Today on Insight for Living from Chuck Swindoll. You want to know who is the most difficult person to reach for Christ? The moralist.
The one who is religious and looks so right? Let me tell you, it's much easier to share Christ with an out and out scumbag sinner who is greedy and immoral and rotten to the core because he knows he's a sinner. On Tuesday's edition of Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll admitted that sometimes when coming across a difficult Bible passage, he's tempted to skip over the parts that are tough to explain. Today's section of scripture falls into that category. We're looking at Matthew chapter 12, where the writer recounted a lively confrontation between Jesus and a haughty group of religious leaders. The Pharisees, men who were smug and self-righteous, triggered a response from Jesus that they would regret, and his words have serious implications for today.
Chuck titled his message, Miraculous Signs, Evil Spirits, Startling Statement. Life is complicated. At our church, we don't deny that.
We acknowledge it. Jesus is not a rabbit's foot that we rub on people and hope that somehow magic will happen. In fact, you can study about Jesus all your life and die without hope of eternity with God.
Because studying about Jesus does not draw you any closer to God. We either know the Lord Jesus as our Savior or we do not, and the whole difference is what we have done with his offer of eternal life, which was taken care of at the cross when he paid the complete payment for our sins, past, present, and future. Jesus has come to set us free.
Never forget that. Not to make us smart, not to pave a way through life that makes it easy, not to answer every prayer with yes, and not to relieve us of burdens, but all of it is put together in a way that makes us aware of a need to be freed. Freed from sin, freed from ourselves, and freed from the expectations and demands of others. Only Jesus can do that. If you've never met the Lord personally, this would be a great, great time for you to do so. Let's pray.
Thank you, Father, for the pleasure of your company today. Without it, this would be just another meeting. We'd leave as needy as we've arrived.
We would really be no better off. But because you are here, because your word, which is alive and active and sharp enough to cut where no surgeon's scalpel could reach, our time together will be meaningful. But only if your spirit takes it and clarifies it and applies it. From a very busy and complicated week and standing on the cusps of another week, all of it unknown, surrounded by a world that has lost its way in a culture that has drifted far from you, we find ourselves wholly dependent on you. For relief, for hope, for peace, and for the promise of eternal life with you. I pray for the many who come today who are confused. I pray that you would help in ways that we could not anticipate. Perhaps just a word will be spoken, or read, or in the passing of the time we have together, a piece of music will have softened the soil of someone's soul.
I pray as a result that the seed will land and bear first root and then fruit. I pray that you'd speak most of all to me, lest I stand as though I am some kind of authority, when in fact I'm as great a need as anyone in this place today. So we pray you administer to each one of us you'd relieve the fears and remove the confusion and reach into our hearts that can be hardened over time and soften us, make us teachable, able to hear, and willing to respond. Thank you for the people who keep us free who are in dangerous places today.
Give wisdom to those who make those decisions as to where they go and where they should fight and how they should carry it out. Protect us, we pray, in this threatening era in which we live. Now, Lord, we give our gifts that they might be used to help those who serve you in places beyond and to handle the needs of ministry at this place and in this community. May our gifts please you because they come from hearts that are grateful, lives that are generous. In the name of Jesus, before whom every knee will bow and every tongue will one day confess that he is Lord. Through Christ alone we pray. Everyone said amen.
You're listening to Insight for Living. To study the book of Matthew with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to download his Searching the Scripture studies by going to insightworld.org slash studies. And now the message from Chuck titled, Miraculous Signs, Evil Spirits, Startling Statement. Look at verse 38 in your Bible in Matthew 12 and then followed by 39. One day some teachers of religious law and Pharisees came to Jesus and said, teacher, we want you to show us a miraculous sign to prove your authority. Jesus replied, only an evil adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign, but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah.
Does that seem a little unusual? I mean, they're just asking for a sign. No, they're not.
First of all, look at who he's talking to. They are the scribes and the Pharisees. They are the most self-righteous individuals on the planet. They are so impressed with themselves. They're holier than thou attitude.
Furthermore, they're skeptics. In fact, he says, you know your Bible better than anyone else around. You know the story of Jonah. As Jonah was in the belly of the great fish three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth.
Verse 41, the people of Nineveh will stand up against this generation on Judgment Day and condemn it, for they repented of their sins after hearing the message of Jonah. You have seen me at work. You have heard my words. You know where I stand. You know what I'm about, and you have attributed my work to the work of Satan. Remember that, by the way.
