Matthew-032

Today, we continue our study in Matthew 12:1-8, although we have already studied it. We can preach an entirely different message from this same passage because there is so much riches we have not yet covered. So today, we just want to fix our eyes on the glory of the Lord Jesus, and pray that God will help us to see some measure of that glory. And we want to learn how we can enter into a deeper fellowship with God through him, so that he can become more precious to us.

We will read this passage in Matthew 12:1-8. And as you read it, I would like you to just fix your eyes on the Lord Jesus, and see what you can see of his glory there.

Characteristics of religion: negativeness, bondage, joylessness

In this wonderful passage, the Lord Jesus is walking through the grainfields. And the disciples being hungry, plucked the head of the corn, rubbed it in their hands, blew away the chaff and ate the grain. In doing so, they were perfectly within the bounds of the law, doing nothing unlawful or sinful. However, it was the Sabbath day, the Jewish Sunday you might say, and the Pharisees, the religious people were pointing the condemning finger again, saying, “Look at your disciples!” They were not accusing Jesus because he was not eating.

I would like you to notice the vast difference between being religious and being spiritual. One cannot help feeling there is something very repulsive about religious people, like the Pharisees. They seem to be very petty, always fussing over breaking this or that law. To them, you are always displeasing God whenever you move in one direction or another. The character of the religious person is negativeness. Everything is “don’t this and don’t that.” One has the impression that the religious person is always in bondage; he is not a free man.

I hope that wherever we, Christians go, we don’t give the impression that being a Christian is to be a very negative person, a person who is in bondage. So many Christians give the non-Christian the impression that being a Christian basically, is you are not allowed to do so many things. I would like the non-Christian to look at us and say, “I have never seen a person who can enjoy such freedom! He is characterized by the freedom to do what is good.”

This brings about another element in the religious person. The negative person always gives the impression that he has no great enjoyment in life. He doesn’t enjoy things very much because he always has to be so careful that he is not breaking this law or another law. So we don’t get the impression that he is a person who has much joy in his life. Paul says, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor. 3:17). I am sure that if you had fellowship with Paul, you would sense that this man has a great sense of freedom and liberation. But the religious person always seems to be on the defensive, fearing that he will pollute himself in some way or other. They say, “Don’t go to this place because you’ll get polluted, and don’t go to that place because you’ll get polluted,” so you cannot go anywhere. One gets the impression with the religious Pharisees that they are the only clean people in the midst of a world where there is an awful lot more lepers than clean people! They have to move in very small circles because they are going to be unclean if they move outside them. The result is a life that is very cramped, a life of bondage. It is little wonder that people don’t want to become Christians, because they think they would only enter into this life of bondage rather than become free.

Jesus is a free man

However, you sense a majestic freedom about Jesus. Don’t you sense the freedom as he moves through the fields, the villages or the hills? He was not afraid to touch the lepers. Wherever he advanced, the darkness retreated. He was not on the defense against darkness. He advanced into the darkness and the darkness fled. That is the power of Jesus’ name. And this brings us to the difference between a negative righteousness and a positive, powerful righteousness. This is also the difference between the Old and the New Testament. One feels to a great extent that in the Old Testament, there is a defensive righteousness, but you find a powerful, outgoing righteousness in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, you don’t go into the place of sinners, but in the New Testament, you advance into the place of sinners and turn it into a sanctuary, because there is a difference of power.

God’s Holy Spirit came to us, not that we have to defend ourselves from being crushed, but that we can advance and conquer the others for Christ. A Christian should be able to go into a pub, a bar, or a KTV, and make the place different by his very presence. He should be able to go into a public banquet, or his college, or his factory, or his office, and make the whole place different precisely because he is different, and he is not afraid to be different. Not only is Christ different, but every Christian must be different! He is not defensive, but his light shines with such a power that it goes out, seizing others for Christ.

The mark of being with Christ: positive, outgoing

Is your righteousness as a Christian, a negative, defensive righteous­ness or a positive, outgoing one? If you have a defensive righteous­ness, you haven’t yet entered into the fullness of the Christian life. That is because you have not yet gone into deep, close fellowship with Jesus. That is why in Acts 4:13, the people took knowledge that the apostles were different. The apostles, who were ordinary fishermen were different, because they had been with Jesus. Their lives struck even the Sanhedrin, the learned Bible scholars, as being unusually different because they had been with Jesus.

