Matthew 12:40-50 | Kingdom Now: Clean Isn't Enough

This series we've been on through the book of Matthew.

We've this is week three on chapter 12,

and we've talked about how chapter 12 is the hinge point of Jesus's ministry.

It's the hinge point of all of history.

Chapter 12 is crucial and vitally important.

Everything changed in chapter 12.

We talked about a lot of it

two weeks ago on Palm Sunday, the last week on Resurrection Sunday.

We're going to wrap it up today with about 11 verses.

And I just want to get right into it.

So if you have your Bible, you brought it with you.

I'm proud of you for bringing your Bibles with you.

If you turn to Matthew chapter 12,

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

here's the big idea for for this last section

of the book of Matthew, without the spirit of God.

A cleaned up life won't last.

Without the Spirit of God

in dwelling and filling a life,

no matter how hard we work to clean it up ourselves,

it will not last.

And Jesus is going to teach us

that and paint that in a profound picture.

But I want us to understand the priority and preeminence,

not just in faith in Christ.

His work on the cross is resurrection for salvation.

But after that,

the indwelling of the Spirit of God in that life,

in order for a victorious life,

we just try to clean up our life ourselves.

It it falls apart every time.

And so I just want to get into this.

Let me just read me read Matthew 12 verses 40 through 14, and we'll go through

all the way through verse 50.

But let me take these first three verses and I'm going to wrap up a little bit what

we introduced last week.

With verse 40

for just as Jonah, this is Jesus speaking for just as Jonah was three days

and three nights in the belly of the great fish,

so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The men of Nineveh

will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it.

For they repented at the preaching of Jonah.

And behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment

with this generation and condemn it.

For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.

And behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

This is the light.

Jesus already said, I'm greater than his temple.

I'm greater than your religious rules. You know I'm great.

And he presses and presses and presses.

I'm greater than Jonah. I'm greater than Solomon.

And what he's doing is he's slamming the door on the request for endless proof.

He says, I'm going to give you no more proofs of who I am.

I've already given you enough proof.

The one.

There's only one that remains the proof of my death and resurrection.

That's what he's saying.

He's already declared I'm greater than the temple.

I'm greater where you think God resides.

He resides in me.

I am the father one.

He says I'm greater than the.

I'm the Lord of the Sabbath.

All these rules you make up to make you right with God.

They don't.

I am how you get right with God.

I have a thing in.

He showed them I have authority over everything in the physical world.

I have authority over everything in the spiritual world.

And now he says, I'm greater than Jonah.

I'm greater than Solomon.

The one thing about Jesus is he never lets off the gas.

Do you understand?

He just keeps pressing.

And and what he's saying is this here's the point of what he's saying.

Nothing greater is coming.

Nothing greater is going to come.

Don't keep asking me.

Don't keep asking me to prove myself.

Don't keep doing it. God, if you just show me this.

If you just show me that.

If I just reveal the truth.

I've shown you enough of what he says.

There's nothing greater coming.

The fact is, and Jesus pushes it is that God

doesn't owe anyone another sign.

He doesn't.

He's already given us the ultimate one

the death and the resurrection of Jesus.

When it comes, when it comes,

To Christ and submission to him.

The issue is not lack of evidence.

The issue is lack of surrender.

That's what Jesus is saying.

First Corinthians 15 three through eight.

Romans one four all talk about the fact that the resurrection of Jesus

is the proof of his divinity and who he is.

And in Luke 1631, there's this,

this great moment that Jesus is, is having with those who are yet unbelieving.

And he says, listen, if they won't hear Moses

and the prophets, in other words, like God's given us enough,

if they're not going to listen to this, they won't listen.

They won't be convinced.

Even with so much a rise from the dead.

Guess what Jesus did?

He said, listen, you, you've got enough proof.

And if you're going to choose to reject the proof

that I've given, you won't even believe me.

If I come back from the dead.

And so the time for proof is over.

I've given you enough.

What he's pressing into us is this.

More proof doesn't fix a resistant heart.

Then,

when it comes to to trust in Jesus as our Savior

when it comes to giving our allegiance to Him and Him alone.

Unbelief is not intellectual.

Unbelief is volitional.

