Children of Wisdom
Notes
Transcript
Opening Illustration
Opening Illustration
Beloved, I would like to present you with the wisdom of children:
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Patrick aged 10 says: “Never trust a dog to watch your food.”
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Michael aged 14 once said: “When your dad is mad and asks you, ‘Do I look stupid?’ don't answer him.”
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Joel aged 10 says: “Don't pick on your sister when she's holding a baseball bat.”
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Andrew aged 9 has said: “Puppies still have bad breath even after eating an Altoids mint.”
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Tina aged 11 once said: “When your mom is mad at your dad, don't let her brush your hair.”
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Adam aged 9 says: “You can't hide a piece of broccoli in your milk.”
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And Michael aged 14 once said: “Never tell your mom her diet's not working.”
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This is the wisdom of children...
However, today we will focus and discuss the Children of Wisdom!
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So, please turn your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke.
We will conduct our study in Chapter 7 and focus on verses 31 through 35.
Our message this morning is titled, “Children of Wisdom”
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This message today will focus on the ones who reject the truth found in John the Baptist and Jesus’ teachings...
These individuals have many criticisms about the style of John and Jesus...
Yet, it is the wise the see the truth of what the forerunner and the Messiah have to say.
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So, this morning we will cover three main points:
The Generation...
The Criticisms...
And...
The Wisdom.
Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Before we consider our text, please join me in prayer...
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Heavenly Father...
You are the one true God who is the maker of all things...
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Thank You for Your love...
Thank You for Your patience...
And Thank You for Your grace.
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Watch over Your saints as we gather today on this Lord’s Day to worship You...
Guide our understanding of Your word...
And open our minds and ear to understand and embrace Your truths.
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Show us how Your ways are far better than our ways...
Show us all the areas in our lives that we need to address...
And equip us with the tools that are needed to do Your will.
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Forgive us as we have forgiven others for the sins they have commited against us...
And may we never forget that the reason we are now in right standing with You has 100% to due to the work of Your Son on the cross.
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And it is in Jesus’s name we pray all these things...
Amen.
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Let’s turn to our text for today:
Reading of the Text
Reading of the Text
31 “To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like?
32 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.’
33 For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’
34 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!’
35 Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.”
So, let’s look at our first point...
1) The Generation
1) The Generation
Verses 31-32: “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.’
First, I would like to share with you how the NLT renders verse 32 which is like this:
“They are like children playing a game in the public square.
They complain to their friends, ‘We played wedding songs, and you didn’t dance, so we played funeral songs, and you didn’t weep.’
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That helps but what exactly does this mean?
Who are the children that are playing the songs?
Who are the children ignoring these songs?
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To answer those questions and more we need to pause and define our terms as usual...
We need to consider the context and understand Jesus’ authorial intent with this statement.
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For example, the term “this generation” does not refer to everyone then living...
Instead, this term refers to the religious leaders and others who rejected both John the Baptist and Jesus, and who were still the dominant force in the culture...
That is who Jesus is talking about and the reason for His illustration.
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So, we can rightly conclude that the children in this tale that ignore the wedding and funeral songs...
The children that won’t dance and won’t mourn...
They are the religious elite of Jesus’ day...
And they are anyone else who refuse to respond to the songs being played for them.
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In fact, the phrase “like children” is meant by Christ to be a bold and strong rebuke of the Pharisees and Scribes...
Jesus was suggesting that the religious elite of His day were behaving childishly!
They were spoiled children who at playtime would annoyingly and foolishly reject whatever pastime anyone might suggest.
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They were stubborn and hard headed...
They just determined not to be pleased no matter the form the “Good News” message was presented...
For both the songs being played represented God’s truth...
And whether it was a joyful song like a wedding song or a mournful song like a funeral song it did nothing to elicit a response.
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You see Beloved, the playing of the flute was a reference to weddings as the flute was frequently played at a wedding dance...
And the singing of a dirge involved the taking part in the mourning associated with a funeral.
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So, the religious elite refused to participate in God’s unfolding kingdom, which involves both celebration and judgment...
They were two sides of the same coin...
Yet, both were rejected.
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In one case they were invited to “dance” which was a reference to Christ’s joyous style of ministry which included the acceptance of tax collectors and sinners and this is like the celebration of a wedding...
As Luke 15:7 says:
7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
Yet, the Jewish religious establishment, however, reproached Christ and would not “dance.”
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Additionally, they were invited to “weep” which was a reference to John the Baptist’s urgent call to repentance like the mourning at a funeral...
As 2 Corinthians 7:9 says:
9 As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.
Yet, John’s pronouncement of judgment and wrath was ignored and the Jewish religious establishment did not “weep.”
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So, in both cases the religious elite ignored God’s truth...
There hearts were cold to sinners repenting...
And they refused to repent themselves over their own sin..
