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Matthew 12:22-50

“Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil [demon], blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David? But when the Pharisees heard it, the said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of devils. And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand: And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand? And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. Or else how can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he shall spoil his house. He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven men. And whosoever speakest a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. [Interesting, Jesus uses the Jewish term for the Millennial Kingdom of God, the world to come. The Worldwide Church of God used to call it The World Tomorrow. So blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be tolerated, in this present world, nor the Millennial Kingdom of God after Jesus’ 2^nd coming.] Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, That every idle word that a man shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. [Some try to reason around this sign of Jesus to make his internment in the grave be from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning. By Jesus own words, this is not possible, and doesn’t equal three days and three nights. Be careful what you preach.] The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it; because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation. While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

“Let’s turn in our Bibles to Matthew chapter 12. If you have time next Saturday, and if you enjoyed Friday night out in the parking lot, that’s what we’re going to do down in the Commons in Belchertown. A little bit more, but an opportunity to go out and just love the city there, and who knows what God might do through you. That’s this coming Saturday. Matthew chapter 12. Why don’t we just begin with a word of prayer as we come now to our study. ‘Lord I thank you that your Word is powerful, and that you tell us that when it goes out, it does not return void. I thank you Lord, that the Word that you speak, as it’s received into our hearts, does bring life, does bring conviction. Maybe Lord there are men and women that are present right now in this sanctuary that don’t even have eternal life. Well I thank you Lord that your Word is so powerful that as you speak you can even speak to their heart, and even before this service is over, they could be someone who has eternal life. So we just want to thank you for your Word. Yet at the same time Lord, too, we know it goes out in power, yet our ears are in need of hearing your Word, and our hearts in receiving your Word. So we ask very simply that you would give us ears to hear today. And help us Lord just to open our hearts even to you now, so that we can consider all that you might say to us. Maybe it’s just a simple word, maybe it’s just a passing quick thought that is yet what we need for this week that we’re about to go into. So we just want to thank you for your Word, and would ask Holy Spirit that you would be upon all of us, and even upon myself now as we go through your Word, in Jesus name, amen.’

Five groups of people are here: the disciples, the curious, the religious leaders, the disinterested, and finally, Jesus’ unconverted family

As we’ve been studying through the Gospel of Matthew we have seen that there are different types of responses from people to Jesus. And just simply as we get started, we’ll divide it into four groups this morning, although some of these groups as we go into our text, we’ll see there’s different ways it can be divided up too. But there are the disciples, and they have a certain response to Christ, of course hearing about him, seeing him, they have chosen to follow him, they have hearts for him, they love him, they want to be with him. [Remember when you first came to Christ, you had those feelings too, and you backed them up with actions.] So they are following him. And they represent one group of people. But of course, as we see the numbers of people that are there in the multitudes and things around him, they represent a comparatively small group of people, the disciples do, those that are followers of Christ. Then there’s the other group, the multitudes that we see, these curious people. They have witnessed Jesus do things, they have heard of Jesus [Hebrew: Yeshua] doing things. So they come with intrigue, they come with a wonder in their heart. In many instances, too, they’re amazed, they’re astonished by what they see, even maybe perplexed as they watch Jesus work, they are the multitudes that are around Jesus. Some come with a need, so that’s why they’re there, they have a personal need, they need a touch by him, they want him to help them or give them certain answers, so there they are. And for many, for whatever reason, they’ve not chosen to be followers, but they stand there and they watch and they listen, and they’re amazed. And you could say too, there’s another group, we don’t read too much about them, looking at the nation of Israel [Judah, Judea] at large. There are those that are followers, those that are then just kind of watching and being amazed, and then there are some that are just disinterested, they don’t really care. And they’re not really too often in the picture that we see, they’re probably staying at the home, staying in their villages. They have other things that they’d rather do, other things that they’re interested in. So they’ve heard maybe about Christ, maybe seen people come back excited about what he’s done in their lives, and they’re just not interested, so they’re not really in the multitudes. And then there’s a group we read a lot about, this fourth group, we continue to see, and they become a bigger factor as we go on no doubt, and they’re in the verses that we’ll study today, and that is this opposition group, those that are opposed to Jesus, that because of what he says, what he does, they don’t like it. They’re bothered by it, and in some cases so much so that they have a distain for him, even some have a hatred for him, because of what he says and what he does. Within this group of opposition there’s the religious leaders that we see over and over. These men are envious, jealous of Jesus. So they’re threatened by him, and because of that, we saw even last week, we’ll see more as we go on, they’d like to just take care of him, they don’t even want him around, they’d like to kill him. And that’s where we’re ultimately heading, isn’t it? So you have different groups. Now today, are there different groups around Christ, responding to Jesus differently? At this time in the Book of Acts no doubt there are today. [I like his reference to ‘At this time in the Book of Acts’, meaning that the Book of Acts never had a proper ending, amen, to it. That means it’s still being written up in heaven.] And I would imagine even in this room there are different groups, maybe all of those four groups I’ve just mentioned are represented here. There are plenty of folks that you would consider followers of Jesus Christ that are here no doubt, that want to be with him and walk with him. But maybe there are even some that would represent the multitudes of the world that are curious, that are amazed, perplexed, astonished by him and the Church, and the work that goes on in the Church, yet for whatever reason, you are here and you haven’t chosen to be a follower of Jesus Christ yourself. And maybe there might be one or two that are part of that group you call the disinterested group, and the only reason you are here is because you have to be here. Maybe your mom and dad say you had to be here, so you’re here. You don’t want to be here, you are not interested, just plain and simple. Or maybe it’s a spouse, a friend, they’ve just pressured you like crazy, so you’re here. You’re not interested, you’ll get through it, and the good news is it isn’t too long. But that’s who you are, you’re just not interested. Your interests are in other things. Then maybe there are one or two or three listening in, and you’d be considered part of the opposition group. And why you’re here, I’m not sure why you’re here, maybe you have to be here, again. But when it comes to the Christian thing, man, you don’t like it. It’s not that you’re not interested, you don’t like it. It even bugs you, it bothers you. You have just a thing in you against it. And so you’d be part of that group too. Well, as we go through and study what we do, we’ll read a lot about the opposition group today in our verses. But whatever group we might be in, you know as you study the Scripture, we get the privilege of learning about what God sees in those groups and what he thinks. And that’s valuable to us. But also, not only do we have that, we also get the situation as far as the perspective of what does it mean to be in that group, what is the final outcome? What is the reality of what it means to be part of that particular group, to be disinterested, what does that mean in the future? What does that mean in all of life? Or to be part of the opposition group, whatever it might be? [Want to really know what happened to the opposition group? Log onto: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Jewish-Roman_War. Is wasn’t

