The NXR Podcast - THE SERMON - Judgment and Hope ｜ Matthew 11_16-24

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00:00:26.800 Good morning.

00:00:30.000 Will you stand for the reading of God's word?

00:00:36.360 As is our custom, after we read, I will say this is the word of the Lord,

00:00:40.960 and I would invite you to say thanks be to God all together.

00:00:46.680 Our text this morning, as Pastor Joel said, is Matthew chapter 11, verses 16 through 24.

00:00:53.660 It says this,

00:00:56.120 But to what shall I compare this generation?

00:00:58.380 It is like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to their playmates.

00:01:03.420 We played the flute for you, and you did not dance.

00:01:05.880 We sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.

00:01:09.380 For John came, neither eating nor drinking, and they said, He has a demon.

00:01:14.760 The Son of Man came, page turn, eating and drinking, and they say, Look at him, a glutton

00:01:21.180 and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.

00:01:24.760 Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.

00:01:28.240 Then he began to denounce the cities

00:01:30.280 where most of his mighty works had been done

00:01:32.640 because they did not repent.

00:01:35.400 Woe to you, Chorazin!

00:01:37.080 Woe to you, Bethsaida!

00:01:38.880 For if the mighty works done in you

00:01:40.880 had been done in Tyre and Sidon,

00:01:42.740 they would have repented long ago

00:01:44.620 in sackcloth and ashes.

00:01:46.840 But I tell you, it will be more bearable

00:01:49.300 on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon

00:01:51.540 than for you.

00:01:52.860 And you, Capernaum,

00:01:54.520 will you be exalted to heaven?

00:01:56.340 you will be brought down to Hades for if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom

00:02:02.640 it would have remained until this day but I tell you that it will be more tolerable in the day

00:02:09.400 of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you this is the word of the Lord

00:02:14.060 all right you may be seated there's quite a lot in this text and so we're going to jump right in

00:02:21.620 And because there's quite a lot in this text, I made a decision to go a little bit outside

00:02:27.140 the text and give us even more information today.

00:02:29.840 I'm going to give a little bit of an extended introduction as we get into it.

00:02:33.800 And the reason for that is this passage in Matthew 11, the whole chapter, is really a

00:02:39.620 turning point in the book.

00:02:41.000 It's kind of a funnel or an hourglass, if you will, where the ministry that Jesus has

00:02:46.820 been conducting so far has been in one way in a particular kind of tone or tenor and coming out

00:02:54.460 of Matthew 11 it's going to change quite substantially and if we're not careful when

00:02:59.920 we read Matthew 11 it can be very easy to think man Jesus is being really arbitrary really petty

00:03:06.120 he's really like making a big deal out of nothing and so I want to preserve us from that idea that

00:03:13.180 would creep in and cause us to doubt the justice of God and the justice of Christ.

00:03:19.860 In order to understand this passage well, we need to hold two things in mind, and I'm going to

00:03:25.040 explain them briefly. They're all based on the argument that Matthew is making in the book of

00:03:30.700 Matthew so far, okay? And what's going to happen by the end of this section is Jesus is going to

00:03:36.760 end up pronouncing severe judgment on the people of this region. And for us to understand why he

00:03:44.340 is justified in doing this, these are the two things that Matthew has been developing over

00:03:49.680 the entire book. And we need to understand these two things. The first of these is the structure

00:03:57.780 of the book of Matthew so far. And the second is how Matthew in this chapter highlights the

00:04:03.060 importance of john the baptist ministry so let me briefly explain that first one the structure in

00:04:08.260 the book of matthew so far the key point for our passage today is found in verse 20 where it says

00:04:15.660 that he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done matthew goes out

00:04:22.360 of his way through the whole book his order of events is a little bit different than some of the

00:04:27.820 other accounts. Matthew's going out of his way to show that Jesus' ministry up to this point,

00:04:34.340 he's about a year and a half into his ministry, about half of his ministry. And so far, Jesus has

00:04:39.940 focused almost exclusively on the towns and villages around the Lake of Galilee.

00:04:46.720 And Matthew really wants us to understand that Jesus spent a disproportionate amount of time of

00:04:53.100 his ministry in this region. So when you look at what's happened in the book of Matthew so far,

00:04:58.260 we see in Matthew 4, Jesus settles in Capernaum, that's the town there in the Galilee, and begins

00:05:04.360 to minister in that area. Matthew 5 through 7 is the famous Sermon on the Mount, but that was

00:05:10.040 delivered, his great kind of magnum opus sermon is delivered right there in the Galilee region.

00:05:16.840 In Matthew 8 and 9, we see a series of healings and miracles in Capernaum, in the countryside

00:05:22.140 around Capernaum and then in Matthew 10 we saw that Jesus sent his disciples out into Israel yes

00:05:28.920 but mainly focusing on the area right there in the Galilee region and then Matthew 11 we have

00:05:35.500 to understand this in the chapter Matthew 11 1 the first verse in this chapter says when Jesus

00:05:42.300 had finished instructing his 12 disciples he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities

00:05:47.480 this in their cities is the towns and regions in the galilee area he's confined himself to the

00:05:54.980 northwest the whole time almost exclusively he made one trip down to the south for a passover

00:06:00.680 but most of his time has been in this region and matthew wants us to understand that jesus spent a

00:06:08.000 lot of time with these people not only that but the way he ministered was very free very open

00:06:14.380 very cordial, back and forth. He was not critical up to this point. It was a very convivial and

00:06:21.440 congenial type of ministry. But like I said, coming out of Matthew 11, when you read on in the book,

00:06:29.620 it's like the hourglass, and it opens up again underneath chapter 11, Jesus' ministry changes.

