Kingdom Mindset: MAtthew 19:1-12

Intro: While on first reading this passage may not seem as applicable to you, because you’re not married or getting ready to be married, it is vitally important to you. This is because many of you are pursuing relationships, maybe have a desire to be married in the future, and live in a culture that is hostile to a biblical understanding of marriage.

CIT: God has created and defined marriage, and even though sin has corrupted humanity’s views and practices of marriage Jesus shows our true is in him alone.

God created marriage

Sin corrupted marriage

Jesus protects his people from sin

Cultural Critique

God created marriage

Marriage is defined by God

Genesis 2:24 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

Marriage is a covenant under God

Matthew 19:6 “So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.””

Marriage reflects Christ and the Church

Ephesians 5:22-25 “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,”

Ephesians 5:31-32 ““Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.”

Sin corrupted marriage

Divorce is caused by sin

Matthew 19:7-8 “They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.”

A low view of marriage is caused by a low view of God

Matthew 19:10 “The disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.””

Jesus protects his people from sin

We are provided marriage as a way to grow closer to God.

Genesis 2:24 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

Ephesians 5:32 “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.”

Jesus does not permit divorce, but only in specific sinful circumstances as a way to protect his people from the effects of sin.

Matthew 19:9 “And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.””

Matthew 5:32 “But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”

Cultural Critique

Culture says marriage doesn’t matter

Kim Kardashian’s approach to marriage is a good example

God says marriage does matter

Matthew 19:5-6 “and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.””

Culture says love is love

Any form or expression of love is acceptable because we are able to define what love is for ourselves.

God is love and defines how it is to be expressed

1 John 4:8 “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

Genesis 2:24 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

Culture says singleness is bad

There is a very hypocritical double standard when it comes to this.

The radical feminism movement would say that a woman is a strong independent person who needs no man and it is therefore good for her to be single. But when a man or woman who has a same-sex attraction chooses to live a single lifestyle, also called celibacy, it is now bad to be single because it is seen as suppressing natural sexual desires.

Therefore, what culture is ultimately saying is that singleness is bad when we want it to be bad because we are the ones who define what is good and bad

Jesus, and Paul, says singleness is better

Jesus however teaches in Matthew 19:10-12 “The disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.” But he said to them, “Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.””

And Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 7:8 “To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am.”

Why is this a good thing? Because in the Kingdom of God we find the ultimate relationship, that is with God, and the ultimate community, that is with the church.

Why is this a hard teaching to accept? That being single for your entire life is a good thing? Because you get the full experience of being in true community with the Church. And just as with all things that Jesus prescribes in Scripture, the best life you can live is one in obedience to God.

Culture says singleness is bad because it involves living out a godly lifestyle, but living a godly lifestyle is not burdensome, it is the best.