Reading Assignment: Matthew 12:22-37
Main Idea: Jesus exorcised demons by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Truth: Words come from the heart.
Key Verse: Matthew 12:34
1. Exorcism (vv 22-30)
2. Blasphemy (vv 31-32)
3. Words (vv 33-37)
Prayer Suggestions:
1. Forgiveness: Thank You that there is forgiveness for every sin. Thank You for keeping me from blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
2. Heart: Fill my heart with right and good things. Purify my heart as I listen to Your word and strive to live by it.
3. Words: May my words be pleasing to You. Teach me to be careful with my words, but more than self-control, may there be in me a more pure and godly heart from which right words can flow.
Transcript
Let me pray for us and we will begin our time. Let's pray.
Our Lord, thank You that You're the God of truth. And as we come to You this morning, we come to a pure and clean fountain of perfect truth. Thank You that we can open our ears and hear from You something that we cannot hear from anywhere else. We get to hear from Your mouth, the very fountain of truth. We thank You that we can draw near to You and hear Your voice in the pages of scripture that we might know You and worship You, that we might have Your joy and that we might have a profound connection with You, even fellowship with You. Thank You, our God. Thank You for Your great love for us. Thank You for giving us a great purpose for living, not to just exist on earth, but to live as worshipers and servants of the only true and living God. Thank You so much for this. And thank You for sending Your Son. It is in His name we approach You and it is because of Him that we know we are accepted by You, all because of Jesus and His sacrifice for us on the cross. Guide us now, we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
The next passage to be read is Matthew 12:22-37. The main idea here is simply what happened in this scene, which is that Jesus exorcised demons by the power of the Holy Spirit. But the central truth that I want to point out is this: words come from the heart. The key verse is found in verse 34, where Jesus says, “the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.” We’ll see how this is such an important lesson in this scene. This section is comprised of three parts. First, there is the exorcism, the casting out of a demon. That's from verses 22 through 30. Then Jesus explains that the Pharisees in this scene had actually blasphemed the Holy Spirit. So that's the second section on blasphemy. This is verses 31 and 32. Finally, Jesus teaches us an important lesson on words. This is verses 33 through 37.
We begin with that first section on exorcism. In verse 28, Jesus says that He casts out demons “by the Spirit of God.” He further explains that this is indicative of the kingdom of God. What He means is this: as you’d recall, Jesus kept preaching that the kingdom of God was near, and He is saying here that if He does His works by the Spirit of God, that is evidence that He is the King of heaven who brings the kingdom of God to earth. But the main point of emphasis here is that Jesus casts out demons by the Spirit of God. But the Pharisees had a different explanation. They accused Jesus of working with Satan. And so they said this in verse 24, “this man casts out demons only by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.” Beelzebul, by the way, is also sometimes found as Beelzebub in the Bible. This is just another name for Satan. Now, what these people had to say was a serious error, because no one should confuse the Holy Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth, with the devil, who is the father of lies. It is like calling the most honest person in the world a liar. Such a slander should never happen. What they said was a serious insult to the Holy Spirit, to say the least. In fact, in verse 31, Jesus calls it blasphemy, which we'll get to in a little bit. But before Jesus gets to that assessment of their words, He first shows them what an absurd proposition this was. Jesus explains in verses 25 and 26, “any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; any 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?” What Jesus means is that only a fool would destroy himself. Self-destruction is a sure way to defeat, not to victory. And of course, Satan as a creature of God that has existed since the very beginning of creation, he is too smart to do something so foolish as this. Satan would not undo his own works as a strategy for victory. But Jesus goes on to show that their proposition wasn't only foolish, it was actually blasphemous. And this brings us to the next section on blasphemy.
In verse 31, Jesus says, “Therefore, I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven.” Jesus singles out blasphemy of the Holy Spirit as the most egregious sin in the sight of God. It is so bad that it is actually unforgivable. It is unpardonable. Jesus says it again in verse 32, “Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him either in this age or in the age to come.” This is what is known as the unpardonable sin, and you can hear it in the words of Jesus. This is unpardonable forever, “either in this age or in the age to come.” This is a sin that God will never ever forgive. Now, let me give us a little perspective on this matter of the unpardonable sin. There are some things in life that must never be done. Adultery is one of these things. No married person should betray the trust of their spouse and seek out another partner. Adultery is such a serious breach of trust that God actually gives permission for divorce for the victim of this sin. This really stands out, because divorce was never a part of God's original design for marriage. However, adultery is such an evil sin that God allows the victim to be released from that marriage bond, if their partner has proven unfaithful to them in this way. We might say the same thing about murdering helpless babies. This is something that comes up repeatedly in the Old Testament. And this sin is singled out in Scripture as especially serious in the sight of God. However, with either of these offenses, if the offender repents, God applies the blood of Jesus on them and forgives them. That is the mercy of God toward the repentant, even those who have committed something that must never be done. And that just shows the extent, the great extent of God's mercy toward sinners who repent. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, however, is where God draws the line. If a human being has crossed that sacred line, there is no opportunity for forgiveness or restoration to God. Why is this, or what makes this sin unpardonable? Well, here's my best attempt at explaining this: The Holy Spirit is the only person of God on earth who converts the human heart and leads them to repentance. But if a person has violently insulted the Spirit, even calling Him Satan, that person has no hope of the Spirit's gracious work of converting his heart. So then, when someone has blasphemed the Holy Spirit, the Spirit, I believe, refuses to work in their heart to lead them to repentance. And if a sinner does not come to God with a repentant heart, then there is no opportunity for forgiveness, because it is only those who turn to God with repentance who receives His forgiveness.