Years ago, brilliant man named Lee Strobel.

If you ever heard Lee Strobel,

brilliant man, wrote a book called evidence that demands a verdict

and Leaves troubles.

Investigative reporter I think with the Chicago Times,

and he set out to disprove it was an atheist,

was to disprove Christianity and he just use the Bible.

I'm going to just prove that this stuff was wrong

and through that process, he became a Christ follower.

And he said that like, this is the evidence is there.

And so he wrote this book about that process called evidence

that demands a verdict.

It's a brilliant it's a great work.

But here's the issue that I have with the idea.

It's almost as if Lee says this.

If you're smart enough, you'll accept Jesus.

I mean, that's that's in essence, this is so clear evidence.

All he had to do was understand it and to give her life to him.

The problem with that is this

more proof doesn't

heal a resistant heart.

Unbelief is

not just an intellectual, intellectual thing.

It's a volitional thing.

And what Jesus is saying here

is that there were there were these ungodly,

horrible people

that repented with less light than what you've received.

And he says they will judge those

who have received more light and yet are still unrepentant.

And he uses Minivan Jonas as the reference point.

Nineveh was an Assyrian city

that was absolutely ungodly, vile, evil,

demonic, horrible.

And God says, I'm going to judge him.

But Jonah, before I do, I want you to go preach to them

so reluctantly.

You know the story, Jonah in the big fish, right?

So Jonah finally gets there

and Jonah says eight words.

That's the whole message, eight words.

And I know some of you are thinking, pastor, why don't you use that model?

It's like eight words.

And he gave him 40 days and that was it.

And the entire city of Nineveh repented

in sackcloth and ashes and great remorse.

Jesus,

three years,

multiple messages

and he says they repented at Jonah.

You still reject me?

Jonah did no miracles whatsoever.

Jesus and miracle after miracle after miracle of many kinds.

And he said they had less light and they repented.

You have more light, me and you still remain a repented.

You get no more proof.

And those who have received less light and ever been

who will judge you, who have more light and are unrepentant?

He's.

And he says this.

Queen of the South, the Queen of Sheba.

He says she traveled miles to listen to the wisdom

of Solomon, who is referring to is this Queen of Sheba.

And she literature from somewhere

around Ethiopia down to Jerusalem, 1200 to 1500 miles.

She traveled

walking on camels,

took her months to get there.

She she she traveled.

She wore for a man she desired so much.

And if you were talking to our generation, he would see.

And people in your generation can't even drive to church or pick up a Bible.

I mean, not you.

Obviously, we're here so, you know, we're good for us.

But but like, he puts it like

that, what he's saying is this hunger matters.

Hunger matters.

The Queen of Sheba, she traveled all those miles

to incredible difficulty to go listen to the wisdom of Solomon,

or Solomon was wise and the wisest man that ever lived.

But he had wisdom about life and Jesus says, I am wisdom.

I don't just have wisdom, I am wisdom.

He'll tell you about life. I am the life.

She traveled thousands over a thousand miles to to listen to him.

You won't even come to me.

And he says

something greater than Solomon's here.

That's a profound statement,

because you, Bible students, who was the first king of Israel?

Saul.

David knows who was the second king of Israel.

David,

who was the third king of Israel?

Solomon.

So listen, Solomon was the son of David.

Jesus says, something greater than Solomon's here.

What's he saying?

I am the Son of David, which was a messianic title.

He said, I'm not just greater than the kid who was David's son.

I am the son of David.

Do you understand?

And yet you still reject me.

So, yeah, the Queen of Sheba,

who hungered more

will rise up in judgment against those of you with great light

who still live in rejection of me.

It's profound.

Exposure without surrender,

Jesus says, increase his judgment.

See, what condemns me is not what I don't know.

What condemns me is what I refuse.

To understand.

Oh, my prayer.

On my knees is God

that you would open blind eyes.

And enlightened your minds.

And soften hard hearts.

You know enough.

Jesus!

I'm greater than the temple. I'm up.

I'm the Lord over the Sabbath.

I'm greater than Jonah.

Greater than Solomon.

What he's saying is this.

If you miss me,

you've missed the greatest thing that's ever been.

Or the greatest thing that is to come.

