Latest / Dwelling Place: The Bible for Moms / #200. The Intensity and Intentionality of Jesus' Ministry... and the Importance of Careful Speech | Matthew 8, Mark 3, and Luke 6

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#200. The Intensity and Intentionality of Jesus' Ministry... and the Importance of Careful Speech | Matthew 8, Mark 3, and Luke 6 · Dwelling Place: The Bible for Moms

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  This is The Dwelling Place from Entrusted Ministries.
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  I'm Stephanie Hickox In reading Matthew 12, Mark 3, and Luke 6, We'll witness how intensely Jesus was opposed, how intensely He was followed we'll also recognize, That he is Lord of the Sabbath and Lord of logic matthew chapter
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  12 highlights several situations Jesus is opposed for doing good on the Sabbath One of these circumstances Will be a portion of our reading today, beginning in 12:9.
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  He went on from there and entered their synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand.
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  And they asked him, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"
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  so that they might accuse him.
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  He said to them, Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out?
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  Of how much more value is a man than a sheep?
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  So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.
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  Then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand."
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  And the man stretched it out And it was restored healthy like the other.
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  But the Pharisees went out and conspired against Jesus how to destroy him.
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  don't you love how perfectly compassionate and logical Jesus' response is?
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  If you would save a sheep, of course I would save a man Because this story occurs in one of the Synoptic Gospels It likely occurs in one of the other synoptic Gospels Let me Include a powerful detail Mark
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  includes about this story when Jesus issues his Question They are silent.
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  but verse five tells us, And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart Jesus wants to show mercy But there were some who had their hearts so hardened that they could watch the work
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  of the Lord before their very eyes and it still didn't change them sometimes there are misguided perceptions of Jesus.
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  You may have seen a lot of them lately.
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  Such as, Jesus loved and accepted everyone for who they were."
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  But when we look at scripture and we see him clash over and over with the Pharisees the way that Jesus provokes their faulty way of thinking We can tell Jesus didn't accept everyone for who they were.
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  He called sinners to repent, and he called the prideful to humble themselves our savior is full of love, but the most loving thing that he can do is not to allow us to stay in our sin That's exactly
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  where the Pharisees wanna stay As they continue to plot against Jesus he withdraws to another place.
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  A multitude of people follow him, and he heals all of them But he asks them once again to keep quiet about the healing.
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  There's already a lot of opposition against him.
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  He has a mission to accomplish, and if word spreads too quickly it could put the target on his back sooner than he wants Then Matthew quotes Isaiah 42 reminding us The Messiah was promised to come as a servant,
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  not as a warrior the first time the next encounter Matthew recorded Jesus heals a demon-possessed man He's so spiritually oppressed that he's become blind and mute Jesus heals him, and when the Pharisees find out, they say That Jesus
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  is casting out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons.
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  And once again, you have to hear Jesus' completely rational, logical response.
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  knowing their thoughts, he said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand.
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  And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself.
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  How then will his kingdom stand?
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  And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out?
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  Therefore, they will be your judges.
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  Jesus's response is entirely rational and logical And he points out, why would Satan be casting out Satan?
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  That is a surefire way to make your kingdom fail and I am not using his power to do this.
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  See, they don't know what to do.
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  they've seen Jesus's miraculous works, but they don't wanna say that he came from God But saying he's working with Satan just doesn't make sense either And Jesus uses this opportunity to issue a severe warning.
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  And in studying this, I got to have a little bit more clarity about a verse that's often given me trepidation, but also confusion in 12:30, Jesus continues speaking to the Pharisees, Whoever is not with me is against me,
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  and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
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  Therefore, I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
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  And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven."
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  either in this age or in the age to come Hearing that phrase will not be forgiven hopefully makes you alert.
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  It's scary.
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  What exactly is blaspheming the Holy Spirit?
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  And I think you'll be encouraged to hear that several commentaries I read said that this isn't even possible anymore, this rebuke and warning was for a specific time because the Pharisees had all the law and the writings of
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  the prophets, and then they had Jesus right before them and the Holy Spirit testifying to Him through His works Michael Van Lanham says, "Most scholars agree that the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit refers to attributing the miracles Jesus
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  performed through the power of the Spirit to the evil one."
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  It is unlikely that this sin can be committed today, for conditions are different.
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  Jesus is not physically present performing miracles, validating his identity as the Son of Man and Son of God He says, "However, every person who trusts Christ is pardoned for the sin of unbelief.
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  If one dies in a state of unbelief that sin is not so much unpardonable, but unpardoned He says there are other Bible verses that point to the unpardonable sin, but this is not the same as the blasphemy of
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  the Holy Spirit.
