SPEAKER_00: We're going to look at specifically verses 16 through 19 this morning, but I want to ramp up to that with an overview of the whole chapter.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to start reading Matthew chapter 11, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 11, verse 1, the Word of God says, When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities.
SPEAKER_00: So that phrase, teach and preach, is going to cover all that we're doing in these next 18 verses.
SPEAKER_00: When John had heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus answered them, Go and tell John what you see hear and see.
SPEAKER_00: The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the good news preached to them.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed is the one who's not offended by me.
SPEAKER_00: Pause here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm coaching soccer right now and pretends my team is warming up.
SPEAKER_00: This is a real story.
SPEAKER_00: My team is warming up, and somebody comes up to me and asks me, Hey, are you guys any good this year?
SPEAKER_00: How am I supposed to answer that question?
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of it depends on the person who's asking me that question.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in this scenario, that person could fall into one of three categories.
SPEAKER_00: That person could be a player on the other team, in which case the answer is, oh, we're terrible.
SPEAKER_00: The person could be a fan, a parent.
SPEAKER_00: In which case the answer would be, your son's amazing.
SPEAKER_00: The person could be somebody who works at the car dealership that is next to our soccer field who's out on their cigarette break walking around the fields.
SPEAKER_00: You know, they're interested in soccer and they want to know if he should drag his brake out a little bit and watch some of the game.
SPEAKER_00: That's going to be a different answer altogether.
SPEAKER_00: Have you seen high school soccer before?
SPEAKER_00: What you're seeing here in Matthew 11 to guide our reading through this chapter is a question that is asked a few times, and Jesus answers it in three different ways depending on who's asking.
SPEAKER_00: The question boils down to this Are you the Messiah?
SPEAKER_00: Are you Jesus the Messiah?
SPEAKER_00: That's John's question in verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: Are you the one who is to come?
SPEAKER_00: That's the crowd's question that we're going to look at next.
SPEAKER_00: Are you the one that Elijah prophesied, which is the Messiah?
SPEAKER_00: And that is going to be the scribes and Pharisees' question.
SPEAKER_00: Are you the Son of Man?
SPEAKER_00: It's the same question.
SPEAKER_00: And as we go through this, I want you to notice the three kinds of people that are asking it.
SPEAKER_00: The first kind of person asking it is the doubting believer.
SPEAKER_00: The first category of person who asks the question, are you the Messiah?
SPEAKER_00: is the doubting believer.
SPEAKER_00: Now, notice how Jesus responded to the doubting believer who asked.
SPEAKER_00: Because John's not lacking information here.
SPEAKER_00: John has heard the voice from heaven that he's the that Christ is the Messiah, that he's the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: He saw the Holy Spirit descend upon him.
SPEAKER_00: John's related to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They know who each other are.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a lack of information.
SPEAKER_00: John's doubt is coming from unmet expectations.
SPEAKER_00: John's facing martyrdom.
SPEAKER_00: He's in prison, about to die, and he is just asking.
SPEAKER_00: Like I want to be really sure.
SPEAKER_00: Because I thought you were going to overthrow the Roman government and start the kingdom of God on earth, and now I'm in jail, about to be killed by the Roman governor.
SPEAKER_00: So I have questions.
SPEAKER_00: That's unmet expectations, but they're from a heart of a true believer.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, if you notice, answers them with compassionate teaching.
SPEAKER_00: He responds to John with compassion.
SPEAKER_00: We looked at this in depth a few weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't rebuke John.
SPEAKER_00: John did the right thing with his doubts.
SPEAKER_00: He brought his doubts to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's very easy for us in our, you know, air-conditioned church right now to roll our eyes at John doubting and think of all that he knew.
SPEAKER_00: And come on, John, get it together, man.
SPEAKER_00: Hold it together.
SPEAKER_00: Why are you doubting?
SPEAKER_00: But listen, he is in a jail.
SPEAKER_00: He is about to have his head chopped off.
SPEAKER_00: And he is looking at Jesus through the jail bars, so to speak, and with massive crowds raising the dead, doing all these wonders, and wondering, why isn't he getting me out of here if this is all true?
SPEAKER_00: So it really is an honest question of doubt.
