"Jesus had finished instructing his 12 disciples. He went on from there to teach and preach in their cities. Now, when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, are you the one who is to come? Should we look for another? And Jesus answered them, go and tell John what you hear and see. The blind receive their sight and the lame walk. Lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me. They went away. Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John. What did you go out in the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind. What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing. You hold. Those who wear soft clothing are in kings houses. What then? Did you go out to see a prophet? Yes, I tell you. And more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written. Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way for you. Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven. Greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence and the violent. Take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. He was ears to hear from here."

Grass withers, the flower fades. But the word of our God endures forever. As a culture. We are obsessed with efficiency. In every aspect of our lives. We're always looking to outsource or to work toward the division of labor for increased specialization in every area, whether in our personal lives or in our work. And we are constantly on the lookout for new products, new tools, new services, new technologies to either make some of our work or daily tasks more efficient or if, if possible, to automate them all together. You may know there's a new software tool online that uses artificial intelligence that you can put in a prompt. Something like you might be asked on a on a college turn paper, and this thing will just spit out a scary, accurate answer in just moments, telling you exactly what you need to know. Maybe if you trust those sorts of things. Um, you know, our culture, as we think so much about all of these technologies and everything like that. We have come to be shaped to expect that unless we can get something big and get it now, then one of two things is true. Either it's just not worth doing.

The juice isn't worth the squeeze. That's not an efficient use of our time, energy, and efforts. Or we need to keep working. We need to tweak. We need to keep making the adjustments we need to make to get something big and to get something now. And this thinking, I think, affects even the way that we look at the church sometimes. You know, for example, you may be aware of the story of the Asbury revival over the last few weeks in Wilmore, Kentucky, at Asbury University. Uh, there was a chapel service that began on February 8th, and it just continued, uh, all the way until the February 24th. For over two weeks, there was continuous chapel service going on. Uh, it drew some estimates, as many as 50,000 to 70,000 participants at this. Now, I'm not here today to critique that one way or another or to give any kind of judgment. But I do hold that out is something that we see, these stories that we hear and we think. How should our experience be something like that? Especially. I want to draw everything that I've been asking here so far this morning to think about the experience we have of the church here at this particular congregation at Harvest Community Church, as we look at everything we're doing here this morning, as we think of all the aspects of life in the church. That's sometimes the question arise in your mind where you say, is this what I should expect? Or is there more? Is this what we should be expecting from life in the church? Or is there perhaps more that we are waiting for? Let me try that question from John the Baptist, who asked this kind of a question to Jesus himself, are you the one who is to come, the one we should expect? Or do we look for another? What should our expectations be shaped by now? Jesus in this passage is reshaping our expectations, reshaping the way that we think not to look for the big and to look for it now.

But to be patient, to follow in his footsteps. The slow and steady study of the scriptures of the Word of God contained in the Old and New Testament. Jesus lays out here. And so our big idea today, as we think about what Jesus gives us as this. That Jesus forcefully advances the kingdom of heaven by preaching and teaching. Jesus forcefully advances the kingdom of heaven. My preaching and teaching. Ordinary lane, slow methods, preaching and teaching. So in this passage we're going to see three aspects to what Jesus is teaching us. First of all, the deeds of the coming one, the deeds of the coming one in verses one through six. And second of all, the developments before the king, the developments coming before the King. And then third, the dynamics of the kingdom. The dynamics of the kingdom.

1. The Deeds of the Coming One (Matt. 11:1–6)
2. The Developments before the King (Matt. 11:7–11)
3. The Dynamics of the Kingdom (Matt. 11:12–15)

The Deeds of the Coming One (Matt. 11:1–6)

Let's start with the deeds of the coming one, verses one through six. This one is a transition from the previous chapter into what we're going to read now in chapter 11. Remember in chapter ten, the previous chapter, Jesus had been training his disciples for the mission that he was going to send them on to go out into all of the cities and villages to rescue the lost sheep of the house of Israel by preaching to them the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now we have no record of the disciples actually going on this mission. Instead, Matthew directs our attention to a different point of emphasis not so much on what the disciples are doing, but what instead Jesus is doing after he trains his disciples to go out on this mission. Undoubtedly, they went on this mission, but Matthew wants us instead to think about what happens with Jesus next. In verse one we read when Jesus had finished instructing his 12 disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities. And this raises a question why is Jesus continuing to teach and preach again? If we want to get into the specialization of the workforce and we want to get into division of labor, Jesus has now trained his disciples to take up the the routine, the mundane, the slow and steady work of preaching and teaching in every city and every village. Why, then, does Jesus continue on this? Usually when we think of this sort of a thing, we think, boy, you gotta you gotta get rid of all of these, these lower tasks, these lower level things, so you can free yourself to work up on more important things.

