In the sermon titled 'The Kingdom of Heaven Suffers Violence' by Scott Brown, the role and significance of John the Baptist in redemptive history are examined. Brown highlights John as the greatest prophet, yet emphasizes that even the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater due to the new covenant established by Jesus. The sermon discusses the concept of being 'offended' by Jesus, illustrating the unbelief and irrationality of those who reject the gospel. Brown interprets Jesus' words about the kingdom suffering violence as a dual force: the external persecution faced by believers and the internal, spiritual struggle of individuals striving to enter the kingdom. He distinguishes between teaching as detailed instruction and preaching as proclamation, both necessary for spreading the gospel. The sermon uses the parable of children in the marketplace to exemplify the childish irrationality of unbelief, while urging believers to overcome doubt by returning to scripture and the teachings of Jesus.

A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written. Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you. Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist, but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he and from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violence take it by force for all the prophets and the law prophesied until John And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear. But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions and saying, We played the flute for you and you did not dance, we mourned to you and you did not lament. For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He has a demon. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, Look, a glutton and a wine-biver, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.

But wisdom is justified by her children. Let's pray. O God, as Your Word is preached, I pray that it will come with power. Lord, for we know that the weapons that You have given us are not carnal, but they are mighty in God and they are powerful to pull down every power and principalities and every high thing that raises itself against you, O God. So I pray indeed that today prisoners will be set free and the chains will be broken.

In Jesus' name. Amen. There's nothing more profitable and strengthening to the soul of a person, then for him to know the era in which he lives and the things that are working upon him, to understand what this season is all about. And Here in this chapter, the Lord Jesus Christ continues to instruct His disciples about these things. Chapter 11 and 12 exposes the unbelief and the offense of the gospel.

And Jesus is teaching his disciples what to do with that unbelief. And the beautiful part of this is that the Lord Jesus Christ promises that He is the one who will reveal Himself to all those who are offended by Him. The theme of the whole chapter, I believe, is found in verse 6. If you can look there, blessed is He who is not offended. The whole chapter of chapter 11 and 12 is about people who are offended and I want to suggest that it starts with sort of a light form of offense in the disciples of John and John himself, as John is doubting.

And then the Lord Jesus explains other kinds of doubting and gives this amazing parable of the children in the marketplace. And so what we find here in verse one is this disclosure of the movement of Jesus. The Lord Jesus has been doing one thing, and then in verse one, we read, now it came to pass. When Jesus finished commanding his 12 disciples, that He departed from there to teach and preach in their cities. So there's a change now, something different is happening than what has been happening.

And this marker in time in verse 1 and chapter 11 goes back to chapter 10 verse 5, because in 5 we read, These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying, Do not go into the way of the Gentiles. So From 10-5 until 11-1 is one segment in the instruction of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the word commanded is in both verse 5 of chapter 10 and in verse 1 of chapter 11. So Jesus is commanding his disciples. He's issuing various commands and principles to help them to know how they ought to be spreading the news of the kingdom of heaven.

And He gives various commands in chapter 10. Remember, chapter 10 is a didactic section of scripture. It's where Jesus is teaching his disciples how they ought to operate. And then the narrative. Remember how Matthew is structured.

Chapters 1 through 4 is narrative that explains who is Jesus Christ. Chapters five and six is a didactic section or a discourse, which is the Sermon on the Mount. And then, so five, six, and seven are the Sermon on the Mount. And then eight and nine is another narrative section in which the power of Jesus Christ is demonstrated, that Jesus Christ has power over absolutely everything, sickness, distance, even the winds and the waves obey him. He has power over all demonic forces.

Jesus Christ is the exclusive power in the universe, is what the narrative section in chapters 8 and 9 speak of. And then Jesus goes back, or at least Matthew has Jesus speaking this didactic section in chapter 10, and he's giving them various instructions. Don't go in the way of the Gentiles. Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Trust God.

Don't take a money bag. Whatever city you go into, seek who is worthy there. And if they reject the message of the Kingdom of God, then shake off the dust of your feet and keep on going to the next city. Go and proclaim that judgment has come, that the lampstand is being removed from Israel. And that's what the disciples are commanded to do here in this section.

And he tells them not to worry about their bodies. And he tells them that the hairs on their head are numbered. He says that, you know, confess me before men when you are dragged before various people who hate you. And The Lord Jesus says that you'll be hated by at least four categories. You'll be hated in the synagogues, and they'll try you with religious tribunals.

