If you have your Bible, please turn to Matthew chapter 12. Over the past four months, I’ve spoken on the work of the Holy Spirit at the dawn of the gospel in the lives of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Messiah, and Jesus of Nazareth, who is the object of the gospels, and Jesus’ disciples, the progenitors of Christ’s Church who are the ultimate fulfillment of God’s redemptive plan for the ages. It is for His people, the Church, that Messiah lived, taught, died and rose again.

Last month, I spoke on “The Holy Spirit Anointing Christ’s Disciples” when Jesus first commissioned those outside His chose twelve apostles to prepare the way before Him, by proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom and demonstrate His kingdom authority. He told them to heal the sick where they went and to cast out demons. In so doing, Jesus proved to them that His Messianic authority and miracle-working power extended from Him to them, by the power of the Holy Spirit. The New Testament later makes it clear that that same authority has been extended to the Universal Church who are anointed by the same Holy Spirit.

As Jesus continued His itinerant ministry through Galilee, His popularity and unorthodox methods drew the ire of Pharisees. They saw in him a threat to their control of Jewish practice and way of life. In Matthew’s gospel, this began as early as chapter 9, where Jesus first forgave and then healed a paralytic, rebutting their unspoken accusation of blasphemy, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” He followed up the rebuke by offending their separatist sensibilities. Jesus and His disciples ate and drank wines with sinners. His disciples also ignored Pharisaic practice in failing to fast once or twice weekly, which offended them further.

All during this time, also in chapter nine, Jesus was clearly revealing Himself to be the greatest miracle-working prophet in Israel’s history. Not only did he heal a paralytic – something unknown in Elijah or Elisha’s ministry, but he cleansed a leper, raised a synagogue leader’s daughter to life, gave sight to two blind men, and cast out a demon that enabled a mute man to speak. No prophet in Israel’s history had ever cast out demons; and Jesus did this repeatedly.

You would think such works, never before seen by His people, would have moved them to repent and entrust themselves to His prophetic message. But to the contrary, it provoked their religious pride and envy, causing them to question and then hate him. Sadly the Jews were blind to the unbiblical burden that their intense legalism had placed upon themselves and others. At the end of chapter nine, Matthew cites Jesus reaction to the poorer, less religious Jews who were ‘distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few”

That’s why Matthew closed his eleventh chapter with Jesus appealing to soul-weary, lower class Jews, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

But now at the beginning of chapter 12, Matthew shows Jesus stirring up hostility and murderous hatred among the religious leaders in Galilee. As Jesus traversed through grainfields on the Sabbath, His hungry disciples gleaned from the heads of grain, a practice sanctioned by God. But Pharisees who were watching them objected to their gleaning on the Sabbath, and indirectly attacked their leader, Jesus. Jesus reminded them that David had eaten consecrated bread, dedicated to the priests, when he fled King Saul and became hungry. He noted how the temple priests broke the Sabbath by conducting daily sacrifices, but were innocent. He then added poignantly, “something greater than the temple is here” – that is Messiah Himself.

Consequently, Jesus declared in v.8, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” The Sabbath was meant to provide rest from toil to the Israelites, not a straitjacket of human liberty on the seventh day. Declaring Himself Lord of the Sabbath, and greater than the temple of God, triggered a clash that struck at the heart of the Jewish religion.

Inevitably, His itinerant ministry and Sabbath, synagogue worship led to a confrontation between the old order of law-based Judaism and the new order of grace-filled revelation in Jesus. Ironically, a grace-based worship was much older than Pharisaic legalism. Every devout Jew knew Genesis 15:6, “Abraham believed in the LORD, and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” Here was a power encounter between one man, the Messiah, heralding a new kingdom order that was truly ancient, and influential Jews defending the old order.

Apostle John later compared the two orders and their differing emphases in his gospel. John 1:17 says, “The law given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.” It was this clash between a rigid legalism and the grace and truth of God that led Jesus inexorably toward the cross. The Holy Spirit secretly orchestrated this deadly power encounter between two sides of the only true religion in the world – Judaism.

One side was committed to the encrusted rules built upon a genuine reformation under Ezra and Nehemiah. On the other side was Jesus, the promised prophet like Moses, introducing the gospel of the kingdom. His mission, like Moses, was to lead humanity on a greater Exodus from sin and death. He knew His kingdom could only be realized through His death and resurrection, inaugurating the promised New Covenant for all mankind.

