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The Parables of Matthew
Filling Empty Lives
Matthew 12:43-45
Introduction:
Getting Better Acquainted With God
A Sunday School Class of first-graders was asked to draw
a picture of God. When the pastor stopped by to inspect their
work they were eager to show him. One child depicted God in
the form of a brightly colored rainbow. Another one had drawn
the face of an old man looking out of some billowing clouds.
There was one rendition that looked a lot like Superman. Best
of all, there was one drawing proudly displayed by a little
girl who said, “I didn’t know what God looked like, so I just
drew a picture of my daddy.”
Not everyone has a daddy who gives a good picture of God. What are those
people supposed to do in trying to frame an accurate picture
of God? We begin today a summer study in the parables of Matthew.
Let me outline my expectations for this series.
I Begin With A Premise: Many people really do want to get better
acquainted with God who has made it very clear He wants them
to be better acquainted with Him.
I Acknowledge A Process: Getting better acquainted with anyone,
including God, requires an investment of energy over an extended
period of time.
I Investigate The Parables: These teaching
stories used by Jesus are the best tool to become better acquainted
with God.
Jesus used parables often to explain and clarify truth. They open windows
of understanding. Each parable contains a basic element of
the nature of God and how He works in our lives. Studying
the parables is like getting to know a person. Through the
parables we gain understanding of how God views the world,
us and Himself. The parables are God’s own story about Himself.
They are like an autobiography.
During this study we will concentrate on the parables of Matthew. Some
of the parables are also found in other gospels—most often
in Luke but never in John. Many of the parables are unique
to Matthew as he addresses a primarily Jewish audience with
the goal of convincing them that Jesus is their long-anticipated
Messiah.
The first parable we consider this morning is a curious one with which
to begin. This parable picturing the heart as a house seems
at first to be quite negative. If we were to write a title
for the parable a good candidate would be The
Parable of The Empty House. Listen to what Jesus says,
When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid
places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I
will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds
the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it
goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than
itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition
of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be
with this wicked generation. Matthew 12:43-45 NIV
In order to understand the parable and apply its teaching to our desire
to know God better, we need to understand the context in which
Jesus spoke it.
In Matthew 12 we read about the
escalating tensions with the Jewish religious leaders.
The chapter opens with Jesus traveling through the grain fields
with His hungry disciples on the Sabbath Day (vv. 1-8). The
Pharisees (the name is taken from the Hebrew root meaning
separatist) are upset that Jesus’
disciples would pick grain on the Sabbath. They saw
His disciples violating one of the many laws that had been
adopted to help keep people separated from sinful practices.
Their upset only increased when
they saw Jesus heal a man’s crippled hand on the Sabbath
Day (vv. 9-13).
Jesus exposes the arbitrary nature of their law by pointing
out far less worthy exceptions they have already approved.
The man is healed…
But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill
Jesus. Matthew 12:14 NIV
In the verses immediately preceding our curious parable Jesus heals a man who can’t see or speak. The people are astonished as they wonder if Jesus
might just be the Son of David—a popular Jewish title for
the coming Messiah. The Pharisees can’t allow this type of
dangerous thinking to go unchecked so they offer the other
alternative. Instead of being the Messiah Jesus is labeled
as a partner of Beelzebub. They claim it is only because of
His access to the prince of demons that Jesus can drive out
demons.
Jesus shreds their attack and exposes the error of their desperate rants.
Jesus explains that a house divided against itself can never
survive. Some of the Jewish teachers also expelled demons.
Are they in partnership with the devil, too? Or, is this a
work of God’s Spirit and a sign that the Kingdom of God has
arrived? Jesus argues that a good tree produces good fruit
and a bad tree yields only bad fruit. He challenges them to
state their evaluation of Him.
Some of them counter with a request.
Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to
him, "Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from
you."
Matthew 12:38 NIV
While not stated here you can almost hear their devilish taunts.
Turn these stones into bread.
Jump from the highest point on the temple and let God save
you.
Join with us and you’ll be able to enjoy power over the
entire nation.
They have already seen miraculous signs such as a man’s hand being healed
and another man being given sight and the ability to speak.
But, they ask for more.
