I Can't Get No Satisfaction

Introduction

I

Toddler who is fevering, try everything to make the toddler happy

Person, Preaching, purpose

Not satisfied with his Person

N

Have we established our own needs that can never be met, or do we allow Jesus to establish our needs?

T

This text deals with people who no matter all the evidence in Jesus’s favor can’t get no satisfaction that he is who is says he is.

R

Matthew 11:1-19

O

The people eventually identified with “this generation” are not satisfied with Jesus’s person, his preaching, or his purpose.

Person

Matthew 11:1–6 ESV

1 When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities. 2 Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” 4 And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 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. 6 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

Revelation

John the baptist is currently in prison. He hears probably the pharisee’s accusations of Jesus while in prison and has a lapse in judgement.

John sees the Messiah as a revolutionary who ushers in God’s final judgement. He’s been preaching repentance so that people would not receive that baptism of fire, that is judgement. Then he hears about the Messiah dining with sinners and begins wo wonder if Jesus really is the Messiah. John’s question is not hostile but simply seeking confirmation.

Jesus responds by giving specific messianic predictions straight from Isaiah 35 and 61. In other words, Jesus is affirming that he is the Messiah by his actions.

Jesus ends with a blessing in v. 6. When we went through the beatitudes in Matt. 5:3-13 we remember that blessing is not a subjective feeling or physical abundance but the state of being in God’s favor. In other words, the one who is blessed is one who has a close relationship with God.

Again, Jesus roots that blessing, God’s very favor, in how that person views him, the Messiah. So, we can easily reverse this blessing and have the equally true statement, “Cursed, condemned is everyone who is offended by Jesus.” These are those who are not satisfied with his person, who he is, his very identity.

The status of one’s salvation is radically centered around the person of Christ.

In other words, according to this text, whether or not God looks upon you favorably depends on how you view Jesus.

Consider the implication further: Jesus says, “If you are offended by me, you are going to hell”

Relevance

This, of course, is something the Christian church has historically taught, that there is only one way to the Father, through Jesus. And yet, there are many that are offended by that exclusivity. And so, what does the offended person do? He rejects Christ.

How do we know Jesus at all? What if a man is taught about a mormon Jesus who is a brother to satan, is not eternal, is not fully part of the one godhead, etc. etc. Is the person who trusts in Mormon Jesus going to heaven?

What if someone believes that Jesus is a furry llama who wanders different planets in outerspace. Is such a person going to heaven? Is such a person blessed by God?

Consider the statement again:

Matthew 11:6 “6 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.””

Now consider the question: How do we know who he is?

Is it through experience? Is it through personal revelation? Is it by reasoning him out?

At the end of the 1800’s there was a movement to discover the “historical” Jesus. The believed its silly and childish to believe in anything supernatural. So the miracles recorded in the Bible, these people would say, are obviously exaggerations. So, how can we get to know the real Jesus of history, not the one painted in Scripture? Remove all the miracles. This of course means to remove the miracle of the resurrection as well. And if we have faith in a dead Christ, who did not raise from the dead, we are of all people most to be pitied accd. to Paul in 1 Cor. 15.

The only reliable way to know Christ is to know him through his Word.

Scripture bears witness to Jesus John 5:39 “39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,”

Faith in Christ comes through the Word Romans 10:17 “17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

So we either have Jesus as he is plainly revealed in the Scripture, or we have guesswork or an idol of our own making.

Let me read to you from our statement of faith that we say we believe as Southern Baptists. This statement is a summary of over 70 passages of scripture that teach about Jesus:

Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord.

Is this the Jesus you believe in? The one revealed by the Scripture? Or does something in these statements offend you? Sinners are naturally offended by being called a sinner and so they want to embrace Jesus and so they change him.

If you want an extreme example of this, listen to the lyrics of this song that were just sung in United Methodist Church in Milwalkee WI last month, “I’m f**** gay and thank God for that Christians cast me out but Jesus had my back”

Pretty sure it was Jesus who said Matthew 19:4–5 “4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?”

