Then a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him, and he healed him, so that the man spoke and saw. 23 And all the people were amazed, and said, “Can this be the Son of David?” 24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.” 25 Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. 26 And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? 27 And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. 28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 29 Or how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house. 30 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. 31 Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. Matthew 12: 22-32
Matthew 12: 22-32 Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit
Demon oppressed man who was blind and mute - The Bible describes all mankind as under a curse, dead in trespasses and sins. The Pharisees were described as blind leaders of the blind, and this is the spiritual state of all who have not been born again. This man is bound, he cannot speak on his own behalf, and he cannot see what is going on, a truly Arminian nightmare, how will he save himself?
…7He executes justice for the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free, 8the LORD opens the eyes of the blind, the LORD lifts those who are weighed down, the LORD loves the righteous. 9The LORD protects foreigners; He sustains the fatherless and the widow, but the ways of the wicked He frustrates.… Psalm 146: 7-9
Can this be the Son of David - Good question, that is some Messianic terminology, and what about this moment would cause them to ponder such? What will it look like when Messiah comes and what are attributes of His kingdom?
…4Say to those with anxious hearts: “Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance. With divine retribution He will come to save you.” 5Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 6Then the lame will leap like a deer and the mute tongue will shout for joy. For waters will gush forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.… Isaiah 35: 4-6
17In a very short time, will not Lebanon become an orchard, and the orchard seem like a forest? 18On that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of the deep darkness the eyes of the blind will see. 19The humble will increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.… Isaiah 29: 17-19
…2Each will be like a shelter from the wind, a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in a dry land, like the shadow of a great rock in an arid land. 3Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed, and the ears of those who hear will listen. 4The mind of the rash will know and understand, and the stammering tongue will speak clearly and fluently.… Isaiah 32: 2-4
It is only by Beelzebul - The Pharisees witness these things, the power of Christ over darkness, that what was typically subtle, difficult to establish, and even more difficult to cast out, could not contain itself around Christ, and had no other choice but to obey. The reason is because Christ is God the Son, and the angels were created beings, made for Him and through Him, so they know Who He is, more so than anyone there, and they rightly fear Him. They know there will be a judgment, and that He will be the Judge, so His appearance here, coming onto the world scene, as the prophets predicted, is terrifying for them. Everywhere Jesus goes He continues to out them, and for the Sadducees, who don't even believe in this spiritual stuff, not to this extent, this must be dumbfounding. The Pharisees hear the people asking if this is the Messiah, and right away they want to shut that door, blocking the way that all men must enter, the only way. So they start this theory, which carries on today, Jesus was born out of wedlock, born to a Roman soldier, and this clever girl, young Mary, in order to get rid of the stigma, declares herself the mother of the Messiah. Note again, the Pharisees don't deny the miracles, they saw them, so they need another explanation. So Mary took her son to Egypt and enrolled Him in the Hogwarts's North African campus, where He studies the dark arts to allow Him the ability to control the Creation, heal the sick, give sight to the blind and raise people from the dead. Smart little girl, this definitely helped support her claims, and then His claims, which went along with OT prophecy which also told about His upcoming trip to the cross, see Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53.
28When Jesus arrived on the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, He was met by two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs. They were so violent that no one could pass that way. 29“What do You want with us, Son of God?” they shouted. “Have You come here to torture us before the appointed time?” Matthew 8: 28-29
…12For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. 13 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter. … Matthew 23: 12-13
“The Pharisees’ accusation amounts to a charge of sorcery, one which continued to be leveled against Jesus in later Jewish polemic.” (France)
ii. “Let others censure with the Pharisees; let us wonder with the multitudes.” (Trapp)
Knowing their thoughts - Omniscience, another scary warning, God looks at the heart.
Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste - They say He does it by the power of Satan, that Satan is building something while he tears it down, so Jesus throws it back at them, "please, make sense of your empty remarks, what is your logic, where is your proof?"
