Least in the Kingdom of God

In Luke chapter 7, Jesus says this about John the Baptist, I tell you, among those born of women, none is greater than John. He was the prophet selected to be the herald of the coming Messiah, to introduce Jesus as the one who would be crowned the King, as the one who would bring in the new covenant.

But He was still on the outside looking in. Welcome to Renewing Your Mind on this Lord's Day and another sermon in Dr. R.C. Sproul's exposition of Luke's Gospel. After Jesus declared the greatness of John the Baptist, He would go on to say, yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than John. What did He mean by that? Is it possible that He's referring to you and me?

Here's Dr. Sproul. This morning we're going to continue our study of the Gospel according to St. Luke. We're still in chapter 7, and today I'm going to start at verse 28 and read through verse 35. And I'd ask the congregation please to stand for the reading of the Word of God. For I say to you, among those born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist, but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.

And when all the people heard him, even the tax collectors justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him. And the Lord said, To what then shall I liken the men of this generation?

And what are they like? They're like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, saying, We played the flute for you, and you did not dance. We mourned to you, and you did not weep. For John the Baptist came, neither eating bread, nor drinking wine. And you say, He has a demon. The Son of Man has come, eating and drinking. And you say, Look a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.

But wisdom is justified by all her children. There are things in this passage that are difficult to understand. But no matter how difficult they are, they still come to us from God Himself, who promises His Holy Spirit to search out these things, illumine this text for our edification and for our understanding. So please receive this Word as it comes to you from God Himself.

Be seated. Last week when our time ran out, I was in the middle of verse 28, and I said, If you wanted to hear the rest of the text, you'd have to come back this morning, which all of you who are here today have done. And so I'm glad for that result. And now let's tackle this difficult statement that Jesus made after He gave such wonderful praise to John the Baptist. He then goes on to say that of all the prophets, there was none greater than John the Baptist, and yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. Now to put this in perspective, let's just assume for the sake of illustration that you're looking this morning at the person standing in this pulpit who is least in the kingdom of God. And if I qualify for that distinction, as discouraging as it might be to me to wake up and discover that of all of those who are in the kingdom of God, I am the very least, at least, I can take some comfort in knowing that despite my leastness in the kingdom of God, I'm still greater than John the Baptist. So that means you have one greater than John the Baptist preaching to you this morning.

It can hardly get a whole lot better than that. But this seems silly at one glance because we know that John the Baptist, being one of the greatest prophets of all time, if not the greatest of Old Testament pages in some respects, is far greater than I am and far greater than you are in terms of his importance to the whole scope of redemptive history. And so if we are thinking this in terms of status, are we going to consider that in heaven when God gives out the rewards for faithfulness and obedience that your reward in heaven will be greater than John the Baptist?

I don't think so. And I'm sure that my reward in heaven won't look anything like the reward that will be given to John the Baptist in heaven for his martyrdom and his fidelity and his convictions and confession publicly of Christ Jesus. So what then does it mean to say that the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist? What we have to look at here is the meaning in the context of greatness. And I think there's a clue to this in the pages of the Old Testament when we go way, way, way, way back to Genesis to the time when Noah gives his patriarchal blessing to his three sons. Do you remember how he divided that blessing up? He said, Blessed be Shem, Enlarged be Japheth, and cursed be Canaan, the disciple of Ham. So one was blessed, one was cursed, and the middle one, Japheth, was enlarged, in a sense made greater. And the context of that language from the Old Testament had to do not simply with the size of the tribes that would flow out of the descendancy of Japheth, but rather the degree of blessedness that Japheth and his sons and daughters would experience. The greatest level of blessedness was given to Shem and to his sons and daughters. But then the second greatest level of blessedness would go to the descendants of Japheth.

And so the quantitative terms here of large and small, of great and small, are defined in terms of blessedness. So what I hear Jesus saying in this problematic statement about John the Baptist is even though there is none born of women greater than John the Baptist, nevertheless he who is least in the kingdom of God is in a greater state of blessedness than even John the Baptist enjoyed. John the Baptist, as I mentioned last week, though he is written about in the New Testament, still belonged to the period of redemptive history called the period of the Old Testament. He was the last of the Old Testament prophets, and he was the prophet selected to be the herald of the coming Messiah to introduce Jesus as the one who would be crowned the King, as the one who would bring in the New Covenant.

