Matthew 11-12 6/4/23
Notes
Transcript
Are you the one?
Are you the one?
INTRODUCE SELF, SET TIMER, INTRODUCE SERIES
INTRODUCTION
-We’re Working through our series on the Book of Matthew Called Kingdom.
-(Recap Chapters 1-10)
-All the ways to follow along: Bible App, ACC app, Handouts, (If someone wants one of those let me know, I can still get them printed out no charge)
Matthew 11:1-15
Matthew 11:1-15
When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their towns.
Now when John heard in prison about the deeds Christ had done, he sent his disciples to ask a question: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” Jesus answered them, “Go tell John what you hear and see: The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news proclaimed to them. —and blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me!”
While they were going away, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Look, those who wear soft clothing are in the palaces of kings! What did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet! This is the one about whom it is written:
‘Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way before you.’
“I tell you the truth, among those born of women, no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he is! From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and forceful people lay hold of it. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John appeared. And if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah, who is to come. The one who has ears had better listen!
-So we have this odd account where John sends some disciples to Jesus, and they ask him if he’s the messiah,
-and then Jesus answers, but then he starts talking to the crowds
-And it’s all a little bit confusing.
-So let’s break it down here.
Whats going on in this account about Jesus and John the baptist
John is sending his disciples to ask him if he is really the king or should they go and look for someone else?
-what an odd thing to ask for John the baptist.
-remember the john the baptist we hung out with in chapter 3?
-john the baptist from chapter 3 was fearless. he was wearing camel skins and calling the pharisees vipers, and dunking people in the river.
-he was saying jesus is so great im not even worthy to bend down and shine his shoes. and when he shows up you better believe hes gonna bring the fire. (thats my paraphrase of course)
but chapter 11 john the baptist.
-hes sending people to ask if Jesus really is the king, or if they should just go look elsewhere?
-what on earth happened John between chapters 4 through ten that would cause john to go from the fearless proclaimer of the kingdom to someone who is sending message to Jesus asking him if hes truly the messiah or should they start looking for another one?
-Ill tell you what happened. read verse 2 again.
Now when John heard in prison about the deeds Christ had done, he sent his disciples to ask a question:
-and if you havent read ahead or dont know what happened, john wasnt ever going to come out of that prison, not alive.
-john had gotten crosswise with one of the most ruthless powerful families of the region and he wasn’t getting out alive.
-john was in a place of despair.
-and the worst part about it was, he had been dedicated to the kingdom.
-he was thinking to himself, how could i have ended up in this place, when I did everything right.
-i was faithful, i was dedicated. I gave up my entire livelihood to go out into the desert and proclaim the coming of the king.
I did everything for Jesus…and look where I am now.
-anybody ever felt that way?
-all that stuff in the sermon on the mount about how a kingdom citizen should live, all that stuff in chapter 10 about sacrificing everything to be on mission for the kingdom.
-and you’re like God ive been trying my best to do all of that stuff but its not helping. Im still suffering.
Im still in pain, Im still anxious.
-Im still suffering.
-and the crowds in this account were going through a similar situation.
-they had all followed John, they were followingJesus.
-and you’ve got to understand that the jews at that time were operating under the assumption that their good deeds were going to bring on the coming of the messiah.
-everything in the old testament about how the jews were disobedient, and how they worshipped idols.
-and god punished them because of their disobedience.
-naturally, if they were punished because of disobedience, what did they think was going to cause God to reward them…their obedience.
-and judaism in the first centrury during the time of Jesus really was a
point in their history where they were trying to buckle down and obey the law and do all of the right sacrifices.
-and by in large, especially when you compare it to the old testament, they werent doing that bad.
-and yet they were looking around at rome. they were looking around at the fact that they were poor, they were suffering,
-they were doing all the right things and they were still in pain.
-and jesus gives three different responses to this problem.
number one he refers to isaiah 35, and says look around.
