Matthew 12, Part 4

Matthew  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  59:42
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Following up with this mornings sermon, we will start tonight with the scribes and Pharisees asking for a sign from Jesus. While we might all be skeptical of someone who walked into our church and started to teach a different doctrine and heal people, going contrary to what we had all been taught from our childhood upward, would we try to intentionally catch them in some act of deceit? Would we intentionally try to trip them up? Would we intentionally seek to put them to death? You see, that was the heart, the intent of the Jewish leadership. To see Jesus be completely eradicated and wiped away from their sight. They didn’t want to bother to see the truth, they just wanted to keep the truth (as conceived in their own minds) protected.
Was it wrong of them to ask for a sign? Deuteronomy 18:15-22
Deuteronomy 18:15–22 (ESV)
15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—
16 just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’
17 And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken.
18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
19 And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.
20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’
21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’—
22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.
Here’s the thing…all Jesus had said and done had come true. They had a prophet who was speaking words from the Lord. The things He said were coming true. But they still refused to believe.

The Sign of Jonah

Matthew 12:38–42 ESV
38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. 42 The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.
By addressing Jesus as Teacher, the hypocrites attempted to mask their hostility with civility to appear reasonable in their request. Jesus had already provided abundant signs for anyone with ears to hear and eyes to see. He unmasked the hypocrites by confronting them directly. Their demand for signs was an indication of unbelief, not faith. Jesus never performed miracles for the purpose of impressing others. Miracles were part of his proclamation, never a performance.
Matthew had arranged the many miracle accounts prior to this passage so that when we see the scribes and Pharisees demanding a sign from Jesus, we also see the deep irony in their request. If these hypocrites had used their eyes with an open heart, they would have been overwhelmed with the signs that validated Jesus’ identity as the Messiah-King. But they were so blinded by their narrow, selfish interests that they missed the obvious.
Jesus responded that their request revealed the evil in their hearts. He was not saying it was wrong to test the validity of a person who claims to be God’s prophet—only that it was wrong to test him when he had already proven his validity. Such continued testing demonstrated the hardened hearts of the persons seeking the sign.
Jesus refused their request for a sign. However, he did promise the ultimate miracle one day in their future. Quoting Jonah 1:17, Jesus paralleled Jonah’s three days in the belly of a huge fish with his own three days in the heart of the earth (the tomb). The attesting miracle was not Jesus’ burial, but the fact that there would be an end to the period of the burial. It was only three days! Implied here is the miracle of the resurrection (28:1–10), paralleled by the miracle of Jonah’s escape from the fish’s stomach (Jon. 2:10).
By Jewish reckoning, a part of a day was considered to be a whole day. And it was common Jewish idiom to refer to even a part of a day as “a day and night.” So three days and three nights might refer to as much as seventy-two hours, or as little as twenty-six hours (one full twenty-four-hour day, together with one hour of the preceding day and one hour of the following day). This explains why Jesus could be said to be in the tomb “three days and three nights,” when he was buried late Friday and arose early Sunday.
Jesus again used the veiled messianic title Son of Man, so that those with “ears to hear” would understand he was speaking of himself. By the same token, the hardened heart would be confused by this title.
Continuing his comparison of the current situation with the story of Jonah, Jesus drew attention to the fact that Nineveh, the idolatrous city that Jonah hated, actually repented at Jonah’s message (Jonah 3), while this generation, who should have known better, having been privileged with God’s revealed Scriptures, was rejecting the Messiah-King. Heathen Nineveh repented before Jonah, God’s prophet. Privileged Israel was rejecting the manifestation of God himself (one greater than Jonah). Thus, Nineveh had every right to condemn unbelieving Israel at the judgment.
Switching to a different example (12:42), Jesus compared this generation with the Queen of the South (the queen of Sheba, 1 Kgs. 10:1–13; 2 Chron. 9:1–12), who, though Gentile and alien to Yahweh’s written revelation, praised Yahweh for his work through Solomon (1 Kgs. 10:9). Heathen Sheba believed in Yahweh because of his anointed king. Privileged Israel was rejecting God’s Anointed—the Christ or Messiah-King (one greater than Solomon). Thus, Sheba had every right to condemn unbelieving Israel at the judgment.

