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Matthew 12:15-37
Prayer: LORD
Jesus, LORD of the Church, LORD of this Church. Speak to us this
morning. Recreate us again
through Your Word. Change our
faulty and sinful thinking. Bind
up our broken hearts. Challenge
and rebuke our self-confident wills. Draw near to us by Your Word and
make us to hear what we need to hear.
And so now may all my speaking and all our hearing be in the Name
of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.
‘Stretch out
your hand’ said Jesus… to a man who could not stretch out his
hand. That was his problem Jesus,
v10, he had a withered hand. Nonetheless verse 13: ‘Jesus said to the man
‘Stretch out your hand.’ So he
stretched it out and it was completely restored, just
as sound as the other.’ Jesus
turns the world right side up. He does a similar thing later on in our
passage. In v22 a man is blind
and mute “and Jesus healed him so that the mute spoke and saw.” That’s what it says in the greek: the
mute spoke. You don’t command a
withered hand to stretch out, you don’t command a mute to speak. But Jesus does and He turns the world
right side up.
Verse 14, the powers of this up-side-down world are deeply threatened
by Jesus and they plot how they might destroy the Lord of Glory.
Verse 15,
Jesus chooses, at this point, a tactical retreat. He withdraws, many follow Him and He
heals everyone who came to Him.
Everyone? Does everyone
need healing? Hold that
thought. For now just think about
how many lost gospels worth of miracles are contained within verse
15! How many lives turned right
side up? What would you have
brought to Jesus? Who would you
have brought to Him? He healed
them all. And in these healings
Jesus brought the life of heaven into our dark world. He was doing everything that the
Messiah was meant to do. The Old
Testament had promised this kind of King, bringing this kind of Kingdom
and here it was.
Why then, in
v16, does Jesus warn the people not to tell who He was? Surely the people He’s just healed
would make wonderful advertisements for His Messiahship. Jesus could call a press-conference
the next day and show the world that the Kingdom had come. But no, Jesus here chooses to keep a
low profile. Because – v17 –
even this ‘softly, softly approach’ is a fulfilment of the
Scriptures.
The Old
Testament promised that the Messiah would bring an earth-shattering
Kingdom yes, but it also promised that this Messiah would have no interest
in earthly popularity. That’s
why, from v18, Matthew gives an extended quotation from Isaiah 42. Because here we see a religious leader
unlike any the world has known.
He’s not about quarelling with other leaders. He’s not into making public scenes. I mean, why big yourself up,
when the Most High God gives you His endorsement?
That’s what
we have in v18. Here we are
listening in to God the Father’s over-flowing pride in His Son.
18 "Here is My Servant whom I have chosen, the One I love, in Whom
I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and He will proclaim justice to
the nations.
It’s the
Scriptural equivalent of ‘That’s My Boy!’ isn’t it?
On Friday my
sister in Australia texted me.
This is the first contact I’ve had with her in a month. She said: “Hi. How’s Eastbourne? Hope ur both settling in ok. We’ve got news - school just went back & Tommy (my
nephew, aged 6) has been put in the accelerated learning program for
maths. Very smart for kindy! U must send ur address.” Parents tend to gush with praise for
their children. God is the most
proud Father there can be. With
all His omnipotent Fatherly love He admires the most admirable Son in the
universe. And so He wants the
world to know about His Son.
When Jesus
was baptised, the Father broke forth from heaven with words very similar
to Isaiah 42. He said then “This
is my Son, whom I love, with Him I am well pleased.” He says exactly the same thing at Jesus’
transfiguration. The Father loves His
Son. And the Son returns the
favour. See the name by which
Jesus is known in v18: “My Servant.”
Jesus is the Servant of the LORD.
So the Father is overflowing with love for His Son and the Son pours
Himself out in self-giving for His Father. In this context, v18, the Father puts the Spirit of God on
Jesus, equipping Him to proclaim justice to the world.
