Law & Grace - Matthew 11:1-19 "Can you handle it?"

This passage here, this passage that Brad read for us has some interesting points to ponder. What does Jesus mean by the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and violent men force their way into it? Boy, okay, so we'll take a look at that. Another one, and if you're willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come. I thought Elijah was already here. Anyway, so we'll look at that. The next one, we played the flute for you and you did not dance. We sang a dirge and you did not mourn. What's that all about? Anyway, we'll get there in all this.

You have on your handout on the top a kind of a chiasm outline. A chiasm, as we've pointed out in times past, is a pattern of writing that's done both on a large and a small scale in the Bible. And the way to explain it, it is rather a mirror image in written form. And there is a center point, which is often the point of emphasis. And then additionally, there is emphasis by repetition in a chiasm.

So we have that pattern here in the book of Matthew from the very start, introducing Christ as King and initiating ministry to the nation of Israel. The turning point that we'll reach in just a few weeks is the parables of the kingdom. And the final point, Jesus as Savior and initiating ministry to the church. As you look through the book of Matthew, which throughout it has this overall larger pattern here, we're at this point here just prior to the middle, starting at chapter 11 here this morning.

And the parables of the kingdom will be the point at which we will reintroduce the moose. And you'll understand that. If that means nothing to you, that's okay. Look for a knowing look on somebody near you, and I'm sure they'll be glad to explain. There's also another pattern that shows up in the book of Matthew. And it's one that we have the second occurrence of here in today's passage.

When Jesus had finished, and it's usually finished with some kind of speaking, words or parables, etc. In this case, he had just finished giving instructions to his twelve disciples, and having sent them out two by two, And Jesus instructed his disciples and had them sent out in pairs.

Not that pairs, this pair. He had them sent out two by two and he had them go throughout the various cities of Galilee. Now what this chapter tells us is that not only did he send out his disciples out two by two, but he himself also went to the cities. He, his disciples, they were all going about the cities and preaching the gospel of the kingdom.

In summary, this passage has three main areas. One, dealing with this area of response. Next, a tribute, a tribute to John the Baptist. And then the transition from John to Jesus. After Jesus had sent out these disciples two by two, he himself then went out to the various cities of Galilee, and we'll see in next week's passage where he went. The disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus now with a question. It wasn't the first time, but they had come to him with a question now that John was in prison. Jesus, in today's passage, responds to the question that was actually originally from John, John the Baptist, and John the Baptist's disciples are bringing the question to him from John. John can't come himself because he's in prison.

He responds to the question from John and then gives a tribute there to John, or a tribute about John. and then says that the leaders of the people of Israel are responding to Jesus as they had done to John. That's the quick summary here. We'll obviously be looking at the details.

This ministry of John the Baptist is real interesting, intriguing, and what is also intriguing is that The ministry of John the Baptist continued to have influence, not just later on after John was taken out of the picture, but also outside of the nation of Israel. We find in Acts 19 that John the Baptist has disciples in Ephesus. So even at a later time, much farther away, John is having an impact.

The ministry of John the Baptist was introduced to us back in chapter 3. with John heralding the King, Christ the King. He was the herald who went before and announced His coming. The disciples of John the Baptist had questioned Jesus about His disciples' fasting. That was previously in chapter 9. And now here in 11 through 26, We see that John the Baptist from prison sends his disciples to ask Jesus if he truly was the Messiah. Now, John the Baptist had been imprisoned by Herod Antipas.

Now, I realize when you hear the name Herod, it's like confusing. How many Herods are there? Herod had a number of descendants. who kept some part of the name Herod and some of them were in some part of royalty or point of power and didn't have the name Herod. This is Herod Antipas, a descendant of Herod the Great.

We see that John the Baptist from prison sends his disciples to ask Jesus if he truly was the Messiah. Herod Antipas had imprisoned John, so John's only way of asking the question with Jesus moving about is to send his disciples. John still had disciples that were faithful to him. John did not see Jesus asserting the authority of Israel's Messiah.

And that is primarily, as we'll see, what caused him to question, are you really the one I'm supposed to be announcing? It might seem puzzling. Well, wait a minute. Behold the Lamb of God, all these things that he said. And yet he's puzzled. Yet he's asking the question. And this is one of the reasons, as we'll see why here, that John is not certain, is this truly the Messiah or am I mistaken here? Have I got the right picture?

