Springs Lighthouse Church

Brian Michaels: Matthew chapter 12, we're going to begin in verse nine because that's as far as we came in our last study. Let's pray that the Lord speaks to our hearts.

Father, we thank you for your goodness towards us, for your ministry to us, for the way that your spirit desires to speak to us. Lord, I pray that particularly for this day, that you would give a frail man's body the ability to transmit what you desire to be said to your people today. Lord, it is in your weakness that we are made strong. We don't like to admit weakness. We don't like to acknowledge weakness, certainly as men. But, Father, I acknowledge all of that today and just ask that you, by your spirit, would accomplish your work.

You would not let this man's body get in the way of you being able to transmit to your people what your spirit desires to say to your church. So, Lord, our hearts are open to hear from you. Lord, we submit ourselves to you and we ask that you would be our teacher in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Amen.

As we pick up this section of Matthew's Gospel account, you remember that we're at a place where multitudes of people are flocking to Jesus. They're following him everywhere. There are probably many reasons for this. There is a Messianic fever, as it were, in that day at that time. They were anticipating that there was something about the biblical chronology that would lead them to believe that Messiah's coming was near. Then you had John's ministry down by the Jordan River and the things that he was preaching and proclaiming, that the coming of Messiah was at hand.

Now Jesus comes into the mix and people are attracted to his ministry. Again, for many reasons. He's healing people. There were no doubt many people who were coming to just see the cool show. How many of us don't like to see miracles take place? How many of us are just like, I don't care about the supernatural? No, if we knew the supernatural was happening and people were getting healed, I mean, which of us, if we heard that on any given day, you might have a leper show up and all of a sudden pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, his fingers are popping back on his hand? That'd be cool to see, wouldn't it? No nose, nose. No ears, ears.

So that would be cool. Perhaps many are coming for that reason. Perhaps many are coming because they are in need of their own healing. They are in need of the touch of Jesus for their own life. Then there would have been many coming because it was kind of cool to be out there on a hillside on an afternoon when you're hungry and all of a sudden Jesus produces a feast out of nowhere. That'd be kind of neat to see, wouldn't it? That'd be awesome to partake in.

But then there were those, and these seem to be the ones that Jesus was most interested in ministering to, those who were hanging on his words for their word's sake. Because all of the show, and I hate to use that word because Jesus never presented it that way, but all that people would have perceived as the show, the miracles, the healings, the production of food able to feed 5,000 people, all of that was to support the message that he was bringing. The kingdom of heaven was with him.

Jesus, as Matthew has just recorded, he has said, "Come to me, all who are weary, all who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy and my burden is light." After giving that message, the religious leaders become more and more hostile to the message that Jesus is bringing. It's interesting that they don't take time to sit back and say, why are the multitudes following Jesus and no one is coming to us? Because the scripture clearly tells them a large part of the religious leaders' problem with Jesus was jealousy.

His ministry had eclipsed theirs. His ministry was drawing people. Their ministry was not. Rather than sit back and go, why aren't people coming to hear what we have to hear and truly entering into some retrospection, all they want to do is attack Jesus. What if the Sadducees sat back? Remember who the Sadducees were. They were the larger part of the religious leadership. They were the more powerful group of the religious leaders. We talk a lot about the Pharisees because they were the legalists, but the Sadducees were the power in the religious system of their day in Judaism of their day.

But the Sadducees were the liberal component of the religious system. They were the ones that didn't believe in most of what the scripture declared. In fact, to try and support their lack of belief, they actually rejected the larger part of the Old Covenant. Did you know that the Sadducees only believed that the first five books of the Bible, the books of Moses, were inspired by God? So they didn't believe the writings of Daniel or Ezekiel or the Psalms or the Proverbs or any of those things. No, only the books of Moses, those first five books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.

We don't believe in the supernatural. We don't believe in miracles. We don't believe in resurrection. We don't believe in angels. Of course, this is why they were so sad, you see. Exactly. So you've got these Sadducees. Do they ever sit back and think, maybe people don't want to come here for another liberal sermon on what we don't believe? Could it be that that's why a lot of the liberal church is failing today? In my opinion and estimation, it's just simply about time. Who wants to go hear another liberal sermon about what we don't believe?

