We're going to continue with Luke chapter 7. I'm going to pick up the second half of the story about John the Baptist that Seth got us started on a couple weeks ago. So if you want to turn with me to Luke chapter 7, beginning in verse 24. When John's messengers had gone, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John. What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see, a man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who are dressed in splendid clothing and live in luxury are in kings' courts. What then did you go out to see, a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one of whom it is written, behold, I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way before you. I tell you, among those born of women, none is greater than John. That the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. When all the people heard this, and the tax collectors too, they declared God just, having been baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him. To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, We played the flute for you and you did not dance. We sang a dirge and you did not weep. For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say he has a demon. The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, look at him, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.
Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word. And how it teaches us, where we learn about You, where we learn about Your character and who You are, and we see the love of a holy God reflected in Christ. I pray this morning, Lord, those of us who have come in distracted, whether it be from this morning or from the activities of the week past or even just looking forward to what's coming up this week, that You would help us to settle to set those things aside, to focus on Your Word, to open our hearts and allow the Holy Spirit to come in and speak to us. Speak to us truth and change us, Lord, and make us more like You. Make us more Christlike and more mature through it. In Jesus' name, amen.
Well, when my kids were young, probably 2 to 3 to 4-year-old age, there's a game that they particularly enjoyed playing. It was a board game. It was called Chutes and Ladders. And if you have kids, you've probably played it at some point in time. But it's a simple game. It's a board game where you start at one corner down on the bottom left side, and you basically just work your way zigzagging up the board and eventually up to the finish up at the top left. And along the way, there are ladders that you get to climb if you land on that spot to jump ahead up the board a row or two or more. And there are chutes, basically slides. If you land on that, Then you slide back down and you have to make your way back up the board again. This was a game that my kids particularly enjoyed playing. It's an easy game. There aren't many rules. You go from here to there. And if you land on a ladder, you get to climb up. If you land on the chute, you slide down. It's an easy game for a 2 or 3 or 4-year-old to play. And we played a lot of it when my kids were young. But you know what the amazing thing is? Even as simple as the rules were, they had times grasping that at times. So they would make up their own rules. So we would work our way along the board, and even if you just passed by a ladder, if they passed by a ladder, they got to go up it whether or not they landed on it. And then it was my turn, if I passed by a chute, whether or not I landed on it, I had to go back down. It seemed to be a little bit unfair in my eyes. And I couldn't figure out a rhyme or reason to why the rules changed. Sometimes we'd play by the real rules, sometimes we'd play by their rules, and they would change from game to game. Guess they were a little bit schizophrenic at that age. But anyways, it was fun. We had a lot of fun playing that game. We played it hour after hour. They enjoyed it. I enjoyed it.
You know what? It's amusing. It's cute. It's amusing. It's fun to play games like that and even allow the rules to change when it's a 2-year-old or a 3-year-old. But it's a far different story when it's a 50-year-old man who's supposed to be leading the nation, who's supposed to be a spiritual leader of the nation, who wants to change the rules and behave like a 3-year-old. 3-year-old. And that's what we're gonna see Jesus expose here in the second half of this passage this morning. So in our text this morning, we're gonna see a couple of things. We'll begin with looking at how Jesus commends John the Baptist, and secondly, we're gonna see how he exposes the hypocrisy of the Pharisees.
So let's start first with Jesus' commendation of John the Baptist. Two weeks ago, Seth got us started in this passage about John, and he took us to the first half of Quick review for you from the parallel passage of this story in the book of Matthew. We know that John was in prison during this particular time, and he was hearing about Jesus and what Jesus was doing. He was hearing the stories about the miracles, about the teaching, about all that God was doing through Jesus. So John was well aware of who Jesus was and what Jesus was going to do at the time while John is sitting in prison. In 1 John, John himself had correctly identified who Jesus was. He said, "The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." A few verses later, it says that John bore witness. He says, "I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on Him. I myself did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, This is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God. This is John speaking about Jesus. Jesus himself, as Seth pointed out to us, had seen the Trinity in action. He saw Jesus, the Son of God. He heard from heaven the voice of the Father. And he had seen the Spirit descend in the form of a dove onto Jesus at his baptism.
Yet while in jail, we see John sending his disciples, sending two of his disciples, saying, "Go, go talk to Jesus and ask him whether or not he's the one to come, or if we should keep looking." John here is a great man who'd seen Jesus, who had baptized Jesus, who correctly identified Jesus as the Son of God, who'd seen the Trinity and heard the Trinity in action. He's sitting there now in jail. He's beginning to doubt. He's wondering whether or not was Jesus really the right one. We can look at this story and it's easy for us to become critical of John and the doubt that he's experiencing after all he's seen, after all he's experienced. Now he's still doubting. Clearly wasn't one of John's finest hours.
