Saturday, 30 June 2012 Mt11Bm

JESUS URGES THEM TO REPENTMatthew 11:20-30Key Verse: 11:24 "But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you." We are studying Jesus' Galilean ministry. As we studied, Jesuspreached the gospel and healed the sick. He also chose his disciplesand raised them through common life together with him. Jesus' ministrywas indeed intensive. He had done gospel ministry from one village toanother. Actually Jesus might have visited all the villages of theGalilean district. But even though he worked so hard, the fruit ofpeople who believed the kingdom of God was very few in number. So todayJesus laments over the people of Korazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum,who had seen Jesus miracles, heard the good news of the kingdom of God,and seen Jesus healing the sick and casting out demons in many people.Jesus gave them a demonstration that he is the Son of God. Jesus gavethem miracles and intensively preached the kingdom of God so that theymight have eternal life through Jesus Christ and not perish. But theywere very unrepentant. They came to Jesus, saw Jesus preaching andwere amazed and moved. But when they went back to their daily lives,they were just the same ungodly people. In this passage Jesus lamentsover their unbelief and indifference and ignorance, and at the sametime he urges them to repent. Today we also see how Jesus comfortedhimself when people did not repent as he wanted. Finally, instead ofpunishing them, Jesus gave them the way of true rest. May God give usthe spirit of repentance and help us learn the way of true rest throughthis passage.First, Jesus laments over unrepentant people. As we studied, Jesusbegan his messianic ministry in the Galilean district. But after a longtime Jesus denounced the cities in which most of his miracles had beenperformed, because they did not repent. Jesus cursed them. Look atverses 21-22. Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If themiracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre andSidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But Itell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day ofjudgment than for you. Here we see that they had seen enough of what Jesus was doing. Itwas preaching the good news of the kingdom of God by performingmiracles and healing the sick so that they might repent and believe inthe kingdom of God. Wherever Jesus was, a crowd of people followed him to hear the goodnews of the kingdom of God and also to see his miraculous signs. Theysaid many wows. Some seemed to believe. For example, in John's Gospelchapter 6, five thousand people followed Jesus because they ate breadand fish made out of five loaves and two fish by the miracle of Jesus(Jn 6:1-15). But when Jesus talked about heavenly bread, they insistedon having free earthly bread. Jesus talked to them again and againabout heavenly bread. They were discouraged and ran away one by oneuntil only the disciples were left. Their purpose of following Jesuswas to get some bread. Some followed Jesus to entertain themselves byseeing Jesus miraculous signs performed on the lepers and the blind andthe paralytics. But when they went home, their lifestyle did notchange at all. In order to live in this world forever, they dideverything by all means. So Jesus said to them, Woe to you Korazin!Woe to you Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you hadbeen performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago insackcloth and ashes. Jesus laments that his chosen people never received the long-awaitedMessiah's divine words. Rather, some Gentile people responded. So Jesussaid, Your punishment on judgment day will be unbearable. Look at verse 23. And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to theskies? No, you will go down to the depths. If the miracles that wereperformed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained tothis day. Here Jesus rebukes the people of Capernaum. At that timeCapernaum was one of the important cities in Galilee. It was theheadquarters of Jesus' messianic ministry. It was a most prosperousbusiness center. In addition, a Roman regiment was stationed there.And the tax collector Levi's office was there. Later this tax collectorwas called to be a disciple of Jesus. His name was changed to Matthew,the greatest teacher of humanity in history. Because Capernaum was aprosperous city, people were rich for themselves and very poor towardGod. Even though the Messiah came and worked centering in Capernaum,people's responses were very indifferent; they thought Jesus was only alittle bit more than an ordinary man. So Jesus lamented, saying, Andyou, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will godown to the depths. If the miracles that were performed in you had beenperformed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. According toJesus' lament, the people of Capernaum were not better than the peopleof Sodom and Gomorrah. Finally Jesus told them that those who reject the good news aboutthe kingdom of God will go to hell, and their punishment will be worsethan that of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Usually we think thatthe people of Sodom and Gomorrah received the most terrible punishmentby fire. But the people of Capernaum would be even hotter than thepeople of Sodom and Gomorrah. Jesus preached the good news of the kingdom of God. But they did notaccept. They were busy. They wanted to be great and wealthy and theywanted to live in this world forever. They were indeed ignorant andungodly people. They were like pigs before the butchers. They were likecattle before the huge slaughterhouse. They had a premonition thatsomething was going to happen, but they did not know they were goinginto the slaughterhouse. But Jesus knew and he urged them to repent.Second, the meaning of repentance. When we consider our human life, itseems that we are born of a woman and are going to a graveyard. Duringthe time in between, we work hard to succeed, to make money, and tobecome a small and great man. In order to survive in the world, eachperson unintentionally becomes selfish and self-centered. They do notthink about the invisible spiritual world or the kingdom of God. Soeven if many attend churches, they do not know the true meaning ofrepentance. They think that if they go to church, they will go to thekingdom of God by the grace of God. The grace of God is given to usthrough the message of the kingdom of God. Mark 1:15 says, The timehas come. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the goodnews! We must know that believing in Jesus and going to the kingdom ofGod is everything. Suppose a person works hard and gains honor andwealth. He cannot keep it forever. Therefore, believing the good newsof the kingdom of God should be the entire plan of our lives. Andbelieving the kingdom of God should be the entire purpose and meaningof life. And preaching the kingdom of God should be one's life mission.But these days, by the Biblical conception, there are too many oldwineskin kind of people. They think that believing is nothing more thanone of their activities for survival in this hard world. We mustseriously think about why Jesus preached the kingdom of God as a matterof first importance. Jesus also urged repentance to all people. What is repentance?Repentance is turning one's worldly lifestyle to the lifestyle Godwants us to have. For example, to one who lived for his pig or cowbusiness as his life purpose, repentance means to change his lifestyleto live for the glory of God. Repentance is turning around from theworld to God. Repentance is changing one's value system from the worldto the kingdom of God. Repentance is changing one's desire fromenjoying the things of the world, like wine or women, to enjoying Godin one's heart. Repentance is to see that the present life is temporaland the kingdom of God is everlasting. When we repent, we can obtainthe kingdom of God. Repentance is to become great and wealthy. Forexample, Abraham was a 75-year-old man who was a very fatalistic personwith no son. So he had no grandsons to enjoy. But God promised him,You will be great and you will be a blessing (Ge 12:2). When Abrahamchanged his way of thinking from fatalism to faith in God, he finallybecame the greatest man in the world. Even in the former Soviet Unionso many are named after Abraham. Our greatest president's name wasAbraham Lincoln. As God promised, he made Abraham a very great andwealthy man. Abraham didn't have to cry like Reptavia in Fiddler onthe Roof, singing, If I were a rich man... God blessed himabundantly. Now his descendants are like the stars in the sky and thesand on the seashore. His name is so great that all Christians and evenmost non-Christians know that he is the ancestor of faith and thegreatest man together with David and after Jesus. This is the reasonJesus delivered the message of repentance. But the people of Korazin,Bethsaida and Capernaum did not repent. So Jesus had to curse them.Actually, it was not really a curse, but an expression of Jesus' deepsorrow and lamenting over the people.Third, Jesus comforts himself (25-27). Look at verses 25-26. At thattime Jesus said, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, andrevealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your goodpleasure. One young man wanted to be a Ph.D. and an honorable person.But after 16 years had elapsed he still could not get a Ph.D. So heshot his advisor and he also shot himself in the head. The real problemwas his discouragement. He had wanted to marry after getting a Ph.D.His age was already 40. But he could not marry. He could not get aPh.D. So he killed himself. Jesus discouragement was even more thanthis. Yet Jesus saw that the good news of the kingdom of God was notaccepted by the wise and learned but was revealed to little children.Here, little children means those who are pure in heart. Their numberwas very few. Maybe Jesus made one hundred thousand telephone calls andhad ten thousand rejections and engaged in mass evangelism and visitingfrom village to village. But the result was that only several peoplewere left. Here we learn that we don t have to be discouraged becauseof the hardship to fish sheep and raise them as disciples. Jesusexperienced the same thing. But Jesus was overjoyed by God's wisdom.Jesus said, Because you have hidden these things from the wise andlearned and revealed them to little children (25). It was the exactexpression that only a few sheep were left. Jesus also comforted himself. Look at verse 27. All things havebeen committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except theFather, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whomthe Son chooses to reveal him. This verse is a little longer, but itis the same as John 15:1, which says, I am the true vine, and myFather is the gardener. Jesus' relationship with God was absolutelyinseparable. It was like a vine and branch. Jesus was greatly comfortedand rejoiced even if heaven fell and the earth cracked. It didn tmatter to Jesus, if only he had a personal relationship with God.Fourth, Take my yoke (28-30). People of the world pretend to be greatand wealthy. They only enjoy their lives. In fact, there are manypeople who enjoy their lives more than enough. They count the longweekend holidays and make a perfect schedule to enjoy their lives. Theyseek pleasure in going around to 120 kinds of restaurants and go to therestroom a lot. Still, they go around to all the restaurants of 170nations which are in the Chicago and Los Angeles areas. But actuallythey are very restless. After having a decent party, husbands and wivesshout and fight. One housewife was beaten up several years by herhusband. One night she thought if she had to be beaten up like this,she wanted to die fighting with her husband. So she made a fist tightlyand began to fight with her husband. By one punch her husband wasthrown to the wall. Then she got the confidence to lift him up andthrow him to the other wall. They are a renowned university professorcouple. The more the people of the world have fun, the more they feelempty and meaningless. The people of the world enjoy immoral lives.Most men think they can enjoy many women because they are mosthandsome. Actually, most of them look like Cambodian refugees. True rest comes from Jesus. True rest comes when we carry out God'smission assigned to us. So Jesus said, Take my yoke upon you and learnfrom me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find restfor your souls (29). Can you find some other way to truly rest? No.Jesus word is the only way to have true rest. Therefore, let's take hisyoke upon us and learn from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Origin: crafty-witch.blogspot.com