Who wants to go to a church where they're just going to say, okay, let's read this passage of the scripture and then I'll tell you why it can't happen this way and what some esoteric deeper message is supposed to be? But it's not what the Bible says. We can't believe that, but let me give you a feel-good message from this. Who wants that? Obviously not you, praise God. Do the Pharisees ever sit back and ask themselves, because see, they were the legalists of their day, I wonder why anyone, why aren't people coming to hear our self-righteous condemning attitude towards anyone who's not a, well, a Pharisee?

Well, gee, I wonder why people wouldn't flock to go hear that. Why aren't they flocking to the scribes, who were the experts in the Mosaic law, the ones who Jesus says they are binding up heavy burdens, hard to bear, laying them upon people's backs, and they themselves won't lift a finger to help people carry them? Why aren't people showing up for that? Well, I wonder. But they're coming to Jesus because he's called to all who labor and are heavy laden, all who are weak, all who are tired, all who are weary. He says, come to me, you will find rest for your souls.

You will find a load that is light, a load that is joyful to carry. This is what Jesus has been offering. It puts him into stark contrast with the religious leadership of the day. Multitudes are flocking to Jesus and we read in verse nine, "Now when he had departed from there, he went into their synagogue. And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they, being the religious leaders of their day, asked him, saying, 'Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?' That they might accuse him." Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?

Couple things I notice about this question and the way that it's asked. First of all, I notice what they didn't ask. You notice it's not the Sadducees at this point popping up and saying, "Is there anything real about healing on the Sabbath?" See, they can't accuse Jesus of not actually healing people anymore. There are too many people who used to not be able to walk running through the streets. There are too many people who used to not be able to speak or to hear that are carrying on conversations. There are too many people who were formerly blind that are walking around freely in the streets admiring the beauty of God's creation.

They can't take issue with this anymore. There's nothing that they can say to say that Jesus isn't really healing people. So they're just kind of going to be quiet at this point. But another faction of the religious leadership pipes up and they say, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?" Would it be okay to do any healing on the Sabbath day? How about if you ask the question this way? Is it okay to reflect God's heart on the Sabbath day? Is it okay to try and figure out what the heart of God is on the Sabbath day? Why this question: "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day?"

Well, because it tells us that they might accuse him. I'm sure each and every one of us has encountered that person who asks a pointed question not because they're really looking for an answer, but because they want to start an argument. Yeah, we all know those people. They ask questions, but not to get to the bottom because they really want to try to learn something. It's just because they want to start a fight. That's what Jesus' enemies are doing. But did you notice this? Did you notice when they come into this synagogue and it's packed full of people, probably people spilling out the doors and spilling out the windows because before we finish our study, it will say specifically, "great multitudes followed him."

We've already seen an instance where Jesus was in a house and people couldn't even get close to the house. They wanted to get their friend to Jesus. They couldn't even pass him through the window. What'd they have to do? Get on top and tear the roof open, right? So here in this crowded mass of humanity, there's a guy whose hand is withered. Jesus' enemies knew that on that day Jesus' heart would be drawn to the man with the greatest need. What does that say about Jesus? His enemies knew his heart would be drawn to the man with the greatest need.

So they come up with this question, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day?" because they're trying to trap him. Why? Well, because the law actually doesn't say you can't heal on the Sabbath day. Their tradition did. Remember we talked about legalism and what the Pharisees had initially tried to do, what the religious leadership tried to do in Jesus' day? Here's the line that if you cross it, you're crossing into sin. We don't want our people to cross into sin. Therefore, let's put a fence up back here. Not far enough, let's back it up a little bit more.

If we keep people behind the fence, then there's no way that they're going to cross this line up here into sin. What a nice thought, isn't it? When you think about it, it's a real nice idea. But here's the problem. Eventually, all of this no man's land between the legalist fence and the law of God becomes sin traditionally. All of these things the religious folks begin to look at and say, well, if you do this, it's sin. But wait, the Bible doesn't say that. Yes, but it's past the fence we set up to keep you from sin. Therefore, it's sin.

