Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev19960609.htm

MATTHEW: JESUS AS ISRAEL'S MESSIAH AND HIS MESSIANIC KINGDOM
Part IX: Christ's Messianic Kingdom Certified
C. Certifying The Ministries Of God's Messengers By Their WORDS And WORKS
(Matthew 11:16-24)
  1. Introduction
    1. Almost every local church in Christendom has something unique about its styles or practices of ministry. No two congregations are alike, and no two pastors are alike!
    2. In view of the uniqueness of each church and each minister, how are we to judge the credibility of a minister or a congregation to see if it or he is worth recommending? We need to know as often believers move about from location to location seeking spiritual fulfillment, and new Christians need a church home!
    3. The Hebrews of Jesus' day rejected both the godly John and Jesus though both had entirely opposite emotional styles of ministry. Yet Jesus said that the multitudes were inexcusable in their rejection as one was to evaluate the credibility of a work of God by another criteria as follows:
  2. Certifying The Ministries Of God's Messengers By Their WORDS And WORKS, Matt. 11:16-24.
    1. Jesus revealed that Israel as a whole unjustly rejected both John and Himself, judging both ministers incorrectly by their differing emotional styles of ministry, Mtt. 11:16-19b:
      1. Jesus complained that His generation of Israel was like a group of children playing in the marketplace either as doing "weddings" or "funerals," Mtt. 11:16-17.
      2. John MacArthur reveals that children often liked to mimic the adults in performing these two very important social functions as these functions elicited impressionable emotions from adults, MacArthur, Matthew 8-15, p. 260-261.
      3. When their parents showed up at the bazaar and did business there, their children would get together and play at these two "games" of "weddings" or "funerals" to act out the emotionalism involved in each.
      4. The people of Jesus' day were like fickle children who wanted ministries to play to the whims of emotions, rejecting the "funeral" game for "wedding" game or vice-versa to meet various whims, 11:17.
      5. Since John came with his funeral dirge of stern appeal (eating locusts and wild honey and dressed in camel's clothes), the people faithlessly criticized him as being too negative, and wanted to play "wedding." However, since Jesus came involved in all the positive social activities unlike John, His detractors used the excuse that Jesus was a "wine bibber and glutton" to reject His ministry, 11:17-18!
    2. However, the credibility of the ministries of God's workers is not measured by their unique styles or emotional effects, but by their works and words:
      1. Jesus refuted the critics by saying that "wisdom is proved right by her actions," (NIV) a phrase meaning that what John and Jesus did or achieved were the criteria of their ministry credibilities, Mtt. 11:19c.
      2. He went on to explain that because Israel's cities had not repented due to the works and words that He and John had presented before them, they would to be condemned by God, Mtt. 11:20. In fact, these cities in Israel would be worse off facing judgment than were known Gentile cities known for their evil:
        1. Chorazin and Bethsaida were going to suffer worse judgment than the infamous pagan cities of Tyre and Sidon, for the latter would have repented long ago upon seeing the words and works that these Jewish cities had seen in John and Jesus' ministries, Mtt. 11:21-22.
        2. Capernaum would suffer the worst as even wicked Sodom and all of its homosexuality would have repented had it witnessed the words and works John and Jesus did in Capernaum, Mtt. 11:23-24.
Lesson: There is a difference between the emotional fulfillment of a ministry and its spiritual credibility. Yes, the Holy Spirit can produce positive emotions, but emotions are an inadequate barometer of the spiritual realm, cf. He. 12:6! Thus, in making recommendations, judge a ministry's credibility only by its concrete words and works to see if they match Scripture's written criteria!

Application: When evaluating the credibility of a ministry, we must not get caught up in basing our conclusions on the criteria of emotional fulfillment as fickle children do in a marketplace or we will risk making judgments to our harm that favor artificial, hollow ministries! Look beyond emotional elements of a ministry to judge its credibility by seeing if its words and works pass Scripture's tests.