Matthew 11:20-12:21

These are all very familiar to the Church today but no mention of them is made in this commissioning of the apostles to go out and preach to Israel.

The apostles are given the power to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, and cast out demons, which is a direct extension of what Jesus Himself had been doing.

These are the signs and wonders by which Israel was supposed to recognise as being only possible by the King and Messiah and His appointed.

Most of us have been bought up through Church just assuming that Matthew’s gospel, and the other 3 as well, are for the Church, and they certainly are but not in the way we generally think. Without them we’d not know about the flow of the Word that enlightens us to God’s dealings with the Jewish nation, which will ultimately lead to us Gentiles being partakers of eternal life. However, as we’ve pointed out many times, Matthew, and the other gospels with a few exceptions, are written to Israel.

 

The 12 are told to make no attempt to provide for themselves. They’re not to take money or even a change of clothes. They were to rely solely on God’s provision.

We should always keep in mind that this commission is a completely different commission than the one given to these apostles after Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection.

Here they’re specifically told NOT to go the Gentiles or the Samaritans, but there, in Acts 1:8 they’re specifically told to GO to the Samaritans and the Gentiles as well as the Jewish nation, but the message is a different one.

This commission given to the apostles carried the warning of what they were to expect and it’s a harsh message. Jesus warns the apostles that the job’s going to be far from easy and that they’d encounter many personal challenges and persecutions.

The people would even accuse them of being servants of Beelzebub, Satan, but they’re told not to fear because God will not only provide there every need, but He’d also give them the words to speak, no matter who their audience was.

They’re also told that the message they were to preach would not bring peace but would divide households even to the point where a person’ enemies would be those of his own household.

Some would receive the message they bought. Most would not.

 

Now, as we come to Matthew 11:20, we’ve come to a big change.

Remember that Jesus is the King. He’s stated the moral principle, the values of the coming Kingdom. He’s presented His credentials as the promised Messiah and King of the Jews by performing miracles, He’s preached the gospel that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

He’s presented Himself, but His people have rejected Him.

That rejection has caused Him to make a decision, and He rejects them.

He’s the King, and the King always has the last word.

 

It’s interesting to try and figure out why these very people who the Lord came to rejected Him.

We know that some individuals did receive His message and believed Him, but the nation as a whole did not.

We’re always aware that the Word of God sometimes talks about individuals but many other times it refers to nations.

The Nation of Israel had received a great many prophecies for centuries regarding the coming of the King to rule over a glorious earthly Kingdom. Unlike us today as Gentiles, these people grew up in scripture. It wasn’t alien to their ears as it is to many of us today. Scripture was as much a part of the everyday life of a Jew as Waltzing Matilda and Vegemite is to an Australian.

 

To get an explanation of why Jesus and His message, His Gospel of the Kingdom, was rejected we should jump forward a few chapters to Matthew 16. Here the Pharisees and Sadducees, the religious elite, asked Jesus to show them a sign from heaven.

What did they want more signs from heaven for? What could be a greater sign than the blind made to see, the paralysed made to walk, lepers cleansed, and demons cast out. What sign would’ve topped that.

I don’t know about you but to me that displays a blindness by these people that could not be healed.

Here’s the exchange between these religious elite and The Lord Jesus. Matthew 16:1-4,

Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven. 

He answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’; and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ So, this is the same thing we say today, “red sky at night sailor’s delight, red sky in the morning, sailors warning.” Jesus continues.

Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. 

A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed. 

So clearly Jesus gets right in their faces here and pulls no punches.

They were supposed to know the signs of the times.

Why? Because those signs clearly showed that now was the time all the prophecies of the past had pointed to.

The number 1 reason for performing miracles and signs and wonders day in and day out for the whole three years of His ministry was to prove to Israel who Jesus was. They were undeniable proof that He was that promised Messiah.

All the way through history from 2000 BC everything is moving the nation of Israel to the place where they could have that Messiah, their Redeemer and King rule over a glorious earthly Kingdom on the planet.

Could the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the nation as a whole see that in these signs and wonders? Not a chance.

There were many signs even apart from Jesus’s miracles.

If they’d known anything of Old Testament prophecy, which they did, they should have understood that the fourth Empire in Daniels 490 year prophecy to King Nebuchadnezzar, in Daniel 2, was now with them.

They weren’t stupid!

They knew very well the history of their nation in relation to Daniel’s prophecy.

They knew the Babylonian Empire and it’s rule over them had come and gone. They knew the rule of the Medes and Persians had come and gone. They knew the Greek Empire of Alexander the Great had come and gone and they certainly knew the Romans were now occupying the nation.

