Read Matthew 12:22–32
Questions from the Scripture text: What was afflicting the one brought to Jesus in Matthew 12:22? What two effects did the demon have upon him? What did Jesus do to the man? And what was the man thus able to do? Who were amazed (Matthew 12:23)? What did they ask? Who heard it (Matthew 12:24)? What did they say? Where did they apparently say these things (Matthew 12:25)? But Who knew even heir thoughts? To whom does He speak? What does He point out about kingdoms in general (and the devil’s specifically, Matthew 12:25-26)? What additional argument does Jesus make in Matthew 12:27? What does Jesus say that this fact (their sons) would do to the Pharisees? By Whom did Jesus imply that He casts our demons (Matthew 12:28)? What does He say this shows? What does Jesus imply the King/kingdom (He!) is doing in Matthew 12:29? What does He say that He is doing first? What is the status of someone who is not plundering and gathering with Christ (Matthew 12:30)? What is this person doing, then, instead of gathering? What does Jesus warn these Pharisees’ thoughts, status, and actions might be blaspheming (Matthew 12:31)? Why is this so perilous? In what ages may this suffer dreadful consequences (Matthew 12:32)?
What is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? Matthew 12:22–32 looks forward to the morning sermon in public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these eleven verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the rejection of His testimony to Who Christ is.
The question that you must answer, Matthew 12:22-23. The Holy Spirit was testifying of Christ, by the works that Christ was doing. Matthew 12:22 gives us an exemplary moment, but we must remember this was not an isolated incident (Matthew 12:15). The greatness and volume of Christ’s work demanded an answer: Who is this? More specifically, “Could this be the Son of David?” (Matthew 12:23). That is: could this be the King, the anointed, the Christ? The Savior of the world?
Now, two-thousand years of His saving people, the near-ubiquity of the church, and more… it all challenges us with the same question. Who is this? The answer is that He is not only the Son of David, but the Son of God (cf. Romans 1:3–4).
The side that you must take, Matthew 12:24-30. Jesus’s withdrawal from the Pharisees (Matthew 12:15a, Matthew 12:16) has not been entirely effective. Not only are there Pharisees who hear the multitude’s question (Matthew 12:24a), but we can see that they are present because Jesus proceeds to address them (Matthew 12:25). They are so hard-hearted against Him that they feel a need to come up with a “how” answer to Jesus’s works (Matthew 12:24b) that will allow the to continue their mortal opposition (cf. Matthew 12:14) to Him. What they come up with is that the reason He is stronger than demons is because He is in league with (or may even be) the master-demon.
Jesus’s response takes up the rest of this passage, along with the next one that we will take. He is casting out demons by the Spirit of God (Matthew 12:28a), which means that the kingdom of God has come upon them (verse 28b). Their “sons” in Matthew 12:27 may well be a reference not to disciples of the Pharisees but to His own disciples (cf. Matthew 10:1). He and they can’t all be the master-demon! But note what He says at the end of the verse: “they shall be your judges.”
The fact of the matter is that Jesus is binding Satan in order to plunder Satan’s house and gather (Matthew 12:26, Matthew 12:29) a harvest of that plunder (cf. Matthew 9:37–38). And what He says in Matthew 12:30 is that there are no neutral parties. Either you are with Him, or you are against Him. Those who are not with Christ, and laboring with Him, don’t just belong to the devil; they are laboring for his kingdom, whether they know it or not! How dreadful that there are Christians who are not laboring with and for Christ, who seem as if they are abstaining from the battle; this passage tells us that the reality is grievous indeed. And it is even more dreadful that there are those who attempt all sorts of other explanations for Christ’s work these 2000 years or in our own day, and even those who resist Him as the Holy Spirit declares Him to us by His Word and work.
The forgiveness that you must have, Matthew 12:31-32. O how loaded each of us are with our sins and blasphemies (Matthew 12:31)! Looking at Matthew 12:31-32 in their relationship to Matthew 12:30, we can see that the blasphemy against the essence of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is to not be with Christ. We desperately need the forgiveness that Jesus offers. But the only way to this forgiveness is to heed the Spirit’s witness to Who Christ is. How dangerous it is to resist Christ! We know not when we shall come to such a point of hardening that we will have blasphemed against the Holy Spirit and no longer have possibility of coming to faith by His gracious work. We need forgiveness both in this age (or else the consequences of our sin will take us from calamity to calamity in this world) and the age to come (or else, we shall enter the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels). If we are worried that we have blasphemed the Holy Spirit, then there is yet hope, for we are worried. Let us take that worry and repent, with broken heart, that we have ever resisted the Spirit’s testimony to Christ!
Whom do you believe and know Jesus to be? How do your responses to Him in your life show this knowledge? What evidence is there in your life that you are with Jesus? What evidence is there that you are laboring with Him? How has the Holy Spirit pointed you to forgiveness? Do you have it?
Sample prayer: Lord, thank You for granting us the ministry of Your Spirit to point us to Your Son so that we will not only submit to Him but trust in Him. Grant unto us to do so, and thus also to labor with Him, by His Spirit working in us and through us, we ask in His Name, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP2 “Why Do Gentile Nations Rage?” or TPH282 “I Greet Thee Who My Sure Redeemer Art”
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