But you have so many different Jesus that contradict the one true Christ.

Take the revolutionary Marxist Jesus who came to overthrow systems of economic oppression. Of course, you have to ignore all of Jesus’s calls to repentance, salvation and eternal life.

Or Jesus who is just a good teacher that told us to love others. This claim ignores the fact that JEsus claimed to be God, performed miracles, and rose from the dead.

You have Jesus the self-help guru who wants you to achieve personal fulfillment, success, and inner peace. This ignores Jesus being motivated by the glory of God and his call to take up the cross daily.

You have Jesus the cosmic avatar who was an enlightened one like the Buddha. But this denies Jesus’s uniqueness, his incarnation, and his historical reality.

You have Jesus the national mascot who becomes the cheer leader for your political party. But this ignores that Jesus said his kingdom is not of this world.

You have Jesus the life coach who wants to always affirm you to be true to yourself. But ignores Jesus’s judgments on unbelievers and his calls to repentance.

You have therapeutic Jesus who is a soft-spoken, always-smiling, vaguely romantic figure who mainly exists to make you feel better about yourself and get through your hard day. But this simply makes Jesus into a mood manager and ignores his authority, holiness, and call to discipleship through suffering.

All of these different views of Jesus are offended by something true about Jesus. They are offended that Jesus was a historical reality. That he truly performed miracles. That he is truly God. That he is truly man. That he called people to repentance. That he forgives sins. That he demanded people obey him as Lord. That he died on calvary’s hill. That he rose again from the grave.

Let me ask you plainly: Do any of these Scriptural truths offend you?

Matthew 11:6 “6 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.””

If you are offended by Jesus, stop calling yourself a Christian.

Luke 6:46 “46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?”

The one who makes up a Jesus for himself will never be satisfied by him.

And maybe you think I’ve taken this too far. Why should I get into our motivations for coming to Christ? I mean, can Jesus really be after our deepest feelings like that?

Yet this is exactly what he does when he discusses John the Baptist.

Preaching

Matthew 11:7–15 ESV

7 As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 8 What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. 9 What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 This is he of whom it is written, “ ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’ 11 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 is greater than he. 12 From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has [forcefully advanced], and the violent [try to plunder it]. 13 For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, 14 and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. 15 He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Revelation

John the Baptist was a contemporary of Jesus. He was preaching when Jesus started his public ministry.

He asks the people why they all went out to see John preach. The reed shaken in the wind is a preacher who tells people what they want to hear, he goes with the wind. Certainly that wasn’t John. A man dressed in silk would be in a palace, not wear John was. John was an uncompromising preacher with an unpopular message and an inflexible character to go with it. What motivated the people was the fact that he was revered as a prophet.

Jesus affirms that John is a prophet. He affirms that John is the last of the prophets, that he is Elijah predicted to return. The Bible denies any sort of reincarnation. Calling John Elijah merely means that he preaches in the style and has character like Elijah. And thus, John fulfills prophecy concerning the Messiah.

Notice that Jesus here claims that the whole of redemptive history begins with him, not even with John. He says “from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom has been forcefully advancing.” We know this kingdom has started advancing in Christ and not in John because the previous verse tells us that even though John is the greatest of all, the one who is the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. This is not to say that John is not saved but that he is a part of a different economy in salvation history. Again, Jesus remarkedly centers the change of salvation history and advance of God’s kingdom around himself. But people are not satisfied with his preaching.

Relevance

And so he mentions that violent men try to plunder it. (harpazo)

Again we see there is continuity in the message of John the Baptist and Jesus. Both of their sermons revolve around repentance. Yet there are people who want the goods of the kingdom without wanting the God of the kingdom. This is the sin of the tower of babel. They wanted to be in God space without having God there.

This is so much of many religions today. Everyone wants happiness, ease of conscience, peace, good moods, meaningfulness, but not everyone wants to have to bow the knee to Jesus to attain it. They would rather plunder.