Jesus doesn’t hold back. He calls them a wicked and adulterous generation
and tells them they will receive no other sign than the sign
of the prophet Jonah. Jesus’ point is that He will be buried
three days and then resurrected—just as Jonah was resurrected
from the whale. If they wanted a sign, they would be given
the ultimate one when Jesus died and then was resurrected.
While the depraved people of Nineveh listened to Jonah, repented
of their sin and were spared, even the resurrection of Jesus
would not be enough to convince these people.
As Jesus is now ready to speak the parable, here is where we need to
be very careful to not be isolated from truth. We, too, join
the ranks of the Pharisees when we refuse to acknowledge Christ
until He presents more convincing evidence. As Jesus illustrates
the power and persistence of evil in a grisly way through
this parable, we are confronted with the danger of the relentless
virulence of evil. Suddenly, we realize we need to hear this
parable just as much as Jesus’ antagonists did.
Compelling
Drama
Jesus used parables to grab people’s attention. The story He unfolds
here makes for compelling drama. He describes a man who has
been delivered from an unclean, demonic spirit. Once the demon
has been evicted he passes through arid, desert places seeking
a new place to make his residence and find rest. He doesn’t
find any place available or suitable for his tastes. So, he
decides to go back and check out his former house.
To His delight he finds it unoccupied. Don’t miss how he describes this
house in the New American Standard Bible, which is one of
the most literal translations.
Then it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' Matthew 12:44 NASB
He calls it, “My house. I may have moved out but it’s still mine.”
He returns to find it a dream house. It is unoccupied. It is swept clean.
It is put in order. I know when we
were looking for houses to buy at various times we would have
been thrilled to have a realtor show us a house like the one
Jesus describes. Jesus, however, is talking about the heart
and soul of a human being because that’s the place demons
live. This heart is like a lake house for a Minnesotan!
In order to never again have his tenancy challenged, he invites seven
friends to move in with him. Having seven demons was considered
the worst state of possession. Mary Magdalene had been delivered
from seven demons.
After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village
to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God.
The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been
cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene)
from whom seven demons had come out… Luke 8:1-2 NIV
This is likely the root idea behind the name Legion.
Then Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" "My
name is Legion," he replied, "for we are many."
Mark
5:9 NIV
We are gripped by the drama. The empty house is repossessed. With fiendish
glee the eight spirits move into and occupy every crevice
and corner. The point of the parable is plainly and painfully
clear:
A personality
purged of evil must be filled.
Something—Someone—must fill the emptiness. If not, Jesus says, “The final
condition of that man is worse than the first.” Jesus hammers
the piercing truth home for them. And for us! “That is how
it will be with this wicked generation.” And with our generation…
and with you and me.
Unavoidable
Application
Jesus used parables to make a point and to stimulate action. He hammered
the point home to open closed eyes and ears and to change
sin hardened hearts. Along with those listeners we are pushed
to three poignant points of application that cannot be avoided.
The
Deceptive Illusion of Neutrality
An empty heart would be completely neutral. It is not engaged in anything
good or evil. It’s just neutral. The problem is the heart
doesn’t remain empty and, therefore, neutrality is never anything
other than a deceptive illusion. The Pharisees tried to stay
neutral about Jesus but their neutrality very quickly turned
to hostility. They grew to hate Jesus so much they were willing
to do just about anything to see Him dead.
It’s impossible to remain neutral—especially when it involves issues
of good versus evil and right as opposed to wrong. Some
parents over the years have stated they are not going to teach
their children about religion. Instead, they will let them
grow up in an atmosphere of non-involvement and allow them
to decide what they want to do when they are old enough. They
fail to see the illusion which deceives them. By making no
choice they have made a choice that no religious tradition
is worthy to be considered. Neutrality becomes worse than
making no choice because the choice is made to follow nothing
at all.
The best course of action is to fill life with positive choices. Living
what we believe is the best way to keep our faith alive. The
surest safeguard against losing the joy of our salvation is
found in seeking to give our faith away.
Nature abhors
a vacuum. We feel the effects in our weather as winds flow
from high pressure areas to low pressure areas. Members of
12 Step groups know that their sobriety is inseparably linked
to helping others who are addicted. Jesus constantly
enlists us in the work of building His kingdom as we share
our faith with others, invite them to follow Jesus and then
help them to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus.
