A Messiah Who Deals With Opposition
Text: Matt. 12:22-32
Introduction
1. Illustration: Sailors in the northern oceans have frequently observed icebergs traveling in one direction in spite of strong winds blowing in the opposite direction. The icebergs were moving against the winds, but how? The explanation is that the icebergs, with eight-ninths of their bulk under the water surface, were caught in the grip of strong currents that moved them in a certain direction, no matter which way the winds raged. In the Christian life, no matter how strongly the winds of passing opinion blow in opposition, the believer who has a depth of living in the currents of God’s grace should move toward righteousness.
2. One thing that is for certain in the Christian life is that there will be opposition. However, along with that certainty is an even greater certainty: Jesus gives us the power to overcome opposition.
3. In our text today we see:
a. Amazement
b. Accusation
c. Answer
d. Admonishment
4. Read Matt. 12:22-32
Proposition: When dealing with opposition speak the truth in love.
Transition: We deal with many of the same things that Jesus did. Sometimes we will see...
I. The Amazement (22-23)
A. The Crowd Was Amazed
1. One thing that is true about the power of God is that it amazes us.
a. It doesn't matter how old or young we are.
b. It doesn't matter how long we have been a believer.
c. When God's power affects our lives it is absolutely amazing.
2. In our text today we see "a demon-possessed man, who was blind and couldn’t speak, was brought to Jesus. He healed the man so that he could both speak and see."
a. The word "then" must not be understood here in the sense of "immediately after" but "in the same general period of time."
b. The opposition of the Pharisees was gaining momentum. The healing of a demon-possessed man now became an excuse for the Pharisees to accuse Jesus further.
c. This man was not only unable to hear or speak, he was also blind (Horton, 239).
d. Jesus opened up a whole new world to this man. Before he was in a world all his own. He could not physically able to hear, speak, or see.
e. However, he was not only physically in darkness, but he was even more importantly spiritually in darkness.
f. Jesus not only opened up his eyes, ears, and mouth, but he also opened his heart!
3. Notice the response of the crowd, "The crowd was amazed and asked, “Could it be that Jesus is the Son of David, the Messiah?”
a. Amazed: cause someone to be so astounded as to be practically overwhelmed (Louw and Nidda, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Symantic Domains).
b. They were totally overcome with the power of God. Jesus had taken a man who was totally overcome with darkness, both physically and spiritually, and brought him into the light.
c. The phrase "could it be" does not require a negative answer. In other words, they were saying "Jesus could be the Messiah," the one we have been waiting for all these years (Horton, 239).
d. These events not only touched the man who received them but also those who saw it happen.
B. Wow!
1. Illustration: Once I had a church member from another church tell me that I shouldn't tell others, especially young people, about how I came to faith in Jesus Christ. My response to them was as long as their is a tongue in mouth and breath in my lungs I will tell everyone I meet what Jesus has done in my life.
2. The power of God in our lives is a testimony to unbelievers.
a. 1 Corinthians 14:22 (NLT)
So you see that speaking in tongues is a sign, not for believers, but for unbelievers...
b. You cannot refute a changed life.
c. You cannot debate a life that has been transformed.
d. People will see what God has done in your life and want it for themselves.
3. The power of God in our lives is a testimony against the devil.
a. Revelation 12:11 (NLT)
And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony...
b. Every time we tell someone about what God has done in our lives we give the devil a black eye.
c. Every time we tell someone about what God has done in our lives we remind him of what he has lost!
d. Every time we tell about what God has done in our lives we give Jesus the praise!
Transition: But for every one who is amazed there will be an accusation.
II. The Accusation (24)
A. From the Power of Satan
1. There is another certainty about the Christian life, and that is there will be opposition. If Jesus got it so will we!
2. After seeing the man healed and the response from those who believed, the Pharisees said, “No wonder he can cast out demons. He gets his power from Satan, the prince of demons.”
a. The positive reaction of the crowd is set in sharp contrast to the determined opposition of the Pharisees.
b. They saw the same miracle and came up with a completely opposite interpretation, because their minds were already closed (France, 478).
c. People often thought magicians performed their acts through the help of spirit agents, hence the charge here is that Jesus was a sorcerer.
d. This is no small charge: magic was a capital offense.
e. Unable to deny Jesus' miracles, later Jewish sources continued to charge him with sorcery; these sources also complained that Christians, who were still working miracles well into the second century, were working them by Satan's power (Keener, 229-230).
3. Again we see what we have already said: you cannot deny the power of God.
a. These Pharisees were not local rabbis, but Pharisees who had come down from Jerusalem.
b. They had heard about all the miracles that Jesus had been doing and they were waiting for an excuse to use against him (Horton, 239).
c. Since Jesus performed such incredible miracles, the Pharisees could not deny their existence but didn't want to admit they were from the power of God.
d. So in their minds they did the next best thing, they called the counterfeit of Satan.
e. But the crowds amazement show they had never seen anything like this before.
B. Denial of the Truth
1. Illustration: "Nothing is easier than fault-finding; no talent, no self-denial, no brain, no character are required to set up in the grumbling business."
2. People will deny what God has done in your life because it confronts their own sinfulness.
a. 1 Peter 4:4-5 (NLT)
4 Of course, your former friends are surprised when you no longer plunge into the flood of wild and destructive things they do. So they slander you.
