Matthew 11:7-19 - Homiletics

The Lord's testimony to John the Baptist.

I. HIS CHARACTER .

1 . He was no reed shaken by the wind. The multitudes who had now heard John's message and the Lord's answer had once gone into the wilderness to see the Baptist, drawn thither by the powerful attraction of his preaching and character. What had they found there? Were they disappointed? Was he unlike the report which they had heard of him? Was he weak, vacillating, wavering hither and thither like the reeds that grew on the banks of Jordan? No; he was one of the strongest of men. They must not misunderstand him; they must not judge him harshly. He had shown some disappointment, it may be, some impatience. The Christ, whom he had so gladly welcomed, had not in all respects fulfilled his expectations; some doubts had perplexed his soul. But who was there born of women who was always steadfast, absolutely independent of outward circumstances and mental depression? John was a great and holy man, an example of firm and constant courage. We must honour good men; we must not magnify the occasional weaknesses which must appear even in the noblest lives. Envious men exaggerate these little blemishes; the world loves to dwell upon the faults of God's people. Christ teaches us to admire the beauty of holiness, and not to talk about the imperfections which must be found even in real saints.

2 . He was no self-indulgent man. He was not clothed in soft raiment, like those courtiers of Herod Antipas who were persecuting him. They lived in kings' houses; he chose the wilderness for his abode. He was wholly unworldly, a very hero of self-denial.

3 . He was a prophet. He was commissioned by God, he spoke for God. But he was more than a prophet, for he himself was the subject of prophecy, and he was (what no other prophet had been) the immediate forerunner of the Christ. He was the messenger of whom that prophet, whose name signifies "My messenger," had spoken. He was the messenger of God, and he prepared the way of God. It is worthy of notice that the words, "Thy way before thee ," of the Gospel answer to the words, "The way before me ," in the prophecy. In the unity of the Godhead there is a distinction of Personality. The Father sends the Son; the Lord of hosts comes himself; for "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Therefore John was more than a prophet, standing as he did in such very close relations with the Lord of whom the prophets spoke.

II. HIS GREATNESS .

1 . There had been no greater man than he. From the beginning, through the long years of the world's history, no one had surpassed John in all that constitutes real greatness. In loftiness of soul, in singleness of purpose, in disinterestedness, in heroic self-denial, he stands almost alone, seldom equalled, never surpassed. Such was the judgment of the Lord Jesus Christ. It throws a light from heaven upon the confusion of the world, and shows where real greatness is to be found; not always in king's houses, not always among the rich, the high born, the luxurious. The greatest of men is he who is nearest to Christ, who humbles himself the most, who most denies himself, who is the most steadfast, the most decided in the cause of religion. True greatness is measured by self-denial, by humility, by devotion, by purity of heart and life.

2 . Yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater. What encouragement there is in these words! There had been none greater than John; but the humblest Christian is in some sense greater yet—greater, that is, in privileges, in advantages, in gifts of grace. The kingdom of heaven is the Church of Christ, and all the members of that Church have very high and holy privileges—that fellowship which is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ, the gift of the Spirit, the Word of God, the holy sacraments, all the precious means of grace. "Many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them." John had not seen what the Lord's disciples saw, he had not heard what we have heard; he knew not the blessed story of the cross. He had not our privileges; he had not the helps which we have. He was not himself a member of the Church of Christ, the kingdom of heaven upon earth. He announced it. Those who are in that kingdom are higher in spiritual privileges than the herald of the kingdom. If they used those precious means of grace as they ought, they might be higher in sanctity even than the holy Baptist. Then to be a Christian, to have those sacred privileges, involves an awful responsibility—a very high and holy hope.

III. HIS MINISTRY HAD DONE ITS WORK .

1 . The kingdom of heaven was come. John had announced its coming; it was at hand, he said. Now it was come; it was manifested in the world. The preaching and miracles of Christ had excited a wide and deep interest throughout Palestine. He was followed everywhere by eager multitudes. The enthusiasm for a time was boundless, the excitement intense. They sought to take him by force to make him a King. The kingdom of heaven was suffering violence. There may have been something of undisciplined zeal, of unchastened enthusiasm. It may be that many of these violent ones did not continue steadfast when the days of trial came. But now they crowded into the ranks of Christ's disciples; they offered to follow him whithersoever he went. There was a mighty movement. The kingdom of God was preached, and every man was pressing into it. There is a holy violence, a sacred zeal; but it must be zeal according to know]edge—the zeal of St. Paul or St. John, not a troubled wave of popular excitement. However, this enthusiasm, even if not lasting in all men, was better far than indifference; it showed a real interest in Divine things; it showed that the kingdom was come.

