Our Vital Response to the Kingdom of God

Introduction

The Setting

The Miracle: Jesus shows his authority both over sickness and the spiritual world.

This miracle is typical of the kind we’ve seen in Jesus’ ministry up to this point. We’ve seen that Jesus healing and exorcism ministries are part of the ministry of Christ through the work of the Spirit to bring about the Kingdom of Heaven. As Christ says to the Pharisees here, the Kingdom of Heaven has come upon you. This is the first time that Jesus has talked about the Kingdom of God as a present reality.

The Response of the Crowds:

Amazement. As may be expected, the crowds are amazed at the miracle. We are not told how Jesus healed this man, but we know it was in a public setting in which crowds were present. The Pharisees don’t see to have been present since we are told they heard it, but they have certainly known enough of Jesus ministry to know that this is a legitimate exorcism. The people are meant to be amazed because the work that Jesus is doing is a signal that something new has come. A new era, a new age, a new time in which God is at work among his people. This is meant to stand out to them. More than this, it is to legitimize Jesus as the one who has come to do this new work.

“Can this be the Son of David?”

The miracles and power of Christ over demonic power is meant to bring people to ask this very question. It is pointing them in the right direction. Although Christ does not fit their expectation for the coming Messiah, his undeniable fulfillment of Scripture’s expectations is clear and giving people the opportunity to think, “wait a second. Maybe he is the Son of David, the coming King of God’s people. After all, who else could have such authority over the Spiritual world?”

The Response of the Pharisees:

Pushing against the amazement of the crowds and motivated by jealousy.

Their theory: Jesus uses demonic power to cast our demons.

Grant Osborne:

Matthew Explanation of the Text

Their logic is impeccable—they cannot deny that Jesus can heal the sick and cast out demons, and at the same time they cannot admit that God might be behind him.

Matthew 10:25 ESV

It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.

This will show to us the measures the Pharisees are willing to go to deny what has become obvious: that the Spirit works through Christ and through him the Kingdom of God has become manifest. The would show the same lack of logic in their behavior after Jesus rose from the dead, covering up while unable to admit that the hand of God was at work.

The Teaching

The second part of this text is Jesus’ response to the setting that Matthew has constructed for us.

A Defense of the Kingdom’s Power

First Argument: No Kingdom can stand divided.

Second Argument: The inconsistency of the Pharisees and their sons.

Conclusion: The far more likely cause of Jesus power is that it is divine, and therefore the Kingdom of God has come.

Either for Jesus or Against Him

Jesus has come to plunder the strong man.

The binding of Satan is what the overcoming of demonic powers represents.

The grand ultimatum: if you are not helping Jesus bind Satan, you are on Satan’s side.

The Unforgivable Sin

“Therefore” reminds us that what Jesus is about to say in is conclusion to what he has just talked about.

What is the blasphemy against the Spirit?

The Pharisees had just witnessed the Kingdom of God overcoming the power of the devil through the healing of a demon oppressed man. Instead of their response being amazement, or at least consideration, they conclude that Jesus must be working with the power of Satan and not with the power of the Spirit. Thus, they attribute the power of God to the work of the devil.

Jesus mention of the unforgivable sin here implies that the Pharisees have committed it. How is that?

They have interpreted the Spirit’s work as the work of the devil, specifically the Spirit’s work in bringing the Kingdom of God through the ministry of Jesus Christ.

In committing themselves to unbelief despite the clear work of God, they show themselves to be workers against the Kingdom of God, since they are not workers for it.

Therefore, they have blasphemed the Holy Spirit by taking the clear work of the Spirit in bringing in the Kingdom of God and attributing it to Satan so that they may have an excuse to stand against it.

Since they take this stand, it is impossible for them to receive forgiveness from this sin. While every other sin may be done in such a way that we come to know and regret the sin and bring it to Christ in repentance for forgiveness, the person who blasphemes against the Spirit is an enemy of God in their heart, and so is unable to come in repentance and receive forgiveness. The sin isn’t unforgivable because it is somehow a greater sin than blasphemy against the Father and the Son, rather it is unforgivable because someone who has committed it is unable to approach God with the repentance and faith necessary for forgiveness.

What Jesus is communicating here is that it is impossible for the Pharisees to benefit from the coming of the Kingdom or find forgiveness from sin since they have spurned the work of the Spirit in the ministry of Christ.

