Sermon Tone Analysis

God's Answer to Our Family Problems

The Gospel of Matthew

Matthew 19:1-12

Sermon by Rick Crandall

(Prepared October 27, 2022)

BACKGROUND:

*Please open your Bibles to Matthew 19.

We studied today's Scripture when we were going through the Lord's Sermon on the Mount, and got to Matthew 5:37-42.

Both passages deal with two of the most difficult problems families can face: adultery and divorce.

That study was almost two years ago, and it's good to go over it again, because our families still face all kinds of problems today.

*It has always been so since the Garden of Eden.

Some of us have had problems with our children.

Some of us have been problem children.

I've been at both ends of that road, and I thank God for never giving up on me!

*I also thank the Lord for seeing my wife and I through every problem we have ever faced.

He is our Savior, our strength, our healer, our comforter and much, much more.

He is also our guide, and this Scripture has important guidance for every marriage, and for every person here.

Please think about this as we read Matthew 19:1-12.

MESSAGE:

*Today's Scripture helps us understand why God is so passionate about things like divorce and adultery.

But please don't tune me out if you have gone through a divorce, or you are struggling in your marriage right now.

Most every family here has been affected in some way by divorce.

And we all have had problems in our families.

*My dad’s mother divorced my grandfather in 1928, after he had been unfaithful to her.

My dad was 8 at the time, with two younger sisters.

My grandmother was left to raise 3 children by herself, the youngest around two.

My dear mother was divorced around 1935 after one year of marriage.

The experience was so bitter that she never spoke to us about it even once.

*And of the 7 children in our generation, every one but Mary and I have either been divorced or have married someone who was divorced.

But let me stress that Mary and I are still together after 47 years, not because we are marriage experts, but because of God's amazing grace.

By His grace, we have learned some things about real love.

And I give all the glory to God for His grace, and the good wife that He has given to me.

*We are not here today to judge divorced people.

Nobody knows the pain of divorce better than those who have been through it.

And God loves divorced people.

But God also hates divorce.

Why? -- One reason why is because God designed earthly marriage to be a model of the everlasting relationship Christ shares with His Church.

Ephesians 5 makes this truth clear.

*Another reason why God hates divorce is because it hurts so many people.

Divorce hurts husbands and wives.

It hurts parents, grandparents, and it especially hurts children.

Nobody knows this better than divorced people.

Nobody ever went through a divorce and said, "Boy that was fun.

Let’s do it again."

*Again, the truth is that all families go through problems, but God wants to help us.

And in this Scripture, the Lord shows us 5 things to do.

1. FIRST, SEEK HELP FROM THE HEALER.

*The Healer is Jesus Christ, and we see Him in vs. 1-2:

1.

Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these sayings, that He departed from Galilee and came to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan.

2. And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them there.

*Those people needed healing, and they did the best thing they possibly could have done: They followed Jesus.

Sometimes we need healing too, and not just physical healing.

We need spiritual and emotional healing.

We need healing in our families.

And nobody can heal like Jesus Christ!

Trust in the Lord as your Healer.

Trust in the help of God.

*King Duncan told about a little boy in Sunday School who learned about Jesus going to a wedding in John chapter 2. This was the time when they ran out of wine, and Jesus miraculously turned water into wine.

*After class, his dad was curious and asked, "What did you learn from that story?"

The little boy thought for a moment and then gave this great answer: "If you're having a wedding, make sure Jesus is there."

(1)

*You will never get better advice.

Sometimes our problems seem overwhelming, but the Lord can help us like no one else can.

2. HOW CAN WE OVERCOME OUR FAMILY PROBLEMS?

SEEK HELP FROM THE HEALER.

AND TURN AWAY FROM THE HARDNESS IN OUR HEARTS.

*The biggest problem we see in these verses is hard hearts.

[1] FIRST, THERE ARE HARD HEARTS AGAINST OUR MASTER, AND THAT IS THE WORST PROBLEM OF ALL.

*In vs. 3, "The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, 'Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?'"

*By this point Jesus was no more than a few months away from the cross, and He was viciously opposed by four evil groups: Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians.

Normally, the scribes and Pharisees hated the Sadducees and Herodians, and the feeling was mutual.

But these Christ rejecters had come together in their murderous hatred of Jesus.

They were obsessed with His destruction, and had been plotting His death for months.

*Here some of those hostile Pharisees went to Jesus to test or temp Him.

They weren't there to get wisdom, guidance, or help.

Those Pharisees were trying to trip up Jesus, and get Him to go against God's Law.

They were trying to get the Holy Lord God who gave His Law to go against His Law, and of course, that evil project was certain to fail.

*The law the Pharisees asked about is found in Deuteronomy 24:1.

There God's Word talks about "when a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house."

*It was generally easy for a Jewish man to divorce his wife.

And I was surprised to learn that divorces were common among the Jews of the Bible.

Wives usually couldn't initiate a divorce.

But if she wanted to, a wife could very easily provoke her husband into taking the first step.

*The divorce decree itself was about 10 lines long, and it required two witnesses.

Here is the three-step process:

-The husband had to write her a Bill of Divorce drawn up by some legal authority.

-The decree had to be placed in the hand of the divorced wife.

-And she had to go.

*Wow!

That was it.

*Controversy arose between two schools of the Pharisees.

The Shammai school held that nothing less than unchastity or adultery could justify a man divorcing his wife.

Hillel and his disciples went to the other extreme.

They believed divorce should be granted for the flimsiest of reasons, such as ruining supper by overcooking it or by using the wrong seasoning.

*Other valid reasons for divorcing your wife included her going out on the street with her hair loose, spinning around in the street, flirting with a man or being a noisy woman.

What was a noisy woman?

It was one who spoke in her own house so loudly that the neighbors could hear her.

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*This was the world that Jesus lived in.

And this was the controversy the hard-hearted Pharisees tried to use to trip up the Lord.

The Pharisees were there because their hearts were hardened against Jesus.

They rejected the true Messiah and only Savior of the world.