pretty.] Well, as we go through the verses we are in this morning, we’re just reminded little things about the real reality of the matter when it comes to what’s in our heart in response towards Christ. And so, may the Holy Spirit open our eyes. I thank God that, as we are together, that God speaks to our hearts, and we can even change our hearts, amazingly, we can come to the Lord, and we can go ‘Well I was part of the opposition group, but I just don’t want to be a part of that anymore. I’d like to know what it is to follow Christ.’ Or maybe you’re part of the disinterested group, and the amazing thing is, you can even, by the grace of God, today have a change in heart, and say ‘You know, I want to know more.’ And I pray that is indeed the case in the hearts of some of us that are here that might be part of that group.

Different reactions to a real miracle

Well let’s begin with verse 22 and let the Lord just speak through the simplicity of his Word. Verses 22-24 of Matthew chapter 12, “Then one was brought to him who was demon possessed, blind and mute; and he healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. And all the multitudes were amazed and said, ‘Could this be the Son of David?’ Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, ‘This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.’” You know, we see Jesus, he continues just to minister to the lives, he continues to heal people and touch lives. That’s his heart, doesn’t matter what people have said, they’ve said some harsh things and they’re going to continue to say harsh things, as we see. Yet he continues just to touch lives. There’s a man that’s brought to him here, this man is, man he’s got a hell of a life, in the sense that he’s living a living hell is what he’s living. He is demon possessed, and all that we know about demon possession is there couldn’t be much of a worse experience than being demon possessed. And it’s possibly related to his demon possession too, but he’s at a state where he cannot speak, and neither can he see. And if demonic possession is a living hell, add to it the fact that you cannot speak, that you cannot share about your anguish, that you cannot express to anyone what’s going on in your life, would only compound the matter. And then throw into it also the fact that he cannot see, just the fears that go on with demonic possession, the mental battles and the emotional battles. The fact that you cannot see would only make it even worse. So this man has had just a dire existence. And people have seen what Christ does, they come, they bring their friends, they bring themselves, and here they bring this man. Some say here that Jesus has a quadruple miracle, maybe a triple, maybe a quadruple, I mean it’s quite a miracle in the sense that there are multiple facets to it in this man’s life. But he’s brought to Christ, and Jesus heals him. So, he goes from the demonic possession, he’s no longer, he’s free of that. Secondly, he then is able to speak. Thirdly he’s also able to see. And then fourthly, there’s a sense of new freedom and just freshness that his life now has, he’s been healed. And with that, as you see in the verses, verse 23, the multitudes are amazed, astonished that this man would be transformed, right before their eyes, like that. And so they say ‘Could this be the Son of David?’ Now what we don’t have in our English, there is in the Greek this word meti which is not, it starts the phrase in the Greek, but there is actually in the Greek, when they state this, it’s in the sense that they expect a negative answer. You don’t see that there, but that’s what they expect. They expect the answer to be, when they say ‘Could this be the Son of David?’ they expect ‘no it’s not the Son of David’ they way the wording is done there. Now they’re amazed, so their hearts are stirred, they know the Old Testament prophets, they know what Christ, what the Messiah is supposed to be like. And these things that are happening are amazing to them. And so there’s hope and things stirring in their hearts, for sure. But it would seem, and different Bible teachers would take it this way, and I think it’s a good chance given what we see here, is as they state the things that they do, they’re afraid of the religious leaders. These guys, they were the leaders, they were the rulers in that sense, they ruled with an iron fist, they were tough guys, and man, they were the dudes. And it would seem that they state the question ‘Could this be the Son of David?’, meaning they are amazed, yet there’s this religious Pharisee standing next to me, and so, it’s posed in the question, ‘Ah, could it be, ah no,’ in that kind of way is what they state there. So, implied in the Greek, and I think it’s very possible, there is a fear as they are seeing what they are seeing, as they stand there with the multitudes. And it effects the way they even express what they do. And I say that, and I start with that because maybe there are some of us that are like that. There is no doubt, many people that hear about Christ, that witness things about Christ, that yet are afraid. And hearing the Gospel or coming to church, maybe that’s you here this morning. And there’s a fear, there’s a fear about ‘Well, I see these things, I hear these things, but I don’t know, man, I don’t know about me.’ Maybe there’s a fear because of a relationship, often there is. It’s possible for someone to be sitting in the church, and being confronted again with Christ and the Gospel, and to go ‘You know, I hear it, but man I also know that if I go down this road, if I chose to, I see it out there, but my spouse at home, man, she [or he] won’t go for it. If I do this, or my mom or dad, or my family, if I was to accept Christ, if I was to do this, become one of these Christians, man that isn’t going to go over well. [The Lord called me not into an ordinary Sunday observing church, but a Sabbath observing, Old Testament Holy Day observing Christian church, which also observed the dietary laws of Leviticus 11. You guys got it easy. My family and friends looked at me like I had three heads! Try that one on for size, why don’t you.] And so there’s this fear of what someone else might say or think. Maybe it’s a friend, maybe it’s just the pear pressure at school. ‘I don’t know if I can be part of that group. You know, I see it, I hear it, yes, this Jesus. But man, I don’t know, being part of that group, that Christian thing, I don’t know.’ There’s this fear of man. Today if you’re somebody that’s wrestling through that, you’re certainly a part of a group that a lot of people have been part of. But you may have been here a couple weeks ago, if you weren’t, I’ll share with you what Jesus said then. Matthew chapter 10, verse 32 to verse 33, “Therefore whoever confesses me before men, him I’ll also confess before my Father who is in heaven. Whoever denies me before men, him I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven.” You are here, and struggling through that, afraid, just afraid because of somebody else. And that is what is dictating you and causing you to wrestle and struggle with whether or not to follow Christ. Then understand the consequence, understand the implication, understand what it means in the end. Jesus said ‘If you’re ashamed of me I’ll be ashamed of you before the Father.’ If you can’t follow me, man, when I stand before God, that’s not gonna help you a whole lot, if you stand on the sideline and decide not to follow me because of the fear of man. But there are people too, their fear is just what they see with the Christian life, that ‘I’m afraid because, you know, I’m gonna have to change, I’m going to have to stop this, I can’t have this. I look at other Christians I know, and in some cases there’s suffering and I can see, it’s not popular’, and so there’s the fear of that. [That’s called ‘counting the cost’] And maybe you’re here today, and you’re watching and listening, and God’s been speaking to your heart, and here you are again in church, and that whole thing is going on in your head, and it’s a fear. Well you know I’ll just read to you then the apostle John’s words, 1^st John chapter 4, as he says this, if that’s your fear, fear of difficulty related to following the Lord, or fear of hardship, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” There is a Scripture to consider, and it’s about the love of God and the love of God towards you. And if you are afraid of what it might mean to become a Christian and to follow the Lord because of just that lifestyle that you’re looking at, things like that, then consider God’s love for you, man. And I tell you, to follow the Lord, there’s no greater life. Not necessarily an easier life, but there’s no greater. It’s a life of no regrets. It’s a life that you experience to the fullest joy and just goodness in your life. Yeah, there are challenges, there can be even tremendous challenges, but it’s the greatest life. The perfect love of God, man, walking with the Lord, man, his love, I wouldn’t have it any other way, having tasted of and experienced it. Well we have these folks, they seem to be afraid at this point. Then we see in verse 24, the Pharisees here, and probably it just says the multitude expects there’s gonna be a rebuke and a response, so maybe they’ve watered down their statement, or changed it in a slight way, with these guys in their presence. Well, the religious leaders then, they come back pretty sharply, but rather than focusing on anybody in the crowd, they focus their words at Christ. And it’s very critical what they say. They hear this and they say ‘This guy has done this, man, he’s cast out demons as he does because of a demonic influence in his life, because of Beelzebub, the ruler of demons, that’s the way this guy does it, that’s where he gets the power.’ Now that’s pretty harsh words, to say that it’s because of Satan. Ultimately Beelzebub would be a reference to Satan. They can’t deny the miracle, they can’t say it didn’t happen, the man is speaking, the man is clearly seeing, the man is not demon possessed anymore. It cannot be denied, a tremendous thing has happened, and so because they cannot deny it, all they have left to do is criticize the one that did it. And they come back pretty critical, they say he’s essentially a worker of the Devil. Well, in Mark chapter 3, verse 22, the way it’s worded there, it says that he is possessed by Beelzebub, he’s possessed by Beelzebub. So they’re saying he’s demon possessed by a greater demon than the demon in this man, and that is how he was able to do it. Man, that’s harsh. [If you want to see a man who historically was probably possessed by Satan at times throughout his rulership, take a look at the life of Adolf Hitler. But to say Jesus was possessed by Satan, these guys were real warped to say the least.] Man, that’s critical. And so we see this group here, but we also learn a little bit as to why, we see the context. And they represent to us a group of people that are critical to Christ, people that hear about the Lord, they see the Church, things going on in the Church, God at work in the Church, a Christian’s life, and they’re critical, and they say harsh things, and they tear at people, and they shred this or that.