6 · The pastor steps outside the exposition to address the congregation directly with pastoral concern, distinguishing John's genuine believer's doubt under suffering from skeptical unbelief, and inviting identification with John's struggle
But John was a great and godly man whose world was falling down around him. And I think many of us can sometimes identify with that. And he's falling down so hard that he's shaken to his very core. And he's asking Jesus, "Was I right to be so sure about you? Are you the one that we've been looking for? Maybe my hope's been misplaced." Though John, John though, was no skeptic. So don't confuse his doubts with skepticism. It'd be wrong to view John that way here. John was a real believer that due to the circumstances in life that he found himself in, he was having some deep, deep doubt, and he was struggling with that.
7 · The pastor expounds Jesus' compassionate response to John's doubt: rather than rebuking John, Jesus performs miracles before John's disciples and sends them back with evidence that He is indeed the Messiah fulfilling prophetic expectations
So he sends his disciples to Jesus and asks, "Are you the one?" The response to Jesus' disciples, though, it's beautiful. It's wonderful. Jesus' response to John's questions. He doesn't criticize the question. He doesn't make fun of them. He just says, "Watch." So Jesus said, So what's it say? Jesus began to do some miracles. He began to heal. He began to preach. He began to teach. He began to heal of the diseases, plagues, evil spirits, and on many who were blind, it says, He bestowed sight. And Jesus, sorry, John's disciples were there to witness all this. After some time of doing these things, Jesus turns to John's disciples and tells them, "Go tell John what you have seen and what you've heard." Tell him that the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.
8 · The pastor articulates the theological significance of Jesus' actions: Jesus' miracles and message to John were motivated by love and designed specifically to strengthen John's wavering faith in his hour of need
Rather than ripping into John for his doubts, Jesus begins to do all these things for John's disciples to go back and tell John, just to reassure. It's a way to reassure John of who Jesus really was. So Jesus did and said all these things because of his love and his affection. For John. And He wanted to reassure John in his time of doubt and to help him become more sure of his faith. So Jesus does all this for John's benefit, and He sends His two disciples of John away to go back and report back to John.
9 · The pastor expounds Jesus' transition from reassuring John privately to defending John publicly before the crowds, beginning with Jesus' rhetorical questions about what drew people to John in the wilderness—certainly not weakness or luxury
But Jesus didn't stop there. We pick up now in our text for this morning. He also wanted to ensure— Jesus also wanted to ensure the people who were there, they didn't have the wrong impression of John. John was having his doubts, but that didn't change the fact that he was still a great prophet, and God had used him and his ministry mightily, to the point where his ministry of pointing people to the Savior. What Jesus does next can be a little bit mind-boggling. After sending the two disciples away, we read that Jesus begins to brag on John. And as far as we know, There's no evidence that John ever heard these words of Jesus about what he said about John. Jesus turns to the crowd and he says, "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who are dressed in splendid clothing and live in luxury are in kings' courts."
10 · The pastor expounds Jesus' three rhetorical questions and their answers: John was not a wavering reed but an oak of conviction, not a man of luxury but of radical simplicity, and most importantly, not just any prophet but the greatest ever born because he alone pointed directly to the present Christ
Jesus is asking them, what exactly was it that you went out into the desert to see? Some flimsy reed that was shaking in the wind? That's not the John that the people knew or experienced. John was hardly a reed that would blow and sway and be blown about by the latest winds of public opinion. John was more like a mighty oak tree who stood firm against the rough and stormy gales of oppression and tyranny and opposition. Were you hoping to see a man who wore smooth, fine clothing? If you read about John, that doesn't describe him either. If you wanted to see that, Jesus says, you've got to go into the court. John was not the kind of man who stood around the palace in fine clothing, wearing fancy clothes and eating rich food. Everyone knew that John wore a camel skin around his waist and his diet consisted mostly of locusts and wild honey. Jesus asks again, "What then did you go out to see? A prophet?" Yes, now we've got it right. Yes. Not only that, he says, but not just any prophet. John is the greatest prophet that ever lived. Moses was not a prophet as great as John. And all the others, Isaiah and Malachi and Moses, all those prophets were to prepare the way for John. For the visitation of the Lord. John, though, was the most popular, one of the most popular teachers in Israel, but it wasn't because of what he— he didn't tell them what they wanted to hear, or because he lived the stylish lifestyle. John's message was one of repentance and baptism. So the other prophets, the Old Testament prophets, they pointed the way to Christ into the future. John himself was a prophet, and he experienced, he saw the Christ. So Jesus continues his praise of John, not only calling him a prophet, but also ranking him as the greatest of mortal men. But what made John great was not his own identity. What his special calling was to prepare the way of salvation. So what made John important and great was who Jesus was. Not who John was, but who Jesus was. Since Jesus was the Messiah, John was more than just another prophet. He was the man promised to serve as the Messiah's messenger. This made him the last and greatest prophet before Christ. The other prophets all looked for the Savior from a distance, but John saw him with his own two eyes. He alone had the privilege of pointing to Jesus and saying, as he came out, "Behold, there is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."