Who had the right to govern how people lived and fulfilled the fourth commandment, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” Jesus had just reproved the critical Pharisees in Matthew 12:7-8, “But if only had known what this means. ‘I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice’ [quoting Hosea 6:6] you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Now, starting with v. 9, Matthew showed how heartless Jewish religion had become. “Departing from there, He went into their synagogue.” There is significance in the simple phrase, “He went into their synagogue.” Jesus likely went into the very synagogue of the Pharisees who criticized His disciples for gleaning food on the Sabbath. The Pharisees were already upset with Him and His disciples for not respecting their Sabbath rules. And He went into their synagogue.

It’s hard to tell if this was the same day that the Pharisees had confronted His band about Sabbath gleaning. But the Holy Spirit led Jesus to enter their synagogue, suggesting that He was setting Jesus up for a more serious confrontation with the Pharisees. This was not incidental to His ministry, but by divine intention.

Something profound occurred here that became a recurrent theme in Church history. Before this confrontation, Jesus observed, “From the day of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence; and the violent take it by force.” Satanically inspired men have repeated responded violently against the advance of Christ’s kingdom in the earth. The Spirit of God led Jesus into the cauldron of controversy to prepare His disciples for what awaited them after He left the earth.

Reading on from v. 10: And a man was there whose hand was withered. And they questioned Jesus, asking, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—so that they might accuse Him. ¹¹ And He said to them, “What man is there among you who has a sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out? ¹² How much more valuable then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” ¹³ Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand!” He stretched it out, and it was restored to normal, like the other. ¹⁴ But the Pharisees went out and conspired against Him, as to how they might destroy Him.

Here is an astonishing encounter that revealed the spiritual blindness that had gripped the Pharisees. Here was a circumcised Jew, one of God’s covenant people, who had a deforming handicap that prevented him from working with two hands. This no doubt consigned him to a lifetime of poverty. How could anyone in his community be opposed to him receiving a miraculous healing?

But immediately, the jealous Pharisees questioned Jesus as to whether it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him. They were more intent on catching Jesus in a violation of their Sabbath rules than in the healing of their suffering fellow. They were so sure of their religious rightness that they were willing to use a suffering man as a pawn in their scheme to take down Jesus. And what was the unquestioned belief behind their question? That it was not permitted to heal anyone on the Sabbath, because healing involved some kind of work; and work was prohibited on the Sabbath.

Let’s take a look at the heartlessness and absurdity of this rigid Sabbath prohibition of effort of any kind. If a child got sick on the Sabbath, would a parent be prohibited from providing needed medical assistance? Such a rigid application would put people at jeopardy for community-enforced inaction every seventh day of the week. Is that what God really intended for His holy people?

Mark records that when the Jews sat silently in judgment towards Him, Jesus looked around in anger because of the hardness of their heart. The welfare of a fellow Jews was of less consequence to them than their heartless legalism.

Jesus immediately cut through their religious hypocrisy by asking them how they would respond if a sheep fell into a pit on the Sabbath. Of course, they would snatch the sheep out to keep it from dying and depriving them of a valuable livestock. Yet they were quite willing to let a poor Jew continue to suffer rather than be healed on the Sabbath.

So Jesus then told the man, “Stretch out your hand!” Did Jesus “work” according to their law by speaking those few words? Of course not! They sang, read and recited Scripture throughout their Sabbath services. And He told the man to do something that His critics all did without thinking on the Sabbath – stretch out his hand.

There is a profound irony in the words Jesus spoke to perform this miracle. In Deuteronomy 18:18, God promised to Moses, “I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. ¹⁹ It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him.”

When God first called Moses to be His prophet, He said “I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My miracles which I shall do in the midst of it.” Again in Exodus 7:15, God said, “The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from their midst.” And whenever God told Moses to unleash another plague against Egypt, He told him to stretch out his hand against Egypt. Eight times God told Moses or Aaron to “stretch out your hand.” Here Jesus, the prophet like Moses who was also God incarnate used the same phrase God used to deliver Israel from Egypt to deliver a Jew from a crippling deformity. Yet the Pharisees were too hardened in heart to hear the voice of God in Jesus’ command. Now consider the recipient of the miracle.

