Rejection of Redemption Luke 7:18-35

This

is the

day the

Lord

has

made.

Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

The scripture reading this morning is from the book of Malachi, Malachi chapter 3,

verses 1 -5.

Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me.

And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant in

whom you delight.

Behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.

But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?

For he is like a refiner's fire and like launderer's soap.

He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver.

He will purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer to

the Lord an offering in righteousness.

Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to the Lord as in the days of old,

as in former years.

And I will come near you for judgment.

I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, against adulterers, against perjurers, against

those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans, and against those who turn

away an alien because they do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.

May the Lord add his blessing to the reading and hearing of his holy word.

Please turn with me to Luke chapter 7, Luke chapter 7, verses

18 through 35.

Then the disciples of John reported to him concerning all these things.

And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to Jesus, saying, Are you the coming one, or

do we look for another?

When the men had come to him, they said, John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, Are you the

coming one, or do we look for another?

And that very hour he cured many of infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits, and

to many blind he gave sight.

Jesus answered and said to them, Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard,

that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised,

the poor have the gospel preached to them.

And blessed is he who is not offended because of me.

When the messengers of John had departed, he began to speak to the multitudes concerning John.

What did you go out into the wilderness to see?

A reed shaken by the wind?

But what did you go out to see?

A man clothed in soft garments?

Indeed, those who are gorgeously appareled and live in luxury are in king's courts.

But what did you go out to see?

A prophet?

Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet, this is he of whom it is written,

Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.

For I say to you, among those born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist,

but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.

And when all the people heard him, even the tax collectors justified God, having been

baptized with the baptism of John.

But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.

And the Lord said, To what then shall I liken the men of this generation?

And what are they like?

They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, saying, We play the flute for you, and

you did not dance.

We mourn to you, and you did not weep.

For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine.

And you say, He is a demon.

The Son of Man has come eating and drinking.

And you say, Look, a glutton and a wine -bibber, a friend of tax

collectors and sinners.

But wisdom is justified by all her children.

This is the word of the Lord.

Let us pray.

Father, we are thankful by the new covenant era

that your Son, Jesus, has inaugurated through his death on the cross.

We pray that we would notice and delight in

the great magnitude of difference between the new and the old,

and the fact that we get to be a part of the new covenant people through faith in Jesus.

We pray that your Spirit would work in all of our hearts this morning.

In Jesus' name, amen.

So, today we return back to John the Baptist, and we haven't seen this figure since

Luke 3, when John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the river.

One big question that people often ask is, is John the Baptist an Old Testament prophet or the New Testament prophet?

In one sense, he belongs to the old covenant because he prepares

the way for the new covenant to come through Jesus Christ.

Right?

John the Baptist can't be part of the new covenant because only Jesus

starts the new covenant.

But in another sense, John the Baptist shows up in the New Testament.

And I think the question is a bit

improper.

I think the better question is, of the better categories to see John the Baptist is

in the era of promises rather than the era of the fulfillments.

In the Gospel of Luke, there are two time frames.

The time of promises, which consists of the Old Testament prophets

and the law.

And then there's the time of fulfillment, which is inaugurated by Jesus Christ himself.

In one sense, John the Baptist is the last of the prophets of the time of the

promises, who is pointing his finger, signing, signaling

everyone, there's a new era coming.

And it's Jesus.

It's through Jesus.

And what we see here this morning is, one,

this great prophet, John the Baptist, is in need of a reassurance.

As Dave read to us this morning from Malachi 3, 1 through 5, we see that

the role of John the Baptist is there as Luke quotes Malachi 3, 1

in the passage today.

But notice the context of that eschatological prophet, the

prophet of the last days.

There's a restoration.

There's a judgment.

There's a ruling over the world by the Messiah, by God himself.

But what does John the Baptist see?

Just the walls of his prison cell.

This is not to say that John the Baptist was expecting a Roman overthrow or even

overthrow of Herod.

But he was in need of reassurance.

Are you the coming Messiah?

Or do we look for another?

Do we wait for another?

Help me see that you are the coming Messiah.

And in one sense, that's what we need to be reassured of as we wait for the second

coming of Christ.

There are hard days in this country to be Christian.

It seems like everything is just degenerating.

And we all long for the day for Christ to call us home.

And we need that reassurance.

Are you coming back for us?

How long?

And this morning, the passage tells us

that we must be careful not to justify rejecting God's

faithfully fulfilled redemptive plan.

