Condemning the commended!

Matthew 12:14-21

Matthew 12:14-21, Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him. 15 But when Jesus knew it, He withdrew from there. And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all. 16 Yet He warned them not to make Him known, 17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: 18 “Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased! I will put My Spirit upon Him, And He will declare justice to the Gentiles. 19 He will not quarrel nor cry out, Nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. 20 A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench, Till He sends forth justice to victory; 21 And in His name Gentiles will trust.”

We then find ourselves in chapter 12 of Matthew. V 14, Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him. Climax. The full and open rejection of Christ has occurred.

Matthew wrote 9 chapters to present the majesty of the King. 10th chapter the King send out His messengers. Matthew 11 and 12th chapters cataloguing the final rejection. Finally in chapter 12 it tells us they concluded the very opposite to the truth.

They not only concluded that He wasn’t the Messiah, but He was also from hell. Jesus said they were so deep in the pit by that conclusion that salvation for them was an impossibility. The pretend protectors of the Word of God set out to murder the Servant Son of God.

Key to this passage. V 18, “Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased! I will put My Spirit upon Him, And He will declare justice to the Gentiles. There are many titles in the Bible given to Jesus Christ, none more lovely than the title My Beloved Servant.

Specially a title used here taken from Isaiah 42 and 53, at various points we find the Messiah called the Servant of Jehovah. Here we see Him called My Beloved Servant by the Father.

This introduces us to the very significance of this passage. It is a presentation of Jesus Christ in His wonder, beauty, majesty, and His imminence. Matthew chapters 11 and 12 chronicle for us the rejection of Jesus Christ.

We have studied the progression as the nation of Israel rejects Jesus Christ. Matthew gives us an illustration,

• Doubt,
• Criticism,
• Indifference and
• Rejection.

Chapter 12, having been rejected, He is blasphemed and He is ascribed to Satan. All of this is led by the Pharisees and scribes, who are the supposed religious leaders of Jerusalem and Israel. In contrast to their conclusion they held a council how they might destroy Him, the Spirit of God presents the wonder of Christ.

God is saying the very opposite about Christ than the world. It is to set an indictment against Israel’s leaders for having concluded the very opposite of the truth about Him. V 18, He is Jehovah’s beloved servant is so rich.

The word for servant here is a bit unusual. It is not the word normally associated with servant. It is the word pais, very frequently it is translated son. Sometimes it is translated servant. It is therefore a very fitting word for Christ because He is the Son Servant.

It appears in secular Greek to refer to an especially intimate and trusted servant. It is used in the Greek version of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, in Genesis 24 to speak of Abraham’s chief servant. It is used also in Genesis 41:10 to speak of a royal servant.

It is used in Job 4 to speak of angels who are supernatural servants. So, summing it up, by using the word pais, the richness is expansive.

He is saying, “This is My Servant, not just any servant, but My Son Servant, the trusted intimate one, the chief one, the royal one, and the supernatural one.” He adds, “My Beloved.” The Beloved One. He uses the root agape, the deepest, richest, truest, highest kind of love, the most loved.

Ephesians 1:6, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

Colossians 1:13, He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,

The intimacy that they enjoy is described.

John 1:1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Jesus prays in His high priestly prayer.

John 17:21, that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.

John 17:5, And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. He enjoyed the fullness of the intimacy He knew with the Father before He entered the world.

We are introduced to the Son by the Father, who says,

• He is the Son
• He is the Servant
• He is the Beloved.

In spite of what the nation and its leaders conclude, God’s testimony is here.

John 5:36, But I have a greater witness than John’s; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish—the very works that I do—bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me.

This is His testimony, as recorded first by the prophet Isaiah and as interpreted to us from Isaiah by Matthew. It is a blistering indictment of the ungodliness of the leaders of Israel. Characteristics of Jesus Christ presented in this passage.

1. Condemned by False leaders. V 14, Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him. The council was contemplating only one thing that is how? They would have destroyed Him on the spot if they could have, but they were intimidated by two things.

• They were intimidated by the large synagogue crowd that had just heard Him and seen His incredible healing miracle. They were afraid of the people.
• They were afraid of the Roman government because the government had taken away from them the right of execution.