But he was still on the outside looking in. But anyone who's born after the cross, after the resurrection, and particularly after the ascension of Christ to the right hand of the Father is living in a better situation in terms of redemptive historical salvation than all of the saints in the Old Testament. It's in the New Testament that even the angels desired to look into those things that have been brought to pass through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The covenant that we are in, we are told, is a better covenant. The situation that we are in is a better situation, and it all has to do with the kingdom of God. Now there are those in the Christian church who have been profoundly influenced by theology that teaches that the kingdom of God is something that is totally and completely in the future.

And you see that in the books of the Left Behind series in the late great planet earth and that kind of approach to history. But the New Testament makes it clear that the kingdom of God will be finalized and consummated in the future, but it has truly and surely been inaugurated already in the past. Jesus' coming was to begin the kingdom of God. Remember John the Baptist's preaching was what? Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. And then Jesus came preaching the gospel, the good news of the kingdom of God, and he said, if you see me casting out Satan by the finger of God, then you know that the kingdom of God is among you.

It's here in a very real sense. And so our situation historically in terms of redemptive history is far greater than anything John experienced even though he was an eyewitness of Jesus and actually baptized him. You know, sometimes we think, wouldn't it have been great if we could have lived back in the first century and could have seen the miracles of Christ, could have been a witness of the crucifixion, to have been there on Easter Sunday and seen the resurrected Christ, or to stand on the Mount of Ascension and watch him on the glory clouds being lifted up to heaven. Those people were so much more blessed than we are.

No, we live on this side of the enthronement of Christ as the King of the Kings and as the Lord of the Lords. Well, so what? May be the perfect time to ask this question. In the last four years, our national debt has gone from 10 trillion dollars to 16 trillion dollars. And you know, not too many people are all that concerned about it. They'll say, you know, what's the difference between 10 trillion and 16 trillion? Once you get up in the trillions, does it really matter? Does it matter to you? Does it matter to you?

Does it really matter anymore? And then I hear people say, oh, but we really owe it to ourselves is all. Let me tell you who's going to pay that 16 trillion dollars.

You are, and your children, and your grandchildren, and your great-grandchildren. And that is a burden that can crush the very heart and soul of this country. Well, what's the government going to do? You know what they're going to do. They're going to try to print their way out of it. And if they do that, it's going to cause more grief for you because your currency will be continually debased generation after generation. Your purchasing power, your savings, your investments will diminish with every new dollar that's printed.

People don't understand this. And I look at that and I say, how can the country stand a debt of 16 trillion dollars? Well, it can't. And it may be too late, but we certainly can't have any more of it. It has to stop. It has to stop for the survival of this country and of your children and your children's children.

So I hope that you will consider these matters deeply. Here's the good news. Even if things get worse, and even if four years from now we get another six trillion dollars added on and it's now 22 trillion after four more years, here's what I guarantee you. After four more years, Jesus Christ will still be King. And whoever wins the election on Tuesday, on Wednesday, Jesus Christ will still be King. I just hope that King Jesus does not give to us what we deserve.

We need to pray for mercy and for grace, because we have been blessed beyond imagination. And again, if the fig tree doesn't blossom, and if there's no more cattle in the stalls, nevertheless, we rejoice in the God of our salvation, because we are in the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now when the people heard all of this, even the tax collectors justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John, but again the Pharisees and the scribes, they rejected the will of God for themselves, not having been baptized by Him. John the Baptist came as a prophet and he called all of these people to come and be cleansed, to repent, because the kingdom of God was at hand. But it was the religious establishment that said, we're not going to do that. That's for the hoi polloi, the om horech, the people of the land, the common folk, but not for us.

We'll not go into that water and be cleansed. And so Jesus said, what shall I like in the men of this generation? What are they like?

And so He answers His own question. They're like children. They're childish. They're like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, saying, we played the flute for you and you did not dance. We mourned to you and you did not weep.

What's this about? Well, what the kids would do when the marketplace would be empty, and they had a little bit of space to play, they'd go in there and they'd create games. We used to play in the street in front of my house. We'd play four-man touch football, and we had to watch for the cars coming down the street. And we could only play as long as the cars weren't in the street. As soon as the car went by, we used to throw the ball over the car, you know, and that sort of thing.

But then we'd continue our game. Kids are great at inventing games. Didn't you do it when you were little kids? Well, you used to dress up and would say, let's play Robin Hood, Sherwood Forest. No, let's play Pirates. Let's play Cowboys and Indians, Cops and Robbers. And the girls would say, let's play Dolls. No, let's play Dress Up. And the kids would fight among themselves as to what they should do with their games.

