FAMILY MATTERS
The Final Journey • Sermon • Submitted
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· 3 viewsNo one should seek to undo what God has accomplished.
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Please take your Bible and turn to . This morning we begin a new series title THE FINAL JOURNEY. As we do so we will pick up our exposition of the Gospel of Matthew where we left off last fall.
Before we get into our text for this morning I want to remind you of the general format of Matthew’s gospel account. It is consistently going between narrative sections and discourse sections. For instance chapters 3-4 provide the first narrative section of this account, and then it is followed up by the first discourse, chapters 5-7, which is commonly called the Sermon on the Mount.
Last fall, before starting our Christmas series, we looked at Jesus’ fourth discourse, which was a short discourse on church discipline and forgiveness. And today we embark a journey through the longest narrative section of this gospel account. The narrative section comprises chapters 19-23 of the Gospel of Matthew, and it leads into Jesus’ final discourse (of this account), chapters 24-25, commonly referred to as the Olivet Discourse. (Some may be wondering why I am not continuing on in the Book of Revelation, which we have been looking at so far this year, and part of the reason is that the Olivet Discourse has to do with end times prophecy, and I believe that it will be helpful to look at that first. Who knows, we might branch into a study of the rest of the book of Revelation at that time — no guarantees though. Another reason is that I have mapped out this study so that we should arrived at the text for the Triumphal Entry on Palm Sunday, which is very fitting in my limited mind!)
Today’s text focuses on family matters. As we go through this passage I want you to keep in mind that:
NO ONE SHOULD SEEK TO UNDO WHAT GOD HAS ACCOMPLISHED!
Whether it be God’s accomplishment in creation, in the home, or on the cross. What God has accomplished is good. And we cannot make it any better, nor dare we seek to make it any worse.
As we go through our passage this morning we will note how Christ’s final journey to Jerusalem begins. Then we will look at the Pharisees attempt to trap Jesus in His statements on marriage and divorce; we will do so by looking at God’s Word on the subject, the Pharisees’ word, and the disciple’s word.
First, let’s read our passage together.
THE JOURNEY BEGINS
THE JOURNEY BEGINS
set’s the stage for this journey.
When Jesus had finished these words, He departed from Galilee and came into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan; and large crowds followed Him, and He healed them there.
Notice the first phrase: When Jesus had finished these words. We have previously identified this as being the formula by which we know that Jesus had finished His discourse. It points out to us that what follows is a narrative section, rather than a formal discourse. Of course, as we have already seen, even in the narrative sections there is an increasing amount of discourse between the various characters in the narrative. The further Matthew goes into his gospel account the greater the focus on conversation rather than actions.
This passage also announces the close of Jesus’ Galilean ministry. When the Jews from Galilee traveled down to Jerusalem they often went the long way around so that they wouldn’t have to travel through Samaria. While Jesus at times chose to travel through Samaria, it appears that on this occasion He chose to travel the more commonly traveled route. His journey would have taken Him along the east bank of the Jordan river, through the region that came to be known as Perea. This area was under the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas, and some commentators speculate that the question about divorce was intended to cause Herod to go after Jesus in the same way he had gone after John the Baptist.
Though this section of Matthew’s account mentions relatively few healings, the writer does state that Jesus healed those who were following Him.
As previously mentioned, the Pharisees purpose in asking Jesus about divorce, in was for the purpose of trapping Him in His response.
Some Pharisees approached him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife on any grounds?”
THE PHARISEES’ WORD ON DIVORCE PART 1
THE PHARISEES’ WORD ON DIVORCE PART 1
Today in our culture divorce runs rampant. I read a statistic that said there one divorce for every 1.8 marriages in the U.S. That is staggering. Though there are some States in which it is easier to get a divorce than others, it is never as easy as it was for the Jewish male who had to simply write out a certificate of divorce for his wife.
There were various camps of opinion within the religious sect of the Pharisees. One group followed the teachings of Rabbi Shammai and another group followed the teachings of Rabbi Hillel. The issue seems to have been in regards to the proper interpretation of Moses’ directive in
“If a man marries a woman, but she becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, he may write her a divorce certificate, hand it to her, and send her away from his house.
“If a man marries a woman, but she becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, he may write her a divorce certificate, hand it to her, and send her away from his house.