So, they needed to plot a way that they could kill Him and bypass these rather intimidating realities. The council was not to determine whether or not to kill Him, but how to kill Him. They had already reached a conclusion and decided.

It was only a question of how to do it.

Luke 6:11, But they were filled with rage, and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.

They were told that they were “filled with rage”. Their traditions to the Sabbath were shattered by Jesus.

Mark 3:6, Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.

The Herodians was a political group that stood behind the reign of King Herod Agrippa and that was pro-Roman. The Herodians were a group of people totally committed to the political security of the reign of Herod. Herod was a Gentile.

He was an Idumean, not a Jew. They were the ones who felt that Herod should have power. How desperate the Pharisees must have been to line up with them when they so despised and hated any Gentiles. But when it came to eliminating Jesus Christ, they would go to any extreme.

The religionists and the secularists can all agree that they would like to get rid of Jesus. The Pharisees, to secure their own power, and the Herodians, to secure the power of Herod, because they too were aware of the miraculous ability of this Jesus of Nazareth.

They set out to plot His murder. They carry out their plot, eventually they succeeded, and He is executed at the hands of the Roman soldiers. The full and open rejection of Christ has occurred. We are not surprised that they have concluded to kill Him, because that has always been the legacy of God’s prophets.

Jesus gave a parable of the Father Vineyard.

Matthew 21:33-39, “Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. 34 Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit. 35 And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them. 37 Then last of all he sent his son

to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ 39 So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.

Satan’s system dominates the world, and it sets the false system against the true system. There is always a warfare. Israel, through its history, slew the true prophets of God. It is always so

• The false servants attack the true,
• The false shepherds attack the true,
• The false prophets attack the true,
• The false teachers attack the true.

You can usually tell where a man stands by who is against him. The false shepherds threw their weight against the true Shepherd. Jesus expected that. For He even came into the world under the umbrella of the prophetic word.

John 1:11, He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.

The beloved servant of God would be condemned by the false servants. His life was a life in which there was constant attack. Now since our Lord was fully aware of this bitter hatred He withdrew. V 15, But when Jesus knew it, He withdrew from there. And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all.

Jesus Omniscience. He knew everything. Sadly, He withdrew. Not only physical implications, but that has terrifying spiritual implications. He left. 2. Confirm to God’s plan. V 16, Yet He warned them not to make Him known, He was conformed to God’s plan.

When the soldiers came in the Garden of Gethsemane, we know what took place.

John 18:4-9, Jesus therefore, knowing all things that would come upon Him, went forward and said to them, “Whom are

you seeking?” 5 They answered Him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am He.” And Judas, who betrayed Him, also stood with them. 6 Now when He said to them, “I am He,” they drew back and fell to the ground. 7 Then He asked them again, “Whom are you seeking?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” 8 Jesus answered, “I have told you that I am He. Therefore, if you seek Me, let these go their way,” 9 that the saying might be fulfilled which He spoke, “Of those whom You gave Me I have lost none.”

Jesus knocked them over with His power.

Matthew 26:53, Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? Enough to handle anybody. Because one angel in the Old Testament slew 185,000 Assyrians. He had the power, at that point, to undo what His enemies had done, to obliterate them on the spot.

• He was a servant.
• He was conformed to the plan, which is expression of the will of God.
• He had a very defined ending and timetable.

This was not the time and so He withdrew.

It could have been as far as two years away from the crucifixion. He was getting used to this kind of treatment. Earlier we learned in Matthew, that they said He had a demon. John 5 records that the same thing had happened to Him in Jerusalem.

He had done something that violated their tradition on the Sabbath, and they also plotted to kill Him. After centuries of waiting for the Messiah, He began to withdraw. We will see until Matthew 21st chapter, a constant cycle. It just keeps going over and over and over.

• He would go into an area,
• He would preach, teach, and heal.
• He will have a great response.
• He will face opposition.
• He would withdraw.
• He will go to new area.

The cycle all over again. Preaching, teaching, healing, response, opposition, and withdrawal.

All through these years, same cycle, as the nation mounted in its hatred under the leadership of the false shepherds. Jesus kept withdrawing. He kept moving away. He could have acted in any fashion He had wanted to act in His own defence, but that was not the plan nor the schedule.

