August 3, 2025 • 19 mins
Have you ever felt like you don't quite fit in? Jesus knows that feeling—and offers something better. In Matthew 12, Pastor Brandon explores the revolutionary concept of "Kingdom Family" and what it means to truly belong in God's household.
The chapter begins with Jesus challenging the Pharisees' rigid interpretation of Sabbath observance. When his hungry disciples pick grain on the sacred day, religious leaders object immediately. Jesus responds by reminding them that the heart of God's law is mercy, not sacrifice. Similarly, when Jesus heals a man with a deformed hand on the Sabbath, the religious establishment plots against him rather than rejoicing at the good being done. These confrontations reveal a fundamental tension between legalistic religion and the freedom Jesus offers.
Pastor Brandon provides exceptional clarity on one of scripture's most misunderstood passages—the "unforgivable sin" of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Rather than a single statement that condemns someone eternally, this represents an ongoing posture of actively opposing God's work. If you've worried about having committed this sin, Pastor Brandon offers reassurance: the very fact you're concerned suggests your heart remains open to God.
The chapter culminates with Jesus redefining family beyond blood relations. When told his mother and brothers are waiting outside, Jesus gestures to his disciples saying, "Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother." This wasn't rejecting his biological family but expanding our understanding of belonging. The Kingdom Family transcends traditional boundaries, creating a community where doing God's will creates bonds stronger than DNA.
Ready to discover your place in God's Kingdom Family? Subscribe to the Bible Breakdown podcast and join our growing community as we continue exploring God's Word together!
Contact us-
Ask a Question
Send Encouragement
Take a Next Step-
SOAP Bible Study Method.
Bible Reading Plan.
Free Weekly Newsletter.
Socials-
Facebook.
Instagram.
X.
YouTube.
The More We Dig. The More We Find.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 0 (00:00):
Well, hello everybody .
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your host
, pastor Brandon.
Today, matthew, chapter 12, andtoday's title is Kingdom Family
, kingdom Family.
I want to tell you, when Ifirst started dating my wife, my
wife's family was verydifferent than my family.
(00:20):
Both were okay.
It was just very, verydifferent.
We just related to one anotherdifferently.
The way we communicated as afamily was just very different,
came from different backgroundsand I remember the first time I
went over to at the time I wasdating.
Later we got married, but at thetime my girlfriend's family and
it was awesome because justkind of our thing at my house
(00:43):
and we would have dinner, wewould have dinner, we would have
dinner and we would talk aboutthe day or whatever, but it
would just be a normal dinner.
Well, I went over to my wife'sfamily's house and they were all
together and it was likewatching a movie, I mean, they
were animated and they were loudand they would just laugh
loudly and then they would argueand they'd, they would argue
(01:04):
and then be back.
It was just, it was fun and Iremember leaving going.
What was that?
I don't know what that was.
I'm coming back.
It was almost like.
I don't know, if it doesn'twork out between she and I, can
I still come back here Becausethat was a lot of fun and that's
what I think the kingdom ofheaven is.
The kingdom family is fun andit's what I think the kingdom of
(01:25):
heaven is.
The kingdom family is.
It's fun and it's loud, andit's people from different walks
of life who have decided tocome together and to grow
together.
That's what a kingdom communityis and that's what God invites
us into, and we're going to seea chapter of what it looks like
when we do life together in thekingdom of heaven in Matthew
chapter 12.
So if you have your bibles,want to open up with me to
(01:46):
Matthew chapter 12.
While you're doing that, ifyou're new around here as always
and I know we say this all thetime, but you would be surprised
how many times people don'tknow this because they're new I
always want to make room for you, and so make sure you take just
a moment, like share andsubscribe to the YouTube channel
and the podcast.
We're on the road to 2,000subscribers with our YouTube
(02:07):
channel and we would love foryou to help us with that.
It doesn't cost anything, justto hit subscribe and then also
it will send you alerts everymorning.
But then also with the podcast,if you leave us a five-star
review, it really does help inthe search engines for the
algorithms to know what it iswe're doing, and so it really
does help.
And then, if you leave afive-star review, it helps
(02:28):
people know how you are engagingwith God's Word.
And then also make sure you'regoing to the Bible Breakdown
Discussion on Facebook.
There's an amazing team ofpeople and they are just so
faithful, every day just sendingus devotions about God's Word.
And, as always, the more we dig, the more we find.
Well, hopefully you've had anopportunity to find Matthew,
(02:48):
chapter 12.