Shouldn't Jesus be dividing his labor and now focusing on the big picture? Shouldn't Jesus be actually making something happen? Finally. But no, our Lord retrains our priorities. I want his disciples are out there doing this work with him. Jesus continues and focuses on the exact same work of preaching and teaching. Now this is important again. First of all, because it retrains our priorities. Where would we slot this work? How would we rate the work of preaching and teaching that Jesus insists upon continuing on, even after training his disciples to do the same work? But the second reason this verse is important to transition into what comes next. Is that these are the deeds that John the Baptist is examining when he sends his question to Jesus. In verse two, we read. Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, what deeds of the Christ, what we just read about them. Jesus is talking about his preaching and teaching. That's what John has heard about. Those are the deeds that he's thinking about. And that prompts John to ask this question. He sends his disciples, sent word by his disciples to ask Jesus in verse three, are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another? What does John mean by this question? There are various explanations given to this.

Some think that maybe John is not so much concerned about answering his own question, but he's worried about his disciples. He wants his disciples, John's disciples, to understand that Jesus is the Christ. John knows that. But his disciples are not quite so convinced. And so by sending his disciples to get the answer straight from the mouth of Jesus, maybe Jesus can convince them to have faith in him. Now, I'm not convinced by that explanation for John's question because of the way that Matthew explains what John is doing. John says that he John sent word by his disciples the way that's phrase suggests that this is John's question. This is what John wants to know, not his disciples, primarily. Others. Then try to explain what John is doing by saying, well, maybe John has lost faith in Jesus. He's done with him. He's saying, you've wasted too much of my time. You're just still out there preaching and teaching. And he's lost faith in Jesus and he wants to move on. But that can't be the case either. If John has indeed lost faith in Jesus, then why would he send his disciples to ask Jesus? He's trusting Jesus enough to give an answer to this question. It can't be that John has lost faith, but certainly John is curious about why Jesus is spending his time the way that he's spending his time.

What then is John saying? Well, I think it's very important to focus on the exact question that John asks, are you the one who is to come or shall we look for another? But John clearly recognizes the importance of Jesus. John is the one. Remember who baptized Jesus. John is the one who pointed to Jesus in the Gospel of John and said, Behold the Lamb of God. But it seems that John is wondering if maybe Jesus isn't the final one to come. But maybe by the fact that Jesus is continuing to engage just in preaching and teaching, and hasn't gone on to do these great, mighty deeds that the Messiah is supposed to do. Maybe there is another one to come. Maybe someone else will come and bring upon the mighty judgments that the Messiah is supposed to bring. John is wondering that. Is Jesus, the final one who is to come? And maybe he just doesn't understand things quite yet. Or should we expect another to come? And when John doesn't understand, is that Jesus planned on coming twice into this world. Eternal Son of God came first, taking upon himself a human nature to do everything we read about in the Gospels. Teach, preach. To lay down his life as a sacrifice for sinners, so that everything that Jesus would do during his life and through his death would look weak, would look utterly unassuming, utterly unpowerful, as though Jesus has spent all of his time and accomplished nothing of any significance.

Of course, that's not where the story would end. Jesus would not end his story in a grave, but on the third day, he would be raised up from the dead with victory over sin, death, and the devil forever. 40 days later, after that, Jesus would then ascend into heaven, where he is still seated at the right hand of God the Father, interceding. For sinners like you and me, until the day that he comes again to do exactly what John was looking for. To bring judgment into the world. To judge sinners. To bring the righteous into everlasting life, and to establish the fullness of the kingdom of God on earth. That's what John wanted to see, and that's what Jesus didn't give him on this first coming. That's what John doesn't understand. Jesus answers John's question in verses four and five. By answering John's question and yet by not answering it, he answers the question. But he doesn't get to that underlying concern, that underlying doubt. In verses four and five, Jesus answered them and said, go and tell John what you hear and see. The blind receive their sight and the lame walk. Lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.

