RESPONDING TO THE KING 02 JESUS AND THE UNREPENTANT Matthew 11:20 24

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1 CORNERSTONE BIBLE CHURCH September 8, 2013 RESPONDING TO THE KING 02 JESUS AND THE UNREPENTANT Matthew 11:20 24 Introduction: I have been wrong! This might shock some of you, but after some careful self-examination, I have come to realize that in the past few years there may have been some situations in my life in which I have been wrong. I know, it surprised me as well. But just for instance, let me share some of my discoveries... o I discovered I was wrong in my thinking that for the Cubs, next year would be our year. It really hasn t ever come to fruition. o I discovered I was wrong in my belief that I could just walk out onto any sports field and do what I used to be able to do. o I discovered I was wrong in thinking I could eat anything I want without ever working out and I wouldn t gain any weight. o I discovered I was wrong in thinking that riding a bike is actually just like riding a bike. As you might have guessed, while these are true, they are a bit facetious. We get that; we understand these kinds of mess-ups. And my guess is that, like me, you too can quickly confess areas in your life where you have been wrong, as long as those areas are trivial things. But when it comes too much larger things in life, it is often much more difficult to see when we are wrong. This morning, I want us to think about how we should respond when we come to a realization that we are wrong. How should we respond when we realize that we are wrong and the thing that we are wrong about brings about seriousness much greater than whether next year might be the Cubs year? What if the consequences of your wrong decision carried with it life and death ramifications? Certainly, all of us would believe that it is very poor parenting to continually let your kids play in a busy street occupied with large trucks, wouldn t we? But if you did and then in a big light bulb moment realized it wasn t such a good idea, how should you respond to that? There is no doubt that if we discovered we were wrong about something that could cause life or death for us or our children, we would change our view and seek to remedy the situation. But what if the situation we were wrong about was even more serious than life and death issues? What if the thing we were wrong about had eternal consequences, how should we respond then? That is where we find ourselves in Matthew 11 as Jesus is talking to the people of Northern Israel. Now, don t forget that the purpose behind Matthew writing this book was to declare that Jesus of Nazareth is the King of the Jews. The understanding of Jesus being their king would bring serious 1

2 implications for them. In the ministry of Jesus, they were being led to a fork in the road will you trust in Jesus as your King or will you reject Him as your Lord so you can continue to be on the throne? How were they... how are we going to respond to Jesus? As we stated last week, everybody has a response to Jesus. Everyone responds. Some people disregard Jesus and think that He is a waste of their time. Their blatant disregard for Him is a response. Some people get angry and choose to go on the offensive against Jesus. They try to do everything they can to discredit Him. They desire for Him to be proven false so they can mock those that do believe in Him. And then there are those that respond to Jesus with worship. They are put at that fork in the road and they are persuaded that He is indeed the King of the Universe and they turn from their ways to pursue Him. They respond with worship. That is the type of response that He desires from us. His desire and calling for us is to see Him for who He is, leave our sin, and run towards Him. He wants us to repent of our false views of Him. He wants us to be characterized by repentance. This is what Jesus is saying when He chastises these cities for being unrepentant in Matthew 11. Vs. 20 We see a slight shift in the ministry of Jesus at this point. He had always been teaching and preaching repentance. In fact, the first word we see Jesus utter in the book of Matthew is Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (4:17). The first word of the gospel is repent because He knew that the people of Israel needed to change their view of Him and the Kingdom. He instructed people to stop living in their sin and to come to Him, the healer of their soul. He wanted them to believe in Him as their Savior Messiah. But honestly, most of the people were only in it for the show. They had missed the point of the miracles, which now led Jesus to denounce them. This is a very strong term that is used of conveying indignation; it was a public declaration that their response to Him was wrong or evil. Jesus drops the hammer on these cities where most of His miracles had been performed. They had watched the miracles of Jesus and had listened to His teachings and they were unaffected. They were indifferent to Jesus. They had completely missed the point of the miracles, and that was easy to do. Maybe we should review for a second: Why did Jesus perform miracles? (1) To alleviate pain and suffering (2) To authenticate the message He was preaching (3) To show the people that God was at work in their midst Those are really important reasons, but all they saw was a guy getting healed of blindness. They went home and talked about how cool it was that they were able to be there for that show; how they won t forget it anytime soon; how 2