He doesn't stop with that. He says, now someone greater than Jonah is here, but you refuse to repent. The Ninevites repented.
You won't. Look at the next. The Queen of Sheba will also stand up against this generation on Judgment Day and will condemn it. She came from a distant land to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Now someone greater than Solomon is here, but you refuse to listen. So there's a crucial question that comes to the surface, if I may pause and apply this at this moment.
It's this. Am I becoming a cynic? Am I showing signs of Pharisaism?
Now I'm gonna probe. Are you any different than you were a year ago? Are you any more patient? Are you more thoughtful? Are you more forgiving, more teachable?
F.F. Bruce writes, the demand was impudent, hypocritical, insulting. How many signs do you need to be convinced that I'm Messiah?
For you, never enough. Because when you're a cynic, you don't really want evidence. You want a reason to prove it wrong.
Now look at 43 through 45. Look at the verses. Jesus continues after saying, but you refuse to listen. When an evil spirit leaves a person and goes into the desert seeking rest but finding none, then it says I will return to the person I came from.
So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself and they all enter the person and live there so that person is worse off than before. I want to suggest that in the context, the person would be the Pharisee.
Any one of them. And they are the ones who said that he has a demon and he does his work of miracles by the power of Satan, when in fact they were the ones oppressed of demons. They were the ones wicked enough to be speaking for the enemy himself. He says things to them no one has ever said in their entire lives, as they have grown up in their own little circle, their own little clique of fellow Pharisees.
And he comes on the scene setting people free, relieving people from them and their control. All a sign of cynicism and this self-righteousness that comes with external reformation but no internal transformation. You know what happens to them over the passing of time? Their heart became increasingly harder.
But they still wore the robes of religion. They still had that holier-than-thou attitude and they still were big on judgmentalism. So much so that there's no preacher from Nazareth, certainly not this one, who has anything to teach us. Second crucial question.
Is your heart becoming softer in the passing of time or harder? You want to know who is the most difficult person to reach for Christ? The moralist. The one who is religious has scrubbed up on the outside and looks so right? Let me tell you it's much easier to share Christ with an out-and-out scumbag sinner who is greedy and immoral and rotten to the core and proud and all those things I could list because he knows he's a sinner. She knows she's out to lunch. But you try to reach someone who faithfully is in their church, regularly doing the things that are so visibly impressive and try to convince that individual he's a sinner, it's almost impossible.
May God deliver us from religion and a self-improvement reformation and make us aware how deeply down inside we are flawed and we are in need of his truth and of his son to set us free from that. Now as if that isn't enough, look at the narrative. Look at it. Coming right out of the heels of this rather heated dialogue, look at this.
As Jesus was speaking to the crowd, his mother and brother stood outside. Stop. Think.
Here we go again. Where do they live? They live in Nazareth. Where is Jesus?
According to correlated passages, Jesus is in Capernaum over by the Sea of Galilee. That's quite a walk. And they walked in those days.
And they've walked all the way to Capernaum. Who are they? His mother and his brothers stood outside asking to speak to him. Could anyone in this group right now, anyone listening to me right now, name his brothers?
Unless you are a Bible scholar, you can't. We don't know the family that well. I'll show you their names in a moment.
One is going to surprise you. And are you aware that he had sisters? We know none of their names because they're never named. And where's Joseph? Okay, let's spend a few moments on the family just to kind of get us oriented before we get to this third crucial question. First of all, no doubt Joseph has died. In those days, life expectancy was much shorter than our day. And so it seems the reasonable answer, since he does not appear in Jesus' public adult ministry, he probably is dead. So Mary is no doubt a widow. And his brothers, who were they?
Well, I'm glad you asked. Look at chapter 13. Look at 13, verse 55, I think it is.
Yes, look at 13, 55. Then they scoffed. These are people in his hometown, according to verse 54. He's in Nazareth. They scoffed, saying, he's just the carpenter's son.
Stop. The carpenter had nothing to do with his conception. Unless, of course, you live in Nazareth and believe the scuttlebutt. They believe Joseph and Mary had to get married. And if it wasn't Joseph's child, it certainly was somebody and Joseph took pity on her and married her. The point was, when they married, she was well on her way to having a baby. So they live in the neighborhood of Nazareth, maybe right next to them or near them. So by now, they've got their minds made up. They're wrong, but they say, he's just the carpenter's son.
