Matthew 12

This sermon was first preached at CHBC, June 2006

Matthew 12 Sermon.

When they can’t think of what else to do, radio stations in the UK will have a phone-in to discover the best songs of all time. About half of the best songs are always written in the last year. But of those whose popularity outlasts the passing fads, John Lennon’s song is always somewhere near the top.

Imagine there's no Heaven It's easy if you try No hell below us Above us only sky Imagine all the people Living for today Imagine there's no countries It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people Living life in peace You may say that I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will be as one

John Lennon was neither the first nor the last person to suggest that we would all just get along a whole lot better if it wasn’t for religion.

Is Lennon right? Do we just have to look at the middle east today to see that religion leads to war. When religious differences make for such hostility in this world, should we lay them aside? Should we work at what really matters… peace?

Is it that simple?

Well, only if it what we believe has no serious or lasting consequences.
Jesus doesn’t allow us to think that.
For Jesus has established his kingdom, and, he insists that we are all either citizens of that kingdom – or we are enemies of his kingdom – there is no middle ground. “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters,” he says.

Just as we saw growing confusion about Jesus in chapter 11, here we see rising opposition. All religions are not one, for there is a kind of religion that is against everything that Jesus is and everything that he stands for.
We all have one form of religion or another, because none of us is neutral towards Jesus. Either we honor him, or we oppose him.
Either we live for him, or for ourselves.

The rising opposition to Jesus was self-righteous, self-sufficient, and ultimately self-centered.
We need to ask ourselves: is this our religion. Are we for Jesus, or against him?
Who is on the throne? Jesus or self?


1-14 Self-Righteous Religion Disputes Jesus’ Compassion (1166)

PAGE NUMBERS…


Read 1-8

1At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. 2When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, "Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath."
3He answered, "Haven't you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. 5Or haven't you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent? 6I tell you that one[a] greater than the temple is here. 7If you had known what these words mean, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice,'[b] you would not have condemned the innocent. 8For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."
It was perfectly legal for people to eat food from farmers’ fields. (Deuteronomy 23). It was one of the ways in which God had set up the nation of Israel to demonstrate his extraordinary generosity. The Promised Land was to be one where there would be nobody so poor as to have no food.

The Pharisees knew this would have been permissible 6 days a week, but the Pharisees insisted not on the Sabbath. (V.2) You’ll notice how often the phrase, “on the Sabbath” comes.
That was actually disputable. But, as Jesus does so often, he doesn’t reply according to the terms laid out by his opponents.
Jesus turns their question into an opportunity to teach further about himself, for far more important than a dispute about the minutiae of the law (literally a few grains) was what they were doing with Jesus. He exposes that they were not really interested in following God’s law, but merely in proving themselves righteous.
Jesus had said, “Come to me and I will give you rest.” They thought that they were quite capable of receiving God’s rest without Jesus.

So, Jesus turns to 3 passages of the Old Testament to show that they were abusing Scripture: history, law, prophets.

He turns to 1 Samuel and to Leviticus to show that the ceremonial laws such as the Sabbath were not quite so strict as they suggested. Their were exceptions in times of need, or for the service of greater laws. David and the priests show that.
But as well as showing the flexibility of the law for the sake of compassion, Jesus has also shown that he is more important either than King David, or than the temple…
Well, Jesus says… v.6 “I tell you, one greater than the temple is here.”
Of course Jesus’ disciples must work in their service of Jesus on the Sabbath – for he is the locus of worship – he’s the real thing of which the temple was only a model. Jesus is the greater king than David
Then he turns to Hosea to show that the law wasn’t and end in itself, but an expression of people’s devotion to the Lord. So to obey the externals of the law, yet to have a hard heart was to miss the point of it.

But ultimately they missed the point of it because it was to point to Jesus. The son of man is Lord of the Sabbath.

This didn’t mean that Jesus could ignore Sabbath. No, he is saying that he keeps it with a pure heart and he fulfils it. The Sabbath is a picture of the rest that God brings his people. As we saw in chapter 11, Jesus brings the reality of that rest.
Jesus in effect is saying, you cannot claim to have any knowledge of God’s word, if, when you see Jesus you don’t even recognize him as the God who wrote it!