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  The unpardonable sin is for those who have outwardly professed faith in Jesus, but then walked away from Him, revealing that they never really were saved jesus keeps speaking about how if you're a good tree, you're gonna have good
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  fruit.
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  If you're a bad tree, you're gonna have bad fruit And then he says one of the verses that I say quite frequently to my kids Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks And then in verse
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  30, I tell you, on the day of judgment, people will give account for every careless word they speak.
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  I think that this is terrifying, especially in a day of social media where words are many.
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  It makes this microphone sitting in front of me pretty scary too God takes words seriously, and so should his followers at the end of the chapter, Jesus is preaching inside to a group of people, and he finds out
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  that his mother and his brothers are outside asking to speak to him Jesus tells the crowd, Who is my mother and who are my brothers?"
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  And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, here are my mother and my brothers.
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  For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."
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  This is another one of those comments Jesus makes that sounds harsh.
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  And certainly as a mom it might be a little bit sensitive for us That's why I appreciate the detail that Mark includes In chapter three, verses 20 through 21.
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  Now, at this point, Jesus' ministry is so intense that we read earlier in the chapter that He told His disciples to have a boat ready for Him because of the crowd, lest they crush Him.
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  For He had healed many, so that all who had diseases Pressed around him to touch him He goes home, which is likely Peter's home, and the crowd gathers around him again so that he could not even eat See,
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  I told you Jesus could understand your motherhood But I don't think we understand how truly intense Jesus' ministry was And to add another layer of difficulty, when his family hears it, they go out to seize him, for they
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  were saying, "He is out of his mind."
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  This was a really heartbreaking reality Jesus' own brothers did not believe that He was the Messiah Most scholars believe that his father Joseph passed away before he began his public ministry.
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  We don't know how old Jesus was when that happened, but he had several brothers and even a couple sisters.
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  can you imagine being raised in the same home as Jesus and not recognizing that He was the Messiah?
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  I think that this had to be so incredibly painful for Mary perhaps they know the controversy that's being stirred up because of him, and they're trying to protect him But they are more people that do not understand his
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  mission And so Jesus is saying, "Those of you that do understand why I'm here and what I'm about and you are also devoting your lives to the Father, you are my brother and my sister and my mother."
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  instead of demeaning his own family, these comments are meant to elevate Those of us that are seeking the Lord Luke 6 chronicles some of the same stories that we just read as well as Jesus' official choosing of his
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  12 disciples He certainly gives us the right model for wisdom And I appreciate that Luke tells us In 6:17, In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God.
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  And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles."
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  Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip and Bartholomew, and Matthew and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, and Judas the son of James,
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  and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
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  That's a key phrase That Judas became a traitor.
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  because I think it's important that we remember the kind of men that Jesus chose let's not miss that Mark's gospel tells us that Jesus nicknamed James and John the Sons of Thunder Peter probably had a fun time telling
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  Mark to write that one down I've heard different theories of the ages of the disciples we really don't know exactly how old they were, but there is a very good argument to be made that they were between the
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  ages of 13 and 30 we can arrive at a good conclusion with this because We know the dates that several of them passed away.
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  John was likely the youngest.
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  We know Peter was probably the oldest because he was married.
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  If you would like to have a little bit more understanding on this, I'll link an article in the show notes for you I think it's important to understand that fact So that we can give them a little bit
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  of grace when they just don't get who Jesus came to be Thankfully, in our next passage of scripture, Jesus is going to give the most famous sermon ever in existence I think we could read it every day of
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  our lives because as we understand more and more who Jesus is, we're called to be transformed Let's pray that's occurring Heavenly Father We thank you for your mercy and compassion We're grateful for these examples that show how deeply
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  you care For your people made in your image and even that you love people enough to be angry when they are not treated with mercy and compassion Lord, we pray We would faithfully and radically display your love.
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  I pray we would be so filled by how well you love us that it just flows out of us effortlessly, that we're not keeping a list of all the things we've done as wives and mothers But help us
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  to live like you did, Jesus Continually pouring out We can see from your life that you fully understand what it's like to be interrupted and touched constantly, and to be needed incessantly.
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  So I pray, Jesus, for these moms that often feel alone and unseen while they're serving their families.
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  I pray that they would be confident that you both understand that you see, and you will bless their faithfulness.
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  We pray that the words that we speak and our children speak Would bring glory to you and that we would know how to answer every question that arises we thank you that you are King and Lord over all.
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  It's in your name we pray, amen.