The civil magistrate will hate you, and you'll be dragged before kings and governors. Your family will reject you. And then there'll be this general social rejection as all men will be offended by you. So Matthew has already presented this didactic section where Jesus is giving specific commands about how they should operate. Now, in this section, The commands are now over.

And it's interesting that Christ's commissions here in chapter 10 are thought of as commands. You don't necessarily think of narrative as command. But here, these were the commands that arose out of Jesus' instruction. Even though they are in the form of principle, they don't all come in as imperatives. So it says he departed from there.

And what most people believe is that Jesus now, he actually departs from his disciples, and he's off on his own, and the disciples are going out throughout the cities of Israel. And Matthew Henry says it like this, as a nurse withdraws the hand that the child may go and learn by itself. So here Jesus commences this, what he calls it, two-fold ministry of preaching and teaching. And these two things he's doing, he's teaching, which means he's imparting detailed instruction, he's explaining various connections, and he's doing this probably in the synagogues, Most likely because Jesus was constantly teaching in the synagogues. Teaching is different from preaching.

These are two different categories of communication. Both are necessary for the spread of the gospel. And preaching is more of an announcement, a proclamation, a herald. The term caruso is used. It's a classic term for the proclamation of the gospel.

And this is what Jesus does. This is what Jesus' disciples do as well. This is the primary work of the church, to spread the gospel through the teaching and the preaching of the Word of God. You know, the preaching most probably happened in the streets. This was a form of street preaching in that sense.

It's like Proverbs 1, 21, wisdom is crying out at the streets, or Proverbs 8, at the gates of the cities is proclaimed wisdom. So Jesus now is departed from his disciples, he's going to preach and teach, his disciples are going to do the same thing on their own. And then we meet with verses 2 through 6 with a fascinating section about the doubt that existed in the heart of John the Baptist, of all people. The one who said, this is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The one who observed his baptism and understood who he was in redemptive history.

And so verse two reads, and when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to him, so John is in prison because he was rebuking civil authorities for their immorality, as he did Herod. And he's in a prison in the southeast of the northern tip of the Dead Sea. He has probably had about 18 months of public ministry and now he's in prison. He's in a prison that can be identified today, macarous. He was perhaps thrown into prison for a year before he died, possibly.

This is not anything like an American prison where you have magazines and healthy food and air conditioning and a workout center. This was a different kind of prison that John was in. And John is receiving reports in prison from his disciples about what's happening with Jesus Christ. It says in verse 2, and when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ. So John is hearing about the works of the Lord Jesus.

This is an amazing thing to me because here's John looking from afar and hearing what's happening. And in truth, John in his soul has always loved the voice of Jesus. Even when he was in the chamber of his mother Elizabeth's womb, He leapt in his mother's womb at the voice. And now he is in prison. And he longs to hear the voice of Jesus.

He longs to hear the reports. And he is hearing the reports. And at the same time, though, it's a season of doubting for John the Baptist. Now, there are many people who say, no, John wasn't doubting. These great theologians have said this, J.C.

Ryle, John Calvin, and others. No, John wasn't doubting. It was his disciples who were doubting. But actually, the text says that John had questions and Jesus sent his disciples back to say, go tell John. So my view is that John was a human being and he had doubts.

And so he sends these two disciples, two are always better than one, and John's question is in verse three, are you the coming one or do we look for another? So John wondered if there was another. He actually did personally doubt that the Lord Jesus was the one. And his uncertainty is really made clear by verse 6. Blessed is he who is not offended.

Jesus tells the disciples of John this. Blessed is he who does not stumble. Blessed is he who is not offended. Blessed is he who's not doubting these things. Now there's no evidence that he doubted the Old Testament prophecies, but he was uncertain about how Jesus fit into them.

And so even Though he was the greatest man, he doubted. He would be offended. If you've ever doubted, you can relate with John here in prison. If you've ever doubted anything that is happening as to why it is happening. I mean, God has given us so many interpretive keys to life.

He tells us about the meaning of suffering. He tells us about the meaning of persecution. He tells us about the meaning of trials and all kinds of things. But how many times have you doubted? How many times have you doubted what was happening?

When actually God has said, He causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. But we often doubt and We say, why Lord, why are you doing this when actually he's told us those things? This happens to us in the midst of our frailty. And we find ourselves doubting. Now people were constantly doubting Jesus.

Some were doubting or scandalized because what he did not do. The Jews were waiting for a military messiah. They wanted somebody to take up the sword. They wanted to be relieved of the bondage of Rome. And so people wanted Jesus to do something that he wasn't going to do.