This is what they had done. The law didn't say you couldn't heal on the Sabbath day. The law said, do no work on the Sabbath day. Well, what's work as it touches on the area of healing? Here's how they had defined it. You could preserve a life. You could do enough work to preserve a life on the Sabbath day, but you could not take the step into promoting healing on the Sabbath day. So in other words, you get your hand stuck in a cart, the oxen keep going because they don't know about your hand and they don't care about it. So the oxen keep going, they take the cart and your hand with it.

Now you've got arterial spray sprouting from the end of your arm. Someone could come along and they could apply a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. They could press some kind of wrap upon the end of your arm to stop the bleeding to save your life. But no salve, no ointment, nothing else to promote healing because it's the Sabbath day. That would be work. Now does that not sound insane? Of course it does to us today. But it didn't in that culture back then. This is what the religious leadership was teaching.

So here you've got a man with a withered hand. Well, that hand is not likely to take his life on this Sabbath day. So can Jesus bring healing to this man on the Sabbath day who has this withered up hand? It doesn't sound like a big deal because most of us have full use of both of our hands and we don't think about it. But you lose the use of one of your hands, it's a big deal, isn't it? At my age, I'm still fortunate to still have use of both my hands. I can still do my sheriff's office work and everything else. I am grateful for that because arthritis is starting to be a factor.

Not in movement or motion, just how it feels. You with me on that, some of you older folks? I know some of you are going, you know nothing yet. So I can still do this. It just hurts when I do this. So I'm going to stop doing this. There will probably be a day, if I live long enough, when the hands will start to have less mobility and less movement. That's a pretty natural age-related progression issue. This man has lost the use of his hand. Can Jesus heal him on the Sabbath day?

Is it lawful? Well, the law didn't say anything about it. Their tradition did and they want to entrap Jesus in violating their tradition so that they can accuse him of violating the Sabbath. I love how Jesus deals with this. Look at verse 11. He said to them, "What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out?" Remember a couple of weeks ago when we were talking about the Sabbath in more detail and we said that their law, because you can't work on the Sabbath, well, carrying a weight, is that work?

Well, it depends on how heavy it is. Now let's think about that just a little bit further this morning. Doesn't the carrying of that weight and whether it constitutes work depend on the strength and musculature of the individual? Right? The weight that I would consider carrying that would be work probably is not going to, you know, Arnold would just come along and just snatch it from me and walk down the road with it, right? Somebody that's that strong and that muscular is probably not going to have any struggle whatsoever with a weight that I might struggle with.

It would be work to me, not to them. So how did the Jewish leaders define it? Anything more than the weight of a dried fig was work. Well, would you say that the weight of a sheep is more or less than the weight of a dried fig? Well, is it an African or European sheep? No, I'm sorry, I digress. The weight of a sheep is far more than the weight of a dried fig. But Jesus says if your sheep falls into a pit on the Sabbath day, are you going to leave it there and hope it lives till tomorrow? No, not as dumb as sheep are. You're going to get it out.

Why? Because of mercy? Because of compassion? Probably not. How about because of financial consideration? See, you would save your sheep for financial consideration, but you want to ask if it's lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? Then he throws out this zinger. Verse 12: "Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep?" Or a whale? Or a fur seal? Or a spotted owl? See, it's the same idea. We touched on this previously when Jesus made the same comment in relation to the value of a sparrow.

Men and women are a far more value than the animal kingdom. Does this mean we hate animals? No, it doesn't mean we hate animals. It means we understand that in God's economy, you and I were created in his image, the animals were not. We are commanded in the scripture not to mistreat them, even if you're a teenage boy. But that instruction does not mean that we are of the same or less value than the animal kingdom. I'm not afraid to stand up and say it. Don't let PETA tell you any differently.

Don't let the environmentalist come up and feed you some line of ridiculousness that we're no different than the animal kingdom. We are very different, made in the image of God, able to contain the spirit of God. There's no indication the animal kingdom does. We're in another plane of existence entirely. Now this reminds me of a guy that got arrested, did I tell you the story, the guy that got arrested in Southern California for shooting seagulls? He got arrested, he was shooting seagulls, someone called the cops, cops showed up.