It’s a bit
like a champagne fountain. Have
you ever seen a champagne fountain?
I don’t get invited to those kind of parties so I’ve only seen
pictures. There is a pyramid of
glasses and the champagne is poured into the top glass and from there it
cascades down to every other glass.
That is a picture of v18.
Jesus is the Chosen One and the love and delight and Spirit of God
is poured on Jesus to overflowing.
Jesus’ title: Christ means the anointed One and He
is anointed beyond measure with the Spirit. (Heb 1:9; John 3:34).
From all eternity He has been overflowingly filled with the
Spirit. But wonderfully, the
choice and love and delight and Spirit of God spills over Christ and out
into His people. Now, any who
gather together with Christ, the Head of this fountain, find that all His
blessings flow over to us.
But as we
think about the Head of this Kingdom, Jesus doesn’t use His position to
lord it over others. He’s not
into self-assertion but rather self-giving. So, v19, “He doesn’t quarrel or cry out; no-one will hear
his voice in the streets.”
This verse
doesn’t mean Jesus was against street-preaching. Jesus does a lot of open-air preaching
throughout Matthew’s gospel. But unlike
the Pharisees, Jesus does not manifest the kingdom in order “to be
seen by men”. He is not
concerned for His own reputation or for generating PR for Himself. He is the humble and gentle Servant,
His concern is for His weak and needy followers. So, verse 20:
A bruised reed he will not break, and a
smouldering wick he will not snuff out, till he leads justice to victory.
Here is a
picture of Jesus with His followers.
It’s not a picture of ‘the King with His wise courtiers.’ Not a picture of ‘the Commanding
Officer with His strong soldiers.’
Verse 20 shows what Jesus’ Kingdom really looks like. Here we have a patient Saviour dealing
gently with weak and pathetic followers.
Christians – those in Christ’s Kingdom – are not mighty oaks and
roaring flames. We are bruised
reeds and smouldering wicks.
Brittle, vulnerable, ravaged by sin and suffering – that is the
Christian.
Jesus
emphasises this over and over in Matthew’s Gospel. The Sermon on the Mount begins by
defining the kind of people who belong to the kingdom: “Blessed are the
poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those
who mourn… Blessed are the meek… Blessed are those who are persecuted for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
The kingdom of heaven is populated by weak and needy sinners. Later in Matthew 9 Jesus says “It’s
not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick… I have not come to call
the righteous but sinners.”
Christians are not spiritually healthy, we are spiritually
sickened by our sin. Elsewhere Jesus
calls us “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Or “sheep among wolves.” That’s a very
weak position to be in. Or, in
Matthew 18:3 Jesus rebukes His followers for their self-importance and
self-reliance and says:
“Unless you change and become like little
children you will never enter the kingdom.”
Christ’s
Kingdom is for little ones, sick sinners who know they’re sick sinners,
poor, meek mourners – that’s Christians.
Bruised reeds and smouldering wicks. Some people think that bruised reeds and smouldering wicks
are a particular sub-category of Christian – the weak and sinful ones
among us. And isn’t Jesus
marvellous for caring for those special-needs Christians, bless them. I think bruised reeds and smouldering
wicks are the only kind of Christians there are. I am bruised and broken, I am not just
a candle in the wind, I am a dying ember and without Christ I
perish.
You see our
hope is not in ourselves. Our
only hope is, v21, in His name.
“In His name the nations will put their
hope."
Where is the
strength of the Christian? Not in
themselves. Our strength comes in
our King who is both gentle enough to handle broken sinners and strong
enough to right every wrong and save the whole world.
If you feel
particulaly bruised this morning, through sin or suffering, firstly know
that that is not out of place in Christ’s Kingdom. You belong in Christ’s Kingdom in all
your weakness and need. But
secondly as we all acknowledge our weakness we should all look again to
your King. In the older versions
verse 18 is translated more literally ‘Behold, my Servant’. God the Father tells us to stop, turn
aside and behold Jesus Christ.