And I'm not going to give you any more signs.

And then Jesus says these words in verses

43 through 45, and it just seems out of left field.

And you read this and you go, what's he talking about?

Look at what he says.

When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person

that passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none,

then it says, I'll return to my house from which I came,

and when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order.

Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself.

And they enter and dwell there.

And the last state of that person is worse than the first.

So also it will be with this evil generation.

What?

They're like when you read, you go, you.

How did we how do we get from Jonah to Solomon to demons?

Like, what is he talking about?

Right.

Let me just let me let me let's walk through this.

Jesus has described a house,

and that that that I want at one time was dirty and in shambles.

That has been swept and cleaned.

But it's empty.

And this demon who was there, who has left.

And then the house got all cleaned and then he comes back and it's like, hey,

it looks nice.

Now let me go get seven buddies and let's all move in.

And then that house is just ruined.

This is not Jesus is not teaching on demon possession.

Though there's much truth here.

Please understand that.

But Jesus has just got done talking about.

He he's just said, listen,

I don't miss me.

You cannot

clean up your life of your own power.

Apart from my indwelling you.

And if you try, don't miss me.

I'm greater than the temple.

I'm the Lord over all your religious laws.

I'm greater than Jonah.

I'm greater than. So, don't miss me.

If you try to do this apart from me, you'll be worse off than when you started.

That's what he's saying.

It's a

very serious thing to try to clean up your life

without the indwelling of Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

It's very serious.

Here's what I'm saying.

Moral reform without spiritual transformation

is a setup for collapse.

Please get this.

The devil is not opposed to a clean moral life.

If that clean moral life is not inhabited by Christ

and the Holy Spirit.

And most people think all I got to do is I got to just I got to just be better.

I got to quit sinning.

Listen.

Cleansing is not the end goal.

Feeling is.

And most religious people think it's about cleansing.

I have to stop sinning.

You can't stop sinning without the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.

You can't.

I can't.

Ephesians 518

don't get drunk with wine is debauchery, but be what

filled with the spirit.

I say to you,

walk by the spirit, and you won't gratify the desires of the flesh.

Here's our problem.

We skip the first part and try to do the second part.

I don't want to gratify all my evildoers.

I got some bad desires.

I got to get better.

Help me get better.

And what Scripture tells us.

No, no, no, you don't get better.

You walk.

Being empowered by the Holy Spirit

that enables you to understand.

There is no way that any person can live a righteous life and a holy life

and obedient life, apart from the power of the Holy Spirit

within them.

Because of the resurrection,

the Holy Spirit comes in us for salvation.

So the Holy Spirit's work,

it's the Holy Spirit that does what the Bible calls regenerates us.

And because of the resurrection,

we have the opportunity to be in

to have the Holy Spirit regenerate us.

Ephesians one

In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel

of your salvation, and believed in him, okay, that's my faith.

You were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,

who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it

to the praise of his glory.

What he's saying is,

when we accept the the truth of Jesus, his life is death is resurrection.

By faith we're sealed with the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit comes in us.

That's because of the resurrection.

It all starts there.

But the resurrection needs what the Bible calls Pentecost.

Everybody say Pentecost.

Don't get weird about it.

Let me just tell you what that is Pentecost.

When the Holy Spirit comes upon the person

for victorious, powerful, living those saved.

Now I'm able to live victoriously.

Acts one eight.

You will receive what power

when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you'll be my.

What witnesses Jerusalem, Judaism disappear, and the ends of the earth.

So they already believed by faith none of those direction,

but they hadn't yet had the Holy Spirit come upon them

for obedient, holy, righteous living, and bold witness.

Do you understand?

You understand?

Luke 24 But I'm sending the promise to my father.

That's the Holy Spirit upon you.

Just stay where you are till you're clothed with power from on high.

That's the point.

Not just cleansing, but in dwelling

to be clothed in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Apart from that, we cannot ever

live a righteous, obedient, holy life

again.

And with Jesus saying, don't try to do all.

Don't try to clean up your house and leave it empty.

It's going to be worse off than ever before.

The disciples perfect example.

If you ever look at the scripture some time, look at who they were

before the resurrection.

Cowards. Ignorant.

They just didn't get it.