You can also imagine John's circumstances where here he was free and out there speaking and now he is imprisoned and in prison the conditions are not good. The rocky floor is a little rough to get your sleep on and so he just doesn't have the inputs. He's not getting the food, the sleep. He's tired. And it's just starting to wonder, is this really the Messiah, or have I got a mistaken identity here?

It has to do with what Jesus didn't do. Things that many of the Jews might have expected, things that apparently John himself was expecting. Jesus was certainly born King of the Jews, but he didn't take the throne of David as expected, at least not then. You remember the Magi, often called the wise men, came and they came to Jerusalem and they're asking, where is he who was born King of the Jews? And of course, Herod, being very interested in this inquiry, wants to get some details and even have these guys report back when you find him so that I can go worship him too. Of course, we know that's his story and his shtick, not the truth. Jesus offered to Israel the kingdom with him as its king, but the people did not welcome his reign. Oh, there were a few, but the people in great part did not welcome his reign. I think John was expecting, well, there should be some kind of response here.

Jesus told the Jews to walk the second mile with any Roman soldier who made them walk the first. You see, the Roman soldiers could force you to do various things, and this is one in the Sermon on the Mount, where if the soldier said, you're going to carry my stuff, because it's heavy, right? For a mile, Jesus said, go the second mile. And there were other things that the Roman soldiers were allowed to call on, just passersby, To do to carry out for them an example when would be when Jesus could no longer carry his cross piece They just picked somebody was standing by it says here you do it and they could force them to do that So Jesus said go ahead and cooperate with the Roman soldier and even go beyond his request That didn't sound like he was going to kick the Romans out did it?

Jesus didn't drive the Romans out of Israel so that he could reign, but he did heal for a Roman. That just seemed unbelievable. Here is the Roman soldier here who came to Jesus. He was a centurion. He came to Jesus and said, look, I need you to heal this person in my household. But you don't need to come. I could, just like making the second mile, the Roman soldier could have forced Jesus, you will come to my house. But he said, no, you don't need to do that. You can heal from right where you're at. And Jesus accommodates him.

So John's hearing about this. John is hearing the story and he's saying, wait a minute. Jesus isn't doing anything about the Romans. Now here's the wild thing. Jesus tells them to tell John what John has already heard. What? John, while in prison, heard the works of Christ, the things that we've been studying here in the last few chapters. John already heard about them. What's he doing?

Jesus' response in verses 3-6 only tells John what John already has heard. Jesus' works do validate that Jesus is in fact Israel's Messiah. What likely caused John to wonder is that he expected Jesus to be asserting his authority as king. Imagine John saying, here I am, I'm the appointed herald for the king. And the king just isn't acting all that kingly. Right? And so that has John puzzled.

And John says, furthermore, not only did Jesus not go and boot these guys out, but I am now in prison under the power of this whole Roman structure. And if Jesus were coming in as king, well, I shouldn't be in prison, right? He expected Jesus to come in on a white horse, and come in as the king, and come in like this, ready to drive everybody out. And he says, it's not happening. And as a matter of fact, this prison cell is getting really uncomfortable, and it's under Roman rule. And I can tell. They bring me bacon, right?

Now, Jesus did the miracles that he had claimed that John had heard about because the Old Testament prophets had said that the Messiah and his times would come with these kinds of miracles. Healing, driving out demons, cleansing lepers, things of that sort. We give several references here in Isaiah and you have them as well on your handout there and the slide on page two. When John the Baptist inquired from prison if Jesus was truly the Christ, Jesus told John's disciples to report back to John this. The blind receive sight, and we've read about that. The lame walk, and we've read about that. The lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear.

That's all you need to tell them. What? Yeah, that's all you need to tell them. It's the real thing. The last part, blessed is he who does not stumble at me. This is the literal meaning of Jesus' words. What is Jesus saying here? He's saying, John, yes, the works that you've heard about are the works that I have been doing, and those, in fact, are evidences, validation that I'm the Messiah. But he says in this line here, who don't stumble at me, he says, I am the issue. Don't worry, I'm the guy. Okay? Blessed is he who does not stumble at me.