And I wanna remind you that theoverall theme of Matthew is
what we call King Jesus and, ifyou remember, this was written
under the inspiration of theHoly Spirit by Matthew to the
Jewish nation, and it was forthem, but it also was for us as
well, because he is telling usin the very first chapter Jesus
(03:11):
is at least the earthly king, hehas a right to rule and he's
like.
I can prove it.
He shows the family lineage andhe's saying he's at the very
least, he has a claim to theearthly throne.
But then he spends chapter 2through 28 saying but he is so
much more than an earthly king.
He is the king of kings and theLord of lords and we've been
(03:31):
seeing as he is consistently andcontinually building onto the
kingdom of God.
And today we're going to see asJesus is walking through this
world and he's bringing hisdisciples with him, and what it
looks like for the kingdom ofGod to grow and how we relate to
those outside the kingdom andjust all of that.
So if you're ready, let's jumpinto God's word.
(03:54):
Matthew, chapter 12, verse 1,says this at about that time,
Jesus was walking through thegrain fields on the Sabbath.
His disciples were hungry, sothey began breaking off some
heads of grain and eating them.
But some of the Pharisees sawthem doing it and protested look
, your disciples are breakingthe law by harvesting grain on
(04:15):
the Sabbath.
And Jesus said to them haven'tyou read in the scriptures what
David did when he and hiscompanions were hungry?
He went into the house of God,he and his companions, and broke
the law by eating the sacredloaves of bread that only the
priests were allowed to eat.
Haven't you read in the law ofMoses that the priests on duty
in the temple were the only onesthat may work on the Sabbath.
(04:37):
I tell you that there is onehere who is greater than the
temple, but you would not havecondemned my innocent disciples
if you knew the meaning of thescripture.
I want you to show mercy, notoffer sacrifices, for the son of
man is lord even over thesabbath.
Now, what he is talking abouthere is the pharisees.
(04:59):
I know they get a bad rap and,to be honest with you, they
deserve it.
Okay, but at the same time, themotives were good, because they
wanted to honor God.
And so what they said was ifwe're not supposed to harvest on
Sabbath, well, because Sabbathwas intended to be a day of
replenishment and rest andworship to God.
And they said, okay, well, wedon't want to violate the law of
(05:21):
God.
Therefore, if we shouldn'tharvest, then we ought to not do
even more so that we don'tbreak the law.
And they had gotten all the wayback to we can't even pick up a
piece of grain on the Sabbathday, because that might lead to
this, which will lead to this,which eventually leads to
harvesting, which then will leadto work.
So they had gotten so far awayfrom the intended nature of the
(05:43):
Sabbath that it had no longeranything to do with worshiping
Jesus as Lord, worshiping God asLord and honoring the Sabbath.
The goal of the Sabbath was notto do without, it was to press
into their relationship with God.
And so what Jesus is doing ishe is correcting all of this and
he is saying actually youmissed the point.
The point was to honor me asLord, not do without.
(06:04):
That's the whole point of this.
And he is saying actually youmissed the point.
The point was to honor me asLord, not do without.
That's the whole point of thefirst night.
Then Jesus went over to theirsynagogue where he noticed a man
with a deformed hand.
The Pharisees asked Jesus, doesthe law permit a person to work
by healing on the Sabbath?
They were hoping that he wouldsay yes, so they could bring
charges against him.
And?
And he answered if you had asheep that fell into a well on
(06:28):
the Sabbath, wouldn't you workto pull it out?
Of course you would.
And how much more valuable aperson than a sheep?
Yes, the law permits a personto do good on the Sabbath.
Then he said to the man holdout your hand.
So the man held out his handand it was restored just like
the other.
Then the Pharisees called ameeting to plot how to kill
(06:50):
Jesus.
So he is just doubling down onthis idea that the goal of the
Sabbath is to do good, toworship God, do good to others.
But once again it is totallyflying in the face of what they
wanted.
So they have went from notknowing who Jesus was to being
curious, to now they are hostileagainst him Verse 15,.
But Jesus knew what they wereplanning.
(07:11):
So he left that area and manypeople followed him and he
healed all the sick among them,but he warned them not to reveal
who he was.
This fulfilled the prophecy ofIsaiah concerning him.
Look at my servant, whom I havechosen.
He is my beloved, who pleasesme.
I will put my spirit upon himand he will proclaim justice to
(07:31):
the nations.
He will not fight or shout orraise his voice in public.