11 · The pastor expounds the crowd's positive response to Jesus' vindication of John—they recognized Jesus' commendation as just and affirmed John's integrity, boldness, and prophetic courage in speaking truth rather than pleasing words
Then Luke writes about the reaction of the crowd to the words of Jesus. The crowd respected John, and they appreciated what Jesus had to say about John. Jesus has just vindicated John. John had come doubting, and now Jesus has vindicated him. Here was his servant John. John's faith is weak at the moment, and in this situation, Jesus turned to the crowd and brags on John. He says, "Let me tell you about my cousin John, my servant. There's never been a man that walked the face of this earth, greater than my cousin, my friend, my servant, my forerunner, John the Baptist. And the crowd cries out, "God is just!" in saying that. Yes, that's the John that we know. That's the John that we respect. John was a man of integrity. He was a fearless man. He was a bold man. He wasn't afraid to tell the crowds what they needed to hear. Not what they wanted to hear. He wasn't afraid to stand up and oppose tyrants. This man clearly is God's man, and what Jesus has just said about him was right, and the crowd responded correctly.
12 · The pastor applies Jesus' treatment of John to the congregation's own experiences of doubt, offering comfort that even great believers doubt and that Jesus responds with compassion rather than condemnation when life's circumstances shake our faith
So we should find comfort in Jesus' response to John's doubts. Life throws us a few curveballs at times. I'm sure many of you can identify with it. It did it to John, and it's going to find us as well. And there's going to be times when we will doubt. We find ourselves wondering and doubting. Last week, Matthew Hoffman pointed us to the Psalms where we find a lot of ways to put words to some of our emotions and our feelings. "How long, O Lord? How long will You hide Your face from me? Where are You? Are You even there?" We've all been in those places and those times. It's easy to become a person of doubt, and our faith is weak, and we begin to doubt. We can all be comforted though, knowing that even the great prophet John had his doubts. So we aren't alone when we doubt. But even more importantly, we can be encouraged by Jesus' response to John. Jesus didn't turn away from John. He didn't get angry with John. He didn't chastise John. No, He went out of His way to prove to John that Jesus was indeed the Christ. He then commends John to the crowd.
13 · The pastor applies Jesus' vindication of John eschatologically, quoting Ligon Duncan at length to show that Jesus' defense of John before the crowds pictures how Jesus will vindicate every believer at the final judgment—not based on our merit but on His kindness and grace
Jesus will do the same for us. Speaking on these verses, Ligon Duncan said this. It's a little bit long, but it's a really wonderful quote. He said, "And you know, my friends, that's a picture of the Judgment Day for everybody who believes in Jesus Christ. That's what the Lord Jesus is going to do for you on Judgment Day." Do you understand that? You're going to stand before billions upon billions of people, and the Lord Jesus is going to stand up before that great white judgment throne, and he's going to say to the whole of the gathered world, "Let me tell you about my servant." And you're going to be embarrassed down to your socks. "No, Lord, I don't deserve this." "Let me tell you about my servant." You see, this is a picture of the final vindication of everyone who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not that our faith is great, it's that our Savior is great and He is kinder to us than we deserve. And John never knew this rendering of his Savior on him as far as we know in this life. But I would have loved to have been there when he opened his eyes in glory and an angel said to him, "Do you know what Jesus just said about you?" That's going to be the experience of everyone who trusts on the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on the Judgment Day. That day of wrath and calamity, that day of judgment and awe, is going to be a day of vindication for the people of God. It's not going to be about our goodness and greatness. It's going to be about His goodness and His greatness and His grace. And He's going to be kinder to us than we deserve if we trust Him. That's wonderful to think about. Jesus vindicated John, and we as well will be vindicated.
14 · The pastor applies Jesus' handling of John's doubt to how we should respond to others' struggles with faith, asking two diagnostic questions: Do we point doubters back to Christ's person and work, and do we defend them in their absence rather than gossip about their weakness?