Both their lack of compassion, and their blindness to Jesus’ more compassionate reading of the law becomes even clearer.

Read 9-14

9Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, 10and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they asked him, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"
11He said to them, "If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? 12How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."
13Then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other
Jesus’ asks questions that show that the Pharisees aren’t as consistent about working on the Sabbath as they claimed.
They wouldn’t leave a sheep in a pit for 24 hours, though it would take rather more work than picking corn, or than it took Jesus to heal a man.

The way in which the Pharisees were applying Sabbath laws spoke of their bitterness and capriciousness. They will show more mercy to a sheep than to a man.

Whereas Jesus heals the man. He will not have him suffer for another minute.
Why? 12 because “It is law to do good on the Sabbath.”

[Yet, he’s also showing that God approves of his’ view of the Sabbath. How would he be able to perform miracles on the Sabbath unless God is at work in him on the Sabbath, thus approving of his actions?]

The section closes with biting irony: those who saw themselves as the protectors of the Sabbath. Those who would not even do good if it mean doing work. How do they spend their Sabbath… in the worship of God!?

. 14But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.
They strain out a gnat and swallow a camel, forbidding a grain of wheat and planning the murder of the Son of God.

Self-righteous religion will always end up bitter. Because we know that we are not good enough to be righteous in ourselves, and the only way we can make ourselves feel that good is by pointing out the tiny visible flaws of others.
How tragic. For the very God who gave them the law they depended upon is a God of mercy. And they did not know his mercy. He desires mercy not sacrifice, because he offers us mercy. If we have received mercy from him, how can we not show mercy to others?

What is our reaction when we discover other people’s sin in this church? Are we saddened but compassionate, or does it secretly make us feel just a little bit better about ourselves. My brothers and sisters, we all need God’s mercy. Our tendencies towards self-righteous religion will blind us to Jesus’ compasson, and stop us from being compassionate to others.

Self-Rigtheous religion is like the person shipwrecked in the middle of the Atlantic refusing to be rescues help because they would rather swim, proud that they are the best swimmer they know.

15-37 Self-sufficient Religion Demonizes Jesus’ Spirituality. (2282)

Read 15-21
15Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. Many followed him, and he healed all their sick, 16warning them not to tell who he was. 17This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: 18"Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations. 19He will not quarrel or cry out; no one will hear his voice in the streets. 20A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he leads justice to victory. 21In his name the nations will put their hope."[c]


Wouldn’t it have been extraordinary to be one of Jesus’ disciples watching Jesus heal so many? God has occasionally performed miracles in Israel’s history, but the sheer number of miracles Jesus is performing is unprecedented. “Many followed him. He healed all their sick.”
It was a clear demonstration of the power of God’s Spirit.
His kingdom might be encountering growing opposition. But it is spiritual kingdom that is not hostile by nature. It is a kingdom that is offered to all from every nation. It is a kingdom that gently woes people into it.
There is a growing spiritual battle, yes, but it is not the kind of battle where there is collateral damage. Jesus does not see human life as being cheap. The kingdom will not advance with the sword, but with the gentle invitation.

There is a growing fear today of any beliefs that are held to be un-negotiable, because the fear is that if people think that a truth is worth dying for, then it is a small step to think that it is worth killing for. Those who follow Christ must never take that step, for Jesus didn’t.
We can take up arms as citizens of our nations – but the church is never to take up arms or use any other coercive means – that would suggest that Jesus’ kingdom was of this world.

To follow Christ means to be willing to be persecuted, never to persecute.
Justice is not yet meted our… But Jesus will bring justice to the nations…
Is your hope somehow that Jesus will ultimately compromise in his justice? It is a false hope. His justice is delayed but will be final and total.
But the opposition grows.

22Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. 23All the people were astonished and said, "Could this be the Son of David?"
24But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, "It is only by Beelzebub,[d] the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons."
25Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. 26If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? 27And if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your people drive them out?
So then, they will be your judges. 28But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
29"Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can rob his house.
The Pharisees can’t deny the miracles; they’ve seen them
Yet so determined are they to reject Jesus that they attribute them to supernatural evil. Beelzebub literally meaning ‘Lord of the flies’ was a name given to the God of Ekron. (2 Kings 1) The point they are making is this: Jesus may claim to be a king – but he insn’t like king David as he claims – the king after God’s own heart – he is like the evil king Ahaziah who worshipped foreign gods rather than the Lord.” He’s leading the people astray with miracles.

Jesus again doesn’t answer their question directly, but uses two more arguments that point to who he is, and the pharisees’ hypocrisy.

1) A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.

Jesus is not saying here that there could never be any spirit driven out by a magician using demonic power. Rather, Jesus hasn’t just performed one or two miracles to lull people into a false sense of security. He is performing hundreds of miracles. Whenever he comes across a demon, it runs from him. Whever he comes across someone inflicted with an illness, they are healed. This cannot merely be some strategic giving of ground, because Jesus is taking over all of Satan’s ground. Satan is in massive retreat.
To suggest that this is Satan’s strategy would be like saying that D. Day was Hitler’s cunning ploy to lure the allies into Europe.


No demon would give up the person they possess without a fight. That’s the point of verse 29 – so would Satan really be all-out-battle against himself like this?

No, even the Pharisees admitted that demons are usually driven out by God’s power – and this number of exorcisms must be by God’s power.

And the very fact that Satan is in full-scale retreat can mean only one thing.
v.28.
“If I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”
It is possible, like the Pharisees, to study the bible for years, and yet to resist Jesus, to whom the whole thing is pointing.

In our times reading the Bible each day, more than anything else, are we delighted with the opportunity to meet with our Lord Jesus?
John Owen: “Unto them that believe unto the saving of the soul, he is, he always has been, precious--the sun, the rock, the life, the bread of their souls--every thing that is good, useful, amiable, desirable, here or unto eternity. In, from, and by him, is all their spiritual and eternal life, light, power, growth, consolation, and joy here; with everlasting salvation hereafter….
Is Jesus this precious to you?
Jesus warns them what a precarious situation their indiffernce puts them in.
30"He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. 31And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
Our reaction to Jesus is an electric fence which cannot be sat upon. To sit on the fence is to be opposed to Jesus’ rule.
And this is a dangerous situation to be in – for there is such a thing as unforgiven sin.
Misunderstanding what Jesus is saying here about the ‘unforgivable sin’ can be very damaging. It is not that if you on a single occasion slander the Holy Spirit that you cannot be forgiven. It is not that somehow the Holy Spirit is more important than Jesus, and so it is a more heinous sin to blaspheme against Jesus than against the Holy Spirit.

Rather, it is the Holy Spirit who opens blind eyes. It is he who grants faith. Thus if the Holy Spirit is treated as a demon rather than welcomed then there would be no repentance. Without the work of the Holy Spirit we will always reject Jesus.

The bible is clear that we are born spiritually dead. We may be religious. We have spirits – but those spirits have no relationship with our Lord the life-giver.
33"Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. 34You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. 35The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him”

You may not consider yourself as evil. You might think of the human race as largely good. But, the evidence is against you. If we were good, says jesus, we would only bear good fruit. But nobody does. Have you ever wondered why every single person in the human race but Jesus is selfish. Doesn’t that seem more than a bit of a coincidence!!?

Without the transforming work of he Holy Spirit not one of us could possibly believe in Jesus – that’s not the kind of fruit that self-sufficient people bare.

