The Scripture:
Matthew 11:12-19
12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. 13 For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. 14 And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come. 15 He who has ears to hear, let him hear!
16 “But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions, 17 and saying: ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; We mourned to you, and you did not lament.’ 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, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her children.”
The Offer of the Kingdom and the Shocking Response
After ten chapters of the ministry of Jesus Christ, the eleventh chapter presents Christ as King, offering God’s kingdom to perishing sinners. He started His ministry in Matthew 4:17; the first words of Jesus Christ were: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This kingdom of heaven is offered to depraved men.
After ten chapters of this offer, Matthew 11 and 12 list the responses of the people. If we can realize the glory of the kingdom and the significance of the offer at this time in history, these responses are very shocking. We already saw the first response of doubt from John; now we will see criticism, indifference, then blasphemy, and finally rejection and hatred to the point of wanting to kill Jesus.
All these are wrong responses. Now we ask, what should be the right response to the kingdom? Last time, I gave an example: if someone gives a very exciting offer, naturally, we become violent to grasp it. We do not want to miss it. I think verse 12 shows the right response: “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.”
If we rightly understand the glory of the kingdom, the right response should be a response of violence to grasp the kingdom. I tell you, including me, our Christianity is not violent. You remember I preached one year’s sermon: “Have a violent new year,” based on this sermon. It is not just for a year; if we grasp the kingdom offer, we will commit ourselves to a lifelong violence in the Christian life.
I pray and seek that as we try to grasp these chapters, the Holy Spirit may help us become violent in our Christian lives. Puritans have written a lot on violently entering the kingdom of God. I was tempted to preach a series on how to be violent in the Christian life. I want to do something different. We will look at one wrong response from the people in Matthew and come back to the theme of violently seizing the kingdom of God, and how to do it. That will be the application. On one side, we will see how not to be critical, indifferent, or rejecting, but to be violent in seeking the kingdom of heaven. On one side, how not to respond, and on the other, how to respond.
Today, in verses 16–19, we will look at people criticizing instead of seizing the kingdom of heaven. Before we look at that, I want to give a few reasons why we should seize the kingdom with violence.
Reasons to Seize the Kingdom with Violence
1. The Deplorable Condition of Man
Consider the deplorable condition we are in by nature—a state of misery and condemnation, totally depraved, fallen in a state of total depravity. We think this has no relation to our many troubles in life. No, God gave a trouble-filled life to fallen men to make us realize the depth of our depravity and seek His kingdom. The irony is, in our deceitful heart, loving sin, we give the suffering of this world as an excuse for not entering the kingdom of God. Every pain and tear in this world should remind us of our fallenness. If we realize that is our state, what violence should we use to get out of it? If one were plunged into quicksand, going down and down, what would he do? What violence would he use to come out of it? He would put maximum effort to come out. Sin is a terrible quicksand for the bottomless pit that will sink us into eternal misery. If we have any sense of our depravity, we will naturally be violent in entering the kingdom.
2. Extreme Necessity
We are in an extreme necessity of getting into the kingdom of heaven. We are in a perishing necessity of it; without it, we are utterly and eternally lost. Outside the kingdom of God is no safety; there is no other hiding-place. The vengeance of God will pursue, overtake, and eternally destroy us for our sins. From the wrath of God, the kingdom of God is the only city of refuge in which we can be secure from the avenger. All that are without this enclosure will be swallowed up in an overflowing fiery Tsunami of wrath. Imagine some one hundred people chasing us to cut us to pieces; if we cross the border of a city, we escape. How violently, breathlessly, we will try to enter! Once wrath falls on us, God will have no mercy on them; He will eternally forsake them, show no pity, and His fearful wrath will seize them; all evil will come upon them; and their case will be utterly desperate and infinitely doleful. It will be a gone case with them; such is our extreme need.
3. Shortness and Uncertainty of Opportunity
On account of the shortness and uncertainty of the opportunity for getting into this kingdom: when a few days are past, all our opportunity for it will be gone. Once one second passes, we enter eternity; not one minute will be given to us to enter the kingdom. Our day is limited. We have a lot to do to enter the kingdom. While persons are out of this kingdom, they are in danger every hour of being overtaken with wrath.
