Sermon Tone Analysis

How Should We Respond to Jesus Christ?

The Gospel of Matthew

Matthew 12:9-15

Sermon by Rick Crandall

(Prepared March 22, 2022)

BACKGROUND:

*Please open your Bibles to Matthew 12.

By this time the Lord was in the second year of His earthly ministry, and this chapter shows us the vicious hatred that had begun to grow in the Christ-rejecting Pharisees.

They started stalking Jesus, looking for any opportunity to accuse Him of doing wrong.

In vs. 1-2, the Lord and His disciples went through some grainfields, and the hungry disciples picked some of the grain to eat.

When the hateful Pharisees saw that, they attacked Jesus by saying, "Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!''

*They accused Jesus of allowing His followers to break one of the Ten Commandments, but the disciples weren't breaking God's Law.

They were only breaking one of the thousands of nitpicking rules the Pharisees had added to God's Law.

(1)

*But Jesus showed them that God cares about us meeting the needs of other people.

The Lord also cares about us honoring Him as our Master.

Jesus made this clear in vs. 6-8, when He told those Pharisees, "I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple.

But if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless.

For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.''

*Jesus Christ is infinitely greater than the biblical temple in Jerusalem.

That temple has been gone for almost 2,000 years, but Jesus is the eternal Son of God! Jesus is also Lord of the Sabbath Day.

In fact, He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Jesus is Lord of all!

*No wonder He cares about us honoring Him as our Master, but Jesus also cares about us living with His kind of mercy in our hearts.

So, in vs. 7 He quoted Hosea 6:6 and said, "If you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless."

*Today's Scripture moves on to cover one of the countless miracles Jesus worked during His time on earth.

This miracle is also reported in Mark 3 and Luke 6.

With this background in mind, let's read Matthew 12:9-15.

And as you hear God's Word, please think about your response to Jesus Christ.

MESSAGE:

*How should we respond to Jesus Christ?

This is one way to ask life's most important question, and I say this because our answers make all the difference in the world.

It's the difference between having a wonderful life or a wasted life, between being saved or lost, between Heaven or hell, between eternal life or eternal death, everlasting joy, or everlasting judgment.

*How should we respond to Jesus Christ?

This question may have never been on your mind before.

But it is a question we are answering every day by the way we think and live.

Today's Scripture helps show us how we should respond to Jesus.

1. AND FIRST: WE SHOULD NEVER ACCUSE JESUS OF BEING SINFUL.

*But this is what the unbelieving Pharisees were trying to do in vs. 9-10:

9. Now when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue.

10.

And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand.

And they asked Him, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?'' that they might accuse Him.

*The original word for "accuse" here was a legal term that meant charging someone with a crime.

And that's what those Christ-rejecting Pharisees were trying to do to Jesus.

Those Pharisees were so hostile against Jesus that they accused Him of breaking God's Law.

But Jesus Christ is the spotless, sinless Lamb of God.

He is the only person who has ever lived a perfect life.

*And their hateful accusation was so evil that Jesus was filled with righteous anger.

Mark 3:4-5 tells us that Jesus asked them, "'Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?' But they kept silent.

So when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.'

And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other."

*God forbid that we should ever accuse Jesus of being evil.

Psalm 33:5 says the Lord, "loves righteousness and justice; The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord."

Psalm 107:8-9 pleads with all people to "give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men!

For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness."

*Isaiah 26:7 addresses the LORD as the "Most Upright," because He is perfect in every way!

And His goodness is eternal.

It's something that we can depend on today, tomorrow, and forever!

God will always do the right thing at the right time.

As Psalm 111:3 says, "His work is honorable and glorious, And His righteousness endures forever."

*Jesus Christ was born as a man like us, but He is and always has been the Lord God Almighty.

That's why Paul made this amazing statement in Colossians 2:8-9, "Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.

For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily."

*All of the fullness of the Godhead lives in the body of Jesus Christ!

This is astounding, but absolutely true.

And God cannot sin.

Listen to some evidence from His Word:

-2 Timothy 2:13 says: "If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself."

-Titus 1:1-2 says: "Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which is according to godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, Who cannot lie, promised before time began."

-And James 1:13 says "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am tempted by God'; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone."

*God cannot sin, and Jesus is God, so it is not possible for Jesus to sin.

And we should never try to accuse Him of doing wrong.

But sometimes we might because life is not fair in this fallen world.

*During World War II, Corrie ten Boom went through the unspeakable horrors of a Nazi death camp.

Corrie's sister Betsie died in that camp.

But Corrie was miraculously freed just a few days before she was scheduled to die.

*After the war, Corrie said, "Often I have heard people say, 'How good God is!

We prayed that it would not rain for our church picnic, and look at the lovely weather!' Yes, God is good when He sends good weather.

But God was also good when He allowed my sister, Betsie, to starve to death before my eyes in a German concentration camp.

*I remember one occasion when I was very discouraged there.

Everything around us was dark, and there was darkness in my heart.

I remember telling Betsie that I thought God had forgotten us.

*'No, Corrie,' said Betsie, 'He has not forgotten us.

Remember His Word: "For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him."'"

*Corrie concluded, "There is an ocean of God's love available; there is plenty for everyone.

May God grant you never to doubt that victorious love, -- whatever the circumstances."

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*God is good all the time, and we can trust Him all the time.

We know this best of all because of what He did on the cross for us.

Jesus Christ died for our sins!

And He rose again from the dead to give everlasting life to all who will trust in Him.

*We will not always understand what the Lord is doing in our lives, but He always does the right thing!

God is good all the time, so we should never accuse Jesus of being evil.

2. INSTEAD, WE SHOULD LET JESUS TEACH US.

*We should definitely let the Lord teach us, because He has infinite wisdom, and He wants to teach us to live by His wisdom.

*That's what Jesus was trying to do in vs. 11-12, when He said to them, "What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out?

Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep?

Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.''

*That seems obvious, doesn't it?

-- It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.

Surely every right-thinking person would agree with that.

But the fact is that, just like these hardhearted Pharisees, we are sometimes blind to obvious truth.