He deals so gently with the bruised reeds and the smouldering
wicks.
Emma was
doing some flower arranging on Friday.
She hadn’t done it before and she was told, if a flower is bent or
broken when you put it in, just break it off and throw it away. You don’t bind it up and feed and
nourish it? And if a candle wick
is smoking you don’t carefully fan it back into flame? Jesus does. That is the care and mercy and healing which He shows to
every bruised reed and every smouldering wick.
He is more
full of mercy than you are of sin.
More full of comfort than you are of suffering. More full of strength than you are of
weakness. Our sins and
despairings, our bruisings don’t disqualify us from His care. Jesus’ Kingdom is a kingdom of bruised
reeds and smouldering wicks. Let’s allow ourselves to be that in His
presence and to be that with one another. There’s no need to pretend in Jesus’ Kingdom. We are here together as little
children, as sheep among wolves, as sick and bruised and broken people.
Let’s be that with one another and let’s be that with Him and He will
show us both how strongly and how gently the Servant of the LORD comforts
His little ones.
Well verse
22 is an excellent picture of how Jesus deals with us. Here is a man wracked with both
wickedness and suffering. Here is
our condition if we only have eyes to see it. And Jesus restores the man, He turns things right-side
up. The mute man speaks, the
blind man sees and Christ’s Kingdom has been shown to the world. Here is the Kingdom on display – a
poor pathetic man wracked with wickedness and suffering and Jesus has compassion
of him. He heals the man and
conquers Satan. This is the King
and His Kingdom shining at full strength. And so, naturally, the world is
divided.
Verses 23
and 24 give us the two different responses to Jesus. Both groups look at Jesus and conclude
that an unearthly power has been unleashed. In v23, the crowd concludes that it’s the power of
heaven. In v24, the Pharisees
decide it’s the power of hell.
He’s either ‘the Son of David’, that is, God’s Messiah descended
from King David. Or He’s an
instrument of Satan. There is no
earthly explanation for Jesus.
He’s either from heaven or hell.
And in
verses 25-29 Jesus proves that He’s definitely not from hell. The Pharisees had accused Him of
performing His excorcisms as inside jobs. They claimed that Jesus was just one servant of Satan
telling another servant of Satan to move over. Well you only need to read the accounts of Jesus’
excorcisms to know how ludicrous that is. Jesus is not re-shuffling Satan’s Kingdom, He’s flatly
opposing it. Verse 29: He’s the
One who ties up the strong man and plunders His house. If Satan’s minions acted the
way Jesus acted, Satan’s kingdom wouldn’t last five minutes. Jesus is not
in cahoots with Satan.
And so,
Jesus turns the tables on the Pharisees. The Pharisees wanted to sit in judgement on Jesus. They were going to pronounce their
verdict on which kingdom He belonged to.
But Jesus is not in the dock.
He is the Judge of where we stand? And what is it that determines where
we stand? Verse 30 – if we are
with Jesus, we are in the Kingdom of God. If we are not with Jesus we are in the Kingdom of
Satan. So it’s not Jesus who’s in cahoots with Satan, it’s the Pharisees and
it’s everyone who is not with Jesus.
Verse 30 is very pointed:
"He who is not with me
is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.”
There are only two kingdoms, God’s and Satan’s. You’re either with
Jesus in God’s Kingdom or you’re against Him in Satan’s. There is no neutral territory, no
spiritual Switzerland. It’s Jesus
or the devil.
Last week,
Emma was speaking with a couple, who I add were not from this
church. But it seemed in the
course of the conversation that the wife at least may have been a
Christian and so Emma asked them both ‘Are you Christians?’ The wife replied ‘I am’ and then shot
a look at her husband. He said
‘I’m semi-Christian.’ The wife
rolled her eyes and asked Emma, ‘Are you a Christian?’ Emma said ‘Yes.’ The wife said ‘Then you’ll know
there’s no such thing as a semi-Christian.’
