Latest / Reformed Thinking / No Neutral Ground: The King Who Gathers or Scatters (Matthew 12:30)

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No Neutral Ground: The King Who Gathers or Scatters (Matthew 12:30) · Reformed Thinking

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  Hello and welcome back. You are listening to Reformed
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  Thinking. I'm your host and as always, I'm
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  here to try and get my head around some of the heavier parts
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  of theology and hopefully help you do the same.
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  It's good to be here and we've definitely got a heavy 1 today.
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  We do, but it's funny, usually when we sit down for one of
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  these deep dives, we're looking at, you know, a whole book of
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  the Bible or a huge doctrine. Right, like justification or
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  sanctification, Something that spans pages and pages of
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  systematics. Yeah, but today, the research
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  you brought in, it's all focused on something incredibly small.
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  Well, small in size. Maybe The word count isn't high,
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  but the the shockwave it sends out is.
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  It's huge. We're looking at one sentence,
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  Matthew chapter 12, verse 30. Whoever is not with me is
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  against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
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  It's one of those verses that once you really understand it,
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  it just, it changes how you see everything.
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  I mean everything. Politics, your family, the
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  person making your coffee in the morning.
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  I'll be honest, when I was reading the prep for this, my
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  first reaction was I felt a little defensive because the
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  main argument here coming from our reformed lens, you know,
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  from the Westminster Confession, it basically takes a direct shot
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  at my favorite coping mechanism. And which one would that be?
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  The Switzerland strategy. Yes, the myth of Switzerland.
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  Exactly. I think most of us, especially
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  today, we love the idea of a, you know, a Demilitarized Zone.
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  We want to be neutral. It's like at a family dinner
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  when the political talk starts up.
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  Yeah. You just want to find a way to
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  back away slowly without picking us up.
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  You'll safer. It's certainly less awkward.
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  It is. And I think we do the same thing
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  with God. We have this idea that we can
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  say, OK, look, I'm not, I'm not a bad person.
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  I'm not out there doing horrible things, but I'm also not, you
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  know, a super Christian. I'm just here in the middle,
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  undecided. Keeping Jesus as an option, you
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  know he's on the shelf in life's marketplace, and maybe one day
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  you'll decide you need that product.
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  Yeah, it's this comfortable idea that we can stand at a safe
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  distance, we can admire him, you know, as a great moral teacher,
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  but without actually submitting to him.
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  We want to be spiritual Switzerland.
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  A comfortable fiction. That's a good way to put it.
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  It feels safe, it feels reasonable.
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  But you're saying, or rather the text we're looking at today is
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  saying? That Switzerland doesn't exist.
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  Not on the spiritual map anyway. That is the thesis.
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  According to Matthew 12.30, neutrality is a theological
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  impossibility. It's a comfortable fiction that
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  Jesus just he just obliterates the middle ground is vaporized.
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  That's a that's a genuinely scary thought because if there
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  is no middle ground, then a lot of people I know, I mean good
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  people, nice neighbors, they're in a very different position
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  than they think they are. The stakes could not be higher,
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  and that's what we have to get into today.
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  We need to look at this binary reality that Jesus lays out, the
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  Kingdom of light versus the Kingdom of darkness.
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  We need to really take apart the grammar this with me versus
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  against me language. And especially that second-half,
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  the gather versus scatter metaphor, that's where it all
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  becomes very, very practical. And then we'll bring it home,
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  right? We'll apply this to modern ideas
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  like pluralism or that that way political idea that's so
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  popular. Spoiler alert, they don't hold
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  up very well against this verse. I'm I'm not surprised.
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  OK, so let's not get ahead of ourselves.
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  We have to start where the Bible starts.
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  This verse, it's not a timeless proverb just floating in space.
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  It's a weapon and it's being used in a battle.
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  That's absolutely right. This is dropped into the furnace
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  of conflict. So set the scene for me, Matthew
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  12, because when you hear he who is not with me is against me,
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  out of context, it sounds like something a philosopher would
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  say in a quiet study. Right.
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  Or something you'd see on a motivational poster.
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  But that's not the scene at all. Jesus isn't in a classroom, He
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  is in the middle of what is, for all intents and purposes, a
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  street brawl. OK, so what's happening looking
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  at the text Matthew 12 starting around verse 22.
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  It starts with a confrontation. A man is brought to Jesus and
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  the text gives us a very specific description of his
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  condition. He's called demon oppressed, but
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  look at the symptoms. He's blind and he's mute.
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  Yeah, think about that for a second.
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  That specific combination. Blind and mute.
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  He can't see the world and he can't speak to the world.
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  He's completely locked inside his own mind, utterly isolated.