00:06:36.240 It becomes more antagonistic, even in this region. The Pharisees begin to say worse and worse things

00:06:42.420 about him, to blaspheme him. He says in chapter 13 that he begins to speak in parables that are

00:06:48.440 hidden. And he says the reason he does that is because the hearts of the people in the Galilee

00:06:54.080 are hard. So the chapter serves as a really key hinge for the book. And the pivot point of this

00:07:03.860 whole shift is the last verse that Pastor Joel preached on last week, verse 15, where Jesus says

00:07:10.740 this, he says, he who has an ear, let him hear. It's as though he's saying, this is the line in the

00:07:18.180 sand. I've ministered in this region for a long time in a particular way going forward. If you're

00:07:23.920 going to listen, great. And if not, we're going to change tactics here. So we see how much

00:07:30.100 importance Matthew puts on this. We have to understand this. Jesus spent years in the homes

00:07:37.660 and businesses and social events of these people, preaching and doing miracles.

00:07:44.060 It was an incredible amount of time with the very Son of God ministering to them.

00:07:49.660 And Matthew wants us to understand that this was one of the greatest privileges

00:07:53.860 that could have been given to a region or a people or a city in all of human history.

00:07:59.560 So that's the first pillar that Matthew has for his argument.

00:08:03.120 Jesus gave them a lot of time.

00:08:05.600 The second pillar is Jesus' comments about John the Baptist in the last section that we studied last week.

00:08:13.280 Remember that what's happened so far, Jesus' teaching about these things,

00:08:17.860 happened because John the Baptist sent some disciples to ask Jesus some questions.

00:08:24.180 In verse 7, we saw that it says this,

00:08:27.400 As they went away, in other words, after Jesus answered those questions,

00:08:31.100 As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John.

00:08:36.320 This is very interesting because Jesus could have answered John's questions,

00:08:41.100 let his disciples return, and that would have been the end of it.

00:08:45.140 But as they're leaving, it says Jesus turned to the crowds

00:08:48.380 and began to speak to them concerning John.

00:08:54.880 You see, this was on purpose.

00:08:57.400 John and the people's response to John the Baptist becomes a litmus test, a dividing line

00:09:03.080 to determine which people are understanding and soft to Jesus and which people are hard

00:09:09.880 and are rejecting Jesus. How do we know that? How do we know that this dialogue about John

00:09:16.420 was such a decisive point? Well, Luke records the same event, the parallel account,

00:09:24.260 but he gives us an interesting historical detail that Matthew doesn't include and I want us to take

00:09:29.620 a look at it here for a minute. So this is Luke chapter 7 and I'll read it for you. It's going to

00:09:36.000 sound very similar to Matthew but he's going to throw in one extra detail. So this is Luke 7 28

00:09:41.540 through 30. Same story. Jesus says, I tell you among those born of women none is greater than

00:09:47.520 John yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. Sounds exactly like Matthew

00:09:52.680 11 11 that we studied last week but then luke adds this when all the people heard this and the

00:09:59.860 tax collectors too they declared god just right having been baptized with the baptism of john

00:10:08.240 but the pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of god for themselves not having

00:10:13.920 been baptized by John. What does this mean? Well, in Matthew 11, 13, Jesus says this about John. He

00:10:24.720 says, for all the prophets in the law prophesied until John. In other words, Jesus is reinforcing

00:10:33.000 John's ministry. John was the last, the final, the greatest of the Old Testament prophets who was

00:10:40.140 preaching repentance and the coming Messiah. That was the job of the prophets in the Old Testament.

00:10:47.660 Repent, Messiah is coming. Repent, Messiah is coming. And John was the last one in this line

00:10:54.460 of centuries of prophecy. Like the prophets of old and even the law itself, John called for this

00:11:05.600 kind of repentance and obedience. But on top of that, John served as a bridge out of the old

00:11:11.580 covenant into the new covenant. He did not just say, repent or be destroyed, right? You think of

00:11:18.940 Jonah and various prophets in the Old Testament. That was the message. Repent or God's going to

00:11:23.540 destroy you. No, what John said was, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of

00:11:30.680 heaven is right around the corner. That's why you, Israel, need to repent. In other words, John

00:11:37.540 showed the true purpose of repentance, which is that repentance is the doorway into the kingdom

00:11:43.700 of God. And the reason that this is important in our context is that many people in the Galilee

00:11:50.900 region, especially the sinners and the people who would have been rejected by the establishment,

00:11:57.100 ruling establishment, had actually gone down to John when he was preaching. Now, this was

00:12:03.640 a long journey. It was about 100 miles, four to six days of traveling and walking,

00:12:09.440 just one way. Then you're down there for a while, listening, being baptized, and then going back up

00:12:15.080 to the Galilee. Many had gone down to here, and Jesus reminds them of the message that they had

00:12:21.580 heard a hard message of repentance not a soft message of ease so jesus is saying you yourselves

00:12:32.380 the crowd that's sympathetic to him you yourselves know that john testified about me and they agreed

00:12:39.040 that god was right through the testimony of john that jesus was the prophesied one and so what john

00:12:47.120 is doing is Matthew is showing that John applied the weight of all of the prophetic testimony in

00:12:53.140 the Old Testament, centuries, millennia, and he focused it. Before then, when a prophet would

00:12:59.260 prophesy, a Messiah is coming, a Redeemer, a Deliverer is coming, it was just kind of open

00:13:04.900 and out there. Who is it? We don't know. When will it be? We don't know. What John did was he took

00:13:09.200 all of that, that massive amount of prophetic authority, and he focused it like a magnifying

00:13:16.340 glass right onto the person of Jesus. So no longer was it a mystery. This Redeemer, this King,

00:13:24.900 this Messiah, it was here. And many who were sympathetic to Jesus had heard John's message

00:13:31.520 and believed. But in Luke, it says the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected. They did not accept

00:13:37.460 the testimony of John the Baptist. And so that's the second pillar. Why is Jesus justified in

00:13:45.500 condemning these people. First of all, Jesus spent a great amount of time preaching to them.

00:13:52.140 And second of all, the testimony of John the Baptist himself confirmed the weight of the

00:13:58.000 Old Testament prophecy had finally landed. Jesus, the Lamb of God, was here.

00:14:09.480 And so with all of that in mind, let's turn to our text today.

00:14:15.500 don't inhale liquids

00:14:25.660 alright, so the first point

00:14:37.100 it'll pass in just a second

00:14:38.240 verse 16, Jesus says this

00:14:42.880 he starts with a question

00:14:44.880 And he says, to whom shall I compare this generation?

