s reaction is an outpouring of love which demands to be expressed.

Jesus expressed His compassion by preaching the truth, healing the sick, casting out the demonic source of enslavement. This is why He was born in human form and anointed by the Holy Spirit, “To preach the Gospel to the poor ... to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18,19).

9:37 “Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.’”

Jesus saw this multitude of humanity as harvest for the Father’s kingdom, not wretched refuse, outcasts or garbage. They were individual persons of worth, each a sheaf of wheat, a little lamb, worthy of the Father’s compassion. But Jesus knew that someday He would return to the Father and His followers would need to carry on His work. 

9:38 “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”

Jesus still wants to speak words of truth to this bewildered multitude. He still wants to touch this oppressed multitude with healing, delivering hands. But the body in which He was incarnated while He walked on earth has ascended to heaven. Now He speaks and touches through the church, rightly called the body of Christ.

Notice that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. We are each invited to take our place among the harvest folk.

Notice that though multitudes are lost, God is still “Lord of the harvest.” God claims this harvest, it is “His harvest.” But if this harvest would be reached now, it must be reached by those who have been redeemed and brought into this living church, the body of Christ on earth. 

Our first responsibility is to pray to the Lord of the harvest. It is God’s harvest and only God can save those who are lost. Only God can raise a spiritually dead soul into resurrection life. Only God can break the demon-chains of enslavement and destruction. Only God can release the captive and lift up the down trodden. He does so as we pray and our prayers become an instrument of partnership with God in His kingdom work. 

When Paul reminds us that we are in a spiritual war with powers of darkness, he exhorts the church, “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:18). 

Peter exhorts the church, “Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God” (2 Peter 3:12). How do we hasten the coming day of God? As we proclaim the Good News of the kingdom, as we live our words and as we pray in union with the Lord of the harvest.

As we pray to the Lord of the harvest, we discover that it is we who are thrust out into the fields. The Lord changes our hearts from hard indifference to discerning compassion, enlarges our hearts to contain His weeping and His mercy. We no longer see a nameless mob of desperate poor and ruthless rich. We see precious, individual souls with names and everlasting destiny, captive slaves to sin and death but beloved by their Creator.

It is for this harvest that Jesus lay down His life. 

We pray to the Lord of the harvest and we become His voice, His hands.

Study Questions

1. In Mark’s account of the raising of the little girl, Jesus spoke to her. In Matthew and Mark, He took her by the hand. What does this reveal about resurrection? (see v. 25)

2. Hurting, broken, guilty people were pressing in against Jesus. He called this multitude harvest. What does that reveal about the heart of Jesus? (see v. 20-22)

Matthew 10:1-15

10:1 “Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.”

The word which is translated authority, in the language in which Matthew was writing (he wrote in Greek), is exousia.  Exousia is sometimes translated as power but it is more than mere power. It is jurisdiction or delegated dominion.  

In that day, when a Roman emperor sent an ambassador to another country, the diplomat spoke and acted with the authority of the emperor.  There might not have been any Roman soldiers with the ambassador, but in fact, the entire might of the Roman army stood behind him. That is authority — exousia.

Here’s an example of the difference between power and authority.  A police woman is directing traffic and an enormous bus is moving toward her. She holds up one hand, blows her whistle and the bus stops. The bus has massive horse power, a huge engine moving several tons of weight.  The police woman only weighs one hundred and ten pounds but she stops the bus. The bus has power, but she has authority — exousia, jurisdiction, dominion delegated to her by the city government.

Jesus said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations” (Matt. 28:18,19). Because Jesus possesses all power, all authority in heaven and on earth, He is able to delegate His authority, His jurisdictional dominion, to His church for the purpose of fulfilling His ministry on earth.  

In this instance, the disciples were given authority in two areas.

1. They had authority “over unclean spirits, to cast them out.”

Unclean spirits are demons, fallen angels, and they bring the controlling influence of evil into the lives of people.  Remember the words of Jesus recorded in the Gospel of Luke, “I have given you authority to trample upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy” (Luke 10:19).  The church has authority to trample upon, to pull down, to undo the work of Satan in the lives of people.  Wherever the Gospel is truly being preached, it is accompanied by the breaking down of enslaving evil.

2. They had authority “to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.”

In Luke 10:9, Jesus told the disciples to heal the sick and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”  In other words, proclaim the kingdom of God and show people what that rule of grace looks like as broken lives are made whole. The works of the kingdom validate the message of the kingdom.

Did you know that the first hospital was founded by a Christian community?  In a time when  unwanted infants were abandoned and left to die, a Christian community founded the first orphanage.  Jesus gave the church authority to touch human suffering with the merciful hand of God.

10:2-4 “Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; and James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Him.”

The apostles are named.  Other than Peter, James and John, we know very little about any of them.  That’s because God’s purpose in calling them was not to exalt their names or proclaim their accomplishments.  They were called to exalt Jesus and proclaim His Gospel. It is not the called who are glorified but the Christ who calls us for His glory. There is, in our day, a multiplying of high profile pastors and evangelists, a tendency to use media to glorify the messenger.  This is not God’s way.

1. Note that there were 12 apostles and there are 12 foundation stones in the heavenly Jerusalem inscribed with the names of the 12 apostles (Rev. 21:14).  Even as those stones are the foundation of the new Jerusalem, so the 12 apostles are the foundation of the church.

2. These were ordinary men who found their greatness in Christ.  None of them had an extraordinary background; none had been famous prior to their summons to follow Jesus.  As the Apostle Paul reminds us, 

“For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised; God has chosen the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God” (I Cor. 1:26-29).

3. Though we do not know much about these men, we do know that they were diverse in background, talent and temperament. One is named Simon the Zealot.  Zealots were ultra-nationalists, insurgents, partisans, committed to overthrowing the hated Roman government by any means, including assassination and guerrilla warfare.  Some might call them patriots.  Others might call them terrorists.  

Notice also, Matthew the tax collector, a man who collaborated with the Romans, viewed by his own people as a traitor.  The zealots would not have hesitated to murder anyone who cooperated with the Romans, especially a fellow Jew.  Yet we find the zealot and the tax collector serving in the same band of twelve.

Notice Simon Peter, a bold, aggressive, hot-tempered man.  On the opposite end of the emotional spectrum, Thomas, somewhat pessimistic, often fearing the worst.

They were diverse in personality and giftings but found their unity in Christ.  We are reminded of Jesus’ statement, “If two of you shall agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by my Father who is in heaven” (Matt 18:19). 

The word agree is, in the Greek, sumphoneo from which we derive the English word symphony.  Sumphoneo has to do with that which is harmonious.  A symphony orchestra is composed of a variety of instruments with a diversity of shapes and sounds but tuned to a common pitch and playing diverse notes in harmony. If all the instruments were identical and made the same sound, playing the same note, the music would be quite monotonous.  And if all played out of tune and out of harmony, the result would be chaos, not music.

So with the disciples of Jesus and the church today. We are all unique but find our point of unity in Jesus. He tunes us to His purpose and releases the song of His kingdom through us. To paraphrase Jesus, if two of you shall pray harmoniously, in concert, the purpose of God is released on earth.

The success of Christ’s church is based, in large measure, on our ability to pray, worship, minister and proclaim in unity with one another.  But how can such a diverse church work in unity?  In fact, what is more potentially divisive than religion?

Only Jesus can create true sumphoneo.  Whereas religion divides, Jesus reconciles.  He called disciples with a variety of talents and personalities and was constantly dealing with their arguments and weaknesses.  But He called them to Himself and in Christ they found their point of unity.

4. They were chosen.  In Luke’s Gospel (6:12-16) we read that these men were chosen after Jesus spent a night in prayer.  They were, for whatever reasons, God’s choice.  Jesus reminded them, and reminds us in John 15:16, that we did not choose Him but He chose us and appointed us that we would live fruitful lives. 

5. They were called.  Jesus does not draft people, does not force us to serve Him.  Though we are His chosen, He calls us, leaving us the freedom to accept or reject His call.

6. In Mark’s version of this event, the disciples were appointed (Mark 3:14) to kingdom tasks.  Jesus calls us so He can appoint us to whatever work fits His purpose for our lives.  The Apostle Paul reminds us that our place in God’s church is based on God’s sovereign choice and calling (I Cor. 12:18).

7. They were each gifted to fit the particular calling on their lives. Paul reminds us, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit … But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good … But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills” (I Cor. 12:4,7,11).

“For we are His workmanship (His craftsmanship), created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). The Lord prepared works for each of us, designed a life of gifted service.

He chooses us, calls us, appoints us, gifts us, crafts us and places us according to His sovereign will.  The greatest liberty we will ever know is to live and labor in the fulfilling of God’s purpose.  When our will and our talents are submitted to God and His life is flowing through our life, energizing our talents, focusing our will — what fulfillment and freedom!

8. They were appointed from among the many disciples who followed Jesus (Luke 6:13).   Disciple means learner, someone submitted to a disciplined process.  But the apostles were appointed “that they should be with Jesus” (Mark 3:14). They were to be not merely learners but companions, called to fellowship with Jesus.  That is the essence of the Christian life.  Our labor with Christ flows out of our communion with Christ.  Indeed, communion with Christ is our greatest work on earth or in heaven.  It is good to learn of Christ.  Far greater to be with Him, for then there is no limit to what He can teach us.

9. They were sent by Jesus. We are called to Jesus and appointed by Jesus so that we may be sent out from Him.  Apostle means “one who is sent out.”  Our communion with Christ is not broken when we go out and do kingdom work because He is in all places at all times and indwells us by His Spirit.  He literally goes before us, walks beside us, lives within us and is waiting for us wherever He sends us. Communion is not broken when we labor with Christ, but if communion does not result in kingdom work then there is something lacking in our communion.

10. Matthew does not say how they were sent out, but normally He sent them out in some form of community (usually two by two; see Luke 10:1, Mark 6:7).  There are several truths about community which we need to remember.

a.  We need relationship with other believers.  Our relationship with others may be in the context of a house church or mega-church, traditional liturgy or contemporary, cathedral or coffee house.  But we cannot grow in Christ apart from other believers.

Paul reminds us, “Now you are Christ’s body and individually members of it” (I Cor. 12:27).  The church is not an organization but an organism, a living entity in which the members are dependent on one another.  To fulfill our ministries and our potential, to realize God’s purpose as individuals and as a church, we need one another.

b.  Relationship is not based on uniformity, where everyone looks the same and acts the same.  True relationship is built on unity in diversity.  All the parts retain their God-given uniqueness but find a point of gravity.  That gravity-point, the place of unity must be something more than politics or doctrine.  It can only be Jesus.

There were some profound contradictions among the apostles, as we have mentioned (for instance, Simon the Zealot and Matthew the tax collector). Those men were enemies socially, culturally and politically and there were, no doubt, other points of conflict among this band but Jesus called them to be brothers, members of this small community of faith, disciples. Their brotherhood was created in mutual devotion to Jesus. 

Again, being in relationship doesn’t mean that we’re all cut from the same cloth. God created all of us with different talents, personalities and passions.  But only in community — common unity, can our true talents and callings be realized.  And only in Christ can community be created.

10:5 “These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them: ‘Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans.’”

It’s not that the Lord did not care about the Gentiles or Samaritans.  Even during the earthly ministry of Jesus we see Him working among non-Jews.  He ministered grace to the Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob (John 4:7-30).  He ministered healing to the daughter of the Syro-Phonecian woman (Matthew 15:28).  He healed the Roman officer’s servant ( Matt. 8:5-13). Before He returned to the Father, Jesus gave the Great Commission to the church in which He said that the gospel is to be carried into all the world (Matt. 28:19,20) but “beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47).

There is a season and a timing in all God’s purpose. The Gospel was preached first to Israel, then to the nations. Israel had the high privilege of hearing the Gospel before any other people and then, as God’s chosen messenger, being Messiah’s witness to the nations. Though Israel, for the most part, rejected this calling, it was God’s purpose that the house of Israel would be the first to hear the message. Eventually, the nations would hear the Gospel but Jesus was keenly aware of the Father’s timing and priorities.  There is a season appropriate to everything.  Doing the right thing at the wrong time does not serve the purpose of God. The Lord of the church knows not only what He intends to do but when he intends to do it.

10:6 “but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

1. We see the priority of Jesus in this — first Israel, then the world.

2. We see the purpose of Jesus in this.  He came to seek and to save that which was lost.  He is the Good Shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep to go and find the one that is lost.

3. We see the heart of Jesus revealed in this.  Note the difference in Jesus’ view of people and the Pharisee’s view, who said, “This mob knows nothing of the law; they are cursed”  (John 7:49).  But Jesus never saw a multitude or a mob.  He saw individual persons of eternal worth, made in the image of God and He looked on them with compassion.  His heart is revealed in the parable of the king who prepared a great banquet and sent His servants into the streets to invite “as many as you find” (Matt. 22:9).  Similar parables reveal the guest list to include the lame, the blind, the outcast.

Who are the lost sheep?

1. They are those who are lost through sinful self will, choosing to be lost.  The Prodigal Son was one of these.  But he was still redeemable. 

2. They are those who are lost through the sin, neglect and carelessness of others, like a coin tossed aside thoughtlessly.  These are the children and youth whom family and society have cast off, lost for lack of love or care or purpose or guidance.  But they are still redeemable.

3. They are those who are lost because of personal disability, unable to overcome addiction and craving, or grief and bitterness; unable to overcome emotional dysfunction or trauma and abuse.  Their deficits leave them helpless and hopeless like sheep unable to find their way through the thickets and waste places of the wilderness without a shepherd.  But they are still redeemable.  

10:7,8 “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.’”

The apostles were sent with a specific commission:

1. “Preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”  The kingdom of heaven / kingdom of God was the central message of Jesus, the basis of His first sermon (Mark 1:14,15), the subject of many parables and teachings. This is the rule of God’s grace, a rule that is breaking into history and is within the grasp of our faith.

2. Show people what the kingdom of God looks like: 

a.  “Heal the sick.”  Pour out the mercy and compassion of God into the broken places of hurting people.

b.  “ Raise the dead.”  This happens in every church that is alive in Christ.  Paul says that we were dead in trespasses and sins, “But God, being rich in mercy … made us alive together with Christ”  (Eph. 2:4,5). Wherever the Gospel is preached with clarity and power, spiritually dead sinners are being raised up into everlasting life.

c.  “Cast out demons.”  Those who have been mastered by evil are to be mastered by Christ.  Jesus came not only to forgive sin but also to break its power, as Charles Wesley said, “He breaks the power of canceled sin, He sets the prisoner free.”

10:8b-11 “Freely you received, freely give. Do not acquire gold, or silver, or copper for your money belts, or a bag for your journey, or even two coats, or sandals, or a staff; for the worker is worthy of his support. And whatever city or village you enter, inquire who is worthy in it, and stay at his house until you leave that city.”

