SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: If you take your Bibles or your device with me to Matthew chapter 12, I'd like to direct your attention this morning to verses 14 through 21.
SPEAKER_01: Verses 14 through 21.
SPEAKER_01: This passage is important for us to grasp and understand because every single person has or likely will be in the position of needing to speak to a particular situation that arises from this passage of scripture.
SPEAKER_01: You've probably talked to or known or been in the place yourself where you come to a passage of scripture and it just doesn't make sense.
SPEAKER_01: Or you perceive that there's some element that is untrue or is in contradiction to something else.
SPEAKER_01: And what do you do with that?
SPEAKER_01: How do you handle it?
SPEAKER_01: You've probably known people and are aware of people who just say, no, I don't want anything to do with that because there are so many contradictions in the Bible that it just, I don't want to have to deal with that.
SPEAKER_01: This passage of scripture is addressing one of those elements and it helps us speak to that as well.
SPEAKER_01: So it's important to understand for us, especially as we seek to relate to other people who have these kinds of struggles.
SPEAKER_01: I'd like to begin this morning in verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: Our text actually begins in verse 15, but I'd like to begin reading in verse 14 to help us get the context a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: It says the Pharisees went out and conspired against Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That is, how to destroy him.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there.
SPEAKER_01: And many people followed him, and he healed them all, and he ordered them not to make him known.
SPEAKER_01: This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased.
SPEAKER_01: I will put my spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_01: He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.
SPEAKER_01: A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory, and in his name the Gentiles will hope.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: One of the issues of concern that some people have is an element in the gospels that's often referred to as the messianic secret.
SPEAKER_01: That is, why would Jesus tell people to not speak of him?
SPEAKER_01: Why would Jesus heal a man with a withered hand, give him a brand new hand, and then tell him, don't tell anybody?
SPEAKER_01: Literally, don't reveal who I am.
SPEAKER_01: That seems contradictory even to what we know from the Gospel of Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: It's at the end of this gospel that Matthew tells all of Christ's followers, go and as you're going out into the world, make disciples.
SPEAKER_01: How do you make disciples without telling people about Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: So this is one of those passages that seems to be at best a contradiction.
SPEAKER_01: How do we put this together with what comes later in Matthew?
SPEAKER_01: How do we make sense of Jesus wanting the world to know about him and yet then telling people, don't say anything?
SPEAKER_01: Why does Jesus, in verse 15, back away?
SPEAKER_01: Why does he withdraw from this situation?
SPEAKER_01: If he is God in the flesh, why does he take himself out of this difficult encounter?
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, sometimes we allow the Bible and its difficulties to tie us into knots.
SPEAKER_01: When in reality the answers are right in front of us if we just take a little bit of time to look carefully.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what I'd like us to do this morning is just to spend a few moments looking carefully to see are there really any difficulties here?
SPEAKER_01: And I think the answer that we will find is no.
SPEAKER_01: It's very, very clear.
SPEAKER_01: So we start in verses 15, 16, and 17.
SPEAKER_01: We see that there are several actions being described.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is in this situation of difficult encounter with people who are conspiring to destroy him.
SPEAKER_01: They want him gone.
SPEAKER_01: They want him done, over, out of their world.
SPEAKER_01: So he withdraws from there.
SPEAKER_01: He backs away.
SPEAKER_01: That's one action.
SPEAKER_01: Another action is as he's withdrawing from this situation, people keep on following him.
SPEAKER_01: They don't let him go off on his own.
SPEAKER_01: They follow after him.
SPEAKER_01: And those who follow after him, Jesus responds to them with compassion and grace and mercy, and he heals them.
SPEAKER_01: And then the next action is in verse 16, where he orders them to not make him known, to not reveal who he is.
SPEAKER_01: See, there are people who are coming to grasp who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: As they grasp who he is, as they understand his power, his authority, his grace, his mercy, they are naturally then inclined to reveal who he is, to make him known, to tell others about him, and he gives a command: don't reveal what you know.
SPEAKER_01: And we ask, why?
SPEAKER_01: The answer is not that difficult.
