Sermon Tone Analysis

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

set’s the stage for this journey.

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.

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

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

Notice .

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

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 .

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 .

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

Notice their next question in .

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

Notice how Jesus corrected them, and then gave the true reason for what Moses had written in Deuteronomy, in