He sent them out with a specific lifestyle:

1. “Freely you received, freely give:” Give as freely as you have received from God. We do not have the right to withhold from others what God has lavished upon us.  

What had they received from God?  Christ Himself: “For of His fulness we have all received and grace upon grace” (John 1:16).  This is the unspeakable gift for which Paul gives thanks (2 Cor. 9:15).  In the liturgy of Holy Communion, the celebrant holds aloft the bread and the cup and announces, “The gifts of God for the people of God.” Christ has given us Himself — we cannot hold or hoard the gifts of God. Christ is ours only to share.

2. “Do not acquire gold or silver.” We need resources to fulfill the purpose of God and to live our lives. We are invited by God to pray about daily bread and to expect His provision as we work. We should ask for wisdom in the acquisition and spending of resources.  But resources should never be the focus of our lives — don’t let your life become cluttered with things. Christ and His mission is our focus. 

This was especially rue for the twelve — there was no time for fundraising. The Messiah was at the door — the messengers were to go quickly and prepare the way.

3. Trust God for the resources needed to fulfill your ministry, as Jesus said, “For the worker is worthy of his support” (Matt. 10:10).  That doesn’t mean we sit back passively and wait for God to slide down our chimney with a bag of gifts.  Jesus said, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you” (Matt. 6:33).  This means that if the kingdom purpose of God is our priority and if we serve that priority with all our being, we can expect God to be faithful.  

The Apostle Paul, exhorting the church to be generous and faithful in giving, reminds us, “And God is able to make all grace abound unto you, so that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound unto every good work ... Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness” ( 2 Cor. 9:8,10).

4. “Stay at his house” means be content with the resources God provides: Whose house is this?  Those who are “worthy,” not necessarily those who are wealthy.

5. There is a lesson here not only for those who preach the Gospel but also for those who hear the preaching. Just as the proclaimers are to learn to trust God for provision, the hearers of the message are to learn the goodness of giving.

In summary, though it is permitted to make one’s living from the Gospel, we must not misuse the gifts of God nor cease trusting in God as our Provider.

10:12,13 “As you enter the house, give it your greeting. If the house is worthy, give it your blessing of peace. But if it is not worthy, take back your blessing of peace.”

Jesus sent them to bless: speak shalom to the house, if it is worthy.  If not, take back your blessing.  We are not to waste kingdom resources but whenever we are able, we speak blessing and spread the fragrance of Christ into the lives of those around us.

10:14,15 “Whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet. Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.”

They were to prioritize their ministry. The time was short, the Messiah was in their midst, the kingdom of God was at hand — go forth and prepare the way. There were places and people unready or unwilling to receive the message of Christ. The disciples were not to waste kingdom time or resources. They were to move on. “Do not give what is holy to dogs and do no throw your pearls before swine or they will trample them under their feet” (Matt. 7:6).

In the generations since then, countless followers of Christ have not been called to move on from unfruitful works but to stay and labor. They prayed and preached year after year with little visible fruit but they were faithful.  Sometimes, in some mission fields, the harvest does not ripen for generations.  But in Jesus’ day there was a sense of urgency.  Villages and cities were being prepared for the entrance of Christ.  There was no time to waste.  

Twice Luke records Jesus mourning over Jerusalem (13:34,35 and in 19:41-44) because the people did not know the time, the season of their visitation from God.  Rejecting the Prince of Peace, they would embrace war.  Rejecting the blessings of the kingdom of God, they would embrace the curses of the kingdoms of this world.  Rejecting the life-giving breath of the Holy Spirit, they would reap the whirl-wind at the hands of the Romans.  Forty years after rejecting their Messiah, Jerusalem was a pile of rubble and the nation ceased to exist for nearly 1900 years. There are seasons in the life of nations and individuals where Christ has been preached and rejected and the consequences are irrevocable.

3. When the disciples were rejected, they were to shake off the dust of that city.  They were not to even take the dust with them because that city was destined for terrible judgment and they were not to be associated even with the dust of those condemned cities. “Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.” Judgment is based on the light and the truth we have access to. The greater the light, the greater the judgment.

Later, Jesus would pronounce condemnation over the cities that had heard His message, had seen His miracles and yet rejected Him. Again He would repeat, “ It will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you” (Matt. 11:24). To whom much is given, much is required.

As we have said though, there have been many times over the centuries when Gospel ministers have been rejected and persecuted but did not leave, did not shake off the dust. They stayed and labored on faithfully. But Jesus’ word to His disciples in that day was based on the need of that moment. The principle here is that we must always be aware of the timing and priority of God in all that we do.

Study Questions

1. What is authority and how is that different from power? (see v. 1)

2. How do we know when it is appropriate to “shake the dust off our feet” and move on or stay and labor in the midst of rejection?

10:16-42

10:16 “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.”

When Jesus sent His disciples out to minister, He said they were like sheep among wolves.  Note three simple truths here:

1. Sheep are dependent on a shepherd.  They’re not aggressive, not able to defend themselves or flee quickly; not the smartest animals, unable to navigate their own way.  Sheep need a shepherd.  It is so with the followers of Jesus.  We cannot fulfill His purpose for our lives, cannot share in the building of His church or advancement of His kingdom, without continually submitting our lives to His power and wisdom.  He is the Good Shepherd and we need to follow closely.

2. There are wolves, adversaries, enemies of the Gospel.  Some are within the church, as Jesus warned, “Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves” (Matt. 7:15).  The Apostles Paul and John, in their letters, often reminded the churches that there would be false shepherds, false prophets, false workers coming in to deceive and divide the church.  

Some wolves are outside the church, bringing persecution through political, military and economic weapons. The Apostle Peter rightly reminds us, “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (I Ptr. 5:8).  In every generation there has been persecution from without and heresies from within.  But whether the wolf attacks in the disguise of a godless emperor or a godless bishop, as Jesus warned, “The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy” (John 10:10). 

3. Jesus is very particular about the character or heart of His sheep.  We are to be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.  A shrewd heart is wise, discerning, discreet, thoughtful, strategic and practical.  An innocent heart is pure, unmixed in its motives, childlike in its simplicity and harmlessness.

In other words, we are to be discerning, not naive in our dealings with others.  We are to be strategic in our planning, not disorganized.  But our motives must be untouched by the base elements of hatred, jealousy, greed and such.  Our wisdom must flow from a holy, gentle heart.  We must have the mind and heart of Christ.

10:17 “But beware of men, for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues;”

Jesus promised His disciples that they would be persecuted by religious authorities (courts / councils) which were located in the synagogues.  As the deceived fathers of these religious authorities had persecuted the prophets of the Old Testament, so these deceived sons opposed Jesus and His apostles.  In every generation there are religious people who think they are serving God as they attempt to destroy the work of God’s people on earth.

10:18 “and you will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.”

Jesus promises persecution by governors and kings: in other words, by the state.  From the first century to this present day, secular governments have felt threatened by the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.  Why is this?

1. Because secular rulers tend to see themselves as more exalted than they truly are and sometimes make gods of themselves.  But the church proclaims and worships a God who is truly exalted and who stands in judgment over false gods and deceived kings. It is God who establishes governments and authorities but God is Lord over that which He establishes.

2. Because nations tend to see themselves in absolute terms: absolute in righteous motives, absolute in policy and goals, absolute in power.  But the church exalts Christ the King whose kingdom is breaking into history and whose truth, with searing light, reveals the lies and self deception of nations; a Christ whose true Kingship stands in judgment over the selfish motives, flawed policies and abused power which characterize earthly kingdoms.

3. Because nations tend to see people as masses to be dominated, seduced, conquered.  But the Good Shepherd sees individual persons created in the image of God who, though they are lost, may be redeemed, reconciled to God and reclaimed for God’s purposes.

4. Because governments sometimes demand a level of submission which amounts to idolatry. The Apostles exhort Christians to submit to governmental authority but our ultimate allegiance is to Christ and whenever we must choose between Christ and king, we must submit to Christ.

These radically different perspectives and demands create a tension between kingdom people and the kingdoms of this world.  This tension leads to persecution.  But nearly two thousand years ago, John heard a voice from heaven shout, “The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ and He will reign forever and ever” (Rev. 11:15).

Throughout the New Testament, Jesus is clear about this dual promise of trouble and triumph.  He said, “In the world you will have tribulation but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

10:18-20 “and you will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say. For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.”

Responses to persecution:

1. Testify:

Though in verses 14 and 15 we are advised to move on if people do not receive our witness; and in verse 23 we are advised to flee persecution; nevertheless, there are times when we cannot avoid persecution and must not; times when flight would be a denial of the faith.  In those times, when we have an opportunity for testimony, for witness, we are not to be anxious but trust that our Father will speak through us.  

We do not seek martyrdom but neither do we evade divine appointments to bear witness. In the life of Paul we see a willingness to escape when necessary and stand when called.  He was lowered from the wall of Damascus in the night and escaped a plot against his life.  Later, though he knew that his return to Jerusalem would place him in peril, he returned because he believed he had a witness to make there and before Caesar in Rome.  

2. Stand firm, endure:  

How do we do that?  Only by God’s strength.  

“Therefore be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.  

Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm 

against the schemes of the devil.” (Ephesians 6:10,11)

In the strength of God’s might, the church is able to stand and endure.  The church not only has endured seasons of trial and tribulation, but has prevailed and emerged stronger.  

Persecution does not mean that God is not in control of history, that the powers of darkness are somehow prevailing.  Not at all.  Though God does not send persecution on His people, He allows it for His own purpose. 

1. God uses persecution to perfect His saints, as the Apostle James exhorts us,

“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing” (James 1:2-4).

2. God uses persecution to prove and purify His saints, as the Apostle Peter exhorts us,

“In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (I Peter 1:6,7).

Times of proving, of testing, serve to purify the heart and soul.  We read of the Old Testament saint, Joseph, that, “Until the time that His (God’s) Word came to pass, the Word of the Lord tested him” (Psalm 105:19).  God had a purpose for Joseph’s life, had given Joseph a clear sense of that purpose, but until it came to pass, Joseph was tested.  The word tested can also be translated refined.

3. God uses persecution to spread the Gospel.  In Acts 8:4, we read, “Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.”  When Satan attempts to destroy the church anywhere in the world, it is like crushing a flower when it is in bloom.  The only result is to scatter the seed into the wind.

10:21 “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death.”

Persecution will arise even from one’s own family.  In the past century and today children in communist countries are taught in school to inform on their parents if there was any Christian activity in the home.  Even now, in Muslim and Hindu cultures, if a son or daughter comes to Christ, the parents are required to disown the child and may legally take the child’s life.  In a culture of persecution, wherever faith in Christ is a violation of the law, the home can be a dangerous place.

This is why Jesus said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple,”  (Luke 14:26).  He meant that our love for Him must be so much greater than our love for anything or anyone else that,  by comparison, it would seem like hate. If this is not the case, if our affections are set more on earth and less in heaven, then in times of persecution our faith may fail. For this reason we are exhorted, “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” (Col. 3:2).

10:22 “You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.”

“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, 'A slave is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:18-20). Our love for Jesus motivates the hatred of a world that hates Jesus. Since the world cannot persecute this Lord whom they hate, they persecute those who follow and love Him.

Who will be saved?  Those who endure, who persevere to the end.  That does not mean that our perseverance earns salvation.  Rather, perseverance proves that our salvation is real and true.  Salvation is God’s gift to the faithful and so is endurance.  God keeps those whom He has redeemed, gives us strength and grace to endure. Those who fall away during times of persecution prove that they were never truly saved.

In Matthew 13, Jesus told a parable about the preaching of God’s Word.  One of the characters is a hardhearted person who hears the word and “has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction of persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away” (Matt 13:20,21). Why is there a falling away during times of persecution?  Those who are not truly saved cannot endure, for endurance is a gift from the God who saves us.  There are always those who attach themselves to the church for whatever benefit they suppose they may derive.  But the self-attached will be shaken loose when the wind blows.

The Apostle John reminds us, “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, in order that it might be shown that they all are not of us” (I John 2:19).

10:23 “But whenever they persecute you in one city, flee to the next; for truly I say to you, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes.”

In 10:13,14 Jesus had taught that if people would not receive the disciples’ witness, then they should leave and shake the dust off of their feet.  And so in verse 23, they are not to waste their time preaching to those who are not interested nor are they to throw away their lives needlessly.  Martyrdom is not to be courted or sought after.

“You will not finish ... until the Son of Man comes.”

Some commentators would attach an end times meaning to these words of Jesus, meaning that in the last of the last days, persecution will be intense, the harvest of souls will be great and the followers of Christ will not have finished moving through the cities of the world when history will conclude with the sudden return of Christ. But that interpretation denies the Scriptural revelation that the end will not come “until the full harvest of souls has come in.”  There is a fulness of harvest resulting from the preaching of the Gospel in every place and among every people group which the Lord intended.

So it seems more plausible that Jesus was not referring to His return but to the inbreaking presence of His kingdom in the day of His first advent. He had sent the twelve out to proclaim the message that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Before the disciples finished their work of preparation, Jesus would personally enter the villages and cities of Galilee and Judea bringing the presence of the kingdom.

Jesus was also referring to the entrance of the Son of Man into the hearts of men and women who received the message of the kingdom of God.  He had begun His ministry preaching, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). The kingdom was at hand because the King was present, inviting all to enter the rule of God’s grace.

Jesus had said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed... for behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst (or within you)” (Luke 17:20,21).  This was the day of the inbreaking kingdom of God, the day of Christ’s enthronement in the hearts of those who would turn from sin and believe in Him.  Before the disciples finished this tour of preaching, this glorious day had begun, was in their midst, was pushing into hearts.

10:24,25 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign the members of his household!”

Jesus reminds His disciples that the goal of discipleship is to be like their Lord. We are not merely to learn information about Him but to become like Him. This is the great privilege and blessing of discipleship, that we would grow “to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ”  (Eph. 4:13). 

But there is a note of gravity in this too.  We are called not only to share in the life and ministry of Jesus but also to share in His suffering, His reproach and rejection.  Paul’s goal was, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death”  (Phlp. 3:10).

10:26 “Therefore do not fear them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.”

We should never be afraid of lies cloaked in darkness.  The lies and slander spoken against God’s people will not stand — hidden things will be made known.  The light of God’s truth will eventually penetrate every lie, every shadow of deception.  The lies of evil people and wicked nations will eventually be uncovered.  The temporary, passing darkness of this world will ultimately be shattered by the searing light of God’s eternal truth when Jesus comes to establish His kingdom on earth.  

But in fact, this had already begun with the incarnation of God in human form. Isaiah had prophesied, “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them” (Isa. 9:2).

“Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; but the Lord will rise upon you and His glory will appear upon you” (Isa. 6:1,2).

Jesus, the Light of the world, was in their midst and is present with us also. So fear not.

10:27 “What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim upon the housetops.”

We are commanded to speak truth and speak it boldly.  Whatever truth Christ has whispered to our hearts in the secret place of communion, shout it from the highest rooftop.  We can speak boldly because it is not our word, not our opinion, not half truths influenced by the theories and attitudes and culture conformity of the world around us. It is the truth that Jesus has revealed to us through His written Word and through the living presence of His Holy Spirit in us.

The same Holy Spirit who inspired the Word also interprets that Word to us and empowers our proclamation of that word. It is a dependable Word spoken to us by a Truth-Giver who transcends our culture, our generation. We have only to listen with humble hearts. If we would be bold speakers, we must be humble, discerning listeners.  

10:28 “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

Again we are commanded not to fear.  In our truth speaking, we are commanded not to fear the response of those who can only kill the body.  Rather, we are to fear the God who can destroy both body and soul.  Proverbs 9:10 reminds us that proper fear (reverence) of God is the beginning of wisdom.

If we reverence God, we will never need to fear people.  As John Knox, the great Scottish reformer, was being buried, it was said, “Here lies a man who feared God so much that he never feared the face of man.”

Listen well.  Speak boldly.  Fear no person but fear / reverence God.

10:29-31 “Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.”

Even as we are commanded to reverence God, we are reminded of the tender care and mercy of God.  Sparrows were bought and sold for a penny, yet not one could fall to the ground without God knowing.  In Luke we read a similar statement, “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies?  Yet not one of them is forgotten by God”  (Luke 12:6).

The Word fall can also be translated light or set.  Not a sparrow lights on the ground without God knowing.  In fact, the hairs on our head are numbered; that is, every conceivable truth that could be known about us is known by God.  So be not afraid.  God knows us, loves us and we are worth immeasurably more to Him than many sparrows.

Psalm 136 speaks of the God who created the world, who redeemed Israel from slavery, “Who gives food to every creature” (Ps. 136:25). It is this God whom we are commanded to reverence / fear. In Psalm 31:15 we read, “My times are in your hand.”  This God who creates, who redeems, who provides, who sees every sparrow light upon the ground, who holds the moments of our time in His hands, who has numbered the hairs on our head, who knows us perfectly and loves us beyond imagination or measure — this God we are commanded to reverence / fear. 

The Psalmist said, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the defense of my life; whom shall I dread?” (Ps. 27:1). The answer is that if we properly reverence God, there is nothing else to fear.  The courage of discipleship is founded on the certainty of God’s everlasting love and care for us.

10:32,33 “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.”

A very straightforward statement: if we confess Jesus in front of this world, Jesus will confess us before our heavenly Father.  Confession is not merely repeating His name — it is a conversation. Likewise, His confession of us will be a conversation with the Father. If we deny Jesus, He will deny us.  In other words, He will reflect back to us the truth of our confession or denial.  But confession is more than mere words; it is the life we live.  

In Matthew 7:21-23, we have a picture of final judgment.  Jesus says that those who enter His kingdom will be those who have done “the will of my Father who is in heaven.”  Many will boast of their prophecies and miracles but Jesus will say to them, “I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.”  Two important truths here: 

1.  The life that confesses Jesus is a life that knows Him and is known by Him.  The worst thing that Jesus can ever say about anyone is, “I never knew you.”  Obviously that’s not referring to intellectual fact — Jesus knows all fact and all truth.  The word knew (ginosko) indicates relationship and value — the thing or person that is known is valued, held in a relationship of value.  The word can be used in a context of intimacy.  It is the same word used in Matthew 1:24,25, where it says that Joseph “took Mary as his wife but kept her a virgin (literally, “knew her not”) until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.”  

Jesus desires a faithful, intimate, loving relationship with each of us.  He knows everything about us but wants to know us relationally and wants us to know Him as intimately as we can in this life.  The life that truly confesses Jesus is the life that knows and values Him, deeply, intimately.

2. The life that confesses Jesus is a life that does the will of God, lives the will of God, serving and obeying God out of love, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15, also 14:21). Confession of Jesus is a lifestyle and those who live this life will enter the kingdom.

The lawless ones will not enter.  The lawless boast of their religious works (Matthew 7:22) but are excluded from the kingdom because they did not know Jesus.  They knew about Him but were not in relationship with Him, did not value relationship with Him and their lack of relationship is made evident in their lawlessness. 

The life that confesses Jesus in front of the world is a life lived in loving relationship with Him and the depth of this love is revealed in obedience and service.  The testimony of our living speaks far more loudly than our words.  

Those deeds which we do or fail to do will confess or deny Christ.  Bitter unforgiveness is denial of the Christ who forgave us.  Refusing to love and accept those who are different from us is denial of the Christ who loved us while we were His enemies.  Likewise, feeding the hungry, caring for the orphan, the widow and the homeless is confession of that merciful Savior who lavished grace and comfort on our souls before we knew Him.

In Revelation 12:11 we read that the church overcomes persecution and adversity over the centuries by the blood of Christ and the faith-confession of those who prefer death rather than deny their love for Christ. Though it is true that our living speaks more loudly than mere words, confession does include the words that we speak.  We confess with our mouth what we believe in our heart.  Paul said, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved”  (Rom. 10:9).  If my testimony is to deny Christ, then that is what is in my heart, in which case, I am not in a saved, reconciled relationship with Him.  Therefore, Jesus cannot confess me before His Father.

There is also the testimony of silence.  Refusing to join in the venomous, condemning shouts of the mob is righteous silence.  Refusing to speak a holy word in the profane conversation of heresy and blasphemy is unrighteous silence.  Every day brings the opportunity to confess or deny Christ.  We will do either or both with our words, our deeds and our silence. We are to be not only hearers of truth but also doers, not only loving truth but living it.

10:34 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

Proclamation of truth is a confrontational event. The word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6:17), penetrates into the dark places of corrupt society and cuts down into the human heart like a sword, like a laser-scalpel of light, confronting sin, rebellion and unbelief. Jesus came to bring this sword of truth. And He has already warned His followers that the response to the preaching of the Gospel will involve persecution, opposition. Now he states the reality again. Though He is the Prince of Peace, bringing peace to every heart that receives Him, creating the peace of reconciliation between a holy God and forgiven, redeemed people, nevertheless, His presence in this world and the inbreaking of His kingdom will incite violent reaction from counterfeit kings, worldly kingdoms and societies which are infused with darkness.

10:35,36 “For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.”

Again, Jesus warns that the enemies of the Gospel may be as intimate as our own flesh and blood family. This has been a reality for many followers of Christ in every generation.

10:37 “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.”

If we love our family more than we love Christ, then we are not worthy of Him because this unbalanced love may cause us to deny Him.  We may not deny Him with blasphemous words but if we are called by Christ to costly tasks and our loved ones do not hear our call or they do hear but will not share the call, then they may cause us to refuse the call of Christ.  Thereby, they become our enemy.  Families can be a marvelous source of love and mercy.  God forbid that their love and mercy would tempt us to deny our Lord.

10:38 “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.”

How do we  overcome the natural temptation to love those around us whom we see and touch, more than the Christ whom we cannot see or touch?  How do we, as Paul exhorted us, set our “mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth?” (Col. 3:2).  We must take up our cross.  The cross is an instrument of death and represents self denial, the dying of that self-centered life which demands to live apart from Christ.  We live the cross as we intentionally deny our own will and way, choosing Christ’s will and way.

10:39 “He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”

Jesus reminds us that in seeking to preserve our life, we only lose it.  What we grasp, slips out of our hands.  But as we let go of our life, in the sharing of our life, in the outpouring of gift and time and breath, only then do we find life.  Life is truly found in the giving.

A soldier-poet once wrote to his lady as he was preparing to leave her to fight in a battle for king and country (quoted in William Barclay, Matthew vol. 1, p 406)

True, a new beloved now I chase:

the first foe in the field

and with a stronger faith embrace 

a sword, a horse, a shield

Yet this unfaithfulness is such

as you too shall adore

I could not love thee, love, so much

loved I not honor more

In loving Christ more, we will be able to love our loved ones more truly.

10:40-42 “He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives Him who sent Me. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.”

To receive or reject an ambassador of a government is to receive or reject that government itself.  Those who receive the messenger of Christ not only receive Christ, but also the God who gave His only begotten Son to the world.

When we receive ministers of Christ by supporting them with our prayers and our gifts, though our gifts be as humble as a cup of cold water, God will remember our gift and we will share in the reward of that ministry.  The angel said to Cornelius, “Your prayers and gifts of charity have ascended as a memorial before God” (Acts 10:4).

The story is told of a poor village cobbler who learned that a young man of the village had been called to preach.  The cobbler said to him, “Many years ago I was called to preach but was unable to pay the cost of study.  I know this is a struggle for you too.  But here is one expense you need not pay.  I will cobble your shoes throughout the years of your preparation.  I only ask that when you preach your first sermon, will you stand in the shoes I have made for you.”

Not everyone is called or able to stand in a pulpit or carry the Gospel to another culture but we may support those who do.  

Notice that Jesus refers to His disciples as “little ones” (a rabbinical expression referring to disciples).  Whatever storms of persecution break upon our pathway, whatever difficult or humble tasks we are called to perform, we are the little ones of Christ who find our refuge in the shelter of His mercy.  Could there be any greater reward than this?  “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God”  (I John 3:1).

Study Questions

1. What does it mean to confess Jesus? (see v. 32,33)

2. Jesus has much to say in these verses about persecution. Why does the world persecute 

followers of Jesus?

Matthew 11:1-19

Who Were You Expecting?

11:1-3 “When Jesus had finished giving instructions to His twelve disciples, He departed from there to teach and preach in their cities. Now when John, while imprisoned, heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to Him, ‘Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?’”

When John first saw the adult Jesus, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). He correctly recognized Jesus as the long awaited Messiah and Savior. But now John is in prison and it’s as if he is asking, “If Jesus is the Messiah, why am I here in a dungeon?  Where is the kingdom of God?” John may also be wondering, “If Jesus is the Messiah, why is He allowing such fierce opposition to Himself?”  

It’s not that John lacks faith. He doesn’t have a faith problem; he has an expectation problem.  I don’t mean that John shared the common, nationalistic expectations of the Jewish people concerning the Messiah and the kingdom of God.  The people were expecting a conquering, victorious King who would drive the hated Romans from the land and restore the glory of King David’s rule. They were looking for a political kingdom breaking into history visibly, gloriously now. It’s not does not seem that John misunderstood Jesus in that way.

Because John correctly recognized Jesus as the Messiah, he understood his own ministry as being the forerunner, preparing the hearts of the people to receive their Messiah. That’s why he said, “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance” (Matthew 3:1). 

John also correctly understood the cleansing, saving ministry of Jesus, “But He who is coming after me is mightier than I and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.  His winnowing fork is in His hand and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather up His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matt. 3:11,12).

John understood his own ministry — he introduced the Messiah and he prepared people’s hearts to receive the Messiah.  And he understood the ministry of Jesus — providing cleansing from sin. But he may have believed that this cleansing, saving work of Jesus would immediately usher in the kingdom of God. This misunderstanding of the timing of the kingdom caused him to be discouraged as he languished in prison. So he sent disciples to Jesus asking, “Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?”

11:4,5 “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them.’”

Jesus is referencing two Old Testament Messianic Scriptures (Isaiah 35:1-10 and 61:1-4). But the Messiah of Isaiah’s prophecies was not the conquering hero of popular expectation.  This is the Messiah who heals, who lifts up the downtrodden, who sets the prisoner free from spiritual slavery, who ministers the compassion of God to hurting people. 

Yes, a kingdom is breaking into history but not through military / political processes; not breaking in through a series of highly visible photo ops. God’s kingdom enters history through the hearts and souls of those whose lives have been pierced by the truth and kindness of God and in response, repent of sin and receive God’s ministry of restoring grace through faith in Jesus the Messiah.

Jesus was not born on earth to destroy the empire of Rome but to destroy the empire of sin in the souls of people. It is sin that separates us from God and if Jesus had inaugurated His kingdom without reconciling sinful humanity to God, then no one could have entered His kingdom. When our Lord returns, He will establish His kingdom across the earth — visibly, gloriously. But in His first advent, He was the holy Servant who touched broken lives with mercy. He was the holy Lamb whose sacrificial death reconciled lost sinners to God. In His first advent, Jesus established His kingdom in the souls of those who yielded to the conquering power of grace.

Jesus, in this conversation with John’s disciples, is asking them if they need to reconsider the kind of Messiah and the type of kingdom they are expecting.  Is this also true in our day? Are we waiting for God to manifest His kingdom presence in ways compatible with left wing liberal or right wing conservative expectations?  Are our preconceptions of the kingdom based on Democratic or Republican or evangelical or denominational or Protestant or Roman Catholic agendas?  Is Jesus asking us if we too need to reconsider the kind of Messiah we are expecting and the way we believe His kingdom will break into history?

11:6 “And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me (or does not fall away or is not scandalized or is not caused to stumble at Me).”

Pharisees and Sadducees, the priests, the hyper religious folk of Jesus’ day, missed the kingdom of God because of rigid unbelief, self righteousness and pride — they were offended at a Savior who loved sinners. However, it’s not just unbelief or offense that causes people to fail to recognize Jesus or fall away from Him.  Sometimes it is our inability to give up cherished preconceptions as to what God ought to be doing or our impatience with God’s timing.

God’s response to us is the same as to John:   “Here is what I am doing.” There is an implied question here to John’s disciples and to each of us: “Would you like to join in what I am doing or will you allow your preconceived ideas about Me to render you irrelevant?”

11:7-10 “As these men were going away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John, ‘What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Those who wear soft clothing are in kings' palaces! But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and one who is more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger ahead of You, who will prepare Your way before You.’”

Jesus praises John and asks the people what they witnessed in the ministry of John:

1. A reed shaken by the wind?  No, John was unmoved by the winds of public opinion and unbowed by King Herod’s stormy threats against him.

2. A man clothed in soft garments?  No, those people live in king’s palaces. John was no pampered pretender to royalty.  At that moment he was in the king’s dungeon for the crime of speaking prophetic truth to power.

3. Did you go out to see a prophet? Yes, a prophet and more than a prophet, John was the forerunner to Messiah, prophesied by Isaiah.  His was the voice crying in the wilderness, now imprisoned in Herod’s dungeon, but not silenced.  John was a prophet and more than a prophet.

11:11 “Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”

Here is a paradox: there is no one born of woman greater than John but the least person in the kingdom of God is greater than John. What does Jesus mean?