00:14:48.600 This is not a, like, Jesus is not perplexed.

00:14:52.200 It's not like he's saying, I have no idea.

00:14:54.460 What he's saying is, oh, thanks, man.

00:14:57.960 Try it again.

00:15:03.820 Jesus is actually just introducing, he's going to give an analogy.

00:15:06.560 He's like, well, what can I tell you to explain this generation of people?

00:15:10.660 and so he's going to give a little mini parable a little mini story but keep in mind that what

00:15:16.800 he's trying to do with the story is explain the generation that he is preaching to in this region

00:15:23.820 well what does he mean by the word generation it's possible that he means all of the people

00:15:30.180 in the region you could make the case that even those who had gone down to john the baptist and

00:15:34.960 been baptized they've come back they haven't changed and so it's possible that he's talking

00:15:39.900 about every single one of them i don't think that's the case i think it's a majority of them

00:15:44.820 obviously if he's saying the generation you don't say the generation and then actually i was just

00:15:49.820 talking about five percent of them no it's a majority of the people in this area it's a lot of

00:15:53.520 them but verse 19 gives us a clue verse 19 um in it the people who are criticizing jesus criticize

00:16:03.640 him for spending time with the tax collectors and the sinners. These are the same people in Luke's

00:16:11.180 account that agreed with Jesus about John, or agreed with John about Jesus. And so I think what

00:16:17.300 we actually have here is the influence of the religious leaders and Pharisees. They were down

00:16:23.280 in Jerusalem, but they always sent envoys out to challenge Jesus. And because they had the power

00:16:29.740 and the establishment, I think a lot of people in the region

00:16:33.520 were siding with these religious leaders and rulers.

00:16:38.620 They were on their team.

00:16:40.660 And so a lot of the people in the Galilee,

00:16:42.660 in spite of the fact that it was remote,

00:16:44.960 were on the side of the Pharisees and the religious leaders.

00:16:50.020 But there were some, these sinners and tax collectors, who weren't.

00:16:53.860 They were the minority, the remnant, if you were.

00:16:56.160 these are the people this is why it's important these are the people who

00:17:02.100 wanted to virtue signal to the positions of power back in jerusalem in fact we see in that story

00:17:08.460 that they seem to be repeating talking points right it seems like the pharisees are the ones

00:17:14.020 who came up with these lies about john the baptist and these lies about jesus and they

00:17:18.300 spread all the way out and even in galilee these people are just repeating the talking points oh

00:17:23.120 yeah, Jesus is this, John is this. These are the unthinking followers who cast their lot in with

00:17:30.260 the establishment because it's easier, they don't want to ruffle feathers, and they're tired of this

00:17:34.940 troublemaker, Jesus. And so what is the story that Jesus gives? It's a very short story, but it's very

00:17:44.540 interesting and a bit confusing to our modern ears. He says this generation, and again, I'm saying

00:17:51.560 that's the religious leaders and the majority of the people in the area who are casting their lot

00:17:56.420 in with these religious leaders. He says, this generation is like a bunch of kids in a marketplace.

00:18:02.580 At the time, villages and towns had an open central area called the Agora, and it was open for

00:18:09.420 community use, but often, like maybe once or twice a week, they would do a market there.

00:18:14.320 So the parents and the farmers would come in, they would set up a little shop, a little stall,

00:18:17.880 and they would sell things out of it and while they're selling things the kids I mean this is

00:18:22.940 like the best day of the week for the kids they're running around with all their friends that they

00:18:26.480 haven't seen for the whole week they're playing they're saying hello and like kids in every

00:18:31.100 period of time in history the kids mimicked human interaction that they saw their parents do

00:18:37.020 now we don't know if this was a real game they were playing or if Jesus is giving us a hypothetical

00:18:42.680 and it doesn't matter. But in the story, Jesus said, oh, this generation, it's like the kids

00:18:48.340 that run around the marketplace here. He's probably speaking in the marketplace right then.

00:18:52.680 It's like the kids that run around whenever the market is out playing games. And they play these

00:18:57.880 games, and they play a happy game where they're pretending to have flutes, and maybe it's a

00:19:03.300 wedding or something like that, right? Maybe they get a boy and a girl, and they parade them around.

00:19:07.260 They say, oh, the bride, and oh, the groom, and they go to all the stalls, and the parents are

00:19:11.100 saying oh how cute that's great and they're playing wedding but there's a second group of kids

00:19:17.180 who are grumpy and upset and just cantankerous and they're sitting off to the side they want

00:19:24.380 nothing to do with the games something's got them in a bad mood and so the happy playful kids

00:19:30.960 they go over to them they say hey come come play the wedding game with us and the grumpy kids say

00:19:37.220 no that's stupid only babies play wedding games or whatever i don't know what they said they're

00:19:42.980 just grumpy cantankerous they don't want to join in the fun so the the happy cheerful kids they say

00:19:50.660 okay well they don't want to be happy we'll play a different game let's play let's play funeral

00:19:56.980 right now we think that's a really weird morbid thing to play but at the time the two big events

00:20:01.620 the public events in the public life of these towns were weddings and funerals and funerals

00:20:06.500 or a big event because they would have mourners go through the streets crying out loud. There would

00:20:11.720 be wailing. There would be a big, you know, like a big crowd that would gather. And so the kids

00:20:16.480 decide, okay, you don't want to play wedding. You're in a bad mood. We'll play funeral. And

00:20:20.660 maybe, you know, they would lead one of them around and they would wail and cry and, you know,

00:20:26.580 have this fake kind of song that sat a dirge. And they say, let's play that. And the grumpy kids say,

00:20:33.580 no the other one was too fun but that one is too sad we're not going to play what's the point of

00:20:42.160 this the point is no matter what the kids the happy kids tried to do the grumpy kids were not

00:20:50.900 going to join in all they were going to do was offer excuse after excuse after excuse they were

00:20:56.180 going to criticize and criticize but what they were not going to do was join the game and this

00:21:02.960 is what Jesus compares that generation to. Endlessly critical, trying to not only not

00:21:09.220 participate in the game, but derail it. You guys shouldn't even be playing that game. It's dumb.