He was arrested and charged with violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. That there is such a thing. It is against international and national law to shoot seagulls. That surprised me because I just see them as rats with wings. But they're a migratory animal and they are federally and internationally protected. So this guy gets arrested and they said, what are you doing, why are you shooting seagulls, what do you do with them? He said, I take them home and I cook them and I eat them.

The officers were like, okay, well, that's, it's against the law. He said, well, I was unaware of that, officer, sorry. So they put him in the car, they're taking him downtown. Finally, one of the officers, he can't contain himself anymore. He says, I gotta ask. I'm probably going to regret it, but I gotta ask. What does a seagull taste like? He said, kind of like a cross between a spotted owl and a bald eagle. Of course I jest. Someone will come up afterwards and say, where did that happen?

Listen, the Bible absolutely condemns the mistreatment of animals and the Bible tells us that the earth has been placed into our care and we do have a mandate to take care of the earth. But this religion that calls itself environmentalism today is not that. It is not that. Don't get tripped up by that issue. Therefore, Jesus says, "It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." Notice he doesn't even mention healing. He just says it's lawful to do good on the Sabbath.

I think the idea is, what better day to do good than the Sabbath day, right? Amen. Now if you weren't here when we talked a couple of weeks ago about the issue of the Sabbath day and the relation of the church to the Sabbath, I encourage you to jump online, go back a few weeks and listen to that message because we dealt with this in detail and I'm not going to detail it out again this morning because I'm just trying to make it through the study, right? So I'm not going to go into that detail again this morning.

I will say that the church is no longer under compulsion to obey the Sabbath that was given under the Mosaic law to Israel. I also want to make sure that I mentioned that the Sabbath principle is still something we should give heed to today. And in a sense that we, there's a sense in which we do. We gather today, some of you may refer to this as the Sabbath, can't really be because the Sabbath is Friday sundown to Saturday sundown. But we might call it the Lord's Day because we gather with God's people of like mind to worship him, to study his word, to fellowship with God's people. All of that is wonderful.

But let me take a couple of these issues that we've already looked at and apply them to this day. Is there a better day to do good than the Lord's Day? And even though I understand we're going to look at every day as the Lord's Day and I'm going to worship God every day, not just Sunday, not just Saturday, but Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, if we have a special time that we as God's people gather together to worship together, is there a better time to do good to one another?

When we consider that Jesus' enemies knew that Jesus would be drawn with a heart of compassion towards the person in their midst with the greatest need, what if we adopted that attitude? What if when we came in these doors on a Thursday or Saturday or Sunday or whatever other day we gather with God's people and we said, Lord, as I enter into that door, lay someone upon my heart who has great need that I know nothing about that I can just walk up to them and put a hand on their shoulder and say, I'm glad you're here today, it's good to see you today, maybe can I pray for you today?

Hey, service is getting ready to start, I don't, maybe you don't even know them. Don't be weird. But you can put your hand on their shoulder and say, can I just pray with you as the service is starting? Lord, just bless my brother, bless my sister, and allow them to receive all that you have for them today. Can you imagine what that would do to our lives as we minister to each other? God, show me the person with the greatest need in this place today and let me be a blessing to them because there's no better time to do good than on your day.

So then verse 13, Jesus said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." Now hopefully it's not a spoiler alert to too many of you. We know what's going to happen, right? He's going to stretch out his hand. He's going to be healed. Okay. Hopefully that didn't bum any of you out. But I think because we already know that, sometimes we have a tendency to miss just how crazy this was. How crazy is this? Imagine you're the dude. Okay, some of you ladies really going to have to work hard on this. But imagine you're the guy, you're standing there with the withered hand.

You can't go anywhere because the press of the people is so strong, you're stuck. You can't fade back into the background. You can't turn and push away. You don't even have two hands to do it with. You did not expect to be called out in front of everybody. You did not expect to be noticed that Sabbath day. Then all of a sudden the religious leaders are pointing you out, making an issue of the fact that they think that Jesus is probably going to heal you. You weren't even looking for healing and probably as the man with the withered hand, you didn't expect to be healed because you knew you weren't allowed to heal on the Sabbath day.

If I'm going to be healed, I'm going to have to come back tomorrow. But now you're standing there. Jesus says all of this, he has this argument back and forth with the religious leaders, and then he looks at you, and keep this in mind, if you read Mark's account of this very event, Mark says at this point, Jesus looked around at the religious leaders with anger. He looked at them with anger. I want to stop on that point for just a moment because I don't think that's how we often picture Jesus.

