God's Servant or Satan's Pawn?, Part 1

In March 2022, Insight for Living Ministries is hosting an unforgettable journey to Israel carefully planned to deepen your understanding of the Bible and draw you closer to God. Chuck Swindoll. And now you can see Israel with Chuck Swindoll and Insight for Living Ministries, March 6 through 17, 2022.

Really, I mean it every time. And so I want you to have the same life-changing experience. To learn more, go to insight.org slash events or call this number 1-888-447-0444. Insight for Living Ministries' tour to Israel is paid for and made possible by only those who choose to attend. Today on Insight for Living from Chuck Swindoll. Jesus not only casts out the demons, He gives sight and He gives hearing.

He gives the ability to speak. The crowd appropriately is amazed. They're not just following now to have their stomachs filled.

They're not following just to see things like this happen. They now reason in their mind, couldn't it be that this is Messiah? After a sequence of amazing miracles and following a succession of tender conversations with those who were suffering, the locals began to follow Jesus in droves. To the chagrin of His critics, Jesus was becoming immensely popular. As a result, the religious leaders, known as the Pharisees, were deeply annoyed. In fact, they attempted to sabotage Jesus' growing reputation. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll is teaching from Matthew chapter 12, where we watch the mounting tension between fans and fault finders.

Chuck titled today's message, God's Servant or Satan's Pawn. We're going through the Gospel by Matthew, and we've come to the 12th chapter. Right in the middle of it, actually, and if you've got a Bible handy, turn to verse 15 in chapter 12 of this first of the four Gospel writers.

I'll be reading a smaller section than we'll be speaking from, but for the sake of time, let's do that. Matthew 12, 15 through 21, but Jesus knew what they were planning. So He left that area and many people followed Him. He healed all the sick among them, but He warned them not to reveal who He was. This fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah concerning Him. Look at My servant whom I have chosen. He's My beloved who pleases Me. I will put My Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations. He will not fight or shout or raise His voice in public. He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. Finally, He will cause justice to be victorious, and His name will be the hope of all the world. You're listening to Insight for Living.

To study the book of Matthew with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to download his Searching the Scriptures studies by going to insightworld.org slash studies. And now the message from Chuck about God's servant or Satan's pawn. How do you respond when you know someone has it in for you? I mean, it seems to be their delight to make life miserable. And no matter how hard you try, they absolutely will not get along. In fact, you know for sure that they're working against you. I know right now we're all dressed up and we don't want to admit the truth. We don't want to look like we're dressed, but when we're not so attractive and nobody else is looking, don't you just hate that? I mean, don't you just think if I could just get even?

That's like the bumper sticker. I don't get mad. I get even. I read this past week about a man who couldn't get along with his wife. And to make matters worse, he couldn't get along with his mother-in-law.

To make it even worse, mother-in-law lived with the man and his wife. So he couldn't take it one day and finally decided he needed to get out and get a little fresh air and jog and walk and get away for a while. So he takes a long time doing that, gets fairly close to home, and he looks over to his right and sees a strange sight. There's a hearse. There's a big dog in the hearse. And then behind the hearse is a second hearse.

And behind the second hearse is a long line of about 30, 40 men walking in line. So he walks over and he knocks on the door and the guy rolls down the window and he says, oh, this dog is all over. He said, what is this? He said, well, in this casket is my wife. And in that casket is my mother-in-law. And this dog killed both of them. The guy goes, can I borrow that dog?

And the guy says, get in line. It's just the most human nature is to get back, to get even. Because down deep inside there's something crawling around that just makes us retaliate. And even though we don't like to admit it, we understand folks who keep up the fight, especially when they've tried to get along and they can't make it work. All of a sudden we move from that scene, believe it or not, to a very similar scene right in the middle of Matthew's gospel.

Here's Jesus, who has done only right things, said right words, responded in right ways, cared about others, never once did wrong, never once. And he's being followed by those who are determined to make his life miserable. They're called Pharisees. Slice it any way you like, they're not good people. They begin when he comes on the scene to be curious, and their curiosity grows into suspicion. And then when he begins to expose them for who they really were, the suspicion turns to resentment, and then it gets really downright ugly. And before long, there's nothing he can do that they see as right. He threatens them by his words because the words are true, but no one else would ever dare say them.