Now, why does Jesus list all of these things that he has done well? He's reframing, repackaging, explaining the miracles that we've seen Jesus do so far in the language of prophecy, specifically the prophecies of Isaiah, chapters 34 through 61, prophesying all the things that the Messiah would do when he came into the world. Jesus framed everything he was doing to sort of answer John's question. Yes, I am the one who is to come. Yes, I am the Messiah. In fact, I'm even going to tell you about something that I've done that Isaiah did not directly prophesy. Namely, I've been raising the dead back to life. Yes. Jesus is the one to come. No, John need not wait for another. Again, Jesus isn't explaining all of this yet. Much more has to happen before the fullness of what Jesus would do would become clear. But for now, John gives something of a mild rebuke to John. A mild rebuke. That is also an encouragement. In verse six he said, blessed is the one who is not offended by me. Don't be offended by me, John. Don't lose heart. Don't lose faith. I am doing exactly what I came into this world to do. All will be accomplished. But in the meantime, wait until I'm able to do everything that will come. And the importance of this mild rebuke. The importance of this encouragement is that things are actually going to look weaker, to look even more foolish than they do right now.

Again, Jesus has been engaged in what ministry and the ministry of teaching and preaching. What Jesus is doing is what the world sees as foolishness, as weakness according to the wisdom of the world and the strength of the world. Jesus is power. Jesus wisdom is veiled in all of this. But again, it's going to become much worse as Jesus approaches nearer and near to the cross. Calvin says this. He says, When Jesus goes to the cross, Jesus will appear disfigured and despised and exposed to the reproaches of the world, because he calls us to share in his afflictions, because his glory and majesty being spiritual or despised by the world, and in a word, because his doctrine, his teaching is totally at variance, totally at odds with our senses. You see here, we cannot see Jesus's full power and glory. And what Jesus is saying is that we shouldn't expect to see it. Blessed is the one who is not offended by this. Jesus is calling John and us follow him by faith and not by sight. Now what John is struggling with here, and maybe what we struggle with sometimes, is that this doesn't look like the works of a powerful king. We have sort of an idea of what that might look like for a powerful king to enter onto the scene, and this certainly does not look like a powerful kingdom.

You can read history and read about the rise and fall of all kinds of different empires through the course of history. This is unlike any of that. This doesn't look like a powerful king. It doesn't look like a powerful kingdom. But if we know the scriptures and this is part of what Jesus is drawing on, if we know the scriptures, this is precisely what we should expect from a King of Israel. We should expect someone who is given over to the slow and steady study and teaching of the Word of God. You know, in the Old Testament law, there's actually very little that governs the ways that the kings were supposed to function. There's only one little paragraph in the book of Deuteronomy that clearly lays out what a king is to do. And if this is supposed to shape the Israelites ideas of the kingdom of heaven and and the King Jesus who's standing in their midst, well, we better look at that little paragraph to see what it says. And one of the very few things in this very small paragraph that's actually laid down about what kings were supposed to do, is the requirement that a king must. Here's Deuteronomy 17, verse 18, right for himself in a book, a copy of this law approved by the Levitical priests. So the Kings were supposed to write down with their own hands what the law laid out. They were supposed to copy down the law, and then they were supposed to have that law vetted, reviewed, approved by Levitical priests.

Now you have to think about a king coming to the throne and having so much to do, so many things to engage in. Is this really a good use of this king's time? Don't kings become kings precisely so that they can have other people do this kind of wrote copyist work? Doesn't the king have a scribe who's able to copy down the Word of God? You know, part of the purpose of writing down the law was for the King to have this copy of the law, to read all of his life. That's what Deuteronomy 17 verse 19 said. The goal was not merely to have a copy. The goal was for the Word of God to dwell richly in this king, so that when the king then began to reign and govern over the people of God, everything would be guided and shaped according to the Word of God. John is looking at King Jesus. Establishing his kingdom, and is seeing that Jesus is engaged in teaching and preaching the Word of God in these cities. And he's wondering, should a king really behave like this? Well, the scriptures say yes. In. Jesus is reminding John of that very thing, saying, blessed is the one who is not offended by me. But as John's disciples go away to return this answer to John.