And they doubted him because of that. And some were doubting and were scandalizing lies because of what he did do. That's what we learn about the children in the marketplace. It doesn't matter what you do, you will be doubted. There's that category of doubt.

So people are scandalized for what he does do. Some were scandalized by his teaching on the law and various other matters. His death on the cross was the greatest scandal. And he said, you shall all be offended in me. So if you have doubts, if you have doubts, then you need to recognize that you're like John the Baptist in that sense.

And do what John the Baptist did. Go to Christ. If you doubt, do what John did. John went to the right place. He took his doubts to Jesus Christ.

He took his doubts to the Word of God. And here, John has uncertainty and confusion about these eschatological matters. He's not the first one, nor is he the last one who is wondering about Old Testament prophecies. And don't be so worried if you're wondering about it and trying to put all these things together. John was in prison doing exactly the same thing.

Lord, how do all these things fit together? And even John the Baptist, who was the greatest man who ever lived, had doubts about the progression and the events and how they all fit together and what the prophecies and their fulfillments actually meant. If you're confused about that then welcome to the club and but you should do exactly what John did. He went to Jesus Christ. He didn't stop throw up his hands and act like, you know, ignorance was bliss.

It was not bliss at all. But he went to the right place in the midst of his confusion. You know, John is a man and he has doubts. You know, Abraham believed that he wanted a sign. Gideon wanted a sign as well.

This is part of our manhood and womanhood. We want, sometimes we want more than what God has revealed. And so, But the Jews here were looking for something that God was not going to do. My theory, and it's just a theory, because so many theories have been proposed about this, about why it was exactly that John was doubting, is that John was a man of his times and he perhaps and his disciples and those around him were looking for a military messiah. And here's Jesus, he's up in Galilee with these profane people and he's hanging around the poor and the wretched and the naked and the blind and the demon possessed.

Where is the conquering? Where's the king? Where's the authority and the rulership? How come Rome is still on our backs? And perhaps that was why he was doubting.

Now we don't know. The text doesn't exactly tell us. But what we do know is that Jesus Christ says to his disciples, blessed is he who is not offended because of me. So this is like a beatitude, but it's a negative beatitude. You know, we were in the other Beatitudes, which they are positive.

Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Those are positive Beatitudes. This is a negative one. Blessed is he who is not offended.

So it's this category of not being offended, not being scandalized, you know, not being befuddled by what Jesus is doing. This offense, the term that Jesus uses is the term scandalot, We get our word scandal, that's why I've been using that term. But in the New King James it's translated offended, which gives the right idea. But to be offended is to be caused to disbelieve. So that was the state that John was in.

He was in a state of some kind of disbelief. Calvin says that offenses are things that, quote, tend to interrupt the progress of faith. So these offenses, they tend to counteract faith. They disturb it. And so it's important to do battle with the offenses.

And that's what John does. He goes to Jesus Christ, he battles in a right way. Martin Lloyd-Jones says, the natural thing for a natural man is to be offended. And, you know, he came into his own and his own did not know him. You know, blessed is the man who is not offended.

The cause of the offense is the natural man. It's the sinful nature that causes us to doubt. The sin saturation of man is what causes him to doubt and causes him to be offended or scandalized. And the sin nature of John the Baptist was blinding him in a certain way. And this sin makes us expect wrong things from God.

This happens to us on so many different levels. John was expecting something different from Jesus. And he says, are you the one? I thought you were going to do this, but it's not happening. So he was expecting the wrong things from God.

And this is what our sin often does to us. It causes us to expect something that God is not providing or doing. Because our sinful nature is telling us about how life should be. While God has something completely different for us, We're not satisfied with God and what he wants to do with us, and so we are offended and we have questions and doubts about God as a result of that. So my theory is that John was probably affected by the common error in Judaism where they were looking for a political prophet who would conquer Rome.

But they were still experiencing their oppression. Now, We know that John, we know exactly what John is thinking. He heard in prison of the works of Christ. So the natural man says, why is the world the way it is? And our only hope really is to do what John did, go to Jesus Christ for counsel and keep working his counsel until we understand what it is that he is doing.

So to answer the question, what does Jesus do? Jesus takes John back to school. He takes him back to the Old Testament prophets and he quotes the prophets. So he's taking John back to seminary in a sense to learn what the Old Testament prophets said and what that meant. And so Jesus answered and said to him, go and tell John the things which you hear and see, the blind see and the lame walk and the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear." He's quoting the Old Testament.