00:21:14.700 Come and sit with us and be boring. The implication here is that no matter what game the happy kids

00:21:23.860 came up with, the grumpy kids were going to say no. They weren't even going to consider it.

00:21:28.200 so what does this mean well jesus describes that the happy game like the wedding represents

00:21:37.260 jesus and his ministry and the sad funeral game is represented by john the baptist and the way

00:21:43.980 he did his ministry he says john came in sackcloth and ashes in funeral mode as it were you think

00:21:51.280 about his hair there is his clothing the camel hair which was rough and coarse like sackcloth

00:21:57.180 And he lived in the desert. He was dirty all the time, like someone who's put ash on them.

00:22:02.620 And even he lived out in the wilderness. And so in a sense, his own life was a separation,

00:22:08.040 almost like death is. He was not with his family. He lived alone out in the wilderness. And John

00:22:13.900 came in funeral mode. His austerity and his severity was to represent and to call people

00:22:19.840 to the kind of sadness you would feel at a funeral.

00:22:23.640 We are undone. We are sinful.

00:22:26.420 We must weep and mourn over our sin.

00:22:31.340 And what the Pharisees and the people who are parroting back their talking points say is,

00:22:36.660 that guy doesn't even eat and drink. He eats locusts.

00:22:40.360 He's not even with people. He's just a downer.

00:22:44.780 And then they resort to insulting him.

00:22:46.540 They say he's even possessed by a devil.

00:22:49.840 and so then jesus adds that he represents the happy children or the children who are

00:22:58.120 or happy represent him jesus came and notice in in verse 19 he refers to himself as the son of man

00:23:05.780 he came as a man to interact with humanity he john the baptist was detached and separated

00:23:12.300 and severe jesus came as a man and lived among the people he went to weddings he went to places

00:23:18.040 of employment he went to their funerals he ate in their homes he walked with them in the

00:23:22.900 countryside he participated with them and his message largely he did call people to repent

00:23:27.560 but it was also one of joy the kingdom of heaven is here the bridegroom is here celebrate and rejoice

00:23:35.000 unlike john's austerity he was joyful he was approachable he came in wedding mode

00:23:46.840 and again i think it's important here i can't prove this from the text it just um as i've as

00:23:53.760 i've read it over and over i think that you can make this case i think it's not just jesus and

00:23:58.420 john the baptist i think the the story represents the children and so there's even people who

00:24:03.340 followed john the baptist in the galilee region who are going to the rest of the region saying

00:24:08.680 guys john said repent we need to be really serious about that and to those people the rest of the

00:24:15.080 Galilee is saying, no way, man, that guy's demon-possessed.

00:24:17.660 I can't get behind that.

00:24:19.940 And then there's other people who are following Jesus.

00:24:22.220 They're the happy children, and they're calling to the people around them and saying, guys,

00:24:25.940 Jesus has the most incredible teachings you've ever heard.

00:24:29.660 Come and hear him.

00:24:30.680 And the same hard-hearted people are saying, no way.

00:24:34.360 He's a glutton and a drunk.

00:24:36.280 The only reason he's going to those weddings and those parties with you guys is he's covering

00:24:40.720 a raging alcoholism.

00:24:43.560 And what's more than that, he even is friends with sinners and tax collectors.

00:24:48.600 That guy is no good. I'm not joining into that.

00:24:52.400 And you notice they're even arguing conflicting things.

00:24:55.660 They're saying John was neither eating nor drinking, but Jesus is drinking too much and eating too much.

00:25:05.600 Now it's true that the lies that they told about John and especially about Jesus are offensive and are sinful,

00:25:11.240 but they're not the root of the problem. The root of the problem is that their hearts are so hard

00:25:16.780 that they're not going to engage the argument. They're not going to engage the issue head on

00:25:22.520 at all. There's nothing that can be done to convince them they have prejudged the whole

00:25:27.140 situation and they want to stay in their sin and they want to stay comfortable and they want to

00:25:32.020 stay in the good graces of the religious leaders. I don't know if this is sounding familiar at all.

00:25:36.920 this is a pattern that's repeated throughout history there are many many people and we need

00:25:43.120 to know this as we're evangelizing people or you have friends or family members and you're

00:25:47.620 you're giving the gospel to them there are going to be a lot of people who are just so hard that

00:25:53.280 no matter what you say it's not about the argument they're going to say go pound sand and they're

00:25:59.620 going to come up with all sorts of slanderous or even stupid trivial reasons and you're going to

00:26:04.760 say, that makes no sense. That's the point. It doesn't make sense, because what they're doing

00:26:09.680 is rejecting the call of the Holy Spirit. That is the most illogical, insane thing that you can do.

00:26:16.060 And so when you're doing that, none of your reasons or motivations are going to make any sense.

00:26:25.440 That's the sin here that Matthew is exposing in this section. These are people who have a lying

00:26:32.060 criticism that really covers a heart that is completely unwilling to even consider the teachings

00:26:37.760 of Jesus. I think it's no coincidence that they, in the text, seek to justify themselves.

00:26:49.480 That theme runs through this whole story. Who is right? Remember the people in Luke 7,

00:26:54.760 they justified God. They said God is right. Here these wicked people of this generation are saying

00:27:02.160 we are right and the question of who is right determines who has to change. If God is right

00:27:07.720 I must change. If I am right I don't have to change and in fact as blasphemous as it sounds

00:27:14.440 the implication is God must change.

00:27:17.160 what's really interesting about this is that while the pharisees themselves obviously openly

00:27:28.020 opposed jesus you get the sense that the people in the region were not necessarily

00:27:33.660 openly hostile to jesus they liked the fame that jesus brought to the region

00:27:39.860 they appreciated the miracles some of them probably had a family member or a cousin who

00:27:45.380 was healed by Jesus but they had no intention of actually learning from Jesus or of repenting

00:27:53.480 they were using him while at the same time offering talking point after talking point

00:28:00.520 from the Pharisees about why he had no right to make any sort of claim in their lives

00:28:06.520 as I said we see this in our time as well the commentator William Barclay says this

00:28:15.180 about this pattern. The plain fact is that when people do not want to listen to the truth,

00:28:20.720 they will easily enough find an excuse for not listening. They do not even try to be consistent

00:28:26.260 in their criticism. They'll criticize the same person in the same institution from quite opposite

00:28:31.620 grounds and reasons. If people are determined to make no response, they will remain stubbornly

00:28:37.540 and sullenly unresponsive no matter what invitation is made to them.

