Matthew 12:22-37

Okay, we've been in a portion of Matthew's gospel where Jesus has invited us into a relationship with himself.

"Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." And in that invitation, Jesus describes himself.

And as I pointed out to you, it's the only place in the Gospels where Jesus speaks autobiographically about what he is like.

He says, "I am gentle and lowly." Matthew doubles down on that description of Jesus by reaching back, and we saw this last week, into Isaiah chapter 42, looking at this servant figure that Isaiah predicted would come one day.

And he says, "This servant, when he comes, a smoking wick he will not quench and a bruised reed or branch he will not break." Just speaking again of the gentleness of Jesus, the gentleness of the Lord.

But here's my question this morning.

Are there times where you wish or need Jesus to be a little less gentle and lowly, and a little more warrior-like in life? You know, in the Book of Exodus, when the people of Israel came out of Egypt, where they had been enslaved for over four centuries, and were brought to the edge of the Red Sea and then passed through it miraculously, and those waters receded over the enemies that were pursuing them, their previous captors, the people of Israel sang a song.

And at the beginning of the song they said, "The Lord, the Lord, a man of war." They were celebrating that God had fought for them, that he had battled for them.

There are times where we need Jesus to go to war for us.

So today, I've entitled my message The Gentle and Lowly Warrior, uh, because that's who Jesus will appear to be, uh, in this passage.

He's gonna be presented as the liberator, uh, who has bound Satan.

Uh, it's all set up by a very quick story, so let's read it in verse 22 to verse 24.

It says, "Then a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him," brought to Jesus, "and he healed him, so that the man spoke and saw.

And all the people were amazed and said, 'Can this be the Son of David?' But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, 'It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.'" Now, in this very brief opening story, we have three quick movements.