He's taking him, he's taking him back to the Scriptures. John, go back to the prophets. Go back, it recalibrated, because the prophets spoke of me. And the dead are raised. By the way, he adds the dead are raised.

I don't believe, you can check me on this, but I don't believe the prophets said that the dead would be raised they might have but I I can't recall it but Jesus may have added this one And the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of me. So Jesus is reminding John's disciples of the miracles that the blind see in the lame walk. This is right out of Psalm 146. It's out of Psalm 35, verses 5 and 6, which reads like this, the wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them." This is an Asiatic prophecy.

And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it. The excellence of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord. The excellency of our God, strengthen the weak hands.

Make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are fearful-hearted, Be strong and do not fear. Behold, your God will come with a vengeance. With the recompense of God, He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing, for the waters shall burst forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert." So here Jesus is taking John back to read about himself. That's what he's doing. Because this is a prophecy of that whole scheme of the wilderness and then the coming of the Messiah and the living waters that flow as a result. It's back to Psalm 72 verse 4 and verses 12 and 13. It's back to Isaiah 61, which Jesus quoted in the synagogue in Luke chapter 4.

He opened the scroll and he said, the spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel, to preach good tidings to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives. He's quoting Isaiah 61, verse 1. And so Jesus is trying to deal with John's confusion by taking him back to what was written about John himself, to remind him that he is the forerunner, and that Jesus Christ is the coming Messiah. So, how do you deal with your doubts?

The same way that John dealt with his doubts. And that is to go back to Jesus Christ, listen to the preaching of Jesus Christ through the prophets, through Moses. Jesus said, Moses spoke of me. Go back and see, learn from the scriptures. And that's what Jesus is doing for John and his doubt and his disciples.

And if you're scandalized, if you are offended, then go back to the scriptures. And our problem is that We want to have all the authority in the world. We want to have things work out our way, rather than the way that God has said that they will work out. So in order to find that out, we have to go back to the Scriptures. And so, this statement, blessed is he who is not offended because of me.

Now that's really a very, very important statement in this section about John's doubts, because here Jesus goes right to the heart of the matter with John. And so Matthew is showing through this story of the way in which the world reacts to the Son of God. Even believers react this way because of their sin nature. They sometimes doubt. And there are so many reactions that are recorded.

Now, Matthew is in a section where he's recording the rejection of Christ. And so many are offended by him. But what is it that makes men offended? It's their fallen nature. So how do you deal with doubt?

You deal with doubt by repenting from your doubting and then you look back to the preaching of Jesus Christ. That's what you do. Then, they departed, and Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John. So now, the disciples of John leave, and now there's a whole other set of hears and that's the multitudes. And now Jesus speaks of John's character.

And while John was doubting, Jesus is now going to speak really amazingly about this man. Imagine Jesus Christ speaking this way about you. Well, here Jesus gives two aspects of John's personal character and what was truly great about John. And he's counteracting those who have thought wrongly about John and were offended by him. Apparently some of Jesus' hearers were saying that John was a vacillating and worldly person.

And so Jesus says, and what did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? Was John vacillating and weak? No. He was not fickle.

He was not misrepliable. He was a stable and a firm man. He was mighty, he was forthright. John was like a personal earthquake. And in John 3.28, you know, he says, he confessed and did not deny.

He confessed and he did not deny. John stuck to his guns. That's the kind of man that he was. He wasn't like a reed shaken in the wind. The pictures of this reed, you know, just being blown about by every little breath of air.

That he's just a shaky, he's just moving by every wind, not John. Not moved around by every wind of doctrine at all. And so here Jesus is defending John and he's appealing to their consciences about what John was all about. Thomas Watson says, he came hewing and cutting down men's sins, and afterwards he preached Christ to them. First he poured the vinegar of the law, and then the wine of the gospel.

He says he had a soul-searching ministry. And if one had a desperate wound, he would desire to have it searched to the bottom. John was that kind of man. And then the accusation that John was full of luxury and comfort, well, verse eight, And what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments?

Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in king's houses. And Jesus is defending John. He's saying he was not wearing soft garments. Soft here can mean effeminate. It's translated homosexual in 1 Corinthians 6, 9, and 10.

It's translated soft in three of the four usages in the New Testament. So it's softness that John is being accused of. Who in their right mind could possibly accuse John of this? But Jesus is defending John of these things. John is a self-denying man and his clothing was consistent with his mission.

And then a prophet. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, absolutely. A prophet.