3 they wished they would have brought their cameras so they could document it in their scrapbooks but they went relatively unaffected in the depth of their soul to the person and work of Jesus Christ. They treated Jesus like a magic genie that that went to when they wanted something incredible done, but when they didn t need Him, they simply left Him in the bottle. Jesus didn t make a difference in the daily activity of their life. They never allowed Jesus to make an impact upon their life, it was so much easier to keep Him at arm s length to them. But for Jesus, He didn t care that they might have been in awe of Him. He wasn t looking for amazement; He doesn t care that you think He is cool. What He wanted from them was for them to repentant of their sins and follow Him! And that s what He wants for us as well. He wants us to deal with our sin and follow Him. But that leads us to a very big question that we must investigate briefly this morning. What is repentance? It is something that is talked about in some churches, often ignored in others, but is seen throughout the Bible. What does it mean to repent? We catch a glimpse in the NT when we understand the two terms that are used that refer to the act of repentance. Metanoeo = to change one s mind. It is almost always translated with the English word, Repent! It is the term that is used in our passage here in Matthew. Jesus began to denounce their cities because they had not changed their mind about who He was. Here s another example... 2 Corinthians 7:10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. The other term that is related to repentance in the NT is Epistrepho = to turn around. It means to be headed one way and then to turn around from where you were heading in order to go the other direction. Here s one example: Acts 11:21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. These two words work hand in hand with each other. If we were to give a definition for repentance, it would be something like this: Repentance is a change of mind which leads to a change of life. These two words are beautifully illustrated in a few places in the Bible. Acts 3:19 Repent [metanoeo] therefore and turn back [epistrepho], that your sins may be blotted out. Acts 26:19 20 Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the 3

4 Gentiles, that they should repent [metanoeo] and turn [epistrepho] to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance [metanoeo]. Now, here s the deal. You cannot change your mind without changing your actions and you cannot change your actions without changing your mind. Let me illustrate it like this. What if you became convinced that you no longer should drink your Diet Mountain Dew? And let s say you repented of it. You changed your mind that the aspartame, yellow food coloring, caffeine, & other toxic chemicals were no longer good for you. Your mind has been changed. You repented. But then the next day you went to the Circle K & the first thing you did was to fill up one of those 44oz of Dt. Mt. Dew. Did you repent? No, of course not. Why? Our actions prove what we believe. And true Biblical repentance is walking one way, coming to some conclusion about something, and turning around 180 degrees to walk the other way. It is turning from something to something. This is what the people from Thessalonica were known for. They were known for people who repented. They exhibited true repentance. How? 1 Thessalonians 1:9 10 For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. Let me apply this back to Jesus in Matthew: What Jesus is saying to these cities in which He has performed most of His miracles is that they are destined for judgment because even with incredible amounts of revelation (evidence, miracles), they did not change their mind about who Jesus was and they were not willing to give up their sin or their righteousness to follow Him. Let us never forget that we can never become content to hear the gospel and like the gospel or simply like Jesus. That is not the point of what we do here. Jesus is not a Facebook page that you simply like and then forget about once you turn off your computer. You do not follow Him like someone on Twitter, taking or leaving whatever you want. Jesus cares not whether you are interested in Him; He wants you to respond to Him with repentance that leads to worship. That is what He wants from us and what He wanted from the people in Israel at the time. So much so that Matthew articulates what he means when he says that Jesus denounced them. This is Red Letter; these are Jesus words to the people of these cities. Just imagine if Jesus said this to you... Vs This... is... serious business. Jesus takes these three cities in Northern Israel where most of His miracles had been performed and compares 4