SPEAKER_01: He tells us in verse 17, this was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: Period.
SPEAKER_01: Why did all of these things happen?
SPEAKER_01: To fulfill Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Every single element here is a fulfillment of prophetic scripture.
SPEAKER_01: We'll talk about why it's a fulfillment as we go on.
SPEAKER_01: But just so we can see it in greater clarity here, let me try to show this to you.
SPEAKER_01: Let's ask these things in questions.
SPEAKER_01: Why did Jesus, first off, the first action that we see, why did he withdraw?
SPEAKER_01: Why did he back away from this confrontation with the religious leaders of the Jews?
SPEAKER_01: To fulfill Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: That's what it tells us.
SPEAKER_01: The next element: why did people follow him?
SPEAKER_01: Why did Jesus respond with grace and mercy, ministering to them to heal them?
SPEAKER_01: He did it to fulfill scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Next question.
SPEAKER_01: Why did people follow him and heal them?
SPEAKER_01: That's the same one, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Why did Jesus withdraw from this dangerous confrontation?
SPEAKER_01: You know the answer.
SPEAKER_01: He did it to fulfill prophetic scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Now we might not be able to make sense of all of the details surrounding that immediately, but we at least have an answer to the question that doesn't seem to make sense.
SPEAKER_01: That is, why does Jesus back away when he is the one in power?
SPEAKER_01: Well, he did it to fulfill Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: It ought to be crystal clear what we are supposed to see in this passage of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: God wants us to see beyond any shadow of a doubt that Jesus is the one whom God promised to send.
SPEAKER_01: When you see all of those prophetic statements in the Old Testament in that first portion of your Bible, it all points to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Matthew wants us to see.
SPEAKER_01: Everything here points to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So let's think about these in a little more depth.
SPEAKER_01: First, let's ask why did the people follow Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: And why did he heal them?
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus withdrew.
SPEAKER_01: As he withdraws from this confrontation, there are people who follow him and he heals them.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, this is the Sabbath day.
SPEAKER_01: And this began probably early in the morning as Jesus was leading his disciples through the fields on the Sabbath day to go to the synagogue.
SPEAKER_01: On the Sabbath day, they did something that God gave allowance for in the book of Deuteronomy.
SPEAKER_01: He said, if you're walking through your neighbor's wheat field on a morning when you're hungry, you have grace to pick heads of grain and to eat them to fill your stomach.
SPEAKER_01: He said that in the book of Deuteronomy.
SPEAKER_01: Now he went further than that.
SPEAKER_01: He said, You don't have permission to take a sickle to your neighbor's field and start harvesting their grain for you.
SPEAKER_01: You can feed your stomach in the moment, but you can't steal their harvest.
SPEAKER_01: But the Pharisees come along and say, hey, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_01: Even though God allowed that, it's breaking another commandment.
SPEAKER_01: So that started the confrontation at the beginning of this chapter.
SPEAKER_01: That moves from the fields to the synagogue, where there is a man with a withered hand.
SPEAKER_01: Whether he's planted there on purpose or whether the Pharisees just take advantage of him being there, we don't know.
SPEAKER_01: But they use that as an opportunity to test Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Is it okay?
SPEAKER_01: Is it lawful?
SPEAKER_01: Is it righteous to do the work of healing on the Sabbath day?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus, as only God can do, speaks to the man and he says, Stretch out your hand, and instantly he has a new hand.
SPEAKER_01: From there, they desire to destroy him.
SPEAKER_01: Why does Jesus then withdraw?
SPEAKER_01: Why does he go away from this opportunity to really take advantage of the situation?
SPEAKER_01: Now, on the one hand, it makes perfect sense why Jesus went somewhere else.
SPEAKER_01: Most of us would prefer to avoid life-threatening situations.
SPEAKER_01: We generally try to steer away from those if we can.
SPEAKER_01: So it would make sense if Jesus is simply wanting to steer away from a life-threatening situation, but that's not all there is to this account.
SPEAKER_01: We really don't need to speculate about the reason Jesus left the vicious encounter with the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_01: The reason is found in your Bible.