And greater than a prophet. More than a prophet. And then he says in verse 10, for this is he of whom it was written, behold, I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way before you." Again, taking the crowd back to the Old Testament, again, back to the prophecies in Malachi. But surely I say to you, among those born of women, there has not arisen one greater than John the Baptist, but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." So this astonishing statement that there is no person ever born in the history of the world greater than John the Baptist. That's astonishing that Jesus would say that.

But then he says something that's even more astonishing. He said, but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And Jesus is speaking of the greatness of the work of the Holy Spirit after his resurrection. He who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. This is just a disclosure about the greatness of the new covenant.

And the weakest person under the law, the weakest person under the new covenant, with the new wine, with new life, with the new kingdom of priests, makes men greater than John the Baptist. That's an astonishing thought. That as great as he was, he was still before the new day. He was a transitional prophet. There had been no prophets for 400 years, and now John comes.

And he's announcing the coming of the Messiah, who will pour His Spirit out on all men. And that outpouring will make the, it will make the little, the least in the Kingdom of Heaven greater than John the Baptist. It's an astonishing thing to say. It's, I connect it with what Jesus said to his disciples in John 14, verse 12, where he said, Most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will also do, And greater works than these he will do, because I go to my Father." Jesus says that his disciples, because he goes to his Father, will do greater works than he has done. There are these greater works that come as a result of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

And I believe that's what John means when he says that. In 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 8 through 11, we read, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? So here, Paul is saying that the ministry of the Spirit is more glorious. And he says in verse 9 in 2 Corinthians 3, for if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness extends much more in glory. For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect because of the glory that excels.

For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is more glorious." So here you have these terms, more glorious. It excels. It exceeds much more. Those are the terms that are used in every line of this section in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. Because there's this transitional period that the disciples are in, where John the Baptist has come, and you know, Jesus is increasing, John is decreasing.

Jesus will go to the cross and then go to his father, he will pour out his spirit, and greater work shall the disciples do than even Jesus himself did. Even greater than John, even the littlest disciple will make John look like nothing. Now, how much more does that make the importance of our being filled with the Holy Spirit, our being filled with the knowledge of His will. How much more does it make it important that we seek Him with all of our hearts, so that we might be these instruments full of the Holy Spirit, not spurting the Holy Spirit in any way, but to cry out, to seek Him with all of our hearts during this season, so that these things are actually fulfilled in us. And this is the nature of the Kingdom of heaven.

He's been saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand during this transitional period of announcement of the kingdom of heaven as it relates in the New Covenant. So then we turn to this statement in verses 16 through 19, the days of John the Baptist till now. Here's another marker in time that also helps us understand redemptive history. It's important to understand redemptive history. It's important to understand the role of the law in redemptive history.

Jesus said that Moses spoke of me. The law has importance in redemptive history. Of course, the prophets have enormous significance. They present an even clearer picture of the coming of the Messiah than the law did. The law gave some shadows and the whole ceremonial law presented, you know, numerous shadows of Jesus Christ.

But there's this progressive and increasing revelation that's taken place. The prophets go even further and they're more clear. And then John is even more clear. And then Jesus Christ fulfills all of it and gives a living picture of it. So there's this growing revelation of Jesus Christ.

The whole purpose of the universe is being revealed through Moses and the prophets and John. But with John now, these prophecies have ceased and now Jesus Christ fulfills all things. That's redemptive history in a nutshell. And that's what Jesus is saying to this crowd. He says, and from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence.

So you have to ask what does now mean? I'll get to that in a minute. But Christ's work is being fulfilled. It's a very special time. And John has been warning, you know, who told you to flee from the wrath to come?

Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And thousands are flocking out to John. Something new is happening. Something radical is happening. People are going out into the wilderness.

What are they doing? They're repenting of their sins. This is a whole revival of humility, where people are recognizing how corrupt and bankrupt and vile they are. And they're going out to the wilderness. This is something new.

Judaism was not that way, but something new was happening at the preaching of John. There was just another increasing revelation of the glory of God at the coming of John. And the Kingdom of Heaven is here. It is not yet completely conquered. We conquer by fulfilling the Great Commission.

And then it's finally, finally conquered at the great judgment of God, where all of humanity gathers in one place before God to be judged, and the sheep and the goats are separated. There's one judgment where this happens. So here we get a picture of redemptive history, and it's a very special time. And there are two characteristics of this very special time. Now The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence.

This is the first characteristic. The Kingdom of Heaven is suffering violence. Something new is happening. There's a ratcheting up of the hatred of God, of violence against the Kingdom of Heaven. The persecution in the synagogues, in the civil governments, in the family, in the society at large, this is all increasing.