• His revolution must not come by shedding Roman blood but His own blood.
• His rule must not come at the hands of a mob or a crowd but on a cross.

Jesus was totally committed to the Father’s will, and that’s the essence of His servanthood.

John 4:34, Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.

John 5:19, Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.

John 5:30, I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.

The essence of the incarnation of Lord Jesus. He restricted all those personal prerogatives and willingly submitted everything to the Father. Not only to the Father’s will but the Father’s timing. For many times, He said, “Mine hour is not yet come.”

Totally submissive. That is the heart of a servant.

Philippians 2:6-8, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Isaac is a picture of this. Isaac, beloved of his father, crawling up on the altar and prostrating himself as his father lifts the knife in the air. Only in Christ’s case, the hand was never stayed, and the sacrifice was made. There’s another element to His submissiveness to the divine plan.

V 16, Yet He warned them not to make Him known, He told the people who were healed not to tell anybody, not to make it known. This has confused people for a long time because they assume that Jesus would have wanted to make it as known as possible, but that’s not the case.

Healing of the leper.

Matthew 8:4, And Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” Healing of the two blinds.

Matthew 9:30, And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, saying, “See that no one knows it.”

Why does Jesus say that?

• a) First-hand information

Our Lord knew the problem of second-hand stories and how they get twisted, perverted, and denied.

Jesus wanted to deal with men on a first-hand basis. He wanted them to be confronted with the evidence themselves, in their own presence, before they started making up verdicts about Him. That is the reason when He healed the leper, and He told the man to go and show himself to the priest. Because when he would go to the priest, as a person who claimed to have been healed from leprosy, he would have had to go through a sequence of checks and examinations and all of this to prove that he, who had had leprosy, had been totally delivered.

They had an entire procedure that they would put these people through so that they could introduce them back into society. Jesus wanted to make was, “You go, you let them make their full examination, and when they have concluded that you have been totally healed of leprosy, then tell them who did it, and they will be stuck with their own verdict.”

Because He wanted first-hand conclusion when people were confronted with a reality. When the disciples of John the Baptist came along and said “We want to ask you a question. Are you the Messiah or do we look for someone else?”

He didn’t answer them.

Matthew 11:4-5, Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: 5 The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. Jesus instantaneously did a whole lot of private miracles. Just to show them who He was.

• b) He didn’t want to be known as miracle worker.

Jesus did not want them to spread that known as a miracle- worker. He didn’t want a distortion on the purpose for which He came. That would be so easily the dominate feature because people so deeply long for deliverance from physical problems.

His person was the issue, not His miracles, and some might be attracted for the wrong causes and the wrong reasons.

• c) Fame in the political arena

Jesus knew too well that a demonstration of that kind of power could easily fan the flame of enthusiasm about Him as a potential political deliverer from Rome.

They had in mind when He fed them that day and made food enough to feed 5,000 men. The whole multitude immediately they wanted to make Him the king. They wanted to start the revolution, because they figured there would never be anybody with that kind of power.

Jesus did not want to be known as a miracle worker, because all that tended to do was to fan the flames of enthusiasm that pushed Him toward a political kind of revolution.

• d) Not creating enemies in the religious circle.

Jesus did not want everyone to know about this, because all it did was heighten the rage of the scribes and Pharisees. He was trying to keep that at a somewhat mitigated level because He didn’t want everything to explode and burst out before God’s perfect timing.

• e) Didn’t want to go ahead of God’s schedule.

He was on a schedule. Jesus didn’t want people to spread this abroad because this was not the time of His exaltation. This was the time of His humiliation.

Exaltation would come later. He didn’t seek this kind of fame. Wonderful submission, He conformed to God’s plan. This was quite opposite the Pharisees. 3. Concern about the needy. V 15, But when Jesus knew it, He withdrew from there. And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all.

He healed all of them. Do you realize that Jesus healed people that didn’t necessarily believe in Him? Luke 17 healing of ten lepers.

How many came back? One.

Luke 17:19, And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.” He wasn’t talking about the physical which was accomplished. He was talking about the spiritual.

There were ten healed, There was one redeemed.