A similar thing is said in Hebrews 6:4-6

Hebrews 6:4–6 ESV

For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

What this often troubling passage is saying is that someone who has experienced the Kingdom of God is such an intimate way that they are said to have shared in the Holy Spirit and then forsakes the faith is unable to come again to repentance. This is more than someone growing up in the church and then turning away from the faith of their parents, this is someone who has had such a view of the Spirit’s work that it is undeniable that the Kingdom has come through the work of the Spirit, and yet they reject it and the Gospel. The Holy Spirit is the one who draws, so if they have tasted of the Spirit and yet resisted Him, how will they come again to the knowledge of the truth? It is not our own minds that bring us to saving faith, but the Spirit’s revelation. So if you reject his moving, what will bring you to Christ? If you turn away from the one who bring you to Jesus, who will bring you? If you deny the power and work of him who displays Christ, who will show him to you? That is the work of the Spirit and if you not sensitive to his work, his movements, his displays of Christ, if you reject what he has shown you, there is no other way to come to forgiveness in Christ. One may hear the name of the Father and see his work in creation, reject it, and yet find forgiveness. They may hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ and not believe it and still find forgiveness. But if they witness the power of the Spirit, if they have the Kingdom of Heaven presented to them with the power of the Spirit, if they have the eyes of their heart enlightened so that they see the truth of Christ and yet deny against all reason and all revelation his glorious work, there is no other way to come to Christ and find forgiveness. If you come not by the Spirit, if you reject his revelation and the manifestation of the Kingdom that he has done through Christ and through his people, then there is no way to find forgiveness.

Conclusion

What we see in this text is the black and white nature of the Kingdom of God. One cannot be neutral when it comes to the Spirit’s power manifested in the ministry of Christ. One cannot be on the fence about it when the Spirit has manifested himself in great, powerful work. While Christ does come with gentleness and in peace for those who are low and humble, he nevertheless comes with power and authority. All must submit, and the Spirit’s work is proof of God’s Kingdom come. This was shown clearly in the ministry of Jesus Christ over demonic forces. It left people with the undeniable proof of God’s authoritative work so that they might believe.

How is this power visible today? It is visible in the Church, in the communion of the saints, in the gifts distributed according to the will of the Spirit. The Spirit is visible in the way the He moves among us, offers us love through one another’s fellowship, shows us his grace in growing us into the likeness of Christ, and enlightens us to the mystery of salvation through the Gospel message.

How do you respond to the work of the Spirit?

Believer, how do you respond when the Spirit speaks to you? When he convicts you of sin? When he draws your eyes to Christ? When he invites you to feast on the Gospel when you are in the midst of worldly diversions? Do you let the Spirit lead you? Do you take every opportunity to flee sin and be shepherded back to the straight and narrow road of faith? It is possible to numb yourself to the direction of the Spirit so often that you lose his direction and guiding hand. Every time we ignore the promptings of the Spirit, we inch closer to committing the unforgivable sin by letting our hearts become hard to the Spirit’s revelation of Christ. Let us consider closely how we treat the comforter who in our hearts.

There is a danger for Christians to quickly discount the work of the Spirit among Christians in other denominations or traditions. For example, it is important for cessationists like many of us are to respect the way God may work among other traditions that have different beliefs about the work of the Spirit. Some can be quick to judge that God is not at work if certain gifts are practiced which we believe to have ceased, and I do believe gifts like tongues have for the most part ceased. However, if God does choose to work in a certain way among other believers, I should be careful that I am overly critical to an unbiblical point, lest I find myself judging a true work of the Spirit without realizing it. That doesn’t mean I won’t condemn explicitly unbiblical practices, but we must approach our fellow Christian with humility lest we say with Job, “I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.” This goes for many other issues too. Let us be slow to judge the work of the Spirit among our fellow Christian without careful discernment.

For the unbeliever, consider what you have experienced in this life and among these believers concerning the work of the Spirit. You have heard the Gospel preached, the very Gospel that was brought through the ministry of Christ by the Spirit.

Hebrews 2:1–4 ESV

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

Do not push off or excuse the work of the Holy Spirit who is at work revealing the Kingdom of God through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You either are for the work of the Kingdom or against it. Answer the call of the Spirit, attach yourself to him, follow him, humble yourself before him. Christ has shown himself to you, the Spirit is about the work of opening the eyes of the blind. But do not be one who can see and then closes their eyes again to the glory of that revelation. If you close your eyes, they will not open again. If the Spirit’s work does not cause you to look willingly and lovingly upon the saving grace of Jesus, then nothing will.