Return of an Unclean Spirit

Matthew 12:43–46 ESV
43 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.” 46 While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him.
Jesus’ parable seemed to emphasize that Israel had a limited window of time in which to respond to him. His limited time on earth paralleled the period during which the man in the parable was free of demons (perhaps Jesus was holding off the forces of evil during this time). This period would be long enough for Israel, particularly their leaders, to repent and believe in him. But if they persisted in their conscious disbelief until this “limited-time” offer expired, their final condition would become worse than the first. They would be even more hardened by their rejection of the obvious, and they would be held even more accountable because they had abundant opportunity to repent.
Jesus was not saying that there was literally a demon that had been cast out of Israel, nor that there would be more literal demons controlling Israel after they had finally rejected him. What Jesus meant to carry over from the parable is that Israel was in danger of an even worse condition than before he came, if it did not take advantage of the window of opportunity presented by his coming.
What we learn here about demons and demon possession is secondary in importance to Jesus’ message in the parable. The demon’s wandering through arid places seeking rest served as the demon’s motivation for returning to the man. This heightened Israel’s awareness that they were in imminent danger. Israel’s former condition was their desperate need of the Messiah. If they persisted in their unbelief, they would have no Messiah and they would be held responsible for rejecting him.
The condition of the man (the demon’s “house”)—being unoccupied, swept clean and put in order—parallels the short period of time during which Israel’s options were open. Even those who continued to “sit on the fence” were rejecting Jesus: He who is not with me is against me (12:30). An active affirmative decision for the Messiah was what was required—nothing less. If the demon had returned to the man and found him occupied by Christ, there would have been no room for the demon.
The seven other spirits likely parallel the deeper state of disbelief and the greater judgment incurred after the window of opportunity has closed.
Jesus closed his confrontation with the Pharisees as he began, declaring this … generation to be wicked (12:45 cf. 12:39) because they refused God’s gracious gift, the Messiah and his salvation. Jesus’ mention of this … generation is the clue that convinces us that the story about the demons is an analogy describing Israel (or at least the rebellious portion represented by the Pharisees).

Jesus’ Mother and Brothers

Matthew 12:46–50 ESV
46 While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. 48 But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49 And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
In the context of the previous verses (12:39–45) Jesus challenged the assumptions about who would comprise his kingdom and who would not. It was assumed that Israel was already in this kingdom, and that the Gentile nations would be left out. On the contrary, declared Jesus, repentant Nineveh and the believing queen of Sheba would pass through the judgment into the kingdom and disbelieving Israel would not.
He then used the idea of family to challenge the same kind of false assumption. He was not disowning his physical family in this passage but showing that believing covenant faith is the criterion for entrance into his spiritual family and kingdom, no matter what blood runs in a person’s veins. In fact, his spiritual family is even more important than any physical blood relationships. This amounts to a pronouncement of judgment upon unbelieving Israel.
12:46–47. The interruption of Jesus’ teaching by the arrival of his mother and brothers is significant. It was a graphic occasion for him to proclaim how a person must relate to him in order to participate in his spiritual family.
12:48–50. Jesus loved and honored his physical family (e.g., John 19:25–27), and he intended no insult to them. However, their presence gave him the opportunity to define an even more significant family. The head of this new family is God, the heavenly Father. Membership in this family is determined not by blood but by a relationship with the Father through covenant faith, evidenced by obedience to his will. Some of these spiritual family members were present—his disciples, those who had placed their faith in him and were showing true obedience to the Father. Jesus was finished with Israel for the moment. He was emphasizing his rejection by Israel and his withdrawal to outcasts and Gentiles. In Matthew 13 Jesus will explain his rejection of Israel and his new emphasis on Gentiles.
Weber, S. K. (2000). Matthew (Vol. 1, pp. 181–182). Broadman & Holman Publishers.
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