And there's violence against the Kingdom of Heaven. When John comes, The demons showed their faces in a new way. And the violence against the Kingdom of Heaven rose. And they showed their claws like they hadn't before. Because the Kingdom of Heaven was suffering violence.

That's one side of it. And so during this transition period is really the beginning of the violence against the Kingdom of Heaven. My opinion is this violence continues until the end of the age. Some would say, no, This is a period that ends with the resurrection. I'm not confident that's true.

It could be true. But it seems to me that this violence against the kingdom of heaven continues. And we see it today. We see it in so many different ways in our own nation. There's the laws that are passed, the whole media and entertainment world, there's so many ways that we see that things raised up against the knowledge of God.

And the kingdom of heaven is suffering violence. The devil is making his last ditch attempt to destroy the work of Jesus Christ. He knows he cannot do it, but he fights and fights until he's finally completely put out of commission for all eternity and is absolutely subjugated in a new way, through eternal damnation and darkness. And so this short period of time, there's this sword that is being raised up against the King of Heaven, and there are so many difficulties that come from it. And then the second expression of this is that the violent take it by force.

You see, this is a different thing. The kingdom of heaven is being attacked violently, But then the violent take it by force. These are believers who are taking it by force. So what you see is during this transitional period, the forerunner comes. The fulfillment of prophecy of Malachi in particular and of Isaiah chapter 35, Isaiah chapter 61, the forerunner has come, people are flocking, there are miracles in the wilderness, I mean there are miracles in the cities with Jesus, And there's repentance in the wilderness.

And then the disciples are sent out to judge the cities of Israel, to go from one city, from one house to another, to proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. But the second aspect of it is that the violent take it by force. This has to do with people fighting to get into the kingdom of heaven. With the coming of the kingdom of heaven, there's this new kind of violence of the soul, this kind of desperation that throws off the world and abandons it. He says, no more.

No more will this world have dominion over me. I need the dominion of Jesus Christ. I want it. The kingdom of heaven is what I need. And that's the kind of violence.

It's not like Muslim violence. It's not physical violence. It's the spiritual violence of the soul, in which a person comes to the end of his rope, and he says, no more can I rule myself? I've destroyed myself. That's the violence of those who take it by force.

It's violence to yourself, to the world, and to the devil. Matthew Henry said, like the violence of an army taking a city by storm or of a crowd bursting into a house, so is the violent taking it by force. The meaning of this is what we have here. Since that time, the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presses into it. He's quoting Luke 16, Matthew Henry is.

The violent press into it. They want to get in. That's what was happening in the wilderness. That was what was happening when Jesus was going about the countryside and throngs and throngs of people were coming to repent of their sins. They just wanted to touch the hem of his garment.

They wanted to be healed. So this is this vigor, this strength, this earnestness to throw off the old life. It begins at conversion with this gigantic earthquake of the soul where a person repents and believes the Gospel. And then it continues on through the mortification of sin. You know, be killing sin or it will be killing you.

This is this constant work of the violence, taking it by force, to deal with the corrupt nature, to throw it down, to renounce it, to identify it, to name it, to stab it, and kill it, and say, no, I belong to Jesus Christ. That's the violence that's necessary for the Kingdom of Heaven. We have to do ourselves violence. We have to destroy our reputations. We have to confess our sins.

We have to say who we really are to take it by force, by this violence. And it so does damage to our own personal worth and self-esteem, so that we might have the esteem of Christ. But the vehement, impetuous, eager, take it by force, they press into it. That's how a person is saved and that's how a person is sanctified. And that's what happens when the Kingdom of Heaven is in operation.

When the rulership of Jesus Christ is embraced by a human being, then there are these acts of violence that cause them to enter the Kingdom of Heaven and cause them to continue in it. No one can continue in the Kingdom of Heaven unless they have violence toward their sin and keep dealing with it. How wrong it would be for a person to become a Christian and say, Well, I'm done. God has saved me. I'm so grateful.

No, that's not, that's not the nature of the Kingdom of Heaven. There's always more ahead. So The prophecies of this moment, this time, this unusual time, this special time in history was prophesied in the Old Testament. After Malachi, There's 400 years of silence, and no prophet spoke for those 400 years. You have to understand redemptive history.

You have to think of it in terms of its sweep. Creation around 4000 BC, where the structure of redemption is prophesied, where there's a war against the seed of the woman. And then Abraham, 2000 BC, Man is justified by faith. And then the time of David, the kingdom of David in 1000 BC. And then the judgment of Israel in 722 in Sennacherib, Saxe, Israel.