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  That's a horrifying picture, like solitary confinement inside
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  your own body. It's the perfect picture of what
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  the Kingdom of Darkness does. Satan's goal is to shut down, to
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  isolate, to cut off from community and from reality.
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  And into this, this total sensory deprivation, Jesus steps
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  in. And he heals him.
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  And notice the language. It says he healed him so that
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  the man spoke and saw. It's not a gradual recovery,
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  it's an explosion. A double restoration.
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  Yes. Instantly, light floods in where
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  there was only darkness. A voice blows out where there
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  was only silence. This isn't just a healing, it's
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  a prison break. It's a sign that a new Kingdom
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  is breaking in with power. And the crowd, the crowd sees
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  this happen right in front of. Them.
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  They see it and they get it. They understand the
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  significance. They start asking the one
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  question you're not supposed to ask in 1st century Judea if you
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  want to stay out of trouble. Can this be the son of David?
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  Which is what? It's code.
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  It means is this the Messiah? Is this the King?
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  It's the royal title they're asking, is this the one we've
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  been waiting for? Is this the great rescuer?
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  And when a question like that is in the air, when you see a blind
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  mute man suddenly talking and seeing, you can't just shrug and
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  walk away. The miracle demands of verdict.
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  And the Pharisees are right there, ready to give their
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  verdict. They are, and this is where we
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  see the profound darkness of the unbelieving heart.
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  They can't deny the power. The evidence is right there.
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  The man is talking to his family.
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  He's looking around. The miracle is undeniable.
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  So they can't call it a fake. No.
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  So if you can't deny the event, you have to attack the source of
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  the event. And their accusation is just.
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  It's breathtaking and its perversity.
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  They say it is only by Beelzebul, the Prince of Demons,
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  that this man casts out demons. Let's just pause on that.
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  That logic is it's twisted. They're looking at a man being
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  set free from torment, a man being restored, and they're
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  saying Satan did that. It's not ignorance, this is pure
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  malice. They are witnessing the invasion
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  of the Kingdom of God. They are seeing light punch a
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  hole in the darkness, and they are willfully calling that light
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  darkness. They are attributing the work of
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  the Holy Spirit to the Prince of Demons.
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  And that's the context for Jesus response.
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  He goes on the offensive. He has to first.
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  He just dismantles their argument with basic logic.
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  You know every Kingdom divided against itself is laid waste.
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  He's basically saying look, Satan is evil but he isn't
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  stupid. Why would he fight against
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  himself? Why would he tear down his own
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  Kingdom by setting his captives free?
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  It's just an incoherent argument.
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  But then he shifts from logic to a metaphor, the parable of the
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  strongman, verse 29. And I think this is really the
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  master key to understanding why there's no neutral ground.
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  It absolutely is. This is the paradigm.
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  So let's walk through it slowly. Or how can someone enter a
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  strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds
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  the strongman? OK, so visualize it.
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  It's a home invasion. It's a violent act.
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  Right, So who is the strongman in this story?
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  That's Satan. He's the homeowner, or maybe
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  better, the occupier, the squatter who has taken over a
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  property that isn't his. And he's strong.
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  He's armed. He's guarding his territory.
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  His goods? What's the plunder?
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  Well, that's the really chilling part of the parable.
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  The goods are US humanity. We're not guests in the house,
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  we're the furniture. We are the possessions.
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  The world, as John says, lies in the power of the evil 1.
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  He has taken humanity captive. That's a that makes me deeply
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  uncomfortable, that feeling of being helpless plunder.
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  It should. It's meant to show us the
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  desperate situation we're in apart from Christ.
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  But then into this occupied house, who comes?
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  The stronger one, Jesus. And the language is so it's so
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  aggressive. He doesn't knock.
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  He doesn't ask permission. No.
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  He brace in, he invades. He overpowers the strongman, the
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  text says. He binds him.
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  That's an image of a struggle, a force of chains, and only after
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  the strongman is tied up can the rescue happen.
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  Then he plunders the house. He rescues the goods, He carries
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  us out. He.
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  Steals back what was stolen. That's what Salvation is.
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  It's a cosmic rescue raid. It's a heist.
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  OK, so if that is the background picture this violent raid on an
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  occupied house, I'm starting to see why the idea of neutrality
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  just falls apart. Right.
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  Think about it. A SWAT team smashes through the
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  door of a house where a terrorist is holding hostages.
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  The room is filled with shouting.
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  Flashbangs are going off. Can you, as one of the people in
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  that room, stand in the corner and say, you know what, I'm just
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  going to observe the situation. I don't want to take a side
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  between the police and the terrorists.
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  Of course not. That's absurd.
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  You're either a hostage being rescued or you're one of the
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  captors. Precisely.
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  You are either with the occupier or you are with the invader.
