Text: Matthew 11:12-19
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Matthew 11:12-19
12 From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence,1 and the violent take it by force. 13 For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, 14 and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. 15 He who has ears to hear,2 let him hear.
16 “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates,
17 “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’
18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”3
Footnotes
[1] 11:12
[2] 11:15
[3] 11:19
(ESV)
Jonah Albrecht
Reformation Sunday
November 3rd, 2024
Matthew 11:12-19
The Kingdom’s Lightbulb Moment
To the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever, Amen.
INJ Who has preserved His Word for His children through all ages, DFR:
Eureka! Was the word head through the streets of Syracuse as Archimedes excitedly ran after having discovered the principle of water displacement from his own bathtub. Eureka, from the Greek meaning “I found it!” Archimedes had many eureka moments throughout his life as a successful mathematician. He wasn’t alone. History itself has been filled with eureka moments. Even today, believe it or not.
One the one hand you have the great frontier, the outer darkness of space in which we are continually discovering new things. On the other hand, much closer to home, think of a little child, who is just figuring out how to fit the right shape into the right hole on the container. Once they finally figure that out, that eureka joy shines across their faces.
To figure out a problem that has perplexed you for a long time is one of the greatest feelings imaginable. The load of relief that is released from your mind is amazing in and of itself. Now as great as that is, and as great as the eurekas have been in the realms of science, math, tech, etc. have been; today we will consider a greater eureka moment: that of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our theme for this Reformation Sunday is: It’s All About the Word. The Word of God provides the greatest eureka moment because it does show us our desperate need for a Savior from sin. But more than that, it shines a bright, life-changing light to those who sit in the darkness of unbelief and in the terror of their sin. The Word, the Gospel, does it all.
The kingdom of heaven has always been a light in a dark place. Consider Abraham, whose entire family worshiped pagan gods, but he was called to faith by the true God to shine brightly with promise of the Gospel. Even his descendants, the children of Israel, shone as a bright light in the Promised Land. Nearly every pagan nation around them would pass through their land where they could see and learn of the light of God’s Salvation.
In Jesus’ day it was no different, except the darkness was put in place by the “church” itself. The Pharisees had thrust the people into a self-imposed darkness. How? They hid the Gospel behind their numerous laws. The God of mercy and forgiveness was turned into an angry and demanding God with no recourse for failure.
The same thing happened in the days of the Reformation. The church had thrust its people into a spiritual darkness. The leaders kept the one shining light, the Word of God, away from the common man. Only the church was allowed to interpret what the Bible says. What did it say according to them? God is an angry and demanding God, and the only recourse for failure is for you to be better.
Has anything changed today? Certainly not. There are countless examples we could point to of “churches and leaders” who deliberately hide away the Gospel in order to make their people more reliant on them. Rather than showing the God who died for them, the people only hear about the God who is angry and demanding because you aren’t being a good enough follower of Him.
Have you started to notice a pattern? The kingdom of Heaven, the truth of God’s salvation through Christ alone, is constantly under attack. With every lie, deceit, and devilish trick in the book, Satan’s only hope for stopping the kingdom of heaven from advancing is to hide the light. Take people’s eyes off of the Gospel and you send them back into the darkness from which they came.
Unfortunately, is it a strong temptation and one that has taken so many asunder. In the days of Noah, the disdain for the Word of God was so bad, God chose to bring judgment on their wickedness and judge the earth. God’s chosen people, the children of Israel, lost the Gospel so often. The consequence of forsaking God was that the Gospel would go to the Gentiles instead.
John tells us in chapter 6 that many who followed Him stopped because they did not believe in Him. Once they found out that Jesus was not there to fulfill their desires and dreams, they had no use for Him. They fell back into darkness. Certainly, the Catholic Church had the pure Gospel for hundreds of years. And yet, this spirit of darkness crept its away into the hierarchy and it soon fell into the darkness it claimed to fight against. Search the history of the Church and you will always find examples of this temptation to return to the clouded darkness of forsaking the Gospel, even among the Lutheran Church.
