The Holy Spirit - God's Spirit
E-book and Audio series
PART 2 - The Roles and Activities of the Holy Spirit
Chapter 22 - The Spirit in Matthew's Gospel - a summary
Summary: The role of the Holy Spirit, as traced through Matthew's Gospel. This chapter also covers other aspects of Christ's rejection, and the faithful obedience of the Lord during His final days before the crucifixion.
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Study Notes: No.22 - The Spirit in Matthew's Gospel - a summary
(Some of these issues are discussed in more detail in the audio recording.)
We are continuing to look at the work of the Holy Spirit during the Gospels, particularly in the earthly life of the Lord Jesus.
In the previous study, we read a number of passages showing that, even though God’s Spirit was plainly at work in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, He and His messages were largely rejected, especially by the religious leaders of the time. This led us to consider a passage in Matthew 12 which speaks about how a person in those times could be forgiven for speaking against the Lord Jesus, but not forgiven if speaking against God’s Spirit. The workings of the Spirit were so clearly from God, that it was tantamount to rejecting God Himself.
In this study, I’d like to consider the work of the Holy Spirit in the final months of the Lord’s earthly life.
To prepare us for doing this, I think we should cover some of what we’ve looked at over the last three or so studies, but from a different perspective, and this will set us up to better appreciate how God’s Spirit was working in the Lord’s life during the final few months of His earthly walk.
The Spirit in Matthew's Gospel Account
Let us follow the story at a glance through the book of Matthew, stopping to look at only one or two verses at a time.
READ …
Matthew 3:16 - Baptism, and the Holy Spirit comes upon Him. Before this, there seems to have been no activity of the Spirit working through Him. His baptism marks the beginning of His ministry.
Matthew 4:1 - Led up by the Spirit for a time of testing before ministry really begins. Leaving the wilderness, He gathers some disciples.
Matthew 4:17, 23 - The Lord begins to preach and work miracles. His preaching was not always accepted by the people; and He was generally rejected by the religious leaders of the time.
Matthew 5:1,2 - The Lord preaches what we now call "The Sermon on the Mount", chapters 5 to 7.
Matthew 8:1,2 - Quite a few of the Lord's miracles are listed in chapters 8 & 9.
Matthew 10:1,5-8 - The Lord sends His disciples out to do the same (i.e. preach and perform miracles), but gives them warnings about what will happen when their message is rejected (v.16,17). We'll look more at the Holy Spirit’s dealing with the disciples in future studies.
Matthew 11:1-5 - John the Baptist asks why the kingdom isn't coming in (cp Matthew 17:10-13, note the Lord's answer about John's role, if the people had believed). Kingdom was not coming in because the King and His message were mostly being rejected.
Matthew 12:14, 24, 38-40 - More signs of rejection.
Matthew 13:2,3… 10-15 … 54,58 - The Lord speaks in parables, because of rejection.
Matthew chapters 14 to 16 - This passage highlights the terrible example of the leaders at the time. For example, – - Herod had John the Baptist beheaded (14:10)
- Traditions of the Pharisees vs. the word of God (15:1-7)
- Warnings about the teaching and traditions of the Pharisees and Sadducees (16:5-12)
- Note that the miracles of feeding 5000 & 4000 are in this section (chs.14-16); this is not random. These miracles highlighted that:
(a) Jesus of Nazareth was the Bread of life, who would be able to supply all needs abundantly.
(b) His kingdom would be one of divine government (note the number of baskets left over each time - the number 12 representing government, and 7 representing perfection), unlike the government of self-serving imposters like the Pharisees and Herod.
Matthew chapters 16 to 25 - From this point onwards in Matthew, and indeed in the other Gospel accounts, there are fewer references to the Holy Spirit being at work through the Lord (more about this in moment).
Matthew chapters 26 to 28 – His arrest, crucifixion and resurrection.
Matthew 16 - a turning point
The predominance of the Holy Spirit in His ministry and life seems to lessen from around about Matthew 16. He still performed miracles after this, but didn't refer to the Spirit being at work in Him. It is a similar situation in Luke's Gospel, where He speaks about those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, and then that is really the last time He speaks about the Spirit's work in Himself.