He calls them hypocrites, which they were, and he didn't back down when they tried to intimidate. And finally it reaches a climax. And tucked away in this writing of Matthew is a hinge on which the whole book turns. And everything from here on becomes different than it was before, because of verse 14 in chapter 12. Look at it.

Circle it, at least in your mind. Then the Pharisees called a meeting to plot how to kill Jesus. There it is. Straight out.

Truth. I take it that the plot was laid behind the scene in a secret place. You don't announce plots like that.

You don't discuss them before others. Meeting alone together, they began a conspiracy, a campaign to get rid of him. What's amazing is the very next verse, Jesus knew what they were planning. He knew it. Now, understand, his followers by now have grown larger and larger in number.

The crowd is increasing as he's doing all these right things and teaching all these right truths, and as he has the audacity to expose what the followers knew in their hearts because they had seen it. Who's going to criticize the Pharisee, especially since they were the keepers of the law, or so they declared? And they knew the scriptures. They just didn't live them.

They adjusted everything according to their own way of thinking. Jesus knew that these people who had it in for him now were plotting to kill him. I'm telling you, his response is disarming.

Three things occur that you would not normally expect. First, without a word regarding the plot, we read he left that area. And many people follow him. You realize that all he needed to do was get alone with his followers and tell them what was being planned against him. He just could step aside and then take care of things, human nature being what it is. He doesn't do that.

Without a word, he leaves the area. Many people follow him. And notice, secondly, he stays on mission. He healed all the sick among them. So he's still involved in doing what he came to do. He still is healing the sick among them. And of all things, he warned them not to share with others who he was.

There's none of this self-serving or kind of sympathy-encouraging words. He just says, don't spread the word. You see, he knew it wasn't his hour, it wasn't time. There would be a time when the plot would run its course. There would be a time when he would have trained the disciples. There would be a time when he has done the teaching that needs to be done. When he has completed his mission, then the word will get out and then the plot will run its course.

And they'll nail him to a cross. But not now. It's too early.

Timing is everything. So he warned them not to reveal who he was. It's interesting when Matthew records that, he remembers a passage out of 700 years B.C. Isaiah chapter 42.

You can check it for yourself. He says this all fulfills the words of Isaiah the prophet concerning him. I love this particular statement. Look at my servant. Just look at my servant whom I have chosen.

Would you keep in mind that these words are 700 years old? A prophet who lived way back when, 740 to 680 B.C., wrote this of the servant of God. He's my servant. He's my beloved who pleases me. I will put my spirit upon him and he will proclaim justice to the nations.

But that's not all. He will not fight or shout or raise his voice in public. He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. Finally he will cause justice to be victorious. And looking all the way to the kingdom age, he will be the hope of the whole world. I checked Eugene Peterson in The Message.

Sort of a popular rendering of what I just read. Listen to this. Look well at my hand-picked servant. I love him so much. Take delight in him.

I place my spirit on him. He'll decree justice to the nation, but he won't yell. He won't raise his voice.

There will be no commotion in the streets. He won't walk over anyone's feelings. He won't push you into a corner. Before you know it, his justice will triumph. The mere sound of his name will signal hope, even among far-off unbelievers.

Wow. What a man. What a Savior.

I've always loved Max Lucado's title for his book. No wonder they called him the Savior. Who wouldn't be attracted to someone like this, who has all of the power of the Godhead, but never once throws himself around like some kind of Superman? He lives under restraint, spirit-directed restraint. He knows they're against him. He realizes they're out to get him. He knows the plot is to kill him. But he continues on carrying out the characteristics of compassion, understanding, faithfulness, goodness, grace, justice. His name will be the hope of the whole world.

By the way, if you're a follower of Jesus, that's who you're following. Good choice. Good decision. Walk with him. Learn from him.

He is meek and lowly and hard, as we just learned at the end of chapter 11. You'll find rest for your souls. You won't retaliate.

You won't try to get even. Let's learn from him, the master teacher. And out of the blue, after all of what we just read, out of the blue, there's a demonized man that appears in front of him. I don't know of a more pathetic individual than this one, and I mean that compassionately. He is totally helpless. He has demons within him that control him.