He will not crush the weakestreed or put out a flickering
candle.
Finally, he will cause justiceto be victorious and his name
will be hope to all the world.
Then a demon-possessed man whowas blind and couldn't speak was
brought to Jesus and he healedthe man so that he could both
(07:54):
speak and see.
The crowd was amazed and askedhow could it be that Jesus the
Son of David, or could it bethat Jesus the Son of David is
the Messiah?
Now pause again.
Remember that was the primaryway they had said they would
know if that was the Messiah isthat he would have power over
evil spirits.
That's why when they saw Jesushealing someone of demon
(08:15):
possession, immediately theirthought was well, this is
probably him.
And that frustrated thePharisees.
So then they say in verse 24,.
But when the Pharisees heardabout the miracle, they said no
wonder he's casting out demons.
He gets his power from Satan,the prince of demons.
Jesus knew their thoughts andreplied any kingdom divided by
(08:37):
civil war is doomed.
A town or family splintered byfeuding will fall apart.
And if Satan is casting outSatan, he is divided and
fighting against himself.
His own kingdom will notsurvive.
And if I am empowered by Satan,what about your own exorcist?
They cast out demons too.
So they will condemn you forwhat you have said.
(08:58):
But if I am casting out demonsby the spirit of God, then the
kingdom of God has arrived amongyou.
For who is powerful enough toenter the house of a strong man
and plunder his goods, onlysomeone even stronger, someone
who could tie him up and thenplunder his house.
Everyone who isn't with meopposes me, and everyone who is
working with me is actuallyeveryone who is not.
(09:21):
Wait a minute, let me say itagain Anyone who isn't working
with me is actually workingagainst me.
So I tell you, every sin andblasphemy can be forgiven,
except the blasphemy against theHoly Spirit, which will never
be forgiven.
We'll come back to that in justa moment.
Everyone who speaks against theSon of man can be forgiven, but
anyone who speaks against theHoly Spirit will never be
(09:43):
forgiven, either in this worldor in the world to come.
A tree is identified by itsfruit.
If the tree is good, then itsfruit will be good, and if the
tree is bad, its fruit will bebad.
You, brood of snakes.
How could evil men like youspeak what is good and right,
for whatever is in your heartdetermines what you say.
(10:05):
That is the key tounderstanding what he said up
here.
We'll get to that in just amoment.
Verse 35, good person producesgood things from the treasury of
a good heart, and an evilperson produces evil things from
the treasury of an evil heart.
I tell you this you must givean account on judgment day for
every idle word you speak, andthe words you say will either
(10:26):
acquit you or condemn you.
And before we go any further, Iwant to address quickly the
number one question I get as apastor, and that is am I going
to hell?
Have I committed theunforgivable sin which is
blasphemy?
And I'll go and tell you thenumber one thing I usually tell
people when they ask me thatquestion is if you're even
(10:48):
asking no, because when you lookat this, you got to read it in
context.
If you read it out of context,it sounds like if you say
anything against God, thenyou've committed blasphemy and
you're going to hell.
Right, If that's the case, thenPeter's going to hell because
at one point he said I don'tknow the man, he was speaking
against Jesus.
That can't be it.
But if you keep reading, he issaying that there's something
(11:10):
that happens in your heart thatdetermines what you say, that
God simply is not able toforgive Now, able as in he's not
going to go against your owndesires.
A better way to understand thisis blasphemy is a position of
your heart where you areactively working against the
(11:32):
Holy Spirit, where you areagainst what he's doing, against
his ways, and you are not opento receiving what God is saying.
And so then it makes commonsense the reason why someone who
is in the verbal tensecommitting the act of blasphemy
is because you are not open toreceiving what God has.
(11:53):
In this situation, thesePharisees are actively speaking
against and working against theHoly Spirit, and so it's not
like they did this one thing andnow they can never, ever be
forgiven.
It is saying that they areactively opposing the Holy
Spirit.
Therefore, there's nothing elsecoming.
The Holy Spirit is the only onewho is convicting us of our sin
(12:16):
.
There's nothing else that'sdoing that.
And so if you are activelyopposing the Holy Spirit, your
heart is actively workingagainst him then you cannot be
saved.
So therefore, blasphemy is averb.
If you think about it like that, it's an ongoing denial of God.
So it's not that God can'tforgive it, it's that you are
(12:36):
putting yourself in positionthat God is not going to
override your rebellion.