Matthew 11:20-24. I did miracles in Chorazin. I did the miracles in Bethsaida. I did the miracles in Capernaum.

But it is obvious that you did not believe.

Why this demonstration of healing everybody? To manifests the heart of God. The heart of God is toward the hurting people. The heart of God is toward those who have deep, great, profound need, the ones that are ignored by everybody else.

• The Pharisees weren’t interested in these people.
• The religious leaders weren’t interested in these people.
• They weren’t interested in sick, the crippled, the deaf, the dumb and the blind.
• They weren’t interested in the poor and the ones without resource.
• They were interested in the rich and the famous and the powerful.

But Jesus sought the lowly.

The Pharisees brought this man with paralyzed hand to put a trap for Him. They didn’t care about him. In fact, they ignored him until they thought they could use him to trap Jesus. All they were concerned about was the legalism.

Jesus replied, “Is it kind? Is it good to heal that man?”

Matthew 9:36, But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.

The false shepherds, by binding incredible burdens, by devouring the poor, widows, binding on them such burdens that they couldn’t bear. Offering no help to assist them. They were wolves dressed up like shepherds. Instead of feeding the sheep they destroyed.

They were like the false shepherd of Zechariah chapter 11 who eats the sheep. True Shepherd comes along, and He sees them, and He is moved with compassion.

Matthew 4:23, And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and

healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. Matthew gospel records Jesus with the tax collectors, the prostitutes, and the wretched people.

Matthew 11:28-30, Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

We are not surprised to read that He healed them all, because that’s the heart of God. No one was left out. Peter knew the heart of God. He saw it in Christ.

1 Peter 5:7, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Jesus exhibited this repeatedly. Ultimately in His glorious kingdom there will be no more sickness.

This is a little taste of what the kingdom will be like. Christ feels the pain of the hurting people.

4. Commended by the Father. Matthew wants us to know that it is not only the Messiah, but it is the very Messiah prophesied by Isaiah. V 17-21, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: 18 “Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased! I will put My Spirit upon Him, And He will declare justice to the Gentiles.

19 He will not quarrel nor cry out, Nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. 20 A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench, Till He sends forth justice to victory; 21 And in His name Gentiles will trust.”

The heart of what Isaiah wants to get as the defence of Christ in prophetic literature, but he also adds the beginning of V 18 and 21. One of the most strikingly beautiful descriptions of Jesus Christ anywhere in Scripture.

It is taken from Isaiah 42:1-4. Matthew does not quote this portion in verbatim, but he interprets it as he quotes it. It’s a marvellous act of the inspiration of the Spirit of God interpreting the passage as it is quoted in its fulfilment.

Isaiah 42:1-4, “Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. ² He will not cry out, nor raise His voice, Nor cause His voice to be heard in the street. ³ A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench; He will bring forth justice for truth. ⁴ He will not fail nor be discouraged, Till He has established justice in the earth; And the coastlands shall wait for His law.” Was the Father pleased with the Son? Yes, He was. At the Baptism.

Matthew 3:17, And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Transfiguration.

Matthew 17:5, While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!”

What did He do when Jesus died and rose again? Exalted Him and place Him at His right hand and put all authority under Him. Send the Holy Spirit, which is the ultimate act of His commendation.

The One whom God was commending, they were condemning. The One whom God made alive, they killed. “Behold My servant, whom I have chosen.” I have chosen, is a marvellous phrase. It’s a word appears only here in the Greek New Testament and nowhere else.

But it indicates great firmness of choice. That seems to be the way it’s used. For example, it’s used in secular Greek to speak of adopting a child is a firm commitment. He has chosen the Son. In Isaiah 49 it says the same thing how the Father has chosen the Son. The Messiah known as the Chosen One in the Jewish mind.

When Isaiah says, “My servant, whom I have chosen,” he is designating a title for the Messiah. As Matthew is quoting this they would know that he is quoting a Messianic passage. They know he is saying Jesus is the Messiah, the Chosen One.

Luke 23:35, And the people stood looking on. But even the rulers with them sneered, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the chosen of God.” Same title. They were very familiar with that Messianic title - the Chosen One of God.