5 But remember that they will have to face God, who will judge everyone, both the living and the dead.
b. It reminds them of what they are really like.
c. It reminds them of their need to change.
d. It reminds them of their eternal destiny unless they come to Christ.
3. People will deny what God has done in your life because of their unwillingness to surrender control.
a. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT)
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
b. They don't want their present life to disappear.
c. They don't want a new life.
d. They want to hang on to what they have even though it only brings death and destruction.
Transition: However, to that accusation we have an answer.
III. The Answer (25-30)
A. Any Kingdom Divided
1. There is only one way to deal with people's accusations: the truth!
2. Jesus responds to the Pharisees by simply stating the obvious. He says, “Any kingdom divided by civil war is doomed. A town or family splintered by feuding will fall apart. And if Satan is casting out Satan, he is divided and fighting against himself. His own kingdom will not survive."
a. Jesus presents a world sharply divided into God's kingdom and the devil's kingdom, and indicates through various arguments that one cannot be working for both kingdoms at the same time (Keener, 230).
b. His first argument is the commonsense point that it is absurd to imagine that the demon king would attack and defeat his own demonic forces (France, 479).
c. Why would Satan work with Jesus? Simply makes no sense.
d. They are as incompatible as oil and water.
3. The next part of Jesus argument shows the real power behind his miracles. He says, "But if I am casting out demons by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God has arrived among you."
a. The spiritual nature of Jesus' exorcisms is now made more explicit: it is by the Spirit of God that they are performed.
b. Matthew's story makes it clear that Jesus' special authority derives from his empowerment by the Holy Spirit (France, 479).
c. If Jesus was not casting out demons by the power of Satan, there is only one other option: He was doing it by the power of God.
d. "Has come" lacks a sense of time and simply means that the kingdom of God is present (Horton, 243).
B. Stand Up for the Truth
1. Illustration: The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. — Martin Luther King
2. We are called to stand for the faith.
a. Jude 1:3 (NLT)
Dear friends, I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people.
b. We are called to proclaim the truth.
c. We are called to defend the truth.
d. We are called to give our lives for the truth.
3. We must always be ready to give an answer.
a. 1 Peter 3:15-16 (NLT)
15 Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it.
16 But do this in a gentle and respectful way. Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ.
b. We must defend the faith.
c. We must stand for the faith.
d. We must explain the faith.
e. But we must never compromise it!
Transition: We must warn people about the consequences of unbelief.
IV. The Admonishment (31-32)
A. Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit
1. Those who oppose the work of Jesus are on dangerous ground.
2. Jesus tells them, “Every sin and blasphemy can be forgiven—except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which will never be forgiven."
a. This is a really heavy indictment, but what does it mean?
b. The context of blaspheming against the Spirit here refers specifically to the sin of the Pharisees, who are on the verge of becoming incapable of repentance.
c. The sign of their hardness of heart is their determination to reject any proof for Jesus' divine mission, to the extent that they even attribute God's attestation of Jesus to the devil.
d. The equivalent today would be someone who remained so committed to rejecting Christ that she determined to find alternative explanations for any obvious proof (such as miracles) attesting him.
e. Not uncommonly young Christians read about the "unforgivable sin" and fear they have committed it.
f. We therefore must reiterate the point in this context: the sin is unforgivable only because it reflects a heart too hard to repent.
g. Those who desire to repent, troubled by the fear that they may have committed this sin, plainly have not committed it (Keener, 233)!
3. This is, for those who commit it, and very serious offense. Jesus says, "Anyone who speaks against the Son of Man can be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, either in this world or in the world to come."
a. To blaspheme the Holy Spirit requires an attitude that is decidedly against God and his nature.
b. The harsh term "blasphemy" is a deliberate and godless rejection of the saving power and grace of God.
c. The reason that this sin won't be forgiven is not because God is unable or unwilling to to forgive, but because of the unwillingness of the person to repent that goes along with it.
d. They don't want to be forgiven and want to conitinue in their sin (Horton, 245).
B. Speaking Against God
1. Illustration: Seventy-five years ago the Titanic set sail from England to America. They said the Titanic was an unsinkable ship, and really, that was the only thing it ever did. It made its way into treacherous waters. Its captain was told there were dangerous icebergs along the way and that he should be careful. He read the note, folded it, put it away, and said: “Sail on.” They sailed on and you know the story. They hit an iceberg and over 1,500 people died that night as a result.
2. Understand that those who criticize us are not opposing us but God.
a. 1 Samuel 8:7 (NLT)
“Do everything they say to you,” the Lord replied, “for it is me they are rejecting, not you. They don’t want me to be their king any longer.
b. It is not our responsibility to cause them to respond.
c. It is not our responsibility to cause them to repent.
d. It is only our job to tell them!
3. However, we must understand that if we don't tell them we will be held responsible.
a. Ezekiel 33:6 (NLT)
But if the watchman sees the enemy coming and doesn’t sound the alarm to warn the people, he is responsible for their captivity. They will die in their sins, but I will hold the watchman responsible for their deaths.’
b. Our only responsibility is to tell them.
c. Our responsibility is to be bold in our witness.
d. Whether they respond or not is between them and God.
Transition: We must be faithful in our witness, the rest is up to the Holy Spirit.
Conclusion
1. When we tell what God has done is our life some people will be amazed.
2. Others will accuse us be phony.
3. Regardless, we must be willing to stand for the faith.
4. Whether they respond is on them.
5. Are you standing for the truth?