Because it becomes too easy to judge what God is doing in human history

and just reject it.

Well, it doesn't fit how I view the world.

It doesn't really fit my agenda.

It doesn't fit my plan.

So, we must be careful not to justify rejecting God's faithfully

fulfilled redemptive plan.

First, Jesus reassures God's redemptive plan by fulfilling Scripture's promises.

Jesus reassures God's redemptive plan by fulfilling Scripture's promises.

Now, after showing Jesus significant miracles, we see a visitation

from the messengers of John the Baptist.

Jesus healed the servant of a centurion from a distance by saying the word.

And everyone's thinking, what kind of authority is that?

And that Gentile centurion would actually believe this man.

Second, Jesus revived a dead man who was

being carried out in his own funeral procession.

And unlike the former prophets who had to request God to raise the man,

Jesus only says the word, arise.

What kind of man is Jesus that he could do that?

And now we get to John the Baptist.

There's a bridge again from John the Baptist to Jesus.

First, verses 18 to 19 set the context.

Then the disciples of John reported to him concerning all these things.

John has heard about the miracles that Jesus is doing from his prison

cell.

John's in his prison cell, and he's hearing about these miracles.

And verse 19 tells us that he wants some reassurance that Jesus is

truly the Messiah.

And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to Jesus saying, are you the coming one, or do we

look for another?

Yes, the miracles are happening, and yes, they're splendid.

But this does not look like the picture of eschatological restoration and judgment that we see

in the Old Testament.

Now, it is important to not charge John the Baptist as unfaithful or doubting.

After all, Jesus speaks extremely well of him in this passage.

I don't know about you, the greatest man ever born of the women, that's

something to hear from Jesus.

Yet, we need to consider the Old Testament background of the Messiah.

In passages like Daniel 7 .13 and Isaiah 9 .6 -7, the Messiah

comes down to set all things right and rule eternally

and expansively.

It's not that he's just ruling over Israel, he's ruling over the whole world.

He's not just ruling over the whole world, he's ruling over the whole world forever.

There's no end, temporally or spatially.

And John the Baptist was not seeing that from his prison cell.

I'll quote Isaiah 9 .6 -7, which we read on Christmas

quite often.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder,

and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end.

Upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and

justice, from that time forward even forever, the zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this.

These titles are astounding.

How can a man, a mere man, be called Mighty God, Everlasting

Father?

There's something of divine authority when the Messiah comes

that people will all experience.

Not just Israel, but all the nations.

After all, there is no end.

Now, compared to the expansive and endless rule of this Messiah that

Isaiah 9 shows us, Jesus has not conquered a single nation.

Even Israel is still under the Roman rule.

Not only that, John the Baptist himself ended up in prison for speaking truthfully against this paganistic

King Herod.

Right?

Committed adultery.

For John, he needs to know whether this messianic restoration is

happening or not.

Are you the one or not?

And he sends two disciples because, under the Jewish law, Deuteronomy, right?

Two witnesses were required by the law to verify any serious claims.

And verse 20 shows us that these two witnesses faithfully carried out their teacher's request.

When the men had come to him, they said, John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, are you the coming

one or do we look for another?

Word for word quotation here.

They asked Jesus the question that was on John's mind.

Right?

This is not repetitive.

It's actually to show that the messengers were faithful to the requester's request.

Are you the coming one or do we look for another?

Now, instead of an immediate answer, Luke shows us the context of this interaction between Jesus and John's

disciples.

In that very hour, he cured many of infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits, and to

many blind he gave sight.

Right before John's disciples' eyes, their very eyes, Jesus heals and

liberates those who are oppressed by diseases and demons, those who are

oppressed by sin and effects of sin.

The difference between the infirmities and afflictions are the degree of

intensity.

The afflictions are more powerful diseases.

Now, this is important because of how Jesus will respond to John's question in verse 22.

Jesus answered and said to them, go and tell John the things you have seen and heard,

that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel

preached to them.

How Jesus reassures John is through the evidence of the fulfillment

of scriptural promises.

The prophet Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 35, 5 through 6a, the first part of

verse 6, the very healing miracles that the messengers witnessed.

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped, and the lame shall leap like a deer, and

the tongue of the dumb sing.

The poor hearing the gospel is from Isaiah 61, 1.

And the dead being raised is the previous passage.

All of this is not just sheer words only.

Well, this happened, you just have to ask someone else.

You just missed it.

But this is what happened in my ministry.

Go tell John.