It's very important to Jesus that John is not underestimated by the people who've witnessed this conversation. Jesus doesn't want the crowds to think that somehow Jesus is dismissing or undervaluing John.

The Developments before the King (Matt. 11:7–11)

And so this brings us to the second section, the developments before the King. Jesus wants the crowd to know that John has been absolutely essential in preparing the way for the coming of the King, for the coming of his kingdom. And so in verse seven we read. As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John. And he asked many questions. But here's the first one. What did you go out in the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? I think Lensky is right when he says, uh, this, uh, image refers to a man who doesn't yield or who yields to a popular opinion with no solid convictions of his own. He didn't go out to the wilderness to see that you wouldn't have gone out in the wilderness just to see someone who's always taking the the direction of the wind, to see which way the wind is blowing before he articulates his own convictions and principles. Then in verse eight, Jesus goes on and says, what then did you go out to see a man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings houses. They wanted to see someone wearing soft clothing, someone who pursued comfort and riches. They could have gone to the king's palaces, but they knew that John was notoriously dressed like a rough and ready prophet.

He was dressed in the ruggedness of a man like Elijah. He's very clearly associated with Elijah, as we're going to see later in this passage, even to the point of dressing in the rough clothes that Elijah himself wore. In verses nine through ten, Jesus draws to a point. So what then? Did you go out to see a prophet? Yes, I tell you. And more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written. Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you. What Jesus is saying. This isn't a mere prophet. This is the prophet who fulfills the prophecy of Malachi three, verse one, which Jesus quotes here. John is the messenger who has gone before Jesus to prepare his way before him. Gone Men is the greatest of the Old Covenant prophets. And this is what Jesus says in verse 11. In the first part of it he says, truly I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. If we thought that Jesus was dismissing John, undervaluing John, rebuking John, thinking that John was insignificant, Jesus corrects our misunderstanding among those born of women. There has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Then notice the next thing Jesus said. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

So no one has arisen who is greater than John, and yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. What on earth does this mean? This passage that we're looking at today is filled with difficult sayings to understand of Jesus. This is one of those. But clearly Jesus is not saying that John the Baptist stands outside of God's kingdom in the sense that John the Baptist certainly is saved. Jesus is not saying that John the Baptist is not saved. It also certainly does not mean that John has somehow lost his salvation. By asking this question about whether Jesus really is the one who is to come, or whether they should look for another. It's not at all what he's saying. Rather, what Jesus is doing is talking about the progress of redemptive history, the progress of of how God has revealed his ultimate plans for salvation ultimately in Jesus Christ. Um, there's a Dutch theologian, a man named Geerhardus Vos, who talks about the development of of revelation through history, ultimately revealing Jesus Christ as the growth of an acorn into an oak tree. If you look at an acorn, it doesn't look like an oak tree. You can't sort of look at the one and then say, okay, this is the one in miniature of the other. That's not the way it works. But when you plant an acorn into the ground that acorn has within all of its DNA and everything like that, all of the markers, all of the instructions to organically grow into the oak tree.

The one is not just you replace the one with the other, the one grows into the other. And throughout redemptive history, God began by communicating just a little bit in acorn seed size of the gospel in Genesis 315, promising the serpent that eventually the seed of the woman would rise to crush the head of the serpent. Just a little bit of redemptive information. And over time, God began to speak more and more and offer promises, promises and prophecies and types and shadows. That was paving the way, preparing the way, getting people ready for the coming of Messiah. Until the coming of John. John was the greatest prophet because he didn't just talk about Jesus from afar from hundreds of years in advance. He didn't just give a vague, shadowy description of who Jesus was. He pointed right at Jesus and he said, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. No one could do that with that kind of clarity. We get. John has not yet seen the whole picture. John will not live to see the whole picture. He will be martyred for his faithful testimony of the Word of God before Jesus will come to the the height of his redemptive ministry in this world, by giving up his life on the cross and by rising from the dead.