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  There is no third option. There's no safe space on the
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  front lawn where you can sit in a chair and just watch.
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  You were in the house. Your neutrality is a fantasy.
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  And that reality, that war zone, leads directly into the
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  ultimatum, verse 30. Whoever is not with me is
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  against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
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  And this is the moment the door slams shut on the myth of
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  Switzerland. Let's break this verse down into
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  its two parts, because the sources we looked at really dig
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  into the Greek here. First, the position of the
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  heart. Whoever is not with me is
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  against me. The first thing to notice is the
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  absolute center of that phrase. With me.
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  With me in the Greek, it's all about his person.
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  He doesn't say whoever is not with my ethical system is
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  against me. He doesn't say whoever isn't
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  with a general concept of God is against me.
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  It's not about an idea, it's about a person.
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  It is intensely, uncomfortably personal.
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  It's about your allegiance to him.
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  And the grammar is also really telling.
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  The source points out the use of what's called a substantival
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  participle. OK, hold on.
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  You know the rule. Break that down for us.
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  Substandible participle sounds like something I'd get wrong on
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  a test. What does that mean for me
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  listening in my car right now? Fair enough.
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  It's simple really. In English, when we read whoever
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  is not, it can sound like a temporary action.
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  Like I'm not with you on this particular issue right now, but
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  the Greek construction here is different.
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  It's describing a type of person, a settled state of
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  being. OK, give me an example.
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  Think of the difference between saying a man who is currently
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  running for the bus and a runner.
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  OK, one is a temporary action, the other is an identity.
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  That's it exactly. Jesus isn't talking about a
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  momentary doubt or a single act of disobedience.
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  He is describing the fundamental orientation of your soul, your
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  identity, who you are. So if the settled orientation of
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  my soul isn't with him. Then by default it is against
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  him. The Greek word for against here
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  is kata. It has a sense of a collision, a
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  downward hostile force. It's not passive disagreement,
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  it's active opposition. The sources used an analogy of a
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  compass that I thought was really helpful.
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  The. Compass metaphor is perfect.
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  Imagine your soul is the needle of a compass.
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  The claim Jesus is making is that there are only two magnetic
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  poles in the universe itself and everything else if the needle of
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  your soul is not magnetized and pointing directly to the North
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  Pole of Christ. It's not just spinning freely,
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  no. There is no free floating state.
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  It is actively and powerfully repelled.
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  It is locked onto the South Pole.
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  So even what feels like indifference is actually a form
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  of repulsion. Yes, and I can already hear the
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  objection from the listener. But I don't feel hostile toward
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  Jesus. I think he was a great guy.
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  I was just thinking that my neighbor, let's call him Dave,
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  Dave is a genuinely good person. He helps people in the
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  neighborhood, he coaches Little League, He's kind to his family.
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  He just doesn't think about God at all.
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  He's indifferent. It feels really harsh to say
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  that Dave is hostile. It feels harsh because our
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  standard of judgement is social niceness, and by that standard
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  Dave's a great guy. But in the reality of this
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  cosmic war, in the raid on the Strongman's house, Dave is
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  living in the occupied territory and refusing to acknowledge the
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  Liberator king. So indifference is just a mask
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  for rejection. Indifference is treason from
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  this perspective. If the true king walks into the
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  room and you simply ignore him, you don't buy, You don't even
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  look up from your phone. You haven't been neutral.
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  You have made a powerful statement of defiance.
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  You have said you are not my king.
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  Ouch. OK, that that lands.
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  But he doesn't stop there. The verse has a second-half.
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  He moves from the inward position to the outward action.
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  Whoever does not gather with me, scat us.
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  This is what's known as synonymous parallelism.
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  The second phrase explains and deepens the first.
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  It's the practical outworking. If your heart is against me,
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  your life will scatter. These are shepherding terms,
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  aren't they? Gathering and scattering.
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  They are gathering. The Greek is synagogue, where we
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  get our word synagogue. It means to bring together, to
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  assemble, to unify. It's constructive.
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  It's what a Good Shepherd does with his flock.
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  And scattering. Scorpius say it means to
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  disperse, to drive away, to waste.
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  But there is a connection in the New Testament here that when I
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  saw it in the research it just it stopped me in my tracks.
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  OK, this exact same Greek word scorpicide is used in John
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  chapter 10. The Good Shepherd Passage.
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  The Good Shepherd Passage. And do you remember who it is in
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  that passage that does the scattering?
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  It says the wolf attacks the flock and scatters them.
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  Well, Wolf. Wait a second, so you're saying?
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  Connect the dots. Jesus sets up this absolute
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  binary. On one side you have the
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  shepherd, whose defining action is to gather.