I have found in God’s grace, weak though I am, that wherever I go, and with whatever kind of people I mix, I am not on the defensive. I am always on the attack. On the contrary, they are on the defensive because God’s power in the Christ-like life that I strive to live, is working through his weak servant.

For example, coming over on the airplane from Switzerland several weeks ago, there was this business executive sitting next to me. The foul language that poured out of this man’s mouth was something! I had hardly got into the seat, and he was already away! I thought, “Who is this fellow?” He had a great pile of papers, and was working very hard. He asked me, “Did you choose this seat or did you reserve it? How early did you come to the airport to get this seat?” I thought, “What kind of questions are these? Why is he asking all these?” I did not grasp the point of his questions.

At the time, the air-controllers were on strike, so we were delayed for more than two hours sitting cramped in the airplane. Every time the captain announced, “We are going to be delayed for one hour,” swearing and cursing poured out of his mouth! Most people would have been embarrassed to use this kind of language, but not him. Then I discovered as time went on, that he was the big boss of a big company in Toronto. He was saying to me, “These British people….,” and called them all kinds of names, because he lost so many hours being stuck on the plane, and he would miss his Thanksgiving dinner, and the company of many guests his wife had invited.

As time went on, he continued cursing from time to time while doing his paperwork. Obviously, he was a man who was used to travelling all over the world. At other times, he would doze off for five minutes and then get back to work again. This man worked very hard, which puts many Christians to shame. After some considerable time, he finally said to me, “Are you in business too?” I said, “No, I’m a pastor.” He must have suddenly thought, “Oh, dear me!” Then we had our conversation. He was so fascinated by the gospel that he just wanted to hear more and more until we had a really great time of chatting together.

Never keep talking and force the gospel down anyone’s throat

In preaching the gospel, I never force it down anyone’s throat. That is why I made periodic stops, so that if he did not want to hear more I did not continue. But he kept urging me on. For example, when a meal is served, I took the chance to stop talking and get on with eating, because some people don’t like to talk when they are eating. But he kept urging me on. Finally, when we got to Montreal, he even gave me his card and said, “When you come to Toronto, be sure to come and visit me.” He even has a private airplane! So I said, “Perhaps some time you can teach me to fly.” Actually, I am not so much concerned about that, as to have the chance to continue to show him the glory of Christ and of God.

I have found that no matter how rude or rough the person may be at the beginning, the light will always shine into their hearts and grip them with a tremendous power. And the beauty of it is that I am never the one who starts the conversation. I never start by saying, “Excuse me, do you know Jesus Christ?” If you start like that, you have just about finished the conversation. I think that first, your life should so shine that they say, “What do you do anyway?” If my life doesn’t shine enough to make a difference, I might as well keep my mouth shut. But I have found that it is always they who are trying to talk more, because that light is shining into the darkness.

I have found that if a Christian has that positive righteousness of Christ, he is never on the defensive. Instead, as I have usually found, that light has a tremendous attracting effect on people. I tell you honestly, I never try any evangelistic tricks. I never sit there and bring out the Bible, start flipping through it, and press it over to the side of the person. I never bring out the cross and wave it around; or bring out a tract and wave it in front of a person’s nose; or start humming some spiritual songs. No, you don’t have to go for all of this. In this case, I knew I had six hours of flying time, plus a few hours of delay from the strike, so there was plenty of time. This poor fellow was stuck sitting next to me for that length of time.

We don’t need to preach for several hours; sometimes ten, fifteen minutes will do all that needs to be done. Many people think that it takes a lot of time to be effective. When the power of God is there, three sentences can make all the difference, whereas three hours of talk gets nowhere. When the Lord Jesus speaks, have you ever noticed how little he says? It is concise and precise. When you are doing personal witness, you can drive people off by going on and on when they don’t want to hear anymore. Instead, make what you have to say brief, and when they don’t want to hear anymore, just be quiet. But I have found that when the Lord works, they are always pressing you for more, and you would think, “Surely, this worldly guy doesn’t want to hear about the gospel!” You will be surprised. The worldliest people I have met have hungered and thirsted for the gospel!