Stumbling in the Old Testament was frequently used for someone who had utterly failed in something or who had stepped into sin. It was used repeatedly throughout the Old Testament. So John would clearly understand does not stumble. The one who does not stumble at Jesus is the one who accepts Jesus for who he truly is. You're either going to accept him or you're going to stumble. You're going to embrace that He is the King, He is the promised Messiah, and in fact, as John announced, the Lamb of God, or you're going to reject it. And that's stumbling.

The Israelite who was blessed is the one who believes what Jesus claims to be. Those claims by his words, those claims validated by his miraculous works. Jesus declares to John in the last thing he says, go ahead and tell him all the works that he's heard.

Yeah, that's what's going on. But I am the issue. You don't need to wait for another. Yes, I really am doing what I'm supposed to do. And I am the one that you've announced. So Jesus turns on in this next section to, who did you go out to see, series of questions.

And if you think about it, here is John who typically would hang out out in the wilderness and would meet people there down at the Jordan River. I suspect that there was actually a location. Archaeologists claim they've actually found the cave where John the Baptist hung out. So he would hang out there in the wilderness, and so people didn't find him at some place in the city, but they went out into the wilderness to see him.

So Jesus comes out with this series of questions. Who did you go out to see? And he asks rhetorical questions. It's not because he doesn't know the answer or that they don't, but he wants them to think about this. Think about this John guy. Think about this.

John was not someone easily swayed by public opinion. The reed blowing in the wind, that's a figure of speech for being easily swayed by public opinion. And that, unfortunately, was the nature of a number of the Roman rulers, including Herod Antipas. Including Herod Antipas that had John in jail. John, however, was not someone who was swayed by public opinion. He was not winning friends and influencing people, at least not in those kind of ways.

When he saw the Pharisees and Sadducees, as we see recorded in Matthew 3.7, coming for baptism, he said to them, and I'm sure they were just really warmed at heart to hear this, you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? which of course gave them warm fuzzy feelings, as you can tell. So here's John. Is he out there to try to win people over with smooth words and nice persuasive speech? Certainly not. Not at all. You didn't go out to see a wealthy man dressed in fine clothing, or as Jesus puts it, soft. There's even an implication of effeminate. John's not that guy.

The prophet John, and he did say he was a prophet. There hadn't, by the way, not been prophets for about four centuries. So this guy is unique. The prophet John, John the Baptist, was the prophesied herald of Christ their King. He was the one that the last of the line of prophets had said would come.

Who did you go out to see? You didn't go out to see someone who was easily swayed by public opinion, as Herod Antipas was. You didn't go out to see some man in a bunch of soft clothing living the easy life, as Herod Antipas was, the one who imprisoned John. You did, in fact, go out to see John. who lived out in the wilderness, who, if the archaeologist's identification is correct, lived in a cave not too far away from the Jordan River, and ate wild things and dressed in wild things, right? That guy. That's the one. That's the one you went out to see. John was absolutely a prophet like no other.

Many of Israel's prophets had in various places prophesied about Christ's coming. Many of them told details about where Christ would be born, details about his crucifixion and burial and even his resurrection, given details about things that would happen during the course of his life, even that he would be betrayed. All those details were given by many of these prophets.

But John was unique. No other prophet had been given to herald the Messiah. None other. They all spoke of Jesus the Messiah. John was the one who was a prophet and a herald. A herald of the King. As great, however, as John was, And as unique as he was in heralding the Messiah, the one who is an actual participant in the coming kingdom is more privileged.

And that's what this passage says. Now, let's not understand this as Jesus saying that John won't be a participant. No, that's not the point. Up until this time, John had had a very important role and a critical and unique role, and yet participation in the kingdom would be even greater. That was his point. Ah yes, now we get into the juicy question. The kingdom suffers violence. That's putting it in brief, kingdom of heaven. We have stated the kingdom of heaven is an equivalent term to the kingdom of God.

And the reason we say that primarily is because heaven was used as a euphemism, a replacement for saying the name of God, which could be hazardous. You might risk saying the name of God in vain. So they would replace it with heaven. And we, in our own culture, do somewhat the same. Rather than saying God knows, we say heaven knows. And some people, instead of saying, oh my God, would say, oh my heavens, right?

So that's the kind of statement that it is. God had designed that John the Baptist would be Z1 to herald Christ and that Christ would openly offer the kingdom. God had designed that and set things in place and even prophesied details about how that would happen. And the idea of believing that message was key. Because why believe the message? God's the one who will bring in the kingdom. God's the one who's going to accomplish it.