Why the religious group are saying harsh critical things about Christ

And the reason why, so often, and we see this group is doing it, they’re critical especially because they’re threatened, they’re threatened by Jesus. Jesus has done what he has done, and now the multitudes are amazed, and that threatens them because, you know, they are the religious establishment, they are the guys in the know, they’re the people that you go to for opinion, for advice, they’re the ones. They have the influence. And with Jesus doing the things he’s doing, in the manner that he’s doing them, and people being amazed in the way they are, they’ve got to criticize, they’ve got to undermine. You know, you see people do that. It’s easy to criticize, when people’s positions will be threatened. One church will look at another church and be threatened by what’s going on in that church, you know, because they’re growing or because of excitement in the community, and they’ll just come out with ‘Well, they’re just carnal, that’s why, they have that contemporary music because they’re appeasing the carnal desires of the people, of course people will come to that church.’ And they just go on and on, it’s the same kind of thing, same kind of thing. [Also the religious leaders are the ones all Judeans had to tithe to. This was a theocracy. You paid taxes to the Romans, but the theocratic government of the priesthood and Temple was maintained by the tithes of the people, 10 percent of their income. Jesus was threatening their whole livelihoods in reality, the way these religious honchos looked at it.] These folks are threatened, and because they’re threatened, they’re being critical. And they represent a group of people like that. And today, maybe there are some like that. And God just wants to expose the real issue in your heart, you’re critical, you just rip at the Christian faith, maybe you’ve been brought by somebody and you’ve let them know your thoughts about the Bible and about Christ and the Christian deal, and you just go right through your list of little criticisms about this and that. You know, ‘The Bible is just nonsense, not inspired, written my a bunch of people and foolish, and science proves that,’ you just come with your things. You know, more often than not, a good probable reason for those words is because you’re threatened. Maybe it’s because of somebody you care about, and because of Christ working in them, you’re just threatened, you’re threatened about the way they’re looking at the Lord, and the way that their passions are being changed, and their desires and their attitude toward you is maybe changing a little bit as a result, you don’t quite have the influence in their life anymore. As the parent, your child now is more concerned about God, and you’re threatened by that. Or your spouse seems to have this other person [Jesus Christ] in their life now and you’re bothered by that, and so you’re critical at Christ and critical at the Church, boom, boom, boom, boom there you go with your words and phrases and things. Well, if that be the case, obviously you can agree, that’s just futile. It doesn’t accomplish anything. To be critical because you’re being threatened, I mean, that’s a statement of weakness, that’s just a statement of being given into fear, and then being evil at what you do in response. That’s just an envy and a jealousy that’s pretty ugly. Maybe you’re here today and you are in a season where you are just now seeking the Lord and following the Lord, and there are people really being critical of you. You go home from this place, and your spouse is waiting for you, and they are just so bothered by the fact that you’re here. Or maybe you’re a young person, and your mom and dad are just not happy that you would be coming here. And they’ve got things to say and statements to make to you, criticisms. Well understand that it’s very possible because of the fact that they’re threatened by what’s going on, now you know how to pray for them. [You think this kind of pressure is bad? God has just revived the Jewish branch of the body of Christ. Within 40 years he has drawn an estimated 500,000 Jews to belief in Jesus Christ as their Messiah. A Jew that comes to Jesus Christ is basically disowned by parents, family and the whole Jewish community. And most Jews are involved heavily with family, parents, synagogue, and their community. Also within the Jewish community, strong business ties exist. These are all broken, severed when a Jewish person comes to Christ. Want to see what it was like for one Jewish person comes to Christ? Order Kidnapped For My Faith by Ken Levitt. It can be ordered as a used book on http://www.amazon.com.] You can kind of focus your prayer with that very issue, that they’re threatened by it, and maybe be understanding in a way you wouldn’t have been, if you consider the real issue at heart and why they’re struggling the way that they are. Jesus, as he goes on here, he exposes the real issues at heart. Basically from this point on, just about everything he says up through verse 45 is getting at the issue of these guys’ hearts, these men that are opposing him, he is just going to lay it bare. ‘’This is the issues in your heart.’ He also explains the illogical, just the foolishness of what they’ve said.

Jesus confronts the Pharisees’ illogical reasoning, backing them into a corner

Verses 25-30, “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. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. 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. He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters abroad.” Jesus responded to just the illogicalness of their criticism. As often criticism toward the Church, you hear it through the airwaves or read it in the press, as often you look at it, you have to come to the conclusion that what they’re saying is just illogical, that’s just not true. That’s strange reasoning. And that’s that same thing, is what he essentially does here. He explains to them how foolish it is, ‘If I am being empowered by Satan’, as he’s sharing, ‘then Satan is actually working against himself, and consider how illogical that is, Satan, I mean he’s working against his very own goal. His goal is to possess his kingdom, to expand his kingdom, is to have more people in his kingdom. And this man I just healed was in his kingdom, he was under his control. And he has [“he” meaning Satan] cast the demon out of him? So he’s relinquished that person?’ Now, as the Jews at the time would know, I mean, the demons are essentially outnumbered, when you look at the angels. And of course God is much more powerful. So the Devil is fighting from a certain angle and to fight against himself, to give up ground, that’s illogical. And if he does that repeatedly, well in the end it just spells his destruction. Any kingdom divided against itself is not going to stand. A household divided is not going to stand. And that always is to us a reminder then of just the need to continue to pray for unity in this congregation and unity in our homes, harmony. [And how about for unity in the body of Christ too? Try doing that as well.] And the way that we ensure that there is unity, the way that you do that, is to love. That’s the way. If there’s division between you and other people in the congregation, the way to deal with that is to come back in love, man. Because if a congregation is divided, or even a household is divided, man, the principle he says here is true, in the end it will won’t stand, it will come to an end. But then he goes even further, speaking of just how that’s illogical, he says in verse 27, ‘If I’m doing this by a demon, by the Devil, then how do your people do it?’ Now evidently, these religious leaders, they had Jewish exorcists, you remember if you studied the Book of Acts, there’s the sons of Skiva, and they go out there in Acts chapter 19, and they don’t have a very good time of it. But they’re Jewish itinerant exorcists, they go to this one place, they see here’s a demon possessed man, they seek to cast out the demon in the name of the Jesus whom Paul speaks of, you might remember, the demon responds pretty brutally, and in the end they are beat up and they run out of the house completely naked [Acts 19:13-17]. That didn’t go very well for these guys. But there were, evidently, Jewish exorcists, whether or not they had more success than that I do not know. But the Talmud, this book of rabbinical writings, with the interpretations of the Torah in it, the Talmud noted that there were Jews who had also sought to cast out demons in the name of Solomon. I wonder how well that worked? But they went around and that’s what they did. And so he says, ‘Hold on, if I have done this, if you say, by doing this it only proves that I’m demonically influenced and empowered, well then, if it proves that for me, then when your guys do it, it must prove the same thing, in order to do this. And that’s your determination, I’ve cast out a demon, therefore I have demons. Well your own guys, and if you trained them, and if you’ve led them, then what does that say about you their trainer, and their leader?’ Well he’s just showing again, I mean, he’s backing them into a corner with their own logic. “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God”, or as it says in Luke “by the finger of God”, ‘If I do it that way, then what does it say? Surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.’ Meaning, ‘If light is here, and darkness is being pushed back, if the Devil, I mean, if he’s losing ground here, if he’s being overthrown, if his kingdom is being dismantled, then what does that say? It says the kingdom of God is right here, right now, right upon you through me, the Messiah, the Son of David indeed, the Son of God.’ Verse 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.” And then he goes further in verse 29, but how can a person go in and, you know, there’s a strong man in the house, and how can you go and take the strong man’s goods? You know, a mighty, well-armed robber in a home, in his fortress, how can you go in and take his goods, unless you go in and you disarm him and you bind him and tie him up. If you get him out of the way, then you can go in and take his goods, and that’s the only way you can take his goods. And that’s what he’s indicating he’s done. That’s how this happens, somebody that’s stronger, meaning the strongman being the Devil, somebody stronger is here, and I’ve just bound him, and I’ve taken his goods’, the goods being the people, that’s the goods that he possesses. And there’s certainly people that are within the possession of the Devil, as we’ll go on.