SPEAKER_00: He goes to Jesus, Jesus answers him with compassionate teaching.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Luke 7, which is a parallel account of this, and there's information in Matthew 11 that's not in Luke 7, and vice versa.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm kind of drawing it all together for you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: In Luke 7, it says that Jesus then taught for an hour.
SPEAKER_00: He spent the next hour after he gets this question from John teaching, so that the disciples of John can bring back Jesus' teaching to them.
SPEAKER_00: And Matthew 11 says something similar in verse 1 there.
SPEAKER_00: He went on from there teaching and preaching, but Luke narrows it and says, for the next hour he taught the disciples of John the Baptist about the nature of the kingdom and all the healing and that Jesus was doing so that John would be encouraged.
SPEAKER_00: So when Jesus is met by a doubting believer, he doesn't respond with rebuke.
SPEAKER_00: He responds with compassion and kindness.
SPEAKER_00: As the disciples went away, Jesus began to see the crowds, speak to the crowds concerning John.
SPEAKER_00: And he has questions for them.
SPEAKER_00: What did you go in the wilderness to see?
SPEAKER_00: A reed shaken by the winds?
SPEAKER_00: What did you go out to see?
SPEAKER_00: A man dressed in soft clothing?
SPEAKER_00: Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in king's houses.
SPEAKER_00: What did you go out to see?
SPEAKER_00: A prophet?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.
SPEAKER_00: And we looked at this passage last week.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, Jesus is really asking them to probe their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Did they go all the way out to see John because they were impressed by cattail swing in the winds?
SPEAKER_00: Were they looking for John's fashion statement?
SPEAKER_00: Because you get better fashion statements in Tiberius in the king's palace than you would out in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is really confronting them, really asking them to examine their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: And he is also teaching them from verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: He's continuing his teaching.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, he turns to Malachi 3 here in verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: This is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare the way for you.
SPEAKER_00: So he is now, he's going to expand on that in the next few verses.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, not everything he said in this encounter is recorded in Matthew and Luke.
SPEAKER_00: He obviously taught on Malachi 3 a lot longer than what's given here.
SPEAKER_00: We just get a couple verses on it.
SPEAKER_00: But the bottom line Jesus drives home is that Malachi speaks of Elijah who will prepare the way for the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus here is addressing the crowd, who's wondering, is John Elijah?
SPEAKER_00: In other words, is Jesus the Savior?
SPEAKER_00: It's not so much a question about John as it is about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And look at how Jesus responds to the curious crowd.
SPEAKER_00: He responds with confrontative teaching.
SPEAKER_00: He confronts them.
SPEAKER_00: He gets in their grill.
SPEAKER_00: He asks them a little bit of sarcastic questions, doesn't he?
SPEAKER_00: Did you go out to see the reed in the wind?
SPEAKER_00: Were you impressed with his camel hair?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he is confronting them.
SPEAKER_00: He wants them to articulate what it was that drew them out there.
SPEAKER_00: Even present day.
SPEAKER_00: What brought them out to see Jesus now that John's in jail, the crowd is just shifted over to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Some of the people, it's the miracles.
SPEAKER_00: For most of the people, it's the food.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, we know later on, and this is from Mark as well, that there were thousands of people with Jesus at this point.
SPEAKER_00: There were massive crowds following him around, and Jesus was feeding them.
SPEAKER_00: And in John chapter 6, when Jesus stopped feeding them, remember what happened to the crowd?
SPEAKER_00: They all went home.
SPEAKER_00: So they were out there for the food.
SPEAKER_00: The food is not on the drop-down menu here.
SPEAKER_00: Here, the drop-down menu is, you know, the reeds or the clothes or the prophet.
SPEAKER_00: But the truth is they were there for the food, and Jesus confronts them about that and asks them to figure out what they're doing with their lives.
SPEAKER_00: Stop going through the emotions.
SPEAKER_00: The third category of person we find now is the obstinate unbeliever.
SPEAKER_00: The obstinate unbeliever.
SPEAKER_00: And this is where we pick up the story in verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: What shall I compare this generation?
SPEAKER_00: Now in Luke 7, Luke narrows this.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: And out there, John wouldn't baptize them.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, John said, Get out of here.