Positive righteousness always shines for God

This is the point of positive righteousness – a righteousness that doesn’t have to be on the defensive, but moves out and conquers in the name of Christ. Did this man become a Christian? I don’t know. I never press for an instant decision. I sow the seed, someone else will water, and someone else will reap. I don’t have to do the watering and the reaping all in the same move. God is very patient. Beware of the temptation to be able to say, “I converted so and so on the airplane.” I don’t want to be able to say that because a seed takes time to grow. You don’t look for quick and instant decisions, which is the temptation of every personal worker. When God works, he works deeply, powerfully, but surely.

Then during the conversation, I began to understand why he was asking me about the seat on the airplane, but I did not say one word about it. It was he who began to see it was a miracle that I was sitting next to him, that it was the whole purpose of God. He said, “Now I understand why you are sitting next to me.” Earlier on, I didn’t un­derstand the point of his question when he asked me, “Did you come very early to the airport to get this seat?” I said, “No, I just arrived at the usual time. In fact, I was among the last of the passengers to check in.”

He said, “I came very early this morning to get this seat.” I said, “Why do you like this seat?” And he said, “This seat has a lot of extra leg space.” He had an enormous briefcase, and that is why he needed this bigger space for it. Then he added, “I always get this seat wher­ever I travel in the world. I come two hours earlier to the airport to get it, but you came at the last moment and you got this seat?” I said, “That’s right.” And he said, “Well, I can see there is somebody up there who got you to sit next to me.”

God’s ways are so amazing when you walk in his way, isn’t it? Why should one of the last people to get on the plane get the best seat? That is a mystery, isn’t it? By the way, this is not the first-class cabin, because even in first-class, you don’t get a seat with so much leg-room. It’s a very special seat. He had studied the planes and found out which was the best seat to get! So you will find that when you walk with God, you have this positive righteousness that works in wonderful ways through your life. I pray that every Christian may not have the Pharisaic righteousness which is always defensive and narrow. I don’t mind if people take me to a dance party or wherever. It’s all right with me. I’m there to let the light shine.

Negative righteousness is always condemning

Notice another point about this negative righteousness: it is always condemning others. The Pharisees said, “Look! Your disciples are doing something unlawful again.” These negative people! How do you hope to win the world by always saying condemningly, “Don’t do this! Why are you doing this?” This kind of righteousness—if you call it righteousness at all—gets nowhere. So enter into the freedom of Christ’s righteousness, and you will know what rest is.

Negative righteousness is always saying not this and not that, so it is very tiring. But the righteousness that comes from Christ is so relaxing because it is so powerful. And because of that, positive righteousness is motivated by an outgoing love. But a condemning attitude cannot be expressive of love. When I mix with a person who is always drinking and smoking, I don’t say, “Hey, it’s no good to smoke or drink.” What’s the use of telling him that? What I will do is lead him to Christ, and when he has Christ, all these things will disappear.

Christ is Lord, God’s Anointed

In the passage, we see three things about the glory of Christ.

1. Jesus is greater than David, he is the Lord of David

When they condemned the disciples of the Lord Jesus, the first thing he said in Matthew 12: 3-4 was,

It would be rather meaningless for the Lord Jesus to quote this unless there is a comparison of himself with David, and us with the disciples. For what is permitted to David does not automatically follow that it is permitted to us, because David was God’s anointed. At this particular time, David was already anointed as king of Israel, but his enemy, Saul had driven him out. Saul was also anointed king of Israel, but because he was disobedient to God, God disqualified him. So you can understand when Paul said, “Lest when I preach the gospel I should be disqualified.” (1 Cor. 9:27)

Now it is very important to see the comparison between David and Christ. David was anointed king of Israel, but at this time he was really just a refugee and an outcast. He was hiding in the mountains and in the caves, because Saul and his army was looking for him to kill him. It was at this time that David wrote many beautiful psalms, and some of his most beautiful psalms were written in the midst of suffering. Likewise, so many beautiful hymns have been written out of a great depth of suffering.