This is what Jesus said. This is how little kids are. They're like kids out there, and they play the flute saying, we're going to have a happy time of dancing. And some of the kids say, we're not dancing. We don't want to play the flute game. And so, okay, so they play the funeral dirge. Let's play funeral. And the kids say, no, no, we're not going to play funeral. We're not going to mourn.

This is the way children behave. And Jesus said, that's what I liken this generation to. For John the Baptist came in his asceticism. He didn't eat meat or bread. He didn't drink wine.

And what did you say? He must have a demon. The guy won't eat bread like normal people. He won't drink wine like normal people. He must be demon-possessed.

So they rejected him. So now Jesus comes, and it's a time of feasting, not a time of mourning. He eats with the people. He makes wine for them at their weddings. And you say, what?

Hey, the Son of Man comes now. And you say, well, we can't accept him. He's a glutton. He's a wine bibber.

This is the old damned if you do, damned if you don't syndrome. They rejected John the Baptist because he was too austere. They rejected Jesus because he was too happy and pleasant. But he says, wisdom is justified by all her children.

A very important statement. Jesus makes a figurative use and application of the word for justify or justification in the New Testament. This plays a critical role in the whole history of the Reformation.

Reformation was fought over the battle of justification. How are we justified in the sense of reconciled to God? God is just. We're unjust. He's holy.

We're not. And Paul labors the point that the only way we can be justified is not by our deeds or our works because they're always tarnished. And by the works of the law, he says, shall no flesh ever be justified. So we have to be justified by faith and by faith alone, which means the only way we can be justified before God is by putting our trust and our faith in Christ and in His works, in His righteousness. And then St. James comes along and writes his epistle and says, if a man says he has faith and has no works, will that faith justify him? And he answers that question saying that a dead faith never justifies anybody. And at the end of that chapter, he goes on to say, was not Abraham justified by his works when he offered Isaac on the altar and Rahab and so on? So now you have Paul saying we're justified by faith, James saying we're justified by works, saying we're justified by works.

How do you handle that? Well, they're obviously not talking about the same kind of justification. When Paul was talking about justification in his major work in Romans, he's talking about how we are made justified in the sight of God. James asks the question, if a man says he has faith and has no works, will that faith justify him? Justify him before whom? Does God have to wait to see whether Abraham is going to give Isaac on the altar before he knows whether Abraham's faith is genuine?

Of course not. According to Paul, Abraham is justified in Genesis 15. According to James, not until Genesis 22, because what James is saying is that a man's claim to have faith is justified to be a true claim before men when he or she manifests or shows or demonstrates the reality of that faith by his works.

That's what James is teaching. And he's using the term justify in the sense of manifesting or demonstrating something in exactly the same way Jesus uses it here in this text when he says wisdom is justified by her children. Jesus is not saying that wisdom is brought into a reconciled relationship with a just and holy God by having kids. He's saying that wisdom is shown to be wisdom by its fruits, by the results. We don't know whether a decision we make is a wise course of action.

We'll only know for sure when we see the results of that. And so now he's speaking to these Pharisees who reject John the Baptist, and they reject him, and he said, we'll see. Wisdom will be justified by her children. And the wisdom of John the Baptist and the wisdom of Jesus Christ was made plain and manifest by the power of God, showing the whole world that these men were the men of God.

And the passage of time proved that without a doubt. We're glad you've joined us for Renewing Your Mind on this Sunday. I'm Lee Webb. Over the past several months, we have reserved this Sunday program for Dr. R.C. Sproul's verse-by-verse sermon series from the Gospel of Luke.

We're in chapter 7, so we have several months of study ahead of us. So I hope you'll join us every week. And I also hope you'll request our resource offer. When you contact us today and give a donation of any amount of Ligonier Ministries, we will provide you with a digital download of Dr. Sproul's nearly 600-page commentary on Luke. Our offices are closed on this Lord's Day, but you can make your request and give your gift online at renewingyourmind.org. Dr. Sproul established Ligonier Ministries to make the deep truths of Scripture accessible to everyone. We exist to help you as a Christian to study the Bible well and apply it to your life.

R.C. often returned to Romans chapter 12 to remind us that the Holy Spirit uses the same Scriptures He breathed forth to renew our minds and to transform us into the likeness of Christ, all that we may know God, love God, and live for His glory. That's why this program exists, and we thank you for joining us here each day. And I do hope you'll make plans to join us again next Sunday for Renewing Your Mind.