The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Cor 2:14)

This is one of the ways in which many people often misunderstand Christianity – even some who call themselves Christians. It is not just that Christians are encouraged by their Lord not to be manipulative in trying to win converts. It’s that manipulation cannot possibly win any converts at all. Without the Holy spirit changing our natures we will all reject Jesus.
A nineteenth century English preacher called Joseph Denham Smith put it like this:

'I believe in free will; but then it is a will only free to act according to its nature. A dove has no will to eat carrion; a raven has no will to eat the clean food of the dove. Put the nature of the dove into the raven and it will eat the food of the dove. ... The sinner in his sinful nature could never have a will according to God. For this he must be born again’

Jesus is very clear – if you repent of your sin, and trust in Jesus, you will be forgiven.
If you are terrified that you have committed the unforgivable sin, then you have not yet committed it. The unforgivable sin is precisely a complacent refusal to trust in Jesus. It demonises Jesus spirituality. It says that his promises are lies and his kingdom evil. The person who commits the unforgiveable sin is not worried about it at all, because, despite the Holy Spirit’s evidence, they consider Jesus an evil worth avoiding.

If you do are not a Christian, but you are beginning to realize that the claims of Jesus are true, Jesus is warning you this morning that there are sins that will not be forgiven either in this age, or in the age to come: the sin of beginning to see who he is and then determinedly walking away from him rather than fleeing to him. If you are convinced of who Jesus is, it is a dangerous thing to delay – God has been gracious in giving you today to consider Jesus. He doesn’t promise you tomorrow. Do speak to someone at the door if you are unsure of what it would mean to repent of your sin and trust in Jesus. Pretty much anyone here would love to speak about that to you! For those who do not gather scatter.
If you are as yet unconvinced, then God has given you today to consider Jesus.

Perhaps you are not following Jesus right now – perhaps you grew up believing the gospel to be true and then walked away – and you wonder if you have committed the unforgiveable sin by wandering away from what you know to be true.
If you will turn back to Jesus he will not turn you away. If you will repent, then you have not committed the unforgivable sin. Peter denied three times that he even knew Jesus, yet he was forgiven, and used mightily to be one who gathered and did not scatter.
The bruised reed Jesus will not break, and the smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
The very fact that you know your need of repentance right now if a gracious sign that God hasn’t finished with you yet.
Richard Sibbes wrote a whole book on “the bruised reed”, an excellent book if you struggle with questions of assurance of salvation. In it he writes “If there be any holy fire in us, it is kindled from heaven by the Father of lights, who “commanded the light to shine out of darkness”

Jesus makes it clear how desperately we need the work of the Spirit that will enable us to lay hold of God’s mercy.
36But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. 37For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned."
You see, none of us is in a fit state to meet God. The Lord’s standards are perfect. He has promised to punish every sin that you or I have ever committed. Even every careless word spoken will be punished.

What can we do to escape God’ anger…? The Pharisees thought that they could depend upon themselves and upon their stringent efforts to keep the law. But they couldn’t. they might as well depend on the devil himself to help them.

So how then can we be saved…? V37 By your words you will be acquitted – not by being really polite to people… no but by calling out in repentance and faith to Jesus Christ,.

For he is the only one who can take God’s anger away from us. When he died on the cross he bore God’s own personal anger towards me for my sin, and towards everyone else who will ever trust in Christ.

Have you committed the unforgiveable sin – in the end your words will show where your heart is – whether your heart still belongs to yourself, or whether you know Jesus as your Lord. If you have Jesus as your Lord then all your sins have been forgiven.

Self –dependent religion demonizes Jesus’ spirituality and thus cuts itself off from the only hope of forgiveness –the work of the Holy spirit enabling us to trust Jesus.

38-50 Self-Centred Religion Defies Jesus’ Authority (1466)

38-42
38Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, "Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you."
39He answered, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
The Pharisees ask for a miraculous sign. A man has a shriveled hand completely restored. Another was blind and mute, but now sees and talks. How many miraculous signs do they want!? They want one that is when they ask, rather than when Jesus decides.
Do you find this incomprehensibly obtuse?
But don’t we do the same thing?

I wonder if you are tempted to make demands of God. “Lord, if only you will get me through this week, then I’ll find you trustworthy.” “Lord, if only you’ll get me a job, or a spouse, or a home, or better health, then I will trust you.”

Do we realize what we are doing when we say this to God.
We are telling him that we have a standard by which we have the right to judge God.
No, we will judge Jesus by whether he will give what we want. Effectively we are saying that Jesus is to be judged by whether or not he will obey us.