John was a prophetic messenger linking the Old Covenant age with the New Covenant age. He was greater than any prophet who came before him, for he saw with his own eyes that which they had only prophesied — the Messiah. And among those born of woman, born through the natural process of birth, which is all of us, there is no one greater than John because he announced the presence and redeeming work of the holy Lamb of God. John announced the ministry of the One who would redeem planet earth and return it to its rightful owner.

Of those born of woman, there is none greater. But those who enter the kingdom of God because they are born of the Spirit, they are greater. In fact, the least in the kingdom of God is greater than John. We are not greater in salvation, for the sacrifice of Christ reaches back in time to cleanse and justify all the righteous, including John, and reaches forward in time to justify those who turn from sin and place their faith in Christ. 

But the humblest child reciting the Apostles Creed knows more than John knew of the truths of the kingdom of God — we are greater in knowledge of the truth, we have greater light. We are greater in bearing witness of the Messiah. Whereas John pointed the way to the Messiah and proclaimed a holy Lamb who would offer Himself as an atoning sacrifice for sin, we proclaim a Messiah who has come, who has died for sin and has risen from the dead. 

We are greater in joy, for we know that our Lord has conquered sin, death and hell. We are greater in our communion with Christ and greater in privilege — invited to come boldly before the throne of grace because the sin barrier has been removed. 

John the Baptist was the greatest of the prophets because he not only pointed the way to Jesus, he saw Jesus, the long-expected Messiah.  He was the greatest of those born of woman because he witnessed the beginning of the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth. But the least child in the kingdom of God is greater than the greatest person who lived before the kingdom of God, for all of the reasons listed above and many more.

11:12 “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and violent men take it by force.”

Truly the kingdom of heaven suffers violence — John was put to death, so were many of the prophets before him, so was Jesus, so were all the disciples except John, so it has been for many followers of Christ in every century. But there is much more to this verse than mere persecution. Consider these alternate readings:  “From the days of John the Baptist until now

1. “the kingdom of heaven is pressing in”  

2. “the Kingdom of heaven has been coming violently” 

3. “the kingdom of heaven exercises its power”

4. “the kingdom of heaven is forcibly entered”

and men of force 

1. “enter in forcefully”

2. “seize it for themselves”

Each of those phrases reveals the truth. The kingdom of God, that is, God’s rule of grace in the hearts of people, pushed into history through the birth, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus. The guilty were forgiven, demons cast out, the blind were seeing, the dead were raised.  What people saw and heard was the rule of God forcefully overthrowing the violence of hell's destruction in the lives of hurting people. 

Now the kingdom is pressing into the hearts of men and women through the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom. The light of the glory of Jesus forcefully penetrates hearts with the truth and power of grace, bringing men and women to repentance and faith. But we are not passive bystanders to God’s saving act. We forcefully enter the kingdom, we seize it for ourselves as we respond to God’s saving act. Turning from sin, placing our faith in Christ as our Savior and surrendering to the Lordship of Jesus are intentional, forceful actions.

Luke uses these words, “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the Gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached and everyone is forcing his way into it” (Luke 16:16).  We must force our way in to the kingdom because repentance and faith are counter-cultural acts — we are pushing against the values of a God-denying culture, swimming upstream in s downstream world.

John’s ministry was the turning point of history. Before John, the writers and prophets of the Old Testament promised the Messiah. John introduced the Messiah. The writers and prophets spoke of Messiah someday appearing and the signs of His coming kingdom.  John stood at the threshold of the door and pointed the way in.

At that moment in time, the kingdom of heaven, that is, the rule and reign of God, was exercising its own spiritual dynamic, pressing into history in the person and ministry of Jesus. Those who opened their lives to Christ, submitting to His Lordship, would then be joined to Him, pressing in with Him into history. Even to this day, as men and women enter the kingdom, we also share in the ministry of kingdom grace and kingdom purpose exploding into time.

We press into the kingdom by faith and proclaim the glad tidings of our God who Himself is pressing into history through our lives and through our witness and thereby is shaping history and bringing history to the fulfillment of His purpose.

Those who respond and turn and submit to God’s rule are, in fact, living in the reality of His kingdom.  Since the King and His rule is now being rejected by many, those who do enter find themselves in conflict with the rebels and with the world system that expresses their rebellion.  But rather than lift us out of this conflict, the King leaves us in it because it is His purpose to proclaim and advance His kingdom through those in whom His kingdom is established.

The greater the conflict, the greater the violence exercised against us, the more forcefully we turn to Him and the more completely we submit to His rule.  The more we submit to His kingdom authority, the more He can teach us about exercising kingdom authority.  This is a primary purpose of God in history — to form a faith community of people who live in and under His dominion of grace and who, in His name, exercise dominion over the powers of darkness. 

Jesus commissioned a Church, invested His wisdom, power, authority, name and anointing in that Church and sent it out to continue His kingdom work. This church is pressing into the world and “the violent take it by force” (Matt 11:12).

This is not a military / political take over.  But God is pushing into the lives of those who receive Him; His grace is overcoming, overruling the slaveries that were ruling our lives.  We, in turn, are pushing into kingdom life, struggling to reach out of the slavery that had bound us, reaching out to Jesus.

The very phrase, “The Kingdom of God is at hand,” gives a sense of a straining hand reaching out to take hold of the hand of God as God’s hand pushes through the darkness and oppression.

We, the church, are those who bring light where there was darkness, hope where there was despair, life where there was death.  Jesus multiplies His life through us as He once multiplied fish and loaves.  He is anointed not only to release His kingdom life and purpose in us but to release the flow of His kingdom life through us.

There is now the possibility of the recovered rule of God in any man, woman or child, any family, across world.  This new Kingdom possibility is within our reach / at hand.  It happens as we receive the King and as He then He establishes His rule / Kingdom in us.  It is an exercise of force in that God is joining His will to receptive, yielded, repentant, believing human wills and changing history, changing destiny, pushing back the powers of death.

  

Yes, there is a Kingdom pushing into history / lives. 

It does involve force but no, it is not in the way we expected: 

not of violence but of love, not an invasion of hate but of healing.

  

Jesus went about doing good, confronting evil, making whole that which was broken and saying: “This is the rule of God.”

11:13 “For all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John.”

As we said above, John’s ministry was the hinge of salvation history.  Before John, the writers and prophets of the Old Testament promised the Messiah, whereas John introduced the Messiah. 

11:14 “And if you are willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come.”

In the last chapter of the last book of the Old Testament, God spoke through the prophet Malachi and said, “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord.  He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers” (Malachi 4:5,6).  

When the angel appeared to John’s father, Zacharias, he quoted this passage, saying in effect, that the child who would be born to Zacharias and his wife would be the forerunner to the Messiah and would minister “in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:17). That does not mean that Elijah would physically return before the time of Jesus. John was not literally Elijah (he denied that in John 1:21). But his ministry was a fulfillment of the prophetic ministry of Elijah.  There was a likeness of spirit and power in the ministries and personalities of Elijah and John.

(Malachi’s words, “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord” may refer to a physical appearance of Elijah during the Great Tribulation (Revelation 11:3-12). Some believe that he will be one of the two witnesses who testify in Jerusalem but we do not know with any certainty. Elijah did appear with Moses and spoke with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration — see Matthew 17:1-3).

11:15 “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

God’s truth is hidden to the heart and mind of the unbelieving (2 Corinthians 4:3,4).  The god of this world has blinded unbelievers and they cannot perceive truth about God.  Only God can open our eyes and ears to perceive spiritual truth and God does that only with those who seek and ask, who desire truth.  If our spiritual perception has been opened so that we can recognize God’s self-revelation, we must exercise the gift.  It is one thing to be spiritually blind and deaf because we are dead to God.  But woe to us if God has opened our eyes and ears and we intentionally choose not to see and hear.  “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin” (James 4:17).

11:16,17 “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places, who call out to the other children, and say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’”

Jesus was speaking figuratively of John’s ministry and His own. John’s ministry, figuratively speaking, was a dirge, funeral-like in its stern call to prepare for the coming of Messiah by putting to death the deeds of the flesh and showing works worthy of repentance. Jesus’ ministry is compared to a wedding dance, joyfully celebrating reconciliation to our Heavenly Father and entrance into His kingdom with all of its blessing, privilege and purpose.  But like children playing, the people had refused both John and Jesus, refused to mourn, refused to dance.

11:18 “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’”

John’s rigorous lifestyle matched his stern call to repentance and both were offensive to self-satisfied, self-righteous people. There are only two responses when we are confronted with truth and convicted of sin. We can turn from our sin or grasp our sin more closely. Those who refused to repent of their sin attempted to justify themselves by attributing John’s ministry to demonic empowerment.  How convenient and comforting to one’s deceived, religious sensibility to condemn and demonize the offending prophet rather than face one’s own sinfulness and repent.  Far easier to say, “Yes, John must be of the devil; because if he’s not, if he really is from God, then I will have to face the reality that I am a sinner and my rejection of John is an offense to God.”

11:19 “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”

Jesus’ readiness to befriend sinners, to eat with common people and join in their daily joys and griefs, was a scandal to the narrow, religious mind of His day.  The love of God for failed people is a grievous offense to the self-righteous, so hard and proud and unloving.  They trivialize Jesus, “How silly of Him to eat with sinners, how unspiritual.  He must be a glutton and a drunkard.”

In verse sixteen Jesus compares those who rejected Him and John to children playing in the market place.  No doubt the hyper-religious folk saw themselves as anything but childish.  They surely regarded themselves as orthodox believers, gate keepers of the true faith.  But in fact, they were self-deceived, hiding from God behind the fig leaf of their religion, even as Adam and Eve had hidden.

Jesus’ words were not intended to demean children at play.  With innocence and passion, children abandon themselves in their games, believing the game with all their heart.  The truly child-like heart, humble, innocent and passionate, is a requirement for entering the kingdom of God. This is what Jesus was referring to when He said, “Unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of God”  (Matthew 18:3).

But these folk who are rejecting John’s call to repentance and Jesus’ call to grace are not child-like. Rather, they are merely childish. In every generation, there are those who cling to hollow religion while rejecting God’s truth. The Lord does not consider them to be child-like but immature, deceived, fatally clinging to a form of religion while denying the powerful reality of true, transforming relationship with God whereby we enter His kingdom.

Jesus closes with these words, “Yet wisdom is known by her deeds.” The word deeds, teknon, is often translated children and this gives a clear sense of Jesus’ meaning. He is content to let the future, to let history, judge His life and ministry through the lives of His spiritual children — those who follow Him and are discipled by Him. History’s assessment of Christ is based, to a great degree, on the quality of His disciples and our deeds.

In this passage (11:1-19), we see three ways that people can miss what God is doing in their generation:

1. Because of our rigid preconceptions  — expecting something other than what God is doing or expecting a timing contrary to God’s timing.

2. When we are offended by truth tellers, rejecting the prophet so we don’t have to listen to his or her truth.

3. When we are offended by God’s love for sinners, which reveals our self-righteousness.

A helpful prayer might be:

“Lord, deliver me from doctrines and expectations 

that limit, bind or restrict my experience of You.  

Deliver me from self-righteousness and lovelessness 

that causes me to be offended by You and to reject You.”

Study Questions

1. Why do you suppose John may have needed some reassurance about Jesus? (v. 1-6)

2. What did Jesus mean when He said that the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John? (v. 11)

11:20-30

The Danger of Light

11:20-22 “Then He began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles were done, because they did not repent. ‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.’”

On the day of judgment, it will be better for pagan cities that never witnessed the mighty works of Jesus than cities which experienced His ministry but did not repent.  Why?  Because judgment is based on the light revealed to us.  Greater light incurs greater accountability.  

Chorazin was a village near the Sea of Galilee and Bethsaida was located along the shore of that famous lake.  Both were blessed by the presence of Jesus, by the teachings and miracles of Jesus, yet refused to repent and turn in faith to their Messiah.  Tyre and Sidon were Gentile cities located in present day Lebanon. The people were worshippers of idols but Jesus says that if those foreign cities had experienced His ministry in the same way as the people of Galilee, they would have turned to God.

Jesus is not saying that the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon will escape judgment.  Everyone who fails to confess Jesus as Lord and Savior will be condemned and that will include the pagan unbelievers of Tyre and Sidon. But judgment will be worse for those who saw and heard Jesus and refused to believe in Him. All unbelievers will be condemned to eternal separation from God because they chose to live separated from Him. However we describe hell, it is essentially this — “eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (2 Thes. 1:9). But evidently, hell will be worse for those who had greater light.

Keep in mind that in Romans 1:18-32, we see that God has revealed a measure of light to all people, through creation and through conscience. This is called natural revelation and though it is not saving revelation, when people act on the light they have, God will reveal more light until they come to the saving knowledge of Christ. The reason that people do not know the living God is not because God is unknowable but because people suppress the light of God’s truth. So God is righteous in condemning all who refuse to turn from their sin and believe in the saving work of Jesus.

11:23,24 “And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you.”

Sodom, the immoral city which God destroyed with fire in the days of Abraham, will fare better on Judgment Day than Capernaum, the city in which Jesus based His ministry in Galilee.  Why?  Capernaum had the witness of Jesus.  Sodom had only the witness of Lot, a righteous but compromised man. Capernaum had more light, therefore, judgment will be greater.  In fact, Jesus said that if the miracles done in Capernaum had been witnessed in Sodom, Sodom would still have existed in Jesus’ day.

Again, this is not to say that the immoral population of Sodom will escape hell.  They will spend eternity in hell.  But somehow, hell will be worse for the respectable people of Capernaum who heard the words and saw the miracles of Jesus but did not believe in Him.

There is no record that the people of Chorazin,  Bethsaida or Capernaum persecuted Jesus. Nor were they particularly immoral, hateful or idolatrous. By the standards of their day, they were good, respectable, religious folk.  But they were indifferent to the ministry of Jesus.  How terrible, that indifference can send respectably wicked people to a darker degree of hell than that which criminally wicked people experience.

What produces spiritual indifference?  What can cause a person to be so calloused to the presence of God, the truth and light of God, the kindness and mercy of God, the holiness and righteous justice of God, that they could listen to God in the flesh, see Him perform miracles, pass Him in the street, and not be moved to repentance and faith?

We might understand the indifference of the pagan people of Tyre and Sidon, captured by idols, false religions, all of which dulled their senses to God.  For the people of Sodom, it was their perverse immorality, oppression of the poor and selfish ingratitude toward God that made their hearts hard (Genesis 19:4,5   Ezekiel 16:49,50).

But the people of the Galilean cities where Jesus lived and ministered were not idol worshippers or immoral revelers.  They were, for the most part, devout Jews who were living in expectation of the appearing of the Messiah.  The problem, as we have said before, is that they had a false expectation of the Messiah and they misunderstood the kind of Savior they needed. They were awaiting a conquering warrior / king, not a humble servant who saves by dying on a cross.  They were awaiting national deliverance from foreign occupation, not personal deliverance from indwelling sin.

