Matthew 17

Kingdom Soldiers

In our last chapter when looking at the narrative story of Christ we see the Pharisees becoming more and more hostile towards Him as He calls them out for their unwillingness to repent and at the same time still extends the offer of salvation through Him. This invitation serves only to further anger the religious people of the day as their hearts were already hardened as we talked about with God hiding the truths of the gospel from them so all they would have seen is Jesus claiming to be the only way to salvation which they would have seen as blasphemy. In chapter twelve we see Jesus willing to once again stir the pot with the leaders of the religious groups from two events both involving the sabbath. The sabbath was a time in the Jewish religion where they rested and were not permitted to work. Just like all other rules from God though the Jews had made it into an intricate legal system where they knew exactly how much work was considered work and what you could and could not do. Jesus on two occasions breaks these rules by allowing His disciples to pluck grain to eat on the sabbath and then by healing on the sabbath. He uses these events to once again illustrate the ways that the Pharisees have corrupted Gods law and to teach them that it is about having a true and good heart not strict adherence to man made rules. This is the straw that breaks the camels back for the Pharisees. At this point it is now made clear that they are intending to have Christ killed as He has been undermining their authority and ruining what they had going. They just had to be patient and bide their time until they could find grounds to have him executed on.

This is where we jump into the controversy that I would like to dive into fully in this chapter. After the Pharisees begin to plot to kill Jesus, He hears of their plotting and begins to withdraw from the area but the crowds of people followed Him wanting to be healed. And it was at this time that a demon possessed man was brought to Him. When Jesus casts out the demon from the man the Pharisees claim that this was done by the power of Beelzebub which is used here as another name for Satan. This was a major offence to Christ and He gives us several verses here to condemn what these Pharisees said and from it we can learn a valuable lesson ourselves. First, Christ breaks down their statement logically.

Matthew 12:25 “But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.”

A Divided Kingdom

Jesus tells them that what they are saying does not even logically make sense. If He were using the power of Satan then why would He be casting out demons? He would be fighting against Himself if that were the case and a kingdom that is fighting itself is doomed to fall. It is ridiculous to believe that Satan would cast out his own demons. In closing His logical arguments He gives us two deep and incredible theological (the study of the divine) points to think about an that should encourage us today as believers.

Matthew 12:28 “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

The Kingdom of God

First, Christ makes sure that they know who’s power is flowing through Him right now. It is the Holy Spirit working through Christ that is casting out these demons which in itself is an incredible point in that two members of the Trinity are working simultaneously through Him in these moments. The second statement here though is what I want to focus on. If it is the power of the Spirit, which we know that it is, then the kingdom of God has come upon us. Why is this important? What Christ is saying here is that what He brought with Him when He became incarnate on this earth was not just moral teachings and not just a hope for the future, but it is a kingdom in the present. Sadly, I see in our churches today, especially down in the deep south, an attitude of defeat. That we as Christians today have their eyes firmly planted ahead looking forward to the day of judgement when Christ will return and purge the evil from this world and they are wishing it would come sooner and sooner. Believers today are acting as though we are saved and then called to wait for His kingdom to come, but it is the very opposite. We are saved and made a new in Christ so that we are immediately adopted into the kingdom of God which is here and now. Is this kingdom perfect? No, we will have to wait for the perfected kingdom to come just as we will have to wait for ourselves to be made perfect in Christ, but in the meantime we are called to make strives towards that perfection. We are called to act as soldiers enacting a conquest on the world on behalf of our King rather than captives awaiting freedom from it. Christ has already come to set us free and it is now time for us join the forces of good and fight against all that is evil. We are called to spread His word and name everywhere we go. This is why it is important for us to remain active in the world. Keeping up with current events and finding ways for us to bring our fellow man into the kingdom. We do this of course primarily through our daily lives and interacting with our friends and family standing for what is right and calling out what is wrong, but we also do this through institutional methods. By staying active in political fields, bringing God back into the academic world, and seeking justice on a global scale. These are things that you may have no control over right now, but as we see oportunities to assist in those areas we should seek how we can help spread the kingdom of God and conquest against evil.

This of course is a daunting task. To become a soldier and face evil in the world even on a small scale in your school or work can be difficult and you may feel you are unable to fight against Satan and his temptations and powers. Luckily, Christ has us covered.

Matthew 12:29 “Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.”