Is that what you want from God? Do you really want a God, who though powerful is effectively tame, like the genie in Alladin’s lamp! A god who is bound by our tiny ideas of what would be good for us?
Praise God that he will not pander to such self-centred religion, for he knows that he is the only proper and secure centre.
When we share the gospel do we present God as the one who is there and must be worshipped, and had graciously made a way for us to worship him, sinners though we are.
Or do we present god as the one who will give people what they want? “Jesus will give you purpose in life. Following Jesus is the best possible way to live your life now. Jesus will meet all your needs.”
To worship Jesus is to know the true and living God. But it is also to be hated like Jesus was hated.
To turn and follow Jesus is to forsake your allegiance to this desperately attractive world and to submit to Jesus’ Lordship.
Christian faith is not about demanding things of Jesus. It is about depending upon Jesus. That is why Christians pray – because we know we depend upon him. But we know also that he is far wiser than we realize. We may ask him for a job or a spouse or health, but if he doesn’t give them to us, he is no less trustworthy.
Time and again we can look back on the times when Jesus did not give us what we asked of him, and see that it was a part of his mercy to us.
William Cowper suffered from terrible depression. I’m sure that he asked the Lord to lift it 1000 times.
Yet, through that darkness the lord brought wonderful testimony to his faithfulness.
God moves in a mysterious wayHis wonders to perform;He plants His footsteps in the seaAnd rides upon the storm.
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;The clouds ye so much dreadAre big with mercy and shall breakIn blessings on your head.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,But trust Him for His grace;Behind a frowning providenceHe hides a smiling face.
His purposes will ripen fast,Unfolding every hour;The bud may have a bitter taste,But sweet will be the flower.
Blind unbelief is sure to errAnd scan His work in vain;God is His own interpreter,And He will make it plain.
If we doubt his goodness to us when he doesn’t give us what we ask, we are to look to the one great sign that he has given us.
The sign of Jonah.
It is an unusual sign.
40For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one[e] greater than Jonah is here. 42The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom, and now one greater than Solomon is here.

Many people take this to refer to the resurrection, and it certainly alludes to it. But the focus is not on the resurrection, but on the death and burial of Jesus. It is the days before the resurrection, not the resurrection itself.
The sign that Jesus will give them is the sign of the Messiah who will suffer and die before he is eventually vindicated by God three days later (if you count inclusively as Jew did)

Is this not the sign that we need?


The sign not that Jesus is at our beck and call like Alladin’s Geenie – but that the sovereign Lord who will sometimes say ‘No” to us is the one who has died for us. When Jesus doesn’t do what we want it is not for lack of love.
His miracles may prove his power. But in the end it is Jesus’ sacrificial love that is the most compelling sign that here is an authority to which we must submit. What can we do when we see the cross but bow in awe, and in thanks, and throw off all our stupid self-serving religion. We are not the Lord. Christ Jesus, who died for us is the Lord.
“God, to show his love to us, showed himself God in this, that he could be God and go so low as to die.”
Will we like the People of Nineveh turn in repentance to the one whose death and resurrection show that his authority is so much greater than Jonah’s?
Will we like the queen of Sheeba sit at Jesus’ feet acknowledging that his wisdom if far greater than king Solomon’s.
Or we remain content following our own wisdom, which is rather less than Solomon’s, and nothing compared to Jesus?
Will we settle for worldly wisdom. Or will we embrace the wisdom of God and the power of God - the cross of Jesus Christ?
Where would we be without the cross?
We would be left without God and without hope in the world. We would face God’s anger for ever. But with the cross we are forgiven; we are God’s children; we have the certain hope of heaven. Praise God for the one sign we needed – the sign that God would take upon himself the punishment we deserve so that we might have know the love that only he derserves.
43"When an evil[f] spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. 44Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. 45Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation."
Where would we be without the cross?
We would be left without God and without hope in the world. We would face God’s anger for ever.