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  On the other side you have the wolf, whose defining action is
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  to scatter. There is no third animal on the
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  field. So if you're not actively
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  gathering with the shepherd. You are by default functioning
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  as the wolf. That puts a whole new light on
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  Nice Dave, the neighbor. It does.
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  It means that even in his quiet, respectable indifference, Dave
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  is not a neutral bystander. By not participating in the
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  shepherd's work of rescue and gathering, he is, whether he
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  means to or not, contributing to the disintegration.
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  He is a force for scattering. That's that is incredibly heavy,
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  but it raises the question, why? Why is the system set up this
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  way? Why can't I be neutral?
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  Why was I born into this war that I didn't ask for?
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  And now you're asking the fundamental question of
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  systematic theology. To answer that, we have to go to
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  the theological backbone. We have to understand the
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  reformed view of human nature. OK.
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  Anthropology, the doctrine of man.
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  Right. If you look at the Westminster
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  Confession Chapter 9, it deals with free will and the fall of
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  man, and the core idea is this. After the fall, humanity is not
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  born as a blank slate. We're not like a balanced scale,
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  perfectly level, just waiting for us to put a weight on one
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  side or the other. Not at all.
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  The reformers following Augustine used a Latin phrase in
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  curvatus. In say, it means curved in on
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  oneself. So our natural gravity, the
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  default setting of our heart, is already pulling us inward and
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  away from God. Precisely.
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  The best analogy I've heard is to think of a powerful river.
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  That river's current is the spirit of the age, the world,
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  the flesh, and the devil. It's rushing powerfully in One
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  Direction away from God. We are all born and dropped into
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  that river. Now if you decide to be neutral
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  and just do nothing. What happens?
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  You get swept downstream. You're carried away by the
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  current. To go with Christ is to swim
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  upstream against that powerful current.
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  It takes effort. It takes a strength that you
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  don't have on your own. It requires the intervention of
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  grace. So there's no neutral island in
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  the middle of the river where you can just stand and watch.
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  You're wet, you're in the water. You're in the water.
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  You're either being carried away by the current or by grace.
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  You are fighting your way toward the shore.
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  That's why the default setting of the human heart is not
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  neutrality. It's hostility.
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  Romans 8.7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God.
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  It doesn't say it's indifferent to God.
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  It doesn't say it's curious about God, it says it is
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  hostile. We are born scattering.
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  There's another piece to this too, and it has to do with who
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  Jesus is. Because let's be honest, if I
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  walked into a room and said what Jesus says here, hey everyone,
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  if you're not 100% with me, you're my enemy, you'd think I
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  was a dangerous cult leader. I would.
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  I'd say you were a megalomaniac and I'd walk out.
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  So why does Jesus get to say it? Because of who He is.
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  This is what we call High Christology.
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  Jesus is speaking as the Logos, the ordering principle of the
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  universe. He is speaking as the King of
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  all reality. Only God Himself has the right
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  to demand that all of life be completely centralized around
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  His own person. Because he is the standard.
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  He is the definition of good. Right.
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  And if he is the definition of good, than any deviation from
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  him is by definition and evil. It's not just a different
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  opinion, it's a move away from the source of life and light
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  itself. You can't be neutral toward the
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  sun. You're either in its light or
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  you're in the shadow cast by something blocking it.
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  And that brings us back to the Two Kingdoms idea from the
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  beginning. Yes, the whole Beelzebul
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  controversy is proof. There are only two spiritual
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  domains that play the Kingdom of God and the domain of darkness.
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  There is no Third Kingdom, this idea of a secular space, A
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  neutral public square that is neither holy nor unholy.
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  It's a fiction. It's a strategic deception of
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  the enemy. It's designed to keep souls
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  comfortable in their captivity, thinking they're free because
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  they're not in chains they can see.
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  Oh, let's zoom out for a minute. Yeah, because this voice is in
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  Matthew. But this whole concept, this
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  stark 2 sided reality, it feels like it runs through the entire
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  Bible. The sources call it the scarlet
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  cord of division. Oh absolutely.
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  This is not a new idea that Jesus just came up with.
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  This antithesis, this fundamental division is there
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  from the very beginning. It starts.
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  Right after the fall in Genesis. Genesis 3.15.
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  The promise of enmity between the seed of the woman and the
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  seed of the serpent. From that moment on, human
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  history is the story of these two lines, these two families at
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  war. You see it everywhere.
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  Psalm 1. Blessed is the man who walks not
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  in the counsel of the wicked, but his delight is in the law of
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  the Lord, the way of the righteous and the way of the
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  wicked. And notice what's missing,
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  right? There's no way of the generally
• 18:22
  nice person who tries his best. There's no path of the moral
• 18:25
  agnostic. It's just two ways.
