Matthew 12:14–21Scripture
Everybody, turn your Bibles this morning to Matthew chapter 12. It has come to my attention that I preached the wrong section last week, but who's to say, you know, who's to say?
Matthew 12, I'll give you a moment. Verse 14–21. Yes, I know last week we were supposed to talk about 14, but I want to I want to read it again. And while you're looking, have you ever been weary? You know, there is a physical tiredness that happens in our lives and there is a weariness in our soul.
Have you ever been weary in your soul? Hopefully this will encourage you this morning if that's you. As we peer and gaze upon Christ, I think we are renewed in our soul. It is a wonderful renewal. In verse 14 it says, "but the Pharisees went out and conspired against him. They conspired how they might destroy him." What a turn of events.
Accumulation of events actually from rejection to denial to just vitrial hatred. Then post this section where you have a declaration of God of Christ. You have God declaring who Christ is. At the same time, you have the Pharisees rejecting who he is.
Introduction
And then you jump from, you know, two chapters of the Pharisees trying to or trying to catch him, trying to just rejecting him, hating him, conspiring to kill him. And then Jesus makes God makes a declaration of Jesus in the section that we're going to look at now. And then it just switches again and the Pharisees basically say that anything that comes from Jesus is a work of Satan.
That's really what's going on in this context. You have a people that reject Christ to the measure. Now, they begin to attribute his actions to Satan.
And right in the middle of all of this, and I know that's next week, but right in the middle of all this, you have God declaring who he is. You have the Pharisees rejecting who he is, and you have God declaring who he is. That's important today. And hopefully, our heart would align with God's declaration. But the Pharisees went out and they wanted to destroy him. Let me ask you a question today.
If Jesus was here today, you could not fathom yourself trying to rally a group of people together to hang Jesus in the street.
Can't even have fathom doing that, could you? It just seems unimaginable. Yet a rejection of him is a type of murder. We come every Sunday and we sit and there are some things we receive about Christ with joy in our hearts and there are other things we reject about him.
We love to hear that Jesus is merciful and compassionate. We hate this idea that he is ultimately judge.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 3:54
We love to hear about his tender mercies. We hate to consider that Jesus might be as angry about sin as God the Father is.
We want him to be okay and be gracefilled, but we don't want him to call us to holiness. And there is this reality that in our hearts, in the hearts of men, we come every Sunday and we may not rally the troops to try to hang him in the streets or pound him to the cross. But the reality is we murder him and ideas of him and we reject ideas and parts of him even on Sunday.
And it's a problem. And you're not that far in our hearts. Me either from a Pharisee.
And today you're faced with this.
Do you only receive the parts of Christ you like and reject the rest?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 5:03
Or will you understand that who God made him and as he is that God is pleased with him? Which will you receive? They wanted to kill him and many of us to do the same thing. And then it moves on to verse 15. Jesus aware of this withdrew from there. Yeah, I would too, man. Time to get out of dodge.
And many followed him and he healed them all. I think that's beautiful. In a point of crisis, he cares for the hurting. He doesn't fixate on his hurt. He didn't fixate on his weariness. He doesn't fixate on what they did to me. He helps the broken. Oh, that we could live a life like this. That we could be Christlike like this. That we could be a type of person that actually walked like he walked and talked like he talked and lived like he lived and thinks like he thinks and exhibits godliness.
We could be like this in the midst of our greatest heartache. God, help me be like this.
This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. Behold my servant whom I have chosen. Notice who chose him. My beloved with whom my soul is very pleased. He's pleased with Christ. At the same time, the Pharisees reject him.
Sometimes what pleases God does not please man.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 6:54
I will put my spirit upon him and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel or cry aloud nor would anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break. And a smoldering wick he will not quench until he brings justice to victory. And in his name the Gentiles will hope.
Oh, that probably set him off. That line right there probably set him off because the last thing the Jews wanted to be was a gateway to let the Gentiles in, an open door for the Gentiles to come in. I love the top of this. It kind of helps us give an idea of what this is going to be about. It said God's chosen servant. I love that he is referred to in this as the beloved servant. He is loved by God.