God prepares his servants through suffering. Before God was going to make David the true king of Israel, He was going to send him into the mountains and the caves of Judea for many years of suffering. This is the reason why when you have difficulties or problems, read the Psalms. There is nothing like it. And you will say, “Oh, I’m not the only one who has gone through all this.” How many times David says, “My enemies are all round about me, setting a trap ready to destroy me, to devour my flesh.” He says his pillow is often wet from weeping so much. What a hard life he was going through. And how many times he knew what it was to be hungry, as on this occasion when he and his men were so desperately hungry. But there was nothing else he could eat except the showbread which was only allowed to the priests.

Here we see the beauty of this parallel between the Lord Jesus and David. The Lord Jesus is also God’s anointed. At the time he was teaching, he was like David, an outcast in the mountains of Judea. He was despised and rejected of men just as he is in the world today; the world does not recognize him. And just as Saul’s men were looking everywhere for David to kill him, everywhere Jesus goes, the Pharisees are looking for the opportunity to kill him. And in the end, they did.

The first point I would like you to see is that Jesus is greater than David. He is David’s Lord. Why is Jesus greater than David? In the Old Testament, David is often spoken of as a Messianic title. It is not referring to the King David of history, but a King David that is to come later on. For example, when the prophet Ezekiel is speaking about David (cf. Eze. 34:23-24, 37:24-5), you will say, “David has already died. How can Ezekiel still be speaking about David?” But the prophet is speaking about another David, a greater David! That is why the Lord Jesus can quote this illustration of David as applying it to himself and his disciples. It is also revealing that he is fulfilling the prophecy of the prophets that he is God’s anointed. And it establishes the principle that God’s servants, who follow and serve God’s anointed belong to God, so they are not found breaking the Law when they have their needs met, even by eating the bread of the altar.

The Lord Jesus is greater than David because David was sinful, but Jesus is sinless. The Lord Jesus is greater than David because David saved Israel, but the Lord saves the world. The Lord Jesus is the greater David, he is David’s Lord, just as David said in Psalm 110:1, “The LORD (Yahweh) said to my Lord.” And you will remember the Lord Jesus asked that since David is king of Israel, how can his son also be his lord? (Mt. 22:42-45). So the first point is, Jesus is David’s Lord.

2. Jesus is Lord of the temple

The second point is Jesus is Lord of the temple. The Lord Jesus says Matthew 12: 5-6,

One technical point is that the English correctly translates “some­thing greater” not “someone greater” This “thing” is a neuter. It is important for me to mention this because in expounding the Bible, one must be very accurate. What is this something that is greater than the temple? The Chinese Bible has translated it as “Jesus is greater than the temple.” That is quite true but not accurate enough, because if the Bible wanted to say that Jesus is greater, it would have used the masculine in the Greek and not a neuter. The reason the Lord Jesus wants to use the neuter is because he is referring to his own body. The Greek word for “body” is in the neuter. From this, you will see why Paul speaks of the body of Christ as the church (1 Cor. 12:12-14). When the Lord Jesus said “something greater,” it is his body that is greater than the temple, because he is Lord of the temple.

Why is Jesus greater than the temple? First, the temple was the place of atonement and reconciliation, but all the blood of bulls and goats in the temple could never atone for the sin of man. Only Jesus’ blood takes away the sin of man. No wonder he is greater than the temple!

Secondly, the temple is the place of worship and communion. People went to the temple not only to offer sacrifice but also to worship God, to meet with God to have communion with him. But where can we truly meet with God? Is it in a church building? No, it is in Christ that we meet with God.

Thirdly, the temple is the place of service, and this is the particular point the Lord Jesus is making here. The priests are serving God in the temple, and so are the Lord Jesus and his disciples. So when you serve God, you break no laws, rather, you fulfill all the laws.

3. Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath

Jesus is David’s Lord, he is Lord of the temple and furthermore, he is Lord of the Sabbath, as we read here in Matthew 12:8. He is greater than the Sabbath. That is some staggering statement because it means that he is greater than the Law. Consider this: to be greater than the Sabbath requires being greater than the Law because the Sabbath is part of the Law. “The son of man” as the Christ or the Messiah, is the one God has appointed to teach a true understanding of God’s Law to Israel.