• 18:27
  Jeremiah 17 same thing. The man who trusts in man is
• 18:30
  cursed. The man who trusts in the Lord
• 18:32
  is blessed. It's just this sharp, unwavering
• 18:34
  line drawn through all of human experience.
• 18:37
  It is, but I want to go back to that word gather because it has
• 18:40
  such deep Old Testament significance, especially when
• 18:42
  you think about the story of Israel in the exile.
• 18:44
  Deuteronomy 28 The curse is for breaking the covenant.
• 18:48
  Yes. And what was the ultimate curse,
• 18:51
  the final, most devastating judgement on Israel?
• 18:54
  They would be scattered among the nations.
• 18:56
  The Lord will scatter you among all peoples.
• 18:59
  Scattering is the great judgement.
• 19:01
  It is the undoing of God's people.
• 19:02
  It's a form of corporate death. But then then you get the
• 19:06
  prophets and Ezekiel 34 is the key text.
• 19:09
  The chapter about the failed shepherds of Israel.
• 19:11
  Right. God looks at the kings and the
• 19:13
  priests and his indictment is fierce.
• 19:16
  He says woe to the shepherds of Israel.
• 19:18
  You have not strengthened the weak, you have scattered them.
• 19:21
  He accuses them of letting the flock become prey for wild
• 19:24
  animals. There's that wolf imagery again.
• 19:27
  The scattering. Yes, but then God makes this
• 19:29
  astonishing promise. After condemning the false
• 19:32
  shepherds, He says, I myself will search for my sheep and
• 19:35
  look after them. I will rescue them and gather
• 19:38
  them. He promises that he himself will
• 19:40
  come and be the Good Shepherd and end the scattering of the
• 19:43
  exile. So when Jesus shows up centuries
• 19:45
  later, stands in front of the crowds in Galilee and says,
• 19:48
  Whoever does not gather with me. He's not just using a nice
• 19:51
  metaphor, he is making an earth shattering claim about his own
• 19:55
  identity. He's saying I am the fulfillment
• 19:57
  of that promise. I am Yahweh from Ezekiel 34.
• 20:00
  He is saying I am the eschatological shepherd.
• 20:03
  The great gathering has begun in me.
• 20:05
  The exile is ending in me. Which means if you refuse to
• 20:09
  gather with him, you are actively working against the
• 20:12
  restoration of the world. You are choosing to remain in
• 20:15
  exile. That's a massive claim, but OK,
• 20:19
  before we get to how this all applies to us today, we have to
• 20:22
  deal with the big obvious tension, the elephant in the
• 20:25
  room. Mark 940.
• 20:26
  Mark 9.40 where Jesus seems to say the exact opposite for the
• 20:30
  one who is not against us is for us.
• 20:32
  It really does sound like a direct contradiction, doesn't
• 20:35
  it? It does.
• 20:36
  I mean, if I'm reading the Bible for the first time, I see
• 20:38
  Matthew 12, If you're not with me, you're against me.
• 20:41
  Then I flip over to Mark 9. If you're not against us, you're
• 20:43
  for us. My first thought is, well, which
• 20:45
  one is it? Jesus can't seem to make up his
• 20:47
  mind. It's a classic example of why
• 20:49
  context is king. You can't just lift these verses
• 20:52
  out and put them against each other.
• 20:53
  You have to look at the scene. You have to ask what question is
• 20:56
  Jesus answering in each case? OK, so what's the context in
• 20:59
  Mark 9? The disciples, John
• 21:02
  specifically, come to Jesus and they're complaining.
• 21:04
  They sound like tattletales. They say, Teacher, we saw
• 21:07
  someone casting out demons in your name and we tried to stop
• 21:10
  him. And why?
• 21:12
  Because he was not following us. He wasn't part of their club.
• 21:15
  He wasn't on their team. He wasn't in the inner circle of
• 21:18
  the 12. This is pure, unadulterated
• 21:21
  sectarianism. It's a warning against
• 21:23
  tribalism. And Jesus rebukes them for.
• 21:25
  It he does, he says essentially, don't stop him.
• 21:29
  If he's doing good work in my name, he's not going to turn
• 21:31
  around and speak evil of me. For the one who is not against
• 21:34
  us is for us. In other words, when the issue
• 21:37
  is ministry partnership, we should have a broad charitable
• 21:40
  spirit. If someone is genuinely
• 21:43
  advancing the Kingdom, we shouldn't reject them just
• 21:45
  because they're not in our specific denomination or camp.
• 21:49
  So Mark 9 is about how we should treat potential allies.
• 21:52
  Right. It's a guard against a cliquish,
• 21:55
  arrogant spirit. But the context in Matthew 12 is
• 21:58
  completely different. In Matthew 12, it's the
• 22:00
  Beelzebul controversy. The Pharisees weren't potential
• 22:03
  allies doing ministry in a slightly different way.