So, what should that have told them? It’s time for the Messiah to come. Folks these people knew these prophecies like the back of their hands and that’s proven by the number of times they tried to challenge Jesus with scripture.

However, they couldn’t figure out what was right in front of their noses and what had to be the most obvious sign in their entire history.

The Jews are not really unlike any of us today. We’re so sign and wonder oriented. We’re so desperate for supernatural signs that we make up the most ridiculous stuff. Just look at the tripe that’s on the net, especially YouTube and social media.

Now, of course, these platforms are also packed with good messages, but they’re often hidden by the junk you need to scroll through to find them.

We’re just so just sign oriented that we can’t see the multitude of signs that’re already given.

 

Beginning today in Matthew 11:20-22 we read,

Then He began to rebuke the cities in which most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent: (Jesus is speaking now),

“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. 

 

Chorazin and Bethsaida were cities near Capernaum where the Lord had His headquarters. He’d performed many miracles in this area but, despite that, they rejected Him, and now He pronounces a judgment upon them.

Tyre and Sidon were part of the land promised by God to the Israelites. However, these cities were not conquered by the Israelites during the conquest of Canaan. Instead, they remained under the control of the Canaanites.

They were known for their idolatry and were often criticised by the prophets. The evil Queen Jezebel, who was married to the equally evil King Ahab of Israel, was from Sidon and was responsible for promoting the worship of the false god Baal.

Now at this time we’re talking about here they’re roman cities.

So, Jesus is saying here that even those Gentile cities that were so far away from the One True God of Israel, would have repented and turned from their idolatry if these mighty works of His were done there. But, He’s saying, in contrast you Israelites, the chosen people of God, living in the homeland God had given you, knowing the scripture of which every page spoke of Me, your reject Me. He told them this in John 5:39,

You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.

Why would it be better for these cities of Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than these people being spoken to here?

Because God had given these people had been given every possible sign, every possible prophecy, every outward display of power that could only have come from God. They were far beyond excuse.

 

Now, in verse 23 and 24, the Lord speaks to the people of Capernaum, His headquarters,

And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.” 

 

Again, Jesus makes a comparison between Capernaum and the judged and destroyed city of Sodom, which was one of the most evil of cities. He says that even if that abomination of a place had witnessed these mighty works of Jesus, they’d still be there today. Why? Because these works would have turned even these evil cities to God. But Capernaum, that actually has the Messiah and King headquartered there had rejected Him.

Verse 25 and 26,

At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. 

 

The phrase “Lord of heaven” takes us back to Genesis 14:19, where God’s called the Lord of heaven and earth. Many of the most worldly wise people never learn this truth, but many babes, many simple people, understand it.

Sometimes I wonder if some of the world’s foremost preachers and bible teachers fall into this category. The technical knowledge and degrees often seem to me to cloud the simple truths of the Word.

 

Verse 27,

All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.

 

This is another way of saying what He said in John 14:6,

“… no man cometh unto the Father, but by me”.

 

Now to Matthew 11:28-30.

These verses bring a change in the Lord’s message.

Up to this point the Lord taught, “Repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” He had presented His credentials and had been rejected as the Messiah. These cities which have been mentioned turned their backs upon Him, and so had Jerusalem. So far in His ministry everything’s been directed at Israel, the nation, but the nation has rejected Him.

He now turns His back on the nation Israel. He’s no longer presenting this glorious Kingdom to them.

He’s getting close to the cross, and His invitation is now to the individual.

Listen to Him,

 

Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 

Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 

For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” 

 

See how the language has changed?

This is a new message from Jesus. He turns from the corporate nation of Israel to the individual Jew and it’s like passing from a storm into a calm.

It’s no longer the national announcement about the coming of the glorious earthly Kingdom but a personal invitation to find rest.

“I will give you rest” is literally “I will rest you.” When He speaks of being “heavy laden,” He’s referring to the burden of sin.

This same thought is used by Isaiah in Isaiah 1:4,

Alas, sinful nation, A people laden with iniquity, A brood of evildoers, Children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the LORD, They have provoked to anger The Holy One of Israel, They have turned away backward. 

 

Also, Psalm 38:4 has the same thought,

For my iniquities have gone over my head; Like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me. 

 

The burden of sin is too heavy for any human to carry. For us today, the Church, The Body of Christ, we know that the only place where that burden can be removed is at the Cross of Christ. We have the next episode in the program you see.

He, The Son of God, God in the flesh, bore that burden for us, and He invites us to come and bring it to Him. He can remove it from us because on the cross He bore that burden of our sin and we can have it removed by simply believing. It’s by faith plus nothing that makes us free of that burden.

However, there’s nothing in these verses that refer to the cross or to the Church.