In fact, they go further. We know Mary. Keep reading. We know his brothers. This is the place where they are named. James, Simon, Joseph, Simon, and look at that, Judas. Not the one who betrayed him, for in those days, that was a common name.
Judas Iscariot came later, but James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas. You know what? They grew up with him.
And look further. All his sisters live right here among us. All. Probably more than two. Or they would say, both his sisters.
So at least three, maybe four. Or maybe like the sons, maybe there were five boys and five girls. And what about these brothers? Listen to this. John 7 verse 5, you can check it, tells us that his brothers did not believe in him.
You can understand that. You got a brother who thinks he's Jesus. I had one. No, just kidding.
Just kidding. I'm a baby in a family of three, older brother or older sister, Lucy, and then I came along. And I mean, we were just a very real family.
My sister called my brother Hitler as we were growing up. And so it gives you some idea of the love in our family and the closeness we enjoyed together. No, my whole point here is families are real. This is real stuff, okay?
Come on, Jesus. You know what? In Mark 3 21, they were saying he's lost his senses. Do you know that? And he's just getting underway in his ministry.
So they're out there. His brothers and his mother, sisters didn't come. And brothers don't believe in him, John 7, 5, and they're there to see him. And he's in the midst of a very important time of ministry. Now, oh, by the way, the Catholic Church teaches the perpetual virginity of Mary. I'm going to leave that with you.
I'm not going to go any further, but I mean, about nine kids do the math. And here is Jesus asking who his mother is, who his brothers are. What is that about?
Isn't that what he said? Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? When you read your Bible, let it be.
Don't, don't, don't try to change it. He asked that question or those questions. What does he mean? As best I can understand, he is expanding their understanding of a spiritual family. He is enlarging it so that it isn't just the immediate mom and Joseph and four boys and brothers and sisters. It's my followers. At Insight for Living, we're on a journey to understand the whole counsel of God's Word, even the difficult passages like the one we're looking at today.
And please stay with us because Chuck Swindoll has asked to share a closing comment with our listening family. And if you'd like to learn more about this ministry, please visit us online at insightworld.org. This man, Jesus, had a way of shocking the Pharisees.
They were intimidated by his rising popularity and were working overtime to discredit him. But there were those who watched with fascination as Jesus quietly went about his business. These were commoners, just like you and me, who came to understand that Jesus was God in flesh. Well, you might be surprised to learn that Chuck Swindoll wrote a biography on the fascinating life of Jesus. And if you're looking to get better acquainted with the real Jesus, the one that writers like Matthew described, then we highly recommend adding this book to your personal collection. The book is more than 300 pages in length and has called Jesus the greatest life of all. It's historically accurate, true to the biblical record, and filled with personal application.
To purchase a copy right now, go to insight.org slash store or call us. If you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888. Chuck, we often remind our listeners that they're not alone when receiving these daily programs. In reality, we're joined by a multicultural audience and some who speak a different language than our own.
That's true, Dave. Many in our listening family are surprised to learn that insightful living can be heard in eight additional languages other than the English language. Of course, no one is more surprised than I am, believe me. When we started this media ministry back in 1979, I had no clue how God would expand our influence around this world. Gratefully, God has supplied the resources and the expertise of godly colleagues to help us translate insightful living into languages not only in English but Arabic, Mandarin, Portuguese, Spanish, and Russian. Several years ago, this momentum inspired us to declare an audacious goal that only God could achieve. We called it Vision 195, and it's our dream to cultivate biblical knowledge and application to all 195 countries of our world.
There hasn't been a global pandemic, an economic crisis, a national election that has deterred our determination to proceed with gusto. In fact, I'm pleased to report that we're moving full steam ahead with the course God has set before us in Vision 195. And so today, I'm not hesitant to invite you to join me in this mission by giving generously. Before the financial deadline of June 30th, the largest portion of your gift will be applied to providing this daily program to your station and in this country. A fraction of your donation is all that's needed to provide insightful living beyond your borders and in the heart language of those who listen. Here is our contact information, and I look forward to hearing from you very soon, like today.
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 slash donate or use our convenient mobile app. You can also speak with someone on the phone by calling us directly. If you're listening in the US, dial 1-800-772-8888.
That's 1-800-772-8888. Or give online at insight.org. Join us again Thursday when we continue to trace the footsteps of Jesus on Insight for Living with Chuck Swindoll. The preceding message, Miraculous Signs, Evil Spirits, Startling Statement 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.
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