We read less of the Lord performing miracles and more about Him speaking of His impending death, and His prophecies (spoken both plainly and via parables) of what will take place in the future, especially concerning the coming kingdom.
(a) He speaks of what will happen soon after He has gone; and
(b) what will happen when He returns again.
How much the Spirit is at work moving Him to prophesy these things is a matter of conjecture, and probably impossible to tell - and we don't need to draw a conclusion about this anyway. What is obvious is that after it becomes plain that He would be rejected, there are far less miracles recorded and much more prophecy about his death, the period after his death, and his future return to establish the kingdom on earth.
Simply put, displays of God’s Spirit diminished once He had been rejected. A foretaste of this is seen in Mark 6:1-6; He was rejected at Nazareth, and we are specifically told that He was not able to do many miracles there.
Trials and Suffering
Let’s now focus for just a few minutes on the Lord’s trials and sufferings, including His crucifixion.
We’ve been looking at the work of the Holy Spirit in life and ministry of The Lord Jesus. Following great demonstrations of the Spirit’s power in His life, these demonstrations diminished greatly towards the end of His earthly life. I would go so far as to say that God's Holy Spirit seems to have played little or no role in assisting the Lord Jesus through the final days of His suffering and death, but let’s read some passages that talk about this, and you can make up your own mind.
READ Philippians 2:7,8 – no assistance, but an emphasis on obedience
READ Hebrews 5:5-8 – in His role as High Priest, offering Himself as a sacrifice for mankind’s sin. We are told that Christ "learned obedience" (perhaps this could read "experienced obedience"?).
READ Hebrews 10:4-12 - He came to do God's will, He did it, and performed the role of the High Priest. There is no indication that the Spirit helped Him do this. He was not enabled to do that which, though difficult and stressful, was not beyond human capability. He was obedient to the Father's will, and carried it out.
Concluding Thoughts
Today, albeit in very different circumstances, we are also blessed with the presence of God’s Holy Spirit in our lives, yet we still have the choice to obey God’s will or not. Just like King David, Jonah, Peter, etc. who all had God’s Spirit present in their lives, they were still able to disobey and not follow God’s ways and His will. We face a similar situation today. Obedience or disobedience: the choice is ours.
Once the Lord Jesus had completed His ultimate act of obedience, Philippians 2:9 says “Therefore God has highly exalted Him”, and there are great things in store for us too, if we are obedient to God’s will, and walk more closely to the way He would have us walk.
(Some of these issues are discussed in more detail in the audio recording.)
We are continuing to look at the work of the Holy Spirit during the Gospels, particularly in the earthly life of the Lord Jesus.
In the previous study, we read a number of passages showing that, even though God’s Spirit was plainly at work in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, He and His messages were largely rejected, especially by the religious leaders of the time. This led us to consider a passage in Matthew 12 which speaks about how a person in those times could be forgiven for speaking against the Lord Jesus, but not forgiven if speaking against God’s Spirit. The workings of the Spirit were so clearly from God, that it was tantamount to rejecting God Himself.
In this study, I’d like to consider the work of the Holy Spirit in the final months of the Lord’s earthly life.
To prepare us for doing this, I think we should cover some of what we’ve looked at over the last three or so studies, but from a different perspective, and this will set us up to better appreciate how God’s Spirit was working in the Lord’s life during the final few months of His earthly walk.
The Spirit in Matthew's Gospel Account
Let us follow the story at a glance through the book of Matthew, stopping to look at only one or two verses at a time.
READ …
Matthew 3:16 - Baptism, and the Holy Spirit comes upon Him. Before this, there seems to have been no activity of the Spirit working through Him. His baptism marks the beginning of His ministry.
Matthew 4:1 - Led up by the Spirit for a time of testing before ministry really begins. Leaving the wilderness, He gathers some disciples.
Matthew 4:17, 23 - The Lord begins to preach and work miracles. His preaching was not always accepted by the people; and He was generally rejected by the religious leaders of the time.
Matthew 5:1,2 - The Lord preaches what we now call "The Sermon on the Mount", chapters 5 to 7.
Matthew 8:1,2 - Quite a few of the Lord's miracles are listed in chapters 8 & 9.
Matthew 10:1,5-8 - The Lord sends His disciples out to do the same (i.e. preach and perform miracles), but gives them warnings about what will happen when their message is rejected (v.16,17). We'll look more at the Holy Spirit’s dealing with the disciples in future studies.