SPEAKER_01: All we need to know is to know more of our Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Specifically, we need to know more of Isaiah 42.
SPEAKER_01: That is the passage that Matthew begins to draw on in verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: You'll notice that there's a quotation mark that begins in verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, my servant.
SPEAKER_01: That quotation goes all the way through the end of the section in verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: What Matthew's doing here is he's taking his Hebrew Bible and he's translating it into the language of his time.
SPEAKER_01: And as he's doing that translation, he's making some minor adjustments to his translation to make his point clear.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah, he says, in chapter 42 of Isaiah, refers to this servant person that God has chosen.
SPEAKER_01: He's a unique, specially chosen, specially prepared servant with whom God is well pleased.
SPEAKER_01: But that's not the only detail that Matthew wants us to see.
SPEAKER_01: There's some subtlety to his writing.
SPEAKER_01: You see, when Isaiah wrote about God's servant in Isaiah 42, he used a Hebrew word that's the word for slave.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes it's translated slave, sometimes it's translated servant or even bondservant in some translations.
SPEAKER_01: But when Matthew brought that idea into his Greek gospel account, he translated it not with the same equivalent word in Greek for servant or slave, which would be the word dualos.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, he he switched it out.
SPEAKER_01: And he put another word in there.
SPEAKER_01: It's the word that means child.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's translated son or daughter.
SPEAKER_01: He uses that different word to emphasize the fulfillment of the passage.
SPEAKER_01: So in English, we might paraphrase verse 18 like this.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, my servant, my son whom I have chosen, my beloved one with whom I am well pleased.
SPEAKER_01: I want to say that again.
SPEAKER_01: And as I say it again, I want you to listen for some echoes to other passages of scripture that you might be familiar with.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, look, my servant, my son whom I've chosen, my beloved one with whom I am well pleased.
SPEAKER_01: Now you might be most familiar with the echo to the transfiguration and the baptism of Jesus, where the voice of God the Father was heard speaking about his son, saying, This is my son with whom I'm well pleased.
SPEAKER_01: That's a very clear echo.
SPEAKER_01: You might also hear some echoes from God speaking with Abraham in the Old Testament, where God commanded Abraham to take Isaac, his son, his only son, the son he loved, to Mount Moriah to offer him as a sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: See, we have to catch what Matthew's trying to accomplish here.
SPEAKER_01: He's telling us about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: What is he telling us about Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: He's telling us that Jesus is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: He's the one whom we've already seen in Matthew chapter 11 and so far in chapter 12, the one to whom all power and all authority has been handed over.
SPEAKER_01: He's the one who's come to reveal the Father to us, the one who calls everyone to come after him, to come to him, to take his yoke and to follow him, because he is gentle and lowly in heart.
SPEAKER_01: He is the one who is the Lord of the Sabbath, he's the one who is the caring and merciful creator.
SPEAKER_01: And incredibly, it's this Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: This is the one whom the Pharisees are seeking to destroy.
SPEAKER_01: The Father's son, his only son, his beloved son, the one before whom the Pharisees, and before you, whom you and I should bow, is the one they're seeking to destroy.
SPEAKER_01: Now, how does this play out?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus doesn't fight with his adversaries.
SPEAKER_01: So there's this dangerous encounter where they want to destroy him.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't fight with them, he doesn't even verbally spar with them, he doesn't take the fight to them.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 19 says, He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what the Jews expected in a Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: There were a handful of people before Jesus and after Jesus who had a Messiah complex.
SPEAKER_01: And they didn't fight, they didn't back away from a fight.
SPEAKER_01: No, they gathered friends.
SPEAKER_01: They gathered crowds.
SPEAKER_01: They gathered people to influence, to fight against their perceived enemies.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the common Jewish perception of a Messiah was.
SPEAKER_01: Let's gather a crowd, let's go fight against our enemies.
SPEAKER_01: But not God the Son.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Scripture has to be fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: Scripture has to be fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: And the scriptures said that Jesus would be humble and not aggressive.
