I think we’ve all been in a situation where we say something and as soon as it passes our lips, we know that we said the wrong thing. It got so bad when I was younger, I stopped commenting on things all together. It’s actually one of the reasons I try not to give my advice unless expressly asked. I’ve put my foot in my mouth too many times, that I have made an effort to zip my lip, rather than yakking my jaw.
One of the best foot in mouth situations that I remember wasn’t about me. It was about one of our teens, when we went on a missions trip to San Francisco. On the way up there we took Tehachapi Pass. There’s some winding parts, and on one particular twist in the road, both our small mirror and hub cap on the passenger side fell off. We then made it to a gas station and my passenger, a girl, made the comment about how the two things fell off. Well that’s when another teen decided to insert foot in mouth. The young boy spoke up and said, “It’s because you were sitting there.” The girl glared at him and said, “Are you saying I’m fat?”
Now, I don’t think he intended it to be taken this way, but because of something he said prior to this the girl instantly got upset. See not to long prior to this we were having a discussion about walking on ice, to which the same boy told this girl that he didn’t think the ice could hold her. His thought was because the ice was so thin, but to her it was a jab at her weight. And so it became a running gag for her to mention how she’s was an ice breaker. So when this boy mentioned how it was her fault that the mirror and hub cap came off, it just added to the whole situation, where not only she was an icebreaker, she was a van destroyer.
Now the girl was kidding and teasing the boy, but I know for a fact that both times the boy knew he stuck his foot in his mouth.
And it’s this idea of watching what we say that brings us to our final week in our summer series in the Gospel of Matthew, where will be finishing up the last two passages in chapter 12. So as we open up to Matthew 12, let’s look back on what we’ve covered so far in this third section of Matthew’s Gospel.
A few weeks ago, when we started into Matthew’s third section, we saw how the focus was on being a part of the kingdom. Jesus said that John was the greatest of anyone whoever lived, but even the least in the kingdom would be greater than him. This led us to begin to look at the qualities that God desired from those who would be in his kingdom. The first two that we saw as being foundational was that they have a repentant heart, and that they would walk humbly with God. This is the catalyst to a relationship with God. How are we to enter into a relationship with him, if we are not first brought to a humbling place where we see our sin and need for repentance. Yet, once we come to a place of humility and repentance, we can enter into a right relationship with God, becoming a member of his kingdom.
With this foundation set, we began looking at how Matthew, through the direction of the Holy Spirit, mirrors moments in Jesus’ life to show us how we are to be kingdom members. The first set of mirrored passages showed us that we are to be yoked with Jesus, meaning we are to be directed by him, so that we may be a part of his family accomplishing the will of God. Jesus’ yoke, which speaks of his burden being light, means it is not us who need to accomplish God’s will in our own strength, but through the guidance of the God to whom we are yoked to.
This then led us to our examination of the mirror passages from last week. Here we saw how we must embrace Jesus’ Lordship over our lives, and be satisfied with the miracle of the resurrection. When we embrace Jesus’ Lordship, the yoke truly is lighter, and when we are satisfied with the miracle of the resurrection, anything that God does or does not do will not sway us from following him in that Lordship.
With these weeks refreshed in our minds, let’s read the final two mirrored passages in Matthew chapter 12, starting in verse 15.
15 Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. A large crowd followed him, and he healed all who were ill. 16 He warned them not to tell others about him. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: 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. 19 He will not quarrel or cry out; no one will hear his voice in the streets. 20 A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he has brought justice through to victory. 21 In his name the nations will put their hope.”
This passage starts out with, “Aware of this…” as a reminder, that the Pharisees were plotting to kill Jesus, and so are already hostile towards him. This leads Jesus to warn the people not to tell others about himself. Now there are a multitude of reasons why Jesus does this, but the point that Matthew is trying to gets us to focus on is not why Jesus tells them not to tell, but rather the connection to the Old Testament.
This passage, like many others before it, is a commentary by Matthew connecting Jesus back into the Old Testament. Now, Matthew has made several connections back into the Old Testament that we’ve looked at before. But I want us to put into perspective specifically where he is connecting Jesus to in this passage. In the twenty-two Old Testament references that Matthew has made so far, five were from the book of Deuteronomy, and five were from the book of Isaiah. A little under half of Matthew’s connections were from two pivotal books of the Old Testament. We’ve already discussed how Matthew writes in the vein of the Old Testament, especially how Matthew’s Gospel is modeled after Deuteronomy with its sections based around sermons.
Yet, we haven’t spent time discussing the other book that Matthew draws heavily from, which is Isaiah. In each of the five cases that Matthew points us back to Isaiah, it is through his own commentary, not through Jesus’ own references. This lets the reader know, that what ever it is that Jesus is doing, it’s to fulfill the prophetic word spoken through the prophet. Two of these fulfillments come from within the first ten chapters (Ma 1:23 & Is 7:14; Ma 4:16 & 9:1-2), while the other three come from chapters after Isaiah 40 (Ma 3:3 & 40:3; Ma 8:17 & Is 53:3-4; Ma 12:21 & Is 42:1-4).