4. Christ’s Violence for Our Salvation
How violent Christ was about our salvation and to gain this kingdom for us! He was in agony; He “continued all night in prayer” (Luke 6:12). He wept, He fasted, He died a violent death; He rose violently out of the grave. Was Christ so violent for our salvation—and will we not be violent for our own salvation? How will Christ give His kingdom to those who are so careless for the kingdom that He violently purchased?
The Great Blessings of the Heavenly Kingdom
The blessings of the heavenly kingdom are great because of its great excellency. We are willing to seek earthly things, of trifling value, with great diligence and through much difficulty. See the student so violently studying; see the person in business so violently working; see the athlete so violently training his body—so much sweat and violence and worry for things that will not satisfy, that are vanity. These earthly things that we toil so hard for are uncertain, transient, all like vapor, a palace of snow which will melt as we get older and death comes. Oh, folly it is to put forth all one’s violence for the world, which is but “for a season,” and not for the eternal kingdom which will be forever.
Think of the blessings of the kingdom. Negatively, what will not be there:
- Complete Freedom from Sin: There shall be complete freedom from sin. Complete salvation from sin. Oh, to the man who knows the depth of his depravity! Sin so much controls us here; it is as natural to us to sin as to breathe. The soul that is most refined and cleansed by grace is not without some remaining dregs of corruption. Paul cried out of a “body of sin.” But when we ascend to the heavenly kingdom, this body of sin shall drop off. That kingdom is so pure that it will not mix with any corruption. A sinful thought shall not creep in there. “Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation 21:27).
- Freedom from the Red Dragon: In that blessed kingdom there shall be freedom from the assaults of the red dragon. ‘Tis sad to have Satan daily soliciting us by his temptations, and laboring to trick us into sin. Temptation is the Devil’s bomb plot to blow up the fort-royal of our grace; but this is the blessed freedom of the heavenly kingdom: it is not capable of temptation. The old serpent is cast out of Paradise.
- Freedom from All Afflictions: In that heavenly kingdom there shall be freedom from all afflictions. Our lives now are interlined with troubles. “My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning; my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak” (Psalm 31:10). There are many things to occasion disquiet; sometimes poverty afflicts; sometimes sickness tortures; sometimes unkindness of friends breaks the heart. Our lives, like the seas, are full of tempests. But in the kingdom of Heaven, there is nothing to give grief. There, all is serene and calm; nothing within to trouble, or without to molest.
- Royalties and Excellencies: The royalties and excellencies of that heavenly kingdom are great. We may say of Heaven, as it was said of Canaan (Judges 18:9-10): “We have seen the land, and, behold, it is very good; a place where there is no lack of anything.” Everything is glorious, unmixed, eternal. “Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34). It is prepared from the foundation of the world. If a God can prepare such a beautiful world in six days, if that God is still preparing a kingdom from the foundation of the world, how will that kingdom be? Human language cannot explain that glory. No eye has seen or ear has heard eternal bliss. What excites you? What do you want for bliss? Everything is there.
- Abounding Riches: The heavenly kingdom abounds with riches! All worldly riches come with sorrow. The glory of the kingdom: roads are of gold. How rich is that place where the blessed Deity shines forth in its immense glory, infinitely beyond the comprehension of angels!
- Unmixed Delights: The delights of the heavenly kingdom are unmixed. The comforts here below are checkered. Honor may be stained with disgrace; joy interwoven with sorrow. Joys of heaven are pure and perfect as well as pleasant. Joy forever, no sorrows.
- Eternal Durability: This kingdom above is durable—eternal. Suppose earthly kingdoms to be more glorious than they are—their foundations of gold, their walls of pearl, their windows of sapphire—yet they are still corruptible. Troy and Athens now lie buried in their own ruins. It is “the everlasting kingdom” (2 Peter 1:11). Glories there are everlasting.