SPEAKER_01: He wouldn't be found debating the sages to win friends and influence others.
SPEAKER_01: He wouldn't crush his enemies while everyone watches like spectators.
SPEAKER_01: No, the scriptures explain in Philippians chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: The Messiah came like a normal human being.
SPEAKER_01: Like a slave, even.
SPEAKER_01: A servant who would not demand his own rights and his own prerogatives, but would place others before himself, even if that meant giving his life for them.
SPEAKER_01: Again, we asked the question, why did why did people follow Jesus when he's walking away from a fight?
SPEAKER_01: Why did Jesus heal them?
SPEAKER_01: The answer is very simple.
SPEAKER_01: Now initially we we might think, why wouldn't they follow him?
SPEAKER_01: Here's a guy so so powerful that he can recreate a hand in an instant.
SPEAKER_01: He takes a few loaves and some fish and creates food for thousands of people.
SPEAKER_01: He heals diseases, he raises the dead.
SPEAKER_01: What is there not to like in that situation?
SPEAKER_01: Who wouldn't want to follow him?
SPEAKER_01: But if we think along those kinds of terms, we begin to mold our thinking of following Jesus into merely human terms, what he can do for us, what benefits he brings to me.
SPEAKER_01: And if we think in human terms, we begin to miss what Matthew wants us to see.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew wants us to see that people followed Jesus and he healed them because that is what Scripture required of the promised Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: A bruised reed he will not break.
SPEAKER_01: And a smoldering wick he will not quench.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, a few days at a time, sometimes for a week at a time.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember going to small lakes or or ponds and even visiting friends who lived on farms or ranches and being at a place like Devil's Lake, you know, where you find sections of the pond or the lake that'll be be filled with cattails.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: First, I would I would love the feel of the cattail at the top, and so I'd break that off and play with that for a while.
SPEAKER_01: Then I'd go on to another cattail and just grab it in the middle and bend it over.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, you know what happens in that kind of situation.
SPEAKER_01: It's soft and so it just bends.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't break.
SPEAKER_01: So you're left with a cattail that's kind of like this.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are like that.
SPEAKER_01: You're bent, you're you're burdened, you're bruised.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus doesn't come along and snap it off.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't break it.
SPEAKER_01: He comes to heal it.
SPEAKER_01: It sounds comforting and inviting to those of us who are hurting, and it should.
SPEAKER_01: Because so many people today are dealing with bruises, whether they're they're physical bruises or or emotional bruises or spiritual questions and pains.
SPEAKER_01: Many of you are no longer burning brightly.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you feel as though you never have.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are like like a smoldering wick that doesn't produce much light at all, but only smoke that feels like it irritates people.
SPEAKER_01: You know, a counselor with a gentle spirit, a doctor that that has gentle and caring hands, a shepherd that that has love, genuine, evident love for his sheep.
SPEAKER_01: Those kind of caregivers are inviting.
SPEAKER_01: They draw you in.
SPEAKER_01: This is Jesus, my friends.
SPEAKER_01: If you are bruised, if you are bent, if you are smoldering, if you are needing gentle healing or new life, come to him through his word.
SPEAKER_01: He will care for you as no one else can.
SPEAKER_01: The psalmist says, pour out your hearts to him, and he will care for you.
SPEAKER_01: Seek his life, the life that he provides as your own, and he will renew your spirit.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Matthew says happened.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible said, the Bible promised that one would be that kind of shepherd, that kind of counselor, that kind of healer.
SPEAKER_01: And when people follow Jesus seeking that care, all while others are seeking to destroy him, Matthew shows us it proves that Jesus is the one.
SPEAKER_01: He's fulfilling Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: And if he fulfills Scripture, then He is the one whom God promised to send.
SPEAKER_01: Think back with me.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 9, verse 12, Jesus is the physician who cares for the sick.
SPEAKER_01: In verse Verse 13 of chapter 9, he is the one who displays mercy to those who generally are not given mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 9, verse 36, he has compassion on the crowds, crowds that are described as sheep being without a shepherd.
