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Sermon
The Gospel of Matthew

The Dissatisfied Generation

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August 3, 2025
Matthew 11:16-19
Steven Lee
Pastor for Preaching & Vision

Repentance

Pride & Humility

Courage & Boldness

Transcript

0:14Would you join me as we pray, father, we come now to your word and we long to hear you speak so that we would be warned, conformed to the image of your son that we would see Jesus more clearly and that we would leave this place as changed people. So do that by the power of your Spirit. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. We've all been there. You're in the grocery store and you can't but help and overhear the commotion in the aisle next to you. A kid is throwing a fool on tantrum. It's like a car wreck. You wanna look away, but you can't. There's raised voices, whining, grumbling, crossed arms, crying, tears, yelling.

1:23And that's just the mom. The the child is screaming, flailing on the ground and having a breakdown. And the parents try gentle words and redirection and then distraction. How about this serial? And then you begin to see the bribes and then the threats of physical violence. Perhaps this has been you. This picture of a stubborn and defiant child is how Jesus portrays this generation, his generation. They are recalcitrant children, unwilling and unreasonable. They rejected John the Baptist, and now they're rejecting Jesus. They're perpetually dissatisfied children who cannot be pleased by anything.

2:10And so in verse 12, Jesus alludes to how they have been received. Look back with me at chapter 11, verse 12, which we looked at last week from the days of John the Baptist. Until now, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence. John has suffered imprisonment soon to be executed. If this is what Israel does to its greatest prophet, the first prophet in 400 years, how will it accept or how will it receive the one who comes after him? In our passage this morning, verses 16 to 19, Jesus calls out the rejection of his generation in the following passage next week verses 20 to 24, Jesus is going to pronounce woes upon Israel cities that rejected his message and his works.

3:06They didn't recognize John as the forerunner and they didn't recognize Jesus as the Messiah. So in our passage, Jesus denounces Israel's rejection of him. And the question that comes to us is, well, why does he do this? Why does Jesus do it? Why does scripture record it? What benefit is it to us this morning? Well, I think there's several reasons. Jesus is denouncing their rejection first so that some will indeed see how illogical it is that they have rejected John, they've rejected Jesus, and that they would turn and believe. But what will also be the case is Jesus' words will stand as evidence of their hard heartedness.

3:51And he wants his disciples to be unsurprised at the rejection that Jesus receives and that they too will receive. If you look at the span of Jesus' ministry at the end of it, how many people came to believe there was 12 disciples, 500 people saw him in his resurrected state, but it wasn't an overwhelming number. Largely Jesus ministry looked like a failure. And Jesus wants them to know why. Our text is a warning, not just to Jesus generation, but it's a warning to every single generation since Jesus, not to reject the Messiah, man. So the main point this morning is that despite widespread rejection, God will vindicate Jesus as the Messiah despite widespread rejection, that the crowds don't eventually kind of turn around.

4:53The Pharisees of the scribes still refuse Jesus and his message all the way up until his crucifixion and even after the resurrection, they still disbelieve. Despite widespread rejection, God will vindicate Jesus as the Messiah. And that truth transforms how we live today. It's the countercultural way of Christianity. Jesus had already taught in Matthew seven that the pathway to life is what it's narrow. And the way who find it are few. And we see this in our world today. Everything in our world seeks to undermine Christian teaching. The Christian worldview, it rejects it, or our world celebrates personal autonomy.

5:46I can do whatever I want as long as I want, as long as I don't hurt others or subjective truth. It's my truth that makes it true. Or self expression, I I can identify as whatever I want or these are my pronouns. I get to choose them. And within believers, we have other like-minded people and we can kind of care for one another. And yet there's widespread rejection of Christ and Christians. And so how should we think about and how should we respond to the world's rejection of Jesus? That's the question that our text answers for us this morning. How should we think about and how should we respond to the world's rejection of Christ and of his disciples?

6:32So our plan is to look at this passage in three sections. We get the accusation in verse 16 and 17, the rejection and the fir in 18 and the first half of 19, and then the vindication. So accusation, rejection, and vindication. So look with me at verse 16. Here we get the accusation from Jesus to his generation, but to what shall I compare this generation, it is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates. We played the flute for you and you did not dance. We sang a dge and you did not mourn. Whenever Jesus uses the word generation, he uses it not only to refer to the leaders but of the kind of entire people of Israel.

