Matthew 12, Part 3

Religious Blasphemy

Matthew 12:22–30 ESV

22 Then a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him, and he healed him, so that the man spoke and saw. 23 And all the people were amazed, and said, “Can this be the Son of David?” 24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.” 25 Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. 26 And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? 27 And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. 28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 29 Or how can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house. 30 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

We see a picture of a peak in the opposition of Christ, particularly by the Pharisees. He was accused of everything that could be thought of. You can’t pluck grain and eat on the Sabbath! You can’t heal a withered hand on the Sabbath! You can’t, you can’t, you can’t. Now we find the Pharisees accusing Jesus of being from Satan because He will cast out a demon. Don’t you find it ironic that a demon would recognize Jesus while the Pharisees could not?

But we can see some interesting trends with this casting out of the demon. It showed Jesus did not shun away from anyone. Regardless of how holy or how demonic they were He knew that He had dominion over their life and could initiate CHANGE. It kind of shows us we (as humans) sometimes miss the mark. We judge. We see differences. We don’t always clearly see needs. And we form our opinions and our help based on these things. Christ did not do that, He reached out to everyone in need.

Jesus also did this through humility. He did not come in with pomp and circumstance. Yet, He came quietly and lowly - even when those around Him tried to show just how unGodly they could act. I don’t know about you all, but I would have spoken words that would have curled the Pharisees hair just out of spite. But look at how Christ carried Himself - in obedience to the Father, in meek humility, serving mankind.

Even when charged with being of the devil. He kept calm and remained level-headed and went about proving that He was of God, the true Messiah. He answered these accusations simply.

Jesus proved His Messianic power - a devil-possessed man (blind and dumb) was healed.The man was “brought to Jesus.” Family or friends cared enough to bring him. How desperately some people need family and friends who care enough to help them. Jesus had compassion on the most evil, on a man thought to be so evil that he was “possessed with a devil.” The devil made the man both blind and dumb, yet Jesus had compassion upon him. His compassion reached out even to the most evil person. Jesus has the power “to deliver and heal” immediately. The one necessity is coming or being brought to Him.

Notice Jesus did not come to the man, but the man came to Him. There is something good about that, that we should remember.

Even when Jesus healed the man and cast out the demon, the responses were two-fold.

The people were amazed. They wondered in hope, “Is this the Son of David, the promised Messiah?” They thought He might be, yet they were not quite sure. He was not doing the things they had been taught the Messiah was to do. He seemed to have no concern for political and national affairs. He had neither mobilized an army nor led an uprising against the Romans as the Son of David. Contrariwise, He was demonstrating compassion and love for needy persons who were destitute in spirit and hurting in body. He was proclaiming a message of personal salvation instead of national deliverance. Such behavior was so different from what they had always believed and been taught. He claimed to be the Messiah; He even claimed to be the Son of God. They wanted to believe; they even hoped, but they just were not sure.

The religionists (Pharisees) denied Jesus. As I said before, don’t you think it ironic that the demon recognized Jesus as who He was, and the religious leaders did not. When they saw the people’s turning to Jesus, they did two things:

they set out to shatter the people’s hope and belief lest they lose their own position and hold on the people, and

they charged Jesus with being from the devil and possessing the power of the devil

The people were open to the possibility that Jesus might be the Messiah, but the religionists were not. Why? Why are some minds and hearts open and others closed to Christ? Too often the difference has to do with peer acceptance, reputation, pride, wealth, possessions, fame, power, livelihood, public esteem, applause, praise, or position

In every generation there are those who cling to their unbelief despite witness after witness. The evidence of the Lord’s presence in lives builds up to an undeniable point, yet they still persist in unbelief. They attribute any change in a human life to the power of the mind or to some psychological power of suggestion or to human faith. And they attribute any change in natural events to a fluke in nature or to an unexplainable and yet unknown or undiscovered cause. They will attribute the unexplained to anything just to keep from having to confess Christ and to surrender themselves to Him.

Jesus’ answer was to give four logical and irrefutable arguments for His Messiahship.

Jesus is the Messiah. This is a universal truth. Division leads to separation and ruin. A divided kingdom, city, or house cannot stand. It fights and destroys itself. Satan is not going to empower anyone to deliver people from evil—not time after time as Jesus was doing. Satan would destroy his kingdom and rule over lives. Jesus was arguing that it was an absolute impossibility that He had come from anywhere other than from God Himself.

Denying Jesus is illogical. It’s just plain old dumb. Why are His claims and His works denied while the claims and works of others are accepted? There were those who “cast out devils” in Jesus’ day; there were exorcists who practiced the casting out of demons. Jesus was saying that to deny Him was inconsistent and illogical. The good works of other men were acknowledged, yet His good works were denied and attributed to evil. His works were the greatest works ever performed for men, and they far outnumbered the works of any other man (Jn. 21:25). How could His power and His works be of evil and the works of others be of good? His works were bound to be of God. If His works were the good works of God, then His claim to be the Messiah was bound to be true, for God would not give His power to a liar and a deceiver.