00:28:45.180 When you see in someone's life constant criticism, constant belittling, constant nitpicking of reasons that are not valid, what you know is that you're dealing with someone who has a hard heart.

00:29:02.040 And Jesus understood this, and he's been in this region for so long, and because Jesus practices what he preaches, he at this point decides not to cast his pearls to the swine anymore.

00:29:15.180 So we see that one of the biggest tells that someone is a swine or a pig is that all he can ever do when faced with the truth is criticize, challenge, and nitpick.

00:29:25.620 And all of these are done in a way that makes himself look good.

00:29:29.100 Brothers and sisters, this is such a deadly, deadly temptation.

00:29:32.900 We all face it.

00:29:34.620 When we face conviction, when we hear something in the word, or someone says something to us, confronts us on something,

00:29:41.940 it is so easy for our first response to be i must justify myself i must explain away

00:29:50.020 that valid critique from god's word or from my brother or sister in christ

00:29:54.240 i might even resort to well you you do this and you did that last week it's so easy for us to

00:30:02.760 have this heart in ourselves as well we want to be right we want to be right and that is deadly in

00:30:09.920 the eyes of Jesus. Excuses and criticisms are the fortresses that the proud retreat into.

00:30:19.360 Let us not be like that, brothers and sisters. Jesus takes this very seriously, so seriously,

00:30:27.080 in fact, that he issues a warning in verse 19 against this kind of person. He says to the crowd,

00:30:36.100 again the crowd largely sympathetic with him it's a soft warning it's a soft rebuke but he turns to

00:30:42.100 the crowd and he says you kind of imagine he's kind of somber he says the generation is like

00:30:47.620 this and then he turns to the people that are listening to him and he says wisdom is justified

00:30:53.360 by her deeds wisdom is justified again that word who is right who will be shown to have been right

00:31:02.280 Will it be the people that side with the Pharisees or the people that sided with Jesus?

00:31:08.180 Matthew Poole says this about that comment.

00:31:11.160 Wisdom is justified by her children.

00:31:12.880 The children of wisdom are the wise, those who understand.

00:31:17.260 The Savior means that though that generation of Pharisees and fault finders did not appreciate the conduct of John and himself,

00:31:25.140 yet the wise, the candid, those who understood the reasons of their conduct would approve and

00:31:31.600 do justice to it. In other words, those who weep at their sin like John the Baptist called for

00:31:38.320 and cling to Christ for salvation like Jesus called for are the children of wisdom. And it's

00:31:45.160 as though Jesus is turning to these people who are listening to him and saying, you just wait

00:31:50.620 and see they are going to be sorry they're going to regret it because wisdom will prove itself in

00:31:58.380 the end this is a quiet threat but it's very serious because usually by the time we get to

00:32:08.720 the point where wisdom is proven right it's too late it may be the judgment seat of christ

00:32:14.280 where those who were wise and trusted christ are elevated to eternal life and those who rejected

00:32:20.180 him, in this case, and sided with the Pharisees, are damned. The time when wisdom proves itself

00:32:26.580 is often too late for the person who rejected it.

00:32:33.820 So that's the first terrible reaction. It is criticism by the hard-hearted.

00:32:40.000 But there's a second one, and for them, Jesus has even stronger words.

00:32:43.840 this is indifference by the unrepentant jesus gives a mild not mild it's not mild in any way

00:32:53.360 but it's more subtle warning in verse 19 but immediately as if to prove his point he transitions

00:33:00.120 in verse 20 and utters some of the most severe and strong condemnations that we find anywhere in

00:33:06.720 the bible he's talking to the crowd and he says again kind of quietly that's how i imagine it

00:33:13.700 just wait, they're going to find out. But then it's almost as though he turns and he looks out

00:33:20.860 over the whole countryside or the whole city. Maybe he extends his arms to indicate the entire region

00:33:28.360 and he raises his voice. He was speaking in that reserved teaching mode. Now he raises his voice

00:33:35.740 in anguish and anger, and he says, woe to you, Chorazin, woe to you, Bethsaida, woe to you,

00:33:43.520 Capernaum. A woe is a pronouncement of judgment. It's not a warning. This is not a warning that

00:33:55.020 Jesus is giving. One more time, and I'm going to get you. No, that's not what's going on here.

00:33:59.780 A woe is a formal discipline.

00:34:02.800 It's covenantal language.

00:34:07.140 It's the loud thunder of the gavel, bang,

00:34:11.940 as the judge issues his sentence to the guilty man.

00:34:18.040 Well, who is the guilty man in this story?

00:34:21.700 Specifically, Matthew says it's these three towns, right?

00:34:25.680 Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum.

00:34:27.740 A lot of commentators think that they're just representative of the whole region because Jesus had been in the entire region ministering and doing miracles.

00:34:38.360 So either way, it's these three cities and probably the entire region on the northwest side of the Galilee.

00:34:49.160 This is a massively important passage.

00:34:51.660 it's huge because while jesus is not condemning all of israel yet he's condemning an entire region

00:34:59.860 with strong covenantal language this is the first step that we see in god's divorcing of israel

00:35:09.020 this is the first step in god in jesus saying you're done it's been decided woe to you judgment

00:35:19.220 is here and it is not going to back off and again we would be tempted here to say

00:35:30.500 man that's awfully harsh right jesus condemns these entire towns and cities

00:35:36.420 isn't isn't god like in the old testament didn't he condemn and wipe out really wicked places like

00:35:44.220 threatened to wipe out Nineveh or Sodom and Gomorrah.

00:35:48.520 Jesus is saying that about these towns?

00:35:50.520 Man, what's going on here?

00:35:53.840 We have to understand something very, very important here.