If after leaving his house she goes and becomes another man’s wife,
and the second man hates her, writes her a divorce certificate, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house or if he dies,
the first husband who sent her away may not marry her again after she has been defiled, because that would be detestable to the Lord. You must not bring guilt on the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.
The dispute was over what is meant by something indecent or uncleaness in the KJV. Rabbi Shammai interpreted something indecent to be gross indecency, but not necessarily adultery. That is because the Mosaic law regarding adultery was capital punishment. However, by the time of the first century A.D. divorce had replaced capital punishment, perhaps due to Roman influence.
But Rabbi Hillel taught that indecency referred to any trivial offense, even a wife burning her husband’s food.
The truth of the matter is that the Deuteronomy passage in dispute here actually deals with remarriage more so than divorce. If a man divorced his wife on grounds of indecency, and then she remarried and was either divorce again or became a widow, the original husband was not allowed by law to remarry her, because she had been defiled by another sexual union with a man.
All this brings us to see what Christ had to say in regards to
GOD’S VIEW ON DIVORCE
GOD’S VIEW ON DIVORCE
Notice .
And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female,
This was a stinging rebuke for their lack of knowledge regarding God’s Word. Of course it is not only first century Jews who were not as acquainted with God’s Word as they ought to be. Today the average Christian is not either.
Rather than give an interpretation of the passage from Deuteronomy, Christ went back to the creation of man to detail God’s purpose in marriage. First He quoted
God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
There was no allowance for divorce between Adam and Eve. If they had divorced over the Garden of Eden incident then there would have been no human race to follow in their footsteps. There was just one man for one woman, and that is still God’s design for marriage within this fallen world.
Look at .
and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?
Note, that up to this point Jesus is merely quoting Scripture. He is not giving an interpretation. That beings said, as we have learned, Jesus was the agent of creation. He qualifies as the definitive expert on the subject.
After having given the biblical statements regarding God’s original purpose in marriage Jesus then gives the proper interpretation of them in .
So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
There is something so beautiful and so unique in the one flesh relationship of a husband and wife. Certainly, from a reproductive standpoint most all mammals have a similar method of reproduction. But in the animal kingdom there is not binding of the male and female together as there is within mankind. In the animal world it is merely a biological function. But with humans, who are the image bearers of God, it is so much more. In my opinion, much of the efforts of modernistic thinking, whether in psychology, philosophy, or evolutionary science, is for the purpose of excusing humans from the one man for one woman principle that is taught in the Bible.
But that which God has joined together ought not to be torn apart by any human agency. What God has accomplished should not be undone by anyone. John MacArthur wrote:
"No child can be conceived by the procreative act of a man and woman who is not first conceived by the creative act of God. Every marriage and every child is a creation of God, and therefore divorce and abortion share this tragically evil common denominator: they kill a creation of God."
Of course the ramifications of this go far beyond marriage. God has made them male and female. And yet the growing trend in our current society is to do away with those distinctions. We do not get to choose which gender we are. We are what God has made us!
Anyway, off of my soapbox, and back to our text. Let’s look at
THE PHARISEES’ WORD PART 2
THE PHARISEES’ WORD PART 2
Notice their next question in .
They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?”
You almost feel like the Pharisees thought that they had accomplished their purpose in trapping Jesus. The very idea that the religious leaders of Israel thought that they could trap Jesus in His teaching demonstrates that they did not understand who He was.
The very idea that the religious leaders of Israel thought that they could trap Jesus in His teaching demonstrates that they did not understand who He was.
As I have mentioned before, even to this day, Jewish theologians do not recognize that Messiah was to be God become man. They thought He was merely to be a political or military leader. That His whole purpose was to free His people from the oppression of the Romans or whomever the political power of the current day might be. And this is because God has blinded their eyes to perceive His Word.
These men who were supposed to be experts in the Holy Scriptures misrepresented what Moses had written as being a command. Moses never commanded anyone to divorce his or her spouse. He merely made an allowance for divorce. This brings us to
GOD’S VIEW PART 2
GOD’S VIEW PART 2
Notice how Jesus corrected them, and then gave the true reason for what Moses had written in Deuteronomy, in
He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way.