7:14And he often uses it in a negative sense. Just hear what Matthew 1239 says. Jesus says, an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign or Matthew 1245. So also will it be with this evil generation or Matthew 17, 17, oh, faithless and twisted generation. How long am I to be with you? Jesus anticipated that this generation, his generation would reject him. And Jesus likens his generation to children playing in the marketplace. So the scene is like this. The children are dissatisfied and complaining, unhappy with whatever is going on. One group's invite the invites the other and the other just doesn't want to play.

8:01So it's a little bit like toddlers playing house, right? One child says to the the other, I'll be the mom, you be the dad. Our stuffed animals will be the children. And and the other child says, no, no, no, I, I wanna be the mom. And, and so he says, okay, you be the mom, I'll be the dad. And and the stuffed animals will be, no, no, no, no, I wanna be the child. Okay, you be the child, I'll be the mom. No, no, no, no, I wanna be the dog. And then on and on it goes right? The second child is never satisfied, never plays the game. And Jesus likens his generation to this recalcitrant trial to refuse to play the game no matter what, no matter what the first group does, play the flute or sing the funeral, dirge the other group won't play.

8:43Now, the way that I've historically read this, and perhaps at first glance it seems like the generation that's calling out is uh, it seems like the generation is the one that's calling out in John and Jesus, excuse me, refuse to play the game according to their expectations. But the simile in the text actually has this generation as the second group that refuses to participate in the game. So let me see if I can show you this. John and Jesus represent this first group. So Jesus is the one who comes and plays the flute inviting his guests to a wedding feast. Remember back in Matthew chapter nine, what did Jesus say when John's disciples came and said, well, why aren't you guys fasting?

9:29He says, my disciples can't fast because they're at the wedding feast and I'm the bridegroom. He likens his ministry to a wedding. Verse 19, the son of man came eating and drinking. In contrast, John played this funeral dirge, which would've been this slow sad song for funerals, preaching this message of judgment. Repent says, John, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And when the Pharisees and the scribes came out to the wilderness to look at what John was doing, how did he respond to them? You brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

10:15John was all business, no fun. He did not pull any punches. John proclaimed judgment. He warned the people to repent and to flee the wrath of God that was imminent. And so they rejected John and they rejected Jesus. So Jesus' accusation is that the people didn't respond to John's somber ministry. He was calling for repentance. Instead, they said, well, John is such a downer. He's always so serious. It's like we're at a funeral when whenever we were listening to John preach. So they wrote off John as too serious, but they didn't respond to Jesus joyous ministry either. Jesus came and he was healing and and casting out demons.

11:03And people were following Jesus, celebrating and saying, look at this man. No one does anything like this man. Is he the Messiah? And the scribes and the Pharisees and the vast majority of Jesus generation said, no, can't be. Can't be. They won't come to the celebratory wedding feast. Uh, at as well. They spurned Jesus' invitation. They wrote off Jesus as being unserious about their religious rules. And so that is the main accusation. This leads to Israel's rejection. Look with me at verse 18. For John came neither eating nor drinking and they say he has a demon. 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.

11:54So the people complain that John was too severe, too somber, too serious. He wouldn't come to dinner parties or participate in feast. John probably never drank alcohol. He refused luxury living in the wilderness, eating locusts and wild honey and wearing camel skin wasn't very winsome or gentle or nice. He was just far too preachy for our preference. We didn't like his tone. And so they say of John, he has a demon. Nowhere else. Nowhere in the gospels do we see someone actually accusing John of being demon possessed other than in this exchange. But this accusation was made of Jesus several times in John's gospel, the Jews say to Jesus, this is John chapter eight, verse 48, are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon, or one chapter later in Matthew, this is Matthew 1224.

12:54It is only by Ible the prince of demons that this man casts out demons. So this is the playbook of the crowds of Jesus generation. Whatever they listen to, whatever they hear that they don't like, the easiest way to write him off is just say, he has a demon. This must be from hell. He's demon possessed. And, and just as an aside, we should be aware that that same playbook is used today against Christians not calling us demonic. 'cause that would actually mean recognizing that there are indeed angels and demons and that there's a spiritual realm. But generally the playbook today is that whatever you don't like about Christians, that you can just label them as intolerant, as bigoted and as hateful.