SPEAKER_00: Who told you to flee the wrath to come, you brood of vipers?
SPEAKER_00: And he threw the Pharisees out on their ear.
SPEAKER_00: Now they are back.
SPEAKER_00: And in Luke 7, what drew them out to this crowd was Jesus' teaching.
SPEAKER_00: He was out there for an hour teaching and doing miracles and raising the dead and healing the blind and all of that.
SPEAKER_00: And the Pharisees and scribes came back out.
SPEAKER_00: And they're there when Jesus is asking them, What did you go out to see?
SPEAKER_00: What did you go out to see?
SPEAKER_00: And now he narrows in on them and says, What am I supposed to do with you, Lot?
SPEAKER_00: What am I going to compare you to?
SPEAKER_00: Now, before he read his answer here, you really have to appreciate the difference between doubt and unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: They're not the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: The believer, John, who doubts at the beginning of this chapter, is not the same as the Pharisee who is questioning Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Doubt is hopeful, unbelief is hopeless.
SPEAKER_00: Doubt is seeking, unbelief is hiding.
SPEAKER_00: Doubt is looking for assurance, unbelief refuses to believe the evidence in front of it.
SPEAKER_00: Doubt is trying to cling to the truth, and unbelief is giving excuses to reject the truth.
SPEAKER_00: They're categorically different.
SPEAKER_00: And you see that in the way Jesus responds to them.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, with doubt, Jesus responded with tenderness.
SPEAKER_00: With unbelief, look what he says.
SPEAKER_00: What am I going to compare you guys to?
SPEAKER_00: I know.
SPEAKER_00: You're like children sitting in the marketplaces calling to their playmates, we played the flute for you and you didn't dance.
SPEAKER_00: We sang a dirge for you and you didn't mourn.
SPEAKER_00: We played you a happy song.
SPEAKER_00: We played you a sad song and you didn't like it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, in Israel you had just a couple social events that the family would go to.
SPEAKER_00: You had the market where the moms would bring the kids to the marketplace, not unlike today.
SPEAKER_00: You know, they didn't have the Bob strollers, but they had the camels and then with the strollers in the back.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe not, but the kids would be drugged to the marketplace.
SPEAKER_00: And what do the kids do there when moms at the the market?
SPEAKER_00: And the market would often be on Fridays before Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: The family would get together for Sabbath and they're drugged to the marketplace for the food, and the kids are playing.
SPEAKER_00: And what are they playing?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the other big social events in Israel were weddings and funerals.
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of what they they had there.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's what they're reenacting.
SPEAKER_00: And you think, what kind of kids play funerals?
SPEAKER_00: I have seen this with my own eyes.
SPEAKER_00: In Central Africa, I have seen kids gathered together in Chad playing funeral.
SPEAKER_00: And you think, why would what's wrong?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it actually could be kind of fun, and this is why.
SPEAKER_00: They gather rounds, and somebody, some kid is the body, and they roll them up in a rug and they carry him around.
SPEAKER_00: But the other kids are like the professional mourners and wailers, and they are shrieking and yelling and shrieking, and it's it's it's weird.
SPEAKER_00: But you could see why some kids would like it.
SPEAKER_00: You think, man, can you go play Nintendo Switch or something?
SPEAKER_00: No, they're playing funeral right now.
SPEAKER_00: You could also see why they might not be into playing funeral and instead play wedding, which would be categorically different.
SPEAKER_00: It's fun and happy, and American kids play wedding too.
SPEAKER_00: We had friends over at our house one night.
SPEAKER_00: Uh they were a three-girl, one-boy family, and we are a three-girl family, and the kids are all downstairs, and the parents are upstairs, and then one of the kids comes upstairs to us and says, We're playing wedding downstairs, and we have a question.
SPEAKER_00: There's only one boy.
SPEAKER_00: Should he be the pastor or the groom?
SPEAKER_00: And me and the other dad look at each other like, can't she play Nintendo Switch or something?
SPEAKER_00: So I guess some things transcend culture.
SPEAKER_00: In Israel, they're playing wedding or funeral, but there are some kids that won't play either.
SPEAKER_00: Again, another real example from my house.
SPEAKER_00: Kid comes over and asks to play with my daughters, and my daughters say, What do you want to play?