And then there was a resurrection.

And guess what happened?

Cowards and ignorant.

Still, they were.

And then 50 days later, the Holy Spirit comes upon them

and they didn't take any of the Bible classes.

They didn't have any discipleship, they didn't get older and wiser.

But because the Holy Spirit came upon them, now they understood Scripture.

Now they're taking on the Roman government, the religious authorities,

and now they, the world can't contain them.

Though they were cleansed,

they weren't indwelt

to understand. Yes.

I've been struggling for this last over a week.

Just praying.

Lord, should I?

And I've decided that if you want to totally up to you.

I'm not going to ask. Childcare.

You got to work after you've got kids, you got to work up your own child care.

You're big people. You can figure that out.

We're not doing like a worship thing.

There's no food.

We're just I just want I want to walk you through Scripture

tonight at 6:00.

And I want to give you a picture from the Bible,

who these disciples were before the resurrection and who they were after.

The resurrection, and that the thing that made a difference

in the world and our lives is what happened after Pentecost.

Here's the point of this

if you have accepted Christ as your Savior

and he has cleaned your life and transformed you,

but you've not yet taken Jesus at His word

and said, father, will you give me the

the power of clothe me

in the power of your spirit?

Those saved?

Oftentimes still defeated?

Do you understand?

You need I need the continual

indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God

to live a victorious life.

If the Spirit of God doesn't move in

and come upon, something worse will.

And this is what he listen.

This is why people try to quit bad

habits and relapse worse.

Anybody?

You say you might be saved.

Absolutely going to happen when you die.

That 100%

but defeated.

This is why

when you clean up your life, you crash harder afterwards.

This is why people try

religion and never change.

So why some of you walked away?

I've tried that.

Yeah.

Cleaned it up on your own.

How'd that work?

Without the power of the Spirit of God

indwelling us, we will never be victorious.

Saved,

but defeated.

Listen. This.

How practical this is.

This.

This isn't like spiritual, spooky.

Like I'm not doing the whole charismatic thing.

I'm not doing the ghost and all that.

It's not that.

Let me tell you how practical this is.

Some of you are saved.

Some of you are married to someone who is saved,

and you're fighting for your marriage, and there's dying

because you're trying to keep it in your own power

and you've not yet said, father, give me the power

of the Holy Spirit to love my wife like you love the church.

Give me the

power in the dwelling of the Holy Spirit

to be able to in to to live with love and joy and peace

and patience and kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

I need your strength to do that, because I can't do that on my own.

And I'm losing my family, and I'm losing my marriage and

you try to be good.

You try to serve a church, you try to be obedient and everything's

falling apart. Why?

Because you clean the house.

I'm trying to keep it clean on your own.

And you need the Holy Spirit to dwell,

to clothe you in the power of the spirit that enable you to live.

Do you understand?

In every area of our lives?

Is it a spooky thing?

This is a victory thing.

Some of you want know exactly I'm talking about because you have walk

through hell

and you've walked through hell holding the Savior's hand, and he's walked

with you right in front of you, and you've never backed off,

and you've never denied him, and you stayed faithful

and you stayed loving when it has been hard as hell to do.

And the only way you've been able to do that,

because you have the Holy Spirit living within.

He's indwelt you.

And you look at death and you say, death, though I hate you,

I cannot wait.

It is good

you understand?

Here's what I know.

A swept life without a surrenders

life becomes a ravaged life.

Friends, I want our lives to be

swept by faith in what Jesus has done on the cross.

But I do not want your life to be a ravaged life any more.

Nor your children's lives.

So if you want to come tonight, we'll walk through this together.

You'll have the opportunity to learn how to honor God.

I just need to write. Matter of fact, someone just asked me to just.

This is how it will. Or some other.

Someone just said, hey, pastor, you talk to you.

And immediately God gave me the power of your spirit to know how to respond.

And all of a sudden it shows up like a.

Let me wrap this up

verses four through 650.

This might offend some of you, but you're going to be okay.

While he was still speaking to the people,

behold, his mother and his brother stood outside asking to speak to him,

but he replied to the man who told him, who's my mother?

And who are my brothers?

Can you imagine just Mary?