Did this poor Jew violate the Law of Moses by opening his hand, something people do every day? Think about that. Every one of those men stretched out their hands to put on clothes, eat bread, lift up a cup, wipe their butts or hold the Torah scroll that they read in the synagogue. They should have rejoiced and praised God that a fellow Jew had been healed and could now work as an honest laborer. Instead, they were enraged that a man was healed doing something they repeatedly did on the Sabbath.

The only One who could fairly be accused of working in this instance was the God who effected the miracle! Just telling someone with a withered hand to stretch it out would have absolutely no effect unless he was empowered by God. That should have been obvious to everyone in the synagogue; but the Pharisees were blinded by their antagonism to this new Jewish prophet. They dismissed the miracle in in order to accuse Jesus for simply speaking it into existence! Instead of humbling themselves before the Anointed One, they stood in judgment against Him and against the God of Israel.

This miracle in the synagogue was the turning point in Jesus’ ministry. From this time onward, the Pharisees plotted to destroy Him. These proud Jews were so gripped by the Accuser’s lies that they preferred to kill the greatest miracle-worker Israel had ever known, because they preferred the rigid status quo that made them self-important. Reading on from v.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.”

Matthew was quoting from Isaiah 42, the first of four Servant Songs between Isaiah 42 and 53 that all point to Jesus for their prophetic fulfillment. Ironically, Matthew cites Jesus’ healing all who came to Him as fulfilling the prophecy about God’s Spirit anointing Jesus to proclaim justice to the Gentiles. Evidently, Jews and Gentiles alike came to Jesus for healing, even though Jesus’ mandate – in his own words – was being “sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Even so, He was preparing His disciples through His indiscriminate healing ministry for their ultimate calling as apostles to make disciples of all nations, the final words of Matthew’s gospel.

What an extraordinary contrast to the synagogue leaders’ hatred! Jesus responded to their death plot by imparting health and new life to the humble people of the land, the am ha’aretz upon whom proud Pharisees looked with disdain for their more casual Judaism.

Now the intensity of rivalry turned in a new direction. Once again, it was Jesus’ miracle-working power that aroused envy toward Him. By this time the Pharisees of Galilee had passed judgment against Him, rather than humbly acknowledging what ordinary Jews could plainly see – that Jesus was the greatest prophet anyone had ever seen. Reading from v. 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.”

Amazingly, this was the exact same response from the Jewish religious leaders to the same miracle, recorded in Matthew 9:32-34. They accused Jesus of casting out demons by the ruler of demons. Instead of rejoicing with the common people that a fellow Israelite was healed and able to live a normal life, they were – once again – more concerned about preserving their privileged place of leadership in society. Rightly did King Solomon say, “Wrath is fierce, and anger is a flood; but who can stand before jealousy.”

Any time someone is threatened by another’s success, they are gripped by the spirit of jealousy. What makes it such a potent evil. I think it’s pride opposing anyone who might challenge their self-importance or standing. This ugly spirit is seen all the time in politics. Sadly, it is also seen in the Church. The Apostle John in his third letter wrote, “I wrote something to the church; but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not accept what we say. ¹⁰ For this reason, if I come, I will call attention to his deeds which he does, unjustly accusing us with wicked words; and not satisfied with this, he himself does not receive the brethren, either, and he forbids those who desire to do so and puts them out of the church.” Again, we see the astounding jealousy and pride that caused a self-important congregational leader to resist the last of Christ’s chosen apostles.

Now returning to Matthew 12:25: 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.

Jesus shredded their twisted logic with truth. Why would Satan exert power to cast out one of his subordinate demons? Or why would he do good when his entire nature was to do evil? Satan, who is far more intelligent and cunning than any man, would never undercut his own kingdom to do good to one of God’s Chosen People. The Pharisees blinded themselves to the fact that no prophet in Jewish history had ever cast out demons.

This was one of the unique signs of Jesus’ Messianic authority that set Him apart from all previous prophets. Moses had unleashed God’s power against the false gods of Egypt by unleashing ten plagues in response to God’s commands. But Jesus cast out demons by His own authority to judge the false gods of this world, Satan’s kingdom. Moses’ plagues were all forces of nature. Jesus reached into the unseen realm of the spirit to drive out demons – something no prophet had ever been able to perceive or perform before Him.

Jesus than compared His actions to the spiritually impotent Pharisees who judged Him. If He was using Satan’s power to cast out demons, why couldn’t the Pharisees’ sons? But if Jesus cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God had come upon them.