And so I would say to you, ifyou are afraid you have
committed the sin of blasphemy,then to realize it is not a
one-time sin, it is an ongoinglifestyle, and so the way to get
back to God is to repent fromresisting the Holy Spirit.
(12:58):
Okay, let's keep going.
Verse 38.
One day, some teachers ofreligious law and Pharisees came
to Jesus and said teacher, wewant you to show us a miraculous
sign "'to prove your authority'.
Jesus replied "'Only an eviland adulterous generation
"'would demand a miraculoussign'.
But the only sign I will givethem is a sign of the prophet
(13:20):
Jonah, for as Jonah was in thebelly of the great fish for
three days and three nights, sothe Son of man will be in the
heart of the earth for threedays and three nights.
The people of Nineveh willstand up against this generation
on Judgment Day and condemn it,for they repented of their sins
at the preaching of Jonah.
Now someone greater than Jonahis here, but you refuse to
(13:41):
repent.
The Queen of Sheba will alsostand up against this generation
on judgment day and condemn it,for she came from a distant
land to hear the wisdom ofSolomon.
And now someone greater thanSolomon is here, but you refuse
to listen.
When an evil spirit leaves aperson, it goes into the desert
seeking rest, but finding none,and then it says I will return
(14:01):
to the person I came from.
So it returns and finds itsformer home, empty, swept and in
order.
Then the spirit finds sevenother spirits, more evil than
itself, and they all enter theperson and live there.
So the person is worse off thanbefore.
That will be the experience ofthis evil generation.
In other words, what he'ssaying is, for those in this
(14:24):
generation who were turning awayfrom Jesus, that they actually
are interested in the word ofGod but they're turning away
from Jesus.
But what's ultimately going tohappen is it's going to become
worse and worse and worse forthem as they continue to turn
further and further intoidolatry.
All right, let's finish up thischapter with the family of God,
verse 46,.
As Jesus was speaking to thecrowd, his mother and brothers
(14:45):
stood outside asking to speak tohim.
Someone told Jesus your motherand your brothers are standing
outside and they want to speakto you.
And Jesus asked well, who is mymother and who are my brothers?
And then he pointed to hisdisciples and said look, these
are my mother and brothers.
Anyone who does the will of myfather in heaven is my brother
(15:06):
and sister and mother.
Now it's important as we getready to end our time together.
He wasn't speaking negativelytoward his family, it was more,
that he was saying that how youwere born does not determine
your ability to get my attention, to be in the kingdom of heaven
.
It is about how you are bornagain, that my family doesn't
(15:27):
just consist of one group ofpeople, but it is anyone who
allows me into their life.
We know that Jesus wasn'tdisrespecting his family,
because when he's on the crosshe is taking care of his mother
Mary by asking John to take careof her.
He wasn't talking bad aboutthem.
He was talking well of thefamily of God.
And can I tell you, the Biblesays in the book of Psalms he
(15:51):
says that God is a father to thefatherless and he puts the
lonely into families.
One of the things I love aboutJesus is that when he saves us,
he puts us into his heavenlyfamily.
The book of Romans, chaptereight, says that we become
children of God and in whomwe're able to cry out Abba,
(16:14):
father.
That word Abba is the Aramaicand Hebrew word that simply
means Papa.
It's a little bit more formalthan the word daddy, but it's
more like the word dad.
In other words, if you didn'treally know your father very
well and you were in a publicforum, you would say my father,
james Cannon, right, but whenyou're behind closed doors and
(16:37):
it's just you and the family,you would say hey, dad, and
that's the term that's beingused.
Then we come into the kingdom ofGod.
Yes, he is the king of theuniverse, he's the king of kings
and the Lord of lords, and heis worthy of our respect and
admiration.
At the same time, he is ourheavenly father, our heavenly
daddy, and it feelsdisrespectful sometimes to say
(16:59):
it like that, because whenyou're thinking about the king
of kings, you want to give himmore honor, and there's nothing
wrong with that.
But it's to understand that atthe same time, he could have, if
you think about it, he couldhave called or told us to relate
to him in any way, but he saidI want you to call me father
because I want a relationshipwith you.
(17:20):
Can I challenge you today?
If you would think of yourrelationship with God as formal,
god's calling you deeper intorelationship.
On the other side, if you thinkof your relationship as
something that is very personal,god also wants to call you into
realizing you're part ofsomething bigger than you
realize, that the kingdom ofheaven is moving and growing
(17:43):
constantly all around us and wehave the honor to be part of it.