What about
you? Are you with Jesus?
100%? Have you gathered to
Him? Do you know Him as Your King
and Saviour?
Jesus has
infinite mercy and kindness for the weakest and most sinful of us who
simply gather under His protection and cry out for mercy. A bruised reed He will not break, a
smouldering wick He will not snuff out.
But you cannot hang back from Jesus. You must let Him deal with you even in your sin and
rebellion, even in your indifference and hard-heartedness. Don’t hang back. Bring even your semi-Christianity to
Jesus and let Him change your heart.
Whoever is not with Jesus is against Him. And the stakes are very high. Verses 31 and 32 tell us eternity is
at stake:
And so I tell you, every
sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the
Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 Anyone who speaks a word
against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against
the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to
come.
These are notorious verses, but the context makes it clear what Jesus
is talking about. He begins in
v31 “And so I tell you” which means He’s thinking about what the
Pharisees have just been saying.
The Pharisees have looked at Jesus’ work and attributed it not to
the Holy Spirit of God but to the unholy prince of demons. That is what Jesus calls ‘blasphemy
against the Spirit.’ If you want
to know what blasphemy against the Spirit looks like, it looks like these
Pharisees here.
As we’ve
seen from v18, the Holy Spirit is the power by which Christ
performs His kingdom work. But
those who are against Christ refuse to see the Spirit at work but instead
call it satanic. These enemies of
Christ have concluded that the Kingdom of God – in which there is
abundant forgiveness – is, in fact, the kingdom of Satan. And so the one place of forgiveness is
lost to them.
Imagine that
a doctor tells me she’s the only surgeon who could possibly operate on me
to cure my illness. In that case I have just one hope. Imagine that I doubted her as a
doctor. So I ask her to show me
her credentials. And she’s
patient with me so shows me all her many credentials: degrees from the
best universities and medical schools, references and recommendations
from the finest doctors in the world and personal testimonies from her
former patients who are now all cured.
Imagine if I looked at all that and said ‘I’m still not sure about
you.’ So she takes me into the
hospital with her and I watch her perform the operation on another
patient and it’s a great success.’
If at the end of all that I say to her ‘I don’t want you touching
me, you’re a charlatan’ well my fate is sealed. There’s nothing else the doctor can do and nothing else she
will do. There can be no healing
when I’ve rejected the only one who can heal.
Jesus
promises v31 ‘every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men’ (which itself
is a tremendous promise to claim).
But there’s one unforgiveable thing you can do. Just one. It is to denounce the work of Christ. Because to do so is to denounce the
one place that forgiveness is offered.
So we see
that what we say about Jesus has eternal significance. If we confess Him as our King ‘every
sin and blasphemy will be forgiven’.
If we haven’t got a good word to say about Jesus we are in a
perilous position. Jesus even
goes so far as to say v37: “by your words you
will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned." We might expect Jesus to say something
like “by your faith you’ll be acquitted and by your unbelief you’ll be
condemned.” But Jesus is going to
show us that the state of our hearts (whether believing or unbelieving)
spills over into our words. He
uses three images to show how our hearts produce our words. In verse 33 there’s the image of the
tree producing fruit. In verse 34
there’s the image of the river overflowing in flood. And in verse 35
there’s the image of the treasure-house bringing forth treasure. And Jesus says look, Bad fruit comes
from bad trees, bad waters overflow from bad rivers, bad treasure comes
out of bad treasure houses. And
what He’s really saying is, if you bad-mouth me, it’s only because first
you’ve had a bad heart towards me.
He says it again in chapter 15: “what comes out of the mouth proceeds
from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the
heart comes evil.”
So no wonder Jesus almost despairs in v34 ‘You brood of vipers, how
can you who are evil, say any good?’