It is sufficient that we can see in this section, that Jesus reveals himself as Lord of David, Lord of the temple, and Lord of the Sabbath. How glorious he is! But does the world acknowledge his glory? They don’t. Just as in those days, the very people who rejected David all bowed before him as king of Israel. That day will come when everyone in this world will kneel before Jesus, as we read in Philippians 2:9-11.

Jesus the Lord even has time for us!

However, this is not the point that attracts me about the beauty of Christ. When we only speak about the majesty and glory of Christ, it strikes fear into our hearts rather than love. You may think, “Jesus is so great and so glorious, how can I approach him?” This is where we must keep Matthew chapter 12 together with chapter 11:29, “I am meek and lowly of heart.” Although his God and Father crowns him Lord of all, he is meek and lowly of heart. That is the beauty about Jesus!

He has time for children. He says, “Let the little children come to me.” He had time for women, which in those days, no rabbi had any time for. Women were the low outcasts of society. Under the Jewish law, in the Mishnah, women were on the level with slaves. But Jesus had time for the women. He talked to the Samaritan woman by the well, which no rabbi would ever do. Today, women have position in society solely through the teaching of Christ. Jesus also had time for the sick, the weak. These are the kinds of people he had compassion upon. This kind of a person can draw my heart because he is never too great and too busy for the likes of us.

We have positive righteousness only by being united with Jesus

This positive, outgoing, powerful righteousness is established be­cause we are united with Christ, through whom we have communion with God. He is the Lord who is so great and so powerful, and we are his servants. We represent him regardless wherever we go. We are gentle of heart, humbling ourselves, but not defensive. Therefore although we are servants of Jesus, the King of kings, fully reflecting the glory of God, we come with his love and gentleness to the people who so need him and his love.

When you are united with Christ, you are truly a child of God, and truly his subject. Even the worldly person will notice it. You come in and you carry on your person a certain strange fragrance from heaven, a certain majesty that is strange in the eyes of the world. And it is this that draws the people. Do you have this fragrance on you? Have you got this positive righteousness that we are talking about? It comes from being united with Christ. As I said at the beginning, the crowds took note of these simple men, that they had been with Jesus. They noticed that there was something about Jesus in these men.

When united with Christ, we begin to communicate with God in spirit

Only when we are united with Christ will we have union and communion with God. But what more do we need in order to attain that communion with God? You need to know how to commune with him in spirit.

There are three kinds of contact with people. There is a physical contact with people. For example, when you shake hands with someone, you have a physical contact with that person. Or you can have physical contact by boxing. A boxing match for example, is also physical contact. Or if you play tennis or badminton with someone, there is also physical contact. You have a physical rapport with people – some more directly, some not so directly. Then, you have a mental contact with the person if you are having a discussion with someone. But to communicate spiritually, you must have spiritual contact. Now you know what is physical contact, you know what is mental contact, but do you know what is spiritual contact? You go blank because here is where many Christians have difficulty.

When a child first grows up, he is entirely physical. He has very little mental activity. He can hardly focus his eyes never mind focus his mind. At the beginning, it is only physical contact. All he wants is to have food in his mouth. Later on, it is mental contact. He begins to converse with people. At first, it’s only a little noise. You make a grunt and he makes a grunt, and that is as far as the conversation goes. Gradually, as the child grows up, he begins to understand mental activity. First, he is studying his fingers; he spends a lot of time looking at his hand. As time goes on, the person becomes more and more sophisticated; he can make difficult mental calculations, and so he is able to converse with you, have a rapport with you at a very high intellectual level.

But there is still the spiritual communication. It is at this point when we understand what it means to be dead. Many people simply have no spiritual activity at all; they are spiritually dead. However, when you are born again, when you have the life of Christ coming into your soul through the empowering of the Holy Spirit of God, you begin to have spiritual activity. When you begin to have spiritual activity, it means you are beginning to know how to communicate with God.

Don’t be discouraged when your communication with God as a young Christian is very elementary at the beginning. At first, it sounds more like a few grunts, just like a baby who is making an attempt to make some noise. That is the first step. Gradually, the baby develops until one day, he can say, “Papa” or “Mama,” and the parents are so happy. Are you annoyed with the baby because he cannot say, “Good morning, Father. It is such a nice day today”? All he can manage to say is: “Papa,” and it’s not even very accurate, but you think it’s so beautiful!