SPEAKER_01: He is Lord over all.
SPEAKER_01: He's the Father's beloved son.
SPEAKER_01: He's gentle and lowly in heart who does not condemn the innocent.
SPEAKER_01: And when God promised through Isaiah that such a person would come, he spoke of his own servant son, his beloved son, with whom he is well pleased.
SPEAKER_01: Come to Jesus if you are bruised.
SPEAKER_01: Come to him if you are a smoldering wick.
SPEAKER_01: Come to him if you need a shepherd who is gentle and lowly in heart.
SPEAKER_01: But come to him not merely because you are broken, not merely because you have hurts, not merely because you have need of care.
SPEAKER_01: Come to him because he is Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He is the Father's Son sent to show you the Father and to bring you home to him.
SPEAKER_01: Now why?
SPEAKER_01: Why would Jesus then say, Don't make me known?
SPEAKER_01: That's all good.
SPEAKER_01: That's all great.
SPEAKER_01: Then how does that make sense with being quiet?
SPEAKER_01: Why did Jesus command them to not reveal him?
SPEAKER_01: Why couldn't the man with the new hand celebrate Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Why is he forced into silence?
SPEAKER_01: You know, whenever whenever we hear someone about someone who's who's forced into silence today, our natural conclusion is to assume that there's some ulterior motive behind someone being shut up.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe they've been threatened or with something.
SPEAKER_01: So we we think there's something else going on, that something else isn't good.
SPEAKER_01: And in this situation of Jesus commanding silence, there is another motive.
SPEAKER_01: But it is a righteous motive that is eternally good, helpful, and hopefully and redeeming.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at it.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus ordered those who were following him to not make him known.
SPEAKER_01: Those who were healed, those who were restored, encouraged, he said, don't say anything.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if we think about that from a merely human perspective, that makes no sense.
SPEAKER_01: I can't imagine living with a disease or a disability or having a man speak some words to me and instantly having a new hand and then keeping quiet about that.
SPEAKER_01: Now we want people to talk about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we're called to do, is to be people who tell others about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We want people to know him.
SPEAKER_01: So why would Jesus do this?
SPEAKER_01: Well, Matthew tells us, doesn't he?
SPEAKER_01: See, there are many times when studying your Bible is not easy.
SPEAKER_01: When finding the answers is sometimes quite difficult.
SPEAKER_01: But there are other times when we just don't look.
SPEAKER_01: When we overlook it.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the case here because when we look carefully, we see that Matthew gives us the answer.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus wants people to be quiet because it fulfills Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: You'll notice that quotation that goes from verse 18 to verse 21, it's all one unit that fulfills Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: And he's using that to say, here's how all of this, from Jesus withdrawing to healing people to keeping people quiet, here's how this all fulfills Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: So how then does Jesus wanting people to keep quiet fulfill scripture?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I want you to notice that there are eight future tense verbs in this reference to Isaiah 42, beginning in the middle of verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: There are eight actions that God said would be evident that would be seen in the promised Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I will put, I will put my spirit upon him.
SPEAKER_01: He will proclaim, he will not quarrel, he will not cry aloud, nor will anyone hear him.
SPEAKER_01: He will not break, he will not quench, he brings justice.
SPEAKER_01: Eight things from the from still future from the times, time point of Isaiah, who wrote them, that the Messiah would fulfill.
SPEAKER_01: And they're consecutive, they're one after another.
SPEAKER_01: There's no explanation, there's no description, it's just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, rapid fire.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah's promised servant, this son of the Father, would have a special endowment of the Spirit of God, and in the power of that spirit, he would fulfill all of the elements required or recorded by Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: Pause for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: Just consider that reality.
SPEAKER_01: Eight prophecies are said to be fulfilled in Jesus just from a few verses in Isaiah 42.
SPEAKER_01: Peter Stoner, in his book Science Speaks, applies the modern science of probability to those eight future tense verbs.
SPEAKER_01: Trying to figure out what's the probability that one human being, that one person would fulfill all eight of those prophecies.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't take probability or statistics or anything like that.