Matthew 11 and 12 record the rejection of Jesus Christ. Man, that rejection develops progressively. And here it is. You can write these down. This is what we've been reading. You need to understand the recap and you need to understand what is going on. First, there's doubt. They doubt he is who he says he is. And then there's just a general indifference.
It's one thing to doubt him and it's another thing to be indifferent about him.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 8:41
And then they reject him. And then finally in mat Matthew 12 which we're going to talk about next week that rejection becomes ultimate blasphemy when the works that he is doing the works of Christ are ultimately attributed to Satan.
The Pharisees and the scribes, the recognized religious leaders reject Christ.
And then immediately after the Pharisees determine they're going to kill Christ, they gather together and they try to come up with a plan, Matthew gives us a completely different testimony concerning Christ. And that testimony is this. Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is pleased.
What a beautiful declaration echoing into the vacuumous void of doubt and rejection.
It sounds very familiar to the declaration Christ made when he parted the sky at baptism. The spirit descended upon Christ and he said, "this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.
He's beloved. He's a son. That word servant there is pious in the Greek. It means this A cherished child, a cherished son. It also means servant, a precious sunservant. I love that. I want to do this. I think this is the way to do this.
I want to talk about some characteristics and behaviors we see in Christ demonstrated in this.
Point 1The beloved Servant is condemned by false servants
Number one, the beloved servant is condemned by false servants.
But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him how to destroy him. The beloved servant is condemned by the false servants.
They hold counsel. They're going to kill Jesus. We think of false servants today. We think of demonstrative displays against anything good or godly.
We think that it would be easy to determine those who are false servants of God and those who are true servants of God. But the reality is right inside the church, it is difficult for us to discern at times who's false and who's true servants of God.
It's very difficult for us at times to decide who's truly abiding in Christ and who is not abiding in Christ. One of the things that Matthew talks about is constantly and repeatedly is there are false converts and there are true converts. There are false teachers and there are true teachers. There are false servants and there are true servants. Did you know that you can come and you can use biblical language and you can participate in all of church activities and you can serve in the church and you can stand behind pulpits and you cannot be a true servant? Did you know that you can wear the garb? Did you know that you can have the old Testament memorized? Did you know that you can go through a disciplehip program? Did you know that you can dress in the right outfit, you can speak positively to people, you can be encouraging, you can provide biblical counsel for people and not even be his.
Did you know that you can worship every Sunday, raise your hand, be slain by his goodness, and not know him?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 13:20
Did you know that you can receive healing and be a benefactor of his miraculous work and not know him?
Even some that were healed and delivered and made unblind and healed from leprosy. Some believed and some did not believe. Not even those that were spectators, but those who were benefactors rejected him.
That's concerning. The beloved servant is condemned by false servants.
The Pharisees began to align with Herodians in the day. I said earlier in a few weeks ago that they even began to dressed in Herodian garb so they looked like them so they could get access to the courts.
The Herodians were very different from the Pharisees. They were politically connected to Herod's worldly secular and they were committed to the security of Herod's rule. They began to align with that which was secular.
Sound familiar? The church being influenced by secular ideas, us partnering with secular ideas and concepts and behaviors and calling it godliness. This is false servantthood. There are churches today who do this. We've murdered Jesus, the biblical description of him. We've re-ransated what love means. And we've created entire churches that accept Herodian ideas and build churches on things that's false and not biblical.
We feel more comforted by secular concepts than we do godly ones. And
When we run into a problem, what we run to communicates what we cherish.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 16:04
When was the last time your trouble drove you to his word? There are false servants and there are true servants and the direction of our life becomes the megaphone for which you are.
I'm grateful that Christ was not a false servant because my commitment to him
Point 2The beloved Servant is conformed to God's plan
affects the direction of my life. Number two, the beloved servant is conformed to God's planned. A true servant today, a true servant, a true servant of God is conformed to his prescription for our lives. Oh, we see that in Christ, don't we? It's amazing. He had the authority to do whatever he pleased. Satan even tried to get him to do whatever he pleased. But the reality is he was conformed under the will of God.
Oh, that our life would be like this. Jesus aware of this withdrew from there and ordered them not to take make him known. Jesus knows what the Pharisees are planning.