Matthew 11:1-5 - John the Baptist asks why the kingdom isn't coming in (cp Matthew 17:10-13, note the Lord's answer about John's role, if the people had believed). Kingdom was not coming in because the King and His message were mostly being rejected.
Matthew 12:14, 24, 38-40 - More signs of rejection.
Matthew 13:2,3… 10-15 … 54,58 - The Lord speaks in parables, because of rejection.
Matthew chapters 14 to 16 - This passage highlights the terrible example of the leaders at the time. For example, – - Herod had John the Baptist beheaded (14:10)
- Traditions of the Pharisees vs. the word of God (15:1-7)
- Warnings about the teaching and traditions of the Pharisees and Sadducees (16:5-12)
- Note that the miracles of feeding 5000 & 4000 are in this section (chs.14-16); this is not random. These miracles highlighted that:
(a) Jesus of Nazareth was the Bread of life, who would be able to supply all needs abundantly.
(b) His kingdom would be one of divine government (note the number of baskets left over each time - the number 12 representing government, and 7 representing perfection), unlike the government of self-serving imposters like the Pharisees and Herod.
Matthew chapters 16 to 25 - From this point onwards in Matthew, and indeed in the other Gospel accounts, there are fewer references to the Holy Spirit being at work through the Lord (more about this in moment).
Matthew chapters 26 to 28 – His arrest, crucifixion and resurrection.
Matthew 16 - a turning point
The predominance of the Holy Spirit in His ministry and life seems to lessen from around about Matthew 16. He still performed miracles after this, but didn't refer to the Spirit being at work in Him. It is a similar situation in Luke's Gospel, where He speaks about those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, and then that is really the last time He speaks about the Spirit's work in Himself.
We read less of the Lord performing miracles and more about Him speaking of His impending death, and His prophecies (spoken both plainly and via parables) of what will take place in the future, especially concerning the coming kingdom.
(a) He speaks of what will happen soon after He has gone; and
(b) what will happen when He returns again.
How much the Spirit is at work moving Him to prophesy these things is a matter of conjecture, and probably impossible to tell - and we don't need to draw a conclusion about this anyway. What is obvious is that after it becomes plain that He would be rejected, there are far less miracles recorded and much more prophecy about his death, the period after his death, and his future return to establish the kingdom on earth.
Simply put, displays of God’s Spirit diminished once He had been rejected. A foretaste of this is seen in Mark 6:1-6; He was rejected at Nazareth, and we are specifically told that He was not able to do many miracles there.
Trials and Suffering
Let’s now focus for just a few minutes on the Lord’s trials and sufferings, including His crucifixion.
We’ve been looking at the work of the Holy Spirit in life and ministry of The Lord Jesus. Following great demonstrations of the Spirit’s power in His life, these demonstrations diminished greatly towards the end of His earthly life. I would go so far as to say that God's Holy Spirit seems to have played little or no role in assisting the Lord Jesus through the final days of His suffering and death, but let’s read some passages that talk about this, and you can make up your own mind.
READ Philippians 2:7,8 – no assistance, but an emphasis on obedience
READ Hebrews 5:5-8 – in His role as High Priest, offering Himself as a sacrifice for mankind’s sin. We are told that Christ "learned obedience" (perhaps this could read "experienced obedience"?).
READ Hebrews 10:4-12 - He came to do God's will, He did it, and performed the role of the High Priest. There is no indication that the Spirit helped Him do this. He was not enabled to do that which, though difficult and stressful, was not beyond human capability. He was obedient to the Father's will, and carried it out.
Concluding Thoughts
Today, albeit in very different circumstances, we are also blessed with the presence of God’s Holy Spirit in our lives, yet we still have the choice to obey God’s will or not. Just like King David, Jonah, Peter, etc. who all had God’s Spirit present in their lives, they were still able to disobey and not follow God’s ways and His will. We face a similar situation today. Obedience or disobedience: the choice is ours.
Once the Lord Jesus had completed His ultimate act of obedience, Philippians 2:9 says “Therefore God has highly exalted Him”, and there are great things in store for us too, if we are obedient to God’s will, and walk more closely to the way He would have us walk.