Unless we are actively involved in changing the world, the world will
change us. Then, our last condition will be worse that before
we met Christ. The world pressures us to fit its mold. We
are told that faith is a private matter to be kept between
you and the Deity. It was never private for the God of the
universe.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have
seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from
the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14 NIV
God made it very public. Faith
is personal, but it was never intended to be private. Neutrality
is not an option. God calls us to take a stand.
The
Enslaving Emptiness of Moral Reformation Alone
The Pharisees were experts of moral reform. They were masters of “Thou
Shalt Not!” They used negativity to control people. They had
no understanding of filling the void with freedom. They addressed
only the symptoms without ever getting to the core issue of
answering the crucial question: Once the heart is swept clean, what will fill the emptiness?
It’s easy for us to protest that we would never repeat their mistake.
Yet, we do it all the time. We follow diet plans that attack the symptoms of being overweight
without addressing the causes. Drug and alcohol programs often
do the same. They dry you out and then send you back out to
face the same pressures that landed you in the clinic.
Jesus knew what He was talking about when He said that
the final condition is worse than the first.
Don’t miss this teaching point: Reformation
without regeneration leaves us like an empty house. We
are susceptible to the next enticing possibility coming up
the walk to the front door of our lives. We do our best to
cleanse our lives of habits, thoughts and destructive patterns.
We promise ourselves and others that we are going to change
but never really do. We know more about what we’re against
than what we’re for. Our lives consist of many “don’ts” but
contain little power. “Oughts” become our compulsion. All
our energy is spent on rules and regulations. We use judgmentalism
to stabilize our world as negativism becomes the unyielding
passion of our souls. We will be good people and we will make
the world good and we will do almost anything to make it happen.
We become modern day Pharisees.
Am I too harsh? Perhaps. But
how do you explain the lack of warmth and infectious joy among
so many Christians when Jesus says He came to give us life
abundant and overflowing?
What about you and me? Does what we believe release us to be life-affirming,
contagious, uplifting lovers of people? Are we truly Christian
when life’s pressures and demands press against us? Or, do
we revert to some very ugly patterns? Our problem is we
can be delivered from the past with sin cleansed and forgiven
without experiencing God dwelling in us in the present. We
are chained in slavery to the emptiness of pursuing moral
reform and that is never enough.
This brings us to the third point of application where we become better
acquainted with God. In a parable that appears to teach more
about the evil of the demonic we surprisingly become aware
of the dynamic of God. It dawns on us that Jesus is leading
us into a discovery of one of the most positive truths about
God and His plan and purpose for our lives. Are you ready for it? Here it is.
The
Unsurpassable Joy of Being Containers of His Glory
God intends
for us to be containers of His glory. You and I were created to be containers
and communicators of the Spirit of God. He is the One who
owns the house, but sin evicted Him. Rebellion slammed the
door in His face. Jesus came to create a new breed of people.
The apostle John explains it this way.
He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive
him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in
his name, he gave the right to become children of God. John 1:11-12 NIV
Paul asked,
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit,
who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not
your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God
with your body.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NIV
Paul affirmed,
To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the
glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the
hope of glory.
Colossians 1:27 NIV
If you were here last week you heard these words from Dr. Ergun Caner,
For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness,"
made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But
we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing
power is from God and not from us. 2 Corinthians 4:6-7 NIV
Conclusion:
Let God Fill Your Heart
This parable is the anticipation of the fulfillment of Jesus’ life and
ministry on earth. He came so that hearts of people could
be set free from the grip of Satan. Those same hearts would
be filled with His Spirit following the Resurrection. The
entire purpose of His Incarnation was at stake as He confronted
the religious moralists who would have loved for Him to embrace
the system and not rock the boat with His radical teaching
about how God wants to completely change and fill your heart
with His glory.
We need to
see the urgency for ourselves as well. The parable presses us to grow. Being
a Christian is more than rearranging the status quo and repositioning
the cherished furniture of the past in our hearts.
God intends
for us to be containers of His glory as we are filled with
His presence.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the
old has gone, the new has come!
2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV
Be sure that the new has come into your heart or the old will surely
return. Live with this constant awareness: Christ
wants permanent occupancy because He owns the house. He
came to fill our empty lives with the glory of His presence!
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