13:45So you're on the wrong side of history. Your religion is oppressive, and that's the accusation of our world. It can be that you're too serious. It could be that you're too lax, whatever it is, you are still written off. And I think what we need to just recognize that Jesus generation rejected him, and so they will treat his disciples as well. And we just need to recognize that reality here this morning. How should we respond when people say that we're on the wrong side of history or that your religion is hateful and oppressive? When we disagree with him, what should we say? I think we can say something like, the Christian faith affirms that you are made in the image of God, worthy of dignity and honor and respect.

14:33And our biblical convictions doesn't mean that we hate you, but rather it would be hateful and unloving for us to lie to you and affirm what is indeed untrue. And because we refuse to lie, we cannot affirm what God calls sin. Rather, we love you enough to warn you that if you persist in this way, you will not inherit the kingdom of God. And we long for you to know and to experience the love of Jesus and to see him in all of his wonder and his glory. Now, back to the passage. It says in contrast, Jesus came eating and drinking. 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.

15:26You'll remember that Jesus' first miracle was done at a wedding feast in Cana in Galilee. That's John chapter two, verse, uh, chapter two verse one, or in Matthew nine, Jesus was reclining at a feast in Matthew's home with tax collectors and other sinners, disreputable people in attendance. In Luke's gospel, it says, now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to Jesus and the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled saying, this man receives sinners and eats with him. So Jesus' behavior is being seen as scandalous, and they charge him with gluttony, drunkenness and associating with sinners.

16:10So Jesus generation writes off John for his severity, and they write off Jesus for his liberty. All they do is criticize. John is demonic because he fasts. Jesus is glutton for feasting. John is too holy, but Jesus isn't holy enough. John is too different, but Jesus is too familiar. John won't eat with us, but Jesus is too willing to eat with sinners. This is a lose lose situation. The people, Jesus is trying to show them your rejection of John and your rejection of Jesus. The rejection of me is illogical. There's no logic behind it because whatever we do, we can't win with you. We played the flute like it was a wedding.

16:55We invited you to the feast and you wouldn't come. And so we played the funeral dirge and you wouldn't come. Jesus is highlighting that his generation rejects him and rejects John because they hate the truth. What underlies the rejection of the forerunner to the Messiah and the Messiah himself is their hatred for truth. They refuse to see what is really there before them. So they nitpick their tone and words and lifestyle and associations. And sometimes truth comes to us from an unwelcome messenger. And it's a little bit like sometimes when a small child comes up to you, maybe a grandchild, maybe a niece or a nephew, maybe your own children, and they kind of poke at your stomach and they say, how come your belly's so big?

17:49What what are they doing in that moment? Well, they're not trying to be mean. They're just noticing something that most polite people are too polite to point out. And it, it's probably a reminder, it's probably a time to lay off the cookies and ice cream at this point, but here it is, this unwelcome messenger of truth and and you can choose what you wanna do with it. Well, that's just a rude child. And write them off. Or you could say, yeah, maybe it's time to lay off some of those cookies and ice cream. And, and Jesus is saying that the crowds, his generation will not respond because John came preaching repentance.

18:30The the kingdom of God is imminent. We are a people of unclean lips. Our hearts are hard. We, we've departed far from God's way. We need to repent. And the generation said, we don't want that message. And Jesus came and he said, the kingdom of God has arrived with celebration and the downtrodden and the broken and the weak are welcomed, and tax collectors can be brought in and prostitutes can find cleansing. And those who are lame and weak and blind and even dead can find life once again. And the Pharisees scribes, no, no, no, no, we don't want that either, doesn't fit our preconceived ideas. Jesus shows the crowds their illogical rejection of John and of the Messiah.

19:21And he concludes with this final word in verse 19, the second half of 19. Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds, yet wisdom is justified by her deeds. Or Luke's gospel says, yet wisdom is justified by all her children. What does that mean? Well, wisdom in the Old Testament, like the book of Proverbs, is primarily concerned with how we live. And the essence of wisdom is bound up in living rightly in relationship to God and to others. And so here John and Jesus, they're being criticized for the way in which they live. Look at John's way of living. Look at Jesus' way of living. And they're criticizing both of them.

20:06And what this statement is indicating is that both of them will be vindicated or proved right by their actions. In other words, the deeds of John and Jesus will be justified and shown to be the pathway of wisdom that indeed this was the forerunner of the Messiah. And indeed this was the Messiah. And what they did, the way in which they lived, the way they carried out their ministry was exactly as God had ordained. Despite unbelief and rejection, John will be shown to be the prophetic forerunner. Jesus will be vindicated as the Messiah and both will have their names exonerated. And yet this is contrary to how our world works, isn't it?