I don't think it's necessarily how we ought to often picture Jesus. But there were times that he got angry. If something made the Father angry, it made the Son angry. This whole idea that healing couldn't be done on the Sabbath made the Father angry, so it makes Jesus angry. So what do you think that looks like? Because I think we have this hippified version of Jesus in our minds that he walks around in a little, just a little longer than a tutu in his sandals and his Birkenstocks and he's got flowers in his hair.

You think when Mark says he looked at them around, looked around at them with anger, you think this is what it looked like? No, I think Jesus put on full cop face and it went like this. You got a response to that? Is it okay to do good on the Sabbath day? Then he looks at this man. This man's just been watching this whole thing and Jesus looks at him, probably still with his brow furrowed and the scowl on his face, and then his face lightens up and he says, "Stretch forth your hand."

That man is now faced with a choice because Jesus hasn't done anything else, has he? He hasn't touched the man's hand and told him to stretch it out. He hasn't looked at the man and said, "Be healed in my name, stretch forth your hand." He didn't do any of that. He didn't pull out his Holy Spirit machine gun and slay in the spirit everybody in the synagogue. Nothing has happened except he argued with the religious leaders, he looked at them in anger, and then he says to the man, "Stretch forth your hand."

What if the man had said, "Excuse me, that's kind of a cruel thing to say. Can't you see that my hand is withered? It's been like this forever. I can't stretch out my hand. That's why they pointed me out." What if that had been his attitude? Then he would have gone home with a withered hand. But apparently he chooses to believe that God's commandment is God's enablement and he stretches forth his hand. He took an action that corresponded with his faith and he was healed because that's what it says.

He stretched it out and it was restored as whole as the other. See, this is a principle of the scripture that we would do well to grasp and I will tell you that there are times I do well with it and there are times that I don't do well with it, probably just like most of you. In trusting and believing that God will not give a command without giving the power to enable us to keep the command. Amen. If he commands us to do something, don't you think he'll give us the power to do it?

Then why do we so often when God says, "I want you to go over here and do this," we go, "Oh, Lord, I could never do that. I don't have those giftings. I don't have those abilities." He knows that. That's the whole point. Because when you go over there and you do that thing without the giftings and the abilities, you're not the one everyone is oohing and aahing over. He is. It's his gifting. It's his ability. It's his power. When we step out and trust that with God's command comes his enablement, you would be amazed what God may do with our lives.

I think coming into this new year, this is one of those things that God would have us each and every one to grasp ahold of. This idea that God is going to give us commands to do things that he will then give us the power to do. We've just got to be willing to take the step to do it. That's where the problem lies. Every one of us right now, every one of us knows in our mind, yes, God can do anything. Amen. God can even do anything through me. You believe that? For yourself?

See, that was a little weaker. You see where the problem begins to present itself? The further we go down the line, the less sure we are. Can we say, I believe it, that God can accomplish anything in and through my life? See, I know that to be true right here. But then it's got to travel from here down to here. Once I get it cemented in here, it's got to make its way a long way down to my feet. Then I've got to step out and trust that God's going to show up.

But it works even when it comes to walking on the water, doesn't it? Remember disciples in a boat, Jesus out on the Sea of Galilee. They think it's a ghost. "Oh no, it's a ghost!" Peter, because he's a knucklehead, makes the most amazing statement. "Lord, if it's you, call to me so I can come to you on the water." What if it isn't? See, if I'm a ghost out there on the Sea of Galilee looking to harass the disciples and I hear Peter say that, I'm going to go, "Come here, Pete."

Right? But the Lord says, "Come on out, Pete." What does Pete do? He steps out of the boat and he walks on the water. Now at every service I get somewhere, someone says, "Until," because we all know what happens to Peter, right? He gets his eyes off the Lord onto the crazy and he begins to sink. Man, does that not describe our lives? Take that little step of faith, we're doing well, and then we get our eyes off of Jesus and onto the crazy and we begin to sink.