One final thought I've got in this passage about how John handles Jesus' doubts is a question for us. It says, how do I handle the doubts of others? If I experience someone who's doubting, if I come across it, maybe it's in a care group, maybe it's a different setting, but someone's voicing some doubts. Maybe they're just struggling with some, some issues that have brought them to the place where their faith is weak and they're just really wondering. How do we respond to that? Do we write them off? Just pat them on the back and tell them it'll be okay? Or do we point them back to Christ? Remember what Jesus did for John's disciples. He began to perform miracles, to cleanse the lepers, to heal the sick, to go out of His way to show John's disciples again, "I am the Christ. Look at what I'm doing. Look at what I'm saying." So when we encounter people who are struggling with doubt, We need to point them back to Christ. Look who Jesus is. Keep our eyes focused on that. And what do we say about them when they aren't around? As soon as John's disciples left, Jesus could have said anything he wanted to about John. But he carefully chooses his words to vindicate John, to commend John to the crowd. So the question is, what do we say behind people's backs? Are we careful with our words? Do we help to vindicate them? Do we want to commend them, or do we want to take that opportunity to maybe gossip and slander and speak wrongly about them? So I want us to consider, how do we handle people that we encounter who would be struggling with their faith, who might be doubting and have weak faith at that time? I think Jesus gives us a wonderful example of how to deal with people that we encounter a similar position of where John found himself.
15 · The pastor expounds Jesus' surprising declaration that the least in the kingdom is greater than John, explaining that our greater position comes not from superior character but from our place later in salvation history—we experience the finished work of Christ that John only anticipated
So after commending John to the crowd, Jesus went on to make a surprising statement about our own privilege as believers in Christ. In verse 28, He says, "I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John, yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he." If you stop and think about it, that's quite a remarkable statement to make. Because of his witness to Christ, John the Baptist, we are told, was the greatest man who ever lived up to that point in time. Yet even the weakest, the newest Christian is greater than John, Jesus says. Why is that? And how can that be? Well, I think it's because we have the privilege of experiencing the finished work of Christ. And therefore, we, by the witness of the Holy Spirit, we know things that John can only dream of knowing. We know the mercy of Jesus in forgiving our sins through the cross. We know the power of Jesus in rising from the dead. And we know the love of Jesus in the free gift of eternal life. We have a more privileged place in salvation history than John the Baptist had. John saw only the beginning of what Jesus was going to do and what he was going to accomplish. But we have the ability now to look back and we have been given the entire picture. Picture of what was Jesus' ministry. We have a fuller experience of what Jesus Christ did than John did. We may have our own doubts at times, but we should not miss out on the extraordinary place that we've been given in salvation history.
16 · The pastor expounds the two-fold response to Jesus' message—the tax collectors and people affirmed God's justice by accepting John's baptism of repentance, while the Pharisees and lawyers rejected God's purpose by refusing baptism, trusting instead in their own merit
When Jesus spoke about the kingdom, people typically would respond in one of two ways. It's what always happens when people heard Jesus. There is no neutral ground. You can't be neutral in your response to Christ and His message. Either we accept Him by faith or we reject Him to our own condemnation. So it was on this occasion as well. Luke 7:29 says, "When all the people heard this," this is Jesus had just been speaking about John, "and the tax collectors too, they declared God just, having been baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and the lawyers," We're told they rejected the purpose of God for them, not having been baptized by him. When some people heard the message of salvation, whether they had heard it earlier from John or now from Jesus, they accepted it by faith. They admitted that God was right about their sin and about everything else. And the proof that they accepted that message was that they were willing to confess their sins and be baptized. By the baptism of repentance that they received from John. But there were other people around who didn't accept God's verdict. They did not confess their sins, and they did not receive John's baptism of repentance. We're told here that's the Pharisees and the lawyers. These men prided themselves on their obedience to God and wanted to be accepted by God on their terms and on their own merit. They did not think they had any reason to repent, which is why they never went out and submitted to John's baptism.
17 · The pastor expounds the theological significance of the Pharisees' rejection: they were offended by grace because they believed in earned salvation, and while they couldn't frustrate God's sovereign plan, they did reject God's gracious invitation to salvation
Most likely these men, the Pharisees and the lawyers, were quite offended by the idea that salvation was a free gift for sinners. They thought and taught that people had to earn their salvation, and they were quite sure that they had done more than enough to deserve God's reward. So the Pharisees rejected Jesus and his message just like they had rejected John and his message. We're told here that they rejected the purpose of God for themselves. It does not mean that they had the power to frustrate God's plan of salvation, which God freely offered to sinners. They simply chose to reject it. God invited them to fulfill the true purpose of their existence by coming to Him in repentance and faith, but they chose to reject that and live for themselves instead.
18 · The pastor steps outside the exposition to warn the congregation directly about the spiritual pride of religious professionals, citing C
Pharisees had a spiritual pride that often goes with being a religious professional. It's a privilege to study Scripture, to teach others the things of God, but C.S. Lewis wisely noted this: He said, "Sacred things may become profane by becoming matters of the job." When that happens, we can easily end up so far from God that we no longer see the seriousness of our own sin. This isn't just a warning for myself and Matthew and Seth as pastors. It's for anyone, I believe, that thinks that he or she is good enough for God on your own merit. It's always tempting to think that we are better than the Bible says we are. But Jesus tells us that we need to come to Him confessing our sins. The only people who ever find salvation are the people who agree that God is right to say that we are unrighteous, that we are sinners. And once we agree with that, we are ready to come to Jesus with sincere repentance and certain faith. And that message is the one that the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected.