“He who is not with me is against me”---no middle ground, no fence-sitting allowed

Then verse 30, we see here there’s another statement here about another group of people, and a very direct statement, and very important, and maybe for some of us here this is what we need to hear. He goes further, “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters abroad.” ‘If you’re not with me, if you’re not on my team, if you’re not working with me,’ he says there’s no middle ground. There’s no neutrality, you’re either with me, working with me…if you choose not to do that, for whatever reason, you are then in the other group, by default, you are against me.’ So there’s no neutrality, there’s no being disinterested, there’s no saying ‘Well, Christ, that’s fine, hey that’s for you, that’s cool, I don’t need it, God’s fine with that, I’m gonna do my thing, I’m just not interested.’ Or, ‘You know what? I don’t want to do that and offend people, so I’ll, I want to be friends with everybody, so I’ll just stand in the middle.’ There’s no middle ground. He says ‘If you are not with me, if you do not choose to follow me, then your only other place is to be against me.’ There’s two camps, either with Christ as his disciple, and everyone else is, by default, by nature, is completely against him. So today, if you’re here, and you’re thinking ‘Well, I do believe in Jesus, I do believe in God, but I don’t, I’ve just put it off, I’ve just thought, Well I can do it my way, and you know, the Christian thing is for my friend, but it doesn’t have to be for me.’ Then understand this, you are against him. And that should concern you, if you’re against God. Christ is like a super-magnet, and we’re like metal [magnetized iron, steel], based on our makeup and our polarity, either you’re being drawn to him or driven away from him, that’s the way it works, there’s not just neutrality, no just being indifferent, that doesn’t work. And so, if that’s your heart, I pray that that would speak to your heart. I pray that you’d consider that, that you’re against the Lord, you’re against him because you won’t chose to follow him, you are against him. Just like any Satanist would be against him, just some of the most evil groups that you can think of him are against him, you are in the same group, that’s what he says, those are his own words. You are against him. And you can be against him if you choose to be against him. But don’t be deceived into thinking that ‘I can just do what I want to do and be disinterested and neutral, and God’s fine with that.’ No God says ‘You’re against me.’ That’s the Scripture, the teaching of the Bible. Verses 31-32 go even further. We have this group that’s afraid, we have a group that’s critical, and then this neutral group, and all of this in many instances is the same group of people at this time that Jesus is dealing with. But we’re using it to just think of groups today [also in our time].

What is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?

Verses 31-32, “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven of men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.” Now Jesus, again, these guys have said certain things and have a thing in their hearts, so he’s just coming right back and showing them the real deal of their hearts. And what he’s showing them here, he’s speaking about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, and he says the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. I mean, ‘If you speak a word against the Son of man, it will be forgiven, but if you blaspheme the Holy Spirit,’ he says, ‘it will not be forgiven.’ So what is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? Well at this particular time, they are in a very unique position, in that they are seeing Jesus, Yeshua, physically, they can see him, they can tell you what he looks like, they’re watching him work, they’re listening to him teach, they’re watching his whole life, all the miracles, they’ve just seen a man who was blind and mute and demon possessed healed, so they have a very unique perspective. And what they’re doing is that, looking and saying ‘That’s evil, that’s evil, that’s evil.’ And that’s blasphemy of the Holy Spirit for them. A work of God going on right before them, right there with Christ, they’re watching that, and God is speaking to them, and Christ is seeking to draw them to him, and yet they’re speaking evil because of what is in their hearts, their hearts are at a place where the Holy Spirit is about to say ‘Hey, done, over, I’m not going to dwell with you anymore, I’m not going to draw you anymore, if that’s the way you’re going to be.’ That’s the heart, and that’s the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. So we have these people who are blasphemous and blasphemous towards the Holy Spirit. Today, what does it mean? There are teachings, where let’s say as a pastor of this church, and there is another Christian group on television, and they’re doing some things that I would think are kind of strange, and they say they’re not strange, they’re a work of God and a work of the Holy Spirit, and I go ‘Oh man, that’s strange, I don’t think that’s good.’ They would say to me ‘You’ve just blasphemed the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is working in our midst, and you just said that’s bad, and you blasphemed the Holy Spirit.’ That’s not blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Because it’s the heart that’s represented by these men, that’s so hard against God and that’s the heart. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit today is that heart of just continuing to deny the work of the Spirit, continuing to deny the work of the Spirit speaking to you and drawing you to God, to Christ. Maybe you’re here, and Christ is going, ‘Again, I’m trying to get your attention, do you understand what’s at stake? Do you see where you are? Do you understand where you need to be? Do you understand what I have done for you? Do you understand, do you understand?’--- I’m Knocking on your heart, and you’re resisting and resisting and resisting. And every time you resist, your heart gets a little harder, and if you continue to do that, eventually you get to a place where your heart is just hard, and like Pharaoh, God will say ‘Forget it, there’s hardness in his heart, let it be that way. Nothing’s going to change his heart.’ That’s the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit today. And if you get to a state where that is your heart, the condition of your heart, well then, you cannot be forgiven, because how can you be forgiven if you will not come to Christ. If you will not come to Christ, then God is saying ‘I’m not going to even try to draw you to Christ, you are in a state where you’ll never be forgiven.’ Today if you hear the Lord, I pray that if God is speaking to you, and you have never given your heart to Christ, I pray you’d even consider the consequences of denying him again, what that means. It is possible that his voice is just barely getting through to your heart, just a little bit, because you’re heart’s hard and you’re just hearing a little, and if you shut the door again, if you shut the door again, there can be a time where you’ve shut the door of your heart for the last time, that’s it.