Yet, in every place, God has preserved a remnant of His people who do not forsake the truth of His Word. The kingdom of heaven is like a passing rain shower. It waters the ground underneath it, but it inevitably moves on to water something else. We see that at the time of Jesus.
In the verse before our text, Jesus says that there is no one born among men is greater than John the Baptist. Why you might ask? Because John is the first prophet of God that did not have to pour over the words that had been written to search for the meaning, like the prophets of the Old Testament. They had to constantly look forward only having a dim foreshadow of what was to come. John was able to point directly to the Man in the flesh, Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. For that reason, He was named the greatest. He pointed the people to Jesus, to the fulfillment of the Law, to the bright shining light of men who offered forgiveness and salvation through His blood. And the people could not get enough of it.
Droves upon droves of people came to hear for themselves the precious truth of the Gospel. They had been starved of its relief for so long, it truly was a eureka moment for them. In Mark 7, Jesus heals a man who is blind and has a speech impediment. After Jesus healed him, He instructed the man and witnesses to tell no one. The more He commanded them not to, however, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They proclaimed the Gospel message. And what did the people say in response? “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
Sound familiar? Isaiah 35, “’Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.’ 5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 6 then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.”
Incredible. Once the people understood the Gospel, the entirety of the Scriptures opened up to them. They began to see how loving and glorious God truly is. And it is not limited to Jesus physically walking this earth. Upon His ascension into heaven, He now uses His people to show the same effect through the preaching of His Word.
In the dark days of the Reformation, it was a lowly monk who was overburdened by the weight of his sin. The shower of the Gospel watered his weary soul and sprouted forth the beauteous treasure of God’s Salvation. God used Martin Luther and those around him to bring this eureka moment to countless people who were likewise starving for the truth. How important was the truth? Well, for Martin Luther, it meant staring down the most powerful ruling authority in the world at that time. It meant his head being on wanted posters all over the country knowing that anyone could kill him and be justified.
It. Meant. Everything. Gain or loss, blessing or persecution, it did not matter. That is how precious that peace of forgiveness through Jesus is.
How important was the truth of God’s Word to Jesus? Important enough to die for. Not just to be ready to die, but actually to die. The fulfillment of God’s Word in order to save the world from its sin was the number 1 priority of Jesus. That is why He went to the cross to suffer and die. He wasn’t the victim, While on the cross He was making payment for sin. He wanted to be there, He needed to be there. While on that cross Jesus looked forward and back. He saw all who had put their trust in Him as the promised Messiah. He remained on the cross for them.
He looked forward to see you. He saw how desperately you and I are in need of a Savior and so there He remained, abandoned by God in order that you, sitting here today, might have life, light, and salvation. Yes, Jesus died for you. He literally suffered violence so that the burden of your sin is taken away and replaced with the forgiveness only God can offer.
What does it mean to you? You may not remember your eureka moment when the Holy Spirit created faith in your heart, but you certainly see the effects of it today. Can you think back to your confirmation? The oath you made to be a diligent student of the Word, making use of the means of grace and growing in the knowledge of Christ Jesus; what does that oath mean to you now? It. Means. Everything. Because that oath is only made possible by the Gospel. It only matters because Jesus has taken care of everything. Seize the kingdom. Hold onto it violently that no one may take it away from you.
I remember when I was younger, I would struggle to button the top button on my shirt, or push the button on my pants through the hole. My hand strength wasn’t there and I needed help. Naturally, I went to my Dad who would always help me and had the strength to do it.
God gives you the strength to hold onto the grace He has given you. He does so through the Bible. See, its all about the Word. The Word pointed you to Jesus, calling you out of the darkness of your sin. The Word gives you the eureka moment that opens up the entirety of the Scriptures. But most importantly, when that shower of the Gospel inevitably passes from our lands, the Word of God, the Word made flesh, gives you the strength to violently seize the kingdom of heaven and never let it go.
You have something precious and irreplaceable. Jesus revealed Himself to be the light of the world and Savior of mankind. God used Martin Luther to restore the right teaching of His Word and to bring the light of salvation to a spiritually starving people. God has already used us to bring the light of His Word to the far reaches of the world like India, Nepal, and Africa. But He will use you again, to bring that light to your own people. Its all about the Word. Amen.