But the plunderers will never be satisfies with their goods without God. It’s like the fevering toddler who gets distracted by a toy for a little bit, but then begins to feel the symptoms again.

The message of John and Jesus is unified around the centrality of the Messiah which Jesus claims to be. Jesus examines their motives for going to see John as the prophet that he was. And now that Christ is advancing the kingdom he warns all that would attempt to plunder it: to take the crown without the cross, to have the benefits without the baptism, to have the love without the law, to have to worth without the worship, to have the relationship without the religion.

What does Jesus’s preaching demand? Obedience from the heart, repentance of sin, absolute devotion to him. But people are not satisfied with that.

Purpose

Matthew 11:16–19 ESV

16 “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates, 17 “ ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’ 18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”

Revelation

This generation is those who have rejected John as a prophet and Jesus as Messiah. Jesus compares them to children who are frustrated with their playmates who did not play the game correctly. The children have insatiable demands. No matter how their playmates perform, the will never be satisfied.

And so they look at John and don’t like him because he’s strange and fasts too much. And the look at Jesus and don’t like him because he is not fasting and associates with sinners.

“Wisdom” Jesus says at the end “is justified by her deeds.” And what he means by this is that there is a time for fasting and a time for eating. In other words he is saying even though he and John both acted very differently, they both acted in wisdom. And to test their behavior, we should use wisdom.

Christ has his purpose for why he has come, but this generation has already invented a purpose for him to fulfill. And if he doesn’t he loses.

Relevance

But instead of using wisdom to justify their actions, that generation and many to come established an unwinnable game for them to play. And when they could not win, well, they rejected them.

Have you ever played a game with a kid who kept changing the rules? Why do they keep changing the rules? So that they can always win.

“This generation” that Jesus references always wants to win. They don’t want to submit to God’s word proclaimed by the prophet John and they certainly don’t want to accept Christ as Messiah. So instead of playing by the rules—which is wisdom revealed by God, they change the rules so they don’t have to repent. They don’t want to submit to Jesus’s purpose as messiah and his vision for salvation, because they’ve already invented their own purpose for their messiah so they will win. If their demands for who the Messiah should be are never met, they don’t have to submit to him.

And this puts us in a dangerous, teetering position doesn’t it?

What are our expectations of the Messiah? What do we believe we need to be saved?

Money? Emotional stability? Therapy? Government? Education?

If we come up with our own rules for salvation and what we need to live a whole fulfilled life, we are either going to say that Jesus does not meet them and reject him, or invent a Jesus who does meet them and end up in idolatry.

When we say we trust in Jesus we affirm that He is real and he knows best. We allow him to “make the rules” so to speak.

The people of “this generation” were never satisfied.

Application

I’m sure you know it is a given to be in God’s word daily. Our very lives depend upon his Word. As you read his word, I want you to ask yourself this question, “Is this the Jesus that I serve?” This is a good opportunity to read one of the gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. Pick one. Don’t base it on my preaching, read the text for yourself. Read a chapter and ask yourself, “Is this the Jesus that I serve?” I carry this question with me when I approach the text.

What do you do with the answer?

I’m not saying that if you have to admit “No” that you’re an unbeliever. There are things that, even for us who are in Christ, will be something new or something we have missed. You can affirm the doctrinal statement I read before, be fully assured of your salvation and still discover something knew about the Jesus you serve.

The question of salvation is not whether you know everything there is possible to know about Jesus. That would be an impossible task. The blessing of salvation of course, is that when you find something Scripturally true about Christ are you offended or are you delighted? The unbeliever is offended by the biblical Christ but the believer is delighted by him.

So take this question, “Is this the Jesus that I serve?” put it in your tool kit. Treat it like a level. Allow it to strengthen your faith and walk in greater righteousness.

When I was putting in a post for mailbox, I would get one side level, move it around and realize the other side was not level. It took constant tweaking to make sure it was all right.