You will be judged by your words, because your words reflect what’s in your heart

Verses 33-37, “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. 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. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Now the logic here is Jesus is again speaking to these men and these people that have been critical of him, accusing him of evil. He says, ‘Listen, you’ve got only two options here, either make the fruit bad and the tree bad, because a bad tree bears bad fruit, a bad tree doesn’t bear good fruit, or make the tree good and its fruit good. The tree and the fruit, they go together, and if you are saying that I am evil, the tree is evil, then what I have just done is also evil. You can’t say ‘Well, he just did good’, you have to say and agree that what I just did was evil. I healed this demon possessed man, and I healed his speech and his eyes, that was evil, because, if I’m evil, I’ve done evil things.’ You don’t have the option of saying, ‘Well that was good, but he’s evil.’ And, if what I did was good, then that also was indicative that I am good, I’m not evil. But if you think I’m of the Devil, then you have to say ‘Well, boy, that is terrible that he just cast the demon out of that person, I can’t believe he made him see, he should reverse it, make him blind again.’ That’s the implication of what he’s saying. That’s the reasoning of what he’s using here, that they only have one choice. But then further, there is this reference too in the same words, that a tree that is good has good fruit, and what you just said was in reality evil. Your very words were evil, that very thought was evil. And that then is indicative of what’s inside the tree, and if you said such a thing, then your heart is evil. You think otherwise, but your statements towards me just prove your heart is evil.’ He says, “You brood of vipers!”, just like John the Baptist saying ‘You brood of vipers.’ ‘You are evil, how could you possibly say a good thing? You think what you said about me before the crowds is good? No, it’s because your tree is evil and you’re evil, what you said is only evil, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man brings forth good things, and a man whose evil brings forth evil out of his mouth, and what you said is indeed evil, and so indeed your heart is evil.’ But interesting, our words, as he goes on in verse 36, our words, man, are very powerful in what they mean about our heart. Some people will teach that your words are so powerful, ‘That you’d better be careful, because you had only better say positive things, and words with faith and things like that. If you for a moment say anything that would seem to be non-faith, well then, that’s incredibly evil to do. And so what you start to do, you start to be almost hypocritical, you’re not being honest too, you know, about how you feel, and about if you’re struggling with something, you’d better not admit it with your words, that’s terrible to do, you know.’ But that’s not what he’s saying here, what he’s saying is ‘What you say, the way you say things, and what comes out of your mouth, man, that river that flows out of your mouth shows what’s in the heart. It shows what’s down there.’ And he says, ‘That every idle word that men speak, they will give an account of it on the day of judgment.’ Now I read that, and I’m like, that is not good news for me, you know. Some of the things that I say and have said, I don’t even have to go back too far, man. I gotta give an account of that? Well as we are Christians [or Messianic Jewish believers in Jesus] we know that, balance every Scripture against every Scripture, and we know that there are other Scriptures that come to mind, and when it comes to [our] judgment day, I also understand that I’m under the blood of Christ. So as a Christian, I’m gonna come up there, and Jesus is going to admit, I am a mess, and then he’s going to say “Father, he’s under the blood.” ‘This guy is a mess, but don’t worry, I died for him, he’s forgiven.’ So, when it comes to judgment day, I have the blood of Christ. Yet, without Christ, when people without Christ stand before God, they will be judged for what they have said, they’ll be judged for what they say. Interesting, about what we say, this is in Jon Courson’s commentary, and his commentary is a few years old and he says this, so it’s a little bit before that, some time in the 90s, “A news broadcast in Chicago was recently interrupted with “It’s Howdy Doody Time, It’s Howdy Doody Time.” So there was this newscast in Chicago and suddenly over the airwaves came the words “It’s Howdy Doody Time, It’s Howdy Doody Time”. And as they researched it, that little incident, it wasn’t that there wasn’t another little station nearby transmitting, it actually, and what they determined, that those were waves from a broadcast thirty years before. So, Chicago, 1990s, news is going, and all of a sudden “It’s Howdy Doody Time, It’s Howdy Doody Time”. That show, thirty years older, years before, suddenly, a transmission came over the newscast. And the reason that happened, and they tell us, you know I studied physics and modern physics in college, and that wave, that sound-wave, doesn’t completely go to zero, when I speak, they dampen, the further they get from me, the more time goes by, they dampen, the sound wave gets smaller and smaller and smaller, the amplitude goes down and down and down, but it never completely goes to zero. [This would have been a radio wave, not a sound wave, maybe traveling around and around the world under the ionosphere, and somehow got temporarily re-amplified due to weird atmospherics in the stratosphere or ionosphere, and got bounced back to toward Chicago, is what I think happened. But also TV in the 1960s up to just recently was FM, which makes this weird, as FM signals mainly go straight into outer-space. So something, or someone 15 light years away bounced that signal back (cosmic joke? Who knows).] Sounds, and the noise, [radio waves, FM] they go out, and they continue to go out. If you had the equipment, you could potentially find something you said last year, those sound-waves, wherever they are, out there in the universe [don’t think our sound-waves make it past the stratosphere, if that. But FM radio, yeah, it does, and goes on forever, traveling out]. Amplify it again, and here’s something you said, theoretically, theoretically. Now that’s pretty interesting, you might come to judgment day, and not be a Christian, and go ‘You know, I’m just, man I’ve done all these things, and, I think you’re cool and I’ve never said anything bad about you, and I’ve tried to be pretty good, I mean, I’ve not stolen, not murdered’, and God will go, turn on his little equipment, ‘Let’s listen to some of these things that you’ve said.’ You said that, you know, 20 years ago, and here you go ‘Oh no.’ And the point is, you said that because it was in your heart. And it’s your heart, your heart. He’s referring to those evil speakers, when you’re an evil speaker it’s because there’s evil in your heart. You know, that’s a word to Christians too, isn’t it? Of course, as a non-Christian, it says to these people that are being critical of him, that man, it’s because there’s issues in your heart, and you have an evil heart that you’ll be critical and say these things about me. But it says something to you and I too about being a Christian, that our words, man, are significant, and you can’t just write it off. You can’t just be a Christian and think that it’s fine to be critical and speak down about somebody or speak negatively of somebody, that just shows there’s poison in your heart, it’s your heart. “For by your words you’ll be justified, and by your words you’ll be condemned”, that’s the state of man apart from Christ. I thank God there’s forgiveness in Christ, and there’s also healing.