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Well, let's go, let's go play house.
SPEAKER_00: And my my daughters are like, no, you know, too girly.
SPEAKER_00: And so the kids like, all right, let's go to the creek and catch fish.
SPEAKER_00: And my kids are like, it's too dirty.
SPEAKER_00: I'm beginning to deduce you just don't want to play.
SPEAKER_00: Like you're just being obstinate.
SPEAKER_00: If it was somebody else's kids acting like that, I would say you're being a spoiled brat.
SPEAKER_00: But I would never say that about my kids are just princesses.
SPEAKER_00: Your kids are brats, my kids are refined.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is using that as his illustration here.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to be a kid illustration.
SPEAKER_00: I listened to a podcast this week, and uh for you this might be a stretch, but for me, I'm studying Matthew 11 when I listened to this podcast.
SPEAKER_00: It was a business podcast that one of you sent me.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and it was an interview with Starlink, Starlink Internet Company, their lead attorney, and it was kind of a hostile interviewer, and he asked, you know, why are you guys always in legal trouble?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Well, he I've been with Starlink for three years.
SPEAKER_00: The first year I said we were uh sued by the government because we were charging so much less than the other companies that we were accused of unfair business practices.
SPEAKER_00: So last year we were charging the same as all the other companies to do what we do, and we were accused of collusion with them.
SPEAKER_00: So this year we're charging more, and the government just notified us they're gonna bring a lawsuit that we are making a monopoly because of how much we charge.
SPEAKER_00: Like you can't win.
SPEAKER_00: That's the logic here in Luke 7 and Matthew 11.
SPEAKER_00: We can't play with you because you're too sad.
SPEAKER_00: We can't play with you because you're too happy.
SPEAKER_00: Notice what Jesus says.
SPEAKER_00: The Son of Man, or sorry, he says verse 18, John came neither eating nor drinking.
SPEAKER_00: And they say, He's got a demon.
SPEAKER_00: When it says not eating or drinking, it doesn't mean he didn't eat or drink anything.
SPEAKER_00: It means he didn't eat and drink like a normal person.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, he ate locust and honey and he drank water.
SPEAKER_00: And they look at him and they say, He's got a demon.
SPEAKER_00: They don't really care about the locust and honey.
SPEAKER_00: They care that he called them a brood of vipers and told them to get out of there.
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, oh, that's clear evidence of demonic activity.
SPEAKER_00: Rejecting the Pharisees and the attorneys as their authority, the scribes and the attorneys, rejecting them.
SPEAKER_00: The guy's got a demon.
SPEAKER_00: So now they go to Jesus and it says, the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_00: Notice Jesus' statement, he's identifying himself as the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_00: That's a messianic title from the book of Daniel.
SPEAKER_00: The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they said, Look at him, a glutton and a drunkard.
SPEAKER_00: Again, that doesn't mean that Jesus was a glutton or that he was a drunkard any more than it means John had a demon.
SPEAKER_00: The two, the accusations aren't true.
SPEAKER_00: What is true is that John ate locusts and honey and drank water, and what is true is that Jesus ate hummus and drank wine.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't make him a drunkard or a glutton.
SPEAKER_00: That's their logic, though.
SPEAKER_00: Now, to make this point to the Pharisees, Jesus could have easily used the analogy of the Starlink attorney.
SPEAKER_00: Or whatever, that's, you know, antiquated.
SPEAKER_00: He could have used an example from the law of his day.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure the attorneys of his day could invent any reason to prosecute anybody they want.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus would have had a lot of examples at hand, but he didn't use the example of the attorney.
SPEAKER_00: He used the example of the child, even though it's the same point.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the example of the attorney would have elevated the scribes and the Pharisees and granted that they're refined and in the nuances of the law, whereas Jesus cuts through all that and says, not that you're like the hypocritical attorney, which again he would have had examples for that, but no, you're like the spoiled brats.
SPEAKER_00: You think you're so smart, you think you're so refined, you think you're so intellectually superior to everybody around you, and that's why you won't follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: No, your logic doesn't hold up, it doesn't pass the playground test.
SPEAKER_00: Kids on the playground would see through you.