19 · The pastor introduces Jesus' analogy exposing Pharisaical hypocrisy: Jesus compares them to petulant children who reject both John's ascetic ministry (accusing him of demon possession) and Jesus' celebratory ministry (accusing him of gluttony), revealing their refusal to accept God's message regardless of the messenger
To apply his teaching about faith and repentance, Jesus draws an analogy from daily life, and in doing so, he reveals the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. Picking up in Luke 7:31, "To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, "We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep." For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, "He has a demon." The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, "Look at him, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!"
20 · The pastor distinguishes Jesus' valuing of childlike faith from his condemnation of childish behavior, using the Gospel scene of Jesus welcoming children as contrast, then explains that Jesus' comparison of the Pharisees to children is a rebuke of their tantrum-like rejection rather than an affirmation of childlike trust
There are a number of childlike qualities that Jesus says He values in us. But He never speaks kindly of childish qualities. Childlike, yes. Childish, no. We've all seen young children throw a fit or tantrum when they don't get their way. If you have kids, you have seen it, you've experienced it. When they don't get something they want, they just flop on the floor, they scream and they kick and they yell, and they hope that eventually you'll give in and give them the cookie or the toy or whatever it is that they're wanting. It's embarrassing for the parents if you've ever witnessed it. It's embarrassing for those who are around who are having to watch the child go crazy and go nuts like that. So Jesus encouraged childlike giving— sorry, childlike living, but not childish living. There's a wonderful scene in the Gospels where the children are trying to get to Jesus, and the disciples are thinking, he's so busy, he doesn't have time for this right now. Jesus responds, "What are you guys doing? Let them come to me. Let the little children come to me." Then he teaches them that there's something very beautiful about being childlike. There's something very pure about the faith of a child. So with that as a background, considering our text again, "To what then shall I compare the people of this generation?" And what are they like? Now Jesus is speaking to an extremely religious crowd, but not necessarily a spiritual crowd here. These are people who believe in God, who believe they are God's people simply because they were born. We all know people like this. "I was born in America. It's a Christian nation. I must be a Christian." Or, "I've been growing up in a church. I've been going to church all my life. My parents are Christian. They took me to church. I've been going there all my life. Obviously, I'm a Christian." That's the kind of religiosity that Jesus was encountering here with the Pharisees. Because of my parents, I am. Because of my lineage, I am. Because of my heritage, I am. Jesus says to them, what should I compare you to? He says, you are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another. Is this going to be an encouragement for childlike faith? Or is it going to be a rebuke because of their childish behavior? He continues on, he says, "They are like children sitting in the marketplace calling to one another, 'We played the flute for you and you did not dance. We sang a dirge and you did not weep.'" It's not an encouragement, it's a rebuke.
21 · The pastor provides cultural-historical background on the children's games Jesus references—how children would play weddings and funerals imitating adult rituals, and how they would taunt uncooperative playmates who refused to participate in either game
In those days, it would appear that the children loved to play games in the street, play weddings or play funerals. These would have been rituals that they had witnessed the adults experiencing around them. There would be weddings, there would be funerals, and the kids had watched this. So they would engage in games of weddings and funerals. Sometimes they would play weddings and dance around the boy and the girl who were pretending to be the bride and groom. Other times they would play funerals. They would sing sad songs and pretend to cry. But some children were bored with all of that. They did not want to play weddings or funerals. In fact, they didn't want to play anything at all. So the other children would sing an old taunt. They said, we played the flute for you and you didn't dance. We sang a dirge and you did not weep. Jesus obviously was paying attention to the children and what they did around him, and he was well-versed in the nursery rhymes that were popular at that time.
22 · The pastor applies the children's game analogy to the Pharisees' rejection of John—his ascetic lifestyle and message of judgment made him 'play funerals,' which the Pharisees found too primitive and condemning, so they accused him of demon possession to discredit his message
But more importantly here, we see that the insight of Jesus had into the spiritual condition of the people he was speaking to, the people who refused his grace, those who were always looking for someone or something else. Didn't matter to them who preached the message of repentance. It didn't matter if it was John. It didn't matter if it was Jesus. They simply refused to have anything to do with the salvation that God was offering. First came John, it says, for John the Baptist has come eating no bread, drinking no wine, and you say he has a demon. John came wearing wild clothes, wearing animal skins as clothing instead of cotton cloth. He would only eat food that God provided for him in nature, locusts and wild honey, and all he drank was water, and that's how he lived. John would go out to the River Jordan and preach and teach a message of repentance. You've got sin in your life that needs to be dealt with. Produce fruit in keeping with repentance was his message. That's what made him so dangerous to the Pharisees. John is teaching you have sin in your life and you need to repent. He was bold about that message and he was unafraid to preach that message. John was the guy who would not play weddings. All he ever did was play funerals, talking about the judgment to come. John was much too primitive for the Pharisees and far too condemning. When he had the nerve to tell people to repent of their sins, the Pharisees decided that he had to be demon-possessed. They needed to discredit John and his message, and their response to John was, "He's got a demon. That's the only explanation about what he's doing. Look at how he dresses." He must be demon-possessed. Look what he eats. Look what he drinks. Something's wrong with him. He must have a demon.