We guess the greatest prophet ever to have arisen is John the Baptist. But yet even the least in the kingdom of God, the smallest child in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John. And my four year old son. If you ask him, what was the Bible reading about tonight and family worship, or what did you learn about in Sunday School? You know what he says. Jesus died on the cross. He knows enough to know. That's probably what dad's looking for when he gets that question that Jesus died on the cross. My four year old son knows the climax of the gospel in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, in a way that John did not. The least of these in the kingdom of heaven has a greater understanding of what God was doing in and through Jesus Christ. And John the Baptist got to see before the point when he was murdered for his faith. When Jesus says here explains not only John's greatness, but also the reason why John asked this question. Because he didn't see the full picture. He didn't understand really the problem. He thought the kingdom could just come directly. And therefore, when the king came preaching and teaching, he didn't understand the solution as it was being worked out. You know, it's a very common thing that you have to understand the problem.

If you don't understand the problem, you won't have the right solution. You think about the great problems in human history, for example, the Black Plague that ravaged Europe in the Middle Ages. People knew there was a problem. People were terrified of the bubonic plague, but they didn't know the solution because they didn't understand the problem. Some people thought the problem was bad blood, and so they would attach leeches to themselves to suck out the bad blood, hoping to protect them from this disease. Others thought it was bad air, and so they made even children to smoke, to breathe in smoke, or to breathe fumes from a sponge soaked with vinegar in the hopes that that would purify things for them. Well, until that problem was clearly understood. And that disease comes from a bacteria that's carried by fleas that are found on rats, but they couldn't find an effective solution. The solution is you got to get rid of the rats and therefore the fleas which carry this bacteria, which can lead to the spread of this disease. They didn't understand the problem and therefore they didn't understand the solution. The same thing is happening with John. John saw part of the problem. He saw the need for the kingdom. And he saw more of the solution that others had in the past. There he is, the Lamb of God who takes the sin away. The sin of the world.

But even John didn't understand the depth of the problem. We didn't understand that God's Messiah must actually die, bleed out and die for sinners to have salvation. I was looking immediately. For what would be big and what would be flashy. And make no mistake, that day is coming when Messiah will return, riding on the clouds and every eye will see him. But when Jesus came first, all of that was veiled. All of that was hidden. And John was understandably, if incorrectly, mistaken. We wonder when we look at the big things in this world, we see, is this it? Or should our maybe not so flashy experience be more like this? And we have to ask ourselves, is this all we have? Or should we expect something else? When Jesus is modeling for us the way he is going to bring the Kingdom of God in this world, and the way that's going to lead into this third section where Jesus is showing the ongoing way in which the Kingdom expands in this world, the dynamics of the kingdom.

The Dynamics of the Kingdom (Matt. 11:12–15)

That's our third section, the dynamics of the kingdom in verses 12 through 15. And once again right out of the bat. In verse 12, we have another very difficult verse to understand. On the days of John the Baptist. Until now, the Kingdom of heaven has suffered violence and the violent take it by force. Now, this is a very difficult passage because we aren't even entirely sure how to translate this.

There's a couple of legitimate options for how to translate this. The difficulty centers on the two uses of this firm violent. The first place that violence is used, it's used as a verb. And so the ESV has, uh, from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence. That's one legitimate translation choice. That's what we would call the passive voice. This could be translated passively, where the kingdom has something inflicted upon it out from outside itself. The kingdom suffers violence. Uh, but in Greek there's, uh, where something does something to you that's a passive kind of a sense. Or you can do something to someone else that's an active kind of a sense. But Greek has what's also called a middle voice, uh, which we don't really use quite the same way in English, but it's the idea of I'm going to do something in relation to myself, not to you, but in relation to myself. And in this case, and this could be translated as a middle voice. And I think this is the right translation. It's talking not about what's happening to the kingdom, but what the kingdom is doing in relation to itself. Namely, this is the way the kingdom will advance. It will advance violently. The kingdom will advance forcefully. Jesus is saying, don't think that this weak, internally, weak looking, preaching and teaching means that the Kingdom of God has been stalled.