Truly, to reject one song was to reject the other as well for they go hand-in-hand.
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In one is truly forgiven of their sins and mourned their past sins then they will rejoice when others see the truth and repent of their own shortcomings.
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The Faithlife Study Bible puts it this way:
“In this illustration, children play music and sing, but their friends do not play along.
Jesus makes the point that the Jews rejected John’s message of judgment (expressed by not eating and drinking)...
And Jesus’ message of joy and hope (expressed by eating and drinking) because John and Jesus did not fit their expectations of Elijah and the Messiah.”
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John and Jesus’ ministry may have had some differences but the message and the Gospel they preaches was the same...
To reject one is to reject the other...
And that is what we saw with the religious elite...
They rejected both because they did not meet there expectations...
They wanted a warrior Messiah and a forerunner that looked like them...
They wanted to see another earthly kingdom rule...
Yet, they missed everything about what the Messiah would come to do spiritually...
And how the Messiah was called to be the suffering servant.
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New Testament scholar Robert H. Stein clarified that the form of presentation of the Gospel was not just rejected but it was the message that both John and Jesus presented that that the Pharisees and Scribes could not stomach:
“The rejection of the gospel message is not due to the form of its presentation.
John preached the gospel while living an ascetic life-style.
Jesus preached the gospel in the joy of the kingdom’s arrival, but both were rejected.
Neither satisfied the wishes of this generation because their message was the same.
Both preached a message of repentance, and both offered salvation to the outcasts.
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John understood the coming of God’s kingdom as requiring repentance and portrayed this via his fasting;
Jesus saw the coming of God’s kingdom as a time of great celebration and portrayed this by the analogy of a wedding feast.
Both are valid expressions of different aspects of God’s kingdom, and if either is totally ignored, an unbalanced portrayal will result.
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Despite its different appearance, the message of Jesus and John was the same.
It was not therefore the form of the message that caused its rejection but rather its content.
The message was rejected because it demanded repentance.
For the Pharisees and law experts such a message was received with hostility.
Others might need to repent, but they were confident in their own righteousness.
But for those who knew they were sinners and needed to repent, for tax collectors and sinners, the good news of John and Jesus offered hope and forgiveness, and it was gladly accepted.
They saw the ministries of Jesus and John as evidence of the arrival of the messianic age.
Thus once again we see the great reversal.”
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Next, Jesus digs deeper on the specific accusations they made about Him and His forerunner...
And this takes us to our second point.
2) The Criticisms
2) The Criticisms
Verses 33-34: 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!’
So, the criticism of John and Jesus can be summed up as saying that John is considered a fanatic and “has a demon” for his abstinence from food and alcohol...
And Jesus is called a “glutton and drunkard” as He associated with tax collectors and sinners.
It clearly did not matter what Jesus or John did...
Either way the ones who would reject them will find any reason to reject them.
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As we covered last week Jesus said regarding John the Baptist that “among those born of women none is greater than John”.
And we know that Jesus was completely perfect and sinless...
But that does not matter to those who are enemies of truth.
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Beloved, if people can find fault with John the Baptist and Jesus Christ what do you think they will say about you?
Especially, if you are standing on the truth of the Word of God!
The more you declare God’s truth the greater the criticism you will receive...
Often times by those who claim to follow Jesus themselves.
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Remember the Pharisees and Scribes claimed to follow God...
They claimed to speak for God...
But Jesus said in John 8:44 this to the religious elite:
44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
So, do not be surprised of what you are accused of...
To declare God’s truth has a cost...
But we have no other choice as the true followers of the Lord...
For the message we declare is a life saving truth...
And like others sacrificed to declare it to us when we were lost...
We need to do the same.
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So, let us look at what some of those complaints were...
Let’s take a look at what it says in Matthew 9:10–11:
10 And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.
11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
Additionally, consider what it says in Luke 19:7:
7 And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.”
Here our Lord and Savior is ministering to lost sinners...
Yet, the Pharisees ignore this...
All they see is Jesus sharing a table with sinners...
And the ironic thing about it is that the Pharisees are sinners too in desperate need of saving...
But they are blind to their own sin...
They are arrogant and prideful...
And the Lord does not appreciate that...
In fact, He opposes it!
Just look a what it says in James 4:6:
6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
We can’t approach God in an arrogant manner...
He gives mercy and grace to the humble!
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Furthermore, they did not just call John the Baptist a demon...
They said the same thing about our Lord and Savior...
As John 10:19-21 says:
19 There was again a division among the Jews because of these words.
20 Many of them said, “He has a demon, and is insane; why listen to him?”
21 Others said, “These are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”
And it was not just the people who accused Jesus of being a sinner and demon possessed...
But His own family...
The very people He grew up with...
The people He spent most of His life with...
They thought He was insane!
They thought He was crazy!
