HG056-58 Matthew 11:2-30, Luke 7:18-35
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2 When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples 3 to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”
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.”
7 As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? 8 If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces. 9 Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 This is the one about whom it is written:
“ ‘I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way before you.’
11 Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 12 From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it. 13 For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. 14 And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. 15 Whoever has ears, let them hear.
16 “To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:
17 “ ‘We played the pipe for you,
and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge,
and you did not mourn.’
18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.”
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.”
25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
1-6
Here he is, John the Baptist, in prison, and he begins wondering, ‘have I got it right?’ It is quite natural that doubts arise especially as he had been predicting a Messiah who would come with God’s vengeful wrath and end times judgement as we read in chapter 3. And along with that he expected Him to arise and assume King David’s throne, so he sends some of his disciples to find out: Are you the One? John had not quite got his understanding of Jesus right…John was right but not in the way it would play out for he did not know that Jesus was going to come again, something that would not easily be picked up from the Old Testament but only after He His first advent.
This should give rise to caution on how we understand Jesus’ second advent. We do not have all the answers and it would be wise to realise this even if we have a system that basically understands what Scripture says in a particular order, for instance, I expect most here hold to this; rapture, Antichrist reigns for 7 years, Christ reigns on earth for a 1000 years, then the final judgement. We have to accept that some of the detail may well be hidden from us. We should learn from John and the Pharisees of His time for they were only partially right. So, John is just making sure: Are you the Messiah or have I just got it plain wrong?
Jesus reply was not simply yes or no but instead He pointed to the miracles that were happening before them. Tell John about these was his answer. How would that help? Well, John knows his Scriptures about the One who will come. And his disciples telling him these thins would have reminded him of several places in Isaiah but especially:
4 Say to those who are fearful-hearted,
“Be strong, do not fear!
Behold, your God will come with vengeance,
With the recompense of God;
He will come and save you.”
5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
6 Then the lame shall leap like a deer,
And the tongue of the dumb sing.
For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness,
And streams in the desert.
Even in this passage the prophecy contains both advents.
And then Jesus adds the words: blessed are those who are not turned away or offended because of Me. Why? For salvation is in none other than Him. You turn away from Him then there is no hope left. When you look at Jesus’ miracles you see that it is He that is fulfilling the Messianic promises and you cannot doubt Him. In fact, by His birth, life, death and resurrection Jesus fulfils about 360 separate prophecies in the Old Testament.
7-19
We are then told a lot more about John, about him being more than a prophet for he himself was prophesied by Malachi and he is the fulfilment of it. He has come to prepare the way for Jesus but he is still an Old Testament prophet but the last of his line for now there is a transition from a time of expectation to a time of fulfilment with the salvation Jesus brings. But John never experiences the fullness of the Kingdom of Heaven for Jesus does not die until after John and therefore the experiences of those who came after him were different for they and we are on the receiving end of the blessings of the cross and resurrection. The new era is so great that the least in the Kingdom of God is greater than the greatest of the previous era.
(12)We do have a curious and complicated saying in verse 12 which talks of the Kingdom suffering violence and the violent taking it by force. The point of this is that John the Baptist suffers violence in persecution and then so does Jesus. The advancement of the kingdom of Heaven has ever-increasing opposition for they want to usurp God’s rule just like Satan tried to at the beginning. It will be to no avail in the end. In the context this would mean that the Pharisees and the population will reject Him for their expectations of what the Messiah and his herald should look like were very mistaken, and though they would have understood had they opened their eyes but they put both to death. There is a spiritual war. But we are on the other side of this story and they do not take the Kingdom with force for the victory’s is God’s and Jesus’.
20-24
Now, John the Baptist would understand that Jesus is the Messiah but those where He had done His wondrous works are still blind for they deliberately refused to look at the evidence presented to them by the works of Jesus. From this passage we can understand there maybe different grades of judgement. This is because they had more opportunities than those whom Jesus was comparing them with. If Jesus had done his works in Sodom they would have repented and not been judged but his base of operations in Capernaum who knew everything about what Jesus had done had simply turned a blind eye and deaf ear and did not change their ways. Note that the works of Jesus did not come on its own but also with the message of repentance. As they did not do this they are going to suffer greatly at the judgement.