The kingdom is still advancing and it is doing so violently through this preaching and teaching. But then there's another use of this word violent in this verse, and the violent take it by force. Well, here we're talking about violent people. Someone who commits violence in one sense or another. It could be those who aggressively seek the kingdom. And this is a positive thing. Or this could be a negative of those who inflict harm upon the kingdom. I think probably the best way to understand this is that, first of all, Jesus is saying that the kingdom of heaven is doing this violent, advancing kingdom of heaven is not tame, it is not limited. It is breaking free into the world. But then, on the other hand, to recognize that the violent. Or responding to this by attacking the kingdom at every turn. The kingdom of heaven is not passive, it is advancing forcefully. But even so, the kingdom of heaven is viciously and brutally attacked by evildoers. And this fits the context. God is looking at Jesus's teaching and preaching and wondering, how can that really help anything? But Jesus is defending what he's doing by saying, this is working. Go tell John what you've seen and heard. The kingdom is advancing forcefully, violently. Nothing can stop it now. But at the same time, Jesus is acknowledging that the kingdom will not go unscathed.

It will suffer violence along the way because in reaction to the proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom, the violent will attack it. Well then in verse 13, Jesus goes on. And since for all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you're willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. But Jesus is saying is it's always worked in the same way. The prophets in the law all pointed forward. They were all moving forward, the kingdom of heaven, until the coming of the King into this world. But at every turn the kingdom was oppressed and attacked. Just as John is being attacked. John is in prison. At this time, people resort to violence to try to stop the proclamation of the Word of God and the teaching of the Word of God through the prophets and the law. And now in John the Baptist. But Jesus, John says, or but John, Jesus says, is Elijah. Now here Jesus is pointing to Malachi four, verse five, where there was a prophecy that the kingdom of God would come in this way before. Behold, I send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. It was a prophecy that Elijah would come. And Jesus is not here saying that John the Baptist is somehow Elijah reincarnated, brought back to life. What are you saying is that John the Baptist has fulfilled the function that was prophesied about Elijah, that he stood in the role of Elijah, preaching the Word of God and preparing the way for the coming of the kingdom.

And he suffered for it, just as Elijah suffered for it. But Jesus brings all this to a close. At verse 15. He knows he's talking, talked about, difficult to understand things. And so in verse 15 he says, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Takes faith to understand this faith, to believe that the Word of God is still making progress, even when we can't see its progress in the world. Well, Jesus is calling us to is patience. Trust that what he is doing in the world through the proclamation of the gospel really will accomplish what he has promised to do through it that God's Word will not return void. So hard to be patient, though. Maybe you've had that experience where you've been installing software on your computer, or you've clicked a purchase thing and you've come to a screen that says, don't hit the back button, don't hit restart, don't unplug your computer, don't do anything. Why? Well, you might get extra charges if you're buying something, or you might fry your computer if you interrupt things at this stage, even though you can't see it, trust us, there's something going on behind the background. You're just sitting there thinking, am I just being an idiot? Am I being punked? Is someone watching me? Is anything really happening here? And what we're being warned there is.

Don't stop the process. What has to happen is happening. Even though it's invisible before your eyes, all that needs to happen is being accomplished. Same thing is true with preaching and teaching. Again, our big idea is that Jesus is forcefully, violently advancing the kingdom of heaven by preaching and teaching of all things. Well, as we think about how to apply this passage, as Jesus is teaching us about his own ministry, about the significance of John the Baptist and the dynamics of the Kingdom, the application here is this seek the Kingdom of Heaven through the preaching and teaching of the gospel. As we think about this, the world has a way of working. We know what gets things done in this world. Thousands of years of history shows us that violence works. And Jesus is insisting on his own kingdom is going to break violently into this world, but not in the way that we would think it would. The way of the world says that if you want something done or something done right, compel someone to do it with violence. That's how you get things done, right? But God says that his ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. And Zechariah four verse six, the Lord says, not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts. This is the world looks upon the simple preaching of the gospel as both weak and foolish.