SPEAKER_01: Wasn't my cup of tea.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm quoting somebody else here, all right?
SPEAKER_01: This scholar says that the probability of Jesus fulfilling these eight prophecies is one in ten to the seventeenth power.
SPEAKER_01: Should have put this on the screen for you.
SPEAKER_01: That would be one, one chance out of one hundred quadrillion.
SPEAKER_01: That's one with 17 zeros behind it.
SPEAKER_01: The author suggests that we we imagine this probability in a very practical way.
SPEAKER_01: He suggests that we we take silver dollars.
SPEAKER_01: Most of you have seen a silver dollar, right?
SPEAKER_01: That we take silver dollars and we we lay them all over the state of Texas.
SPEAKER_01: State of Texas is a pretty big state.
SPEAKER_01: So we lay them, we cover the state of Texas with silver dollars, and then we we stack layers on top of layer until those silver dollars are two feet deep.
SPEAKER_01: That about two feet.
SPEAKER_01: All over the state of Texas.
SPEAKER_01: Then he suggests that we take one silver dollar and we mark it up.
SPEAKER_01: And we just toss it out into the pile and then we stir it all up.
SPEAKER_01: Then he suggests we blindfold one of you and tell you you have to find that silver dollar.
SPEAKER_01: You can go as far as you want, you can walk as far as you want, you can dig through as many as you want, blindfolded, but you have to find that marked silver dollar.
SPEAKER_01: He says, in probability, that's the chance that Jesus fulfills these eight prophecies.
SPEAKER_01: And yet that's the very thing that Matthew wants us to see.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus isn't just a blindfolded man who happens upon a marked silver dollar in the state of Texas.
SPEAKER_01: No, not at all.
SPEAKER_01: He's the one whom God intended, God determined, God established in eternity past would come and fulfill not just one prophetic statement, not just eight prophetic statements, but hundreds of them.
SPEAKER_01: As no one else could unless it was predetermined that Jesus would do it.
SPEAKER_01: And Matthew wants us to know that Jesus is the Messiah and to know for certain that Jesus is the one of whom the prophets spoke.
SPEAKER_01: And here are a mere eight reasons to rest in that.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, many of you, hopefully all of you, know who Jesus is and you've placed your faith in him alone for your salvation.
SPEAKER_01: If that's the case, praise God.
SPEAKER_01: This should strengthen your faith and your trust in him and solidify that.
SPEAKER_01: Solidify that he is the one who's called Emmanuel, and it ought to encourage you to speak more of him.
SPEAKER_01: But if that's not you, if you are searching for hope, like a bruised and bent reed or a smoldering wick, Matthew is saying to you, here's the one you need to find.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the one you need to come to.
SPEAKER_01: Now of these eight elements, one is repeated twice.
SPEAKER_01: Justice.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 18, he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 20, until he brings justice to victory.
SPEAKER_01: Now, in our current cultural climate, especially in the United States, it wouldn't be unusual to hear this passage referred to or spoken of, much like we often hear Micah 6.8 referenced, as a command for God's people and God's church to pursue justice for all people.
SPEAKER_01: Now, regardless of whether that is a good or bad thing or a right or a wrong thing to be involved in, we have to be careful to not make a passage of Scripture mean something it doesn't mean.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to see that seeing this passage in light of our current cultural context is not what this passage was intended for.
SPEAKER_01: There are at least three reasons.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, this passage is not about human justice.
SPEAKER_01: Nowhere does this passage call us as God's people or God's church to do justice or to bring about justice for other people.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, it doesn't even call us to follow Jesus' example.
SPEAKER_01: There are other passages that call us to follow those things.
SPEAKER_01: This one doesn't.
SPEAKER_01: This section is intended to show us Jesus as the Father's promised Son.
SPEAKER_01: And by showing us how he came to fulfill Scripture, it's a call to faith, to trust in Him, to trust in the revelation of the Scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: It's a call to refuse to be like the Pharisees and to come and follow Him.
SPEAKER_01: Second, this is not about what we must do.
SPEAKER_01: It's about what Jesus does.