• 22:06
  They are mortal enemies, calling Jesus a servant of Satan.
• 22:10
  The question on the table is not how should we work with other
• 22:13
  Christians? The question is who is Jesus?
• 22:15
  Is he the Son of God or is he the Prince of demons?
• 22:19
  And on that question. On that fundamental question of
• 22:21
  Christ's identity and lordship, there is no middle ground.
• 22:25
  You can't be neutral. You can't say, well, I'm not
• 22:27
  against him being the Messiah, so I guess I'm for him.
• 22:29
  No, you must be actively with him.
• 22:32
  That distinction is incredibly helpful.
• 22:34
  Mark protects charity and ministry.
• 22:36
  Matthew exposes the delusion of neutrality and salvation.
• 22:39
  You've got it. 1 is about our relationship with other
• 22:41
  believers. The other is about our
• 22:43
  relationship with Christ himself.
• 22:44
  OK. Let's start landing this plane.
• 22:47
  Let's move into the polemics, the part where we use this text
• 22:49
  to confront some modern errors. The source pointed out a few big
• 22:53
  ones. The first one feels very, very
• 22:56
  relevant right now. The idea of a third way
• 22:58
  political theology, right? I hear that phrase all the time,
• 23:01
  the third way. What does that mean in practice?
• 23:04
  Well, it's very popular, particularly in younger
• 23:06
  evangelical circles. It's the impulse to be neither
• 23:10
  left nor right. It's the desire to stand above
• 23:13
  the messy political arguments and say, a plague on both your
• 23:16
  houses. I follow Jesus, not a political
• 23:19
  party. And on the surface, that sounds
• 23:21
  really good, doesn't it? It sounds wise.
• 23:24
  It sounds winsome. It sounds like the posture of a
• 23:27
  peacemaker. It appeals directly to our
• 23:30
  desire for that safe, neutral territory of Switzerland.
• 23:33
  But the source argues that on issues where Scripture has
• 23:36
  spoken clearly, this third way can be a dangerous illusion.
• 23:39
  How? So play devil's advocate for me.
• 23:42
  Isn't it good to build bridges? If I come out hard on a
• 23:44
  controversial issue, I'm just burning a bridge with half the
• 23:47
  culture. Shouldn't I stay in the middle
• 23:49
  so I can talk to everyone? That's the argument.
• 23:52
  But let's go back to the text. If Christ's work is to gather
• 23:56
  and the enemy's work is to scatter, then we have to ask
• 24:00
  what does our silence do on an issue where Christ's truth
• 24:04
  defines reality, say, the sanctity of human life or the
• 24:07
  biblical definition of marriage? If we remain silent in order to
• 24:11
  appear neutral, are we gathering or are we scattering?
• 24:15
  I see where you're going. Silence in the face of a lie
• 24:18
  allows the lie to do its scattering work.
• 24:20
  Precisely. If one side is actively
• 24:22
  promoting what Scripture calls sin, which by its nature
• 24:26
  scatters and destroys, and we refuse to speak the truth
• 24:28
  because we're afraid of being labeled partisan, our neutrality
• 24:31
  is actually complicity. We are siding with the
• 24:34
  scatterers by failing to gather to the truth.
• 24:37
  Our silence aids the drift. That is, that's a sharp critique
• 24:39
  of a lot of modern Christian discourse.
• 24:41
  OK, what's next on the list? Pluralism.
• 24:43
  This is the air our culture breathes.
• 24:45
  All paths lead to the top of the same mountain.
• 24:47
  You have your truth. I have my truth.
• 24:49
  And Jesus's statement, whoever is not with me just cuts the
• 24:52
  legs out from under that. It completely demolishes it.
• 24:54
  He doesn't say whoever is not with goodness, he says with me.
• 24:59
  He makes himself his own person, the exclusive dividing line of
• 25:02
  all reality. He refuses to be one option on a
• 25:05
  spiritual buffer line. This verse makes Jesus the
• 25:08
  central question of the universe that demands a yes or no answer.
• 25:12
  Which is, of course, deeply offensive to the modern mind.
• 25:15
  Incredibly offensive. It's the ultimate scandal, but
• 25:19
  it's what he said. Then there's the error of what
• 25:22
  the source calls Nice Jesus or Therapeutic Jesus.
• 25:26
  Oh, this is the Jesus of so much of American Christianity.
• 25:29
  He's a life coach. He's a spiritual therapist.
• 25:31
  The bobblehead Jesus on the dashboard of your car.
• 25:33
  Yes. He just nods approvingly at
• 25:35
  whatever you decide to do. His job is to affirm you, to
• 25:39
  boost your self esteem, to help you become the best version of
• 25:42
  yourself. You do you and Jesus is your
• 25:44
  biggest fan. That's the one.
