Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Dirge and the Dance: The Vindication of Wisdom in a Petulant Age (Matthew 11:16–19)

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The Dirge and the Dance: The Vindication of Wisdom in a Petulant Age (Matthew 11:16–19) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
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  It is, it's really good to have you with us again.
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  Today we're opening up the Gospel of Matthew.
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  We're going to be in Chapter 11, looking at verses 16 through 19.
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  And I want to start with a scenario that I think, well, I
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  think pretty much everyone will recognize it.
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  Have you ever been in one of those situations where it just
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  feels like the game is rigged against you?
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  You know, no matter what you do, no matter what move you make,
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  it's just the wrong one. Yeah, a total no win scenario
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  it. Is if you're serious, people
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  tell you, oh, lighten up. But if you crack a joke,
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  suddenly it's you need to take this seriously.
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  It's. Exhausting because you realize
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  the issue isn't what you're doing, the issue is with them.
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  Exactly. And today we're going to see
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  Jesus diagnose that very dynamic.
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  But he's not talking about, you know, a bad day at the office or
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  a difficult family member. He's talking about a whole
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  generation. And really, it's a condition of
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  the human heart that refuses to be pleased by God.
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  We're looking at what you could call unpleasable unbelief.
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  That's a great way to put it. Yeah, this is a passage that
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  really, it cuts to the bone. We often have this idea, I
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  think, that if we just found the perfect argument or the right
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  cultural packaging for the gospel.
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  The right music, the right lighting.
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  Right. If we just presented it
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  perfectly, the world would suddenly rush in and embrace it.
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  We think the problem is the presentation.
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  But Jesus just shatters that idea here.
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  He does. He shows us that the natural
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  human heart is an expert, an absolute master at finding
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  reasons to say no to God. It doesn't matter if God speaks
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  with the severity of the law or the, you know, the grace of the
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  gospel. Thunder or a whisper?
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  Exactly. The rebellious heart will always
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  find an excuse to reject him. It's the ultimate Goldilocks
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  syndrome, isn't it? The porridge is too hot or the
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  porridge is too cold. But the real issue is they just
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  don't want the porridge at all. Right, they'd rather complain
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  about the meal than thank the one who provided it.
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  Well, like Jesus says, like petulant children.
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  So here's our plan for this deep dive.
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  We're going to break this down into let's say 4 main parts.
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  1st, we have to look at the parable.
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  Jesus uses this image of the the bratty kids in the marketplace.
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  There's so much color there we need to unpack.
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  Second, we'll look at the two star witnesses he brings forward
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  Exhibit A and Exhibit B, John the Baptist and Jesus himself.
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  The girge and the flute. That's it.
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  Third, we need to grapple with the verdict Jesus gives about
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  wisdom. What does that even mean?
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  And how is he justified? Right.
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  And then finally, and this is maybe the the hardest part, we
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  need to turn the spotlight on ourselves.
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  It's very easy to point our fingers at the Pharisees 2000
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  years ago. It's a lot harder to see that
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  same consumer mindset in our own churches, in our own hearts.
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  So we're not just analyzing a historical text, we're we're
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  letting it analyze us, our posture toward God.
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  OK, let's get into it. Matthew 11 verse 16.
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  Jesus kicks it off with a question, to what shall I
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  compare this generation to? Classic teachers move.
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  He's drawing them in. And he takes us to the
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  marketplace. Now, when I hear marketplace, my
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  first thought is, you know, the grocery store, maybe a shopping
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  mall. But paint the picture for us.
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  What was the agora in the 1st century?
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  The Agora was the absolute nerve center of the city.
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  It wasn't just where you went to buy your olives and.
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  Brands, it's not just commerce. No, not at all.
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  Think of it as the Stock Exchange, the political debate
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  stage, the courthouse, and the local news all rolled into one
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  public square. Wow.
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  It was loud. It was chaotic, dusty.
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  It's where the serious dizziness of life happens.
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  So it's the center of all the action.
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  It is. And right in the middle of all
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  this high stakes adult activity, Jesus zooms the camera in.
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  Not on soldiers or wolves, but on children.
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  On children and notice what they're doing or maybe what
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  they're not doing. The tech says they are sitting.
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  This seems like such a minor detail.