And then in 586 BC when Nebuchadnezzar comes and brings judgment on the people of God because they've rejected him. These judgments, these revelations are rolling on. The prophets are speaking during this time. And At the end of that time, at Malachi, they speak of this coming prophet. Elijah will come again and he will turn the hearts of the parents toward their children and the children toward their parents.

And there will be this cataclysmic power that comes upon mankind and it will completely rivet their souls. It will send them in the desert. It will send them out in droves to hear Jesus Christ. And then the forces of darkness will rise up. The violent will be so violent that They will actually nail the Savior of the world on a tree.

And the violence against the Kingdom of Heaven comes at its apex. And then death is destroyed as Jesus Christ raises from the dead. And He destroys the last enemy to be destroyed. And he waits, though, until that day of judgment when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord. Both the sheep and the goats will declare it in that day.

So redemptive history is being played before us, and it's a very special event that's taking place that Jesus is telling his disciples about here in these verses. And then there's this parable of hardness of heart. Remember, this is about being offended, offended by God and what He's doing. Here is a parable of the offense and He's illustrating it in a really interesting way. He talks about children playing.

It's really amazing to me that he's doing this, that he's taking children at play, and the way that children play to make a point about how it is to be offended. Because he's illustrating what it means to be offended by Jesus Christ. And he says, but to what shall I liken this generation? In other words, What are the people around here like? What shall I liken this generation that I'm talking to here?

It's like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions and saying, �We played the flute for you and you did not dance. We mourned to you, and you did not lament." Now this parable, it really tells of the childishness of unbelief. It speaks of unbelief's irrational evasions for what is true. The children in the marketplace are just being irrational. And what Jesus is saying is that the offense that's happening in the hearts of people is just irrational.

It's like children playing in the marketplace. In the marketplace, there were games that children played. And what most people believe is that he's talking about games that were played in the marketplace. Everybody would understand what these games were. And so it suggested that the children in the marketplace, they play different kinds of games.

They play funeral. And they say, here, you get in the coffin. We'll be the singers. You be the family over here. And the children are playing in the marketplace.

Your children do this all the time. I always marveled at my own children's playing, especially my daughters. You know, they played all these fascinating games. I don't know why my daughters always wanted to play orphan, or they wanted to play a runaway slave. Some tragic thing.

Children want to play these tragic stories. Now they're in the marketplace, they're playing funeral. And they're playing funeral and somebody says, oh no, no, no, we don't want to do that. And so they change the game and they go, now they're going to play wedding. And there, you be the bride, you be the groom.

You know, you be the minister, you do this. And then this all happens and the children say, no, no, no, no, no, no, we don't want to hear any of that. And Jesus is saying that's how Israel is. They're like children playing in the marketplace. It doesn't really matter what comes to them.

They reject it. That's how stupid and irrational mankind is. And what he's saying here is that John's method was sort of the method of the funeral, and Jesus' method was more the wedding kind. John came either eating or drinking, and they say he has a demon. John is out in the wilderness.

He's eating bugs. You know, he's wearing this rough clothing. And, you know, he's definitely not wearing soft clothing. But even with John, they say he has a demon. Jesus comes eating and drinking.

He's going to weddings. He's going into the cities. He does what everybody else does. He participates in life. Not like John.

John is out in the wilderness. But Jesus is living a completely different kind of life so much so they say he's a wine-bibber and a glutton He's enjoying himself too much So you can't win you can't win with irrational simple mankind They're offended at everything if you if you come If you come with a message of judgment and repentance like John, the world will say, this is demonic. If you come like Jesus and you're going to weddings and you're healing everyone, then you're just saying, no, no, no, no, no. This is insane. That is the worldliness of the world.

That's what is happening in the world today. Jesus is explaining to these people why it is that the gospel is rejected, so that they can think rightly about it. So they're not scared about when people say, no, no, no, no, no, no, you have a demon. No, no, no, no, you're a wine-bringer and a glutton. So that you know how to react.

You know how to think about that. Because that's what the world does. That's the comeback. So there's the childishness of unbelief. I'm going to give you several things that this is.

Number one, it's the childishness of unbelief. Number two, it's the unreasonableness of unbelief. If they were honest with themselves, they would have to admit that God had spoken. But he's saying it's just the unreasonableness. Everything is stupid to the unbeliever.

Number three, it's a parable that shows the real reason for the unbelief. That they're just like children. They're like stupid children playing in the marketplace. Number four, it tells us that there's no such thing as intellectual honesty. Unbelievers don't have intellectual honesty dispensed with that idea.