No, Jesus shows through evidence

that he is the coming Messiah by fulfilling the promises of

scripture.

And his response ends with a call of faith, call to faith.

And blessed is he who is not offended because of me.

To be offended by Jesus here literally means to be tripped up by Jesus,

tripped over Jesus.

Jesus tells John that at the center of the messianic fulfillment of Jesus

is the person of Christ himself.

I think this is really important when we consider Jesus' ministry.

You cannot separate Jesus' ministry from the person of Jesus himself.

Oftentimes we hear people say, I like what Jesus did.

I like what Jesus did with the poor, how he fed the poor.

But man, I don't really care for the teaching.

I don't really believe he's God.

I don't really believe he's risen from the dead.

Far from it.

Jesus says, you gotta take the whole package or leave it.

You like the ministry, you like the messianic ministry of restoration, you

better not be offended by the risen Christ.

You better not be offended by the crucified Lord.

You have to consider all these messianic miracles done by Jesus, and

if it leads to faith in Christ, then you are blessed.

Your state of blessing depends on the person of Christ and how you receive him.

And if not, of course, you're not blessed.

Jesus is at the core of the faithful response.

Even John the Baptist has to go through Jesus.

Now, John's need of reassurance is because he believed that the

coming of the Messiah would be only once and for all.

And because of that, the judgment and restoration had to occur globally

at that time.

Now, although Jesus didn't come to judge and physically rule over the

nations in his first coming, he reassures John

that his miracles fulfill the messianic promises of Scripture.

Jesus doesn't just talk the talk.

He walks the walk.

Jesus verifies and reassures his messianic title not by mere speech,

but through the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises, many of which the messengers themselves

got to witness.

It wasn't just that they heard about it.

They saw it themselves.

Now, how can we be reassured by who Jesus is?

After all, when Luke is writing the gospel of Luke, according to Luke,

to Theophilus, it's in one way to reassure the early

church of who Jesus said he was and what Jesus did

are true.

Right?

This isn't apologetic writing.

It's a defense of faith.

And for us, we can be reassured by who Jesus is by looking at how he fulfills

the Old Testament prophecies.

We can be reassured that Jesus is the Messiah because of his

impeccable track record of fulfillment.

Just as Psalm 22, verses 16 through 18 predicted, Jesus' hands

and feet were pierced and his enemies divided the garments.

Just as Isaiah 53, 5 prophesied, Jesus was pierced for our

rebellion and he healed us through his stripes.

Psalm 16, 10 prophesied the coming resurrection because

God will not leave the ultimate Davidic king in the realm of the dead.

These are just three of many fulfilled prophecies by Jesus' first coming.

What would happen when the Messiah comes?

Our reassurance of who Christ is ultimately does not come from the warm feeling we

might get from hearing the worship music.

Ultimately does not come from logical arguments that I might give to an unbeliever.

Ultimately, our reassurance of Christ's coming is from

Scripture by looking at his perfect record of fulfilling the scriptural

promises.

That's how we can be reassured this morning.

The government may pass another wicked policy.

The media will show another wicked show.

Hollywood will produce another perverse movie

and the world may be in chaos as we go into maybe another conflict

or war.

The need of the reassurance is still fulfilled just as it was fulfilled for John

the Baptist.

This morning, the reassurance is still satisfied by how Jesus fulfilled

the Old Testament prophecies.

It's through Scripture.

That's how we know.

For the Bible tells us so.

Now, how do people respond to the fulfillment of the promises in Jesus?

Despite the fulfillment of God's redemptive promises, many will still justify

rejecting his redemptive plan.

Despite the fulfillment of God's redemptive promises, many will still justify rejecting his redemptive

plan.

After John's disciples leave to relay the message of reassurance,

Jesus addresses the crowd who's already there regarding John through a series

of rhetorical questions.

What did you go out into the wilderness to see?

A reed shaken by the wind?

Some people translate this figuratively like a reed shaken by the wind as someone who is

easily shakable, movable, changes mind easily.

And because John didn't change his mind, that's how he ended up in prison and died there.

But I think it needs to be read literally because of the context.

Because the second set of questions is to be read literally regarding the people who wear gorgeous

garments.

Now, what does this mean?

First, it is important to remember that John the Baptist's ministry happened in the wilderness, right?

He ate locusts and wild honey.

He was a peculiar man even in the ancient standard.

And most people normally did not go out into the wilderness, right,

unless there was a reason to.

The wilderness was dangerous.