20:55Very often people will justify themselves based on the accolades of the crowds of public opinion. If you lose in the court of public opinion, you've already lost. And the reality is that John and Jesus lost in the court of public opinion. The vast majority of their generation rejected them. And yet in the last day, Jesus and John will be vindicated by God Almighty. Amen. He will raise them from the dead. He will raise Jesus from the dead. He will cause him to ascend to heaven, seat him at the right hand of the throne of God, and he will give to him all authority, power. And so it is God who vindicates his children.

21:44God will vindicate each and every single one of his children. And so this morning is God's opinion the only one that matters to you? I imagine that some of us even right now, are facing challenges and and where other people's opinion matter to us, uh, they have power over us, they can dictate some aspect of our life or make it miserable, and we can either capitulate or or we can seek to follow Jesus no matter what. And, and so whose opinion matters more? Do we live in this day and age when we might lose in the court of public opinion? Do we truly believe that God will vindicate every single one of his children?

22:40And that is all we need following Jesus is counter-cultural In every age, at times we're gonna be lauded and praised. People will say of Christians, it's so great that you guys are seeking to better society and bringing literacy and healthcare and humanitarian aid overseas. It's so great that you care about the nuclear family and foster care and adoption and the vulnerable and the downtrodden. And in other times, we're gonna be demonized for these same beliefs and actions. Your beliefs are so bigoted and hateful and backwards and can't believe you participate in something like missions that's so kind of paternalistic and western colonialism with cultural imperialism.

23:26Your beliefs are intolerant. You're not welcome in this modern age. And we must take to heart Jesus words. Wisdom is justified by her deeds. What we need to hear from Jesus himself is that our obedience to him and to his commands will always be vindicated and proven right. We will always be vindicated by king Jesus when we obey him and we refuse the lies of the world. God vindicates Jesus at his resurrection. He vindicates him at his ascension and exaltation. And what does he do? At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every single tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

24:25How is that going to be the case when not everyone will come to be saving faith in Jesus? There will be those who do it as worshipers to say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Here is the lamb who is worthy of our praise and adoration and affection. He's vindicated. Each and every single one of us and all of our sufferings and persecutions were worth it. And there will be others who through gritted teeth will say as they're condemned, cast out into the outer darkness.

25:00Jesus is Lord, Jesus is king. I should have, I should have listened. I should have heeded. I should have believed every knee will bow in heaven and on earth. And under the earth. Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ will be vindicated and so will all of his children. We do not need to be afraid. So let, let me move us towards the conclusion. Our passage is not a particularly happy text this morning. It gets a little bit worse next week. Woes, woes in condemnation of these cities. Jesus is explaining why his own ministry was met with such rejection, but he will be vindicated and he will be proven right and so will all of his children.

25:59And so despite widespread rejection, God will vindicate Jesus as the Messiah. I wanna draw out four applications for us this morning from this passage, four applications. The first one is, don't be recalcitrant children. Don't be recalcitrant children. These dissatisfied children that Jesus likens his generation, refuse to listen to God's messengers, refuse to listen to John the Baptist, refuse to Jesus. And and they didn't fit their preconceived ideas of what a prophet should look like. Well, John isn't very nice, wasn't very winsome, didn't really speak to us in, in a very respectful way. He kept yelling at us. Repent.

26:47And, and in the same way, there are people here this morning in our world, perhaps in this gathering who look at Christianity and it doesn't fit their preconceived ideas of what organized religion should look like. It's too serious, it's too severe, it's too restrictive. You mean you guys believe all that stuff about creation and Noah's arc and no sex outside of marriage and angels and demons and heaven and hell. It's so exclusive. It's so arrogant to think that Jesus is the only way and the truth and the life, and that no one can go to the Father except through Jesus. You believe that there's something like hell, eternal punishment that doesn't seem very loving.

27:31You've heard those phrases at work in our world. But to reject the Bible's teaching is to reject Jesus. And so the exhortation this morning to all those gathered is don't dismiss biblical Christianity because it doesn't fit your preconceived ideas of what it should look like. God has spoken through his word and what mankind is to do is to submit and to try to understand it so that we would see the wisdom of God revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so what's the gospel of Jesus Christ? The God is the creator and sustainer of everything in the world, and he's made mankind the pinnacle of his creation.