As Mark 3:21 says:
21 And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”
Instead of being worshiped as God in the flesh...
His own family was ashamed of Him...
His own chosen people rejected Him and said He was filled with a demon...
How sad an awful!
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But, Jesus had a word for His critics...
He had a word for those who opposed Him...
He boldly declared in John 5:37–47:
37 And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen,
38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.
39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,
40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
41 I do not receive glory from people.
42 But I know that you do not have the love of God within you.
43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.
44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope.
46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.
47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
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John only ate locust and honey and lived in the wilderness...
Yet, he was accused of being a demon...
Jesus served the people and meet them at their levels...
Yet, he was accused of being a glutton and drunkard.
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The style of Jesus and John was different in some ways but both preached the same truth with boldness...
And the arrogant could not accept it...
For they wanted a message that boasted their ego and gave them material blessings.
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As the MacArthur New Testament Commentary on Luke says:
“In the end, it is not the style of ministry that matters but its substance.
The people ultimately rejected the ministries of both John and Jesus.
Though their emphases may have differed, both John and Jesus called for repentance, promised forgiveness, warned of judgment, and proclaimed the coming of the kingdom.
The outward form of ministry is never the issue, but rather the truth of the message.
In every generation there will be spiritual brats who reject the truth, like those who refused to mourn with John or laugh with Jesus.
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The Lord’s masterful illustration reveals that there are two kinds of spiritual children in every generation:
Folly’s brats and wisdom’s children.
The brats are fools devoid of true wisdom and marked by a hatred of the truth and rejection of those who proclaim it.
On the other hand, wisdom’s children, the redeemed, are known by the righteous deeds their transformed lives produce ”
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It is the children of wisdom that we bring our attention to next...
And that takes us to our third and final point.
3) The Wisdom
3) The Wisdom
Verse 35: Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.”
Again, I really like how the NLT renders verse 35 which it translates like this:
“But wisdom is shown to be right by the lives of those who follow it.”
In other words...
True wisdom is vindicated by what it produces in the lives of those who follow it.
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Now, this was a proverbial saying that was found in the 1st century...
And essentially it means that a teaching is shown to be wise based on what it produces...
So, this should bring to mind passages of Scripture like Luke 6:44 which says:
44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.
True wisdom is seen in the lives of the faithful servants of the Lord...
And true believers produce very real fruit that gives proof that the Christian life is a life of wisdom...
For we follow God who is the author of wisdom!
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So, the phrase “her children” should be understood to be in reference to the followers of John the Baptist and Jesus...
Therefore, we can rightly conclude that what Jesus is saying is that His and John’s accomplishments ultimately will confirm God’s wisdom in sending them to fulfill His plan for salvation.
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Biblical scholar James R. Edwards puts it this way:
“Despite the critical mass that rejects Jesus, as it earlier rejected his forerunner John the Baptizer, followers of Jesus are living witnesses to the wisdom of God, in the same way that fruit is a living witness to the nature of the tree that bears it.”
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Let us not ever forget one of the most cherished truths found in Scripture in Proverbs 1:7 which says:
7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
John and Jesus taught and preached God’s truth...
As we have discussed this meant that it included instructions to repent...
Yet, a foolish individual will no tolerate that...
They will despise this wisdom and seek out their own glory.
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But the wise...
The wise know that the beginning of all true and life saving knowledge is found in the fear of the Lord.
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Do you have wisdom?
Or are you lacking it?
If so, all one needs to do is cry out to God...
As James 1:5 says:
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
Just ask!
It is that simple...
All one has to do is ask for wisdom and God will give it if the request is made with a sincere heart...
All one has to do is forsake the wisdom of men...
All one has to do is abandon the wisdom of the world...
And instead one must put there whole trust in God’s wisdom and they will never be disappointed.
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Romans 12:2 wisely says:
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
The less entangled we are with the world’s priorities the better we will be at discerning God’s will...
And that is true wisdom.
Closing Illustration
Closing Illustration
So, as this message comes to a close...
I would like to share this that I came across in my study this week:
Former Southern Baptist Convention president Adrian Rogers once said:
“It is better to be divided by truth than to be united by error.
It is better to speak the truth that hurts and then heals than to speak falsehood that comforts that then kills.
It is not love and it is not friendship if we fail to declare the whole counsel of God.
It is better to be hated for telling the truth than to be loved for telling a lie.
It is better to stand alone with the truth than to be wrong with the multitude.”
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The reality is that to be the children of wisdom...
To stand for God’s truth...
Means we are never going to be able to please all people.
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In fact, just like John the Baptist and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ...
Regardless of our style...
We too will be hated…
We too will be falsely accused...
We too will be slandered...
But it will not be in vain!
As Jesus said in Luke 6:22-23:
22 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!
23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.
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To God be all the glory.
Amen.
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Please join us for one more song from the Praise Band.
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