He does not need to be present at their meeting. He knows. And because he knows, he withdraws. This withdrawal carries more than physical significance. Israel had rejected its Messiah. And the Messiah begins to withdraw. And he does this to remain under the will of God. He does not want them doing something before it is time. There is a time for everything.
And there is this repeated pattern in Jesus ministry. Ger Jesus enters an area. He preaches. He teaches. He heals people and people respond and opposition develops and then Jesus withdraws. And this happens all through the New Testament in his ministry.
And then the same cycle begins in another place.
He did not come to start a revolution. He came to bring redemption.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 18:28
And those are two radically different things. They're different. So why did he withdraw? First, Jesus understood how secondhand stories could become twisted, distorted, or rejected.
He wanted people to confront him on their own. Oh man, I know you love telling stories. I know you love talking about all the wonderful things that God has done, but he might compel you to remain quiet about that.
Wait a minute. Wait a wait just a minute here. You mean everything that happens in my life I should not share? I did not say that. I just said maybe you shouldn't be billboarding everything that happens in your life.
The priest would examine, he would heal people. The priest would examine the person according to the required procedure and after determining that he was truly healed would have to deal with who had healed him. And when the John the Baptist disciples asked whether Jesus was the Messiah, Jesus allowed them to witness what he was doing. That's what he called. I want you to personally witness what I'm doing.
See, some of us, some of us have a tendency to live under someone else's profession, our parents' profession, our wife and husband's profession, our their declaration of the goodness of God. Never experiencing the goodness of God themselves.
Are you with me today?
Some of us need to remain quiet so people can have their own encounter.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 20:39
But what of evangelism? They're saved by his word. And that means they have to encounter his word on their own, not your word.
Are you with me? Second, Jesus did not want to become known merely as a miracle worker. I know we're enamored by that today. His person was the issue, not what he did with his person.
The miracles pointed to him, but people could become attracted to the miracles while missing the purpose of his coming. Did you know there are entire movements focused on miracles today? And I'm afraid that we are so enamored with miracles, we miss him right in the house.
We say we want to worship the king, but we really just want the king to serve us because we want to be master.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 21:50
We want to decide what his will is. We think we know what's best for us. But maybe what's best for you is not deliverance.
Maybe he, the son, is what's best for you. Oh, but I'll love the Son if he gives me what I want. I'll love the Son if he gives me my deliverance. Matter of fact, my love of the Son demands that he heal me.
But he didn't want them to talk so much about the miracles that they missed the son of the miracles. Third, his miraculous power could create political enthusiasm as it did town to town. After he fed the multitude, the people wanted to make him king. These are sub points. You didn't miss a point. Calm down. I see y'all's faces freaking out.
This is an A, not a one or a two. It's okay. I did say one. C. His miraculous power could create political enthusiasm. And he wanted to make sure that people weren't so enthused about a movement that he didn't come to make.
That they thrust him into something that was not according to God's will. He came to be conformed to God's will. Conformed to his plan, not to man's. And political enthusiasm will lit people into places they did not need to be.
D publicity would intensify the anger of the scribes and Pharisees and he didn't need it to kick off just quite yet.
E this was the time not the time of his exultation. Okay, moving on so you don't
Point 3The beloved Servant is concerned for the needy
have a heart attack. Number three, the beloved servant is concerned for the needy. It says in the Scripture, "and many followed him, and he healed them all." This is this should encourage your heart today. Notice the word all.
G in other words, Jesus even healed people who did not necessarily believe savingly in him. This was not an issue of faith. This was an issue of God's will and ultimately an issue of what he wanted you to know about which was him, his word. Luke 17 records 10 lepers being healed, but only one returned. All 10 received physical healing while only one is identified with a deeper spiritual response.
Jesus also performed miracles in other towns. Yet many who witnessed those miracles, it's said in the Scripture, remained unbelieving. Yet he healed them anyway. Why heal people that won't believe? Because
Healing reveals the heart of God. It reveals God's heart towards hurting people.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 25:27
Jesus cares for those who have profound need. Is that you today? He cares for you. The Pharisees, they didn't give a rip about hurting people. Matter of fact, they would find a man with a withered hand, jam him in a room, and try to use him as a tool to catch Jesus. Wounded people became the platform they stood on to elevate themsel. Ever been there?
You ever used someone, maybe even unwittingly, but you used them relationally to benefit yourself? You ever been there?