The church doesn’t exist yet, you see, and Jesus has not revealed the fact that He’ll soon die on that cross.

He’s moving from the nation of Israel to individual Jews. The call He’s making to the Jews is to believe that He is Who he says He is and all they need do is look to both the scriptures that they’re so familiar with and to the credentials of the king, the mighty works.

Jesus is using the yoke as a picture not only of the burden of sin but the impossible legalistic demands to the keeping of the law that the Pharisees and the religious elite were promoting and demanding.

Jesus is inviting people to take on his yoke, which is light and easy to bear, and to learn from him. Learn what? Learn a new way of life that only He can offer. First, learn who He truly is, the promised King and Messiah and then learn to trust in Him and Him alone.

 

Now we’ve arrived at Matthew chapter 12.

Again, we see that flow in the Gospel of Matthew.

Matthew’s not trying to give a biography of the life of Jesus, nor is he recording the events in chronological order. He presents Christ as King. He was born a King and gave what we call the Sermon on the Mount, which was the values of the Kingdom, the manifesto of the King.

He demonstrated in the miracles He performed that He was indeed the promised Messiah, The King. Then He sent out His apostles. The reaction was rejection! And then the King pronounced judgment on the cities.

Now things start to move quickly as there’s open a conflict between the Lord Jesus and the religious rulers of that day, the Pharisees in particular.

Apparently, they were friendly to Him at first, but now they break with Him over the question of the Sabbath day. You see, with the ones who claim that they’re the most quote “religious” are always the law keepers the ones who try to make everyone believe that they’re better than anyone else because they do what everybody else can’t do, and that’s keep the law. But of course, they don’t and never can keep the law but their massive pride and ego, their need to be more and greater than the rest, has a massive hold on them and sadly it will sentence them to eternal death.

 

Matthew 12:1

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 

 

We’ll see in this incident that Jesus claims that He’s Lord of the Sabbath day.

The Sabbath day!

The arguments over the Sabbath day have been raging throughout history, ever since this incident.

But before we look at that, let’s see the reason the disciples were pulling off and eating the grain heads. Well, it’s simple, they were hungry. Jesus will defend His disciples’ actions and this’s where the break with the religious rulers comes.

 

Verse 2 to 5,

And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!”

But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 

Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? 

 

We find the record of what David did when he and his men were hungry in 1 Samuel 21:1-6.

It was during the days of David’s rejection as king while Saul was ruling.

David took care of his men by feeding them although it meant breaking the Mosaic Law by feeding them bead, called the showbread, from the temple.

Jesus also uses the fact the priest worked on the Sabbath day and He’s referring to Numbers 28:9.

Jesus challenges them by saying, “You can recite this portion but you’re not looking at the complete scripture, and because of that you’re actually in error.”

Do you see how skilled these blokes were in scripture? Man, they knew it all and yet they completely missed what was most important. They knew the quote, “letter of the law” but not the spirit of the law. Paul, in 2 Corinthians 3:6 states,

..for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

 

Verse 6,

Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. 

 

Here, Jesus claimed to be greater than the most holy center of Jewish religious life, the temple. As far as the Pharisees were concerned, He’d blasphemed. He’d broken the Sabbath and now He’d blasphemed or shown great disrespect to what was holy.

 

Verse 7,

But if you had known what this means, ‘I DESIRE MERCY AND NOT SACRIFICE,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 

 

“I will have mercy and not sacrifice” comes from Hosea 6:6 which reads,

For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. 

The Lord defends His men by saying that they didn’t break the Sabbath day. Why? Well verse 8,

For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.

 

Believe me the Lord’s now put an uncrossable gulf between Himself and the Pharisees now.

The Sabbath was the most sacred observance they had and now He says to them that He’s Lord of the Sabbath day. In the eyes of the Pharisees, He could make no greater claim. He’s basically saying He’s God just as He would a number of times between now and His death on the cross. The bitterness and hatred of the religious elite is rising to a crescendo.

Now we leave the fields where this encounter took place, and we go into the synagogue, but we’re still faced with the same Sabbath question in verse 9,

Now when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue. 

 

Notice that “he went into their synagogue”. It’s a Jewish message to Jewish people.

 

Now verses 10 and 11,

And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked Him, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—that they might accuse Him. 

Then 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? 

 

Notice the words, “that they might accuse Him.”

This man with the withered hand seems to have been “planted” there deliberately by the Pharisees to trap Jesus into healing him.

If so, then they’re making two very important admissions, these enemies of Jesus.