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  I mean, kids, sit down. Well, in Scripture, these little
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  details are rarely throwaways. The Greek participle used here
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  is Kathy Minois, and it implies this settled, stubborn kind of
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  passivity. Just think about the context of
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  Matthew 11 for a second. The Kingdom of heaven is
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  violently breaking in. Right.
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  John the Baptist is in prison facing death.
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  Miracles are happening. The blinder seeing, the lame are
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  walking. There's this massive cosmic
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  urgency in the. Air and these critics.
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  They're just sitting in the dirt.
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  They've turned the whole drama of redemption into a spectator
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  sport. That's it exactly.
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  They are the critics up in the balcony seats.
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  They're not on the field to play.
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  They think their job is to what? To review God's performance.
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  Yes, to review the performance of God's prophets instead of
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  responding to their message. And they're not just sitting
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  quietly, they're shouting at their playmates.
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  They're trying to direct the game, but nobody wants to play
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  by their rules. And Jesus describes 2 specific
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  games they try to play. First the complaint is we played
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  the flute for you and you did not dance.
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  Now a flute. This isn't a grand temple
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  instrument is it? This is more of a folk
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  instrument. That's right, the Aloes.
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  It was Reed instrument, probably very loud, a bit piercing in
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  that culture. The flute was the sound of a
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  wedding procession. OK, so it's signal celebration.
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  The highest celebration when the bridegroom was on his way to get
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  his bride, the flutes would start up, and that was a signal
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  for mandatory joy. You didn't sit still when the
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  flute played. You got up and you danced.
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  So the children are mimicking a wedding.
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  They're trying to start a party, but the other group.
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  The other group just sits there, arms crossed.
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  Nope, not dancing. So then they switch gears
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  completely. A total 180.
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  They say fine, if you won't dance at a wedding, let's have a
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  funeral. We sang a dirge and you did not
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  mourn the. Funeral game.
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  Exactly. And the Greek words Jesus uses
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  here are very they're visceral. The word for dirge implies a
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  loud wailing ethronosomin. And the word for mourn literally
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  refers to beating your breast. Ecox asked.
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  So this is not quiet, respectable grief.
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  This is loud public anguish. It is.
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  It's the physical, gut wrenching expression of tragedy.
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  So you have the two absolute poles of human experience, the
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  ecstasy of a wedding and the agony of a funeral.
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  And the response to both is just a flat line.
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  Total non engagement. And that's madding, isn't it?
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  You try to cheer someone up. They just scowl.
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  You try to share in their sorrow.
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  They roll their eyes. You can't.
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  Reach them. You can't.
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  And here's the key to the whole thing.
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  Jesus labels this group this generation.
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  That's a loaded phrase for Jesus.
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  He uses it a lot in Matthew. It's almost a technical term.
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  When Jesus says this generation, he's rarely just talking about a
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  group of people born in a certain decade.
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  It's a moral category. It is.
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  It refers to the people who've been given the most spiritual
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  light. They have the Law, the temple,
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  the prophets, and now standing right in front of the Messiah.
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  And yet they possess the hardest hearts.
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  So the children in this story, the ones complaining they
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  represent, the religious leaders, the critics.
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  They represent anyone who wants to be in charge, who wants to
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  direct God's play. The children are essentially
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  saying, God, you need to dance to our music.
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  If we're in the mood for a happy, affirming God, you better
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  play the flute. If we're in the mood for a
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  solemn series, God, you better sing a dirge.
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  It's all about control. It is the very essence of sin.
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  We want to be the directors of our own reality.
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  So if God shows up with a message that requires us to
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  submit, whether in joy or in sorrow, the natural man's first
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  instinct is to reject it. He refuses to play any game that
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  he didn't invent himself. That's it.
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  Wow, that's a heavy thought that our rejection of God isn't
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  usually, you know, intellectual confusion.
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  It's not that we just don't get it.
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  It's a moral rebellion against not being in the driver's seat.
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  The reformers would call this the bondage of the will.
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  We're free to do what we want, but the problem is that what we
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  want is to be God, so we will not, we cannot submit to the
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  real 1. Which leads us directly to the
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  evidence. Jesus doesn't just leave this as
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  some abstract parable about kids.