SPEAKER_01: And what does it say Jesus will do?
SPEAKER_01: It says in verse 18, He will proclaim justice to the Gentiles, to the ethnicities of the world, to the ethnos of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 20, until he brings justice to victory.
SPEAKER_01: This is about what Jesus does in fulfillment of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: It would be pretty arrogant and self-centered to turn it into something about us.
SPEAKER_01: When it's intended to be about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Now the third reason that I don't think that this fits with our current cultural context is a very important word in verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: Until.
SPEAKER_01: This is the life and the work of the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew's saying, look, God promised this hundreds of years ago in Isaiah, telling us this is what the Messiah would come and do.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what Jesus is doing.
SPEAKER_01: They match, they fulfill.
SPEAKER_01: So the Spirit of God would come and empower Christ in unique and wonderful ways.
SPEAKER_01: And that empowerment, that enablement would move him to proclaim, to preach, to declare justice to the ethnicities of the world.
SPEAKER_01: And that work of Christ continues, even today, through the same Spirit, empowering Christ's church to continue that proclamation, that declaration of justice.
SPEAKER_01: So you can see then in the choice of words that Matthew gives us, this is not about working to make sure that every single person, every single people group has the same kind of justice in the sense of racial justice.
SPEAKER_01: This is about proclaiming a justice that has already been achieved.
SPEAKER_01: How can Jesus merely proclaim justice and it be brought about?
SPEAKER_01: No matter how you think of justice in our world today, you don't just speak something and it happens.
SPEAKER_01: But this is just going right along with everything that Matthew's been showing us, right?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus speaks and there's a new hand.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus proclaims justice, and it is.
SPEAKER_01: But notice that bringing justice to victory is not the end of Matthew's reference to Isaiah 42.
SPEAKER_01: The end of the reference is, and in his name, the ethos, the ethnicities of the world will hope.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why do I use ethnicities?
SPEAKER_01: I use it because it's the word that Matthew uses that is often translated Gentiles in our Bibles.
SPEAKER_01: He uses the word ethnos, ethnicities, the different people groups.
SPEAKER_01: And that made sense to a Jewish audience that Matthew was writing to.
SPEAKER_01: We at Faith Evangelical Free Church are not, at least primarily a Jewish audience.
SPEAKER_01: We are the Gentiles, we are the ethnicities of the world.
SPEAKER_01: But the Jews of Jesus' day were looking for a Messiah to bring justice to them.
SPEAKER_01: A justice that looked very much like the justice sought in the world today, a justice to rescue them from subjugation to the Romans, a justice that would bring them freedom to be their own people, a justice reserved by God for them.
SPEAKER_01: And you hear in this elements of Jonah.
SPEAKER_01: God told Jonah, I want you to go to the most pagan nation that existed on earth at the time, Nineveh.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to go and I want you to give them hope in my mercy.
SPEAKER_01: And Jonah said, Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: Your mercy belongs to us, not to them.
SPEAKER_01: But that's not the justice God promised in Isaiah 42.
SPEAKER_01: God promised a different kind of justice.
SPEAKER_01: He promised a justice that would come through proclamation, through declaring, through speaking, through preaching about God's Son.
SPEAKER_01: And the Son Himself would proclaim the good news of justice for all people, not just the Jewish people.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, by seeking to destroy him, the Pharisees were rejecting God's plan of justice.
SPEAKER_01: They were signaling that isn't good enough.
SPEAKER_01: What God has planned, what God has set in place is not sufficient.
SPEAKER_01: And so they would begin to the process of moving to bring the hope of justice to all the ethnicities of the world.
SPEAKER_01: By rejecting Jesus, it's similar to God saying to Jonah, in the mouth of the whale you go.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to happen whether or not you like it or not.
SPEAKER_01: We're moving in that direction.
SPEAKER_01: Now, notice, notice the flow of thought in all of this.
SPEAKER_01: Fulfillment of Isaiah back in verse 17 is tied to keeping quiet about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Why not make him known?
SPEAKER_01: Why keep quiet about him?