00:36:00.920 God hates sin,

00:36:03.560 but God especially hates indifference.

00:36:10.040 Say that again.

00:36:11.380 god hates indifference towards himself this is well established in the bible let's look at just

00:36:19.780 a couple of examples matthew 7 26 is the parable of the the man who builds his house on the rock

00:36:25.900 in the sand and jesus says everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will

00:36:31.740 be like the foolish man he'll be washed away why he heard the words and he said take it or leave it

00:36:37.420 No big deal. In Matthew 24, Jesus references the generation of Noah. And he says, for as in those

00:36:45.660 days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until

00:36:49.900 the day when Noah entered the ark. Noah was preaching the entire time he was building the ark

00:36:55.400 and the response of the people was not, Lord, save us. It was, oh, let's go to a wedding.

00:37:02.300 let's go eat let's go get some food yeah noah says we're all gonna die

00:37:06.940 indifference matthew 22 4 through 5 this is the parable of the wedding guests who were invited

00:37:16.480 and didn't come jesus says again he sent other servants saying tell us who are tell those who

00:37:22.360 are invited see i've prepared my dinner my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered and

00:37:27.380 everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast. And notice this sentence. But they paid no

00:37:33.480 attention and went off. You see, God hates indifference. Why does God hate indifference

00:37:44.200 so much? Indifference is the opposite of faith. Indifference is the opposite of faith.

00:37:54.460 faith is when you hear something you take a particular action before the promised results

00:38:02.200 have happened so when the sinner hears of god's judgment he takes result he takes action

00:38:09.680 before the judgment is there that's faith it hasn't happened yet but he believes it

00:38:15.940 When the man of faith hears the offer of salvation, he's not indifferent.

00:38:24.180 Instead, he turns to Christ and clings to him.

00:38:28.860 Faith does not ignore what God says.

00:38:32.280 And that's largely what the people in this region did.

00:38:36.860 Jesus preached, he did miracles, and they simply did that.

00:38:44.080 Neat.

00:38:45.940 Got to go plant some crops.

00:38:50.040 Sometimes the greatest reason for judgment

00:38:53.140 is not that someone did something evil.

00:38:55.820 Of course, that's a reason for judgment.

00:38:57.740 But sometimes the greatest reason for judgment

00:39:00.100 is that someone did not do something.

00:39:04.000 You imagine someone driving down the road,

00:39:06.840 going in his lane perfectly at the speed limit,

00:39:09.540 not speeding, not swerving,

00:39:12.420 observing all the traffic laws,

00:39:14.340 driving down the road,

00:39:15.940 And up ahead of him about a block, a child runs out into the street.

00:39:22.100 The man sees this child, and he has plenty of time to put on his brakes or to swerve out of the way.

00:39:30.640 And he just keeps going.

00:39:35.020 It's not going to count for him to say, Your Honor, I didn't do anything.

00:39:39.380 I just kept in my lane like I'm supposed to.

00:39:42.380 The judge is going to say, You wicked man.

00:39:44.640 You should have gone around. You should have stopped.

00:39:48.280 And that's what Jesus is saying here.

00:39:50.340 I preached to you for years, and it should have had an effect on you.

00:39:56.620 And you just continued with life as normal.

00:40:03.940 You see, this indifference in these towns was worse even than the sin of ancient pagan cities.

00:40:14.640 At the core of Jesus' condemnation of these cities is the fact that they ignored.

00:40:20.980 They were indifferent.

00:40:23.020 They shrugged their shoulders.

00:40:26.440 And Jesus says something to these towns and cities that was utterly devastating, totally offensive.

00:40:33.880 He says in verse 21 that if the miracles that he had done in those cities in the Galilee,

00:40:40.360 specifically here, Chorazin and Bethsaida.

00:40:44.440 If Jesus had done those miracles in Tyre and Sidon,

00:40:47.900 they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes.

00:40:50.320 In other words, they would have acted the way John the Baptist called for them to,

00:40:54.760 with his camel hair and his severity.

00:40:59.120 In the mind of the Jews in the Galilee region especially,

00:41:03.080 these were the worst cities imaginable, Tyre and Sidon.

00:41:06.860 they were actually not far from there they were on the sea just a few miles from where these these

00:41:13.760 towns were there were two towns of the Phoenicians the Phoenicians were a seafaring people they took

00:41:26.180 over much of the Mediterranean they were ruthless and cruel and barbaric and these two towns on the

00:41:32.780 Mediterranean were towns where sailors would put into port. And we all know the reputation that

00:41:38.820 that kind of city has, full of debauchery and immorality, fights, violence, all sorts of things.

00:41:48.340 Not only that, these two cities, Tyre and Sidon, were centers of Baal worship. They were strongholds

00:41:55.800 of the worship of this false god. They were immoral. They were pagan. They were heathen. And

00:42:00.920 god actually did end up destroying them in isaiah 23 ezekiel 26 27 and 28 we learned that these

00:42:10.700 phoenician cities were extremely proud they were greedy they were cruel

00:42:16.120 in jeremiah 25 and 47 we see that the phoenicians these two cities were selling

00:42:25.700 were capturing Israelites and selling them they were also capturing them in Amos it says they

00:42:33.560 were capturing Israelites and selling them to the Edomites and so in this region of Israel

00:42:40.060 to say Tyre or Sidon would have been to conjure up the worst sort of behavior possible the most

00:42:49.300 revolting wicked deserving of judgment cities and lifestyles imaginable

00:42:56.460 and jesus says listen you cities if i would have preached and done the miracles there

00:43:05.880 they would have repented but you all you are stubborn of heart and you continue in your sin

00:43:12.240 and in fact he goes so far as he says it would have been it would be better for them on the day

00:43:19.780 of judgment are they being judged yes as pastor joel said last week but there will be a much

00:43:24.720 more severe penalty for these cities in galilee you see god hates indifference he hates it and

00:43:34.440 that's why he saves the harshest criticism for the city of capernaum this is the town where jesus has

00:43:41.520 made his home, his base of operations, the town that had the most access to Jesus, which he spent

00:43:49.300 most of his time in. Capernaum was well off. It was beautiful. It was by the sea. It was peaceful.