The wilderness is something you pass over, not the destination.

So what Jesus is saying here is

how important John is in God's redemptive history, right?

The irony of these questions is that these people, the crowd, many of them probably

who have been following John the Baptist but started following Jesus, right, he's addressing

them, hey, you guys didn't go into the wilderness for the scenery.

You didn't go out to see the reeds swaying in the wind.

Oh, how nice, by the river.

No, after all, what is there to see?

The implicit answer here is, of course, John the Baptist.

The great crowd gathered in the wilderness to hear John the Baptist preach

because they believed God sent him for a redemptive purpose.

John the Baptist preached the need for repentance to turn to God because they're all

sinners.

Now, the next set of rhetorical questions drive the point home.

But what did you go out to see?

A man clothed in soft garments.

Indeed, those who are gorgeously appareled and live in luxury are in king's courts.

Surely, it wasn't John's position nor glamour that attracted the crowds.

After all, he was wearing garments made out of camel's hair.

Even back then, that was weird.

These two questions highlight it's neither

John's position nor glamour that attracted the crowds.

It was John's message.

It's what John taught.

It's what John did.

These two questions highlight the importance of John the Baptist's ministry in God's redemptive history.

It was neither the location nor the status of the person that drew such a great number

out into the wilderness, the barren land.

Rather, it was John the Baptist and what he taught.

The next verse specifies the magnitude of John's significance in God's redemptive

history.

Verse 26.

But what did you go out to see?

A prophet?

Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet.

This is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before your face who will

prepare your way before you.

According to Jesus, John was not just any other prophet.

There are a lot of prophets in the Old Testament, some of them unnamed, yet

powerful, powerfully working miracles, powerfully

proclaiming God's message to the people.

What Jesus is saying is that he is the eschatological prophet.

He is the prophet of the last days, which God has promised through the prophet

Malachi.

John is a crucial figure in God's redemptive history to prepare the world for the coming of the

Lord.

John is the bridge that links the Old and the New Testaments together.

John is the transition from the promises of the Old to the fulfillment of the New.

John's specific role in God's redemptive history is to prepare God's

people to receive the Messiah and his deliverance.

That's what made John's ministry great.

We don't hear about John's miracles.

Who knows?

Maybe he's performed one.

I don't know.

The Bible doesn't tell us.

It's not for me to speculate.

But what made him great was his role in God's redemptive history because

he was the forerunner to the Messiah to prepare the coming of the

Lord.

That's what made John great.

And in verse 28, Jesus lifts up the praise even higher.

For I say to you, among those born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the

Baptist.

It's biologically true that all people are born of women, which

means John the Baptist, what Jesus is saying,

is the greatest prophet that ever lived up to that point in history.

Moses was born of woman.

Elijah was born of woman.

Elisha was born of woman, right?

They were all born of women.

But next to John the Baptist, John's greater.

And this is because of John's unique role in preparing the nation of Israel to receive

the Messiah, Christ.

John is functionally the greatest prophet of the old.

While the praise is toward John, Jesus is actually laying the foundation

for the supremacy of the new era that he is bringing.

In the end, he lifts John up to show how much greater the messianic

era must be.

Imagine one of the politicians who has declared to run for president.

And he's about to speak.

And before he speaks to the crowd, he is introduced by someone influential named Bob.

Maybe he's a senator.

Maybe he is a governor.

I don't know.

But he is an important figure.

And now right after the introduction, a lengthy introduction with accomplishments, character,

family man, right?

The candidate finally goes up to the podium.

He goes up to the mic, and of course, he says, he thanks the person who introduced

him.

Bob, thank you.

Bob is the greatest man in this country because he got to introduce me tonight.

Imagine if someone said that.

If someone said that, who's the greater person?

The one who was introduced.

The one who came later, right?

In one sense, John's unique significance and supremacy over all the Old Testament

prophets actually shines the spotlight at the climax of God's redemptive

history, the coming of Jesus Christ.

Only the greatest coming Messiah

will be introduced by the greatest prophet.

The person of Jesus is so central to all of human history that the

one who has the privilege of preparing the way is the greatest of all the prophets.

The focus is rather not on John, but on Christ.

Not only that, the last sentence escalates the reality of Christ's new era.

But he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.

These words are not hard to understand,

but they're hard to grasp because of how great the

magnitude of difference is.

Jesus' kingdom of fulfillment is so unparalleled to what has

come before, even John, the greatest prophet of the old era of promises,

is less than the least in Jesus' new ministry.