And you catch yourself and realize, "what am I doing?"
God doesn't use people because it benefits him. He loves people in spite of the fact that it may never benefit him.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 26:34
He's different than you and I. He's Christ. This beloved servant is concerned for needy people. They don't put him out. You ever had a person you met and you thought this might cost me a lot to hang out with this person? If not, you might be that person. I want you to understand that doesn't make you terrible. He says, "Count the cost before following him." There is a cost.
A cost he's willing to pay because he's a beloved servant. He sees those that relationally he can't receive benefit from. It's going to cost him a lot. And he loves them with compassion. He cares for the needy. He reaches out to the broken. He spends time with those who are will never trust him, never believe in him, and never pay it forward.
When was the last time you resembled Christ in this fashion? When was the last time I resembled Christ in this fashion? God, help us be like this beloved servant. Are we saying and
We sing songs like, "I want to be like him. I want to look like Jesus and walk like Jesus and talk like Jesus, but do you look like him?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 28:11
Do you walk with this type of mercy? Are there people in your life who are just too much for you? I don't have the time. I don't have the energy. I don't have the resources. I don't have it to give. I'm too busy and too broke myself and too injured in my own soul. How can I give anything to somebody who's going to suck it all away? But he was different than you and I.
Thank you, God, for this servant because he came to me in my most broken hour, in my most d downtrodden, hurting place of the soul.
He didn't ask for me what I could not give. He simply loved me in his mercy.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 29:13
Praise God for this servant. The beloved servant is commended by the father. It says, "Behold my servant whom I've chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is pleased to have the commenation of the Father." The chosen one.
The chosen one. Number five, the beloved servant is commissioned by the spirit. I will put my spirit upon him.
Isaiah promised that the spirit would be upon the Messiah. That becomes visibly apparent at the baptism of Jesus when the spirit descends upon him. The spirit's work in Christ did not begin at his baptism. Said that John the Baptist was filled with the spirit from the womb and Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Christ's relationship to the spirit can therefore be seen in two ways. Here they are. A the spirit empowers his human nature.
Christ is fully God but he is also truly human. He grew. He experienced temptation. He thirsted. He hungered. He tired. He experienced pain just like you and I. It said of him that he wept.
And he did so to the degree that tears of blood fell from his face.
In his humanity, he lived in dependence upon the power of the spirit.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 31:08
He lived under dependence to the spirit in his humanity. Also, there was a special anointing for his public ministry. For approximately 30 years, Jesus lived largely in obscurity. And at his baptism, he was thrust into public ministry and he had an anointing. The father publicly identifies him as the spirit visibly comes upon Jesus. Isaiah 61 speaks of the spirit of the Lord being upon the anointed one to preach.
Jesus later identifies that prophecy with his own ministry and he carries out the father's plan through the spirit's power.
He's commissioned by God. He's under the direction and the leadership of the Holy Spirit. And he's empowered for ministry to accomplish everything he was conformed to accomplished.
Six. And I'm almost done. The beloved servant is communicating the message. It said, "and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles."
This means bringing forth what is right. There are many wrong answers in the world and sometimes it is so difficult to know what is Herodian in influence and what is biblical in influence because we have people in Herodian courts dressed as herodians when they're Pharisees and they know the biblical language and vocabulary.
There are people today here, I don't know who you are, but
There might be people here today who know the biblical language, but don't know the God of the language.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 33:06
On Sunday, you dress as a Pharisee. On Monday, you dress as a Herodian. You have submitted yourself to culture.
Sometimes we don't even dress on Sunday as a Pharisee in religious gar because we've gotten so comfortable with culture, it's come right into the church. You with me today? This isn't about dress. This is about behavior. The beloved servants communicating a message that's contrary to culture and he's proclaiming it justice to the Gentiles.
He doesn't want to make Gentiles more gentiley. He wants to make Gentiles his.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 34:10
So the world so the word calls the message calls Gentiles into a different life. It doesn't give you permission to leave live a herodious life. He doesn't want Gentiles to say gentiley. Came to change you. Number seven, the beloved servant is committed to meekness. Praise God. He will not quarrel or ch cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the street. This comes from the heart of Isaiah's description.