Even John was tempted to discount what Jesus was doing in teaching and preaching the Word of God. Didn't the Messiah be doing real things? Shouldn't the King do impressive things to establish his kingdom? Or should we expect another? And let's be honest, even we look at preaching as ineffective in this world. Can we be out in the world tackling the challenges and problems of the world? Wouldn't our time be better spent doing something for the kingdom? Instead of sitting here listening to someone drone on about the kingdom? And if we don't have a revival here, what can we do to tweak our methods to get it? We want to think like this sometimes. Jesus's priorities challenge us. Even after he's trained his own disciples to preach, he gets right back into it. Because preaching and teaching is the method by which Jesus will extend, expand, and establish his kingdom. Violently advances kingdom not because of the gifts or the strengths of the preacher, not because of the quality of the sermons, even so much. Not because we are hoping that one of these sermons is somehow going to go viral. Because Jesus insists on advancing his kingdom by preaching, not because it looks strong, but because it looks weak. Humanly speaking, words just don't seem to do anything in this world. Preaching holds out Jesus Christ to us by faith.

I can't point you to him visibly. I can't summon or conjure him here bodily. But through the Word of God, Jesus promises us to meet us in His Word and by His Spirit. And in this Jesus gets the glory. When sinners come to faith in Christ and Him crucified, because a wretched, crooked stick like me stood up in a pulpit, opened a Bible, and proclaimed from the Bible the straight and narrow way of Jesus. God gets all the glory. The preacher gets nothing from this. Because through preaching, people truly see Jesus crucified by faith. No one's going to praise the weak and fearful trembling of the preacher. It will instead come to praise Christ. This is the last way we would build a kingdom. And yet Jesus insists it must be done this way so that he gets all the glory. Perhaps the greatest proof of the power of preaching comes in the violent response of the world to preaching. The world mocks preaching. The world criticizes preaching. The world says, what are you doing? And yet, when it comes down to it, the world attacks the preaching of the gospel. By God's grace, we have freedom to preach the gospel here. But around the world and throughout history, where the gospel has been faithfully preached and people recognize its implications in the world, they violently sought to oppress the kingdom of God. The world rages against the gospel because the world understands two things.

Number one, that the gospel is the scepter of Jesus Christ by which he reigns in his kingdom. Number two, that therefore it is a direct threat to the power of this world. I'm going to conclude then. Very practically. I don't want to just preach about preaching. I want to preach about Jesus. I want to give you some tools to interact with preaching. You are not passive observers when you hear sermons. The preaching of the Kingdom of God. The preaching of the King, Jesus Christ is something that you should respond to actively. You should respond namely in your heart. Now, this doesn't mean that you have to shout things back at me. We're told in first Corinthians 14 that our services should be decent and orderly, so that when one speaks, all others are silent. But in the dialogue of worship, what first Corinthians 14 verse 28 says is that when we are silent we should speak to ourselves and to God. The one who is silent should speak to himself and to God. That is, we should be constantly jabbering in our hearts, responding to God. Have you thought about preaching that way? Are you responding to God in your heart as you're listening to the Word of God? Are you asking, oh Lord, yes. Help me to hear the gospel. When you hear God addressing your sins, are you saying, oh Lord, yes. Hear my confession of sin.

Forgive my sin. Are you pleading for the grace of Christ in your heart? Jesus, give me grace. Are you asking him for help to hear, to open your ears, to open your eyes? Are you sorrowing over his rebukes? Are you rejoicing over his grace? Are you treasuring over the father's kindness? This is how the kingdom of God violently advances, not at the tip of a physical sword. By the sword of the spirit, the Word of God, as it pierces to the division of joint and marrow, the division of the soul and spirit, as we are responding in faith and prayer. We preach the gospel of Jesus Christ crucified. The spirit gives us invisible eyes to see, invisible ears to hear, invisible hearts to understand the invisible nature of Jesus's glory and power and power. And even though we can't see it externally, Jesus promises us these things, saying, blessed is the one who is not offended by me and saying, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Pray. Heavenly father, we pray that you would give us ears to hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Help us respond in faith. Lay hold of Christ and Him crucified by faith. I pray, whether that's for the first time or the thousandth time, that we once again would return Jesus the salvation of our souls, and for the life and joy and satisfaction and rest and peace that we have in our Savior. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.