00:43:56.980 It was really idyllic in many ways. That northern area of the Galilee is where a lot of the wealthy

00:44:03.360 Roman politicians and soldiers would go and spend time. It was absolutely stunning. They would have

00:44:10.740 out a sense that they were uniquely blessed by God for their prosperity and the beauty of their

00:44:15.720 setting. He did miracle after miracle after miracle there. He healed the nobleman's son.

00:44:22.680 He healed the demoniac. He raised Peter's mother-in-law. He healed the paralytic that

00:44:28.100 the friends lowered down through the roof. He healed blind men, cast out demons, healed the

00:44:33.960 centurion's servant from a distance and even with all that miraculous power and testimony they did

00:44:41.920 not change. Jesus says that because they were unwilling to change and respond they were harder

00:44:51.100 and more wicked and more vile than the city of Sodom itself. This comparison to Sodom was a

00:44:59.280 stunning insult. I mean, guys, you have to realize how much of a slap in the face this was. Sodom was

00:45:06.640 the city in the Old Testament that was not, it wasn't conquered by foreign armies. God himself

00:45:12.040 rained fire and brimstone on the city for its wickedness. And Jesus says, you think you're

00:45:21.200 going to ascend? No, you, Galilee, are going down to Hades. If Sodom would have had the witness that

00:45:27.780 you have, they would still be around. In other words, they would have repented and they would

00:45:31.860 have followed God. This would have been a full-hearted repentance, pervasive and profound.

00:45:40.140 So why is this sin of Galilee, of Capernaum, so much worse than the sin of these ancient cities?

00:45:50.440 So what MacArthur says about this, he says, what makes them worse? Indifference. The sin of these

00:45:56.340 flourishing places was not violence. It wasn't the sin of sensuality. It was just indifference.

00:46:03.260 There's no record that they opposed Christ or mocked him or ridiculed him. They just didn't

00:46:08.300 pay any attention to him. His doctrine produced no change in their lives. Self-satisfied,

00:46:14.540 complacent, whether in the form of pharisaic self-righteousness or popular indifference,

00:46:19.540 is condemned by Christ as the grossest of evils.

00:46:24.200 On the outside, they were eminently respectable,

00:46:27.060 but hell will be hotter for them than for the Sodomites.

00:46:33.680 As Pastor Joel said last week,

00:46:36.840 the greater the grace, the greater the responsibility.

00:46:41.860 And they had the grace of the Son of God himself

00:46:45.800 living and preaching and working in their midst,

00:46:48.000 and they had the grace of all the teachings of the Old Testament,

00:46:51.680 not in mystery, but with pinpoint focus,

00:46:55.160 pointing directly at Christ.

00:46:59.840 And if we're not careful, we can be paralyzed by this.

00:47:02.880 We hear the great of the grace.

00:47:03.880 I've received a lot of grace.

00:47:05.360 I've received a lot of teaching and that can paralyze us.

00:47:08.700 Oh, what do I do?

00:47:10.240 Am I just getting more and more judgment

00:47:12.020 every time I read my Bible, you hear a sermon?

00:47:14.720 Don't fear.

00:47:16.240 God is working in you.

00:47:18.000 When he teaches you something, he's going to give you the strength to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

00:47:27.660 But it should humble us and sober us.

00:47:31.220 God is not messing around.

00:47:34.700 It's easy for us to look at this story and say, oh, they were so foolish.

00:47:40.680 And they were absolutely fools who earned condemnation.

00:47:47.220 What they did was a greater evil than Tyre and Sidon and Sodom.

00:47:51.820 But the knife cuts both ways.

00:47:54.120 There are many, many in our own land who have heard the gospel more clearly than John presented it.

00:48:02.200 There are pastors who have gone to seminary who shrugged their shoulders at the demands of Christ on his church.

00:48:10.760 There are many who can say, perhaps even like President Trump possibly,

00:48:15.540 that they've seen direct intervention, miraculous intervention in their life,

00:48:20.200 saved from a bullet, or saved from a car accident, or saved from some sort of calamity.

00:48:25.000 And in the moment, they can say, that was God's miraculous dealings to me.

00:48:30.940 And then they can shrug their shoulders and move on with life.

00:48:38.240 And God will judge that indifference. He hates that sort of indifference.

00:48:42.780 and this applies to us as well this applies to us christians as well

00:48:48.880 much has been made of romans 11 in the last few years

00:48:52.820 but in the middle of that passage remember paul uses the example of israel and part of that starts

00:49:00.520 right here in this passage as a warning to the christians in rome so i'm going to read

00:49:05.620 what he says in romans 11 and it applies to us as well as we think all those foolish jews in

00:49:12.740 the Galilee region. Be careful. Romans 11 20 through 22 says this so do not become proud but

00:49:20.780 fear for if God did not spare the natural branches neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness

00:49:28.340 and the severity of God. Severity towards those who have fallen but God's kindness to you provided

00:49:34.900 to continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you too will be cut off. In Matthew 11, we see that Jesus

00:49:44.320 is initiating the process of cutting off the unbelieving branches, and yet the warning extends

00:49:51.500 to us. That's how Paul uses it. We must not be proud, for God can cut us off as well, whether

00:49:57.480 as a hardened individual who heard the gospel or even as an entire nation who rejected God.

00:50:04.900 how do we run the risk of demonstrating this kind of hardness because we must avoid it at all cost

00:50:13.940 first by simply not repenting

00:50:18.060 i know there are probably some of you either who listen online or who even come every week

00:50:26.000 you go weeks and months and maybe even years listening to the gospel proclaimed

00:50:32.840 Sunday after Sunday after Sunday.

00:50:36.560 And yet you shrug your shoulders

00:50:37.900 and you walk out and you go on with life.

00:50:40.800 You've heard the truth over and over and over,

00:50:43.600 but it has no effect on you at all.

00:50:46.440 And friend, if this is you,

00:50:48.580 I have to tell you,

00:50:49.620 this is the most dangerous position you can be in.