This, it would seem to me, will be what will happen to the UK for we have known the works of God but have now refused Him and gone our way just like Israel did throughout its entire history. The fact that the message and works of Jesus were rejected and that with so many miracles as evidence we cannot expect a better treatment by those in the world. This should not stop us going forth with the message for this did not stop Jesus. Are there few that will be saved? asked the disciples in Luke 13. Well, it would appear this is so. But as we shall see the invite is still there to be taken up.
25-30
Who are the people coming to Christ? They are people whom the world considers backward, uneducated, 3rd world, ignorant but those who consider themselves wise are rejecting the truth. Of course, this is nothing new but these wise people are now putting forward things as fact and truth that have no basis in either. It is the devil’s work. The prudent are people who are intelligent yet they seem completely blind. There are some really clever people out there who just don’t have a clue! And this was cause of praise to His Father by Jesus who is the Most Intelligent of all. Some people rely upon their intelligence as the basis for truth and to understand the world and this is completely natural and whilst reason and reasoning are commendable we also have to accept that there are things we cannot comprehend. That we are still puny in comparison with the universe let alone God.
The Stephen Hawkins’ of this world may well be super-intelligent and put forward unique theories but when it comes to faith in Christ they are complete fools. The wise and intelligent have a fatal flaw, a sin that shoots you in the foot; pride and that prevents them from coming to Christ despite the evidence that they are wrong about Jesus. Yet children come to Jesus trusting Him and are, therefore, more wise and clever than the wisest and most intelligent person alive. Those who come to Christ are the only ones that are wise in the sight of God and God leaves the wise of the world in their foolishness. By the way many intelligent people do come to Christ - the contrast is about coming to Christ with humble hearts or refusing through pride.
It would seem that we can only become Christians if Jesus reveals Himself to us and that is one side of the coin for it is plain here that God’s sovereign will affects the receiving or rejection of Jesus. The other side of the coin is that the offer of eternal life is available to all who come to Jesus for He says: Come to Me, ALL. ALL! He reveals Himself to everyone but most simply refuse the invitation. The invitation is to those who are struggling in this life and rest is promised. The problem is that most people, especially in the West, do not seem to think that they are struggling with life because they are so self-sufficient. But we are to learn from the Most Intelligent and Most Wise Person who ever lived and what is the lesson? Humility. Jesus has a humble heart despite being King of kings.
No matter how grand a person we are in the eyes of the world we still need Jesus. Our cleverness cannot save us from the consequences of our sins and it certainly cannot keep us from committing them. Consider the wisest man who ever lived bar Jesus, King Solomon, and despite his cleverness still fell into the temptation of so many women.
Religion is prevalent everywhere in this world for there is an insatiable need to placate God; to get on the right side of Him makes many people obey many rules for living. And they are weighed under by all these things. This was especially true of the Jews who had the law of Moses thrust upon them in such a way that it was never supposed to be by the Scribes and Pharisees. But Jesus releases people from this oppression for they cannot fulfil it anyway. His ways and His burden is light in comparison. Rules. Only on Friday I was reading 99 things successful people do. Rules. Success can only be by obeying rules but actually these very rules undermine us.
Jesus wants you and I to come to Him and He will lift the burden of our sin off us and give us freedom to walk in His ways. With this we have the peace and rest that God is faithful and will sustain us and will complete His work in us.
This chapter speaks a great deal about unbelief but closes it with the invitation to believe in Him. There is overwhelming evidence from the prophecies of the Old Testament that Jesus is who He claimed to be and there is also overwhelming evidence that Jesus died and rose again. If this is true then what shall we do? Faced with this will we repent and believe? Will we take this message to Manselton and a world that in all likelihood will reject it? For some will come with humble hearts to the One who can give them rest.
Benediction
Benediction
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Bibliography
Bibliography
Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., Bauer, W., & Gingrich, F. W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., … Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
Biblical Studies Press. (2005). The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible. Biblical Studies Press.
Chouinard, L. (1997). Matthew. Joplin, MO: College Press.
McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Gospels (Matthew 1-13) (electronic ed., Vol. 34). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
Scofield, C. I. (Ed.). (1917). The Scofield Reference Bible: The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments. New York; London; Toronto; Melbourne; Bombay: Oxford University Press.
Turner, D., & Bock, D. L. (2005). Cornerstone biblical commentary, Vol 11: Matthew and Mark. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.
Exported from Logos Bible Software, 08:21 28 January 2018.