They are evil and the evil people they are
just naturally overflows into the evil words they say. They can’t just decide to produce good
fruit, they are bad trees. But in case you think this is only a problem
for the Pharisees, and not a problem for you, let me tell you that Jesus
also calls the disciples evil. In
Matthew 7:11, even those in the kingdom are called evil. That is the natural state of all our
hearts. And, that being the case,
there are no good fruits we can produce from our bad trees. There are no good waters that can
overflow from our bad rivers. No
good treasure to produce from our bad treasure houses. Our hope cannot lie within ourselves.
Which is why I think it’s a bit misleading to translate v35, ‘The
good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him.’ There’s no ‘in him’ in the
original. Literally Jesus says
‘The good man brings good things out of the good treasure house.’ Well where is that good treasure
house? Throughout Matthew the
good treasure we ought to prize is treasure in heaven. And where your heavenly treasure is,
Jesus says, there your heart will be also. There is a good treasure to draw on, but it’s not in us,
it’s in our heavenly King.
As Martin Luther used to say, ‘Our righteousness does not lie within
us but above us.’ Our
righteousness is entirely outside ourselves. Because our righteousness is Christ. He is the good treasure house – we
draw from His fulness. Think of
the champagne fountain. He is the
treasure who supplies all our good deeds. And, as the Apostle Paul will say later in Galatians
chapter 5 – the good tree that produces good fruit is the Holy Spirit. He is the source of all our good
fruit. And if you want to do some
thinking about how good and bad fruit can co-exist in your life then read
Galatians 5 this afternoon on how good and bad fruit co-exists in the
life of the Christian.
But as we draw to a close, Jesus confronts us, v36, with ‘the day of
judgement.’ This is a coming day
when not just these Pharisees, not just this crowd but all of us will be
face to face with Jesus. We’ve
seen how people’s responses to Jesus polarize when they get up close and
personal with Him. Never will
that be more true than on that day. On that day our words regarding Christ will fly out of our
mouths – either in praise or cursing.
And those words will reveal our acquittal or our condemnation. When Jesus returns we will no more be
able to stop those words overflowing than they could stop the flooding of
those Westcountry rivers. In the
meantime, before that day, we speak our careless words day in and day out
and those words reveal where our hearts are right now.
So where are our hearts? What
do our words reveal about our heart for Christ? If you claimed to love someone but never said a good word
about them I wouldn’t believe you.
It’s the same with Jesus.
Do you love Jesus? Do you
tell Him and other people that fact?
Do you have the urge to speak about how great Jesus is – whether
to Christians or to non-Christians?
If you know nothing of the desire to speak well of Christ, to
speak gratefully of Him, to speak glowingly of Him, then that is a
desperately worrying sign about your heart. If the words are not coming, if they’ve never come, then
your heart is not right. What can
you do? Well you can do
nothing. Bad trees can produce
only bad fruit. Bad trees must be
made good. But that’s exactly
what the King of the Kingdom loves to do. He turns things right side up again. Christ can make
withered hands stretch out, He can make the mute speak and the blind
see. Christ and Christ only can
turn bad hearts good. You cannot
make yourself love Jesus and you cannot produce for yourself authentic
praise. But if we come to Him,
Jesus can and will heal our hearts and make us new again. Do you remember at the beginning I
asked the question: Does everyone need healing? Yes. Not everyone
needs healing on the outside, but we all need healing for our
hearts. And Jesus healed them
all. No-one has ever asked Christ
for a new heart and been refused.
And for all of us, our words are never what we would like them to
be. Why not? Why are we so sluggish to speak of
Christ and so unChristlike in the words we say? Well, from the overflow of our mixed hearts our mouths are
speaking. What we really need is
hearts more in love with Jesus.
May we return to the One who binds up bruised reeds and fans into
flame smouldering wicks. And may
our love for Christ inexorably spill over in praise, in prayer, in
encouragement and in witness.
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