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  No, he brings out the receipts. He points to two real life
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  distinct ministries that this generation had rejected Exhibit
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  Age on the Baptist. John is the living embodiment of
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  the dirge. Jesus says he came neither
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  eating nor drinking. And that's a bit of an
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  understatement, isn't it? I mean, the man wore camel hair
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  and his diet was locust and wild honey.
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  He was the last of the old covenant prophets and he
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  absolutely looked the part. He was Elijah come again.
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  He lived in the wilderness. Probably took a Nazarite vow.
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  Him. No wine, no grapes, no fine
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  food. Nothing.
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  He was austere. He didn't engage in the normal
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  social customs of dinner parties and small talk.
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  He was set apart. He wasn't the guy you invited
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  over for a casual evening. You went out into the desert to
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  him to be broken. Correct.
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  And his message matched his lifestyle.
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  It was the axe is already at the root of the trees.
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  A message of imminent judgement. He called for absolute, urgent
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  repentance. He was basically calling the
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  nation of Israel to a national funeral, a death to their pride,
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  their self righteousness. Yes, a death to trusting in
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  their ethnicity, thinking we are children of Abraham.
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  He called them to mourn their sin.
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  So God sent them the dirge. He sent the message of heavy
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  lament. And how did the marketplace,
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  this generation respond? They said he has a demon.
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  Let's just stop there for a second.
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  That is a massive accusation. They didn't just say oh he's a
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  bit intense or I disagree with his theology.
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  They said he's possessed by a demon.
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  It's a technique, you know, that we still see all the time.
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  It's pathologizing holiness. What do you mean by that?
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  When you encounter someone whose moral standard is so high, so
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  convicting, that it makes you deeply uncomfortable, you have
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  two choices. You can repent and try to rise
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  to that standard, or you can try to drag that person down by
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  labeling them as crazy or fanatical or insane.
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  It's a defense mechanism. Completely.
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  If I can convince myself that John is demon possessed, that I
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  don't have to listen to his call to repent, I can just write him
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  off as a religious fanatic and go back to my comfortable life
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  without my conscience bothering me.
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  They. Couldn't argue with the
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  substance of his message because deep down they knew they were
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  sinners so they attack the messenger sanity.
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  Precisely, they rejected the dirge because it was too hot,
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  too severe, too demanding. So in God's perfect plan, He
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  sends the complete opposite Exhibit B, the Son of Man.
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  And here comes the flute. Jesus says the Son of Man came
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  eating and drinking. Now we should probably clarify
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  that when modern ears hear eating and drinking, it might
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  sound like Jesus was just a hedonist.
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  Right, and that's not the point at all.
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  But he was radically social in a way John was not.
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  This is so key to understanding the incarnation.
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  John was the ascetic in the desert.
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  And Jesus was the guest at the table.
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  His first miracle is at a wedding in Cana, making more
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  wine. He's constantly accepting dinner
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  invitations from everyone. Pharisees, tax collectors, you
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  name it. He sanctified the common meal.
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  He did. He brought the Gospel, the good
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  news that the Kingdom feast had arrived.
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  This is the wedding party starting.
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  So you would think logically if the people hated the scary
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  severe prophet in the desert. They should have absolutely
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  loved the gracious, approachable teacher who hangs out at
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  parties. But logic isn't driving the bus
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  here, is it? No rebellioness.
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  And their reaction to Jesus was, if anything, even more vicious
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  than their reaction to John. They said look at him, a glutton
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  and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.
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  Those words, glutton and drunkard, they sound like
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  playground insults to us. But in a 1st century Jewish
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  context, they carried a lot more legal weight.
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  Much more. This is almost certainly a
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  direct illusion to Deuteronomy 21.
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  OK, what does that say? Deuteronomy 21 lays out the law
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  for a stubborn and rebellious son.
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  The parents are to bring this son to the elders of the city
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  and say this our son is a glutton and a drunkard.
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  And what was the prescribed penalty for that rebellious son?
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  Death by stoning. Wow, so when the Pharisees
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  called Jesus a glutton and drunkard, they're not just
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  saying he enjoys a good meal. No, they are levelling the legal
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  charge. They are framing him as a
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  capital offender, A lawbreaker who deserves to be executed.