28:17And that's what we are. And he's made each and every single one of us in his own image, we're image bearers of God himself. And we, uh, get to use our hands and our minds to build things and to serve and to love others. And we were built to use our creativity to make this world a good and beautiful and glorious place. And yet every single individual has fallen short. We've rebelled mankind, has rebelled against God and his good design. We've rejected him. We sin against him and against one another. We hurt others and we get hurt by others as well. And we live in this broken and fractured world where we see the marks of sin everywhere.

29:08We don't go a day where we don't feel these broken effects of sin at work in our world, in our hearts, in our minds, in our bodies. And yet God, in his kindness, sent the Lord Jesus Christ, his own son, to come into the world so that we could have a relationship with him once again, so that we could be reconciled to the Father, so that we could have forgiveness of sins, so that we could be washed clean, so that we could have a relationship with the Father once again. And he sent Jesus so that we would not only hear this message, but see him in the flesh. And all we need to do is respond. And so that's the message that's extended to us this morning.

29:57Repent and believe and come into the wedding feast of the Lamb. Number two, beware of an attitude of dissatisfaction. Beware of an attitude of dissatisfaction. Even as Christians, we can cultivate an attitude of dissatisfaction like these crowds that whatever we see, we always find a problem with it. Beware of that same spirit that's quick to criticize and critique. Sometimes we see this when people come from church to church to church and they finally get to North church and they're like, we, we, we visited seven other churches. None of 'em were perfect, but now we're here. And I'm thinking, oh dear, you'll very quickly find that we too are imperfect that there's no such thing.

30:50But are we so quick to find fatal flaws in everyone else? And everywhere we go, dislike the leadership or the preaching or the community or the facility or the fellowship or the activities. Always seeking a more perfect expression of the Christian life and never finding it. And instead, I think this text is, is calling us not to just see what we don't like and then write off Jesus. Well, he wasn't, didn't fit my preconceived ideas. John didn't fit my preconceived ideas either. We're supposed to see Jesus as the Messiah, the one who rules and reigns, and he's gathering an imperfect people and molding them into his image.

31:31And we have it so, so good. We get to be part of this body. We get to be part of God's imperfect people that he's molding into his image so that we someday would be that pure and spotless bride of Christ. And so are we part of the solution that we seek to find that we want to see? Third, don't be surprised at rejection. Don't be surprised at rejection. John the Baptist was imprisoned, executed. Jesus was crucified and rejected. Christians will also suffer violence and persecution. Just even this week, I was reading about a Christian man in Michigan who was arrested for praying silently in front of an abortion clinic.

32:24He was deemed an annoyance and annoying behavior can be subject to arrest. And so we shouldn't be surprised by rejection. Jesus was rejected, John was rejected. But what should we do? We should continue to shine the light of the glory of Christ. Lights. Don't ask for permission to shine. Lights just shine. And that's what we're called to do wherever we go. We continue to be that aroma of life to some and an aroma of death to others, but we continue to shine forth. I was just reminded of this on, on Wednesday. Some of you were there. We brought up our mounds view police officer, we'd prayed for them, and we asked, you know, what, what could we pray for you about?

33:08And they said, pray that we get home to our family safely. That's a good prayer to pray for our police. And Pastor Jason prayed not only for their safety, but then he said, if any of the guys who are here or any guys part of the force that aren't believing in Jesus, oh, we pray that they would meet the Lord of life. And and that's what we wanna do. May we continue to be praying our community into the kingdom of heaven. Let's continue to shine the light of the glory of Christ. And then lastly, we trust in God's vindication. We trust in God's vindication of his people. John the Baptist, despite his execution, was ultimately vindicated by the Father.

33:50Uh, all of the scriptures testify. This was the one that was sent Elijah to prepare the way for the Messiah. He did exactly as he was to do. Jesus was like, what? Likewise, vindicated by the Father. And nothing we do in obedience to King Jesus will be lost. If we give a cup of cold water. We open our mouths to speak truth. If we love the saints, if we stand firm and stand fast for Jesus, he will vindicate us. And so this text is both a warning to our generation and it's an invitation. Oh, would we come into the wedding feast of the Lamb and find our soul's deep satisfaction filled up by Christ and Christ alone?

34:47We can have forgiveness of sins and we can be those on that final day among the redeemed who will say every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Let's pray. Father, we come and we ask that you would indeed help us to see you more clearly, to delight in you. Guard us from being dissatisfied recalcitrant children, and instead satisfy us with your steadfast love. And pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

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Sermon Text

Matthew 11:16-19

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