Their true enemy was not Rome or any other foreign nation.  Their enemy was the sin which corrupts the human heart and separates us from God.  But they failed to realize their sin because of religious pride — self-satisfied and self-righteous, they thought, “We’re children of Abraham, caretakers of the covenant, the holy Scriptures and the temple.  We have circumcision, the sacrificial system and the priesthood. National deliverance from Roman occupation?  Yes, we’re waiting for that Messiah. Personal deliverance from indwelling sin? No, we’re God’s chosen.”

There were obvious Messianic qualities in Jesus, undeniable authority revealed in His teaching and His miracles.  But with few exceptions, the people felt no need for salvation from sin by any other means than the religious system that was already in place. False expectations of the Messiah and religious pride created indifference, dulled their hearts to their own need and to the saving ministry of Jesus.  

Also, for a privileged few in Galilee and Judea, comfortable prosperity dulled their senses to the God who had blessed and prospered them.  The Bible does not say that money is evil.  To the contrary, Psalm 35:27 says, “God delights in the prosperity of His servant.”  But we are also warned that “the love of money is the root of all evil” (I Tim 6:10). Resources are not evil but unbalanced love of resources can lead to great evil.  We are warned of “the deceitfulness of riches” (Matt 13:22).  Wealth, comfort, prosperity can deceive us into the false security of self-dependence.  We might not be so brazen as to say, “I don’t need God.”  But we might live as if we don’t need God.  

False expectations of the Messiah, religious pride, comfortable prosperity — these mindsets created spiritual indifference in the society of Jesus’ day and still do today.

The people around the Sea of Galilee had been greatly blessed by God but had grown indifferent to God and failed to recognize the presence of God in their midst. They were people of the covenant, but the old covenant was passing away and a new covenant was at hand. The priesthood would soon be replaced by a Great High Priest. The temple sacrifices would soon be unnecessary, for a perfect, holy, unblemished Lamb, the Lamb of God, would be sacrificed for the sins of the world.  Yet a generation would miss this season of fulfillment and new beginnings.  Their judgment would be far greater than the judgment of pagan cities, for their light was greater.

One final note. People ask, “How could God judge the people of Tyre, Sidon, Sodom or any other city where the people have never had the opportunity to hear the Gospel of Jesus?”

Again, in Romans chapter one, the Apostle Paul says that there is enough light for anyone, anywhere to know that God exists.  The problem is not that the truth about God is unknown, but that it is known and suppressed and exchanged for idols.

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.  For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:18-21).

Paul says that God has planted within each human heart the knowledge of His existence and has revealed His eternal power and His divine nature through creation. His power is revealed through the awesomeness of creation and His mercy and grace are revealed through the everyday kindness of a creation that sustains life. His justice is revealed in our natural sense of right and wrong, which is evident to some degree even in the most depraved heart.

So with have both an internal and an external witness. As we have said, this is not saving revelation but it is enough light to reveal the existence of God. Awakened to the truth of God’s existence, when anyone responds with a sincere hunger to know God, to enter into relationship with Him, God will always find a way to reveal the ministry of Jesus Christ to that soul: “For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6).  

The problem is not that God has hidden the truth about Himself but that people have suppressed or hidden the truth (Romans 1:18).  Paul goes on to say that having suppressed the truth about God, people then exchange that truth for a lie and invent systems of idolatry, replacing the worship of the true God with idols fashioned after their own imaginations. This has led to every form of wickedness and God has given them up to their darkness (Romans 1:22-32).

There is light enough to know that God exists and to know something of His character and God holds everyone accountable for their response to His revelation of Himself.  When people refuse, reject and suppress the revelation of God, God eventually gives them up to the blindness which they have chosen (see Rom. 1:24,26,28   2 Thes. 2:11,12).

The people of Tyre, Sidon and Sodom had enough light to turn to God and if they had turned, the Lord would have responded by revealing the way of salvation. On the day of judgment, God will hold them accountable for their failure to turn to Him. But the people of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum will be judged by a far greater standard because their light was far greater. God visited them in the flesh, they saw and heard the ministry of Jesus and yet were indifferent.

11:25 “At that time Jesus said, ‘I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants.’”

Jesus thanks the Father that “these things”, i.e., the good news of the kingdom, His true identity as Messiah, have been hidden from the so-called “wise and intelligent” and revealed to infants. Who are these intelligent ones who fail to recognize God’s truth incarnate in human form?  They are those in every generation who are learned in religion but know nothing of God; who are skilled in business, arts and entertainment, enterprise and technology but have not obtained even the beginning of true wisdom, which is the awed reverence of God (Proverbs 9:10).  

Astute in the exercise of power and resources, creative and skilled, they gain knowledge, wealth and influence but lose sight of their own helplessness, sinfulness and need.  In the end, having gained their hopes and dreams, wise in the ways of the world but ignorant of God and empty, they lose their souls and gain nothing of ultimate value.

The means that God uses to hide “these things” is the false wisdom and rebellious pride of those who refuse the revelation of Jesus Christ. The good news of God’s kingdom breaking into history through a crucified Savior was “to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness” (I Corinthians 1:23). They not only did not recognize the truth in Jesus, they were offended by what they did see and hear.

In their arrogance, fallen humanity rejects the light of God shining through Jesus and the result is darkness. Satan, the god of this world, provides an endless supply of philosophies, religions, pleasures and distractions to keep people from apprehending the saving ministry of Jesus, as the Apostle Paul said, “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:3,4).

God is able to remove that veil and offers to do so over long seasons of grace, patiently calling, mercifully providing divine appointments with saving truth. But when people continue to suppress the truth, continue to exchange the truth for a lie, become so hardened to the truth that they will not listen and cannot hear the truth, God will give them up to their chosen darkness. 

Three times in Romans chapter one Paul uses this phrase, “God gave them over” (Rom. 1:24,26,28). When people repeatedly deny and suppress the light, God gives them over to their chosen darkness, removes His restraint and allows sinners to run as far as their sin will take them. In fact, in 2 Thes. 2:11,12, God sends a spirit of delusion on those who reject light and truth.

We are reminded that throughout the centuries, the truly redeemed followers of Christ are not usually the power brokers of their generation. God has called “not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that he may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God”  (I Cor 1:26-29).

Truth is hidden from the wise and the mighty and revealed to babes.  Babes are the childlike who listen to Jesus, the simple, humble ones who act on His truth, who believe in and submit to His Lordship, who are now children of God and are translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son (Colossians 1:13,14).

11:26 “Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight.”

It is God’s will that those who are wise in the wisdom of this age, who reject and suppress the truth about God, who exchange the truth of God for the lies which pass as wisdom in this world, will find themselves given up by God to the darkness they choose. But it is also God’s will that the child-like would recognize Him and believe in Him.  “To those who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God” (Jn. 1:12). God has purposed that the humble and child-like who place their faith in Christ are reborn as children of God.

11:27 “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”

Faith in Christ, the capacity to recognize Him as the Son of God, Messiah-Redeemer, the capacity to believe in Him and surrender to his Lordship, is a gift from God.  Only God can reveal Himself to us.

Why is this so?  Because in our natural state of separation from God, we are spiritually dead (see Ephesians 2:1-3). We are blind to spiritual truth (see 2 Cor. 4:4) and unresponsive to God’s revelation of Himself (see Romans 3:10-12). Therefore God pursues us, awakens us to Himself, shines His light into our hearts, enough light to cause us to seek Him. When we seek Him, we will find Him. Through Jeremiah, the Lord said, “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.  I will be found by you, declares the Lord” (Jer. 29:13,14).

When our heart is awakened so that we desire to know God and seek Him with all our heart, no matter what century or culture we live in, God will find a way to shine the light of the glory of Jesus into our heart.  Where do we find the full revelation of God?  Jesus said, “If you have seen Me you have seen the Father” (John 14:9).

In Jesus, we see, not just the truth that God exists, but we also see the truth that God is gracious to save and redeem us from our sin.  We see how God does this, through the atoning death of Christ on the cross, whereby he bore our sins and satisfied the justice of God.  We see how God proves this, through the resurrection of Christ.

In summary, God reveals the truth of His existence — His moral goodness and justice through human conscience, His eternal power and His divine nature through creation. His power is revealed through the awesomeness of creation and His mercy and grace are revealed through the everyday kindness of a creation that sustains life.  This much truth or light is available to everyone.

This is not enough light to be reconciled to God and saved from sin but God knows the heart of every person.  When anyone responds to truth by seeking more truth, when anyone awakens to light and desires more light, God will reveal the saving ministry of Jesus to that soul. An old hymn expresses this truth so wonderfully:

I sought the Lord and afterward I knew

He moved my soul to seek Him seeking me

“Twas not so much that I on Thee took hold

as Thou, dear Lord, on me

The Easy Yoke

11:28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”

These words constitute the great cathedral bell of God’s invitation:

1. “Come unto Me”: 

Jesus, God in flesh, is the revelation of God’s salvation purpose for all humanity.  He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but by Me,” (John 14:6).   In Him personally are hidden the riches of salvation, “Who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (I Corinthians 1:30).

2. “All”: 

Who is invited?  All who have ears to hear the invitation; all who have eyes to see that Jesus is the long awaited Messiah, God’s Deliverer.  How many are included in “all”?  Whoever hears the invitation and respond in humble faith:  “Whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved”  (Romans 10:13)

3. “All who labor and are heavily burdened”:

 

burdened with the weight of sin and guilt

burdened with the weight of futile human religion 

burdened with the weight of bitter failure and empty success

burdened with the weight of grief and trauma and harsh circumstance

burdened with the weight of everyday cares and unending labor

burdened with the weight of fear and dread

4. “I will give you”: 

The greatest gifts in heaven or on earth can only be given by God and these are given through His Son, “In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3).

5. “I will give you rest”: 

The word “rest” means refreshment.  It is the word used in Revelation 14:13 of the saints who die in the Lord, “And I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘Write, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’  ‘Yes’, says the Spirit, ‘so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.’”

How does Jesus give us this rest?  By breaking all the unholy yokes that have bound us slave-like to unholy masters, and then yoking us to Himself.  He is the Prince of Peace and to abide in Him is to abide in peace. “In Him is life” and to abide in Him is to abide in true life, abundant life, everlasting life.

11:29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

He breaks the yoke of false religion

and yokes us in love to God our Father

He breaks the yoke of guilt and sin

and yokes us to God’s forgiveness

he breaks the enslaving yoke of false freedom

and yokes us to a life of liberating service

Jesus calls us to be yoked to Himself and to learn of Him.  He reminds us that the goal of discipleship is to be like the Lord.  We are not merely to learn of Him but to become like Him.  This is the great privilege and blessing of discipleship, that we would grow “to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ” (Eph 4:13). 

Being yoked to Jesus means being joined to Him, abiding in Him as He abides in us.  This happens through the supernatural miracle of new birth — Jesus raises us from the sleep of spiritual death, regenerates us as new creatures by His power and grace and comes to indwell us — our life is joined to His life. In union with Christ, He begins to cultivate His life, His character, His mind and heart in us.

The yoke of Jesus is a yoke of liberating labor and fulfilling service, we are joined to His ministry, His kingdom purpose.  It is a yoke of empowered sacrifice and self denial, sharing in the fellowship of His sufferings and in the power of His resurrection.  It is a yoke of overflowing joy, sharing in the joy of our Master.  

And again He reminds us, it is a yoke of rest. As He lives His life through us, we share in the inexhaustible riches of His strength and wisdom. We find that His grace is sufficient for every thorn, every trial, every crisis. Our lack becomes a resource multiplier, our weakness becomes a strength multiplier because our need drives us to the One who “has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4).

11:30 “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Jesus’ yoke is easy and the burden is light because we are yoked to Christ Himself and He upholds us as we share His life and ministry. “Cast your burden on the Lord and He will sustain you” (Psalm 55:22).  Yoked to Christ, He not only bears our burden but bears us up, sustaining, leading, renewing us in His image.

Study Questions

1. Why will judgment be “more tolerable” for some pagan cities than for the cities located around the Sea of Galilee in Jesus’ day? (v. 20-24).

2. What does it mean to you that you have been yoked to Jesus? (v. 29,30).

Matthew 12:1-21

Jesus, Lord of the Sabbath

12:1,2 “At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, ‘Look, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath.’”

Israel was commanded by God to keep the Sabbath as a holy day of rest and worship of the God who had called them into covenant with Himself. However, over the centuries a body of man-made rules had developed alongside the God-given Sabbath law, binding people in increasingly burdensome laws that robbed people of the peace and blessing God wanted them to experience. 

There were non-Scriptural rules defining how many steps you could take, how much you could lift, how many stitches you could put in a garment. One Sabbath day, Jesus and His disciples were passing through some grain fields. They were not there to harvest; they were simply traversing the foot paths that wound through the fields. Because the disciples were hungry, they began to pluck and eat the heads of the grain.

According to the Law of Moses, picking a handful of grain while passing through a field on the Sabbath was permitted. This was not stealing and was not a violation of the prohibition against working on the Sabbath. But the Pharisees considered this to be work — plucking even a handful of grain was said to be reaping and rubbing the husk away was threshing.  They considered this to be a violation of the Sabbath law of rest. As we have said, the Law of Moses, which God had given Israel, did not prohibit this.  It was the religious traditions of the scribes which had been attached to the Law, which were being violated. Technically, it was the Pharisees who were committing sin in placing their religious traditions on the same level as the Word of God.

12:3,4 “But He said to them, ‘Have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions, how he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat nor for those with him, but for the priests alone?’”

In asking, “Have you not read what David did,” Jesus was asking the Pharisees if they had read the word of God, if they were aware of the authority of that word. In a more subtle way, He is asking them if they realize that they are placing their rules on the same level as God’s word.

Jesus points out that when David and his companions were running for their lives and were hungry, they ate the holy bread from the tabernacle.  This broke the Sabbath law concerning consecrated bread but God was not offended because of His compassion for the hunger of David and his men.

12:5 “Or have you not read in the Law, that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent?”

Again Jesus confronts the Pharisees, “Or have you not read in the Law.” They are either ignorant of God’s word, which is not likely, or they are knowingly violating it. They pretend to such wisdom and authority, intimidating the common people with their exalted status as religious nobility. But it is they who are living outside the law.

Jesus points out to them that the priests in the temple, in carrying out their duties, labored on the Sabbath but they were considered innocent.  So there was legal precedent for the breaking of Sabbath law when necessary. And again, the disciples were not violating the Law of Moses. They were violating traditions that had been attached to the Law.

12:6 “But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here.”

