Pharisees, Demons and the Kingdom of God - Part 3
Matthew 12v29-32
29th June 2013
In our last two studies, we've been looking at Matthew 12:22-28, in which Jesus healed a sick man and drove the demon that was in him. Jesus then debated with the Pharisees about driving out demons. He continued:
Matthew 12v29
"Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the
strong man? Then he can rob his house.
Some of us may remember that this used to be a very popular verse, used by Christians who gathered together to pray for their towns. And that's OK but, primarily, Jesus isn't talking about us binding a strong man; He's talking about Himself. He's answering the challenge about how He casts out demons.
His answer is that He's already bound Satan, so He can set free those people that Satan had taken possession of. Remember in verse 24 that He was accused of being in league with Beelzubul (although the NIV mistranslates this as "Beelzebub"). Well "Beelzebul" means "master of the house". Jesus is identifying Beelzeboul as the strong man, and saying that He, Jesus, has come to plunder Beelzebul's house.
Jesus came to fulfil the prophecy of:
Isaiah 61v1
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He
has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for
the prisoners.
Jesus, God the Son, acting with the authority of God the Father, in the power of God the Holy Spirit, proclaimed freedom for the demon-possessed man. His miraculous birth, His anointing with the Holy Spirit at His baptism, His refusal to succumb to temptation in the desert, His preaching of the Good News, and His many miracles, His very presence on Earth, bound Satan. And now He can set us free.
And He gives His Holy Spirit to His church, and sends us to preach the Good News, to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners of Satan, and to proclaim release for those held in demonic darkness. And more and more people are being released from the kingdom of darkness, and set free, through the power of the Holy Spirit, by the church.
The next thing Jesus says is:
Matthew 12v30
"He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters."
There is a war going on. It's been going on since Satan rebelled. It came to earth in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3, and it will continue until Jesus returns. We'd like to think that we can be neutrals in the war. But Jesus is saying that there are no neutrals. Either you're for Him or you're against Him. Either you serve God or you serve Satan. Most people don't think that's true; they think that if they mind their own business, and do what's right in their own eyes, then they can avoid taking sides. But to live according to our own ideas, to do what we think is right, is to reject God and His Law, which puts us clearly on Satan's side.
Matthew 12v31-32
"And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will
not be forgiven.
Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy
Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
These are very serious words.
Jesus says that he's willing to forgive any sin committed against Him. He proved that when He prayed for the Roman soldiers who were crucifying Him. He says that even if we deny that Jesus is Lord, if we deny that He rose from the dead, if we deny that he's God, He's willing to forgive us. The story of St Paul shows that even if we persecute His church, He's willing to forgive us. But He solemnly declares that if we blaspheme the Holy Spirit, we will never be forgiven.
I sometimes hear people say that no sin is better or worse that any other sin, and I've always thought that they were wrong. I'm convinced that genocide is worse that shoplifting, stealing £10 is worse than stealing £5, and so on. And I think we all know that, really. All sin separates us from God, and means we need the sacrificial blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse us, but some sin does more harm than other sin. And some sin harms the sinner more than other sins. And here's proof. There is one sin that will never be forgiven. Never, ever, blaspheme the Holy Sprit.
Some have speculated as to why this sin in uniquely unforgivable, and I will do the same now.
It seems to me that if we do what the Pharisees did in this story, if we deny the work of the Holy Sprit, or attribute it to Satan, then there's no way we can ever believe in God. If every time you hear God speak to you in your conscience, or in your prayer life, or though other people, or through scripture, you deny that you heard Him, and if every time you pray for something and it happens, you doubt that it was God and call it coincidence or luck, then how can you ever perceive God? The blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is a decision to deny the reality, or at least the activity, of God. And if you deny Him every time he tries to get in contact with you, you can never be saved. Claiming God isn't here, or never does anything, or doesn't love us, is its own punishment. How can we believe what we deny? How can we read a letter if we never open the envelope? Jesus said:
Revelation 3v20
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat
with him, and he with me.
If we refuse to acknowledge the Holy Spirit, we won't hear His voice, and we won't open the door, and He won't come in.