Matthew 12:17-21

http://biblehub.com/parallelgospels/Jesus_Teaching_the_Crowds_by_the_Sea_of_Galilee.htm

Jesus came to the earth to fulfill the will of the Father.  God’s will is always accomplished through His power, in accordance with His means and for His purposes.  Matthew recognizes that the ministry of Jesus by the sea of Galilee was a fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah so he quotes it in this passage.  There are several things we notice about this passage as they relate to Jesus.  It gives us a clearer understanding of who Jesus is, how He works and what He came to accomplish.  There were a lot of expectations concerning the identity of Jesus.  Unfortunately, most of those expectations were not based on the Scriptures; instead they were based on human traditions and wishful thinking.  As believes, we too can find ourselves expecting certain things to be true about our lives.  We need to be very careful to make sure our hope is based on the Word of God.  As we consider how Jesus served is should give us a greater understanding of who He is as well as how He wants us to serve.

THE MINISTRY OF JESUS: The first thing that we notice about the ministry of Jesus is that it was determined by the Father.  Jesus was identified as a Servant who was chosen by God.  There is nothing random about the history of the world or the identity of Jesus.  God set Jesus apart for a specific purpose in the history of redemption.  The next thing we notice about Jesus is the Father’s love for Him.  The Father loves the Son perfectly and was completely pleased by Jesus in every way.  Finally, we see that the ministry of Jesus was empowered by the Father through the Holy Spirit.  The Father chose the Son, loves the Son and empowers the Son.  The very same can be said of all believers.  We have been chosen by God because of His great love and are totally dependent on His Spirit in order to be able to accomplish His will.  Even though Jesus was not who many expected Him to be; He was exactly who God wanted Him to be.  He accomplished the will of the Father perfectly.  He was loved by the Father deeply.  He was empowered by the Father completely.  We can rest assured in the will, love and power of God.

THE METHOD OF JESUS: The way Jesus accomplished His ministry is as instructive to us as who He was and what He did.  He did not set out to pick a fight.  Even though it seems like His life was marked with controversy and conflict; that was not because of His treatment of others.  He didn’t seek to offend the Pharisees or set out to start some sort of political revolution.  In many ways, this was the reason many of the Jewish leaders rejected Jesus.  They were expecting a political figure who would come in and start a revolution.  They didn’t have the courage or the means to rebel against the Roman Empire but they expected Messiah would do just that.  However, it is clear from this text that this was an unbiblical expectation.  A suffering and silent Messiah is not who or what the people were expecting.  He would be gentle with the oppressed and He would not extinguish those who were weak.  God did not call the Son to make a lot of noise and start a riot.  He called Jesus to be gentle, loving, humble and kind.  The people around Jesus were constantly provoking Him but He was under the complete control of the Spirit of God so He could accomplish the will of God.

THE MISSION OF JESUS: The mission of the Father and the mission of the Son were identical.  The Father desires to have disciples from every nation worshiping Him.  Jesus came for the purpose of accomplishing that mission.  He came to reveal the truth of God to the Gentiles so that they might have hope through forgiveness of sin.  This has been the mission of the Father from the foundations of the earth and will continue to be the mission of the Father for the duration of history.  God called Abraham in order to bless him and his descendants so that all the nations of the world would be blessed through them.  God loves the nations and has called the them to repent and trust Jesus so that they might be reconciled to Himself.  Jesus came through the Jews in order to fulfill that purpose and calling.  He incarnation and suffering on the cross were all vital parts of the mission of Jesus.  When we are called into the family of God through faith; God calls us to be engaged in the mission of proclaiming the Gospel to the nations of the world so they might find eternal hope in Him.


APPLICATION: Rejoice in the calling and love of God.  Depend on the power of God in order to accomplish the work of God.  Be loving and kind to others instead of debating and having our lives marked by controversy and conflict with others.  Engage fully in proclaiming the hope of the Gospel in all nations.

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