Imagine that.

Even the very best, the cream of the crop of the Old Testament prophets

is less than the least of the ministers in Christ's kingdom.

Again, this is not to highlight how great the ministers of Christ's kingdom are.

It's to highlight how great the kingdom of Christ is and how great the king must be,

that the lowly peasant under Christ must be greater than the greatest prophet of

all in the Old Testament, according to the old era.

Who must this person be

that this reality is true?

What kind of man is Jesus to proclaim something like this,

right?

An unknown Christian minister under the era of fulfillment is higher

than John the Baptist of the old era of promises.

All of you who believe in Christ are greater than John the Baptist of the old.

Again, this screams the supremacy of Christ and his role in God's redemptive plan.

Christ cannot be just another prophet.

He is far superior.

Even the greatest of the prophet pales in comparison to who Christ is.

The great, what Jesus Christ brings to the world is incomparable to what the world

has seen so far in human history.

What Jesus brings to the world is greater than what Moses brought out of Egypt.

What Jesus brings to the world is greater than what Elijah did on the mountain.

What Jesus brings to the world is greater than what Daniel prophesied and prayed for in Babylon.

Jesus is better.

The greatness of Jesus' kingdom is unrivaled to anything in God's redemptive history.

Everything up to Jesus was just a small sample of the appetizer.

Jesus is the main feast.

Now, verses 29 to 30 showed two different responses to John and Jesus.

And when all the people heard him, that's Jesus, even the tax collectors justified God, having been

baptized with the baptism of John.

Justified here means to see and hear what Jesus is proclaiming and said, that is

right.

That is right.

That is righteous.

For sure.

And how does that show it?

How do they respond in agreement?

They get baptized by John.

They got baptized by John the Baptist.

But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.

There's a contrast there.

First, it shows that how one receives Jesus the Messiah depends on how

one actually received and viewed John the Baptist.

This is because God is the one who sent both Jesus and John.

You can't pick and choose.

And in fact, they didn't.

It was either all in, yes, Jesus and John both sent by God for his redemptive purpose,.

Or all out.

No, they're lunatics.

If you trusted in God's redemptive plan, logically, you had to both trust in John and Jesus.

While the tax collectors and the common folks viewed God's redemptive plan through John and Jesus as right.

That's correct.

I believe that.

Hence, they got baptized by John.

Yet, the Pharisees and lawyers did not accept John's baptism.

Are baptized under the name of the Lord, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

This baptism proclaims the spiritual reality of your union with Christ.

This baptism does not save you, but it shows the whole world,

both physical and spiritual, to whom you belong, because you've been bought by

Christ's blood.

Now, now that we clarified that, John's baptism was unique to that part of history

during John the Baptist's ministry time.

No Christians are baptized into John's baptism today.

Now, let's point out the irony of the Pharisees and the lawyers.

The lawyers are not priests, and the Pharisees are not priests.

Most of them were, they're Jews, but they're not priestly Jews.

They're not Levites, really.

They devote their lives into studying Scripture.

They devote their lives in studying the law and interpreting it, and they served

in high positions, civil authorities, right?

Rabbis, teachers.

They made decisions, judgments, right?

In a theocratic nation, judgments are done by religious leaders.

They were powerful, but what stood them, what made them stand out was

their expertise in Scripture.

Now, here's the irony.

The irony of verse 30 of the Pharisees and lawyers rejecting John and Jesus is that those

who studied the law rigorously missed the very will of God by rejecting John the

Baptist.

Those who knew the Word of God the best, in the greatest depth, rejected

God's action in human history.

Oh, they knew the Word of God so well.

If you poked one of them, it would have flowed out like a fountain.

But they missed when God started intervening in human history.

What's more is they missed it when God entered the world.

Remember, in Luke, none of the Pharisees and lawyers showed up to celebrate the birth of

Christ.

Priests and Levites didn't, but the shepherds did.

An old woman named Elizabeth did.

She who celebrated the coming birth of Christ.

Now, to illustrate the Pharisees and lawyers' rejection, Jesus tells a parable

from verses 31 to 32.

To what then shall I liken the men of this generation?

And what are they like?

They're like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, saying, right,

in this parable, those who reject John the Baptist and his baptism are compared to

children.

Usually children are viewed really favorably in the Bible.

Not here.

That's why we have to read everything in the context.

Right?

There are brats here.

They are brats who make up the rules as they go.

Listen to this.

We play the flute for you, and you did not dance.