-miracles are taking place.
-and he reminds johns disciples that god is not in the business of breaking
promises.
-and then he turns to the crowd and he gives them some tough love. he gives them the tough love words that they needed to hear.
-he says you guys followed John out in the desert.
-was john out there wearing silk robes telling you that everything was going to be great? that youd never be in pain again, that if you just tried real hard God would make sure youd never be in pain again?
-no he was out there eating bugs and yelling at people, and saying the king was going to bring the fire.
“To what should I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces who call out to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, yet you did not dance; we wailed in mourning, yet you did not weep.’
Hes basically saying you all think that God is going to just dance to whatever song you sing?
thats not how this works.
-and he rebukes the cities.
-so he’s moved from talking about John, to the crowd, and now he’s talking to the whole region.
he says woe to you Choriazin, woe to you bethsaida.
- you dont understand the assignment, You’re not on the same page with this whole kingdom thing.
-and the he says this in verse 25
At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent, and have revealed them to little children.
-
-hes challenging this idea that we have that if we can just be wise enough. if we just pray hard enough if we just read our bibles enough, then god is going to reward us.
-and what i have noticed, and this is specifically directed toward those of you who have been Christians for a long time, is that we will tell brand new Christians about God’s grace.
-we’ll tell them the good news, about how god loves them and he died for them
-and about how there’s nothing they could ever do to earn their spot at the table with God.
-and then we turn right around and we act as though we need to do all of these things to earn god’s love.
-i dont think we consciously think it, but it comes out in how we act.
-we try to do everything right, we read our bibles we go to church, we stand up and praise and worship him, we spend time in prayer.
-and all of those are good things by the way.
-but we slip into this idea that we HAVE to do all of those things to earn gods loves.
-and then when bad things happen, when we’re in pain, when we’re suffering, wheres the first place we go in our mind?
-maybe i sinned too much.
-maybe i didnt pray enough
-maybe i didnt read my bible enough, maybe i didnt sing loud enough during worship.
-i dont know why we revert to that place, but i want to just remind everyone that gods love for you has absolutely nothing to do with what you do,
-gods way is so much better than our way.
Yes, Father, for this was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son decides to reveal him.
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and my load is not hard to carry.”
Let go.
quit trying to do all the right things to earn God’s love,
-stop trying to do anything, and surrender to God.
-because what comes next in chapter 12 is a perfect example of what happens when you try to earn your way into a relationship with God.
Matthew 12:1-13
Matthew 12:1-13
At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on a Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pick heads of wheat and eat them. But when the Pharisees saw this they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is against the law to do on the Sabbath.” He said to them, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry—how he entered the house of God and ate the sacred bread, which was against the law for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the law that the priests in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are not guilty? I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. If you had known what this means: ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” Then Jesus left that place and entered their synagogue. A man was there who had a withered hand. And they asked Jesus, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” so that they could accuse him. He said to them, “Would not any one of you, if he had one sheep that fell into a pit on the Sabbath, take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out and it was restored, as healthy as the other.
-So Im going to say something that might be a little bit controversial.
-and i give you full permission to disagree with me.
-and just as a side note, that's an open invitation during any sermon. I'm not an authority , you are just as capable of reading your bible as i am.
-we are equals on that front,
-but i think that at the beginning the pharisees weren’t always the bad guys.
-i think they started off with right intentions.
the pharisees loved God, they were dedicated to God
the pharisees were operating on the belief that every word in scripture was the word of god. all of the old testment, remember at this time there was no such thing as the new testament,
they believed that the highest good was to read Gods word and to do what it says.
-i promise this isnt a trick question, show of hands who here loves god?
-who here believes that the bible is the word of God?
-who here believes that we should read gods word and then do what god tells us to do in his word?
again not a trick question, i would hope that everyones hand is up. my hand is up.
-so the pharisees believe those three things, and they open their bibles where it says “you shall not work on the sabbath”
-ok, well what is work?