23 · The pastor expounds Jesus' exposure of the Pharisees' inconsistency: after rejecting John for being too funeral-like, they now reject Jesus for being too celebratory, revealing that the problem wasn't the messengers' style but the Pharisees' refusal to accept grace they didn't think they needed
Then Jesus comes along, and the Pharisees want to change the rules. And Jesus here reveals their hypocrisy. He says, "The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, 'Look at him, a glutton and a drunkard and a friend of tax collectors and sinners.'" The Pharisees didn't want what John had to offer. And now they don't want what Jesus has to offer, so they've changed their tune about what game they want to play, what the rules are. The same people who demonized John for not wanting to play weddings were scandalized by Jesus because he refused to play funerals. Jesus had such a good time hanging out with the sinners that he had a reputation for being a partying guy. Jesus spent a lot of time, too much time apparently according to the Pharisees, with notorious sinners, preaching about grace and offering mercy to people who didn't even deserve it. His story was not a sad tragedy, but a joyful story, and Jesus spread this joy wherever he went. This violated the Pharisees' spiritual sensibilities. So as far as the Pharisees were concerned, the way to gain God's blessings was to be pious and religious. Since they didn't see any need to repent for their sin, They did not have any need to accept God's grace through the gospel. They thought salvation was theirs by right, by birth, and they were offended by the idea that it came as a free gift for sinners.
24 · The pastor synthesizes the Pharisees' problem into a theological claim: they rejected both God's holiness and His grace because they wanted a diminished God who would accept their own merit, revealing the root of their hypocrisy
Some people can just never be satisfied. These people didn't like John, and they wouldn't listen to Jesus. They would neither have the holiness and wrath of God, nor the love and forgiveness of God. All they wanted was a God that was small enough to compromise and pretend that their imperfect keeping of the law was adequate, that salvation was small enough for even their meager merits to deserve it.
25 · The pastor returns to the opening Chutes and Ladders illustration to drive home Jesus' rebuke—what's amusing in a toddler is culpable in an adult, especially a religious leader, revealing the severity of the Pharisees' childish rule-changing
So thinking back to the story that I started with about my kids playing Chutes and Ladders, if you ever played any game with 2 or 3-year-olds, you find that sometimes the rules don't matter. They make up their rules as they go. And like when my children were learning Chutes and Ladders, I explained the rules to them. Sometimes they got it, sometimes they didn't, but they didn't seem to really care. They didn't care what the rules were, and they would just make them up as we went. They were just little kids though. 3-year-olds, 2-year-olds, a few years old, and they had immature childish understandings of games and how to play games. So Jesus is saying to the Pharisees here, you're like spoiled rotten children who instead of wanting to play the game the way it's supposed to be played, You invent your own rules and expect everyone else to follow them. It's never a compliment for a grown man to tell another grown man that you're behaving like a 3-year-old. No one has ever confused that as a compliment. At least that I know of. But that's what Jesus is doing here. He's accusing them of behaving like children. He's catching them. At changing the rules. Again, it's cute when it's a 3-year-old. I didn't mind, played along with my kids, and we had fun. It's not so cute when it's a 50-year-old.
26 · The pastor makes explicit Jesus' logical trap: the Pharisees condemned John for asceticism and Jesus for celebration, proving that no messenger would satisfy them because the problem was their unwillingness to accept God's verdict on their sin
So Jesus catches them at changing the rules here. He's catching them at their own game. And he says, John came neither eating nor drinking, and you say he had— saying you had better repent. And your response is, who are you to tell me that I have sin? Jesus continues, "I come eating and drinking and forgiving people, and your response is, 'Aha! You're just like them. Your message is wrong too.'" So if you come eating or drinking, you're wrong. If you come not eating or drinking, you're wrong. Didn't matter what the game was, they were wrong according to the Pharisees. So you see what Jesus is doing here. He's not complimenting the Pharisees.