But don't forget, he didn't sink. The Lord reached out and grabbed him and preserved him. He cried out, "Lord, save me," Jesus saved him, got him back in the boat. You can say, well, I'm sure all the other disciples had a great time with that, "Ha, ha, Peter, your name is rock and you thought you could walk on water, that makes a lot of sense, good going, Peter, you got out there and sank." Peter got to look at James and John and go, "How many steps did you take on the water? How many steps did any of them take on the water?" None, except for Peter. Because he believed that God's commandment was God's enablement.

He didn't attain his goal perfectly, but he trusted, however inferior his trust was. He trusted and God showed up. What might God have in store for us as individuals, in our families, in our communities, and for us as a fellowship in this coming year if we learn to act on this? That if he commands us to do something, he's going to give us everything we need to accomplish it. Well, now the Pharisees are really upset because the man stretches out his hand, it was restored as whole as the other.

It's the Sabbath day. Verse 15: "The Pharisees went out and plotted against him how they might destroy him." Have you ever thought about how amazing that verse is? Here's the group of people sitting over here going, it's not okay to heal somebody on the Sabbath, so let's go plot murder. Yeah, that probably reveals the heart of God. Okay to plot killing someone, but not healing someone. They would have killed Jesus on the spot, but they feared the crowd. Why? Because Jesus has made them jealous of his popularity.

Because unfortunately Jesus has made them look bad. Because of this, they want to kill him. It's interesting that religious leaders would be willing to kill Jesus because they're jealous of him and he made them look bad. I hesitate to say this because I hate to say it, but it needs to be said so that you're on your guard: unfortunately religious leaders exist like this today. They have no qualms about destroying a person's life if they're jealous of them or somehow that person has made them look inferior.

Those people are out there. Be careful. If they're not exemplifying the heart of Jesus, run the other direction. Now here's what I love about how Jesus responds. Verse 15: "When Jesus knew it, he withdrew from there." When he knew it, he withdrew from there. I will be completely transparent with you in this moment and let you know I'm not here yet. I struggle with this. I'm better than I used to be. But I'm just like some of you in the sense that my attitude is that it's better to respond to every slight and every argument and every attack and fight back.

Isn't that how a lot of us feel? If someone attacks me, well then I'm going to attack them back. Okay, well, I'm starting to learn. Jesus said turn the other cheek. I'll turn it, but then if they hit that one, it's on. Right? So many of us, that's our nature, that's our bent, and we understand that, but we have to understand that not every attack needs to be responded to. I've learned over the last few decades, again, not completely, but I'm better at it, that the more I step back and say, "God, you've got this. You know the truth. I can go out there and start flailing away like some demented martial artist that has no idea what I'm doing and just start waving my arms and legs and everything else and gnashing my teeth and accomplishing nothing, or I can step back and let you be my defense."

But that's not easy, is it? It's not easy. It goes against our nature. So we try to take the high road, we try to trust God to defend us, and then when someone starts a whispering campaign behind our back and saying all these kinds of crazy things and but people are believing them, you know what? People that would believe them, maybe we don't need them as a part of our circle. This is a tough lesson that the Lord will teach us and I believe will teach us more in the coming year.

My flesh just wants to go nuclear. So if I were Jesus, here's how I would have responded. When I knew that the Pharisees were now plotting to kill me, I would have said, "Hey boys, I got a question for you. Is it lawful to disintegrate a Pharisee on the Sabbath day?" But he didn't. He just walked away. But notice who walks with him. Great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all. Sabbath or not. Yet he warned them not to make him known.

All this healing going on and Jesus isn't advertising his successes. That would make most televangelists today go crazy. He warned them not to make him known, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: "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 will declare justice to the Gentiles." Now real quickly, we have talked previously about hostility in this day and age in which Jesus is working and ministering between the Jews and the non-Jews, otherwise known as Gentiles.

We talked about how the Jewish people were called out by God. They are God's chosen people, still are today. While we do not condone everything the Israeli government does, we stand with Israel at Springs Lighthouse unequivocally and unapologetically. They are God's people. God's not finished with them. They won't always do it right until Jesus comes back, but we're going to stand by their side. The Jewish-Gentile hostility was not what God intended. When God called his people out, he wanted them to be a light to the Gentile nations.