SPEAKER_00: You don't actually have objections.
SPEAKER_00: Now, note in this that John and Jesus did have different styles.
SPEAKER_00: Certainly they had different styles.
SPEAKER_00: But they had the same substance, they had the same message, and the Pharisees saw that.
SPEAKER_00: They rejected John because John rejected them.
SPEAKER_00: They're rejecting Jesus because Jesus rejects them.
SPEAKER_00: They don't want to give their lives to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: They're too educated for that.
SPEAKER_00: They're too refined for that.
SPEAKER_00: They're too socially aware.
SPEAKER_00: They're connected with the politics of the day, and they want the kingdom to come, and Jesus isn't going to bring it.
SPEAKER_00: They don't want the Roman system in the temple to alter right now because their authority and power and money is in the temple.
SPEAKER_00: So they are happy like they are, and they will look down their noses at anybody who is into the contrary of that, including John and Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They reject them both.
SPEAKER_00: People use the same kind of excuses today.
SPEAKER_00: You invite a non-believer to church and they say, oh no, I could never be a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Christians are too political.
SPEAKER_00: And then next week they say, oh no, I can never be a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: You guys don't care enough about the world.
SPEAKER_00: I could never be a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: I went to that church and you guys are way too intellectual.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Christianity is about relationships, yo.
SPEAKER_00: And they go to church the next week, oh, I can never go to church.
SPEAKER_00: You guys are way too blue-collar.
SPEAKER_00: I'm more of a sophisticated person.
SPEAKER_00: People come up with excuses.
SPEAKER_00: And they're so easily, you know, it's so easy to expose them.
SPEAKER_00: They're self-refuting oftentimes.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody says, I can never be a Christian because of the Crusades.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, let me spend 30 seconds with an overview of the Crusades.
SPEAKER_00: You'll understand by the third crusade, Christians are being martyred for not participating.
SPEAKER_00: So I guess you'll be baptized then, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's just excuses people come up with that aren't even true.
SPEAKER_00: Can you invite your co-worker to the first Baptist wilderness church?
SPEAKER_00: That's John's church, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: It's out in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: It's a fundamentalist church.
SPEAKER_00: They just have one piano.
SPEAKER_00: They don't even have a children's service there.
SPEAKER_00: They won't even baptize an infant out there at that church.
SPEAKER_00: They're like, oh no, I can't I can't go there.
SPEAKER_00: I can't go to the first Wilderness Baptist Church, uh, fundies.
SPEAKER_00: So next week you invite him to some church in the suburbs of Tiberias with a name like the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: They got cool music there.
SPEAKER_00: They don't even have a baptismal.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, no, I couldn't go there.
SPEAKER_00: The people there are too worldly.
SPEAKER_00: You start to deduce the person's problem isn't the music style at the church.
SPEAKER_00: The person's problem isn't the intellectual capacity of the average attender.
SPEAKER_00: The person doesn't like church.
SPEAKER_00: The person doesn't like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's the problem.
SPEAKER_00: I used to do evangelism at UCLA with a guy named Ray Comfort, maybe many of you have heard of him.
SPEAKER_00: He's a very effective evangelist.
SPEAKER_00: He had a lot of evangelism tricks that he would do, but one of them was to have a banana with him.
SPEAKER_00: And he would take it out and he would tell people, I can prove to you the intelligent design of the universe that God designed the universe because of this banana.
SPEAKER_00: Look how sophisticated this banana is.
SPEAKER_00: It's packaged for shipping and transport.
SPEAKER_00: It's color-coded so you know when it's ripe, and it's curved for the shape of your hand.
SPEAKER_00: God made the banana like this for us humans to enjoy.
SPEAKER_00: That's proof of a creator.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, the intellectual snobbery at UCLA would go, no, no, you're so dumb, you're so dumb.
SPEAKER_00: Those bananas were genetically engineered to be like that.
SPEAKER_00: They're genetically engineered to be that shape and that color.
SPEAKER_00: Like that took a lot of ingenuity to develop that.
SPEAKER_00: And he would laugh and say, aha.
SPEAKER_00: So you're saying if something is as complex as a banana, it must have been designed by somebody smarter than the banana.
SPEAKER_00: Are you smarter than a banana?