I think that it is fitting that this passage directly follows the parable Christ had used to teach about the importance of forgiveness. No matter how many times one spouse sins against the other spouse, it is always mandatory that there be forgiveness. But just because there is forgiveness doesn’t mean that they have to remain married to one another. Warren Wiersbe makes the point that though man can not separate what God has joined together, God can. After pointing out that in God permitted the divorce woman to remarry, and that this second marriage was not considered adulterous, Wiersbe stated:
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Sixteen: The King’s Instructions (Matthew 19:1–15)
This means that scriptural divorce does sever the marriage relationship. Man cannot break this relationship by his laws, but God can break it. The same God who gives the laws that join people together can also give laws to put them asunder. God can do it, but man cannot.
Understand that in the Mosaic Law, divorce was a concession. It was also the last option.
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Sixteen: The King’s Instructions (Matthew 19:1–15)
God’s original law of marriage left no room for divorce, but that law was laid down before man had sinned. Rather than have two people living together in constant conflict, with one or both of them seeking fulfillment elsewhere and thus commit sin, God permitted divorce. This divorce included the right to remarriage.
Let’s look at Christ’s conclusion in .
And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.”
I put this verse on the screen in the New King James simply because there is an extra phrase in this translation as well as the old KJV.
The term translated immorality is the Greek term porneia. It is a broad term often translated as fornication. Many take the view that this term is broader than just the physical act of adultery, and that it covers things such as addiction to pornography as being grounds for divorce.
Since Jesus gave this exception clause, both in our present text as well as in , then the local church should not add or take away from it. If there is biblical justification for divorce, then there is also biblical justification for remarriage. But many Christians who are in the conservative camp deny the offended spouse the right to remarry by teaching that if they do they are guilty of continual adultery. By extension they seem to also teach that divorce is the unpardonable sin. But they are wrong!
Time will not allow us to delve into this more deeply. Let’s turn our attention now to
THE DISCIPLES’ WORD ON THE FAMILY
THE DISCIPLES’ WORD ON THE FAMILY
Notice their response to Jesus’ teaching in
The disciples said to Him, “If the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is better not to marry.”
On the positive side this response shows that the disciples were actually understanding what Jesus was teaching, which was not always the case. On the negative side it demonstrates a very low view of both marriage and family relations in general.
One important thing to note is that this statement does not endorse the celibacy of the priesthood as the Roman Catholic church would like to argue. Nor does it teach some sort of higher order of spiritual people who have been given the spiritual gift of celibacy. Note Jesus’ response in
But He said to them, “Not all men can accept this statement, but only those to whom it has been given.
For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to accept this, let him accept it.”
Jesus described three categories of eunuchs. First are those who were born that way. This, by the way is not an endorsement for homosexuality. Rather it is referring to one of two things; first, those males who were born with sex organs, or second, those who have no sexual desire.
Second, there are those who have been made eunuchs by other people. For instance, men who have been chosen to be royal guards for a harem of wives in certain middle eastern cultures, are often castrated in order to protect the women from the possibility of being raped by those who are supposed to guard them.
Wiersbe points out the possibility that responsibilities of society make it so that some fall into this category. Things such as children remaining unmarried in order to care for their aging parents.
The third category are those who have chosen a life of celibacy to better serve Christ. John the Baptist, Jesus, and Paul are all examples of men who chose the celibate life for the sake of the kingdom.
Finally, let’s look ate disciples reaction to the children that were being brought to Jesus. .
Then some children were brought to Him so that He might lay His hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them.
But Jesus said, “Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
After laying His hands on them, He departed from there.
I’m thinking that Gail and I probably should have claimed this passage as our family theme verse, since children seem to keep coming and coming and coming into our home! I’m quite certain that our willingness to do foster care does fall back on this passage and on others like it.
The point is that children are extremely important to Christ. In the words of Steve Green, “children are a treasure from the Lord.” That is the reason that missions programs such as Rural Bible Ministries and Child Evangelism exist today. Not to mention programs like AWANA, etc.
As we close this morning I want you to remember that the family is important to Christ. It’s importance is seen in how God uses the analogy of the family to portray both His relationship to Israel, and Christ’s relationship to the church. Remember, no one should try to undo what God has accomplished.
Let’s pray.
Closing Song: No. 451 A Christian Home
Closing Song: No. 451 A Christian Home