Without the cross, even if Jesus performed a thousand miracles at our request, what good would it do us? For he could get rid of all evil I our lives. He could make them temporarily perfect. Our lives would seem swept clean and put in order. But we would still be separated from God. We would still not be able to know Jesus as our Lord.

That would be our state.

But with the cross we are forgiven; we are God’s children; we have the certain hope of heaven. Praise God for the one sign we needed – the sign that God would take upon himself the punishment we deserve so that we might have know the love that only he derserves.

And that is the state of many – many are without the cross of Jesus.
If you don’t know Jesus today, what do you have your hopes set on? That you would have your life straightened out and secure. My friend there is no security outside of Jesus reign over you life. If God in his kindness to you gives you all your wishes today, what protection do you have from evil tomorrow?

I don’t think that Jesus is just referring to those who are demon-possesed here.
It is the whole generation that Jesus says will be like this.
The point is, that if you don’t have jesus, you may think yourself wise and in control. But you are just as much in the delusion of the devil as if you had seven demons. Unless you are owned by Christ, jesus insists that you belong to the devil.
The point is that there is nothing that gives you security outside of Christ’s Lordship over your life.
There are two major mistakes that we can make concerning demons, as C.S. Lewis ironically points out in Screwtape letters.
One is to act as if they don’t exist. The other to be utterly fascinated or terrified by them.
To act as if they don’t exist will have two results. We won’t be equipped for the spiritual warfare that Jesus wants us to engage in in Ephesians. That is, we will be open to temptation and prayerless in evangelism.
Secondly, we will begin to think that we have some other enemy, and will imagine that other human beings are to be demonized, rather than evangelized.
To become terrified by demons is to suggest that they are an undefeated enemy. We will be terrified of demon possession.
If we have Jesus as our Lord, then we belong to the one from whom demons flee. We cannot belong to Jesus and to demons.
And that’s the question he’s forcing us to answer. Do we, or do we not belong to Jesus? Are we members of his kingdom, or enemies, as yet resisting his invitation to enter his rest.

46While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. 47Someone told him, "Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you."[g]
48He replied to him, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?" 49Pointing to his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. 50For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."
Do you call yourself a Christian today. In the end you will not be saved by that label. You’ll not be saved by being baptized, or by being a member of Capitol Hill Baptist Church. Even Jesus mother wasn’t saved by being his mother, but by trusting in him.
By recognizing that her son was also the Son of God, and by recognizing that his death was for her sins, and by entrusting her life to his rule.

Is religion divisive? Well, some kingdoms are divided against themselves… the devil is happy to have those in his kingdom fight against each other, so long as his grip upon them deepens. For he is happy to do anything to distract the world from the reality of who will judge it – and who has died to save it.

The devil is happy to have the materialists fight against the Muslims so long as they both think that what they have is worth fighting for, and don’t realize that there is a king whom both of them are ignoring at their peril.
Or he’d be happy for materialists and Moslems to embrace each other, so long as it made them feel that peace on earth was a sufficient goal, without realizing that they are in a cold war with King Jesus.
But he is desparately unhappy when people begin to realize who Jesus is. Our battle is against him, and the hold he has on people’s lives. We will do battle with, prayer, righteousness, faith, and holding out the sword of the spirit which is the word of God, the gospel.

Conclusion (215)

Is religion divisive?

Yes, it is.

For Jesus Christ is calling people out of the world that hates him, and faces his judgement into his family. He is calling people to join him in being hated, for we have come to know that he is worth loving.

Thus, there are two kinds of religion… everyone has one of those two kinds – there is religion that brings us into the kingdom, and religion that keeps us from Jesus’ kingdom.

To act as if this were an insignificant detail that can be overlooked is to imagine that there is no difference between Jesus and those who crucified him – its to imagine that there’s no heaven

Imagine there's no Heaven It's easy if you try No hell below us Above us only sky
But every such imagination will one day wake up to stark reality. And that day it will be too late.

But there is hope for the nations in Jesus - a bruised reed he will not break. For he himself would be bruised for all such reeds. A smoldering wick he will not snuff out. Rather, he allowed his own life to be taken, so that we might become his mother, his brother, his sister – members of his family for ever.