• 25:46
  But the Jesus of Matthew 12 is not a therapist.
• 25:49
  He is an invader. He is the stronger man, breaking
• 25:52
  into the house to bind the enemy and rescue the captives.
• 25:55
  A therapeutic Jesus affirms you. The biblical Jesus confronts
• 25:59
  you. He doesn't ask to be an add on
• 26:01
  to your life. He demands total surrender and a
• 26:03
  change of kingdoms. The last error mentioned in the
• 26:06
  sources is one that hits close to home for those of us in
• 26:09
  church leadership. Ecclesiastical pragmatism.
• 26:12
  The philosophy of If it works, it must be from God.
• 26:15
  The numbers driven approach, if the church is growing, if the
• 26:19
  budget is up, if we have a lot of programs, that must mean we
• 26:22
  are successfully gathering. It's such a seductive and
• 26:25
  dangerous trap because the test in Matthew 12 is not Are you
• 26:29
  gathering a crowd? The test is are you gathering
• 26:31
  with me? And there is a world of
• 26:34
  difference between those two things.
• 26:35
  Explain that difference. You can gather a huge crowd with
• 26:38
  a charismatic speaker and a great rock band.
• 26:41
  You can gather a crowd with sentimental stories that make
• 26:44
  people feel good. You can gather a crowd by
• 26:47
  preaching moralism. 5 Steps to Being a Better spouse.
• 26:51
  But if you are gathering people to anything other than the
• 26:53
  person and work of Jesus Christ, the reality of sin, the
• 26:57
  necessity of repentance, the truth of the cross and
• 27:00
  resurrection, you are not actually gathering, you are
• 27:03
  scattering. How is that scattering?
• 27:05
  The building is full. Because you are gathering goats,
• 27:07
  not sheep. You are filling a room with
• 27:09
  people under the deadly illusion that they are safe when they are
• 27:12
  not. You are inoculating them against
• 27:15
  the true gospel by giving them a placebo.
• 27:18
  It is the most tragic form of scattering, separating people
• 27:21
  from Christ while making them think they're closer to Him than
• 27:24
  ever. A full church can be a
• 27:25
  scattering church. That's a That's a sobering
• 27:28
  thought for every pastor. It should be.
• 27:29
  OK, we've been deep in the theology and the critiques we
• 27:33
  need to bring this home. Let's talk application heart and
• 27:36
  hands. Let's start with the unbeliever.
• 27:37
  Let's go back to our nice Dave neighbor.
• 27:39
  The respectable moral person who thinks they're safe.
• 27:43
  If Dave is listening right now, or someone who loves a Dave is
• 27:46
  listening, what is the final verdict of this text for them?
• 27:49
  The verdict is that your harmless indifference is, in the
• 27:52
  eyes of heaven, cosmic treason. And I know how impossibly harsh
• 27:57
  that sounds, but it's meant to be like a doctor's diagnosis.
• 28:01
  If a doctor looks at a small, painless lump on your arm and
• 28:04
  tells you it's a deadly, aggressive cancer, he's not
• 28:07
  being mean. He is telling you the truth.
• 28:09
  Because your life depends on it. So my defense of but I'm a good
• 28:13
  person. I don't hurt anybody that
• 28:15
  doesn't hold up in court. It's irrelevant to the primary
• 28:18
  charge. The charge isn't that you robbed
• 28:20
  a bank. The charge is that you have
• 28:21
  lived your entire life in the King's world, breathing the
• 28:24
  King's air, eating the King's food, and you have refused to
• 28:27
  bend the knee to the king. So the call is to surrender.
• 28:29
  The call is to abandon the fantasy of the safe distance
• 28:32
  there is no DMZ between the kingdoms, and to delay your
• 28:35
  decision is to make a decision. Every day you say not yet is
• 28:38
  another day you cast your vote for against.
• 28:41
  OK. Now let's talk to the believer
• 28:44
  because I think a lot of sincere Christians hear a message like
• 28:47
  this and they feel a knot in their stomach.
• 28:50
  They start thinking about all their failures.
• 28:52
  I didn't share the gospel with my Co worker yesterday.
• 28:54
  I was impatient with my kids. Am I scattering?
• 28:57
  Am I against him? That's a very real and
• 29:00
  understandable fear. So let's separate this into two
• 29:03
  parts, the diagnostic and the comfort.
• 29:05
  OK, let's start with a diagnostic.
• 29:07
  How can a believer honestly assess if their life is
• 29:10
  characterized by gathering? We look at the fruit first and
• 29:14
  foremost, personal holiness. Sin, by its very nature,
• 29:17
  scatters. When I give in to sin, I
• 29:19
  fracture my communion with God. I create division in my family.