Have you thought about latelyhow you are part of something so
much bigger and more amazingthan you could ever imagine, and
it's called the kingdom of Godand our kingdom family.
Let's pray together right now.
God, thank you so much for yourword, for it is powerful, it is
(18:03):
deep, it is rich, it is beyondfinding out.
My prayer, god, today, is as wedig deeper into your word, you,
god, will dig deeper into ourhearts.
Help us to know you more in allthings.
In Jesus' name, we pray, amen,amen.
Well, god's word says inMatthew 28, verse 19,.
It says all authority in heavenand on earth has been given to
(18:24):
me.
Go, therefore, and makedisciples of all nations.
I love you.
I'll see you tomorrow forMatthew, chapter 13.
Well, hello everybody .
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your host
, pastor Brandon.
Today, matthew, chapter 12, andtoday's title is Kingdom Family
, kingdom Family.
I want to tell you, when Ifirst started dating my wife, my
wife's family was verydifferent than my family.
(00:20):
Both were okay.
It was just very, verydifferent.
We just related to one anotherdifferently.
The way we communicated as afamily was just very different,
came from different backgroundsand I remember the first time I
went over to at the time I wasdating.
Later we got married, but at thetime my girlfriend's family and
it was awesome because justkind of our thing at my house
(00:43):
and we would have dinner, wewould have dinner, we would have
dinner and we would talk aboutthe day or whatever, but it
would just be a normal dinner.
Well, I went over to my wife'sfamily's house and they were all
together and it was likewatching a movie, I mean, they
were animated and they were loudand they would just laugh
loudly and then they would argueand they'd, they would argue
(01:04):
and then be back.
It was just, it was fun and Iremember leaving going.
What was that?
I don't know what that was.
I'm coming back.
It was almost like.
I don't know, if it doesn'twork out between she and I, can
I still come back here Becausethat was a lot of fun and that's
what I think the kingdom ofheaven is.
The kingdom family is fun andit's what I think the kingdom of
(01:25):
heaven is.
The kingdom family is.
It's fun and it's loud, andit's people from different walks
of life who have decided tocome together and to grow
together.
That's what a kingdom communityis and that's what God invites
us into, and we're going to seea chapter of what it looks like
when we do life together in thekingdom of heaven in Matthew
chapter 12.
So if you have your bibles,want to open up with me to
(01:46):
Matthew chapter 12.
While you're doing that, ifyou're new around here as always
and I know we say this all thetime, but you would be surprised
how many times people don'tknow this because they're new I
always want to make room for you, and so make sure you take just
a moment, like share andsubscribe to the YouTube channel
and the podcast.
We're on the road to 2,000subscribers with our YouTube
(02:07):
channel and we would love foryou to help us with that.
It doesn't cost anything, justto hit subscribe and then also
it will send you alerts everymorning.
But then also with the podcast,if you leave us a five-star
review, it really does help inthe search engines for the
algorithms to know what it iswe're doing, and so it really
does help.
And then, if you leave afive-star review, it helps
(02:28):
people know how you are engagingwith God's Word.
And then also make sure you'regoing to the Bible Breakdown
Discussion on Facebook.
There's an amazing team ofpeople and they are just so
faithful, every day just sendingus devotions about God's Word.
And, as always, the more we dig, the more we find.
Well, hopefully you've had anopportunity to find Matthew,
(02:48):
chapter 12.
And I wanna remind you that theoverall theme of Matthew is
what we call King Jesus and, ifyou remember, this was written
under the inspiration of theHoly Spirit by Matthew to the
Jewish nation, and it was forthem, but it also was for us as
well, because he is telling usin the very first chapter Jesus
(03:11):
is at least the earthly king, hehas a right to rule and he's
like.
I can prove it.
He shows the family lineage andhe's saying he's at the very
least, he has a claim to theearthly throne.
But then he spends chapter 2through 28 saying but he is so
much more than an earthly king.
He is the king of kings and theLord of lords and we've been
(03:31):
seeing as he is consistently andcontinually building onto the
kingdom of God.
And today we're going to see asJesus is walking through this
world and he's bringing hisdisciples with him, and what it
looks like for the kingdom ofGod to grow and how we relate to
those outside the kingdom andjust all of that.
So if you're ready, let's jumpinto God's word.
(03:54):
Matthew, chapter 12, verse 1,says this at about that time,
Jesus was walking through thegrain fields on the Sabbath.
His disciples were hungry, sothey began breaking off some
heads of grain and eating them.
