Sermon Tone Analysis

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 127

Scripture Reading: Deut 30:14-19

Sermon

Good Morning Church!

I Was glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord!

So I have decided that when we pull up to our house I am going to stop saying things to Desiree.

As I mentioned Last week, as we pulled up to our house after our month long journey I said, I am not leaving for like 2 years, and she reminded me that we needed to go to my sisters wedding in NYC.

SO that is why we missed last week.

well, as we pulled up to the house I told Desiree, “OK, that's it, we are back to normal, I am so glad all that is over.”

two days later she tested positive for Covid, and as you can tell, things are far from “back to normal”.

But praise be to the faithful God, who is sovereign and rules, over even times and situations such as this.

And I am glad that we have learned and figured out how to operate in such times that those of you who can be there can fellowship and God’s people can still be encouraged, and God’s word can still be preached, even if in a slightly different way.

SO with that being said we are continuing our journey through the book of Matthew.

Today we will be looking at Matthew 12:22-37.

Here we have a fairly famous passage, most assuredly a controversial one, but what should be for us a beautiful one.

Lets begin jus by reading this passage in its entirety.

READ

These are the words of the Lord for us this morning, Lets Pray

PRAY.

So as you can see this is quite a full passage.

we have the idea of the “strong man” we have the unforgivable sin, we have judgement for every careless word spoken, that's a lot of stuff.

But before we dive into all that stuff, lets ask a question - what starts all of this?

What is the context, and here i don;t mean all the things that have come before and after (although that is critical) but instead the context of what happens here, and we have to start by noting this all starts with a MIRACLE

The MIRACLE

we miss it because t sshort, but the miracle that occurs here s central to all that will happen after.

Its all in one verse verse 22

This is shared with us in what one commentator calls ADMIRABLE BREVITY.

Not too many details, where exactly, we don't know.

how exactly?

we don’t know.

what did jesus say to the man and or demons?

we don’t know.

But when we have such few details, the ones that we do have stick out, and are usually more important.

And what I want to note here in this miracle is that we are given three critical thoughts that prepare our hearts to understand all that will come after.

and helpful here to think in terms of three S’s

First is to note that the man was blind.

The first S is sight.

We have covered this before, but of all the miracles of Jesus, the far and away most common was was the curing of blindness.

Why? it is because the physical blindness is a picture of the spiritual blindness that is rampant in the world.

When we read miracles of the blind being healed immediately our thought should be - OK - this man could NOT see and now he can, what is it that I can’t see and now should be able to, or as is the case here, what is it that the people around can’t see, what blindness does EVERYONE ELSE need.

Secondly this man was not just blind, but he was a blind mute.

Speaking is the second S and Speaking here is a theme that we cannot miss.

Jesus speaks, This man cannot speak, and others in this passage probably SHOULD not speak.

Speaking is all over this passage.

Verse 23 - the people SAID, verse 24 the pharisees heard it and they SAID, jesus knowing their thoughts verse 25 he SAID.

verse 32 whoever SPEAKS against the son of man and whoever SPEAKS against the Holy Spirit.

verse 36 every careless word the SPEAK.

So even in this healing a picture is being painted.

Spiritual blindness is a real issue and the words that we SPEAK are of critical importance.

and Jesus can heal that, jesus is the Lord of (as we noted last week) mercy and there is hope and healing in his name.

but in this particular miracle there is another twist that we cannot miss.

Why is this man blind and mute? was he born this way?

some accident?

no, this man is being oppressed by demons.

and here is the third thing to note, And the final S - this is the acting of supernatural powers.

I use this picture all the time because I feel like it is super important that we get this.

The truth is a narrow road, and we do damage by jumping in and out of the ditches on either side.

So the trap on one side is to assume, that because this blind mute man is that way because of demons all blind and muteness is the result of demon activity.

Let me start here, not everyone who is blind or mute is that way because of demonic forces.

Sometimes someone is born that way so that the power of God can be shown, sometimes these things happen as a consequence of living in a fallen world, sometimes we have NO idea why these things happen, but that is for God to know and for us to serve him.

So it is dangerous to live in that ditch, but many of us, acknowledged the follow of that have gone to the other side.

While we live and operate in the power of Jesus Christ, while we walk in victory, we cannot ignore the fact that we battle not against the flesh but against spirits.

We should remember Paul’s warning to the church in Ephesus

The spiritual realm is real Satan is a deceiver, he is defeated, but looking to take down with him all that he can.

This miracle is really a miracle exposing the great divide between two kingdoms.

there is the blind mute kingdom of darkness, Beelzebub, and darkness, and the kingdom of Heaven, the one that has arrived in the person and work of Jesus Christ, the one who opens the eyes of the blind and unstops the mouth of the mute, the one who gives light and life to those who trust in him.

Sure, this is a brief miracle, but it is an important one, so with that lets dive in.

And we can and should note, as we so often have each ad every time Jesus has done or taught something, that there are TWO RESPONSES

Two RESPONSES

The first is shown to us in verse 23

The first response to The kingdom of heaven coming in might and power to open blind eyes and shout forth the power of God is wonder and amazement, it is praise and adoration.

The people are amazed.

WE have never seen anything like this, in all our days, this man was BLIND and could not speak and here he is describing to us in beautiful detail all the things that he is seeing!

Who could do this?

they wonder, and only one answer is acceptable to them, it must be the son of David.

This is the messiah, for only he, only one called and used and equipped by God for such an incredible work would have the power and, as is key in Matthew, the AUTHORITY to do these things.

Thinking in terms of the miracle we have just witnessed, the first response is to open your eyes and SEE the truth then SPEAK the truth, that Jesus is messiah, that he is Lord, that he is the Son of David, the Long awaited savior.

It is to set your camp in the kingdom of heaven and live for him.

But that is just one response, there is a second.

this is the response shown by the Pharisees in verse 24

It is to see the miracle of Jesus, this GOOD thing, for at the heart of this is a man tormented and troubled and left blind and mute, and for him we cannot overstate the freedom and healing, his life was changed, and only for the better.

and the Pharisees see this and state: only the devil can do such things.

these things that look good, and seem good, they are in fact sinful to the core.

This man is NOT the son of David, he cannot be, for what we are looking for, what we desire to see when we speak of the Son of David, the political victory, the (most likely) being a member of OUR group, this man is not that, so he must be of the devil.

Again, the miracle is a helpful filter, they remain blind, and they speak lies as they show that though they CLAIM to be against the kingdom of evil they are it’s chief officers.

BUT this is a helpful thought for us, in two ways.

ONE, we can check our own hearts.

In what ways are we blind to what God is doing?

how comfortable have we become in our blindness that when the light shines forth we cannot see God moving and working.

and how is our speech broken?

In what ways do we call right and good evil and evil and right good?

and secondly, why are we so surprised that the world responds to the message of the Gospel in the way that it does.

When we read of abortion providers that are coming to our town, just a few blocks away and they have said such things as: I thank God for my abortion and know that God want me to perform abortions” why are we surprised?

These pharisees saw JESUS right in from of them and remained blind, and spoke heinous evil things, and the world still does that.

The solution is as simple as it is impossible, blind eyes need to see the hope and truth of the Gospel.

When we go out with the message of Hope, when we go forth and attempt to “make disciples of all nations” we go to blind people who speak evil against the Lord of heaven and earth, who live for the world, and it is not up to me to open blind eyes, that is the ob, and gratefully business, of God.

Understanding that gives us access to see the next thought, jesus teaches TWO LESSONS

Two LESSONS

The first is found in verses 25-28 and is fairly simple to grasp, with powerful ramifications.

Hearse the argument.