27 · The pastor applies the Pharisees' pattern to contemporary church life, identifying the person who constantly finds fault with every approach as manifesting the same spirit—the problem isn't the church's inconsistency but the critic's refusal to accept Jesus on His terms
We all know individuals who are critical about anything and everything. All they want to do is find fault. To them, the church is either too judgmental or too soft on sin. The congregation, they say, is friendly or not friendly enough. They criticize Christians for being too intellectual or not too simple. Christians are too serious or not serious enough. We're not emotional or too emotional. They say the same thing about Jesus. He was too strict He was too permissive. He's too hard to understand. He's not sophisticated enough. Like the Pharisees, we're always looking for some other savior, someone else to save us, some excuse for not believing in Jesus. The problem wasn't with John or Jesus. The problem was with them.
28 · The pastor identifies two opposite errors in responding to Jesus: license (rejecting all moral instruction as legalism) and legalism (imposing extra-biblical rules as the measure of spirituality), providing detailed descriptions of each distortion
So we need to be careful here not to become like a Pharisee or an heir on one side or the other. Some of us are tempted to err in license, and that's simply this: that I can do whatever I want to. Don't you dare tell me that I've got sin in my life. I don't need you to tell me how to live my life. You know what? God loves me and He accepts me just the way I am. God's okay with me, I'm okay with Him. He loves me and we're good to go. People who think that way err on the side of license. I'll do whatever I want, and anyone who engages me over that is wrong. That's one error. The other is to err on the side of legalism. These people know exactly how a Christian is to live, how Christians are to behave, how Christians are to act, what we're to think, and on and on. They know what it is for a proper way to live a Christian life, and they have the checklist to prove it. No R-rated movies, certainly no Christian— non-Christian music, must avoid parties and gatherings where there are too many non-Christians and never drink. Only certain kinds of clothing and dressing are allowed. Kids can't go to public schools, and certainly no unsaved kids allowed in the church youth group. There should be family devotions every night around the dinner table and kids in bed by 8. We should give and serve in specific ways. No public affection. It's a whole list of dos and don'ts, and they live their lives according to those dos and don'ts.
29 · The pastor qualifies his warning against legalism by affirming biblical commands, then defines legalism precisely as adding extra-biblical rules and trusting in their observance rather than relationship with God, confessing his own tendency toward this pattern
So don't hear what I'm not saying here. The Bible is full God's Word is full of examples on how God wants us to live, how He wants us to behave, how He wants us to dress, how He wants us to interact with others. The Scriptures is full of those. There are many, many commandments that we need to listen to, that we need to follow, that we need to obey. So God does care about how we live. He does care about how we treat others. He does care about how we conduct ourselves. We do well to take heed of those. Legalists, though, develop a list of behaviors that many times are not biblical. They're not biblically-based lists. It's something they'd come up with on their own. There may be an element of truth in there, but then they demand and expect that everyone lives according to their list and how we should live. That's legalism. Typically, you'll find, if you find a legalist or encounter someone, you'll find that their relationship with God is not as close or as mature as it should be. Because it doesn't have to be. They've got their list. They just live by that list. God accepts them, they believe. They become like the Pharisees in many ways. God accepts them because of how they live and compare up to their list. I'm better than others and that's all that God expects. I'm not a sinner so I don't need a Savior. You know what? It's exhausting to live that life that way. It's exhausting to live life as a legalist, because you're always trying to live up to your expectations of what you think God wants you to be and how He wants you to behave. And I find myself thinking this way far more than I'd like to admit. It's easy for me to look at myself and want to gauge and evaluate and judge others compared— when comparing them to myself. I think it's easier for us to be more like the Pharisees at times than we want to admit.
30 · The pastor describes the toxic dynamic between license and legalism in which each side uses the other's error to justify their own, creating a cycle of accusation rather than biblical faithfulness, warning that most people lean toward one error or the other
Sadly, as well, the two play off each other. Those who err in license, those who err in being a legalist, they play off each other. The person living in license, doing whatever they want, doesn't want you to tell them that an area of their life is unbiblical, sinful, wrong, or unwise. If you dare to engage them on that, they'll simply go, "A legalist! You're a legalist! You're nothing but a legalist!" Anyone who doesn't obey the legalist's list of right behaviors and wrong behaviors, regardless of whether in the Scriptures or not, they go, "License, you live a life of license, you're not even saved. How can you be saved and live like that?" They play off of each other. We've seen it, we've experienced it. And almost everyone tends to lean one side or the other. We need to be careful about that because they're both wrong.