Satan will be destroyed by Christ. The third argument is that a strong man has to be bound before his property can be taken. Satan is the strong man; Christ is the invader who enters Satan’s house to free those imprisoned by Satan. Note: Christ is arguing that He is far from being in alliance with Satan; He is actually in opposition to him. He is entering the “evil house” or domain (territory) of Satan and taking his (human) goods. He is turning men “from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sin”. God “delivers us from the power of darkness”.

The fourth argument is that neutrality is impossible. A person is either with Christ or against Christ. This could be a picture of a shepherd or a farmer. Each is involved in gathering—the one gathering sheep and the other gathering the harvest. Each also can become guilty of scattering—the one scattering the sheep and the other scattering the harvest. Jesus simply states, either you are for Him, or you are against Him. You can’t be neutral in eternal matters.

Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit

Matthew 12:31–32 ESV

31 Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

Basically, our word determines our destiny. Either we bless God or curse God. Blasphemy is a verbal insult uttered intentionally and malevolently against God, revealing the offender’s contempt for Him. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit are unforgiven. It is a tongue-sin that is unpardonable. This fact alone points to the seriousness of all tongue-sins. Remember the tongue speaks what the mind thinks. The one sin for which there is no forgiveness is not a sin against Christ but a sin against the Holy Spirit. Why? There is one simple reason given in Scripture. The Holy Spirit is the Person who works in the heart of man; it is He who “convicts the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” There is a single word that is very descriptive of His work: conviction. A man sees, feels, or hears about God’s goodness and love and of his own need to surrender to God. The Spirit takes those evidences, using them as convictions. He convicts a man’s heart to believe. A man may go on and on …

• insisting on his own way

• refusing to acknowledge God and surrender his life to God

• choosing to be blind to what he sees, feels, and hears (the convictions of the Spirit)

Such a man eventually becomes so hardened that he cannot recognize God’s truth and goodness. He reaches such a point of hardness that he no longer sees God or feels God or hears God.

Note what the unpardonable sin is. In the simplest and clearest of terms, it is stubborn rejection, stiff-necked refusal, obstinate unbelief.

Tree Known by Fruit

Matthew 12:33–37 ESV

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. 34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. 36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

At least we are not compared to nut trees...

Simply put, a peach tree will not produce avocados. A peach tree SHOULD produce peaches. Christ simply tells us a tree is known by its fruit. We (mankind) MUST make a decision.

Make Christ [Messiah] either good or bad. I am either good, that is, I am who I say I am, the Messiah, the Savior of the world; or else I am bad, a deceiver and a liar, out to lead people away from God into another path of human reasoning. Who am I? Judge. Decide. For I am known by my works even as a tree is known by its fruits.”

Christ is known by His fruit. He was saying, “There is no middle ground. Neutrality is impossible. You are either with me or against me, so quit playing the hypocrite and being half-hearted about me. Make a decision. Make and declare me good [of value] for you and your life or else declare me corrupt [a deceiver and liar] for you and your life. I am known by my fruit, so either speak for me as good or else speak for me as corrupt.”

Christ says that a man’s words expose his heart, the kind of man he is. A man’s words expose his true nature: what he is like beneath the surface, what he is down deep within his heart: his motives, desires, and ambitions, his true character: good or bad, kind or cruel, what he thinks: pure or impure thoughts, dirty or clean thoughts, what he believes and pursues: the legitimate or illegitimate, the intelligent or ignorant, the true or false, the beneficial or wasteful.

What we do is due to our heart. We act and behave and do things because of what we are within. Our hearts, what we are within, determine our behavior.

Not only our heart, but our tongues can get us into trouble. How? Because all idle words must be accounted for in the day of judgment. God hears and records every idle word that we speak. Unprofitable words make us and show us to be unprofitable servants. Our idle words must be confessed to God and His mercy must be requested, for we are guilty of this unprofitable and wasteful sin. Scripture flows with charge after charge governing the tongue.

Words determine a man’s destiny. Our words will either justify or condemn us. A man is judged to be guilty or not guilty based on testimony, that is, by his words. Kind, gracious, loving, edifying, profitable words will testify for us, justifying us in the day of judgment. Ugly, filthy, angry, spiteful, gossiping, grumbling, murmuring words will testify against us and condemn us in the day of judgment.

What do our words say about us?

Leadership Ministries Worldwide. (2004). The Gospel according to Matthew: Chapters 1:1–16:12 (Vol. 1, p. 288). Leadership Ministries Worldwide.