SPEAKER_00: Are you as complex as a banana?
SPEAKER_00: And of course, the whole evolution thing, it's not a real argument against Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, he would have a banana in one hand, he would have a backpack with him filled with Darwin's origin of species.
SPEAKER_00: And whenever we said, I can't I can't be a Christian because Christians are racist and all that.
SPEAKER_00: He would hand them Darwin's origin of species, which is one of the most racist books you could even imagine.
SPEAKER_00: And say, read this and come find me next week.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody ever tracked them down.
SPEAKER_00: It's just lies.
SPEAKER_00: It's just the kid who says, I can't play wedding with you because you're too happy.
SPEAKER_00: I can't play funeral with you with you're too sad.
SPEAKER_00: I can't submit my life to God because John doesn't eat meat.
SPEAKER_00: I can't submit my life to God because Jesus drinks wine.
SPEAKER_00: What's wrong with you?
SPEAKER_00: You're obstinate.
SPEAKER_00: You're stuck in your unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, that same logical fallacy, it is at play with Christians too, all the time.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I already mentioned the one where somebody says, oh, this is more of a Christian excuse than a non-believer excuse.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that church is too focused on teaching.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Christianity is supposed to be a relationship.
SPEAKER_00: And then the other church, oh no, they're toophisticated enough.
SPEAKER_00: They have bad doctrine.
SPEAKER_00: I once went to a Nats game.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody on our way to the Nats game, he told me, Man, pray for me.
SPEAKER_00: I wish I had more evangelism encounters.
SPEAKER_00: I wish I was bolder at evangelism.
SPEAKER_00: He worked at the Pentagon.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, I wish I had took more advantage of opportunities I had with new people coming in and getting lunch with them and sharing the gospel with them.
SPEAKER_00: I just wish I was more bold.
SPEAKER_00: And then at the Nats game, we're like walking from where he parks to the stadium, and there's a dude out there with a bullhorn and a big sign that's like Jesus rose from the grave, Jesus is Lord, and preaching the gospel through the bullhorn.
SPEAKER_00: And my friend looks at me and goes, Man, that guy just nobody listens to him.
SPEAKER_00: That's too over the top.
SPEAKER_00: That guy is just, he's doing more harm than good.
SPEAKER_00: Wait a minute.
SPEAKER_00: We have the same logical fallacies.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, let's go back from that stadium to Mount Arbell with Jesus here.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, look at him, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.
SPEAKER_00: So that's the heart of the issue, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Earlier in Matthew, they had already confronted him back in Matthew chapter 9.
SPEAKER_00: They had already confronted him for spending time with sinners and tax collectors, saying, That's unclean.
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing with them?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, remember, he compared what he's doing to a wedding.
SPEAKER_00: They said, Why are you partying with sinners and tax collectors?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, Because it's a wedding, and you don't mourn at the wedding when the bride is there.
SPEAKER_00: He borrows the wedding analogy again.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, the issue with you is you will not believe and you're inventing excuses.
SPEAKER_00: There is an important difference between being childlike and being childish, and you have to know the difference.
SPEAKER_00: Being childlike is saying, God is my father, Christ his son is my brother, I'm adopted in the family.
SPEAKER_00: I want my father to teach me, I submit my life to him, I want his word to guide me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like a little child with an authority over me.
SPEAKER_00: Direct my life, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That's childlike.
SPEAKER_00: Childish is saying, I can't be a Christian because blah.
SPEAKER_00: Unbelief is foolish and its end is disastrous.
SPEAKER_00: I may have shared this with you before, but before I was a Christian, I had a friend, a friend who eventually led me to the Lord, who was sharing the gospel with me, and I would give him all my objections to Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: Keep in mind I had not read the Bible at this point.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't have any actual objections to Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: They were objections in the category of like, what about evolution kind of objections.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I remember two of them very specifically.
SPEAKER_00: I told him that there's a different creation account in Genesis 1 than there is in Genesis 2, so the Bible contradicts itself.
SPEAKER_00: I had heard that from somebody.
SPEAKER_00: I had never read Genesis 1 or Genesis 2, and I just repeated it to my friends who had never heard it either.
SPEAKER_00: And so he like, he says, okay, I'm gonna write down your objections.