Jesus reminds the Pharisees that something greater than the temple is in their midst (and by implication, greater than their man-made Sabbath traditions).  He is in fact claiming to be God and therefore, Lord over the Sabbath.  He returns to this theme in 12:41,42 when He reminds them that people repented at the preaching of Jonah and something greater than Jonah is here.  People journeyed to hear Solomon and something greater than Solomon is here.   

The problem is that the Pharisees are aware of their religious traditions but not at all aware of the identity of the One in whose presence they stood, the One of whom the fourth Gospel testifies, 

“All things came into being through Him 

and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being.  

In Him was life and the life was the light of men” (John 1:3,4).

They reverence the temple and its rituals but are so distant from the God who gave them these gifts. They reverence their man-made religious traditions more than the Word of God and cannot discern the presence of this God who has been born in human form and is standing in their midst.  

12:7 “But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.”

Jesus quotes from the prophet Hosea (6:6), in which God reprimanded the people of Hosea’s day for engaging in religious ritual while becoming distant in their relationship with Him and wicked in their relationships with one another. In other words, their religion had become nothing more than external form divorced from internal spiritual reality. They were carrying on an outward form of piety while their hearts were corrupt; worshipping God with their words while their hearts were far from Him. That is nothing other than religious hypocrisy and God condemned it in Hosea’s day as He does in every generation.

Jesus is speaking to Pharisees, religious zealots who were living at a distance from God, who had lost touch with God’s priorities.  God gave Israel the sacrificial system, the Psalms and prayers and rituals so they could celebrate Him and serve Him.  But if ritual becomes a substitute for knowing God; if we practice our ritual while tolerating sin and compromise in our lives; if we use our rituals to cover our sin, if our ritual numbs us to the needs of people around us, then our religion is only a means of continual separation from the God whom we profess to worship. 

When we become more devoted to our rituals than to the passion and priority of God, then we may well hear a prophetic voice proclaim a disturbing message:

“I hate, I reject your festivals, 

nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies.  

Even though you offer up to me 

burnt offerings and your grain offerings, 

I will not accept them; 

and I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings;  

take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen 

to the sound of your harps.  

But let justice roll down like waters 

and righteousness like an ever flowing stream”  

(Amos 5:21-24  see also Isa 1:11-17).

Neither Amos nor Hosea nor Jesus advised the people to abandon the sacrificial system (though only a few decades after Jesus’ resurrection they would, when the Romans destroyed the temple and the priesthood was subsequently disbanded).  Jesus is not counseling these Pharisees to abandon the rituals which God had given them. Rather, He is exhorting them to know the heart of this God in whose name they exercise their rituals.

The heart of God is a heart of mercy.  Our worship of this God creates in us a craving for mercy and drives us in our humble need to the honey in the rock for which our soul craved.  Having experienced mercy, we then become instruments of mercy in the lives of others.

In God’s system of values, mercy and love are the fulfilling of the Law but too often the learned men and women of established religion are ignorant of this truth. God forbid that our religious insight only serves to darken our eyes to God’s truth, only dulls our sensitivity to God’s priorities. God forbid that our worship of Him would become such dry religious exercise that we would neither taste mercy nor come away bearing any for others.

12:8 “For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Jesus, co-Creator with the Father and the Holy Spirit of all that was and is and shall be, created the Sabbath.  He is therefore Lord over that which He created.  How absurd that we would attempt, with religious chains, to restrict and bind the One who created us and created our Sabbath day and our Sabbath songs and liturgies.  Rather, we should ask Him to break our religious bondage that we might know Him and enjoy Him and that our Sabbath rest of abiding in Him and He in us would be unendingly joyful and recreative.

By the way, there’s not one New Testament command to keep the Sabbath.  All the Ten Commandments are repeated in the New Testament except the one about the Sabbath. There is  no mention of Sabbath rules anywhere in the New Covenant, though we are surely exhorted to meet together for worship, for teaching and fellowship (for instance, Hebr 10:25).  

In fact, the Apostle Paul wrote to the Colossian church, “Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day”  (Colossians 2:16).  This was in response to Jewish believers who were attempting to force Gentile believers to observe the law of Moses and the weight of religious tradition that had attached to that law.  Paul says, “No.”

In Acts 15, when the Jerusalem Council decided what would be required of Gentile believers in the church, there were no requirements to observe the Sabbath.  In fact, Jesus violated extra-Biblical Sabbath regulations repeatedly.  He didn't have to heal people on the Sabbath or command a man to pick up his bed and carry it away.  But He did it and He did it purposely.

Jesus never violated the Word of God.  He fulfilled it by living it perfectly. But He violated the man made traditions that had been attached to God’s Word because He is Lord of the Sabbath, greater than the Sabbath. The Sabbath will be what He designed it to be. 

God gave the Sabbath to be a blessing to humanity:

to give us rest from our wearying work in a fallen world; 

to give us a taste of paradise where everything was rest, before the Fall; 

to give us an opportunity to thank God for His goodness; 

to learn of Him, to worship Him and to reflect on our covenant relationship with Him, in which covenant we are redeemed and prepared for the wonderful day when paradise lost will be paradise regained.

A man once said, “I cannot do everything expected of me in seven days but I can in six.”  There is something about holy rest that multiplies our strength.

Sabbath is a gift from God, not to be used in sinful ways but experienced

as God’s gift to the worshipper who is renewed while praising God; 

as God’s gift to the lover of truth who is renewed as God’s Word is studied and taught; 

as God’s gift to the weary who are refreshed as they rest; 

as God’s gift to the lost who in Sabbath seeking, are found by God.

Sabbath keeping is a discipline of joy

a discipline of peace

a discipline that renews us for the coming week.

Sabbath keeping is a celebration of family love,

a holy time for doing good and sharing mercy.

In Mark 2:27 we read that the Sabbath was made for man, 

it is God’s gift but the wealth of the gift is only enjoyed in the Giver.

Sabbath separated from the Giver is no Sabbath at all.

We should avoid the secular rejection of the Sabbath.

We should avoid the religious legalist’s enslavement to the Sabbath.

The New Testament church provides a good model for us.  They gathered together on the first day of the week to worship and pray, to listen as God’s Word was taught, to eat together and celebrate the Lord’s Supper as a community of faith, a day of rejoicing and renewal.

12:9,10 “Departing from there, He went into their synagogue. And a man was there whose hand was withered. And they questioned Jesus, asking, ‘Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?’ — so that they might accuse Him.”

The controversy now centers not on grain but on a man with a crippled hand.  However, the underlying issue is the same: keeping the Sabbath law.  The opponents of Jesus ask, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

There was no Old Testament law which prohibited the practice of any medical or healing skill on a Sabbath. There was certainly no prohibition against doing good, working mercy. It was the thousands of mad-made regulations that had been attached to the Law which had obscured the true meaning and intent of the Law and certainly had blinded people to God’s heart. 

How contrary to the heart of God, that a day set aside to rest and reverence Him, would become a day when works of mercy would be declared illegal!  When the Pharisees saw the disciples of Jesus plucking heads of grain, when they saw a man with a crippled hand who was unable to work, what was aroused in their heart was zeal for laws and regulations.  When Jesus looked at human need, He was moved with compassion.  The Pharisees were motivated to argue, to rebuke.  Jesus was motivated to do works of mercy.

Is it lawful to do good, to exercise mercy on a holy day?  God’s priority is always the exercise of mercy and kindness.  His holy Law is never in opposition to His mercy. How ironic that anyone’s religious activity can blind them to the needs of others and the yearning of God to touch them.

12:11,12 “And He said to them, ‘What man is there among you who has a sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.’”

It is a characteristic of false religion that people are devalued. Misunderstanding the heart of God, people then fail to appreciate God’s value of fallen human beings, His love for them, His desire to redeem, to bless, to reveal His goodness to them. Jesus reminds these fallen religious men that if one of their sheep was in danger, they would rescue it even if this happened on a Sabbath.  He concludes that since a man is of more value than a sheep, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.

12:13 “Then He said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand!’ He stretched it out, and it was restored to normal, like the other.”

Jesus commands healing and it is done. He speaks to the crippled hand and it responds to the voice of Creator God.

12:14 “But the Pharisees went out and conspired against Him, as to how they might destroy Him.”

Whereas the man’s affliction motivated the Pharisee’s religious legalism, Jesus’ act of healing motivates their rage.  Jesus’ act of mercy, in violation of their religious law, so infuriated these religious men that they went out discussing how they might destroy Him. They did not seek the man’s healing but they do seek the destruction of Jesus the healer.  How terribly bound they were by the very religion which was supposed to bring them into covenant relationship with the living God, a God who defines Himself not only as holy, but as holiness expressed in mercy.

When our religion deadens our heart to human need, causes us to rage against mercy and separates our heart from God’s heart, then may God deliver us from our religion.  When we look at human suffering and see only the rule of religious doctrine and law, then God deliver us from the tyranny of false doctrine and anti-Scriptural law and may God cleanse our eyes.

12:15 “But Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. Many followed Him, and He healed them all.”

Jesus withdrew from that place of religious bondage.  “Many followed Him and he healed them all.” Following Jesus, they withdrew from religion and entered into healing.  

Three truths about the ministry of Jesus are revealed:

1. Jesus withdrew from and avoided needless controversy.  

He never backed down from confrontation with evil, hypocrisy, disease or any work of the devil that blinded and oppressed people.  Scripture says, “He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil” (Acts 10:38).  But he did not allow unnecessary entanglements to steal His time or energy or break His focus.  

Neither did He seek publicity or self promotion.  His truth was not trumpeted from street corners but veiled in parables; His divine nature was humbly hidden in human form.  How strange Jesus appears to our times, when promotion, profile and publicity are such huge priorities in so many self-glorifying ministries.

2. “Many followed Him.”

People were drawn to Jesus, no matter where He went or how He veiled His ministry.

3. “He healed them all.”  

When did Jesus not heal or deliver anyone who came to Him?  Human need mixed with faith pulled mercy from the heart of Jesus. Even when faith seemed to be lacking, Jesus responded with such abundance of kindness.

12:16 “and warned them not to tell who He was.”

Jesus avoided notoriety and often asked people not to reveal His miracles. He did this for several reasons.

1. The people were in a continual state of expectation, looking for a political Messiah who would overthrow the hated Romans. They were always one match away from the fire of violent rebellion. Jesus avoided fueling that fire.

2. Jesus never used His power to self-promote. His motivation was pure compassion.

3. Miracles attracted crowds and Jesus was not attempting to build crowds. He was attempting to make disciples. Discipling is best done in small groups.

4. Crowds made it difficult to eat, rest, pray. In order to function, Jesus avoided drawing crowds whenever possible.

12:17,18 “This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: ‘Behold My servant, whom I have chosen, My beloved, in whom My soul is well-pleased. I will put My Spirit upon Him, and He shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles.’”

More than any other Gospel writer, Matthew quotes from the Old Testament to show how Jesus fulfilled every prophetic word concerning the Messiah. Though the prophets were writing centuries before the birth of Jesus, they provide a clear portrait of the coming Deliverer. God is able to declare the end from the beginning because He exists beyond the end and before the beginning. 

Though people and nations resist God, reject His purpose, persecute and oppose His church, God is not surprised nor defeated.  He knows in advance all possible outcomes and has prepared contingencies for every conceivable circumstance.  The result of Israel’s rejection of Jesus has been the salvation of the Gentiles, as prophesied by Isaiah.

12:19 “He will not quarrel nor cry out; nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets.”

Jesus does not coerce people into serving Him.  His is not the voice of earthquake, wind or fire. In His first advent, He was not the warrior-king who drove out the Romans. He was the humble servant of mercy who suffered for His beloved.

12:20 “A battered reed He will not break off, and a smoldering wick He will not put out, until He leads justice to victory.”

In contrast to the indifference and violence of the religious authorities, Jesus is so gentle with us in our infirmities.  His gentleness is such that He does not break that which is bruised nor quench the sputtering flame.  Where some would see only a soul bruised beyond remedy, Jesus sees a life waiting for His redeeming touch.  Where some would see in us only a smoldering wick, Jesus sees a candle waiting for His restoring breath.  We can trust Him with our brokenness, our lost vision, our fears and hopes.

12:21 “And in His name the Gentiles will hope.”

That which so offended Israel, this Messiah revealed as a suffering servant, this Lord of the Sabbath who violated Godless religion in order to set free those bound by religious law, this Messiah rejected by Israel, became the hope of the Gentiles.  

Though many in Israel were beginning to express violent opposition to Jesus and though the nation later rejected their Messiah, God is not finished with Israel, as the Apostle Paul said,  “For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?” (Romans 11:15). Someday there will be a mighty revival in Israel. Hearts will be broken in repentance, eyes will be opened to recognize Jesus as the Messiah and there will be a massive harvest of souls for the kingdom of God.

The Lord promised this through the prophet Zecharia, “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn” (Zech. 12:10).

In that day there will be a great harvest in Israel and an army of evangelists will go forth around the world.

Study Questions

1. The Pharisees were angry when the disciples plucked a bit of grain on the Sabbath. What was lacking in their hearts? (v. 7)

2. Why were the Pharisees so angry when Jesus healed the man in the synagogue? (v. 9-14)

Matthew 12:22-30

The Presence of the Kingdom

12:22,23 “Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus, and He healed him, so that the mute man spoke and saw. All the crowds were amazed, and were saying, ‘This man cannot be the Son of David, can he?’”

A man, demon possessed and afflicted with blindness and loss of speech, was brought to Jesus and Jesus healed him. The people were amazed (existemi, to be totally astounded, beside oneself with astonishment) and wondered if this could be the Son of David, that is, the Messiah.

However, it sounds as though their astonishment is tempered with doubt, ambivalence: “This man cannot be the Son of David, can He?” It was impossible to deny the power of Jesus —  it was evident but they were reluctant to accept Him as Messiah because His ministry did not fit their preconceived ideas as to what the Messiah would do.

They were expecting a conqueror who would overthrow the power of Rome and establish the visible kingdom of God in all of its glory.  How could this humble, merciful, friend of poor people, healer of the sick and preacher of grace to sinners possibly be the Messiah?  They did not recognize the many Old Testament passages which painted exactly this portrait of the Messiah.

Meanwhile, the Jerusalem power brokers dispatched representatives to keep an eye on Jesus: Pharisees (religious fundamentalists) and scribes (experts in religious law) and Herodians (political allies of King Herod).  The religious leaders were enraged by Jesus’ disrespect for their unbiblical traditions, rules and regulations. They, and the political powers, were also threatened by Jesus’ popularity with ordinary men and women.

They were witnessing one miracle after another and a rising tide of interest in this preacher from Galilee. Although the fickle public was unstable in their loyalty to Jesus, the possibility remained that the people would cast their allegiance with Him and this increased jealousy, hostility and opposition from the religious and secular authorities. People turning to Jesus would be a threat to the religious / political / economic power base of the rulers.

