Matthew 12:15-37

Pharisees Accuse Jesus of Being Under Satan

15 But Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. Many followed Him, and He healed them all,

16 and warned them not to tell who He was.

17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet:

18"BEHOLD, MY SERVANT WHOM I HAVE CHOSEN;

MY BELOVED IN WHOM MY SOUL is WELL-PLEASED;

I WILL PUT MY SPIRIT UPON HIM,

AND HE SHALL PROCLAIM JUSTICE TO THE GENTILES.

19 "HE WILL NOT QUARREL, NOR CRY OUT;

NOR WILL ANYONE HEAR HIS VOICE IN THE STREETS.

20 "A BATTERED REED HE WILL NOT BREAK OFF,

AND A SMOLDERING WICK HE WILL NOT PUT OUT,

UNTIL HE LEADS JUSTICE TO VICTORY.

21 "AND IN HIS NAME THE GENTILES WILL HOPE."

The Pharisees Rebuked

22 Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus, and He healed him, so that the mute man spoke and saw.

23 All the crowds were amazed, and were saying, "This man cannot be the Son of David, can he?"

24 But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, "This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons."

25 And knowing their thoughts Jesus said to them, "Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself will not stand.

26 "If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand?

27 "If I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? For this reason they will be your judges.

28 "But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

29 "Or how can anyone enter the strong man's house and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.

The Unpardonable Sin

30 "He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters.

31 "Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven.

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.

Words Reveal Character

33 "Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit.

34 "You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.

35 "The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil.

36 "But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.

37 "For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."

The Unpardonable Sin

There are so many lessons here to use and, a good pastor (which I am not) could most likely bring several sermons from these verses.

The one intriguing message that stood out for me and is on my heart to share are verses 30-32 where Jesus explains the unpardonable sin ..

"30 "He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters. 31 "Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven.

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."

Christ makes it crystal clear about choosing sides in the battle of good and evil. He states the futuristic view that all sin will be forgiven when he dies on the cross and rises again. -- All but one!

There is a spiritual battle going on in the world today and we cannot remain neutral. Following Christ is not a spectator sport where we can sit back and watch what happens.

We are going one of two ways ..

1. We actively follow Jesus and work for him

2. We try to remain neutral therefore choosing to reject him.

If we choose answer number 2 we choose to be completely separated from God and are condemned.

I know these words seem harsh but, believe me, I didn't say them, Christ did.

Doing some research, I found what WikipediaTM has to say about the unpardonable sin. It states ..

"The Eternal Sin, or unpardonable sin, is a concept in Christian theology of a sin which cannot or will not be forgiven, whereby salvation becomes impossible. Its origin comes from a statement by Jesus in the context of his opponents' claim that his miraculous healings were a work of Beelzebub, a demon in league with the Devil. It might have been a warning to his opposition that deliberately refusing to distinguish between good and evil makes repentance impossible, thus blocks out forgiveness, challenging them to rethink their attitude to the new age dawning lest they freeze themselves out...."

In plain language, the unpardonable sin is the sin of rejecting God. For this, there is no forgiveness.

In closing, the world is full of battles and wars. This one gets swept under the rug but the fact remains that we either choose God or Satan.

With myself included, who's team are we on?

Love In Christ

- Bob

Matthew 12:1-14 - Jesus and Working on the Sabbath - Christ worked in accordance with God's will but the Pharisees were so entangled in tradition they could not see that working for God on the Sabbath was acceptable. No compassion meant no forgiveness.

Comments are welcome. Please email me with any questions or comments you may have.