1. They’re admitting that He had power to heal the sick. As we’ve seen, Jesus’s enemies never questioned His ability to perform miracles. You have to be two thousand years down the track from it as we are today before you can question His miracles. The Pharisees freely admitted that He had power to heal the sick otherwise there’d be no point in planting this man with the withered hand.
2. They acknowledged that when a helpless man was placed in His pathway, He was moved by compassion to heal him, even on the Sabbath day. What an admission!

Their question about the legality of healing on the Sabbath day was designed to trap Him. But Jesus actually trapped His enemies. They had to admit that a sheep should be rescued on the Sabbath day and in fact, the Mosaic Law made allowances for that.

 

Matthew 12:12 now,

Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

 

This is the nitty gritty of the whole matter: Should Jesus do good on the Sabbath day? He answers His own question in verse 13,

Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other. 

 

Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath day. Did He break the Law? No He didn’t break the Law.

Now we see from here on this unrepairable break between the religious rulers and Jesus widening more and more. Now they’re going to make the decision to destroy Him.

 

Matthew 12:14

Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him. 

 

Up to this point the Pharisees had been reasonably friendly.

They wanted to feather their own nest by partnering with Him so that His widespread fame would rub off on them.

However, the Lord refused to go along with them, and they became His enemies. The break is made over the question of the Sabbath day, and the great gap between Jesus and these religious elite comes out in the open. From here on they’re going to look into His every word, every phrase and every action, every possible minute detail that would inflame not only their own hatred but everyone else’s. They’ll never let up until they fold their arms with their satisfied smiles as they look up at Him from beneath His cross.

They begin to plot His death, and they desperately want to arrest Him, but they are afraid of the crowds.

 

Verse 15,

But when Jesus knew it, He withdrew from there. And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all. 

The action of the Pharisees led Jesus to withdraw temporarily because His hour had not yet come.

These self-righteous, self-centred, conceited, arrogant, and narcissistic leaders won’t be able to touch Him until that appointed time.

It’s interesting to notice in this verse that Jesus didn’t just heal a few people in the crowd, He healed them all.

We can’t even conceive of the impression that this made in that day. It was something absolutely astounding. They had to accept or reject Him; it was impossible to sit on the fence and be neutral.

He’s still just as controversial today. The enemy is still after Him. It seems that every day another book or movie or internet article is blaspheming Him and spitting hatred at Him.

Friends, we’re either for Him or against him today. There’re no sideline seats available. He’ll either be our Savior or our Judge, but we cannot ever get rid of Him.

In verse 16 He again warns them,

Yet He warned them not to make Him known, 

Why did He warn them not to make Him known?

Verses 17 to 20 Tells us. It was to fulfill prophecy. This time a fulfilment of Isaiah 42 1 to 4. Once again Matthew is showing us Jesus, quote “coming to fulfill the law and the prophets”,

We read,

Verse 18,

“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. 

The quotation from peaks of the gentle character of the Messiah, who is the Servant of Yahweh. This was a common and important designation of Jesus.

Verse 19,

HE WILL NOT QUARREL NOR CRY OUT, NOR WILL ANYONE HEAR HIS VOICE IN THE STREETS. 

This doesn’t mean that Jesus never spoke loudly. It refers to His gentle, lowly heart, and actions. Jesus didn’t make His way by an overpowering personality and loud, overwhelming talk. Instead, Jesus made an impression upon others by the Spirit of God upon Him.

Verse 20,

A BRUISED REED HE WILL NOT BREAK, AND SMOKING FLAX HE WILL NOT QUENCH, TILL HE SENDS FORTH JUSTICE TO VICTORY. 

This is another reference to the gentle character of Jesus. A reed is a fairly fragile plant, yet if a reed is bruised the Servant will handle it so gently that He’ll not break it. And if flax, used as a wick for an oil lamp, doesn’t flame but only smokes, He won’t quench and extinguish it. Instead, He’ll will gently nourish the smoking flax, fanning it into flame again.

 

Verse 21,

AND IN HIS NAME GENTILES WILL TRUST.” 

 

This is incredible news for every gentile, you and me because not only have we been offered the salvation through the Christ that the nation Israel rejected but it’s purely by trust in His name.

This trusting in His name throughout the earth by Gentiles should shake the nation of Israel to it’s very core.

This prophecy is being fulfilled today.

Christ’s rejection by His own people led to His offer of Grace to the Gentiles.

In the Book of Acts in Acts 26:15-18, we read the account of where Jesus commissioned the great apostle Paul to be the missionary to the Gentiles.

Let’s finish off today by looking at this verse that should be a treasure to every Gentile.

Paul is in front of King Agrippa and He’s telling him about how he was interrupted by the Lord on his journey to Damascus.

Acts 26 Verse 15,

So, I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 

But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. 

I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’

Until next time friend may The Lord Keep you and guide you as you trust in Him and Him alone.