31 · The pastor illustrates the loving nature of moral intervention through the analogy of parents restraining toddlers from running into traffic, showing that restraint and warning are protective acts of love, not legalism
The thing about license is if anyone engages them over their lives, they view it as hatred, legalism, and a lack of grace. Even though it's not usually that way. We all have taught our kids, haven't we, not to run out into the street. And why do we do that? Well, because there's danger in the street. If a ball rolls in the street, you know, kids are naturally just going to want to run out there. Many of you watch the news over the last few years, and we read about how poor a job schools are doing of teaching children to read. And they graduate high school and many of them can't read. You know what? We can observe that. If you ever come into my housing tract, there are signs, speed limit signs at both ends of it. It says 25 or 30. But you know what? I see teenagers all the time driving through there far exceed the 25 or 30-mile limit. I can only assume that they just can't read. There may be other things wrong with them. But we teach our kids not to chase that ball into the street. And you know what? A 4-year-old, a 5-year-old can understand there are people who drive by on that street. Some of them are not going to see you. It's danger if you chase the ball into the street. And we can teach a young child to stop, to look, or maybe to go find an adult to help them retrieve the ball. But you know what? A 2-year-old, you can't necessarily expect a 2-year-old to do that. So what do we do as parents? The 2-year-old sees the ball roll into the street and they've got tunnel vision. They're just chasing that ball into the street. They're not even aware of the danger that's lurking there for them. So what do we do as parents? If we're there and we see it, we reach down and we grab their hand and we hold them back. We restrain them. We hold them back from that danger.
32 · The pastor applies the traffic illustration to spiritual intervention, arguing that confronting someone's sin is not legalism but love—just as restraining a child from danger is protective love, so is warning a fellow believer about spiritual danger
So consider this question: Is a parent who grabs a 2-year-old, who grabs the arm of their 2-year-old to restrain them and hold them back from the danger of the street, Are they a legalist? Do I lack grace? Am I unloving if I hold my child and keep them back from danger? If I tell them they're in danger, is that unloving? Is that uncaring towards them? Is it wicked for me to say, "I see something that's dangerous out there in your life, and I want to talk to you about that. Let me teach you. Let me train you. Let me educate you on that." That's not unloving. That's kind. That's loving. To reach out to our children. The same way, intervening with someone else who we see engaging in sin, walking in sin in a continual way, it's not legalism, it's not unloving, it's not evil to go and grab them and talk to them about it. It's loving. Intervening is not a lack of grace or a lack of love. It's loving, it's kindness to go and engage them. To tell them, you know what, there's something I see in your life that's dangerous. Even though we do that, risking the damage to that relationship if we do confront them. We do that for our kids, we need to do that for others.
33 · The pastor concludes the exposition with the tragic irony that Jesus—the friend of sinners—was exactly what the Pharisees needed but rejected because they didn't see themselves as sinners, when they should have become wise children accepting God's free salvation
So how sad and ironic it was that Jesus was the Savior that the Pharisees needed all along. They were offended because Jesus was a friend of sinners. And since they did not think that they were sinners, Jesus was no friend of theirs. But instead of being offended, instead of being offended by Jesus, the Pharisees should have believed in Him. Then they would have become the kind of children that Jesus talks about in verse 35. He said, not foolish children who try to make God dance to their own tune, but wise children who accept the salvation that God has freely offered.
34 · The pastor concludes with a final appeal to the congregation to accept God's free offer of salvation rather than closing their hearts like the Pharisees, regardless of whether they tend toward license or legalism
I want to end on that this morning. Salvation is offered to all. God doesn't discriminate against us. Whether you err in license or err in legalism, whether you're a Pharisee or not, salvation is offered to all. Let's not become like the Pharisees and shut our hearts and ignore the salvation, ignore the message of repentance, ignore the message of baptism of repentance. Let's all accept what God has to say. Let's not close our ears. Let's not close our hearts and accept the message of salvation, accept the gospel, the gospel of forgiveness that Jesus Christ offers to us all.
35 · The closing prayer asks God to keep the congregation from the Pharisees' error of rejecting grace, affirming that salvation comes not through heritage or moral performance but through Christ's substitutionary death and our acceptance of it by faith
Let's pray. Lord, we find much encouragement by reading this story about John, this wonderful man who led the way for your coming, who preached a message of repentance, who baptized, Lord, who pointed us to you, who identified you when you came down to the river. Lord, you didn't turn your back on him in his time of need when he was weak. Lord, you embraced him. You reminded him of all that he had seen, all he had heard. You commended him to the crowds, and rightfully so. Lord, we also pray that you would help us not to become like the Pharisees who would turn our back to the gospel, who would reject the gospel. Lord, we are all sinners in need of grace, and you came to offer that grace freely for all who would repent. I just pray for all those who are here this morning who have not accepted that message, who think that maybe they're a Christian simply because they grew up in this church or another church. Lord, help us to see that it's not the way that we live that earns salvation for us. It's the way that you lived and died, taking on our sins on the cross, suffering wrath in our place. And all who believe that Who all, all who acknowledge that and accept that by faith, Lord, we receive forgiveness and the gift of eternal life. In Jesus' name, amen.