SPEAKER_01: I think in the end it's really quite simple.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus must fulfill the purpose of the Messiah's coming.
SPEAKER_01: He must do that.
SPEAKER_01: But he has to do it in God's way, not man's way.
SPEAKER_01: Prophecy must be fulfilled if God is to remain true and faithful to his word.
SPEAKER_01: But it must be fulfilled in God's way, in God's time, by God's own kind of work, so that hope will be eventually given to all of the ethnos.
SPEAKER_01: And that hope that is given is justice.
SPEAKER_01: Not justice between human beings, but justice between man and God.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the irony.
SPEAKER_01: The Jewish people hoped for a racial justice through a king who would come and bring freedom by rescuing them from their oppressors.
SPEAKER_01: But in stark contradiction, God said, No, my purpose and my plan is that hope for everyone will come through my servant son.
SPEAKER_01: And through his word, the divinely appointed servant creates justice and peace, hope and healing for all ethnicities, not just the Jews, and he does it through the humility of the cross.
SPEAKER_01: The Jews were looking for somebody to ascend the throne, not someone who would be lifted up on a tree to die.
SPEAKER_01: And this servant son is even now working through his ministry of proclamation and healing, through his preaching and restoration, through his speaking and strengthening, through his church now, he is working and will continue to work.
SPEAKER_01: How long?
SPEAKER_01: Until.
SPEAKER_01: Until he brings justice to victory.
SPEAKER_01: Now, by this point in time, are we thinking that that's not going to happen?
SPEAKER_01: Well, if you're thinking that you haven't been listening.
SPEAKER_01: Because Matthew says, this is to fulfill.
SPEAKER_01: This is to fulfill.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus came to do it.
SPEAKER_01: That means, my friends, that the kind of justice that Jesus brings will be brought about.
SPEAKER_01: It's as good as done.
SPEAKER_01: But it's not yet done.
SPEAKER_01: Because there are still people among the ethnicities of our world who need to find their hope in him.
SPEAKER_01: Look over with me at Romans 15.
SPEAKER_01: Fantastic parallel passage to this that the apostle Paul writes to the church at Rome, to one of the churches of the ethnos.
SPEAKER_01: And he describes, he summarizes all of this at the end of his book, chapter 15 of Romans.
SPEAKER_01: And beginning in verse 8, he says, For I tell you that Christ, the Messiah, became a servant, there's our word, a servant to the circumcised, to the Jewish people.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: To show God's truthfulness.
SPEAKER_01: Well, why would he need to show God's truthfulness?
SPEAKER_01: Because he needed to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs.
SPEAKER_01: He needed to come to fulfill them.
SPEAKER_01: Well, why did he need to come to fulfill the promises given to the Old Testament saints?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: So that the Gentiles, the Ethnos, might glorify God for his mercy.
SPEAKER_01: What is the justice that Jesus comes to proclaim?
SPEAKER_01: The justice that he comes to proclaim is that you can be right with God.
SPEAKER_01: The justice that Jesus proclaims, that the church must continue to proclaim, that Jesus himself is and will bring to victory is this.
SPEAKER_01: It is the justice by which God places the condemnation of all who come to believe in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Who all who believe in his servant's son, he takes their condemnation and he places it upon his own son who bears our guilt and shame, as Isaiah would say in Isaiah 53, who bears the iniquity of us all.
SPEAKER_01: He places that all on his servant's son in order that the just, the righteous requirement of God's law might be satisfied, not in us, but in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And the end result of that is that we, the ethnicities of the world, receive mercy.
SPEAKER_01: This the scriptures promised.
SPEAKER_01: And this Jesus did.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, may we come to rest in you.
SPEAKER_01: May all who are bruised in bent reeds and smoking wicks leave behind their own self-sufficiency and run to you.
SPEAKER_01: To find healing, yes, but ultimately eternal hope and the righteousness of Christ alone.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for giving us evidence here that Jesus is the one that we've been looking for.
SPEAKER_01: Cause us to run to Him, to look to Him, and to rest in Him.
SPEAKER_01: It's in His name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.