Even recently, in talking with an Orthodox rabbi here in the Denver area, the belief was such that if we can just get all the Jews to obey the law for one day, then that'll make the Messiah come. Yes. And that's what they believed then, too. At least among the conservative Jews, that's, I'd say, orthodox Jews, that's the, was, is the belief now, and was the belief in those days. We're going to make the Messiah come. Right? That was the belief. That was the thought. But the reality is God is the one who makes the Messiah come. It's not people. We don't have God's arm twisted behind his back. He's going, OK, I guess so. Right? Uncle, uncle?

No. The human beings and political and religious power in Israel were vigorously and openly rebuking, even if falsely, and insulting both John the Baptist and Jesus. and would bring about their deaths. We'll see in just a few chapters that the death of John the Baptist takes place under Herod Antipas. We will see later on in the book of Matthew that the death of Christ comes about. Ultimately, both of them would die at the hands of these religious leaders who thought that if the kingdom was going to come, it's going to happen because we made it happen.

That's their belief. How about this forcing? The kingdom, the earthly kingdom reign of Christ in the land and over the people of Israel is going to come by God's doing. God will accomplish it. Not any human will or human accomplishment will bring it about. It's not going to happen because we force God's hand. It's not going to happen because we make it happen. Attempts to bring in the kingdom by man's doing is a matter of forcing one's way rather than entering by the means that God has provided at his own will and expense. Our place is always a matter of believing God. That was true then, it's true now.

God is the one who accomplishes things. God is the one who sets the times and places. God is the one who calls the timing of things. One of the things we pointed out is much of what Jesus said to the disciples has to do with the pattern of the Jewish engagement and marriage and wedding ceremony. And the timing of when You know, the rapture takes place when the Lord comes for us. It's going to be the Lord who calls the time. Not Harold Camping, apparently. It's going to be the Lord who calls the time.

As a matter of fact, one of the points that comes out of the Jewish wedding ceremony is that the father would tell the son, okay now, go get your bride. This will be a command of the father to the son Go get your bride and that will be the day and we're not going to force it. And neither were the Jewish leaders going to force the timing of the kingdom and they weren't going to bring in the kingdom by their own way and by their own means and their own efforts. In Malachi 4, 5 and 6, It says, Behold, I'm going to send to you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. The great and terrible day of the Lord is towards the end of the tribulation period and at the time when Jesus the Messiah comes and returns to earth. You see, not everybody will be happy when Jesus comes back.

You ever hear about the Battle of Armageddon? Ever hear that term? Well, better stated, the campaign. There are actually eight stages to this Battle of Armageddon. Eight stages, okay? And in all those, when Jesus comes back, he will put down Israel's enemy by the word of his mouth.

He won't come and say, OK, Bob, you carry up the right flank here and try to put those guys down here. And we'd like to have Ben come over here and push on this flank. And make sure you pull those little horse missiles, right? No. There won't be any of that. We will be with him when he comes back. But he will speak by the word of his mouth, and judgment will come out. That's all that will take place. It won't be any great effort or our best, well-trained execution. It won't be that.

But it will be a great and terrible day for those who are the enemies of the Lord and the enemies of Israel. John the Baptist was a prophet in the spirit and power of Elijah to the people of Israel. That's said explicitly in Luke 1, 17, if you want to make note of that. And whether John would carry out this role, in other words, whether he would carry out this role as Elijah, meaning the spirit and power of Elijah, before the coming of the kingdom, right then, or much later, depended on whether the people of Israel would accept Christ as the Messiah.

That's why we see the language in this passage. And if you are willing to accept it, and by the way, that if is an if that means it's assumed to be true for the sake of argument, right? If you're willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come. The prophesied one we see right in that passage there. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. If you're willing to accept it, are you listening? That's Jesus' point. Will John carry out this role of Elijah right before the coming of the kingdom? That depends on whether the Jews accept it. Well, we cheated. We know how the story ends, don't we? Right? All right. And now in the last part of this passage, Matthew 11, 16, and 17, but to what shall I compare this generation? This people right here, those who are living right at this time.