We mourn to you, and you did not weep.

The rule of the game changed mid -game.

The rules of engagement reverses willy -nilly.

What's Jesus saying?

Verse 33, for John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine.

And you say he has a demon.

Remember, John was really different in the wilderness.

Right?

His diet stood out.

He was eating locusts and wild honey.

The Pharisees and lawyers see John.

They see the crowds following.

They hear the crowd saying, this must be God's redemptive plan.

This is someone significant.

But they say, he's a bit weird.

He probably has a demon.

So, the Pharisees and lawyers justified the rejection of the very prophet who came to

prepare Israel for the coming of Christ by claiming that his

lifestyle is a bit too bizarre.

Even demonic.

They didn't look at the content of the message.

They didn't look at the teaching.

No.

They just picked and chose what the standard was.

When God saves, we'll decide the standard of how God saves.

When God saves, we'll decide whether that's right or not.

Now, you would think they would gladly receive

Jesus who maintained a normal diet.

The Son of Man has come eating and drinking.

And you say, look, a glutton and a wine -bibber, a friend of tax collectors, and sinners.

They changed the rules.

They justify rejecting Christ now, not because his teaching went against scripture, not because his

miracles did not fulfill the scriptural promises, not at all.

They justify rejecting Christ by changing the standard which they have

implemented on John.

All of a sudden, that same standard will not work.

And ironically, those who are supposedly devoted to the law of God

attempt to dictate what God says and does in history.

Right?

Those who are supposedly devoted to the law of God attempt to dictate what God does in

history.

Verse 35 shows that not all will reject John and Jesus,

but wisdom is justified by all her children.

This first refers to the people like the tax collectors who did receive John the Baptist.

From verse 29, who viewed God's action in history as righteous.

Those who received John and Jesus wisely are the children of wisdom.

They're able to see it.

They're the fruits.

The irony here is that those who thought they were wise in rejecting God's redemptive

act were the true fools.

And this is relevant to us today even.

You will hear people rejecting Jesus and the

gospel for all sorts of reasons that are changing.

I can't believe in a God who saves like this.

Right?

I can't worship a God who humbly dies on the cross.

You might see that and hear that from people

who are into people like Andrew Tate.

Right?

Manly man.

No, I can't believe in a savior who humbly dies on the cross.

No, I want a conqueror.

Right?

And then you get the opposite.

I can't worship a God who violently judges.

We have the same God in the Bible who judges righteously.

And sometimes it gets bloody.

In fact, the most amount of blood will be spilled later.

All the Old Testament judgments are just a shadow of

the true judgment that's coming.

Then we have this.

I can't believe in a God who exclusively saves through Jesus.

That is too limited.

It's too restricted.

How can you say the Buddhist, Hinduist, Hindi, Muslims,

that they don't have it right?

How judgmental of you.

Right?

In a judgmental tone.

Now, then there's the opposite.

I can't believe in a God who graciously forgives even murderers and thieves.

Are you trying to tell me a serial killer could be saved by believing in Jesus?

Can't have that in heaven.

No way.

Are you saying that a gay person who turns his life around believes in Jesus can be saved?

We can't have that in heaven.

You get both ends.

Both standards.

The question for us this morning, really in the end, is who gets to set the standard of redemption?

The redeemer or the redeemed?

Or soon to be redeemed?

Or potential redeemed, right?

The tax collectors and the commoners gratefully received John and Jesus at the crux

of God's redemptive history.

While the Pharisees and lawyers justified rejecting God's redemptive plan by the

standards that they set up.

Well, when God comes to say, well, not like that, or like that,

then I'll believe.

In the end, the Pharisees placed themselves higher than God.

They became the judge.

They became the redeemer.

Instead of receiving what God has done through Christ,

many will reject His plan because it was not done according to

their standards.

And that is a serious problem of self -idolatry in which it seems

even more rampant than ever in our society.

And the same holds true.

How are you going to receive Christ?

Someone who has fulfilled the promises of the Old Testament

to the T?

That is the question that all must answer one day.

Let us pray.

Father, we're thankful that we get to be part of Christ's kingdom which is far superior to

whatever was before.

Thank you that even the least of us are greater than the best of the

old.

And thank you that we can be reassured of Christ's faithful re -entry

into the world, knowing that He has an impeccable record of

faithfulness.

He's fulfilled what Scripture said about Him

perfectly.

Help us to trust Him until the last days of our lives.

In Jesus' name, amen.