SPEAKER_00: There's a little notebook he has.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, I'll ask my youth pastor and I'll get back to you.
SPEAKER_00: My other objection was the Bible says, don't kill, and yet you eat meat.
SPEAKER_00: Check mate.
SPEAKER_00: Keep in mind, at the time I was eating meat, so this is not like an objection from like the ethics of meat or anything.
SPEAKER_00: I was I probably asked the question with the chicken nugget in my mouth, which is not meat, so that doesn't really work, but whatever.
SPEAKER_00: When I eventually got saved, I came back to my friend and uh you know, told him I'm a Christian now, and he had his notebook with him, and he had written down answers in his notebook to my questions.
SPEAKER_00: Like over the last few months, he had written down answers for me.
SPEAKER_00: I told him I don't I don't even I don't even care.
SPEAKER_00: Like, don't thank you for doing that, but uh, they're not real objections, you know?
SPEAKER_00: Whether it's a period or semicolon in Genesis 2 is not what my faith hinges on.
SPEAKER_00: And that's true, that's what Jesus is running into.
SPEAKER_00: People that are stuck writing down all their questions but will never, never believe.
SPEAKER_00: And so he ends it at the end of verse 19 with wisdom, this is the ESV, is justified by her deeds.
SPEAKER_00: I love the New American Standard Translation of this.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is vindicated by her deeds, or Luke 7, wisdom is vindicated by her children.
SPEAKER_00: It's one Greek word, it means either justified or vindicated.
SPEAKER_00: We have two English words, but they mean the same thing in Greek, and you can understand why.
SPEAKER_00: Justified means to be declared guiltless, to be declared righteous.
SPEAKER_00: And we use that as a Christian word.
SPEAKER_00: You're justified all over the book of Romans.
SPEAKER_00: You're justified by God through faith, you're declared sinless and righteous by God through faith.
SPEAKER_00: The word also can mean that you are proved correct.
SPEAKER_00: You're vindicated, you're found not guilty in court.
SPEAKER_00: Either not guilty because the officer didn't show up.
SPEAKER_00: That's the first definition, justified, declared guiltless.
SPEAKER_00: Or you're found not guilty because the evidence shows you're actually not guilty.
SPEAKER_00: Vindicated.
SPEAKER_00: Again, English has two different words, one Greek word.
SPEAKER_00: This is very clearly the second of those Greek words.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I like vindicated better than justified here, the second of those meanings.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom will be vindicated by her deeds or by her children.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have to watch this for a while.
SPEAKER_00: You have three groups of people: the doubting believer, the curious crowd, and the obstinate unbeliever.
SPEAKER_00: What will happen to them?
SPEAKER_00: They all have the same question, but they're all engaging with different motives.
SPEAKER_00: You have the believer who says, Listen, I just need more light, Lord, help.
SPEAKER_00: What's gonna happen to him?
SPEAKER_00: You have the crowd that's just going through the motions.
SPEAKER_00: They go to church every Sunday because they've always gone to church every Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: They have their friends at church.
SPEAKER_00: This is just what they do.
SPEAKER_00: They're not committed to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And if the if the food runs out, they're out, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: They're not committed, but they're here all the time.
SPEAKER_00: What's gonna happen with those people?
SPEAKER_00: What will their kids be like?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' language of Luke 7, wisdom is justified or vindicated by our children.
SPEAKER_00: What will the kids of the believer be like?
SPEAKER_00: What will the kids of the crowd be like?
SPEAKER_00: They'll grow up the same way.
SPEAKER_00: Just sitting in the pews when it, you know, when it fits in their schedule.
SPEAKER_00: They're just going through the emotions too, relatively moral.
SPEAKER_00: And the third category, the obstinate unbeliever.
SPEAKER_00: What's his life gonna turn out like?
SPEAKER_00: What are his kids gonna turn out like?
SPEAKER_00: You get this at the practical sense.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you you have a parent that says, I don't believe in absolutes and right and wrong, so I'm gonna teach my kids to self-actualize, to live according to the desires that are in them.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that's why I'm not gonna spank them when they hit or bite their brothers or classmates or whatever, because they're just they're trying to get a sense of self-identity, and discipline will just, you know, discourage that.
