Matthew 12
God’s Chosen Servant15 Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. A large crowd followed him, and he healed all who were ill. 16 He warned them not to tell others about him. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
18 “Here is my servant whom I have chosen,
the one I love, in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
and he will proclaim justice to the nations.
19 He will not quarrel or cry out;
no one will hear his voice in the streets.
20 A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out,
till he has brought justice through to victory.
21 In his name the nations will put their hope.”
God sent his One and Only Son to be a Servant to a world without who didn’t know God. God’s Spirit was in Him for Jesus was a part of God but also born of a virgin to be known as the Son of Man. Jesus was sent by God to save us. Jesus did exactly what He was sent to be and do. Jesus also healed with compassion and asked they the healed not tell. The time was not right to reveal who Jesus really was and what was about to happen. It was also important to teach the people to give all glory to God who sent Him and told him every word to say and every action to take.
Who are we to say or do anything without orders from the same God who sent Jesus? Jesus, the example to follow. Jesus is Life. Yes, Jesus is our best hope. Jesus is our only hope of life eternal with God.
My hope is built on nothing lessthan Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
all other ground is sinking sand,
all other ground is sinking sand.
When darkness veils his lovely face,
I rest on his unchanging grace;
in ev’ry high and stormy gale,
my anchor holds within the veil.
His oath, his covenant, his blood
support me in the whelming flood;
when all around my soul gives way,
he then is all my hope and stay.
When he shall come with trumpet sound,
O may I then in him be found,
dressed in his righteousness alone,
faultless to stand before the throne.
Lord,
May all we think, say, or do be done by your invitation in Your Name. You are my Hope. You are my life.
In Jesus Name, Amen.
Matthew 12
9 Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, 10 and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”
“Our leaders do not have enough faith or they would bring us all back to do church again.”
Jesus brought change in the ways people think about what God said in His Word. He taught God’s real intention for God’s Law. He came not to abolish or change the message that God gave but to fulfill it with His life while explaining what God really wanted from all of us. He wants us to love Him back and to love others like He loves us. All day, every day.
Jesus is not only Lord of the Sabbath, that time we take to focus ALL our being, hearts, minds and souls, on Him to worship and learn from Him, but as believers Jesus should be LORD of our thought life which leads to our behaviors.
As believing brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, we should certainly speak up when leaders go against God’s Word, say they do not love God, no longer speak of the salvation of Jesus and only speak only of themselves while gaining more power for themselves. This is the filter through which our warning words should flow.
When we live our lives to please God in our obedience to “go and make disciples”, this is a grim reality for those who reject salvation. But remember, it is God’s work. We are invited by God to go and tell, teach and encourage others by telling what He has done for us. The responsibility for acceptance is up to the people. All of us have been given free will to choose life or death. This is God’s way. Although it is hard to see someone, especially a loved one, reject salvation through Jesus, it is between God and the person. 
20 Then Jesus began to denounce the towns in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. 21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. 23 And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades. For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. 24 But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”
We become the children of God through faith in Christ; we are disciples as we faithfully follow Him and obey His will. Sonship does not change, but discipleship does change as we walk 
The first two commands represent a crisis as we come and yield to Christ, but this step is a process. As we learn more about Him, we find a deeper peace, because we trust Him more. Life is simplified and unified around the person of Christ. This invitation is for “all”—not just the people of Israel (Matt. 10:5–6). 
Many leaders in our time and before our time have swayed people with their way of speaking, charisma, and political aspirations. They tell us they know what we need and what will happen next. They promise what they cannot possibly deliver. But they do this for their own rise to power. Most times what they say cannot be produced in deeds and actions.
4 Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. 6 Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”
Jesus was the proof of John’s message from God. John was born to prepare the way of Jesus. What John said from God would happen, happened. John was a true prophet of God. John had a specific purpose from God. John obeyed. God fulfilled what John relayed to the people about Jesus. Proof.
WATCH ME WHILE I DO IT
Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.
5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. 6 Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. 7 As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.
1. It’s not about you. It’s not about us. 
4. Tell who you know first, then go to others.
12. “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” 
We agree the workers are few. So, how long has it been since we asked God for help in His work by sending more people to help in the harvest of souls?
“I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” Philippians 3:12-14, NLT
While being imprisoned for doing this harvest work, the ministry explodes because of Paul’s tenacious instruction to the harvest workers outside the prison walls who will pass on this multiplication theology:
“The harvest is great, the workers are few”. The workers are clamoring for new ways and means, outside a building, to help people find and follow Jesus Christ…the MAIN FOCUS of our existence. 
27 As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”
Two blind men SEE with their hearts. They know who Jesus is and address Him correctly, “Son of David!” They ask the One and Only to have mercy on them because they know he can heal them. These two blind men not only acknowledged Christ as the Son of David but persisted in following Him right into the house. (No doubt they had friends who helped guide them.) It was their faith that Christ honored. Their “Yes, Lord” was the confession that released the power for their healing, and their sight was restored.
Open my eyes, that I may see
There will always be unbelieving people in our lives who will go to great links to bring God down to a size they can manage as unbelievers so they can dispute the Truth of who He is and what He can do. It hurts worse when these people are close family members and friends because you love them so much.
Take heart when others mock the Truth that lives in you. Take heart when the virus hits your family with a vengeance. Take heart when finances are tight. Take heart when life is just not what you planned. 
TAKE HEART…
You hear me when I call
My strength is in your name
Well, duh. Yes, that is my professional opinion as an eater all my life. When I eat and sit on the couch and binge watch TV, I gain weight. When I do not eat and sit on the couch I might lose weight but will gain it all back and more when I go back to eating. That’s the real science of fasting.
Jesus Questioned About Fasting
Jesus presents four pictures of His ministry and mission. Ministry is to those who believe. Mission is seeking and saving the lost, (those who do not yet believe). 
Fasting is not about food intake as much as it is about thoughts and subsequent behaviors. Are we merely adding Jesus and His saving grace to our already overwhelming, crowded, busy worldly thinking lives? 
New life means no longer thinking like the world. Everything old is gone. Everything is new! Our new life in Christ means fasting from world thinking. We feast on thinking like Jesus and then behaving like Jesus taught us to live. (Review the “sermon on the mount” as a beginning.)
We have all the help we need. So fast if and when you must but only if it brings glory to God and is good for your soul work.
In our passage today Jesus, who is part God come down to earth, is now moving about the neighborhoods of ordinary people. These Jews of tradition and legacy are people just trying to make a living while under the oppression of the Roman government. If that oppression wasn’t enough, there is more burden placed on them from the Jewish religious elite.
Jesus is also awakening the religious elite who have fought all their lives to rise to power in the ranks, not in serving and loving God’s people. They know only enough about God to use His Law to their advantage. They know The Law well enough to find loopholes while twisting it to their need. 
Instead these men became focused on themselves, their own power, greed and dishonesty. They no longer knew God. God had no place in their hearts, no thoughts in their minds which produced only darkness in their souls.
As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
A tax collector was deemed a cheater because he could decide what to charge the people on top of what was required for the Roman government. That was his “fee” for collecting. That’s how he made his living.
HOLY PAUSE
Daily Manna (Coffee with Jesus) 