Instead, they became insular. But a large part of that insularity and where they refused to have contact any longer with Gentiles, we have to recognize was in large part due to the fact that the Gentile nations mistreated the Jewish nation all through history. You say, "Well, why did they do that?" It's a spiritual issue. Has it not amazed you, the rise of antisemitism, how quickly it seemed to have come out of nowhere and it's worldwide all of a sudden? Like, how does that happen?

That doesn't make any sense. Well, it's not going to make any sense. It's not sensible. It's spiritual. They're God's people. God has a plan. Satan has through the ages desired to completely obliterate them and he is going to continue to try that right up until the time that God throws Satan in the bottomless pit. Which as far as I'm concerned could happen today. Which means first the church needs to get out of here, which as far as I'm concerned could happen right now. Wait for it. Okay, maybe not.

But God's plan was always to reach the Gentiles. Here Matthew's quoting from Isaiah 42, written thousands of years before Jesus comes on the scene, and he's talking about the Messiah coming and declaring justice to the Gentiles. Verse 19: he continues talking about the Messiah: "He will not quarrel nor cry out, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets." You kind of get the idea that Isaiah talking about Messiah coming in a few thousand years says when he comes, he's not going to be obnoxious.

He's not going to be operating a circus. He's not going to be causing a fuss everywhere he goes trying to get up in everybody's grill. That's not his thing. We all know Christians who have been persecuted for righteousness' sake, yes? We all also know Christians who have been persecuted for obnoxiousness' sake. And that they're not the same thing. Right? We're not called to be obnoxious. God wants spiritual fruit, not religious nuts. We can maintain our composure and our cool and simply declare the goodness of God. Amen.

May that be our goal in the coming year. So again, talking about the Messiah, verse 20: "A bruised reed he will not break, and smoking flax he will not quench, till he sends forth justice to victory; and in his name Gentiles will trust." Reeds were used in that day largely to make flutes. When a reed was bruised, meaning it had usually sometimes was completely bent over, obviously if you're going to make a flute, you need a straight strong reed.

So a reed that is bent over and bruised is not going to be one that you would use. So often it was just broken off and tossed away. If a reed got a little nick in it, oftentimes that softness would spread and the reed would begin to bow over at that point and crease. Again, a bruised reed. But a bruised reed the Messiah will not break. In other words, the idea is a bruised reed Messiah will look to heal. A smoking flax he will not quench.

Flax was used as wicking material in their oil lamps. They would draw the oil up through that flax to where the flame would burn the oil off and you could adjust the height of that flax and thus adjust the height of the flame. Some of you have seen oil lamps. Not much use for them anymore, but they're pretty decorations. Unless you have grandkids in the house. So when that fire went out on that flax, then all you had was smoke that was curling up.

No one likes being in the presence of just a lot of smoke unless it's cigars. But no one just likes sitting around dealing with smoke in their nostrils and in their eyes and everything else. So they would actually snuff the flax. You would either use a little snuffer, some of you old-timers remember those candle snuffers? I've been explaining these because we have one at our house to my grandkids how you don't just blow out the flame, you use the snuffer so it takes care of the embers and the smoke doesn't keep rising up.

They would also just do it the more manly way and just, right? You lick your fingers and you put it out, which also appeals to grandkids. But the Messiah is not going to come along and see a smoking flax, which is just a few little tiny embers there, and snuff it out. He's going to fan it into flame. He's going to gently blow on it until the flame is there again and there's a burning again. So take that and put it with where we were previously in the last chapter.

Jesus comes on the scene, he says, "Come to me. Are you tired? Are you weary? Come to me, you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Are you tired? Are you weary?" Jesus says, "Come to me. I'll give you something different. Any load I give you to carry is going to be light and joyful." Now Matthew says, you know, thousands of years ago Isaiah said the same thing about Messiah when he comes. Are you broken? Are you burnt out?

Messiah is not going to come along and break you off the rest of the way. He's not going to come along and snuff you out. That's not what he does. And how many of us in this room are testament today to that very fact? We had broken lives and we offered them to our Savior and he's put us back together. He didn't continue to just shatter us into pieces. He put us back together. When all we were was a smoking ember left of the destruction of our life we let sin bring into our life, he came along and he fanned the flame, didn't he?