5 them to three pagan cities. Chorazin is never mentioned in the NT other than these woe passages (Luke 10:3). Most biblical scholars assume that it is another name of Khirbet Keraseh, whose ruins are located just 2 miles NW of Capernaum. What s interesting is that we have no recorded miracles in this city. None. But we do have some in Bethsaida, which was the birthplace of Andrew, Peter, and Philip (John 1:44; 12:21). It is located on the northern end of the Sea of Galilee. It is in Bethsaida that Jesus heals a blind man. And it is often assumed that it was in or around Bethsaida that Jesus does the first miracle of feeding the 5,000. Compared to Chorazin & Bethsaida, we have much more evidence of the healing work of Jesus in the city of Capernaum. This city was Jesus home base of operation, and a lot of things went down in this city. It is in Capernaum that Matthew tells us of Jesus healing a centurion s servant & then Peter s mother-in-law from her fever. [Obviously, Peter had moved his home to Capernaum to be close to them as he based the operation of Jesus ministry from this city.] And then one of my favorite miracles happened in this home city, when Jesus heals the paralytic as he is lowered through the roof. Jesus even rebuked a demon in Capernaum. What particularly strikes me about Jesus statement in vs. 20 and the context is that we are told it was in these areas that Jesus had performed most of His mighty works. That s surprising since we are only told of a few of them. This probably proves to us how vast the ministry of Jesus was that a town (Chorazin) is mentioned to have had many mighty deeds performed in it, yet we have no mention of it elsewhere. How incredible was the healing ministry of Jesus that the places we are told where most of this mighty works were performed, we only have a few examples. The Apostle John was right... John 21:25 Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. You sense John s hyperbole here, but the point is well taken. We tend to think of Jesus only doing these miracles that we read about. The reality is that there were probably hundreds, maybe thousands, of other examples of the healing power of Jesus to these people; most of them in and around these cities. And yet they still did not believe in Him. They had not changed their mind concerning Him. They did not repent and mourn their actions towards Him. But they evidently had grown numb towards Him. Now, in comparison to these cities, Jesus pits three pagan cities. Jesus tells Chorazin & Bethsaida that if the deeds done in them had been done in Tyre and Sidon, those cities would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. These were two very pagan enemies of Israel that were coastal cities and avid worshippers of Baal. The OT prophets continually cast judgment upon these nations for their debauchery and immorality. In fact, an unknown king of Tyre 5

6 was so proud and evil that Ezekiel used him as a picture of Satan (28:11 15). The city s violence, profanity, pride, and immorality made them a perfect fit for an object lesson of God s justice. But they were nothing compared to the immorality that was known as Sodom. Jesus puts His hometown of Capernaum on the scales with this wicked city. In Genesis, we are told many disturbing things about this city. We are told that the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord (Gen. 13:13). We are told that God set his wrath and anger against this wicked city and that He told Abraham, the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave (Gen. 18:20). It was at this point that Abraham tried to intercede for this city. We have the whole, would you save the city for 50 righteous men righteous righteous men? God finally said that He would not destroy the city if it had even 10 righteous men in the city (that s not setting the bar too high). And not even that could be found. When two angels enter Sodom in Genesis 19, we finally are told of the deep perversity of this city. After the angles meet up with Lot, Abraham s nephew, Lot has to fend off the crowds of men that wanted to have sexual relationships with the visitors. As they tried to get into Lot s house, the angels strike the men with blindness and we are told they wore themselves out groping for the door (Gen. 19:11). For its debauchery, the city of Sodom was completely destroyed by God as He threw fire from heaven. Are you ready for this? Here is the most shocking thing about Jesus words in Matthew. He tells Chorazin and Bethsaida that if the miracles that were performed in them had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago. The people of Tyre and Sidon, if they had witnessed the miracles of Jesus, would have mourned their sin with sackcloth and ashes ancient public ritual to display true sorrow. And then Jesus tells Capernaum that if the mighty works done in its city had been done in Sodom, it would never have been destroyed. Why? Because that city would have repented of their wickedness and turned to follow Jesus. They would have seen the miracles for what they were, not as a sideshow for their amusement, but to lead someone to worship Jesus. I want you to think about what Jesus is saying here. If those wicked, pagan, morally perverse cities had the amount of revelation through miracles that these cities in Israel, they would have repented. They didn t, but these cities did, but it made no difference to them. This leads Jesus to a huge statement. It will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the Day of Judgment than for Chorazin & Bethsaida. Capernaum, it will be more tolerable on the Day of Judgment for the land of Sodom than for you. 6