Demonized is the word, demonizomai, demonized. Powers other than his own direct his life. He's full of that misery of that. And he's blind and he's mute, cannot speak or hear. No one calls him. He couldn't have heard. No one says to him, come over here. He couldn't see. He is brought to Jesus. And look at this.

How beautiful is this? There's a double healing. Jesus not only casts out the demons, he gives sight and he gives hearing. He gives the ability to speak. The crowd appropriately is amazed. They're already following him, but look at this.

Look at this. And they ask a crucial question. Could it be that Jesus, the son of David, is Messiah?

Of course. He's doing the work of Messiah. He fulfills what was prophesied of Messiah.

He's the personification of the very one that Isaiah wrote of. So they began to be increasingly more persuaded. They're not just following now to have their stomachs filled.

They're not following just to see things like this happen. They now reason in their mind, couldn't it be that this is Messiah? Oh, I'm telling you, when the Pharisees heard that.

Well, you'll see it. Verse 24, when the Pharisees heard about the miracle, they applauded and said, isn't this wonderful? How great it is that this man is healed. It's not one word, earlier or now. Just amazing to me. It's how hardened they are, religious and hardened. Legalistic, proud individuals that don't have the heart to applaud the relief of this helpless man and his now gaining sight and the ability to speak.

No. They heard about the miracle and they said, no wonder he can cast out demons. He gets his power from Beelzebul, the prince of demons. Interesting word. The term means Lord of the Flies. Lord of Filth. It's a slang word for Satan himself. It appears in 2 Kings. There's a whole account there I'll not go into, but they draw it from that and they say it's the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons. He's operating as a pawn of Satan.

Now, again, they're not announcing this. Remember, these are followers who are thinking correctly. This could be the Messiah. But I'm impressed with verse 25. Jesus knew their thoughts. He knew the thoughts that were behind the words and what would be their actions. You notice the comparison.

Look at the correlation here. Verse 15, Jesus knew what they were planning. Verse 25, Jesus knew their thoughts.

Look at his response. Defense number 1 begins at verse 25. Any kingdom divided against itself. This version reads any kingdom divided by civil war is doomed. Everyone or family splintered by feuding will fall apart. If Satan is casting out Satan, he's divided in fighting against himself.

His own kingdom will not survive. That makes sense. We're midway through a message from Chuck Squendall titled with a question, What is God's servant or Satan's pawn? This is Insight for Living. And we've set aside several minutes to hear some closing comments from Chuck.

So please stay with us. And to learn more about this ministry, please visit us online at insightworld.org. At this point in Jesus' ministry, he's stepping into the cross hairs of his detractors. The Pharisees thought they had his number and wanted to see Jesus disappear. But there were those who watched with fascination as Jesus quietly stepped into the limelight.

They had a growing sense that he could be their long awaited Messiah. This tension, this precarious place where belief and unbelief seem to hang in the balance is not unlike the tension many feel in our own times. And if you're looking for a helpful way to bolster your confidence in God's watchful eye, it's best to read Chuck's devotional book called Perfect Trust.

There's no shortage of critics in today's world, pundits who mock and even attempt to sabotage the credibility of Jesus. Well Chuck's devotional book will restore your conviction that God's presence, even in rough seasons like the one we're enduring right now, is perfect and true. Again, the book is called Perfect Trust. And you can purchase a copy right now by going to insight.org slash offer. Or call us if you're listening in the U.S.

Dial 1-800-772-8888. Chuck, back to you. Okay, okay, I'm not one for long spells of nostalgia. But sometimes reflecting on the past is entirely healthy. In fact, it's biblical. Looking back provides ample evidence of God's enduring faithfulness. And that's what this season does for Cynthia and me.

On June 30th, Insight for Living closes the books on another financial year. But more important than that, the following day, July the 1st, we celebrate God's faithfulness to Insight for Living. He's been with us every step of the way, every week, every month of every year, surprising us beyond measure with twists and turns in the plot that he had planned for us.

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Thanks so much. And you can choose one of several ways to connect with Insight for Living. The most convenient way to give is to follow the simple instructions at insight.org or use our convenient mobile app. You can also speak with someone on the phone when you call us directly. If you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888 or give online at insight.org. Chuck Swindoll offers biblical wisdom on how to identify a spiritual phony Thursday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, God's Servant or Satan's Pawn, was copyrighted in 2016 and 2021, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2021 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.