‘Teacher, give us a sign, a miracle’

Verses 38-42, “Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, ‘Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.’” Now that is amazing, isn’t it? I mean, he just healed this guy. He has done miracle after miracle already, and they’re like ‘We want to see a sign from you.’ But he answered and said to them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South [Sheba] will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.” He describes the Pharisees. They say ‘Teacher, we want a sign.’ It is incredible that they would say that, considering the incredible things that they have just seen. But there was a Jewish superstition at the time, and this superstition held that the demons could perform miracles, in the horizontal sense. [I believe they can, as much as God allows them to.] Demons could do things on this earth, they could change things on this earth, they could perform miracles on this earth. But they could not in the heavenly sense. They could not do it in the heavens. And so, a prophet of God, a man coming in the name of God, what would prove that he was of God, was doing a heavenly miracle. And of course, you study in the Old Testament, I mean, Elijah stands there on Mount Carmel and fire comes down from heaven. You know, that sort of thing, proving that that was God, that this man was working for God. And so that is what they’re saying. In Luke chapter 11 it says they tempt him. They’re not sincerely going like ‘I’d like to see a sign.’ They’re tempting him. They don’t think he can anyway. [Comment: In the Old Testament God gave a way for Israel to tell if a prophet were from him or not. It said, ‘If they do miracles, but do not adhere to this Law, the Word of God, then they are a false prophet, and you are to stone them.’ ‘If they do miracles, and adhere to my Word, then they are a true prophet.’ Miracles alone was not a criterion for being of God. In Revelation it says the false prophet will be able to call down fire from heaven, in order to deceive people. Demons and Satan can perform miracles. The Old Testament test of a prophet still stands today. So it looks like the scribes and Pharisees, supposed experts in the Law, Torah, forgot the true sign of a prophet of God.] There’s an arrow with that statement. Mark chapter 8, verse 11, it says specifically that they asked for a sign from heaven. ‘Show us a sign from heaven.’ Well, there is a spirit to that. These men have every reason to put their faith in Christ, they have no reason to think the things that they do. The only reason they do is because of their own ugly hearts. And he says “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign”, wants God to do whatever you want to do to prove himself to you, you want God to do this or that just to prove himself to you, like God has to do that, you know, he has to meet you in that particular way, do this particular thing for you. He says that’s an ugly heart, that type of vanity. That’s an incredulous heart, that says ‘I want to see the sign, I want to see the sign. And there are many people like that. I think of that one great scientist and his name is escaping me now, but I’ve quoted him before, but I can’t think of his name, but in high school when they gave out the science awards, I got a little award at one of the little assemblies, and it was a book by this guy, and I remember reading some of his material, and he specifically said that ‘”I don’t believe in God, and the reason why I don’t is because I’ve never seen him. And because I don’t see him, we’ve been out there, look in my book, you can see Jupiter, you can see Pluto, we’ve been way out there, there’s no God.” [that’s Carl Sagan] And that’s the same kind of heart. [Comment: That’s an ugly heart if you ask for that kind of thing in a doubting, scoffing and scornful way. But if you are sincerely asking God to prove himself because you are sincerely interested in learning more about God, such requests have been honored. After I had gotten out of high school, I believed in God, but also in evolution. When coming to real faith in God I needed certain proofs that evolution was false, really based on science, and seeing certain dating methods disproved. God brought me scientific material and even a technician that used to work on our early rocket launches into the upper atmosphere, who then confirmed the scientific data I had just read about Carbon-14 being a totally inaccurate way of dating, due to its steady-state in the upper atmosphere being all over the place, and not being steady enough to base accurate dating on. God will help you, if you are sincere.] It’s what’s in your heart that makes the difference.] ‘I don’t believe in God because I don’t see him. And he’d better stand in front of me if I’m gonna put belief in him and follow him.’ And Jesus comes back and says ‘What an evil and adulterous generation, what an evil heart, and incredulous heart, denying Christ because he’s not meeting you in a certain way, when you have every reason to, because the Holy Spirit speaks to your heart, because God has given you life that he’s given you. He’s given you the planet and made things move the way that they do. Brought the people into your life, and showing you grace and kindness over and over. He comes and meets you in certain ways, and you say ‘Ah, that ain’t enough. I want more.’ Sometimes it’s OK to sincerely struggle, going ‘I need more, I need something else, I want to believe…’ That’s one type of heart, and generally as you’re going through it, ‘Lord, just help me believe’, and he will. But it’s a whole another type of heart, he said, ‘ah, I need this, meet me here, this way.’ I tell you what, you’ll find that God won’t meet you that way. And you’ll find in the end that there’s a real poison in your heart. He said, the only sign, I’m not gonna give a sign, I’m not gonna play your game, the only sign you’re going to get is the sign of the prophet Jonah. Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish. You know, here, interestingly Christ doesn’t deny that miracle, only seems to indicate it’s true. ‘So as the Son of man, I will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.’ ‘Same way, he died, and it was a sign of what I’m going to do. He died in the sense of going into the great fish, and then coming out three days and three nights [72 hours] later. And just as he did that, that’s the sign. I’m not gonna bring fire down from heaven, I’m going to die and be dead for three days and three nights, going to be buried, and I’m going to raise to life three days [and three nights] later. That’s the sign you get.’ And that’s all the sign we need. ‘The men of Nineveh, man, they saw Jonah, they repented. They heard his message, man, and they repented, and his message was simple, and he did not do all the things that I’ve done, and because of that, this Gentile community, the Assyrians, the Ninevites that you Jews think are so evil, they’re going to rise up later in judgment of this generation of your hardness of heart with all the opportunity you had. The queen of the South, she came all the way up from as far as Ethiopia, came up and she came to hear Solomon, with such hunger and desire to know and questioning, but she came seeking, and here I am right in front of you, and I’m greater, I’m the King of kings, I’m greater than that king, greater than Jonah. I am The Prophet Moses spoke about. So she’ll rise up in judgment too.

