Unoccupied, swept and put in order...He must increase!

Matthew 12:22-45

The Pharisees Rebuked

²² Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus, and He healed him, so that the mute man spoke and saw. ²³ All the crowds were amazed, and were saying, “This man cannot be the Son of David, can he?” ²⁴ But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.”

²⁵ And knowing their thoughts Jesus said to them, “Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself will not stand. ²⁶ If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand? ²⁷ If I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? For this reason they will be your judges. ²⁸ But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. ²⁹ Or how can anyone enter the strong man’s house and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.

The Unpardonable Sin

³⁰ He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters.

³¹ “Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. ³² Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.

Words Reveal Character

³³ “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. ³⁴ You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. ³⁵ The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. ³⁶ But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. ³⁷ For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”...

⁴³ “Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. ⁴⁴ Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. ⁴⁵ Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.”

Again in today's reading from the One Year Bible(link available on links page), we see the religeous leaders trying to discredit Jesus. They accused Him of healing and deliverence by powers of darkness rather than from God. Jesus begins His defense by simply stating the obvious that any kingdom that is divided against itself can not stand. This is the reason that while different Christian denominations may have some different doctrinal views we should seek to come together in unity around the uncompromised truths of Christ, the Father and the Holy Spirit, along with scripture, God's word. When the church is divided against itself it can not stand. If we would look to Jesus and the things we believe in common I believe we would see how close we are to each other. When we focus on differences and disagreements it causes the divide to increase.   

In verses 31 and 32 Jesus makes an interesting statement. He says: ³¹ “Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. ³² Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.   I am certain that you could find many varied scholarly explanations and interpretations of these verses. I am not a Biblical scholar and if you read "nuggets" regularly my guess is that you probably aren't either. I do have a couple of simple observations about these verses and what they mean to us. First is this, Jesus says of God the Father: 

John 4:  But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. ²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”  

The Holy Spirit is the very nature and character of God. If true worship of God must be in Spirit and truth, then denying the Spirit is also denying the Father.

 When Jesus was on the cross He said,  “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” He said that of the very ones who rejected and crucified Him. Jesus, the Son of Man as He calls Himself in this text came for the very purpose of forgiving sin, so He does forgive sin against Himself. He spoke that forgiveness from the cross. The Holy Spirit on the other hand is the agent of conviction. It is the Holy Spirit which guides us and leads our conscience to know right from wrong. If we deny the Holy Spirit we no longer have the ability to experience conviction. In truth the only sin we can not be forgiven of is the one we refuse to acknowledge and repent of. Without the Holy Spirit there is no conviction, so there is no repentance, so there is no forgiveness. 

I want to move now to the last few verses of our text. I believe these verses contain a principle which is vital to our spiritual health.

“Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. ⁴⁴ Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. ⁴⁵ Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.”

Many people around this time of year are working on resolutions they made to bring changes for the new year. These verses give us an important principle, a truth we need to truly change things. Whether we are dealing with spiritual things as Jesus was here, the actual deliverence from or casting out of evil from our lives or the lives of others, or we are simply trying to change bad habits and practices, there are two stages of successful change. There is the removal of the unwanted, the casting out or away of the influence of darkness from our lives. Or in physical matters they breaking of unwanted or unhealthy habits. It is critical though that whether spiritual or physical we replace what is bad with what is good. If we eat poorly we don't just stop eating we replace what is bad with what is good. The same thing holds true spiritually. If we want to overcome fear in our life, we can bind up the spirit of fear, we have that authority in Christ. When we bind up and cast a way that spirit we need to then fill the void that is left. We need to replace evil with good. To replace fear in our lives we seek the perfect love of God, because,  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear(1 John 4:18). We replace fear with it's spiritual opposite which is faith. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me;(Psalm 23:4)    In the same way we overcome other spiritual negatives in our lives by binding the evil and replacing it with good. We overcome worry and anxiety with the peace of God. You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You(Isaiah 23:3) Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.(John 14:27)

Whatever spiritual evil or negative we face in our life there is a good and positive counter part in Christ. Actually the good is what is real and true. The devil, evil is just a counterfeit of good. There are two basic methods we have in making these spiritual changes and replacements in our lives. We can and should bind these things. We should crucify the flesh to remove our evil and negative desires and actions, then filling the void with God and good. The other part of our changing is done when we focus on Christ, when we as the psalmist says delight ourselves in the Lord and He will give us the desires of our heart. You see we can work for our entire lives in an attempt to rid ourselves of negative or evil. I think that I won't live long enough to achieve significant change. Or we can do as John the baptist said of Christ: He must increase, but I must decrease.(John 3:30) If we focus on evil we will continue to see evil. If on the other hand we allow Christ to increase in our lives, if we truly delight our selves in Him, we will find that there is no room left in our lives for anything that is not of Him.

It is necessary for us to change these things in our lives. But if we will seek Him first, if we will fill ourselves with His goodness and righteousness, He will complete the work of change in our lives.

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.(Pilippians 1:6)

Thank You Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit for all You have done and all that You do. Fill every emptiness in my life and even more may You increase in me that I may decrease.  Amen