There was prophetic force in His words that you might not catch if you didn’t know the Jews’ diffidence about using the word God. By Jesus’ time, observant Jews never spoke God’s covenant name Yahweh, and still won’t today. Observant Jews won’t even use the lesser term for “lord” or Adonai except when they’re reciting Scripture. Today, Orthodox Jews refer to God as “hashem” – meaning, “The Name” rather than the biblical term for God, Elohim. Even in English, The Orthodox spell God “G’d” so as to avoid using God fully in writing.

Prior to this confrontation Matthew records Jesus only referring to “the kingdom of heaven” rather than of God. Thus His words, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” or “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

But now in this confrontation, Jesus explicitly used the word “God” – twice – to rebuke His accusers: “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” That was another slap in the face of the Pharisees’ unbiblical control of religious language, for the phrase Yahweh Elohim – the LORD God – is repeatedly used in the Hebrew Bible. In effect, Jesus was hammering their unbelief with a Trinitarian rebuke: “I, God the Son, release God the Holy Spirit to cast out demons and bring the kingdom of God the Father upon you.”

He then created a sharp divide between His accusers and supporters: “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.”

Jesus’ opponents were oblivious to how perilous their position had become before God. Accusing Jesus and His followers of violating the Sabbath was one thing. Accusing Messiah of employing Satan’s power rather than the Spirit of God’s was a blasphemy against God’s holiness. Their rivalry with Jesus blinded them to the obvious. The astounding miracle of healing a man from blindness and dumbness by casting out a powerful demon could only be a work of God.

There’s something important in what Jesus said. All manner of blasphemy – curses, vulgar speech, or profanity – will be forgiven when people turn humbly to God in repentance. Using Jesus’ Name vainly, or speaking critically of Him will also be forgiven. But when you attach the holiness of God’s Spirit you put yourself in dire jeopardy.

Why is God so jealous of the Holy Spirit’s reputation? For one thing, the Holy Spirit is the least assertive of the three Persons of the Trinity in sacred history, and He is the least in authority in the Triune Godhead. He acts under the authority and direction of the Father and the Son. God the Father spoke directly to Abraham and to Moses, and Messiah repeatedly appeared and spoke as God to key people in Israel’s formative journey. The Holy Spirit, by contrast, never promoted Himself. His role is therefore, by comparison humbler and hidden. His ways speak also of the holy transcendence of God; and holiness is the attribute of God that He will defend above all.

There is no other attribute of God that the seraphim repeatedly cry out, as in Isaiah 6, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD God of hosts.” God’s holiness is a direct consequence of His transcendent nature – His eternity, infinity and immutability or unchanging nature. God alone possesses these three transcendent or incommunicable attributes. They set Him apart from any and everything in creation; and to deny this is a direct attack on God’s unique Otherness.

Let me assure you: if you ever worry about blaspheming the Holy Spirit you most definitely haven’t. The very concern about offending God reflects a reverence that can only come from God. Those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit deny, defy and dismiss God as if He were of no account. Their hearts are hardened with impenitence; and they become reprobate mind with hostility or indifference toward God. Those who persist in being against Jesus and refuse to gather souls or nurture souls in love with Him are those who are heading toward the ultimate blasphemy of the Holy Spirit – rejecting His saving work unto eternal damnation.

In the end, it is those who refuse to repent of their sins and believe the gospel who have blasphemed the Holy Spirit; for that is why the Spirit was given to mankind. He is God’s agent of salvation and orchestrates events and guides the angels to assist people in turning to the Lord. It is He who causes people to be born again when they call upon Jesus’ name to be saved. It is He who imputes God’s righteousness to us and recreates our inner nature with the holy nature of Christ.

Paul the Apostle wrote in Romans 8:9, “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”

The same Spirit who led Jesus into confrontation with hostile Pharisees in order to orchestrate Jesus’ crucifixion is paradoxically the same Spirit who works all things together for your God. It is He who intercedes to the Father for us with groanings too deep for words. He led the Son of God into ultimate suffering and death to spare us from the curse of the law and the second death of hell.

Have you received the Holy Spirit into your life? You know that you have when your heart and mind are set on Christ as your lifetime Lord and Savior. Are you seeking to honor God with your life every day?

Let us pray.