Now, methinks, that if we ever will use violence, it should be for this kingdom; this kingdom will make amends for all our labor and pains. Caesar, marching towards Rome and hearing that all the people were fled from it, said, “They will not fight for this city, what city will they fight for?” So if we will not put forth violence for this Kingdom of Heaven, what will we be violent for?
Some things we value only when we lose them will we know. What a vexation it will be at the last to lose the kingdom of glory for lack of a little violence. The greatest pain in Hell, I think, may not be the torture in hell; the gnashing of teeth will be over what great kingdom offer I lost by carelessness and criticism. When one shall think with himself, “I did something in the kingdom—but I was not violent enough. I prayed—but I was not violent in prayers. I heard the word—but I should have violently obeyed. I sorrowed for my sin, but I didn’t violently hate and kill my sin. I made resolutions, but didn’t violently change. For lack of a little more violence I have lost the kingdom!” Oh, what a torture that will be! What will man gain if he gain the whole world and lose his soul? That should be fulfilled for us.
So only the violent take it by force; the only right response is seizing the kingdom with violence.
The Wrong Response: Criticism and Excuses (Verses 16–19)
When God is coming with such a great offer in the gospel to deliver us from all our curses, you know what sinful, blinded men do in verses 16–19? They find fault in the way it comes to them. It is a great shock, and chapter 11 shows that shock. They care not for the kingdom and reject it by criticizing it. Why? They are so earth-bound, so depraved and blind, fixing their eyes on the world with narrow vision, blindness by sin. They criticize the kingdom messengers and give excuses, and reject it.
When we ask them, “See such an offer, seizing it with violence,” they reject it either by citing the difficulty they have in this life. “Oh, what difficulty I have! Nobody has my sufferings. I have so many problems, so I cannot seize the kingdom.” Like a failure to lament in a funeral. Or another group of people, who could come seizing the kingdom, reject it by citing the pleasures and joys they have in this life. “Why not seizing the kingdom? How can I leave so many pleasures in the world, enjoyments? I have to enjoy. I want to enjoy sin and cannot repent and come now.”
These are the two most foolish, horrible excuses of every generation, because of which they don’t seize the kingdom. Because they say they have great worldly worries—if their worries are all solved, God makes them happy—or then they will cite great enjoyments in this world. The truth is, these are lame excuses. Whatever state they are in, whether filled with difficulties or facilities, they will never seize the kingdom, as they are not interested and want to continue in sin.
The Lord very humorously shows how grave their foolish mistake is by giving a parable of children. Is this not the reason most of us give: “Why not seek the kingdom? Because I have so many problems, or I have so many enjoyments”? Our passage shows that is a horrible eternal mistake. Let us look at the wrong response. May God open our ears. Verse 15, He says, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Read Revelation; even today He says this to the seven and all churches in the world.
After talking about the glory of the kingdom, and telling them to seize it with violence, this generation, the generation of our Lord’s time, would not hear. And so He poses a question in verse 16: “But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions.”
I am offering the glorious kingdom. If they have any sense, they will seize it in violent faith. Instead of that, their response is like that of children in the marketplace. They criticize Christ. No matter what He did or what He said, they criticized it. There was no validity in the criticism; they wanted to justify their state and don’t admit their sinful rejection of truth, so they find fault. And there are people like that today. No matter how you say it, what the message is, no matter what is said or what is done by the church or those who represent Christ, they will always criticize it. The problem is not the preacher or the church; it is because they hate and reject the truth. Because they’re not seeking truth, they’re not open to truth, they will not acknowledge their sin, and don’t want to directly say it, so they sit back and find fault with the preacher and church. “That is why I don’t obey it.” That is a very subtle way to reject the truth.