-farming is work, right?
what is farming?
-planting, watering, harvesting, processing.
-and again this is from the pharisees point of view.
-theyre looking at the bible and saying, well does the bible say how much farming is considered enough farming before its considered work?
-well not really, it just says dont work.
-and we really want to obey god and we really want to do what god says, we really want to be committed to gods word.
-and so when God says dont work on the sabbath, theyre going to take gods word seriously.
-i dont care if its 400 acres or one single head of grain, no work means no work.
-Same thing with healing.
-unless you’re saving somebody
-healing someone is work.
-and from their point of view, unless someone is going to literally die that day,it can wait til tomorrow.
-And I say all of this not to defend the Pharisees, and not to say that they were right. Because they were absolutely wrong
-I say all this to say that the Pharisees had ideas that looked good on paper.
-They seemed like good ideas when you’re sitting in the synagogue trying to think of rules to enforce
-but in the real world they just don’t work.
-Jesus points out how absurd their way of thinking is if you take it all the way to the logical conclusion
-yeah they were commited to the Lord, they held a very high view of the word of God, but they completely missed the point entirely.
-And the pharisees could not handle Jesus challenging their status quo. So instead of changing the way they thought
But the Pharisees went out and plotted against him, as to how they could assassinate him.
Matthew 12:15-21
Matthew 12:15-21
Now when Jesus learned of this, he went away from there. Great crowds followed him, and he healed them all. But he sternly warned them not to make him known. This fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah:
“Here is my servant whom I have chosen,
the one I love, in whom I take great delight.
I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations.
He will not quarrel or cry out,
nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.
He will not break a bruised reed or extinguish a smoldering wick,
until he brings justice to victory.
And in his name the Gentiles will hope.”
-Your bible might say “the nations will hope” it’s the same word.
-Your hope is not based on how well you obey God’s law.
-It’s not based on how good you are
-Your hope is in the name of Jesus.
-But this idea was such a radical shift for the Pharisees and they were so blinded by their way of thinking.
-To the extent where they accused Jesus of working for satan.
-And again I think it wil help us grow and avoid traps by trying to see where they were coming from so that we can avoid their line of thinking.
-Jesus goes out, they bring to him a man who was posessed by a demon
-Some of the people there Recognize his authority, we talked about that a couple of weeks ago.
-But the pharisees...
But when the Pharisees heard this they said, “He does not cast out demons except by the power of Beelzebul, the ruler of demons!”
-They were so stuck that they were like, well if it’s not our works that makes us right with God, if it’s not following the law to the most extreme literal interpretation possible, with no room for mercy, no room for grace.
-If Jesus is not doing things our way, then the only other option is that he’s an agent of Satan.
-That’s how closed off they were. Either you do things our way, or you must be working for the devil.
-And Jesus says first of All that doesn’t even make sense.
-Why would satan be casting out his own demons
-Why would satan undermine himself that way. That doesn’t make sense.
-and secondly, going all the way back to John the baptist, all the way back to the crowd, the pharisees,
-Jesus gives the answer to the problem we are facing.
-The probelm of the human condition, and how we fix what’s wrong with us.
-The probelm of I try to do everything right, I try to obey God’s word, I try to read the bible and go to church, and feed the hungry.
-I’m trying to do all of those things, and it’s not working.
“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 known by its fruit.
-I want to hone in on the word make there.
-One word there really sums it up.
-
-you make a tree good, it’s going to give good fruit
-you make a tree rotten, it’s going to give rotten fruit,
-he doesn’t say a bad tree can just make good fruit and then it will turn the tree good.
-Some one has to take that bad tree, and make it good some how.
-The pharisees were bad trees.
(GET KIDS FROM CHILDREN’S CHURCH)
Offspring of vipers! How are you able to say anything good, since you are evil? For the mouth speaks from what fills the heart.
The good person brings good things out of his good treasury, and the evil person brings evil things out of his evil treasury.