The more people magnified Christ, the more desirous the Pharisees were to vilify him. It was evident that if Satan aided Jesus in casting out devils, the kingdom of hell was divided against itself; how then could it stand! And if they said that Jesus cast out devils by the prince of the devils, they could not prove that their children cast them out by any other power. There are two great interests in the world; and when unclean spirits are cast out by the Holy Spirit, in the conversion of sinners to a life of faith and obedience, the kingdom of God is come unto us. All who do not aid or rejoice in such a change are against Christ. - Matthew Henry
What they began to do was to deny that the source was divine. And that's what happened on this occasion. As you remember, verse 15, "Some of them said," and this is whispering. They're saying it in their minds, this is what they're thinking and probably whispering quietly, circulating this rumor that has been basically designed by the leadership of Israel that are set against Jesus. Some of them said He cast out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons. Their conclusion was that what He does is powerful. What He does is supernatural. We refuse to acknowledge that it's the power of God. Therefore there's only one other possibility in the universe. There's only one other great power in the universe, that is Satan. It's just God and His holy angels and Satan and his evil angels and it's one or the other, the two great forces in the universe, force of good, namely God, the force of evil, Satan. They do not dispute that it's supernatural. They do not dispute that it's powerful. They can't. The evidence is too overwhelming, too inarguable and so they come to the point that they identify the source as not God, but Satan. They called Satan Beelzebul. It was a sort of a Jewish twist on an old Canaanitish god, meaning the lord of the high place, a term referring to Baal; Baal, the lord of the high place. They corrupted it from lord of the high place to lord of the dung, or lord of the flies, as a way to mock that Canaanitish deity. But over the years Beelzebul became sort of their word for Satan, and so they conclude that He does what He does by the power of the ruler of the demons. And verse 16 says, "Others to taunt Him," as we saw last time, to mock Him, to further slander Him “were demanding of Him a sign from heaven." And this is like saying, "Come on, if you're not doing it by the power of Satan, then do some great sign to prove it." All the evidence is in and they conclude exactly 180 degrees the opposite of the truth. They're completely wrong. It's one thing to say, "Well, we're not sure." It's something else to say, "Well, you know, we'd like to believe it's of God but we don't have enough evidence." No, they're way beyond that. Their conclusion is He does what He does by the power of Satan and that, my friend, is the severest form of blasphemy possible. There's nowhere else to go when you've gone there. What...What is the worst thing you could ever say about God would say that He is Satan, to say that Jesus does what He does by the power of Satan is to say that the Son of God is a servant of Satan, is to say that God is Satan, it is to say that what God is doing and saying is really Satan. This is the severest and the most ultimate of all blasphemies. - J Mac
Then the Kingdom of God has come upon you - This is the reality, the King is here, His works bear witness, but His doctrine is different than theirs, He is too Biblical. He will not honor their extrabiblical references, their twisting of God's word, so pride dictates for them that He is unacceptable to them. You can't be the Messiah because you don't obey us, acknowledge us, or act like us. An apostate they would accept, but not the Son of God, not the Savior they so desperately needed, and they, as the spiritual elite, were going to do their best to convince others of the same, to keep them blind, to quench the fire before it got out of hand.
He first binds the strongman - Satan was the prince of this world, Jesus told the Pharisees that they were like their father, the Devil, when the world fell it came under the power of darkness. Christ demonstrates His power over this by binding the ruler of this present darkness.
Jesus also made it clear that He was the stronger man who was not captive under the strong man. His message was, “I’m not under Satan’s power. Instead, I’m proving that I am stronger than he is by casting him out of those he has possessed.” “The very fact that I have been able so successfully to invade Satan’s territory is proof that he is bound and powerless to resist.” (Barclay)
The blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven - People take the Holy Spirit so lightly today, yet He is coequal with the Father and the Son. His work is that of new life and sanctification. Assigning things done by the Holy Spirit to the Devil, and the reverse, which so often happens today, assigning the devilish and or ridiculous to the Holy Spirit is blasphemy. Many see the Holy spirit as a genie today, a non personal entity, and think that they guide and direct Him, rather than worshiping Him as the third person of the Trinity.
The Holy Spirit’s main ministry is to testify of Jesus (He will testify of Me, John 15:26). When that testimony of Jesus is fully and finally rejected, one has truly blasphemed the Holy Spirit and essentially called Him a liar in respect to His testimony about Jesus. The religious leaders were close to this.
ii. To reject Jesus from a distance or with little information is bad; to reject the testimony of the Holy Spirit about Jesus is fatal. - Enduring Word
17In all, then, there were fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ. 18 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged in marriage to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. 19Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and was unwilling to disgrace her publicly, he resolved to divorce her quietly.… Matthew 1: 17-19
…15“Let it be so now,” Jesus replied. “It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness in this way.” Then John permitted Him. 16As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water. Suddenly the heavens were opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and resting on Him. 17And a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!”… Matthew 3: 15-17
…25But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated Me without reason.’ 26When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father— the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father— He will testify about Me. 27And you also must testify, because you have been with Me from the beginning.… John 15: 25-27
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