2 . Prophecy was being fulfilled. The prophets had foretold the coming kingdom; the Law, too, had prophesied through its institutions, its ritual, its sacrifices. All was type and prophecy until John; John was the last of the Old Testament prophets. There was no need of types now that the antitype had appeared. Prophets were no longer raised up to predict the salvation of the Messiah; for he was in the world.

3 . It was fulfilled in John the Baptist. John himself was the Elijah of whom the Prophet Malachi had spoken; he had gone before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah. He was not, indeed, the Elijah whom the Jews expected, in their literal interpretation of the prophecy—the actual Elijah of the Old Testament, whom Elisha beheld as he went up by a whirlwind into heaven. But he was the Elijah of whom Malachi had spoken; Elijah's second self, his representative; a reproduction of his character, filled and animated with his spirit.

4 . The importance of this warning. Not all would receive it. People expected a literal Elijah; they would not believe that John was the Elijah of prophecy. They expected a Messiah very different from Jesus, a kingdom very different from that kingdom which was not of this world. But let them listen who had ears to hear, whose spiritual senses were not blunted by the tradition and formalism of the Pharisees. The Lord called for fixed, earnest attention. It was a solemn truth which he proclaimed. The kingdom of heaven was in the world; it was come near to his hearers. It was a momentous announcement. To enter into that kingdom was a blessing unutterable; to reject it involved a tremendous condemnation. For that kingdom was from heaven, and its lead was the heavenly King himself. Listen, and come. "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear."

IV. BUT THE JEWS WOULD NEITHER LISTEN TO THE FORERUNNER NOR TO THE KING HIMSELF .

1 . Their opposition to the Baptist. The Jews in our Lord's time were perverse; they were like wilful children who will not be amused. They reproached John with his asceticism; they said it was severe and unsocial. John (they said) separated himself from society; he would not share in its amusements; his austerity was unnatural, ungenial; he had no sympathy with human life. " We have piped unto you," they said, "and ye have not danced." They did not understand his lofty character. He was not of the world; he had higher aspirations, holier joys; he did not need the pleasures which so many seek; he had no taste for these things, for his whole heart was given to God and to the world to come. That sensuality which he condemned, those festivities which he shunned, brought him to the martyr's death.

2 . Their opposition to Christ. He lived a social life among men, sharing in their innocent enjoyments. He would have us sanctify the whole life, its business and its recreations, as well as its times of prayer and devotion. Therefore he set us an example in all the relations of life. He worked as a carpenter at Nazareth; he mixed freely with men, accepting invitations from time to time, even when publicans and sinners were to sit at meat with him. His conduct was condemned as well as that of the Baptist. Men called him, in their wicked slander, a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber. It was a cruel falsehood; he was absolutely holy, in all things temperate and self-denying. But his exalted goodness excited their jealousy and malice. They hated it; they writhed under the consciousness of his greatness and their own littleness. And so they set themselves to invent malicious falsehoods. They contrasted his life with the asceticism of the Pharisees and the disciples of John. He and his disciples fasted not as they did. They had mourned unto him, and he had not lamented. The world hates holiness; it will attribute unworthy motives to the best of men; it will misrepresent their conduct and try to blacken their character. Whatever they do, whether they live in society or in retirement, they will not escape censorious criticism. Some will be called self-indulgent, others harsh and puritanical. They must not be distressed. They are not alone in this unkind treatment, these false constructions. They suffer no more than the Baptist, who in the Lord's judgment was inferior to no one that had been born of women; no more than the Lord Christ himself. The ambition of the Christian must be to please the Lord. The world's judgment is a very small matter; the judgment of God is of momentous importance.

3 . But there were a faithful few. The wisdom of God was justified by the children of God, by those to whom the Lord had given power to become the sons of God. They received the Saviour; they recognized the wisdom of God in his teaching, in his most holy life. They saw that there was wisdom beth in the life of the Baptist and in the life of Christ. The mission of the Baptist was not that of Christ. His conduct was suitable for the task assigned to him; so was the life of Christ for his most sacred work. The children of God honour holiness wherever they find it; they recognize true holiness in all its forms, under all its varying aspects. They show in their estimate of others the wisdom which is from above, which is first pure, then peaceable, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Such are children of wisdom, being children of God.

LESSONS .

1 . Honour good men; dwell on their excellences, not on their defects.

2 . Take the Lord's estimate of true greatness, not the world's. The world thought Tiberius great; the Lord, John the Baptist.

3 . Try to live up to the responsibilities of the Christian life; it is a high dignity to be least in the kingdom of God.

4 . Hate slanderous gossip; you may be speaking ill of one whom God will exalt.