12:24 “But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, ‘This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.’”

In an attempt to discredit Jesus, the Pharisees attributed His miracles to the power of Satan (they had made this charge before — see 9:34).  They could not deny the reality of Jesus’ miracles nor the supernatural power behind the miracles.  So they attempted to discredit the source of His power: “This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.”  

Beelzebub was the name of a Philistine god.  Beel comes from Baal (an ancient Canaanite word for lord).  Zebub or zebul  has to do with the word flies: Lord of the flies.

They are saying that Jesus’ power is not from God but from the devil. And they use such a disrespectable form of ridicule.

Again, they are not denying the supernatural character of Jesus’s ministry. But there are only two categories for supernatural work: God or Satan, because their kingdoms are the only supernatural dominions that exist.

12:25,26 “And knowing their thoughts Jesus said to them, ‘Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself will not stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?’”

Jesus demonstrates deity in His omniscience, His knowledge of their thoughts. That alone should have stopped their slander. 

And notice the unassailable wisdom of His response — it makes no sense for Satan to oppose the work of Satan.  Satan’s goal is to gain control of human lives and through those lives to influence and manipulate the world in destructive opposition to the purposes of God.  But if Satan is casting demons out of people, breaking demonic control where it has been established, then how can his kingdom stand?  To suggest such self-defeating action by a being who seeks only to do evil is absurd.

That’s not to say that everything which occurs in the kingdom of darkness is always reasonable or logical.  Evil always produces chaos.  In chaos, there will be inconsistency.  Further, Satan is not omnipotent, so he can't control everything; he is not omniscient, so he doesn't know everything and he is not omnipresent.  So there will be chaos in his kingdom but not to the extent where Satan is subverting his own purposes. 

There may be times when Satan disguises himself as a worker for God and appears to be casting demons out as a way of validating a counterfeit ministry.  But he will not attempt to destroy his own kingdom with the consistent opposition and authority which Jesus exercised.

12:27 “If I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? For this reason they will be your judges.”

Jesus further discredits the slander of His opponents by referring to exorcism ministries by “your sons.” This may be a reference to the disciples of Jesus who, in a general sense, were sons of the temple and synagogue.  Jesus had commissioned them to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom, to heal and to cast out demons (Matthew 10:5-8   Luke 9:1,2  10:17). 

Or “your sons” may refer to disciples of the Pharisees.  There is historical evidence that some of their disciples were involved in exorcisms.  A later example of this is found in Acts 19:13-16, where Jewish exorcists were trying to use the name of Jesus without any relation to Him and were spectacularly unsuccessful.

Although those men in Acts 19 were overpowered by the demons, the fact that they were attempting to cast out demons demonstrates their belief that casting out demons is a righteous thing to do, not satanically inspired.  Jesus is asking, “If your disciples are attempting to do what I am doing, then how can you attribute this to Satan?” He points out the foolishness of the assertion that some were doing this work from righteous motives while He was motivated by Satan.

The enemies of Jesus were so prejudiced against Him that they were making absurd claims.  How absurd to suggest that Satan would attempt to cast out Satan.  But prejudice drives people to absurdity.  It is not for lack of evidence that people reject God or His Messiah.  It is because they reject the evidence, because their hearts are hardened by preconceived notions, because they love darkness more than light, dead idols more than the living God, lies more than truth.  

In this case, the Pharisees, scribes and other religious leaders loved their power and their positions of authority more than they loved God. They, like all people of prejudice, will always find reasons to support their bias, even if their reasons are unreasonable.

12:28 “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

Having demonstrated the absurdity of the Pharisee’s objections, Jesus then states that if His miracles are being accomplished by the power of God, then this means that the presence of God’s kingdom is upon you. Casting out demons was and remains a sign of the kingdom of God breaking into history.  The kingdom of God is where God is ruling and where God is ruling, God is overruling the claims of counterfeit kings, false gods and demonic powers.  When people submit to the Lordship of Jesus, God destroys demonic kingdoms and establishes His kingdom, His rule of grace, within that person.  

This is what Jesus meant when He said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is’ or ‘There it is.’  For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst (or within you)” (Luke 17:20,21). Jesus did not mean that there were no miraculous signs and wonders taking place in His ministry — we just saw one in the healing and deliverance of the demon-possessed man. 

What He meant was that in His first advent, the kingdom of God was not manifesting through a Messiah descending in clouds of glory, overthrowing secular kings and kingdoms and establishing His throne in a manner that was visible to all the world. That will take place in His second advent, “Behold He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him” (Rev. 1:7).

In His first advent, He established His throne, His kingdom, in the heart of those who turn to Him in repentance and faith. In establishing His Lordship within the life of a believer, Jesus breaks the rulership, the dominion of Satan off of that life.  When we submit to the Lordship of Jesus, we are rescued or translated “from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of His (God’s) beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13).  

Every act in the ministry of Jesus was an act of confrontation with Satan’s kingdom. Jesus proclaimed the presence of the kingdom of God as He confronted deception with truth, darkness with light, guilt with grace, brokenness with mercy, captivity with liberating power. With authority He demonstrated, visibly, what God’s kingdom looks like.  

“The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil” (I John 3:8).   

“He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil” (Acts 10:38).

In forgiving the guilty, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, raising the dead, releasing those bound in demonic slaveries, in teaching truth, in all these acts of ministry Jesus was confronting and overcoming the kingdom of darkness.  He was saying, in effect, “This is what it looks like to live under the rule of My grace.” 

When He sent His disciples out to minister, He invested in them the same authority to proclaim the kingdom and do the mighty works which prove the presence of the kingdom: “And He called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases.  And He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing”  (Luke 9:1,2).  

On another occasion He said, “Whatever city you enter ... heal those in it who are sick and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you’” (Luke 10:8,9).

“The seventy returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name’ ... And He said to them ... ‘Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy’” (Luke 10:17-19).

Destroying the kingdom of Satan was and remains a sign of the inbreaking kingdom of God. Jesus raised only a few people from the dead but He demonstrated His authority over death.  In healing the sick, in forgiving those bound by guilt, in casting out demons, He revealed the authority of God’s kingdom breaking into history.  In all of these acts of ministry, Jesus was proving the power of the presence of the kingdom of God and showing us a picture of that future day when His kingdom will be established on earth. 

Someday, the kingdom of God will be fully, gloriously, visibly established on earth.  But today, the kingdom of God is in our midst, established in the hearts of those who repent and confess their faith in Jesus, Lord of the kingdom.  His kingdom is expressed through our lives as we, the gathered church, carry on Christ’s ministry under the direction of the Holy Spirit.

12:29 “Or how can anyone enter the strong man's house and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.”

Having demonstrated the absurdity of the Pharisees’ accusation, Jesus then declares that the kingdom of God is pushing into time and history and the kingdom of Satan is being overcome.  

He asks, “How can you plunder a strong man’s house unless you first bind the strong man?”  The “strong man” being bound is Satan. His property is far more precious than gold and silver.  It is human souls (Rev 18:11-13).  It is this treasure, presently captured and enslaved in chains of darkness and depravity, that the Son of God intends to plunder.

Demonically bound personalities are being set free, bodies broken by disease are being healed. Minds overwhelmed by guilt are being restored. Sinners are being called to repentance. Forgiving grace is being poured out, lavished on all who call upon the name of the Lord. How could this happen unless the power and rule of Satan is being bound and destroyed?

Jesus, in His incarnation into time and space, that is, in His birth and in His life, entered “the strong man’s house.” In His preaching, He bound the strong man’s power in the sense that light exposes darkness and truth disempowers lies.  His miracles demonstrated that One stronger than Satan is present. But most of all, it was on the cross that Jesus bound the strong man’s power.  Satan’s power is released against humanity through our sin but the holy Lamb of God on the cross removed our sin and therefore, destroyed Satan’s power over us.  The Apostle Paul said,

“When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.  When he had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him,” (Colossians 2:13-15).

On the cross, Jesus rendered “powerless him who had he power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrew 2:14).  In His resurrection, He seized the keys of death and of hell (Rev. 1:18).  We who once were dead in trespass and sin have now been made alive together with Christ.

12:30 “He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters.”

Jesus says that if we are not actively working with Him in ministry, then we are working against Him.  There is no neutral ground.  To do nothing in a time of evil is to do evil.  If we are not acting with Jesus in gathering harvest, then we are as those who scatter.

Jesus has committed to His church the authority to bind Satan and plunder his house and the world yearns to hear and believe the Good News that chains are broken and lives are restored in Christ.  The message of the cross contains the liberating power of God to save and deliver all who repent of sin and turn to Christ.

Paul said, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16).

“For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (I Cor. 1:18).

The power of God is released not only in the word of the Gospel — we also do those works of mercy and power and reconciliation and kindness and justice which show visibly and undeniably, the presence of a greater kingdom and a mightier King. Every time we lead someone to Christ, every time we pray for an addiction to be broken off of a soul, every time we pray for the release of forgivng, reconciling grace among families and races, every time we feed the hungry, every time we make visible the kingdom presence of God, we are binding and plundering the strong man’s house.

We are able to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom and do the works of the kingdom because God has delivered us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son  (Colossians 1:13).  God has broken the power of the kingdom of darkness off of our lives.  This is the biography of every believer.  We were children of wrath, ruled by the powers of this world, but Christ set us free.  Freely we have received, freely we give.

We are also especially reminded here of our ministry through prayer.  Our prayers are a powerful instrument of participation in Christ’s binding of the strong man. There is a spiritual war being fought, a conflict of kingdoms. Paul reminds us that we must not try to fight a spiritual war with worldy weapons, “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses” (2 Cor. 10:4). A primary spiritual weapon in this spiritual war is prayer.

As we pray in union with Jesus and with the Holy Spirit, the power and rule of darkness is continually being broken, the works of the kingdom of God are being released and our prayers become a partner to the preaching that brings in the harvest. When the Apostle Paul talks about our wrestling with the powers of darkness, he concludes that discussion with an exhortation to pray “at all times in the Spirit … with all perseverance and petition … with boldness” (see Eph. 6:18,19).

There is also a calling, in these verses, to personal commitment. While it is true that a kingdom cannot exist divided, neither can a human soul.  We are living in a conflict of kingdoms and must choose which king we will serve.  We cannot serve the true and living God and serve lesser and false gods. The Psalmist prayed, “Unite my heart to fear your name” (Psalm 86:11).  Only God can bring us into this unity of being and He does so only at our invitation.  

In early English the words holy, whole and heal derive from the same root — hal.  The holy man or woman is whole, undivided, united in heart and soul. Only God can grant this unity of being but he does so only as we ask.

Last, there is a note of encouragement here.

Though this world is filled with violent signs of the kingdom of darkness, nevertheless, the prince of darkness is bound and being bound, his kingdom is broken and being broken, his treasures are being plundered.  During the millennial reign of Christ on earth, Satan will be bound for a thousand years, then loosed for one final act of rebellion, then cast into the lake of fire for all eternity.  Today, he works his evil purpose on earth but his power is contested everywhere, his everlasting doom is sealed, and his time is short.

The tears of grief which you have shed, the prayers of faith which you lifted up at midnight when there seemed to be no hope of light, the works of mercy which you performed amidst a seemingly endless tide of suffering and evil, the truth you have proclaimed and lived while surrounded by lies and deceptions, none of this was in vain.

Two thousand years ago, the Apostle John heard this triumphant shout in heaven, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15). The victory of the kingdom of God is certain — go forth with joy and confidence to serve the living God.

Study Questions

1. How was Jesus plundering the strong man’s house? (see v 28,29).

2. How do we plunder the strong man’s house? (see v. 30).

Matthew 12:31-42

The Unpardonable Sin

12:31,32 “Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.”

Before we consider the unpardonable sin, notice the wideness of God’s grace, “Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people … Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him.”

God is a forgiving God.  Truly, “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness” (Psalm 103:8). 

“For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in lovingkindness to all who call upon You” (Psalm 86:5).

Forgiveness is an expression of God’s essential goodness and because God is unchanging, everlasting and infinite, there is no limit in time or space to His willingness to forgive. Therefore we read, “For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations” (Ps. 100:5).

What is it that releases the Lord’s forgiving grace to us? It is the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf. “But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us of all sin” (I John 1:7).

On the cross, Jesus our great High Priest offered Himself as the holy Lamb of God, taking upon Himself our sin and divine wrath poured out against sin. Now, our sins are forgiven when the conditions are met, and the conditions for forgiveness are very clearly stated in the New Testament: repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. When we confess our sin (that is, God’s definition of sin, not a cultural definition of sin nor the definition of an apostate church) and when we turn from our sin and turn to Christ in faith, believing in Him as the holy Sacrifice for sin and receiving Him as Lord and Savior, then God forgives our sin, even our blasphemy against Jesus.

The classic illustration for this is the Apostle Paul, who said, “even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all” ( I Timothy 1:13-15).

Paul says that he was the worst of sinners, a blasphemer of Jesus, a violent persecutor of God’s church, but he was forgiven because he acted ignorantly. When confronted with the truth and reality of Christ, he turned from his sin, turned to Christ and experienced the abundant grace of the Lord. God’s willingness to forgive such a man is stated clearly throughout Scripture.

David the Psalmist said, “I acknowledged my sin to you and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’ and you forgave the guilt of my sin” (Psalm 32:5).

 

In Psalm 103:12 we read that God forgives our sins and removes them as far as the east is from the west.  Micah 7:18,19 says that God casts our sins into the depths of the sea. The Apostle John reminds us, “If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness”  (I John 1:9).

Paul himself reminds us, “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved”  (Romans 10:13). God is a forgiving God when we repent and turn to Him.

However, there is sin which God cannot and will not forgive: blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.  What then is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?  And why is this sin unpardonable?  

Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is attributing to the devil the work of the Holy Spirit and it is unpardonable because apart from the ministry of the Holy Spirit, we cannot be forgiven of sin.

Remember that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, filled with the Holy Spirit, led by the Spirit, empowered by the Spirit.  At the beginning of His ministry He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18,19).

When Jesus was born into this world, He set voluntarily set aside the manifestation of His divine glory and power and was entirely dependent on the Holy Spirit to lead and anoint all that He did in ministry, from incarnation to baptism and overcoming temptation through every act of teaching, preaching, healing, and deliverance. Everything Jesus said and did was empowered by the Spirit of God.   

Jesus said, “Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man (that is Jesus) it shall be forgiven him.”  But His critics who were claiming that Jesus was empowered by the devil (as we read in 12:24) were not merely rejecting Jesus.  They were rejecting the Person, presence, power and ministry of the Holy Spirit.