But some of the Pharisees sawthem doing it and protested look
, your disciples are breakingthe law by harvesting grain on
(04:15):
the Sabbath.
And Jesus said to them haven'tyou read in the scriptures what
David did when he and hiscompanions were hungry?
He went into the house of God,he and his companions, and broke
the law by eating the sacredloaves of bread that only the
priests were allowed to eat.
Haven't you read in the law ofMoses that the priests on duty
in the temple were the only onesthat may work on the Sabbath.
(04:37):
I tell you that there is onehere who is greater than the
temple, but you would not havecondemned my innocent disciples
if you knew the meaning of thescripture.
I want you to show mercy, notoffer sacrifices, for the son of
man is lord even over thesabbath.
Now, what he is talking abouthere is the pharisees.
(04:59):
I know they get a bad rap and,to be honest with you, they
deserve it.
Okay, but at the same time, themotives were good, because they
wanted to honor God.
And so what they said was ifwe're not supposed to harvest on
Sabbath, well, because Sabbathwas intended to be a day of
replenishment and rest andworship to God.
And they said, okay, well, wedon't want to violate the law of
(05:21):
God.
Therefore, if we shouldn'tharvest, then we ought to not do
even more so that we don'tbreak the law.
And they had gotten all the wayback to we can't even pick up a
piece of grain on the Sabbathday, because that might lead to
this, which will lead to this,which eventually leads to
harvesting, which then will leadto work.
So they had gotten so far awayfrom the intended nature of the
(05:43):
Sabbath that it had no longeranything to do with worshiping
Jesus as Lord, worshiping God asLord and honoring the Sabbath.
The goal of the Sabbath was notto do without, it was to press
into their relationship with God.
And so what Jesus is doing ishe is correcting all of this and
he is saying actually youmissed the point.
The point was to honor me asLord, not do without.
(06:04):
That's the whole point of this.
And he is saying actually youmissed the point.
The point was to honor me asLord, not do without.
That's the whole point of thefirst night.
Then Jesus went over to theirsynagogue where he noticed a man
with a deformed hand.
The Pharisees asked Jesus, doesthe law permit a person to work
by healing on the Sabbath?
They were hoping that he wouldsay yes, so they could bring
charges against him.
And?
And he answered if you had asheep that fell into a well on
(06:28):
the Sabbath, wouldn't you workto pull it out?
Of course you would.
And how much more valuable aperson than a sheep?
Yes, the law permits a personto do good on the Sabbath.
Then he said to the man holdout your hand.
So the man held out his handand it was restored just like
the other.
Then the Pharisees called ameeting to plot how to kill
(06:50):
Jesus.
So he is just doubling down onthis idea that the goal of the
Sabbath is to do good, toworship God, do good to others.
But once again it is totallyflying in the face of what they
wanted.
So they have went from notknowing who Jesus was to being
curious, to now they are hostileagainst him Verse 15,.
But Jesus knew what they wereplanning.
(07:11):
So he left that area and manypeople followed him and he
healed all the sick among them,but he warned them not to reveal
who he was.
This fulfilled the prophecy ofIsaiah concerning him.
Look at my servant, whom I havechosen.
He is my beloved, who pleasesme.
I will put my spirit upon himand he will proclaim justice to
(07:31):
the nations.
He will not fight or shout orraise his voice in public.
He will not crush the weakestreed or put out a flickering
candle.
Finally, he will cause justiceto be victorious and his name
will be hope to all the world.
Then a demon-possessed man whowas blind and couldn't speak was
brought to Jesus and he healedthe man so that he could both
(07:54):
speak and see.
The crowd was amazed and askedhow could it be that Jesus the
Son of David, or could it bethat Jesus the Son of David is
the Messiah?
Now pause again.
Remember that was the primaryway they had said they would
know if that was the Messiah isthat he would have power over
evil spirits.
That's why when they saw Jesushealing someone of demon
(08:15):
possession, immediately theirthought was well, this is
probably him.
And that frustrated thePharisees.
So then they say in verse 24,.
But when the Pharisees heardabout the miracle, they said no
wonder he's casting out demons.
He gets his power from Satan,the prince of demons.
Jesus knew their thoughts andreplied any kingdom divided by
(08:37):
civil war is doomed.
A town or family splintered byfeuding will fall apart.
And if Satan is casting outSatan, he is divided and
fighting against himself.
His own kingdom will notsurvive.
And if I am empowered by Satan,what about your own exorcist?
They cast out demons too.