This is significant because Isaiah chapters 40-55 are commonly referred to as the Servant Songs. They are a series of songs that speak of God’s salvation through the Servant of God. Most of us probably have heard the famous passage from Isaiah 53, where it Isaiah writes about the Servant, “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;”
But how many of us realize that it is in these Servant Songs, that passages like Isaiah 40:31 occur, where the prophet states, “…but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” This sounds very similar to Jesus words about his yoke being light. This not only shows us the consistency of God’s message and work throughout all of human history, but helps us see that we are to look into the Old Testament to get a fuller understanding of who Jesus is.
This connection that Matthew is making between Jesus and the Servant Song chapters in Isaiah are then brought together, by the guiding of the Holy Spirit, to what happens next. So let’s drop down to verse 22 and continue reading.
22 Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. 23 All the people were astonished and said, “Could this be the Son of David?”
24 But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.”
25 Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. 26 If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? 27 And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. 28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
29 “Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder his house.
30 “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. 31 And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but 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.
33 “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. 35 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. 36 But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. 37 For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”
And so as the situation progresses, we get some chatter in the crowd about Jesus’ identity. Remember Matthew has pointed us to that identity in the Servant Songs. Now if the reader has been paying attention, they know who Jesus is. Not only is he the prophet like Moses, not only is he indeed the Son of David, both implying that Jesus’ Messiahship, but the reader knows that Jesus is greater, because he is the God come down to his creation taking on human flesh. Yet, even though this should be clear to the reader, it is not clear to the people, and so the question becomes, “Could this be the Son of David?”
It is here that the Pharisees, specifically that group who is out to kill Jesus, make some grievous comments that I don’t think they realize how consequential their words actually are. It’s a foot in mouth situation on a really important level. They accuse Jesus of performing these miracles, specifically the casting out of a demon, by the power of Satan and not of God.
To this Jesus gives two rebuttals to the Pharisees accusations. First he gives the imagery of a kingdom divided and how it can not stand long. The second is that of a strong man being tied up.
In the first rebuttal Jesus is showing how the Pharisees logic isn’t consistent. Satan wouldn’t work to drive out Satan because that would divide in the intentions of Satan and therefore cause Satan to be weaker.
In the second of Jesus’ rebuttals, he reveals what is actually happening. Paul states in 2 Corinthians 4:4 that there is a “god of this age [who] has blinded the minds of unbelievers.” This god is implied to be Satan and so, we see that Jesus’ words indicate that Satan must be bond by Jesus, so that the work of Jesus may be carried out. Jesus is not in league with Satan, rather it is he who is tying Satan so that his work can be carried out.
It is here that Jesus cautions the Pharisees in what they are saying, and we find out how grievous their comments really are. By their attributing Jesus’ work to Satan, they are on dangerous grounds, because they are falsely crediting the work of the Holy Spirit to the work of the unholy adversary. By doing so, they reveal something about themselves. Jesus uses the imagery of good and bad trees producing good and bad fruit accordingly. Out right saying that they have evil within them that is coming to the surface. Who then is really in league with Satan?
Jesus reveals that they are indeed bad fruit, and evil things are coming out of them. They are denying that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of David, which is bad enough; but they are taking that denial a step further in associating the work of the Spirit with the work of Satan. It’s here that Jesus gives us the unforgivable sin, the denial of the holy work of the Spirit and attributing that work to the enemy. I don’t want to go into too much detail here, since I have covered this in our Mark series, but we need to be aware that we must never jump to the conclusion that it is Satan who is doing something, when in actuality it might be the Spirit working things out for the good of God’s people (Romans 8:28).
But the focus here isn’t so much on the unforgivable sin, but rather on the fruit of a person and the account that each must give on the day of judgment. Our words and actions are important and will speak volumes on the day in which humanity stands before the Holy God. The pivotal difference between the believer and the nonbeliever is the calling out and trusting on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. Yet the people of God need to be cautions in how they speak, taking the words of Ecclesiastes 5:2 seriously, “Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.” I’ve seen many believers be quick to accuse another brother or sister of not doing the work of God, just to be exposed themselves as allowing rampant sin in their lives.
It is here that these two passages come together to gives us a full picture of what we are to take in the context of chapters 11 and 12. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Servant of God that was prophesied about through the prophet Isaiah. He is the one on whom we are to place our hope. His burden is light, and in him we find rest. It is his will we are to accomplish by the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore we must get to know him. We must know our God, his identity, and his will.
And as we do, we must be humble as God leads us. Our words and actions are important, therefore we must follow the advice of Scripture to watch what we say so as not to bring us under discipline from our Father in heaven.
And so, my challenge for you this week is this, read chapters 40-55 from the book of Isaiah. Learn more about the Servant of God, who’s coming was fulfilled in Jesus. Then, at then end of your reading read or recite a paraphrase of Ecclesiastes 5:2, “You are God in heaven, let my words be few before you.”
In this way, we may know our Savior deeper in the work he has, and we may be slower to speak, and more open to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Let us be a people to whom the world sees nothing else but the active work of Jesus, in words that speak truth and are drenched in holiness. Amen.
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