They're not coming from that perspective. They're coming from the perspective of children in the marketplace, Where it doesn't matter if you play the flute or dance or mourn, it doesn't matter what you say, they're going to reject the message. People have so many excuses, but that's all they are. They're very self-protective and they have arguments to keep them so that they can keep petting their idols. And they're just justifications so that they don't have to repent.

So they throw off facades, they pose questions that are not real questions, and they use childish attempts just to evade the truth. So when you're talking to people and they're coming back, you have to understand what's happening. You need to understand the wisdom of God. Don't get angry at people who are doing this, because you know what's happening. There's no need for it at all.

Number five, a corrupt world will never be satisfied. They think so highly of themselves. They just manufacture reasons, ad nauseum for why they shouldn't believe and why they should reject Christ. They're just going to continue in their factory of unbelief to manufacture reasons why not to believe, because they're just like children in the marketplace. And does it really matter what you say?

But there is something that does matter, And we'll get to that in a minute. And that's where the hope is in this chapter. This should just embolden you in your evangelism. This should make you happier in it, less afraid, and completely able to see what's really going on. Here Jesus is teaching the crowd what's really going on in the world so that they'll be steady, steadfast, faithful, bold, and clear in their declaration of the Gospel.

Number six, whatever you say, they will never escape. You will never escape their censure. It doesn't matter what you say. Number seven, they use criticism as a mask for their hatred of God and unbelief. The carnal mind is enmity against God.

The natural man does not receive the things of God, as Paul said to Corinthians in chapter 2. So these are people that are just determined not to believe in Jesus. They build straw men, they build caricatures of Christianity. They say John has a demon, they say Jesus has a wine-bibber and a glutton. You can't win the argument with them in that sense.

So be aware of the rejection patterns. But, and this is a significant word, but wisdom is justified by her children. Now here Jesus shows the tragedy of their unbelief, because the children are affected. Unbelief is childish. It's unworkable.

It creates bad children. And he's not talking about children by age. The fruit is self-evident. No matter what facades people might raise up, there are their children out there that demonstrate exactly how bankrupt their commitments are. It's obvious.

So don't be afraid. How do you counteract, how do you counteract this in your own mind? Wisdom is justified by your children. Go look at the fruits. By their fruits, you'll know them.

So this should give us boldness in our evangelism. Now, if you go to verse 25, you'll see the key to the hardness of heart and the childishness and the fakery of the children in the marketplaces. Are we just hopeless? Is there no way? Is that just always the way it is?

And the answer is no. Verse 25. At that time Jesus answered and said, and now this is a prayer of Jesus, I thank you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to Dave's. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight. All things have been delivered to me by my Father.

And no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one whom the son wills to reveal him. So while the children in the marketplace are saying he has a demon, he's a wine-bibber and a glutton, the father has a will. And our Father's will is strong enough to reveal himself to the children in the marketplace. And that's where the hope is in the story. When you're talking to the children in the marketplace, you have to understand You have a Father who has a will, and He will save to the uttermost, even the worldly, bankrupt, stupid children in the marketplace who have an excuse for everything, but nothing sound to stand on.

He says, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and reveal them to babes. So it's God who saves. Now, Jesus is rejoicing also in the hiding of the gospel to some people. And we'll get to that next week in more depth. The key to this section, and I believe the whole chapter, is blessed is he who is not offended.

So the question is, are you offended? Are you doubting? Are you afraid of the children in the marketplaces? There are two categories of people that are in this passage. You can look at the various characters and there are many.

But generally there are the offended, the disgruntled, the dissatisfied and the unsatisfiable. And then there are the blessed and happy and secure and bold disciples of Jesus Christ who go back to His preaching, who go back to His Word to deal with their doubts and their difficulties. And they're secure and they're bold, For the kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Jesus will end up this chapter by saying, come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Instead of doubting, instead of offense, he replaces in the soul of man a heart to believe.

He's pleased to do that because there's a Father in heaven, and he has a will to reveal his son to the sons of man. And so in the midst of all of all of this opposition and violence against the kingdom of heaven The only hope for it is that there is a Father in Heaven who has a will to save lost sinners. Would you pray with me? Lord, we thank you for the kind intentions of your will, for how you reach down to save sinners who are so undeserving, who have sat in the marketplaces and said all these things, and yet you are so strong to rescue according to your will. I pray, O Lord, that you would give us the boldness that's consistent with the knowledge of your will.

Amen.