So they will condemn you forwhat you have said.
(08:58):
But if I am casting out demonsby the spirit of God, then the
kingdom of God has arrived amongyou.
For who is powerful enough toenter the house of a strong man
and plunder his goods, onlysomeone even stronger, someone
who could tie him up and thenplunder his house.
Everyone who isn't with meopposes me, and everyone who is
working with me is actuallyeveryone who is not.
(09:21):
Wait a minute, let me say itagain Anyone who isn't working
with me is actually workingagainst me.
So I tell you, every sin andblasphemy can be forgiven,
except the blasphemy against theHoly Spirit, which will never
be forgiven.
We'll come back to that in justa moment.
Everyone who speaks against theSon of man can be forgiven, but
anyone who speaks against theHoly Spirit will never be
(09:43):
forgiven, either in this worldor in the world to come.
A tree is identified by itsfruit.
If the tree is good, then itsfruit will be good, and if the
tree is bad, its fruit will bebad.
You, brood of snakes.
How could evil men like youspeak what is good and right,
for whatever is in your heartdetermines what you say.
(10:05):
That is the key tounderstanding what he said up
here.
We'll get to that in just amoment.
Verse 35, good person producesgood things from the treasury of
a good heart, and an evilperson produces evil things from
the treasury of an evil heart.
I tell you this you must givean account on judgment day for
every idle word you speak, andthe words you say will either
(10:26):
acquit you or condemn you.
And before we go any further, Iwant to address quickly the
number one question I get as apastor, and that is am I going
to hell?
Have I committed theunforgivable sin which is
blasphemy?
And I'll go and tell you thenumber one thing I usually tell
people when they ask me thatquestion is if you're even
(10:48):
asking no, because when you lookat this, you got to read it in
context.
If you read it out of context,it sounds like if you say
anything against God, thenyou've committed blasphemy and
you're going to hell.
Right, If that's the case, thenPeter's going to hell because
at one point he said I don'tknow the man, he was speaking
against Jesus.
That can't be it.
But if you keep reading, he issaying that there's something
(11:10):
that happens in your heart thatdetermines what you say, that
God simply is not able toforgive Now, able as in he's not
going to go against your owndesires.
A better way to understand thisis blasphemy is a position of
your heart where you areactively working against the
(11:32):
Holy Spirit, where you areagainst what he's doing, against
his ways, and you are not opento receiving what God is saying.
And so then it makes commonsense the reason why someone who
is in the verbal tensecommitting the act of blasphemy
is because you are not open toreceiving what God has.
(11:53):
In this situation, thesePharisees are actively speaking
against and working against theHoly Spirit, and so it's not
like they did this one thing andnow they can never, ever be
forgiven.
It is saying that they areactively opposing the Holy
Spirit.
Therefore, there's nothing elsecoming.
The Holy Spirit is the only onewho is convicting us of our sin
(12:16):
.
There's nothing else that'sdoing that.
And so if you are activelyopposing the Holy Spirit, your
heart is actively workingagainst him then you cannot be
saved.
So therefore, blasphemy is averb.
If you think about it like that, it's an ongoing denial of God.
So it's not that God can'tforgive it, it's that you are
(12:36):
putting yourself in positionthat God is not going to
override your rebellion.
And so I would say to you, ifyou are afraid you have
committed the sin of blasphemy,then to realize it is not a
one-time sin, it is an ongoinglifestyle, and so the way to get
back to God is to repent fromresisting the Holy Spirit.
(12:58):
Okay, let's keep going.
Verse 38.
One day, some teachers ofreligious law and Pharisees came
to Jesus and said teacher, wewant you to show us a miraculous
sign "'to prove your authority'.
Jesus replied "'Only an eviland adulterous generation
"'would demand a miraculoussign'.
But the only sign I will givethem is a sign of the prophet
(13:20):
Jonah, for as Jonah was in thebelly of the great fish for
three days and three nights, sothe Son of man will be in the
heart of the earth for threedays and three nights.
The people of Nineveh willstand up against this generation
on Judgment Day and condemn it,for they repented of their sins
at the preaching of Jonah.
Now someone greater than Jonahis here, but you refuse to
(13:41):
repent.
The Queen of Sheba will alsostand up against this generation
on judgment day and condemn it,for she came from a distant
land to hear the wisdom ofSolomon.
And now someone greater thanSolomon is here, but you refuse
to listen.
When an evil spirit leaves aperson, it goes into the desert
seeking rest, but finding none,and then it says I will return
(14:01):
to the person I came from.