I tell you that on the day of judgment, people will give an account for every worthless word they speak. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
“A good person brings good things out of his good treasury”
-The treasury, is the heart.
Guard your heart with all vigilance, for from it are the sources of life.
-It’s not about what you do.
-It;s about who you are.
-do you understand what Jesus is saying there?
-he’s saying they have the equation backwards
-The pharisees thought if a person followed all of the rules and said all the right things that all of those good deeds would turn them into good people
-it would please god
-it would bring on the coming of the messiah
-If everyone just did the right things, God would be pleased and he would reward them.
-That’s a backwards equation
-Jesus says no, first God acts in your life.
-First God transforms your heart
-he makes you a good tree
-and from that changed heart, from that changed tree you will naturally produce good fruit.
-And that’s good news for us.
-it’s not about following all of the regulations
-It’s about undergoing transformation.
it’s not about following all of the rules it’s about letting Jesus rule your life.
-It’s not about doing all of the right things
In the sermon on the mount, in matthew chapter 10, all of those things that Jesus expects of us. That high standard that he sets for us.
-You and I don’t do any of that.
-Here’s what happens when you become a Christian
-The first thing you do is realize that you’re going in the wrong direction, and something needs to change.
-And you make a commitment to turn around and start going the other way.
-you turn back to god.
-Now at this point you haven’t gotten any closer to God.
-All you’ve done is turned in the right direction.
-The next thing you do declare that Jesus is the Lord of your life, that he is the christ, and you dedicate yourself to him.
-You make him ruler of every aspect of your life.
-And then what you do, and this very important.
-you come to the realization that the Old you, the You that existed before you knew Jesus, is a rotten tree that needs to be cut down and re planted.
-you can not live with Christ unless you die first.
-The old you is sick, the old you helples
-you’ve got to take the old you and take him out back behind the shed and put the old you out of his misery
-That’s what Christian Baptism is.
Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.
-But it’s not enough just to put your old spiritual self to death.
Matthew 12:43-50
Matthew 12:43-50
“When an unclean spirit goes out of a person, it passes through waterless places looking for rest but does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the home I left.’ When it returns, it finds the house empty, swept clean, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there, so the last state of that person is worse than the first. It will be that way for this evil generation as well!”
-If you cut down the old tree and you don’t plant something new
-you’re just going to have another old rotten tree grow up in its place.
-you have to replace the old self with something.
-That’s the holy Spirit.
-Again, the bible teaches that when we are baptized we receive the Holy Spirit.
-He dwells within us.
-Here’s what I want you to understand.
-If you are a Christian, stop trying to do everything right.
-Stop trying
-Because it’s not going to work.
-If you are a Christian if you have died to your sins, then you have the spirit of God dwelling within you.
-Let the holy spirit do the work
-Let God do the good work inside you.
-Let God produce the fruit for you.
-Stop trying so hard and get out of God’s way and let him transform you
While Jesus was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and brothers came and stood outside, asking to speak to him. Someone told him, “Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside wanting to speak to you.” To the one who had said this, Jesus replied, “Who is my mother and who are my brothers?” And pointing toward his disciples he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
Paul says in Galatians
And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, who calls “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if you are a son, then you are also an heir through God.
You are a child of God
-All of a sudden, you’re not trying to keep up and earn and work your way into a relationship with God
-you’re not trying to check boxes and do all the right things
-you become all of the right things, because you’re family with the king.
-you. you have been granted adoption into the royal family.
-and you’re judged by that relationship status.
-And if you’re not an heir to the kingdom.
-And if you’re struggling.
-if you keep trying to earn your way in, it isn’t going to work.
-you’ve got to die first.
-We came in yesterday and cleaned the church, stew went and got our baptistry ready from top to bottom, because it’s time.
-It’s time that someone stop trying to do what God wants
-And get ready to become who God wants you to be.
(PRAY)