Obedience without Christ, what that means

Verses 43-45, “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.” And so what is Jesus saying here? He speaks of the incredulous, now he speaks of this type of heart, the self-righteous. And he’s speaking to me about those that think that they’ve got their lives cleaned up. You know, the Law was given to show us that we need a Savior, that we’re sinners. And they started to think, ‘Well the Law was something that I could achieve’, in their pride, in their blindness, ‘I could live a holy life on my own, I could please God by my good works.’ And that’s the picture he’s giving here, of this house of this man, individual, who has a demonic spirit, this abode of a demonic spirit. If the spirit leaves, and the house is all clean, but nothing else comes in and resides there, that demonic spirit has gone out and can’t find a place, running into other spirits that can’t find a place to live, will grab them and say ‘Come on back, man, this house is still vacant, and it’s clean, let’s move on in.’ And he says the last state of that house or that person will be worse than the first. And he’s saying to them, ‘You’ve got your lives all cleaned up, that’s what you think, but you haven’t received me, you haven’t received true life. And if something doesn’t change, you’ll be worse off.’ He’s also speaking to the nation of Israel [Judah, Judea], the nation of Israel, they were really into idolatry. God punished them, sent them off, the tribe of Judah off to Babylon. They were there seventy years, man they were disciplined, they came back, they were purified of that type of idolatry, you don’t read about it again. And now they’ve got this religious system going where they believe they’re worshipping Jehovah and they’re all cleaned up. He’s speaking as a whole, as a nation, if they don’t receive the Messiah whose here and now, the Christ, man, things are going to get really bad. It’ll be worse off than before they went to Babylon. [Just look up on Wikipedia about the first Jewish-Roman War and also about the Bar Kochba Revolt, what many call the 2^nd and last Jewish-Roman War. After 135AD, Judah ceased to be a nation up until 1948, one thousand eight hundred and thirteen years in exile, the Jewish people scattered to the four winds, and most of them still are. Only a minority live in the Israeli nation proper.] Today if you’re here, and you’re thinking ‘good works, self-righteous, I can do it on my own, I’ve been doing it on my own.’ Man, that’s a dangerous state to be in, that is a dangerous heart. You will end up in a horrible state, if you don’t humble yourself and come to Christ.

Do you have unsaved family that disagree with what you’re doing, what you believe?---Jesus has been there

Verses 46-50, “While he was still talking to the multitude, behold, his mother and brothers stood outside, seeking to speak with him. Then one said to him, ‘Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with you. But he answered and said to the one who told him, ‘Who is my mother and who are my brothers?’ And he stretched out his hand toward his disciples and said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.’ ” The last verses we’ll look at as we come to the end of our time. Well, we don’t see it here, but there’s another heart here in response to what Christ is doing. And we actually get some help from the other Gospels. But Mark chapter 3 verses 20-21, as this has happened, we read in Mark “But when his own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of him, for they said, ‘He is out of his mind.’” So Mom and his brothers come here, they don’t come to say ‘Hey, we’d just like to talk to Jesus, you know, haven’t seen him in a while, just kind of miss him, want to see how he’s doing.’ No, they come going, ‘What in the world is he doing!? He seems to be out of his mind, we need to go help him, we need to go stop him from doing these things.’ And it’s because of that---Jesus very much loves his Mom and his brothers---but it’s because of the way they’re coming, he’s doing the work of God, and it’s because of their heart at this point, they are troubled, they’re concerned for him. He’s doing a good thing, and they don’t understand, and they’re troubled. It’s because of that he says ‘Whose my mother? Who are my brothers?’ And then he looks around at these who have followed him, his disciples, and those that love him, and he says ‘This is my family, this is my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.’ You know, you can be that way, like his family here, you can have that troubled heart towards what Christ is doing. [My flesh and blood children have that attitude toward what I am doing in this ministry. It kind of hurts. Often we find we’re closer to our spiritual brothers and sisters in Christ than we are with our own flesh and blood family members (unless they’re born-again), and this is why, there’s a spiritual gulf. None of Jesus’ immediate family were born-again at this time when this occurred here in Matthew 12:46-50.] Sometimes people will come to this church, and the only reason why they came, they finally came because they were concerned for their spouse, or they were concerned for their child, and they’re ‘Like man, I’ve got to go check out that place, because they’re talking all about Jesus now, they’re listening to this music, and I’m afraid for them.’ And so they show up here and they’re sitting. Maybe you’re here today, going ‘I’m afraid [for my spouse, child]’, and that’s why you’re here. And don’t you know, God would have us looking at a text, the very moment you’re here, to speak about that very issue. You can be that way, troubled, concerned for somebody [a friend, spouse, or somebody in your immediate family], because you don’t understand God and Christ and the way he works. If that’s you, I pray the Lord you’d see the Christ that your loved one is getting to know, and you’d turn your life to Christ also. You know, that last group is his disciples, and look at where they end up. He says, ‘Man, this is my family. These are my people, man. These are, this is it man, my mother and brothers.’ When you follow Christ with your heart, it may not be easy, but you’re part of the family of God. Let’s close in prayer…[connective expository sermon on Matthew 12:22-50, given somewhere in New England]