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  They are looking at his grace, his joy, his willingness to be
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  with people and twisting it into a crime.
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  And then there's that other title, that one we love so much,
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  a friend of tax collectors and sinners.
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  It's my favorite title for Jesus, I think.
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  We all love it, we put it on coffee mugs and T-shirts, we
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  sing songs about it. But when they said it, it was
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  not a compliment. Not in the slightest.
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  It was a slur. You have to get inside their
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  mindset. For a Pharisee, Holiness Kadosh
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  meant separation to be set apart.
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  So if you touch something unclean, you become unclean.
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  Exactly. If you touch a leper, you're
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  ceremonially unclean. If you eat a meal with a tax
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  collector who is seen as a traitor to Israel collaborating
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  with Rome, you are participating in his sin.
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  They practiced a kind of quarantine holiness.
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  So for Jesus to actually sit down and share a table with
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  these people. It just blew their theological
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  circuits. They could not imagine a
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  holiness that was so powerful, so robust, that it could go into
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  the darkness and transform it into light rather than being
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  snuffed out by it. To them friend of sinners meant
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  accomplice of sinners. Guilt by association, yes, but
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  for us? For us, it's the hope of the
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  entire world. It is.
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  He goes into the leper colony not to catch the disease, but to
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  cure it. He sits with Matthew the tax
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  collector, not to approve of his extortion, but to call him to a
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  new life. Which brings us right to the
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  heart of the matter, the great contradiction.
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  This is where the unpleasable nature of their unbelief is just
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  laid bare. You have John the Baptist.
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  He's an ascetic. No bread, no wine.
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  And they say. He has a demon.
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  Then you have Jesus. He's sociable.
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  Bread and wine and they say the. Glutton and a drunkard.
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  You just can't have it both ways.
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  You can't. And that's the Gaja moment in
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  Jesus's argument. Yeah, it proves that the problem
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  was never the Ministry style. It wasn't about the catering.
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  No, it wasn't about the dress code or the Music Choice.
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  The problem was moral rebellion. It was about their refusal to
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  give up control. Think about what the two
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  ministries threatened in them. Go on.
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  John threatened their comfort by demanding they admit their
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  guilt. Jesus threatened their pride by
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  demanding they admit their need. That is a critical distinction.
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  Say more about that. Well, the.
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  Pharisees were perfectly happy to be religious.
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  They were experts at it, but they refused to be needy.
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  They hate of John because his call to repentance stripped away
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  their own self righteousness. It put everyone on the same
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  level before a holy God. And they hated Jesus because.
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  They hated Jesus because he offered salvation as a free gift
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  to the very people they despised.
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  If salvation is a free gift of grace for a tax collector, then
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  the Pharisees entire life's work of rule keeping and boundary
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  making becomes worthless. It devalues their spiritual
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  currency. Completely and they could not
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  stand for that. So the whole Goldilocks game.
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  This one's too hot, this one's too cold.
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  It's all a sham. They never wanted the porridge
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  to begin with, they just wanted an excuse to flip the table
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  over. That is the nature of the
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  unregenerate heart. It will grab on to any apparent
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  contradiction, any excuse, no matter how flimsy, to keep God
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  at a safe distance. We see this all the time in
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  apologetics, don't we? Every day someone will say I
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  can't believe in God because the church is so full of hypocrites,
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  but then you show them a church that's full of genuine, sincere
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  holy people and they turn around and say well I can't believe in
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  God because those people are too judge mental and narrow minded
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  the. Complaint is the real goal.
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  The complaint is the shield. Exactly.
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  The complaint is the shield they use to protect their own
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  autonomy. If the preacher is too loud,
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  he's aggressive, he's quiet, he's weak.
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  If the church service is long, it's boring.
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  If it's short, it's shallow. As long as I can keep critiquing
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  the form, I never have to submit to the substance.
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  Jesus has basically stripped them naked here in the public
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  square. He's exposed their hypocrisy for
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  everyone to see. But he doesn't end the passage
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  on that note of confrontation. He ends with a verdict.
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  He does verse 19. B.
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  Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds, or in Luke's gospel it
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  says by her children. This is a magnificent line.
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  It's the mic drop of the whole passage.
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  There really is. OK, so First things first, who
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  or what is wisdom? In the Old Testament, especially
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  in Proverbs, Wisdom is often personified.