So it returns and finds itsformer home, empty, swept and in
order.
Then the spirit finds sevenother spirits, more evil than
itself, and they all enter theperson and live there.
So the person is worse off thanbefore.
That will be the experience ofthis evil generation.
In other words, what he'ssaying is, for those in this
(14:24):
generation who were turning awayfrom Jesus, that they actually
are interested in the word ofGod but they're turning away
from Jesus.
But what's ultimately going tohappen is it's going to become
worse and worse and worse forthem as they continue to turn
further and further intoidolatry.
All right, let's finish up thischapter with the family of God,
verse 46,.
As Jesus was speaking to thecrowd, his mother and brothers
(14:45):
stood outside asking to speak tohim.
Someone told Jesus your motherand your brothers are standing
outside and they want to speakto you.
And Jesus asked well, who is mymother and who are my brothers?
And then he pointed to hisdisciples and said look, these
are my mother and brothers.
Anyone who does the will of myfather in heaven is my brother
(15:06):
and sister and mother.
Now it's important as we getready to end our time together.
He wasn't speaking negativelytoward his family, it was more,
that he was saying that how youwere born does not determine
your ability to get my attention, to be in the kingdom of heaven
.
It is about how you are bornagain, that my family doesn't
(15:27):
just consist of one group ofpeople, but it is anyone who
allows me into their life.
We know that Jesus wasn'tdisrespecting his family,
because when he's on the crosshe is taking care of his mother
Mary by asking John to take careof her.
He wasn't talking bad aboutthem.
He was talking well of thefamily of God.
And can I tell you, the Biblesays in the book of Psalms he
(15:51):
says that God is a father to thefatherless and he puts the
lonely into families.
One of the things I love aboutJesus is that when he saves us,
he puts us into his heavenlyfamily.
The book of Romans, chaptereight, says that we become
children of God and in whomwe're able to cry out Abba,
(16:14):
father.
That word Abba is the Aramaicand Hebrew word that simply
means Papa.
It's a little bit more formalthan the word daddy, but it's
more like the word dad.
In other words, if you didn'treally know your father very
well and you were in a publicforum, you would say my father,
james Cannon, right, but whenyou're behind closed doors and
(16:37):
it's just you and the family,you would say hey, dad, and
that's the term that's beingused.
Then we come into the kingdom ofGod.
Yes, he is the king of theuniverse, he's the king of kings
and the Lord of lords, and heis worthy of our respect and
admiration.
At the same time, he is ourheavenly father, our heavenly
daddy, and it feelsdisrespectful sometimes to say
(16:59):
it like that, because whenyou're thinking about the king
of kings, you want to give himmore honor, and there's nothing
wrong with that.
But it's to understand that atthe same time, he could have, if
you think about it, he couldhave called or told us to relate
to him in any way, but he saidI want you to call me father
because I want a relationshipwith you.
(17:20):
Can I challenge you today?
If you would think of yourrelationship with God as formal,
god's calling you deeper intorelationship.
On the other side, if you thinkof your relationship as
something that is very personal,god also wants to call you into
realizing you're part ofsomething bigger than you
realize, that the kingdom ofheaven is moving and growing
(17:43):
constantly all around us and wehave the honor to be part of it.
Have you thought about latelyhow you are part of something so
much bigger and more amazingthan you could ever imagine, and
it's called the kingdom of Godand our kingdom family.
Let's pray together right now.
God, thank you so much for yourword, for it is powerful, it is
(18:03):
deep, it is rich, it is beyondfinding out.
My prayer, god, today, is as wedig deeper into your word, you,
god, will dig deeper into ourhearts.
Help us to know you more in allthings.
In Jesus' name, we pray, amen,amen.
Well, god's word says inMatthew 28, verse 19,.
It says all authority in heavenand on earth has been given to
(18:24):
me.
Go, therefore, and makedisciples of all nations.
I love you.
I'll see you tomorrow forMatthew, chapter 13.
Popular Podcasts
Fudd Around And Find Out
UConn basketball star Azzi Fudd brings her championship swag to iHeart Women’s Sports with Fudd Around and Find Out, a weekly podcast that takes fans along for the ride as Azzi spends her final year of college trying to reclaim the National Championship and prepare to be a first round WNBA draft pick. Ever wonder what it’s like to be a world-class athlete in the public spotlight while still managing schoolwork, friendships and family time? It’s time to Fudd Around and Find Out!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!