• 29:23
  I damage my witness to the world.
• 29:25
  Pursuing holiness is gathering my own scattered affections and
• 29:28
  life under the Lordship of Christ.
• 29:30
  The source also mentioned our speech careless words.
• 29:32
  Oh, that's huge. Think about the effect of gossip
• 29:36
  or slander in a community or a church.
• 29:38
  What does it do? It tears it apart.
• 29:40
  It scatters. It is pure wolf work.
• 29:42
  It isolates people, creates suspicion and destroys unity.
• 29:46
  If you are a gossip, you are actively scattering the very
• 29:49
  flock. Christ died together.
• 29:51
  On the other hand, speaking truth, encouragement and words
• 29:54
  of grace that gathers it builds up.
• 29:57
  And finally, what about the church itself?
• 29:59
  This is non negotiable from a reformed perspective.
• 30:01
  You cannot claim to be gathering with him while you are willfully
• 30:05
  neglecting his gathered people, the local church.
• 30:08
  See, I'm spiritual but not religious idea.
• 30:10
  It's just me and Jesus. That is a profoundly scattering
• 30:13
  force. Christ is not gathering a
• 30:15
  collection of isolated individuals.
• 30:17
  He is building a body. He is constructing a temple.
• 30:20
  If you refuse to be a living stone cemented into the wall
• 30:23
  with other believers in a local assembly, you are resisting His
• 30:27
  primary gathering work in the world.
• 30:29
  That's the diagnostic. It's sharp now give us the
• 30:31
  comfort because I still feel the weight of my failure in all
• 30:34
  those areas I haven't gathered perfectly.
• 30:36
  And this is where the glory of the gospel shine so brightly.
• 30:39
  Here is the comfort. You are not saved by the
• 30:43
  perfection of your gathering. You do not earn your place in
• 30:46
  the Kingdom by being a sufficiently good gatherer.
• 30:49
  Thank. God for that.
• 30:50
  We are sage because of what happened to the Shepherd.
• 30:52
  Unpack that for me. There's a prophecy in Zechariah
• 30:55
  13, one that Jesus quotes on the night he was betrayed.
• 30:59
  Strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.
• 31:02
  He knew what was coming for him and for his disciples.
• 31:04
  He knew on the cross, Jesus entered into the ultimate
• 31:08
  experience of scattering. He was struck.
• 31:10
  He was exiled from the presence of the Father.
• 31:13
  He endured the curse of disintegration when he cried
• 31:16
  out. My God, my God, why have you
• 31:17
  forsaken me? He took the against me position
• 31:20
  for us. He absorbed the full, violent
• 31:22
  force of God's judgement against all of our sinful scattering.
• 31:26
  He allowed himself to be scattered under wrath so that
• 31:28
  we, the scattered sheep, could be gathered into the family of
• 31:31
  God forever. So my efforts to gather, my
• 31:34
  evangelism, my pursuit of holiness, my love for the
• 31:37
  church, that's not the root of my salvation.
• 31:40
  No, it's the fruit. We don't gather in order to be
• 31:43
  saved. We gather because we have been
• 31:46
  saved. We gather out of sheer grateful
• 31:48
  love for the Shepherd who was scattered in our place.
• 31:51
  That changes everything. The motivation isn't fear of the
• 31:54
  wolf anymore, it's love for the shepherd.
• 31:56
  That's the gospel. We are at the end of our time.
• 31:59
  This has been this has been intense.
• 32:01
  The truth often is. So to synthesize it all, history
• 32:05
  is not standing still. It's moving toward a final
• 32:08
  harvest. The great separation is real.
• 32:11
  The winnowing fork is in the Lord's hand, and the crisis of
• 32:14
  the middle ground is a delusion we can no longer afford.
• 32:17
  But the mercy is just as real. The king who demands our total
• 32:21
  allegiance is the very same shepherd who laid down his life
• 32:24
  to gather us in. Amen to that.
• 32:26
  So here's the final thought we want to leave you with today.
• 32:28
  Jesus says that those who do not gather with Him scatter.
• 32:31
  Think about the people in your life, your coworkers, your
• 32:34
  neighbors, the family members you love.
• 32:37
  If they are not being actively gathered to Christ, then the
• 32:40
  current of this world is carrying them right now toward
• 32:43
  an eternal scattering. They are drifting downstream.
• 32:46
  So the question for you is this. Does your silence aid that
• 32:49
  drift? Are you content to stand on the
• 32:52
  riverbank and watch them flow by, convinced your neutrality is
• 32:56
  a virtue? Or will you reach out of hand?
• 32:58
  Sobering question to end on. Until next time, keep thinking
• 33:02
  reformed.