Satan is Bound

The meaning of this verse is not immediately clear and could be left up to some interpretation, but I believe in context with the surrounding passage the meaning becomes much clearer. We have been talking about the kingdom of God coming in to fight against the forces of Satan, so what Christ is saying here is how could you do that unless Satan was first bound. It would be hard to come into say a UFC fighters house and rob him. I’m just saying that I am not taking that job alone, I know that pretty much any UFC fighter would beat me to death before I even had a chance to swing. But if the fighter was already bound when I entered the house then I would be able to do as I pleased. In this analogy Satan is the strong man because to us we have no chance at fighting against him alone. This world is his house for now and the people in it have been claimed by him. Fortunately for us though in our war against him Christ has already won. In Christ life He bound Satan through His perfect obedience to the Father unto death on a Roman cross. This means that Satans powers here on earth, while not totally eradicated, have been substantially weakened. We, as the forces of good on behalf of God, now have a chance at fighting against the evil of the world and seeing real good come into it. This is clearly aparant when looking at history since the Church has arose through Christ. Previously the chosen people of God were a select few in a small tribe in the deserts. Now the Chosen people of God are all across the globe spreading the news of Christ and doing the will of the Father. Not only have we been able to spread the amount of believers since Christ has come, but look at all that believers have done for the world. Nearly all of our advances in science and democracy and freedom in the world have been carried out by believers. We as Christians have a long line of heroes who have helped to fight against evil and make this world into a better place and now it is our turn to carry on the fight. The enemy is still bound and we are still strengthened by the Spirit to carry out the will of God in this world. You have everything it takes to fight against evil in this world, to resist temptation, to call out injustice, to reclaim what belongs to the Lord and to spread His word to the world.

Jesus moves from this logical argument and theological points into a more spiritual or moral argument against their attribution of the work unto Satan.

Matthew 12:31 ““Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men.”

The Unpardonable Sin

This brings us to what is commonly called the unpardonable sin, meaning the sin that will not be forgiven. These couple of verses here I believe have caused a lot of anxiety in people worrying that they have unknowingly committed the unpardonable sin or that they may do so and be denied admittance into Heaven. I want to briefly touch on this and help to ease your nerves a bit if it is something you have worried about before. While there are a variety of possible interpretations I do believe only one is consistent with the rest of scripture. In this specific scenario what is happening is the Pharisees are attributing the work of God to Satan and in doing so they are saying that God is working for evil. Now we as believers today cannot commit this sin in the exact way that the Pharisees did as they, knowing the Law, seeing the Son, and hearing His words still chose to reject what Christ was doing here. We do not have the pleasure of witnessing two members of the Trinity actively working together in this same exact way that they witnessed and so Christ is harsher on them since they were provided with ample opportunity to accept Him and yet still denied Him and even claimed He worked for evil. In today’s world the unpardonable sin is still possible, but is less apparant as it is here with the Pharisees. This is the total rejection of God and His works. Seeing all that is necessary to believe and still not only rejecting Him but despising Him. It is not a passing thought of doubt or anger towards God, but a lifetime of hatred towards Him that ends in an unrepentant heart. This sin in unpardonable not because God is unwilling to forgive it, but because the sinner is unwilling to repent of it.

Jesus concludes His rebuke of the Pharisees on this point a lesson we all are in need of adhering to.

Matthew 12:34–36 “Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.”

Wield Your Weapon Well

Our words matter, what we say to people has an impact on the world around us. The old saying sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me is an absolute load of garbage because words can leave the most lasting of scars on people. Let’s look at this and break down exactly what Christ is teaching here though. First, we see out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Our first problem like always is with our heart, it is on the inside that the evil and corruption lies in wait like a viper to strike out whenever we are not on guard. We may think that we would never say something that it is only in our thoughts, but if our thoughts remain negative towards a person and spiteful then eventually our words will slip out and the truth will be made known. So, firstly we should be on guard within our hearts clearing up any evil thoughts against people and eliminating them from within us. Then verses 35 and 36 teach us that all of our words have consequences. We are held accountable for every word that we speak and it is up to us to decide what our words will bring into this world. Will we bring about evil with our words? Will we make people hate themselves and will be blaspheme against God? At the same time though with our words we have power to bring good into this world. In this conquest of the world to further the kingdom of God around us our greatest weapon is our words. With our words we can encourage and lift people up. We can share wisdom and speak righteously. I urge you now then to examine your words. How have you used this weapon that you possess? Have you turned your sword against your fellow man or have you rightly put the blade to use in cutting down the enemy and glorifying your King.