1 Peter 2:4, coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, Christ is the Father’s elect, and He is well pleased with Him.

Now that is the seal of approval from God. By the way, it’s not possible for men to be so well pleasing to the Father unless men are found to be in Christ. With us the Father is not well pleased.

Romans 8:8, So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. If anyone is to please God, it is to be in Christ, because He is well pleased with Christ. If I am lost in Christ, He is well pleased with me.

5. Commissioned by the Spirit. V 18, “Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased! I will put My Spirit upon Him, And He will declare justice to the Gentiles. This was promised in Isaiah 42.

When the Messiah came, the Spirit would be upon Him. Now we know that that happened for certain in a unique way at His baptism, because it says the Spirit of God descended like a dove. Jesus Christ was indwelt by the power of the Spirit of God from the time He was conceived.

John the Baptist in Luke 1 that he was filled with the Spirit from his mother’s womb. If that was true of a human being, believe me, that must have been true of the God-Man.

Matthew 1:20, But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit.

If He is already God, and the Father and the Son and the Spirit are already one in Him, what does it mean to have this special putting of the Spirit on Him? The only way we can understand it is to see it in a twofold manner.

This was a granting of power to His human nature. His divine nature didn’t need it, but His human did.

• He was in every point tempted like as we are.
• He was truly human.
• He grew in wisdom and stature, in favour with God and man.
• He was tempted.
• He was thirsty.
• He was hungry.
• He was tired.
• He felt pain.
• He wept.
• He had emotions.

In the Garden, He said, “Father, if it’s possible, let this cup pass from Me.” That was His humanness speaking. His humanness needed the indwelling power of the Spirit of God in order for it to function in concert with His deity.

Acts 10:38, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.

It was for power in a unique way. But there was a second feature is His baptism His baptism was the unique anointing of the Spirit at that point for His royal service. For 30 years up until that time, He had been in obscurity, for all intents and purposes. But when it came time to initiate His ministry, He was given a very special declaration by the Father.

He was attended to uniquely with an anointing by the Holy Spirit. The baptism fulfils Isaiah 61:1 which Jesus Himself quoted as being fulfilled by Himself.

Luke 4:18, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed;

There was not only the Spirit of God from the very conception to empower His humanness, but there was that special anointing at the baptism for His royal service. He was granted the Spirit. Jesus functioned in the Father’s plan and by the Spirit’s power.

As a total servant, He submits Himself to the Father on the one hand and to the Spirit on the other hand. He does that not only for the sake of the function but for the sake of the example to us that it is. V 18, And He will declare justice to the Gentiles.

V 21, And in His name Gentiles will trust.” The Hebrew in Isaiah says, “He will bring out right.” He is going to give the right message. The world is full of bad answers to good questions. But Jehovah’s beloved servant will bring the right message, the truth, the good news, the gospel and in harmony with God’s will.

Salvation, the gospel, and He will bring it to the world, to the gentiles.

All the way from the beginning as far as the prophets, He was prophesied to be the Saviour of the world, not just Israel. Don’t ever believe for a minute that Christ came into the world to save Israel only. Israel was a thoroughfare and a channel.

They were to be His agency to reach the world, but the world was always the goal. When God set them aside and He used a new channel: The church. But always the world. The first woman to whom He revealed His Messiahship was a non-Jewish Samaritan woman who was also a harlot.

Mark 3:8, and Jerusalem and Idumea and beyond the Jordan; and those from Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they heard how many things He was doing, came to Him. He preached to the Gentiles in Idumea, Tyre, and Sidon. The Jews didn’t like to hear this that the Messiah had come for the Gentiles. That was not a happy message for them.

This is also one of the reasons why they rejected Christ so openly when He would affirm that He was to save Gentiles.

Acts 22:21, Then He said to me, ‘Depart, for I will send you far from here to the Gentiles.’ ” Paul is giving his testimony, defending himself, and there’s a mob around.

Acts 22:22, And they listened to him until this word, and then they raised their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he is not fit to live!”

They listened to him until this word Gentiles. They cried out and they threw off their clothes and they threw dirt in the air. They’re ripping their clothes and throwing dirt in the air.