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  She's depicted almost as a divine agent of God in creation
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  and redemption. Right.
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  The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work.
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  Exactly. By the time we get to the New
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  Testament, the apostles make the connection explicit.
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  Paul in First Corinthians. So is that Christ is the power
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  of God and the wisdom of God. So when Jesus talks about wisdom
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  here he is in a sense talking about himself.
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  He's talking about himself and the whole divine plan of
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  salvation that he embodies. And then that word justified
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  Eddie Kaiche. That sounds like a legal term.
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  We usually hear it in the context of justification by
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  faith. It's the same root It's a
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  forensic, A courtroom term. It means to be vindicated, to be
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  declared righteous, to be proven right in the end.
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  And what Jesus is doing here is just brilliant.
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  He's flipping the whole courtroom scene on its head.
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  How so? Throughout this whole encounter,
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  the marketplace, this generation, they've been acting
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  as the judge and jury. They've put God's messengers in
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  the. Dock They judge John and they
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  judge Jesus, and they. Found both of them.
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  I'm guilty. John was guilty of being crazy.
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  Jesus was guilty of being a Sinner.
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  But Jesus says overruled. He says God is not the one on
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  trial. Here you are and God's wisdom,
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  his strange upside down plan of using a locust eating prophet
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  and party going Messiah is going to be declared righteous.
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  It will be vindicated by its results.
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  The proof is in the pudding, as they say.
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  Or in this case, the proof is in the children.
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  Who are these children or deeds that vindicate God's wisdom?
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  They are the fruit. They are the transformed lives.
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  Think about it, Who validated Jesus's ministry?
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  Not the religious establishment. No, it wasn't the high priest,
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  it wasn't the Sanhedrin. It was Matthew the tax
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  collector, getting up from his booth and leaving everything to
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  follow Christ. It was the sinful woman who wept
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  at his feet and washed them with her tears.
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  It was the lepers who were cleansed and went away shouting
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  for joy. These changed lives.
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  These are the deeds of wisdom. They are her children.
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  That's such a powerful contrast because the Pharisees, they had
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  all the credentials, the robes, the titles, the long prayers,
• 18:32
  but what did their ministry actually produce?
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  Whitewashed tombs. That's what Jesus called them.
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  They produced a religion of heavy burdens and external show
• 18:41
  and deep seated pride. They look good on the outside,
• 18:43
  but inside there was just death and decay.
• 18:45
  And Jesus produced. Jesus produced repentance and
• 18:49
  faith in the most broken, unlikely people, and this
• 18:53
  connects so deeply with our Reformed heritage.
• 18:56
  Think of the Westminster Confession.
• 18:57
  Good works as the fruits and evidences of a true and lively
• 19:01
  faith. That's it.
• 19:02
  Our good works don't save us, but they are the evidence that
• 19:05
  we have been saved. In the same way, the changed
• 19:08
  lives of sinners are the ultimate apologetic they're the
• 19:11
  evidence that Wisdoms Way is the right way.
• 19:13
  You can argue all day with a doctrine, but it's a lot harder
• 19:16
  to argue with a man who was once a bitter, greedy extortioner and
• 19:19
  is now a generous, loving disciple.
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  Right. His life is the proof.
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  And this also gets it, what theologians sometimes call
• 19:25
  remnant theology. Meaning.
• 19:27
  Meaning that if you just took an opinion poll in that
• 19:30
  marketplace, Jesus was losing badly.
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  The the majority this generation rejected him.
• 19:36
  That's a huge comfort for us today, isn't it?
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  We live in cultures where majority rules.
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  We're conditioned to think that if an idea is unpopular, it must
• 19:44
  be wrong. But in the Kingdom of God,
• 19:46
  vindication doesn't require majority approval, It requires
• 19:50
  fruit. Even though the masses rejected
• 19:52
  him, the children of Wisdom, the Elect, the Remnant, they
• 19:56
  recognized their Shepherd's voice.
• 19:58
  They heard the dirge of John and they mourn.
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  They heard the flute of Jesus and they danced.
• 20:04
  They got the message, both parts of it.
• 20:06
  It totally redefines what success in ministry looks like.
• 20:09
  Success isn't everyone likes my message.