SPEAKER_00: They need to fully, you know, develop into the autonomous person that they are, acting according to their will.
SPEAKER_00: A very common parenting philosophy in the world.
SPEAKER_00: And you hear that and you think, oh my goodness, what's going to happen to your kids?
SPEAKER_00: Now you can't tell them right then, like, you know, your kid's gonna turn out to be a criminal if that's your attitude.
SPEAKER_00: You almost just say in your heart, let's check back in in 20 years.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it'll be too late for your kids, but the lesson can be learned.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is vindicated by her children.
SPEAKER_00: Here in this example.
SPEAKER_00: What's gonna happen to the crowd?
SPEAKER_00: What's gonna happen to John the Baptist?
SPEAKER_00: What's gonna happen to Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: You know, if you just go out a short period of time, it would look like John is wrong.
SPEAKER_00: His head's gonna get chopped off next month.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna die alone and forgotten in jail.
SPEAKER_00: The world's gonna go on.
SPEAKER_00: He was wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Next month, the crowd's still gonna be there.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is still gonna be there, John was wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Or go to the Saturday after the death of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He's killed, everybody's gone, no friends left.
SPEAKER_00: His mother handed off to John, that's about it.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody hiding.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, it looks like he was wrong.
SPEAKER_00: No, it takes, you know, there's cycles in life, there's ups and downs in life, there's peaks and valleys, of course there is.
SPEAKER_00: It takes a long period of time for wisdom to be vindicated by her children.
SPEAKER_00: You can't stop on Saturday.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta go out a few decades later.
SPEAKER_00: What happens with these people here in a few decades?
SPEAKER_00: The crowds are gone.
SPEAKER_00: They disappear when Jesus is gone.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus has an army of followers resurrected from the grave that have gone bringing the gospel all around the whole world.
SPEAKER_00: We're adopted into that family.
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees are gonna have the temple torn down by Rome, brick by brick.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be gone, and those religious leaders that remain are gonna get holed up in Masada and kill themselves.
SPEAKER_00: That's how the story ends.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is vindicated by her children.
SPEAKER_00: That's not a promise.
SPEAKER_00: It's not saying if you raise your kids the right way, they will turn out great.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, it's not the Bible doesn't teach that.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a promise.
SPEAKER_00: Very godly parents have rebellious kids, of course.
SPEAKER_00: Very rebellious parents somehow, by God's grace, can have godly kids.
SPEAKER_00: But generally speaking, wisdom is vindicated by our children.
SPEAKER_00: So you look at this, which category are you in?
SPEAKER_00: Are you a believer?
SPEAKER_00: If so, when you deal with doubt, you go to the Lord and he responds with the compassion and grace.
SPEAKER_00: Are you the crowd that's just going to the motions?
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus asks you, you need to think about what are you actually here for?
SPEAKER_00: And get an answer, man, so your your kids don't grow up going to the same motions you're going through.
SPEAKER_00: Are you here because you're an intellectual snob?
SPEAKER_00: You consider yourself superior of insight to those around you.
SPEAKER_00: You can never be a Christian, of course, because the people around you, they're just gullible, like they're here because they haven't read the books you read.
SPEAKER_00: If only they heard that one podcast, they would know.
SPEAKER_00: That's just obstinate unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: It ends in judgment.
SPEAKER_00: Unbelief is foolish and it ends in destruction.
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord gives an invitation for people to repent of it and be received by Him.
SPEAKER_00: God, we're grateful that you receive those who come to you with open arms.
SPEAKER_00: You mock the unbelievers, but then in a few verses you bid them to come.
SPEAKER_00: You have sarcastic, abiding questions to the crowd, but then in a few verses you also will open your arms to them.
SPEAKER_00: You're gentle and lowly, eager to receive those who come to you with contrite faith.
SPEAKER_00: I pray this morning for the congregation gathered here.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that we would be a congregation of gentle, childlike faith, not childish obstinence, but childlike humility.
SPEAKER_00: You'd work that in people's hearts even now.
SPEAKER_00: We ask this in Jesus' name.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on our church or our current service times, go to IBC.church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: location, go to TMS.edu.
SPEAKER_00: I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with boldness.