Sermon Tone Analysis

The Explanation — (Vs.

12-19)

In all my years of studying, I don’t know if I’ve ever come across a verse with so many different interpretations.

Most of the time, the majority of the commentaries I use to study have roughly the same idea on a certain passage of scripture but this one, has had multiple different views and if I’m being honest, I don’t know that any one single one is right or any single one is wrong.

In their own respective rights, I can see each commentators point of view.

Now, I’m not going to share every single one of them with you but just a couple of the different ones I came across this week and then my thoughts on the verse.

The Holman CSB study Bible I have says that this...

“The arrest, imprisonment, and eventual execution of John and the Jewish leaders violent opposition to Jesus were attempts to seize and control the unfolding kingdom of heaven.

The words until now hint that the kingdom will someday break free from the grip of those who seek to restrain it.”

Jerry Vines said this of the verse...

“Many have opinions on what Matthew 11:12 means:… “The interpretation that seems to be the clearest to me is that those who become a part of God’s family do so out of utter desperation and with a great desire.

A person has to get serious to become a child of God.

The person must repent of sin and commit his or her life by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.”

John Phillips said...

The word translated “suffereth violence” here is biazomai.

Probably it refers to the antagonism of the enemies of the kingdom.

The parallel passage in Luke 16:16 reads, “The law and the prophets were until John; since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth [biazomai] into it.”

Biazomai is a form of biazō.

W. E. Vine said that biazō in the middle voice means “to press violently or force one’s way into” and that in Luke 16:16 biazomai “indicates the meaning as referring to those who make an effort to enter the Kingdom in spite of violent opposition.”[3]

Another view is that the expression “suffereth violence” in Matthew 11:12 means that the kingdom was forcing itself upon men’s attention and that forceful ones were laying hold of it.

In other words, the kingdom was being preached with convincing power, starting with John the Baptist.

And lastly, William Barclay writes this...

IN verse 12, there is a very difficult saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.’

Luke has this saying in another form (Luke 16:16): ‘Since then the good news of the kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone tries to enter it by force.’

It is clear that at some time Jesus said something in which violence and the kingdom were connected, something which was a dark and a difficult saying, which no one at the time fully understood.

Certainly Luke and Matthew understood it in different ways.

Luke says that people storm their way into the kingdom; he means, as the New Testament scholar James Denney said, that the ‘kingdom of heaven is not for the well-meaning but for the desperate’, that no one drifts into the kingdom, that the kingdom only opens its doors to those who are prepared to make as great an effort to get into it as people do when they storm a city.

Matthew says that from the time of John until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force.

The very form of that expression seems to look back over a considerable time.

It indeed sounds much more like a comment of Matthew than a saying of Jesus.

It sounds as if Matthew was saying: ‘From the days of John, who was thrown into prison, right down to our own times, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence and persecution at the hands of violent people.’

It is likely that we will get the full meaning of this difficult saying by putting together the recollection of Luke and Matthew.

What Jesus may well have said is: ‘Always my kingdom will suffer violence; there will always be antagonism and people will try to break up the kingdom, and snatch it away and destroy it; and therefore only those who are desperately in earnest, only those in whom the violence of devotion matches and defeats the violence of persecution, will in the end enter into it.’

It may well be that this saying of Jesus was originally at one and the same time a warning of violence to come and a challenge to produce a devotion which would be even stronger than the violence.

Preach, Preacher…Preach!

Then Jesus says, “he that hath ears to hear let him hear!”

John Phillips said in this phrase Jesus added a challenge for intelligent faith: “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear” (11:15).

This expression was used fifteen times by the Lord Jesus.

He used it seven times while He was on earth (in their proper order, Luke 8:8; Matthew 11:15; 13:9, 43; Mark 4:23; 7:16; Luke 14:35) and eight times after He went to Heaven (in connection with the seven churches in Revelation 2–3; and in Revelation 13:9).

The Companion Bible states, “The words were never used by mortal man.

They were heard only from the lips of Him Who spoke with Divine authority.”[4]

As John 7:46 says, “Never man spake like this man.”

When Jesus spoke these words He was trying to get the people to hone in on the message that had just been proclaimed by John the Baptist, by His disciples, and most importantly by Him!

The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!

I am He that was prophesied to come!

I am here!