It's like, cause my mom who my brothers.

And stretching out his hand

towards the disciples, he said, here are, here are my mother and my brothers.

For whoever does

the will of my father in heaven is my brother and sister, and mother.

His family is like knocking on the door.

They probably want to tell you, say, Jesus,

would you just calm it down a little bit?

Like you're you're pressing too hard.

They're they're probably trying to talk him.

Just calm it down like you're not making a whole bunch of friends.

This is too hard for people to hear.

Just let me just say this.

Too many churches have listened to them,

and I've toned it down.

And. And so right here,

Jesus redefined who's part of the family.

He redefined to the family of God is.

And I want you to make note of this,

if for any of of of of my Catholic friends,

some of you were in this church, like, this is tough for you, but

I want you to understand something.

What Jesus is saying

that Mary has no special privileges with Jesus.

She gets no special favor from him.

And the fact that

the Scripture says here, his brothers,

this absolutely contradicts

the Roman Catholic doctrine

of the perpetual virginity of Mary

after Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph had normal

marital relations, and he has these half brothers.

It is so powerful and

and Jesus says

that the least of you who obey me

is as dear to me as my own mother.

It's amazing to me.

And in Luke 11

he says the same thing as he said these things.

A woman in the crowd raised her voice and said, him, blessed

is the womb that bore you in the breast at which you nurse.

And he replied, blessed rather,

are those who hear the Word of God

and keep it. Wow!

If God intended us to venerate

Mary, Jesus would have done it right there.

So blessed, rather are the least of you

who obey me.

Jesus does not elevate Mary.

Jesus elevates obedience.

The spiritual family of God

is marked by submission to God,

not by inherited proximity.

I grew up in church. We always have.

I've always thought of.

The family of God are not those who admire

Jesus, the family of God, or of God, or those who obey him.

Listen,

I wish I had more time to go through all of this.

But let me just say this.

Today's the day.

You got 19

people signed up for baptism on the 26th.

Maybe you need to as well, because you've given your life

to Christ and pledge or allegiance to him and Him alone.

Today's the day

you don't need more proof.

You don't need more discussion

at this point.

It's an issue of your own volition and your surrender.

It's the key to your victorious life in Christ.

To put yourself in a position to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

I want you to pray with me.

For some of you,

you've never given your allegiance to Christ

on invite you in this moment to do that right now.

Simple, simple prayer.

But listen, it's not a magic prayer.

This prayer doesn't save anybody.

It's only a relationship with Jesus.

It does that by faith.

But to help understand that, I would invite you in.

I admit I'm a sinner

and live life on my own terms.

I believe, Jesus,

that you died for my sin and that you were raised to life.

Give me that life and save me now

I commit. Here it is.

I commit to turn from my sin.

And I dedicate my life and my allegiance to you

and you alone.

Pray the prayer.

Empower me to love you with my whole heart and soul

and mind and strength, without delay, without hesitation.

And then here it is.

Even if you've prayed that prayer many times before, here it is.

And now, father, fill me with your spirit

and clothe me in the power of your spirit.

For my obedience, for my holiness.

Father, bold witness.

All that I will be clothed

in the power of your spirit.

Father, thank you

that you've loved us with an everlasting love.

Thank you that you've promised us your spirit,

that you've guaranteed us salvation through your son.

You've promised us powerful, victorious, living through your spirit.

Oh, God, I pray that in us and in this church

that you would alive in our hearts,

that you would alive in our minds

to your Holy Spirit.

In your name I pray.

Amen.

It's in church, I love you, I'm proud of you.

Matthew 12 is a tough one,

But like we've learned from Jesus, he doesn't let off the throttle, man.

He's going to keep pressing through.

Chapter 13.

So go this week and reread chapter 12 in its entirety,

and read chapter 13 and get ready for these next couple weeks to understand

you want to come back and learn this biblically about what happened

before the Holy Spirit and after with people who believed in Christ.

I invite you at 6:00.

If you made some decision, please let us know.

And if our prayer people approach them, just confirm it with them.

Let us know on that card.

Follow the QR code.

Take it there. Welcome sir.

We want to connect with you and want you to connect with us and with God.

You understand I love you.

I'm proud of you. Let's see.