00:50:54.000 There's nothing more dangerous

00:50:55.660 than to hear the truth of the gospel

00:50:57.660 over and over and over

00:50:59.220 and for it to bounce off of you every single time.

00:51:02.840 how hard must a heart be to reject the blinding sunlight that flashes on it every single week

00:51:14.820 it's as though that kind of person walks in you know those eclipse glasses that you wear

00:51:19.460 to look at the sun you have one of those over your heart so that the light of the gospel cannot

00:51:24.940 penetrate and if that's you I plead with you to repent this is the day for it not

00:51:35.020 next Sunday not the following Sunday this is the day remember Jesus ministered

00:51:41.680 in these cities for years but finally there came a time and he drew his line

00:51:46.240 He said that's it. Woe to you cities. Do not assume that next month or next year

00:51:56.480 you will be more likely to repent. The reality is you will probably be less

00:52:01.940 likely and less likely and less likely. Second, even Christians can be tempted by

00:52:12.820 this we hear christ speaking to us from the word we read or we come to church he commands us to do

00:52:21.400 something or to stop doing something we hear it clearly but we just move on and here's where this

00:52:29.720 is really heinous other things become more important to us than obeying christ brothers and sisters

00:52:39.140 there is nothing more important than obeying christ when christ speaks to you through the word

00:52:45.420 the most dangerous thing you can do is shrug it off i'll get around to it not that big of a deal

00:52:52.580 to go on with your life as if the king of the universe had not said anything to you

00:52:58.960 remember indifference is the opposite of faith and god hates it

00:53:03.880 and third we'll probably wrap up here

00:53:08.900 notice that these three cities did not only disregard jesus teaching but in verse 20 they

00:53:17.100 they disregarded his mighty works the miracles that jesus did should have caused them to be full

00:53:26.120 of thanks and praise and worship to god but for the majority of them that's not what happened

00:53:31.220 they saw a blind man healed or a lame man healed they go oh that's a neat trick i wonder how he

00:53:36.720 does that well off to the bakery

00:53:39.100 often often when people are in a terrible situation they call out to god and god is kind

00:53:49.120 and he often intervenes and then immediately we forget that that was god's direct hand in our

00:53:56.400 lives we move on with our life we forget to give him the credit and the honor and the glory and i

00:54:04.460 don't know why it is i've thought about why i tend to do this maybe it's because we don't like to

00:54:09.300 admit that we were helpless and once we're out of the situation yeah i had that i was okay we don't

00:54:14.580 like to admit that we were helpless maybe it's just kind of humbling to be physically and verbally

00:54:20.380 grateful to God. I struggle with this sometimes as a father, right? I like to be the head honcho.

00:54:26.900 I don't like to put myself on my knees and say the Lord has been so gracious. I like to get the

00:54:32.880 credit. I was, I had a good plan, right? I had a good plan. When the Lord does something incredible

00:54:38.700 in your life, you need to mark it and remember it, and it should stir you to worship and thanks

00:54:45.580 and praise to him don't neglect the workings of the lord in your life or the life of your family

00:54:51.060 discipline yourself to express gratitude and thanks and praise so that you do not end up

00:54:57.540 like these cities who could see the work of god routinely and just say oh yeah yeah yeah that was

00:55:04.020 kind of neat and if we do these things we will keep ourselves from hardening because it is a

00:55:12.220 terrible, horrifying thing to have and to maintain a hard heart. In fact, it is so bad

00:55:21.120 that God cut Israel off for it, starting with this picturesque, beautiful, peaceful city

00:55:29.540 on the northwest shore of Galilee. In your notes, I had one more point, and I'm just going to read

00:55:37.100 what I had written in the notes

00:55:39.720 because Matthew's story

00:55:41.920 continues. The very next word

00:55:44.060 after this section is

00:55:46.140 on the wrong page

00:55:48.740 at that time

00:55:51.440 on the heels

00:55:53.760 of Jesus declaring that these cities

00:55:56.040 have woes coming upon

00:55:57.920 them. The very next

00:55:59.820 thing that Jesus says is come to me

00:56:01.900 all you who weary

00:56:03.660 and are heavy laden.

00:56:05.260 the woes are not the final word this is what we're going to get into next week

00:56:10.720 the woes are not the final word in matthew's narrative the woes are the climax of mounting

00:56:16.980 unbelief in the galilee but they are followed immediately by the offer of rest to signal

00:56:22.720 that condemnation is never god's last word to the repentant were the towns going to be judged yes

00:56:30.740 there was no going back on that and yet still the kindness of christ turns to the people who

00:56:36.980 are listening to him and says if you are still hearing my voice but have not come to me come

00:56:44.320 find rest for your souls which are weighed down so strongly by sin it's not too late if you have

00:56:51.940 heard and heard and you say i'm hard of heart it's not too late if you have been living in a sin

00:56:58.380 pattern it is not too late come to christ and find rest from sin for your souls

00:57:05.020 and that's why we continue to cast the seed even as it's discouraging to look around at our

00:57:13.360 generation which is so wicked and so likely to side with the evil and wicked authorities that

00:57:20.200 are in power the soft positions of power we continue to cast the seed of the gospel out

00:57:25.140 longing that even our wicked generation, destined likely for judgment, would still hear Christ's

00:57:32.540 message and that many in our generation would repent and believe. Let's pray.

00:57:39.500 Gracious Father, we want to take seriously the fact that you judge. You are a God who is long

00:57:49.380 suffering. Your patience is great, and your anger is slow to kindle. And yet, Lord, we pray that we

00:57:58.320 would not mistake that for casualness towards sin. We want to be people in our own lives who treat

00:58:05.920 very seriously the idea of taking you seriously. We pray for our generation, our town, and our city,

00:58:12.280 and our nation, that you would soften their hearts, that they would repent, and that they would turn

00:58:18.020 to you with true repentance like John the Baptist called for, not fake repentance that just kind of

00:58:24.640 appeases the moment. Lord, we pray for true repentance starting in our own lives and extending

00:58:29.840 through our church and our city and our nation. And pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

The NXR Podcast - August 11, 2025

THE SERMON - Judgment and Hope ｜ Matthew 11_16-24

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