He brought us back to a place where we can burn brightly for his glory. Speaking of someone who exemplifies this perfectly in the physical sense, Matthew says in verse 22: "Then one was brought to him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; and Jesus healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw." How appropriate that Matthew would add this event into this discussion of a time when Jesus is having hostile conflict with the religious leaders of his day.

Matthew brings in this event of this man who is blind and is mute. Because that's what this guy is physically, but it's also what the religious leaders were spiritually. They were blind and mute. What do you mean? They had no vision and nothing to say. They've got no vision, they've got nothing to say. So the people are not drawn to them. They're drawn to Jesus. Jesus heals this man. He now both can speak and he can see.

Verse 23: "And all the multitudes were amazed and said, 'Could this be the Son of David?'" Son of David is a Messianic term taken from the idea that when David wanted to build a house for God, a temple, God said, "David, you're not the man to build it. You can prefab it," and David did. "But your son Solomon will build my house, he'll build my temple. But because it was in your heart, David, and it's such a good thing that it was, I'm going to build a house for you. And ultimately Messiah will come from your genealogy, from your lineage. I'll build you a house, David."

So "Son of David" became a term to refer to the coming Messiah. Jesus, in doing all of these acts of compassion and mercy and healing and miracles and all of this, yes, he is responding to people's felt needs, but there's a greater underlying purpose: that the miracles would drive people to this point of understanding. Could this be the Messiah? The kingdom of God was among them because the King of kings was among them.

The kingdom of God today is within us. That's what the scripture says. Because the King of kings has taken up residence within us. When we come to Christ, his Holy Spirit indwells us. We are now the temple of the Holy Spirit. We get to walk from this place in a few moments and declare the glories and the goodness of God. I think that the Lord, I don't know details so don't come up and ask me, "What is the Lord showing you? What are all the specific issues?" I just believe God has been speaking to my heart that there are some amazing things he wants to accomplish through our congregation this year.

That means we're going to be a part of it. I don't know what the particulars are. I'm not a prophet. I just try to be sensitive to the Lord's leading for the congregation that he's given to me. I can't say anything about anybody else's fellowship. But I trust that we will begin today to adopt an attitude that says, "Lord, if you tell me to step out, please give me strength to be obedient. To believe that your command comes with your enablement to accomplish all that you desire."

Father, thank you for your amazing goodness to us. Lord, thank you for just upholding my voice long enough to get your message to your people. Lord, I pray that they've been able to sort through the different inflections of my vocalizing and be able to hear your spirit speak clearly and plainly to us. Because, Lord, that's what we need more than anything else: to hear your spirit speak to your church.

So Lord, in these next few moments as we worship you, this time of reflection upon all that we've heard this morning, Lord, begin to reveal to us and begin to show us how we can see how you're moving, where you're moving, when you're moving in real time so that we can be responsive to what you're doing. That we can be positively and obediently responsive to what you're doing. That we can trust you just like little kids. When their father tells them they can do anything, they believe it.

Lord, that we would step out in your strength, never in our own. That we would accomplish by your strength all the things that you want to accomplish through us. Lord, we're your children, we're your people, we're yielded to you, we're submitted to you. God, thank you for choosing us. Thank you for showering us with your love. And Lord, continue to use us as we step into this new year.

With all of the crazy, Lord, may we be excited that these are the times in which we get to live, the times in which we get to have an impact by your spirit. Lord, I pray if there's anyone in this place that needs first of all to come into relationship with you, God, I pray that right where they're sitting they would simply respond to your spirit tugging at them. That they would realize that their sin can be forgiven because you've already paid the price by sending your son to that cross.

That their sin can be forgiven and removed and that that's the only barrier between them and fellowship with you. So that they, right where they're sitting, would simply say, "Lord, have mercy on me. I agree with you that I'm a sinner, but I turn from my sin and I turn to you. I believe that Jesus died for me, that he rose from the dead for me, and that he arose to be seated at your right hand and is praying for me."

For the one that would pray that prayer, Father, of faith and trust in you, seal them by your spirit. That in a few moments we can walk from this place together excited about what you are going to do in this coming year. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.