This is unforgivable because we can’t be forgiven apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. The clear testimony of the Bible is that in our natural state, we are dead spiritually (Eph. 2:1-3), blind to spiritual truth (2 Cor. 4:4) and unconcerned about the things of God (Rom. 3:10-12). It is the Holy Spirit who awakens us to our sin, brings us to a place of conviction that we have sinned, moves us to confess our sin, enables us to turn from sin in true repentance and then gifts us with faith to believe in the saving work of Jesus. If we reject the Spirit’s ministry, then there is no way we can repent of our sin and believe in Christ.  There is, then, no way to be forgiven.

Accepting God’s gracious offer of forgiveness is an act of faith and faith is a gift of God through the agency of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God”).  The entire process of realizing my sin, confessing it, repenting of it and accepting forgiveness through grace by faith is due to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. But if I believe that the work of the Spirit is actually the work of the devil, and I therefore reject the work of the Spirit, then how will I repent and believe?

Jesus said concerning the Holy Spirit, “He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you” (John 16:14) and “He will testify about me” (John 15:26). The Holy Spirit reveals Jesus to us but if we believe this revelation is satanically inspired, how then shall we come to salvation? Further, every time we resist the Holy Spirit, every time we refuse His gentle voice, it becomes progressively more difficult to hear and respond to the next encounter.  We become gradually harder, more calloused as we resist God.  Over time, the soul’s capacity to respond to God can become deadened to the point that a person cannot and will not respond.  

If we refuse light, there is only darkness.  If we refuse truth, there is only deception.  If we can no longer hear or see truth about ourselves or about God, then we cannot respond to truth.  At that point, any and all sin is unpardonable.  There is no pardon where pardon is not sought, where there is not even recognition of the need for pardon.  This is the sin against the Holy Spirit, that we have quenched His light, refused His voice, resisted His work and hardened our heart so completely that we can no longer respond to His work.

There is also an aspect to the unpardonable sin which was unique to the people of Jesus’ day.  By the time we arrive at Matthew 12, they had seen with unmistakable clarity, His authority over Satan, over disease and death, over the very laws of nature. They had seen the miracles, heard the preaching and teaching, had witnessed the clear resonance of divine authority in Jesus. There was no question about the manifestation of divine power.  The people, including their leaders, had seen absolute evidence that Jesus was the Messiah. They had seen and heard the power of God manifesting through the ministry of Jesus. Yet the leaders attributed this power to Satan. When they said that, they blasphemed the Holy Spirit, since it was the Holy Spirit who empowered all that Christ did. 

They were not ignorant, as was the Apostle Paul when he blasphemed. These blasphemers had seen clear evidence that Jesus was the Messiah yet they willfully, knowingly attributed His ministry to the work of Satan.

There was nothing more they could see or hear.  Again, forgiveness is based on God’s willingness to forgive but it is accessed through repentance and faith in Christ. They had seen all the evidence and refused to confess that Jesus was the long-awaited One.  They could never be forgiven because they would never believe in Christ or seek His forgiving grace. 

There was nothing more God could do to save them.  If people have as much light as God can give, and they reject the light, then there is nothing more that can be done for them. If they reject the Holy Spirit who shines the light of Jesus into our hearts, how will they come to the light?

Salvation comes by faith in Christ, the Christ who confronts our sins, the Christ who calls us to repentance and faith, the Christ who offered Himself as the holy Sacrifice for our sin.  If we believe He is of the devil, then we have not only rejected Him and not only rejected the Holy Spirit who anointed Him for ministry and minsters salvation to us.  We have also rejected the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf. Since there is no other sacrifice for sin, then there is no other means by which we could ever be redeemed or forgiven.  

The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews reminds us, “How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Hebr. 10:29). There is no other sacrifice for sin. If we trample under foot the blood of Christ, if we reject the only means for salvation and the only Holy Spirit who can bring us to salvation, then we cannot be saved.

Sometimes people ask, “Have I committed the unpardonable sin?” They obviously have not.  The fact that they are concerned about the state of their soul and their relationship with God reveals that they are still redeemable.  They could not experience that concern except that God had stirred it in them.  Their spiritual anxiety is a gift from God, evidence of the working of the Holy Spirit in their life.  We can only see what God shows us and if we see a spiritual need in our life, then there is still light, God is still working and we are still capable of responding.

For the sake of argument, people will suggest a particularly evil person and ask, “Did he or she commit the unpardonable sin?”  For instance, they ask, “Could Adolph Hitler have been forgiven of his sin?”  They are really asking two questions.

1. Does the blood of Jesus avail for the forgiveness of Hitler’s sin? 

 

The answer is yes, absolutely, the blood of Jesus cleanses sin, all sin. The Apostle Paul reminds us that, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19).  

“But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (I John 1:7).

Yes, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin and reconciles us to God if we meet the conditions. The conditions are repentance and faith in Christ.  When the Holy Spirit shines the light of Christ into our hearts and we allow Him to show us our sin and bring us to a point of conviction of our sin, when we respond to His gifts of repentance and faith, then we will be forgiven of our sin — all sin. And this is true for anyone, even the most evil criminal.

This leads to the second  question.

2. Was Hitler capable of sensing any conviction of sin, capable of repentance, of accepting by faith God’s forgiveness? Was Hitler capable of any response to the ministry of the Holy Spirit?

Judging from his actions through the final years and months of his life, it seems clear that Hitler was incapable of responding to God in any way.  He could not be pardoned of sin because he would not seek pardon.  He could not experience convicting grace or saving grace because he denied any need for grace.  Evidently, he had rejected and blasphemed the Holy Spirit for so long and his heart was so hardened, so calloused, that he could no longer respond.

Don’t gloss over these words of John, “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us”  (I John 1:8-10).

The person who denies committing sin and therefore does not confess sin, is deceived, is a liar and cannot receive or experience the forgiveness which God offers.  At that point, any and all sin is unforgivable. How tragic, for God’s merciful desire to forgive and restore is unlimited, unbounded by time or space. It is not that God desires to withdraw the operation of His grace but people may withdraw themselves from the possibilities of grace.

The Tree Is Known By Its Fruit

12:33 “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit.”

The fruit on a tree reveals truth about the tree.  Apple trees produce apples.  Healthy apple trees produce healthy apples. A diseased tree will show its disease by its fruit. It is unnatural that a healthy tree would bring forth diseased fruit or that a diseased tree would bring forth good fruit. 

Taken in context, Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees about the fruit in their lives. They said that they worshipped God, loved God, obeyed God’s law, yet they were rejecting and blaspheming the ministry of the Messiah whom God had sent them. What does that fruit reveal about the truth of their lives?

Jesus may also have been asking them to examine the fruit in His life. If sickness, demon possession and death are works of the devil, and Jesus was healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead, then how could He be doing the work of Satan? Satan’s destructive fruit is obvious. Jesus’ restoring fruit is obvious. “Examine the fruit,” Jesus is saying.

There is also truth for our lives.  We must decide what fruit we will bring forth.  The double minded, trying to serve two masters, will always be frustrated, unfulfilled, unfruitful.  Will we serve the god of this world or the true and living God?  Will we enthrone our self-will as lord or enthrone the true Lord of lords?  Jesus calls for decision. When we decide who we will serve, we have determined the kind and quality of fruit we will produce. 

12:34,35 “You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil.”

What determines the kind of fruit a tree produces?  The seed and the roots.  

1. Peter reminds us that we “have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God” (I Peter 1:23).  Seed carries in it the attributes, the blueprint, of whatever produced that seed. Apple trees produce apple seed and that seed contains in it the DNA of an apple tree.

The seed that regenerated our lives is the Word of God.  That seed is imperishable, incorruptible, everlasting, because these attributes are true of God. The Word of God contains in it the DNA of God, as Peter said, “Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust” ( 2 Peter 1:3,4). 

We have become partakers of the divine nature through the seed of the word of God. Conversely, when Jesus said to the Pharisees, “You are of your father the devil” (John 8:44),  He was identifying the spiritual seed which had produced their hostility and unbelief toward Him and their blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

2. The quality of fruit is determined not only by the seed but also by the roots — in particular, the depth and health of the roots.  Paul prayed that we would “be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love  …” (Eph. 3:16-18).

The issues of our lives are determined by the deepest root level of our inner being — our heart, our soul — “that which fills the heart” as Jesus said.  Therefore we are exhorted, “Guard you heart with all diligence, for from it flow the issues of life”  (Proverbs 4:23).  

If we have a pure heart, the flow of life that rises from our inner being will be pure. If we have an impure heart, the flow of life will be impure. It is like water rising from a spring — if the spring is clear, the water will be clear. If the spring is muddy and fouled, the water will be fouled.

However, even if the seed is good and the roots are deep and strong, a healthy tree requires a skilled gardener.  So does a healthy human life.  Jesus said, “I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener ... I am the vine, you are the branches”  (John 15:1,5).  As we abandon ourselves to God, He is able to cultivate His life in us.

Likewise, if we have abandoned ourselves to the gods of this world, they will cultivate their life in us.  That inner reality is revealed in our living and in our words.  Jesus called His critics vipers because they were spiritually conformed to the serpent, the devil, and He asked them,  “How can you, being evil, speak what is good?  For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart” (12:34).

Whatever is in us, our true motives, will eventually be revealed.  The mouth speaks what is in the heart.  We don’t see motives any more than we see roots.  But just as the health of the root is revealed by the fruit, so our motives are revealed in our living and in our words.  

The Pharisees spoke blasphemy, slander against Jesus and the Holy Spirit because that’s what was in their heart. Their fruit revealed their seed and their roots.

12:36,37 “But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Jesus says that we will be held accountable for our words — not just our actions but our words are judged.  Why?  In Proverbs 18:21 we read, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”  Just as our actions reveal what is in our heart, so do our words. We speak life and blessing or death and cursing, depending on what is in our heart.

Further, as we speak life or death, blessing or cursing, we are determining the course or direction of our life.  The Apostle James compared the tongue to the rudder of a ship which controls the course of our life (James 3:2-5). And he added, “With it we bless our Lord and Father and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come blessing and cursing.  My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.  Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh” (James 3:9-12).

Those who speak death and cursing will be judged, just as those who do deeds of death and cursing.  There is power in our words.  Likewise, if we speak life and blessing, we will be rewarded, just as those who do deeds of life and blessing. Our actions have living and powerful consequences.  So do our words.

False Seekers of Signs

12:38 “Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, ‘Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.’”

“Show us a sign,” the Pharisees demanded.  Jesus had just healed a man who was blind and mute but they called this a work of Satan (12:22-24). He had recently healed a man with a withered hand and they conspired to destroy Him (12:10-14).

Miracles reveal the heart of God and demonstrate the presence of His kingdom. But when people have heard and seen clear evidence of the reality of the kingdom of God, yet choose to call it the kingdom of Satan; when they have clearly seen light and but reject the light and choose darkness; when they have heard clearly the testimony of the Lord and choose to slander His truth, more miracles will not cause them to believe. If hearts and ears are not tuned to truth, people can listen to the voice of Jesus and hear nothing of truth.  

However, if we love truth, we will hear truth whether we see a miracle or not.  Truth does not need a miracle to validate truth.

Jesus did not perform signs to prove Himself or to impress others, as though He were a magician or religious showman.  This was one of Satan’s temptations. He took Jesus up to the pinnacle of the temple and said, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down” (Matt. 4:5,6). Jesus refused — He did not perform signs on demand.  He did only those things which He saw His Father doing.  His miracles were the Father’s merciful response to human need and humble faith, expressions of the inbreaking kingdom, not PR stunts for a religious performer. 

12:39,40 “But He answered and said to them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.’”

Jesus called them an adulterous generation, that is, spiritually unfaithful.  He gave them no sign except from Scripture — the sign of Jonah, which He interpreted as His future resurrection.  Actually, He performed many more miracles before His earthly ministry was concluded.  Possibly the greatest was the raising of Lazarus from the dead.  Yet this only intensified the rage of His enemies and motivated them to plot His death (John 11:45-50).  Concerning His own resurrection, Jesus said, “If they do not believe Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead” (Luke 16:31).

12:41 “The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.”

On the day of judgment, the people of Nineveh will arise and condemn the people of Jesus’ generation because the Ninevites repented at the preaching of imperfect, reluctant Jonah.  They heard less of God’s Word from less of a messenger, yet they repented. But those who saw the perfect Son of God, heard Him preach and saw His wonders, did not repent.  Judgment is based on the light we have.  Greater light incurs greater judgment.

12:42 “The Queen of the South will rise up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.”

The Queen of the South traveled a far distance to hear the limited, human wisdom of a compromised man, King Solomon.  She will arise in judgment of those who stood in the presence of more than wisdom, who witnessed the very Word of God in human flesh. Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”  (John 14:6). He was truth incarnate, yet they rejected Him. They will be condemned by those who sought wisdom from a lesser source.

12:43-45 “Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.”

When people have no faith in God, they will not believe nothing.  They believe anything.  When a human soul is empty, when a nation becomes spiritually bankrupt, spiritual powers of darkness will rush in and fill the vacuum.

People who attempt to reform their life apart from the recreative, life-changing power of Jesus Christ, will only succeed in creating an empty space which will soon be occupied by the demonic influences of this fallen world.  Their methods of reform may be non-religious or quite religious but only God can deliver us from spiritual death and slavery to the gods of this world.  Only God can give us new life, everlasting life.

If God cleanses us of demonic bondages but we are not then filled with the presence of Christ, the old slaveries will rush back upon us in greater measure.  There is no lasting liberation without commitment.  If Christ has set us free, we must let Him bind us to Himself and fill us with Himself.  Nature does not respect a vacuum.  Neither do demons.

12:46,47 “While He was still speaking to the crowds, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him. Someone said to Him, ‘Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to You.’”

Jesus’ mother and brothers called to Him.  We know from Mark’s Gospel that they thought He was out of His mind and they had come to take Him home (Mark 3:21).  In John’s Gospel we read that His family did not understand His ministry (John 7:5).  Nevertheless, Jesus loved His family and was devoted to His mother, even commending her into the care of a disciple as He was dying on the cross.  But Jesus would not allow any human relationships to interfere with the accomplishing of His Father’s purpose.

12:48-50 “But Jesus answered the one who was telling Him and said, ‘Who is My mother and who are My brothers?’ And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, ‘Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.’”

So it was that Jesus defined His family in terms of shared commitment in ministry.  Relationship with Jesus is revealed, proven and defined by joyful obedience — doing the will of the Father.  The family of God is joined in eternal covenant more certain than these death-broken covenants of blood and marriage.  Precious is the love of home and hearth but more precious is our kingdom calling and everlasting reward.  Joined to Christ in new birth, we are joined to the family of faith that spans the centuries and bridges the canyons of distance between this life and the next, between time and eternity. We are members of the everlasting family of God.

Study Questions

1. What is the unpardonable sin? (see v. 31,32).

2. A good tree is determined by what? (see v. 33-35).