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  Success is the right people. The children of wisdom are
• 20:15
  responding to the truth. Success is fidelity that
• 20:18
  produces fruit even if the marketplace is booing you off
• 20:20
  the stage. OK.
• 20:22
  We have to bring this home now. We've dissected the parable.
• 20:25
  We've seen the evidence in John and Jesus.
• 20:27
  We've heard the final verdict. How does this apply to us right
• 20:30
  here, right now? Let's do it.
• 20:32
  Let's break it down. Head, heart, and hands.
• 20:35
  First, the head. How should this passage change
• 20:38
  the way we think about the Church and its mission in the
• 20:40
  world? I think the single biggest
• 20:42
  intellectual challenge here is to our pragmatism.
• 20:45
  Our obsession with what works. Yes, the modern church,
• 20:49
  especially in the West, is obsessed with polling the
• 20:52
  marketplace to see what tune the world wants us to play.
• 20:56
  Right, we have whole industries of church growth consultants
• 20:59
  telling us if you or if you serve better coffee in the
• 21:04
  lobby. Then the world will finally
• 21:06
  dance. Then the unchurched will flock
• 21:08
  to your doors. But the hard, uncomfortable
• 21:11
  truth of Matthew 11 is that Jesus was the perfect preacher.
• 21:15
  He had perfect theology, perfect delivery, perfect character.
• 21:18
  You literally could not improve on his ministry.
• 21:21
  And yet he did not win the majority of this generation.
• 21:25
  That fact alone should stop us dead in our tracks.
• 21:27
  It should. If Jesus didn't win them all,
• 21:29
  what makes us think our clever marketing schemes will?
• 21:32
  If the Son of God himself was slandered as a glutton and a
• 21:35
  drunkard, why are we so terrified of being misunderstood
• 21:38
  or disliked? So what's the take away?
• 21:40
  The take away for our thinking is that success is determined by
• 21:44
  fidelity, not by popularity. The gospel is, by its very
• 21:48
  nature, a stumbling block to human pride.
• 21:51
  It's foolishness to those who are perishing.
• 21:54
  Our job is to proclaim it faithfully, not to Polish it and
• 21:58
  sand down at sharp edges until it just looks like a mirror
• 22:01
  where the world can see its own reflection.
• 22:03
  That's actually a very freeing thought.
• 22:05
  It takes the pressure off of being a marketing genius and
• 22:08
  puts the focus back on just being a faithful herald.
• 22:10
  It does. OK, Now for the heart.
• 22:12
  How does this text land on us emotionally in our inner life?
• 22:18
  I think it lands in two ways, as a sharp warning and as a deep
• 22:22
  comfort. Let's start with the warning.
• 22:24
  The warning is that we have to check our own hearts.
• 22:27
  Am I consumer Christian? Do I come to church on Sunday
• 22:30
  morning with a metal scorecard ready to be a critic?
• 22:33
  The sermon was a bit too long today.
• 22:34
  I felt like a dirge. And the worship music was too
• 22:36
  loud and happy. That's a fluid I'm not in the
• 22:39
  mood for. The preacher stepped on my toes
• 22:40
  a little too much. Exactly.
• 22:43
  We need to repent of that marketplace posture.
• 22:47
  We are not customers reviewing a product.
• 22:50
  We are, or should be, humble worshippers of the living God.
• 22:54
  If the Word is being preached faithfully, our job is to submit
• 22:58
  to it, not to critique its delivery.
• 23:00
  And the comfort. The comfort is for every
• 23:02
  faithful believer who feels misunderstood or criticized for
• 23:06
  their faith. If you are trying to live a
• 23:09
  holy, set apart life and people in the world call you narrow
• 23:13
  minded or judgmental or no fun, well, you're in the good company
• 23:17
  of John the Baptist. And on the other hand.
• 23:19
  On the other hand, if you're trying to be gracious, to build
• 23:22
  bridges, to reach out to the lost and messy, and maybe people
• 23:26
  inside the church look at you with suspicion and call you
• 23:28
  compromise or too worldly, you're walking in the footsteps
• 23:31
  of the Lord Jesus. So take heart.
• 23:33
  Take heart, your vindication doesn't come from the crowd, it
• 23:36
  comes from Christ. You don't need the applause of
• 23:39
  the marketplace when you have the approval of the King.