Flesh and blood and bone standing before you today and yet you don’t believe!

Then look at what He says to them in Verses 16-19.

Jesus begins by saying, “To what can I compare this generation?”

And although the illustration He’s about to give was for that specific generation, I believe it quite correctly describes the generation we are in today as well!

He said, as the NLT puts it,

What I think He’s trying to say here by giving this illustration is that the people of that day and time were indecisive and never happy!

It didn’t matter who was doing the preaching, or how they were doing the preaching, it was the message itself that they were unhappy with!

John Phillips said — He likened that impossible generation to children who reject every effort to please them.

They complain at weddings as well as funerals.

Jerry Vines put it this way — Jesus was talking about the ministry and the way people respond.

IF people don’t want the message, no messenger will do.

John came in funeral mode, preaching judgment, wrath, hell, and repentance.

People didn’t like that approach.

Then Jesus came in the wedding mode, preaching love, mercy, joy, victory, and abundant living.

Critics called Him a friend of publicans and sinners.

Tony Evans said they were like a group of fussy children who were never satisfied!

Whether it were John or Jesus, the message remained the same… “repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

And when I really began to ponder on this thought, the indecisiveness is what sticks out to me most.

In the illustration, one group of friends is trying to get another group to play with them and so they try wedding songs.

When that doesn’t work, they played funeral songs.

But no matter what songs they were playing the friends would play along with either!

What I see is a people who have heard the message of repentance preached by multiple people now…John, Jesus and Jesus’ Disciples.

But no matter who is doing the preaching, there’s a great group of people who won’t believe!

A great group of people who aren’t willing to choose eternal life over this life and eternal death!

A group of people who love the things of the world over the things of God!

A group of people who aren’t willing to get off of the sinking ship!

And I’m here to tell you today, that this generation is no different!

So many people have heard of Jesus; have heard the Word of God preached with power and vigor but simply are not willing to let go of the grasp that the world has on them!

This thought could go back to what we talked about earlier where it speaks about the violent taking it by force!

Listen to me this morning friend, this world and the prince of this world, will put a death grip on you if you will let it and the only way to break free from that grip of death is by force!

You have to rip yourself from it’s grasp and say I’m no longer gonna be a slave to sin! I’m going to be a child of the most high God!

And the only way that’s going to happen is if you get as serious about your salvation as your Savior was serious about you!

Then Jesus says, “But wisdom is justified of her children.”

Tony Evans said — that means, your ability to apply spiritual truth will be demonstrated by what you do.

Be wise this morning and trust in Jesus.

Stop being indecisive and choose Jesus.

Put away your own fleshly desires and put on the things of God.

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus!

Because if you don’t, judgement is sure to follow which leads us to our next point...The Condemnation in Verses 20-24!

The Condemnation — (Vs.

20-24)

Upbraid = Reprimand

“Because they repented not!”

Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum were all cities on the northern shores of the sea of Galilee and Matthew says that they were the sites where most of the Lord’s mighty works were done.

Chorazin we know little about but Bethsaida was home to Peter, Andrew and Philip.

Capernaum was the home base of our Lord’s operations and yet harsh words He has for all three cities because of their lack of repentance.

John Phillips — They had heard the sermon on the mount, they had seen His miracles, and they had received the witness of John the Baptist and the twelve apostles, but they “repented not.”

Jesus had lived and loved and labored in those cities.

There He had done His mightiest works; there the light was brightest; there the evidence was irrefutable.

They had been firsthand witnesses of the reality of His claims, yet they had refused to change their minds about the nature of the kingdom, the nearness of the King, and their need for repentance.

Jesus compares Chorazin and Bethsaida to the cities of Tyre and Sidon, which were gentile cities, and says, “if the mighty works which were done in you were done in them, they would have repented long ago in sackloth and ashes!”

And then He says some words that should have made the people of Chorazin and Bethsaida repent in a moments notice, “it will be more tolerable for them on the day of judgment that it will be for you!”

JUDGMENT DAY IS COMING FOR EVERYONE!

And then He goes on to Capernaum, His home away from home, and this reference really got me, “thou which are exalted unto heaven.”

This city had the light of the world residing in it’s midst and it chose rather to live in darkness!

A piece of heaven had come to live among them and they shut Him out and looked upon Him as a glutton, winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!