Did you hear that word He said? He said, “Gentiles.” Does that give you a little idea of how they felt? They weren’t really thrilled. They were about like Jonah. They may not have been quite as willing to take a short trip in a long fish as he was.

From the very beginning, His intention was to reach the world. He was given to communicating the right message to the world. 6. Commit to meekness. Why did He withdraw and why did He spend His time in the quiet places and the quiet people?

V 19, He will not quarrel nor cry out, Nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. Jesus did not come into the world to hassle, fight, argue, wrangle, and harangue in the streets. He had a quiet dignity. He spoke with dignity and with meekness.

Contrast to the mauling, brawling, hassling Pharisees who constantly stirred up riots. Our Lord was never engaged in political criticism.

• He never tried to organize a mob to do anything.
• He never appealed to people based on wild-haired emotions.
• He was not an agitator.
• He didn’t indulge in the raving of a fool.

Ecclesiastes 9:17, Words of the wise, spoken quietly, should be heard Rather than the shout of a ruler of fools.

There was dignity. There was no riotous screaming. There was no nasty public wrangling. There was a gentleness and meekness. He never sought to secure His rightful place by political power, carnal force, insightful speech, rousing of a mob.

He is quiet and he is composed. 7. Comfort the weak. V 20, A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench, Till He sends forth justice to victory; Reeds were used for a lot of things, and once a reed was bruised, it wouldn’t stay straight.

Once it gets soft somewhere, it just doesn’t straighten. You crunch it and throw it away and get a new one. Shepherds and people out in the fields used to like to pick reeds and make them into little flutes and play them.

After they played them for a while, of course, their fingers and their saliva and all would cause them to get soft in a place and they wouldn’t stay straight, and they couldn’t be played right. They would just crush them and throw them away.

Smoking flax used to take flax and make a wick out of it. It’s smouldering flax that you see here. The fire is just about out. It’s just kind of smouldering on the edge of the wick.

What is this picture? This picture is the hurting people, the people everybody else steps on, discards, throws away. The bruised reeds that don’t play the tune anymore, The smoking flax that can’t give any light. The weak, the powerless, the helpless, the ones destroyed by sin and suffering. The unworthy, no spiritual resources, despised, ignored, suffering, and hurting people.

The kind of people that human conquerors have no time for, the kind of people that the Pharisees just walked all over. But those are the kind of people the Lord goes to. He doesn’t break those kinds of bruised reeds and He doesn’t put out what’s left of the smouldering.

He will pick up the bruised reed, and He will play a melody through it that has never been heard. He will fan the flame that’s smouldering on that wick, and it will brighten and light the room. He will pick up the sick and the tax collectors and the prostitutes, the sorrowing, the fearful, and the doubters, the hungry, the sinners, and meet their needs.

That is the kind of Saviour He is! He is indeed God with us, Emmanuel, because that is the heart of God. No wonder He is the Beloved Servant. Till He sends forth justice to victory; Ultimately the right will win. In spite of all the persecution and the difficulty, rejection, in the end, He will win the victory.

At the great consummation, sin will be banished forever. Great promise that He shall win the victory. Oh, what a Saviour is mine.

Christ has come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Not to heal those who are well, but those who are sick and face it.

How different He is from other religious leaders? He ought to be God.

Conclusion

We as members of the human race are destructive. When you were a kid and you walking down a sidewalk and you saw a bunch of ants, what’d you do to them? Grind them into the concrete.

You go a little further and what happens? There’s a little tree branch, and you jump up and snap the branch off and then off go the leaves. You come along and there’s a lot of little flowers and off go the tops of the flowers.

Where did you get this?

We all know there’s something in us that’s just sort of destructive. We pluck a flower and pull its petals. In just ten minutes, we can create havoc in just a little part of God’s world. Trait of human nature and fallenness and of Satan.

There is a damning, destroying character. But God is not like that. He doesn’t break the bruised reed and He doesn’t blow out the smouldering wick. He makes it live. God gives life, Men kill. He would like to give you life.

He is like to fan your smouldering wick, and He is like to play a tune through your bruised reed. If you come to Jesus Christ, He will do. But you must make that choice.

You will choose today, because you will say yes or no, and that’s your choice.