Now, this whole discussion brings up another question that concern people today: “Have I blasphemed the Holy Spirit?” I've heard this concern many times, and maybe you may be raising the same question yourself. Well, there's a very straightforward answer to this. I would first just assert that you have not blasphemed the Holy Spirit. Here's the explanation why: blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is something that is rare and uncommon in the Bible. In fact, Jesus is the only person who ever talks about it, and even Jesus only speaks about this on only two occasions. The point is this. The earthly life of Jesus was a very unique moment in human history. There was never another person who demonstrated the works of the Spirit in this visible way. So then it was only during Jesus's ministry years that someone would be able to behold the Spirit’s work in this expressive and manifest way. And if that beholder rejects the work of the Holy Spirit and condemns it as the work of the devil, that is the blasphemy that is unforgiveable. Again, when a person has crossed the line and so deeply offended the Holy Spirit, and condemned the Holy Spirit as Satan, there is no hope for the work of the Holy Spirit in his heart. This renders that person doomed for life. That person will never come to repentance and thus be restored to fellowship with God. The point is this: the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit was very specific to the life and ministry of Jesus, when the Spirit's works were demonstrated in this extraordinarily visible way. So then, it is not possible for people today to commit the same sin, since they do not behold the works of the Spirit in the same way.
Now, having said all this, there is an important spiritual lesson for us. When Jesus says, “any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people except the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit,” He shows us the really amazing truth that God's forgiveness is available for any and every other sin except for this one sin. What this means is that God's forgiveness is so vast that even people on death row, having committed horrendous crimes, they can all turn to God with repentance. God will embrace them and forgive them if they come to Him with repentance. Let me put it this way. Jesus's death on the cross was big enough to cover every vile sin. There is a vastness to the forgiveness and patience of God that all are welcomed to Him who come with a repentant heart. The only thing that can get in the way is an unrepentant heart, which is the heart without the Holy Spirit’s work in them. But the lesson for us is this: God's forgiveness is available no matter what we have done. We can absolutely come to the Lord if we have a repentant heart. We should recognize that the death of Jesus is big enough to cover my every sin. That's really good news.
The final section is on words. Jesus goes on to say that the Pharisees spoke those words of blasphemy carelessly. He says this is verses 34 and 35, “You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what his evil.” Jesus also says that there will be accountability for words that men speak, even if they were careless words. And so, He says in verse 36, “But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.” This shows that the Pharisees weren't really thinking when they said these words of blasphemy against the Spirit. These were careless words that they spoke, but Jesus explains that people speak such words because of the evil that has filled their hearts. And that heart condition is something God will bring under judgment. There will be real divine accountability for those who are evil in their hearts. Every careless word reveals what’s in the heart; and God will hold them accountable for their heart condition as revealed by their irresponsible words.
There are a number of things to pray about here. First, the forgiveness of sins. We can pray, “Jesus. Thank You that there is forgiveness of sins for me. I've done some very evil things. But thank You that Your death is big enough to cover my every sin. Thank You that there is forgiveness of sins for me.”
The second thing to pray about is our heart condition, because the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. We can pray something like this, “Jesus, fill my heart with the right things. Purify my heart as I listen to Your word and grow as Your disciple. I don't want my heart to be wicked and I don’t want my words to be tainted by a wicked heart.”
Finally, we can pray to the Lord about words. “Lord, may my words be pleasing to You. Teach me to be careful with my words, not only that I would exercise self-control over my mouth, but that my heart would be filled with the right things, so that when my mouth opens up, good things come out it. Please work on my heart so that my mouth would be fixed. I don't want careless and regrettable words to come out of my mouth.”
There are lots of wonderful things to pray about and respond to the Lord about in this passage. At the outset, you might be a little taken aback by the topics at hand, such as demon possession, casting out of demons, and blasphemy. These are not pleasant ideas, but as you go on you'll see the important lessons on forgiveness, heart, and words. I hope that you will benefit from reading and meditating on this section. Well, that is it for today. May the Lord bless you, and have a wonderful day in the Lord today. Goodbye.