Verse 16: “Where unto shall I liken this generation?” That phrase is a very interesting phrase. In Jewish literature, that is the most common formula for introducing a parable. Now all good teachers know that you have to teach in word pictures or in analogies or similes or metaphors or figures of speech to make people understand things. And that was true with the Rabbis as well. And so they would commonly say this phrase: “To what is the matter like?” “How can I liken this point?” For example, “Compare it to something in life that will make it clear to you?” And Jesus is then, in a very traditional Rabbinic way, launching Himself into a parable. “Where unto shall I liken this generation?” This kingdom which all prophets of old yearned to be in these days, where the least in the kingdom is greater than John the Baptist. That kingdom is offered to this generation. If they have any sense, they will seize it. But this generation… “How can I illustrate what this generation is like?” This response…
And then He begins: “It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling unto their fellows, and saying, ‘We have piped unto you and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you and ye have not lamented.'”
See their response: “complaining.” Now stop there. That’s very interesting. At first reading, you probably don’t want to understand what it is saying. Let me help you a little. In the center of every town and village was a place called the agora in Greek. And the agora means marketplace. And on the market days the people would come in and they would fill up that open space in the middle of town with all of their carts and their little lean-to stores and all of their wares, and they would sell everything in the marketplace. And it was a favorite place for the children to play when they had free hours or when their parents were milling around in the marketplace. And children would inevitably be scurrying through the marketplace, and they would all come together and games would begin to take shape.
This passage continues Christ’s parable of the children in the marketplace, using it to illustrate the sheer perversity and critical rejection of God’s kingdom offer by His generation.
The Game of Life and the Spoiled Sports
A marketplace was essentially the public park of the time, and children often played games that mimicked the life of their elders. The most popular social events they copied were the “Wedding” and the “Funeral.”
- The Wedding Game (Piping and Dancing): Weddings were celebrated with joyous public processions accompanied by pipes and flutes, prompting people to respond with skipping and dancing for joy. The children would mimic this, playing music and calling to their friends to join the joyful procession.
- The Funeral Game (Mourning and Lamenting): Funerals were also public, involving a procession and hired wailers who would mourn and lament, with others responding by beating their breasts. The children would mimic this too, wailing and calling their friends to join the sad rites.
The core of the parable lies in the fact that a group of children—the “spoiled sports”—refused to play either game. As verse 17 explains, the persistent, critical children complained: “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; And we mourned to you, and you did not lament.”
When the first group played the happy wedding game, the critical children would say, “No, we are too sad; we have so many problems, we cannot happily dance now.” When the first group switched to the sad funeral game, the critical children would complain, “No, that is too sad; we have so many things to enjoy, we cannot play this very sad game.”
The principle is clear: the problem was not with the game, but with the children who were unwilling to participate or be satisfied. They were so stubbornly opposed to getting involved that they sat on the sidelines and criticized every approach. Jesus says this is like His generation: their true problem wasn’t their worldly sorrows or joys, but their love for sin and their profound disinterest in the Kingdom that offers deliverance from it. They will not admit their sin directly, so they resort to finding fault with the messengers and methods.
The Application to John and Jesus (Verses 18-19)
Jesus drives the point home by showing how the people criticized both John the Baptist and Himself, despite their completely opposite approaches.
Criticism of John: The Funeral Mode
Verse 18: “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’”
John came in a “funeral mode,” austere and serious, dressed in camel’s hair, eating locusts and wild honey, and living apart in the desert. He was a voice crying out judgment and repentance (Matthew 3). He was the embodiment of the lamenting mood.
Instead of seeing his austere lifestyle as a rebuke to their indulgence, they ridiculed him. They equated him with the possessed man of Gadara, saying, “He has a demon.” They rejected his call to repentance and the Kingdom offer because they judged his method as too severe and abnormal.
Criticism of Jesus: The Wedding Mode
Verse 19 (part one): “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’”
Jesus came in a “wedding mode,” the opposite of John. He got into the flow of social life, shared meals with people, and attended social activities. He was the embodiment of the piping and celebration.
Because He mingled and was accessible, they leveled insulting charges:
- Gluttonous and a Winebibber: They accused Him of excessive eating and drinking (though the wine was customarily diluted). The Greek term used was anthropos phagos, a severely insulting term.