Learn to communicate with God in spirit – straight from the heart

What is the spiritual lesson? Sometimes, I find young Christians come before God, and want to make a speech to God. And they feel that they have failed because the speech wasn’t good enough. If you think like this, you don’t understand spiritual life and spiritual communication. If you can just say, “Heavenly Father,” it will sound so beautiful in God’s ears. It’s like the baby saying, “Papa.” If you come and make a great speech to God, this is mental activity, not spiritual activity. Spiritual activity is what comes straight from the heart to God: “Father!” That is beautiful! God likes to hear that. And from that you can graduate and say, “Hallelujah! Praise you, God! Thank you, God.”

“Thank you” is a beautiful prayer. Can you remember the first time when your child said, “Thank you”? Oh! That was wonderful! The words came straight from his or her heart to you, so it sounded so beautiful. If the child stood there and read out a speech to you, you would say, “Hey, where did you get this from?” And so when you pray, learn spiritual activity. Don’t come and make a speech to God every night, reporting the same old things all over again. Just say something from your heart to God. Just let it come from your heart even if it’s only one word.

This shows us that physical contact has to do with my body. Intellectual contact has to do with my mind. But spiritual contact has to do with my heart and my spirit. When you pray, do you pray with your heart or do you only pray with your mind? By all means, use your mind when you pray, but not only your mind. That is why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:15, “I will pray with my spirit and I will also pray with my mind.” Notice, it is clearly stated that there is a difference between praying with the spirit and praying with the mind. These are two very different things. Can you ever remember when you prayed with your spirit? Or did you always just pray with your mind? There is a world of difference. If you want to know what it is to draw near to God, learn to pray with the spirit as well as with the mind, not just with the mind.

And when you are beginning to learn to pray with the spirit, you are going to find it difficult, because your spirit is very under-developed, like the baby’s under-developed mind. So you may only make incoherent sounds when you are trying to pray with the spirit at the beginning. The apostle Paul compares these incoherent sounds to baby talk. Speaking in tongues is a sort of baby talk. Many people are puzzled by the fact that the Lord Jesus never spoke in tongues although he had the fullness of the Spirit. He was never at the baby stage, because spiritually, he was always the Son of God, with God in all his fullness living in him. (Lk. 1:35; Col. 1:19) When you pray in tongues—and it’s very good to pray in tongues, which is incoherent sounds—you don’t know what you are saying. That is why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13:11, “When I became a man I put away childish things.” He was talking about tongues.

It’s very good to begin with speaking in these incoherent sounds if it is a help to you spiritually. But from there, you advance more and more spiritually. You begin to say “Papa” or “Mama” spiritually; you are speaking to God from the heart and beginning to say something that makes sense. And one day, you will be able to communicate with God at a much deeper level. Yet, unless you begin at the beginning, you will never get there.

I would like to see everyone learning to communicate with God spiritually. Look at your own prayer life and ask yourself what kind of prayer life it is. Often, when I come before God, I don’t say a word. It’s wonderful when two people can understand each other without having to say much. I have not yet advanced to such a stage, but I am learning. In learning what is to pray in the spirit, learning what is to communicate spiritually with God, I have put aside the intellectual activity of the mind praying to God.

When you learn to communicate with God in spirit, you will also learn to receive his response. Do you hear God’s response to you? A few days ago, I was talking to a two-month-old baby, but I might as well have been talking to the cradle, because she stared at me blankly. I wonder how many times when God speaks to us, we sort of stare at him because nothing registers. He might as well have been talking to the wall behind us! And yet we say, “Funny, why does God never talk to me?”

When the baby grows a bit older, he will begin to make some response when I speak to him. He wouldn’t know what I am talking about, but he will try to make some response. One day, as you grow spiritually, you will begin to hear that God is saying something, but you don’t really understand what he is saying. Then as you grow more, you’ll begin to understand, not perfectly, but you are begin­ning to understand. Then as you go on, you will enter into that sweet fellowship of which there is no limit to where you attain. Learn to pray in the spirit!