The word translated quarrel carries the idea of wrangling, hassling, brawling and fighting. That is very different than confrontation because Jesus was very confrontational but he didn't quarrel.
Those are very different things. He disagreed with people all the time. Matter of fact,
His very life was a walking billboard of disagreement.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 35:25
He couldn't even exist without disagreeing. And when he spoke truth, it offended because they disagreed with it. It was confrontational. And he cared not. But he did not quarrel.
When it got heated, he withdrew.
He withdrew the quiet dignity of Christ. The quiet dignity of Christ. He was committed to meekness. Jesus did not come into the world to quarrel in the streets. He did not come to build his mission through public agitation. He did not come to organize mobs. He did not manipulate people through uncontrolled emotional responses.
You seen that today in church. The God's really moving.
He did not play off your emotion. And the Pharisees were furious about it. Jesus remained composed. And the more composed he remained, the more agitated they got. Let me tell you something.
When you know truth and you stand on truth, you don't have to quarrel. You only quarrel when you've made your opinion your Lord.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 36:51
But he didn't call a people who know their opinion more than they know the truth.
He called a people who would know truth and stand on it with confidence and stand in silence because what has been spoken is enough.
Two more, three minutes. The beloved servant is confronting the weak. A bruised reed will not break and a smoldering wick he will not quench.
Listen, bruised reeds were a dime a dozen. They were common and useful and could even be fashioned into simple instruments. But once a reed became bruised, it was no longer remained straight and it was no longer useful at all and it would be cast aside as the worthless article it had become.
But
Jesus sees you bruised and does not count you worthless.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 38:03
He's different than any other servant. This beloved servant comforts the broken. He even takes the broken, makes them well, and uses them for his purposes.
That's good news. He does not discard you. You are not worthless to him. And the final thing, the beloved servant is consummating the victory. It says until he brings justice to victory. As the final characteristic looks to the end, despite the persecution that will come and the opposition that is present and the rejection and everything done against Christ will ultimately be victorious.
Right will be triumphed. Sin will finally be banished. Justice will prevail.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 39:05
The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. The beauty of the Savior. This is good news. Christ restores what has been crushed.
He consummates the victory. What I love about this, the victory begins at the cross, but in time it one day will be fully consummated. According to God, it already has. That's why he said it is finished. But today, we wait and we hope for the day where justice is met by full victory. How many of you know that you still have some sickness in your bones?
How many of you know tears still fall from your eyes? How many of you know that your hair ain't doing exactly what it ought to do? It's called morning hair or bed head.
But there is a glorious day where follicles open up and hair falls beautifully from your pores and down your face and you can actually when you get your head wet flip it back and let it sway.
It's going to be a beautiful day where justice gives way to victory and that which has closed off now opens up.
I actually don't know. Maybe I'll be bald in heaven. I don't know. Maybe I'll just be so happy that I'm in the glory of his presence that I won't notice that my hair is absolutely gone. Somebody asked me the other day, "will you remember your wife in heaven, will I remember my loved ones in heaven?" Let me say something to you today.
You will be so stricken by the beloved. There will be so much joy in your heart and soul over the beloved, this beloved servant. Your eyes will open up to the level of his beauty and you will be amazed.
I don't think the question is will you know those you love. It will be that he is your most beloved possession.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 41:57
If Jesus walked into the room today, many of you might forget who is sitting to the left and to the right of you. And it isn't that you don't know them. It's that he has all your attention.
So what we see here is that God sees the beloved. And can I say something to you today? And while he sees Christ at the level that you will one day see Christ, he sees the rejection of Christ on the earth. How that must break his heart. Don't you reject him by forgetting him this Monday?
36:16
34:03
40:58
43:06Now playing
38:28
36:29
53:31
46:21
50:56
50:14
50:59
50:16
50:33
1:01:14
55:11
58:45
48:40
53:36
50:01
48:24
46:58
53:46
48:09
47:47
48:22
48:05
49:51
44:16
43:00
36:15
31:13
52:55
50:14
58:33
49:41
46:19
44:54
43:02
38:08
30:23
45:14
45:45
44:48
38:14
45:30
43:08
26:04
47:18
37:25
30:49
43:11
47:01
40:41
44:50
33:29
53:32