- Friend of Sinners: They criticized Him for befriending “tax collectors and sinners,” the hurting and needy people.
The point of this double criticism is devastating: They were determined not to listen or repent regardless of the message or the messenger. They criticized John because he didn’t mingle, and they criticized Jesus because He did mingle. As William Barclay noted, people determined to remain unresponsive will always find an excuse to reject the truth, often using opposite grounds for their criticism.
The Justification of Wisdom (Verse 19)
Verse 19 (part two): “But wisdom is justified by her children.”
This is the ultimate answer to their criticism. Jesus states that though they criticize Him and John, truth (or “wisdom”) will ultimately be justified by what it produces.
The “children of wisdom” are those who realized the glory of the Kingdom offer, violently seized it, repented, and received the blessings. Their transformed lives and the glorious blessings they receive will prove the wisdom of the Kingdom’s call, whether delivered in the severe manner of John or the merciful manner of Jesus.
The critics, who remain outside, will eventually realize how foolish and sinful they were to reject the offer by merely finding fault. The wisdom of the gospel, which insists on repentance and salvation, is validated by the faithful hearts and lives it accomplishes.
Application: The Violent Response
Criticizing the Kingdom is a horribly foolish and wrong response. The right response is seizing the Kingdom violently.
“The earth is inherited by the meek (Matt. 5:5). Heaven is inherited by the violent. None get into heaven but violent ones.”
To violently enter the Kingdom of God involves three components:
1. Strength of Desire
Violence here denotes a consuming desire for salvation above all else.
- The violent person has such a conviction of the misery of their present state and the necessity of escaping it that their mind is completely wrapped up in this concern.
- This concern prevails above all worldly worries or pleasures, making salvation the one thing needful. They violently overcome both the sufferings and the enjoyments of this world to progress.
2. Resolution of the Will
This involves earnestness and firmness of resolution. The heart must be fully engaged with a strong desire and a firm will.
- The Christian resolves: “Whatever is in the way to heaven (though there be a lion in the way) I will encounter it.”
- This violence is needed because the way to the Kingdom is one of opposition and difficulty. The violent man breaks through the dangers and difficulties that stop others. Where there is a half-resolution—a will to be saved and a will to follow sin—it is impossible to be violent for Heaven.
3. Great Efforts (Violence to Oneself)
This is the necessary consequence of strong desire and firm resolution, where persons “strive to enter in at the strait gate.” This effort must be shown Firstly, to oneself.
We must be violent toward ourselves to stir ourselves up to holy duties.
- Necessity: As fallen men, we are naturally lazy and dull in spiritual things. The flesh constantly hinders us from duties like prayer and reading God’s Word.
- The Nature of Holiness: The motion of the soul towards sin is natural, but its motion towards holiness and Heaven is violent. Just as drawing a millstone upward requires violence against its nature, lifting the heart to Heaven in duty is done by violence.
- The Duties that Demand Violence:
- Reading the Word: We must provoke ourselves to read the Word reverently and seriously, not carelessly. The Word is a spiritual looking-glass, a treasury of divine knowledge, and a weapon against sin and Satan (using “It is written!”). This violence ensures we meditate on the Word day and night, the path to blessedness.
- Hearing the Word: We must offer violence to bring our hearts (not just our bodies) to hear the Word with devotion, understanding that it is God Himself who speaks to us. Careless hearing is often punished by forgetfulness.
- Prayer: Prayer is a duty that requires holy violence. It is described as wrestling (Gen 32:24) and pouring out the soul (1 Sam 1:15), implying vehemency. We must be violent to awaken ourselves from a dead, heartless prayer or a distracted one, for “lifeless prayer is no more prayer than the picture of a man is a man.” Fervency in prayer comes from a sense of our extreme need of God’s mercies and is the only kind of prayer to which the promise is affixed: “Ask, seek, Knock, and it shall be opened.” Knocking is a violent motion.
The Kingdom will not be taken unless we are violent. We must beg for the violent wind of the Holy Spirit to fill our sails and overcome our natural laziness and sin.
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 