7 This is shocking, but it teaches us several important lessons concerning the unrepentant s response to Jesus. First, There Will Be A Judgment. This is Red Letter, from the mouth of Jesus. There are no if there is a judgment, there is certainty here. Tyre, Sidon, and Capernaum will stand in judgment; but so will Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. This is the consistent teaching of the Bible. All men will stand before the Ultimate Judge after they die. Hebrews 9:27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment. Acts 17:30 31 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. Revelation 20:11 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. To deny that there is a judgment that all people will stand before at some point in the future is to deny much of the NT. Second, Jesus Is the Only Capable Judge. Not only is there a judgment, it will be executed by the only One to live a perfect life Jesus Christ. John 5:22 The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son. 2 Timothy 4:1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom. But I say that He is capable because He has the knowledge to execute judgment. I mean, wouldn t it be easier to bring judgment to our families and friends if we had all knowledge possible. Jesus says here that He knows, yea, we get that. But He doesn t just know all things that happen, He knows all things possible. He says that He knows that if the cities of Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom would have had those miracles, they would have repented. That s not just actual knowledge, but contingent knowledge. That should blow us away! 7

8 Third, There are Degrees of Judgment. What this seems to be teaching us is that there are degrees of judgment based upon how much revelation you had from God. This has led some people to believe that those without much revelation from God (for instance, if someone never had the Bible), Jesus wouldn t judge them. He would simply forgive them. But that isn t what it says here. It doesn t say that Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom wouldn t be judged. It just says that they wouldn t be judged as severely as the cities in Capernaum. He just says that it will be more bearable or more tolerable for them than for the one who has the revelation and doesn t respond to it. In these striking and sobering contrasts, Jesus makes plain that people who are the most blessed by God will receive the worst punishment if they reject Him. Judgment against the moral abominations of Sodom will be exceeded by judgment against the spiritual indifference of Capernaum. For the respectable and upright unbelievers of Capernaum, Hades will be hotter than for the crude and immoral unbelievers of Sodom. The self-righteous orthodox person is even more repulsive in God s sight than the idolatrous and immoral pagan. The people of Capernaum never persecuted Jesus, and few of them even criticized Him. They never mocked Him, ridiculed Him, ran Him out of town, or threatened His life. Yet their sin was worse than if they had done those things. Theirs was not the sin of violence or of immorality but of indifference. 1 If this is true, and every indication is that those that have more revelation will be held to a higher standard of response to Jesus, the implications for our country and us could be devastating. Christian countries are in special trouble on Judgment Day, not because Jesus hasn t been in our countries... but because He has. Jesus presence without bowing our knee in repentance and worship can lead to a damnation deeper than the worst pagan city without the witness of Jesus Christ. You have to imagine how the people of Israel would have received this. They were God s people. And they thought they had it all together. There was no doubt in their mind that they were better than their neighbors. This should be a glaring warning to us that assume we are okay. Are we okay because we have followed a bunch of religious rules or are we okay because we have bowed our knee to the One who set the rules? Fourth, We Only Avoid Judgment through Repentance. There is a way to avoid the judgment that the righteous judge says is coming. We change our mind about who Jesus is and turn to Him. We come to believe that He is the way, the truth, and the life and submit our life to Him. We come to Him in faith and repentance, which are two sides of the same coin. We do not avoid repentance based on the fact that our country is Christian. Did you notice that in vs. 23, Capernaum thought that it was all that. It was 1 MacArthur, John. Matthew (Chicago, IL: Moody, 1987),

9 the home base of operation for Jesus, certainly that means something. Jesus asks them, Will you be exalted to heaven? He is saying, Why do you think so highly of yourself. The reality is they were being brought down to Hades. They thought they were okay because of a proximity to Jesus. They couldn t have been further from the truth. Note this: You will not avoid the judgment because your wife has repented of her sins. You will not avoid the judgment because your parents have repented of their sins. You will not avoid the judgment because you come with a friend who is a Christ. You must submit your life to Jesus. Fifth, More Revelation Does Not Guarantee Your Repentance. This is the point I want to drive home for you. I have had people say this to me, no doubt, some of you have probably said it or thought it: If only I could see some sort of miracle to prove to me that it is real, then I would repent and follow Jesus. Let this account of the people of Israel be a lesson to you. You probably wouldn t. The only thing you probably would be doing is making your hell hotter. The more visual demonstrations of power didn t convince them to repent of their view of Jesus. And it wouldn t convince you either. Let me end with this question from the author of Hebrews, which just should smack us in the face: How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? (Hebrews 2:3) Stop neglecting this morning. Come to Him. Stop living in your sin and repent of your ways and come to Jesus. 9