It's like children sitting in the marketplaces who call out to the other children and say, we played the flute for you and you did not dance. This would be invitation to wedding games for kids. Or, we sang a dirge and you did not mourn. This would be an invitation to even, you know, funeral games. And believe it or not, we have nursery rhymes that go like that, even now, right?

Jesus is saying that the leaders are behaving childishly. As if they are only declining to respond to children's rhymes and games. They're not taking John's or Jesus' message to heart. They're not listening. He who has an ear, let him hear, but these Jewish leaders are certainly not.

They're taking this message of the gospel of the kingdom, and they're playing patty cake. The very next verse is there, 18 and 19, For John came neither eating nor drinking, and as they say, he has a demon. The son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, behold, a gluttonous man, a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.

John didn't socialize. but spoke seriously out in the wilderness and they spoke ill of him. Here's John, he doesn't come, you know, socializing, he doesn't sit down with people, you know, and eat and drink. He's just, this guy eats rough food, wild food, wears wild clothing, and they still don't take him seriously. They speak ill of him.

Jesus comes and takes a different approach. He does socialize and interact and sits down. He even ate with the common people. All right, gluttons and drunkards and tax collectors and sinners. He ate with them, but it didn't matter. They spoke ill of Christ just as well. It's not the approach that's the issue. They're refusing the message, and they're refusing the person of Christ. They didn't respond well to John. They didn't respond well to Christ. And it doesn't matter what approach you take. That's not the reason for their rejection. They're rejecting Christ the Messiah. They're rejecting the truth. They're saying, we want to make the kingdom happen on our terms and in our time. We're going to do it.

So the question that comes out of this whole passage is, what do you believe? What we believe about who Jesus is, What he came to do and the difference that makes forever does in fact matter When Nancy and I were in college there was a one of the newspaper writers who did a survey on campus and A great majority of the people on campus were asked the question Are you good enough to go to heaven and they said yeah That's not the issue The issue is not, are you good enough to go to heaven? The reality is, they gave the wrong answer. Most people said yes. It's not just the wrong answer, it's the wrong question.

What do you believe about Christ? What do you believe about who He is and what He came to do? I remember sitting during a kind of a social moment in one of my college classes and one of the other students saying, well, Jesus was just a good person. Wrong answer, okay?

And the difference does matter. So is the first priority in life what you believe about these things or what you're going to do and accomplish here on earth? And we give this example, Jesus, here's what I'm going to do for you. I just know you're going to like it. Right? That's not what the Lord is looking for. It's belief in what He is doing and what He has done and what He is going to do and who He is that matters, not what I'm going to do. That's not the starting point.

So what do you believe? Is God the one who desires to fellowship with you and live His life through you now and forever? Or would you rather do what it takes to get God off your back so that you can get on with your life? Right? I've talked to folks that see things this way. Now, if it's God's job to make your life just smooth as silk, He's doing a terrible job, isn't He? Right?

But you know why it isn't like that? It's not because God's really messed up. It's not because God just enjoys playing this little game and look how frustrated Vern gets. It is a matter of that's not what he's doing. That's not his job. If we have difficulties and troubles and trials in life, it's because God has his purpose in every single one of them. It isn't a matter of trying to figure out how to get God off of our back and leave us alone so we can get on with our life as if there's some trick to that. God says, I will never get off your back and leave you alone. That's not what He's about. As a matter of fact, it isn't even a matter of getting on with your life.

It's His life in and through us that He wants to see. One of the points I think I would bring up for those who are parents, or those even who have influence and impact on kids in one way or another, is it's important for us to talk about these things and to live so that the question is demonstrated to be real to the kids. These are matters that count, aren't they? What will you do with Jesus? That's an important life question and it's a forever question. What will you do with Jesus? Will you depend upon what you're doing and have done and are going to do? Or will you depend upon who he is and what he has done and is doing and is going to do? And it's a huge difference in perspective in life.

Parents, grandparents, even if you aren't in one of those roles, you are in a place where you likely have influence here. And the kids need to hear this. They need to see it. They need to see it in our faces and our voices and in our eyes that we think this matters. They really do.

So what do you believe about him? today. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that you, in this passage, have brought out the really critical questions. We've seen a focus on John the Baptist, and yet, as we look at this here, we find that Jesus ultimately puts the issue as it's him. He is the issue in life. He is the issue for all eternity. And we just thank you for what you've revealed because you do love us and you do care for us. We thank you in Jesus name. Amen.