• 23:41
  That's incredibly encouraging. It really does help to remove
• 23:44
  the fear of man. OK, finally, let's talk about
• 23:46
  the hands. What do we do with this
• 23:48
  teaching? How does it shape our actions in
• 23:51
  ministry and evangelism? For pastors, for elders, for
• 23:55
  anyone who teaches, the mandate is crystal clear.
• 23:59
  Feed the sheep, don't just entertain the goats.
• 24:02
  Meaning meaning you have to preach the whole counsel of God.
• 24:06
  You need the law, the dirge of John the Baptist to break the
• 24:09
  hard self-righteous heart. But you also need the gospel,
• 24:12
  the flute of Jesus, to heal and restore the broken, repentant
• 24:16
  heart. You can't just play one tune.
• 24:17
  You can't. A church that only ever hears
• 24:19
  the dirge, only law, will fall into despair and legalism.
• 24:23
  But a church that only ever hears the flute, only cheap
• 24:25
  grace will fall into presumption and license.
• 24:28
  You need both to make a healthy disciple.
• 24:30
  And for all of us, not just pastors, when it comes to
• 24:32
  evangelism, how do we live out that title, Friend of Sinners,
• 24:36
  without becoming the glutton and drunkard they accuse Jesus of
• 24:38
  being? We have to recover the art of
• 24:40
  Christian hospitality, true friendship.
• 24:43
  We cannot effectively evangelize from inside a holy fortress just
• 24:48
  shouting warnings over the walls.
• 24:50
  We have to go. Out we have to go where people
• 24:52
  are, and that involves risk. It risks your reputation.
• 24:55
  People might misunderstand your motives.
• 24:57
  It absolutely risks the accusation of guilt by
• 25:00
  association. But we have to be willing to
• 25:03
  enter into the messy lives of people who are far from God, not
• 25:06
  to join them in their sin, but to bring them the cure of the
• 25:09
  gospel. You can't catch a fish if you
• 25:12
  refuse to get near the water. And we have to be ready for them
• 25:15
  not to like us, at least not at first.
• 25:16
  We have to be prepared for that Goldilocks reaction.
• 25:19
  But we press on anyway. We do.
• 25:21
  We persist in love because we know that somewhere in that
• 25:24
  skeptical crowd there are children of wisdom who are
• 25:27
  waiting to be called home. So we play the flute of the
• 25:29
  gospel, and we sing the dirge of the law, and we trust God with
• 25:34
  the results. As we wrap up this deep dive, it
• 25:36
  seems to me it all comes down to a choice of posture.
• 25:39
  The marketplace of ideas is noisy.
• 25:42
  Everyone has an opinion. Everyone's a critic.
• 25:44
  But the only verdict that will matter in the end is God's.
• 25:48
  That really is the final word, isn't it?
• 25:49
  It is. So the call to you, the
• 25:52
  listener, is this Stop sitting in the seat of the skeptic.
• 25:57
  You have to get up and get in the game.
• 25:59
  When the law plays its dirge and your conscience, don't harden
• 26:03
  your heart or make excuses. Mourn your sin.
• 26:06
  Repent. And when the gospel plays its
• 26:08
  joyful flute, don't be cynical or hold back.
• 26:12
  Rejoice. Believe the good news.
• 26:14
  Enter into the joy of your Master.
• 26:16
  And I want to leave you with one final thought to Mull over.
• 26:19
  We talked about vindication about being proven right.
• 26:22
  The ultimate vindication of Jesus, of God's wisdom, was the
• 26:25
  resurrection. The cross was the world's
• 26:27
  verdict. It was the marketplace shouting
• 26:29
  guilty, the ultimate rejection of God's messenger.
• 26:32
  But the empty tomb. The empty tomb was the Father's
• 26:35
  verdict. It was the Father thundering
• 26:36
  from heaven, justified. So the question for all of us is
• 26:40
  this. When the marketplace closes for
• 26:42
  good, and it will close, will you be found standing with the
• 26:45
  cynical critics in the dust, or will you be found dancing among
• 26:49
  Wisdom's children? Thank you for listening to
• 26:51
  Reformed Thinking. We will see you next time.