Turn with me, if you would please, to Matthew 11, and we will begin our study today at verse 16. As we begin, let me just remind you that any time you study God's Word, it demands a response. Verse 15 is not a part of our study this morning, but notice what Jesus said to those who were listening to him. He said, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. We find that same phrase recorded eight times in the Gospels, and we also find the glorified Christ saying that to the Apostle John eight times in the book of Revelation. Seven of those times occur when he's speaking to the seven churches. In other words, the Lord wants his people to carefully listen to what he says. A fundamental teaching of Scripture is that God's truth demands a response. But while Jesus has called his listeners to truly hear him and respond to what they have heard, he recognizes that most do not hear, most do not listen. It's basic to biblical truth that people must respond, that they must react, that they're given a choice when confronted with the truth of God, namely to hear it, believe it, and act on it, or to reject it. Here in Matthew 11, Matthew is recording the various responses of people to Jesus. One of those responses is honest doubt. That was the response that characterized John the Baptist. We studied that last week. John believed in Jesus, and yet he had some doubts, and so Jesus dealt with that in the first 15 verses. Honest doubt can occur, even in the case of a believer, just as it did with John. But now, in verses 16 to 24, Jesus is going to go on to talk about two other responses to him that are very common and much more serious. They are criticism and indifference. One talks about what people do and the other talks about what people do not do. And a man or a woman can be damned to hell just as much by what they do not do as by what they do. Some people actively criticize Jesus Christ while others are simply indifferent towards him. It's easy to understand that those who actively oppose him will be judged, but we have to recognize that when we look ahead to the ultimate great white throne judgment, it is certain that some people are going to say as a defense, I never did anything against you. And that will also result in their condemnation just as much as those who opposed him. We already read our text at the time of the scripture reading this morning. So let's dive in and begin looking at these two responses. And we'll begin with the first one that Jesus mentions, which is the response of criticism. Jesus poses a question in verse 16. But to what shall I compare this generation? That phrase was a common Middle Eastern expression used to introduce a parable or other illustration. In Jewish literature, particularly in the Midrash, which is an ancient Jewish commentary on the Old Testament, that phrase is the most common formula for introducing a parable. All good teachers know that you have to teach in word pictures or in analogies, similes, metaphors, figures of speech to help people understand your point. And that was true with the rabbis as well, and they would commonly say this phrase, to what shall I compare this matter? So that is the most common phrase in rabbinic teaching for introducing a parable. It's like saying, how can I liken this point to something in life that will make it clear to you? What's it like? And so in a very traditional rabbinic way, Jesus is launching himself into a parable. But to what shall I compare this generation? How can I illustrate what this generation is like? And in these first few verses, he points out that one of the things that characterized them was that they were always critical. No matter what he did or said, they criticized it. There was no validity to the criticism. They're just looking for something to pick on. I'm sure you have met people like that. I used to have a family member who was like that. No matter what you said, he would argue with you about it. If you made the general statement that the sky is blue and the grass is green, he would argue that that isn't always true. And there are many people in the world just like that in regard to Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter how wonderful he is, they despise him and his followers. They're not open to the truth. They will not acknowledge their sin and they aren't interested in a savior. So they just sit back and criticize. If you don't believe me, I can show you their presence on social media. They are your neighbors, friends, coworkers, and even family members. If you mention Jesus Christ to them, they respond with disdain, contempt, and derision. Unfortunately, there are many churches who are infected with people just like that. They are people who profess to be believers. I'm not so sure they truly are. Because no matter how wonderful the pastor's sermon is that day, no matter what the church leadership does or says, they will always criticize it. They're skeptical of everyone and everything. If you confront them about their attitude, they will not acknowledge their sin. All they want to do is sit back and criticize. They may claim to know and love Jesus, but their behavior indicates otherwise. Now let me just say that I and the other elders are very glad that we don't have those kinds of people here at Lakeside. At least not as a pattern of behavior, and we thank you for that. I just want to make that clear. So let's look at how Jesus illustrates this. He begins in the middle of verse 16 by saying, it is like children sitting in the marketplaces who call out to the other children and say, we played the flute for you and you did not dance. We sang a dirge and you did not mourn. Now at first reading, you might not understand what he means. So let me see if I can give you a little bit of help here. In the center of every town and village was a place called the Agora. That is the word for marketplace. To this day, that term is used in the Greek community for a marketplace. If you go to the city of Tarpon Springs here in our county, it has a large Greek community, and you will find a grocery store there named the Agora Food Market. So on the day that the community had decided was the market day, all of the farmers and vendors would bring their items to the Agora and sell them. They would fill up that open space in the middle of town with all of their carts and little lean-to canopies, and they would sell all of their various wares, meats, fruits, and vegetables in the marketplace. And it was a favorite place for the children to play. The vendors would take their children with them to hang out there all day while they sold their goods and the buyers would have their children with them also. So there would be lots of children running around in the marketplace and of course they knew each other and so eventually various games would begin to take shape. Now the Agora took place in an open area similar to a park or a town square, and on the days when the market wasn't there, it was a large open space, and so there would be even more room for the children to play. And just like children today, they would play the games that mimicked the life of their parents. One of the popular games that they played was wedding. And the other favorite was funeral, which is a little harder to imagine, but they liked to play wedding and funeral. Why? Because those were public social events. Whenever a wedding occurred, there was always a parade or procession through town. The bride, the bridegroom, the friend of the bridegroom, all of the ladies who were waiting on the bride, and everyone else in the wedding party would go through town. And there would be people playing pipes and flutes, and people would be skipping and dancing with joy as they went through the town in this procession. And the children would see this, and they would know that it was a part of life. So the children would get together, and they would pretend to be a wedding party. One little girl would pretend to be the bride, and some little boy would pretend to be the groom, and another boy, the friend of the bridegroom, and the rest of the girls would pretend to be the bridesmaids, and there would be the musicians, who were the kids who could play a flute or a panpipe, and they would go around the town square, the marketplace, and through the town, and the musicians would play the flute, and they would call out to their friends and say, come on, join the procession. And then after they played wedding for a while, they would decide to play funeral, which in that society, they saw and participated in far more than children in our society do, because death was a far more common event back then due to war and disease, and it was also a public event. And at a funeral, the pallbearers lifted the body on the stretcher under their shoulders, and they carried the body through the city while all the family members and friends followed along. And they would hire professional mourners, usually women who were paid to wail loudly, and they would follow along and wail and moan and lament, and the children would see that. And so after the children played wedding a while and got tired of that, they would play funeral. And so they would wail and scream and beat on their chest and head just like the professional mourners. And as they were playing funeral, they would yell to their little friends, come play funeral with us. But you know what? There were some kids who didn't want to play. And that's why verse 17 says, we played the flute for you and you did not dance. We sang a dirge and you did not mourn. So there were a bunch of kids in Jesus' parable who just refused to play. They were spoil sports. You know who they are. If the kids were playing wedding, they would say, we don't want to play your dumb game. So the others might say, okay, then we'll change our game. We'll play funeral instead. And these kids say, no, we don't want to play that either. We don't want to be involved with you at all. They don't care whether you're playing the happy game or the sad game. They aren't going to play either one. They just stubbornly don't want to play. They just want to sit on the sidelines and criticize and laugh at the kids who are playing. Now, the principle of the parable becomes clear, doesn't it? There are people who just don't want to play no matter what the game is, right? No matter how you approach them, they don't want to play. They'll criticize the wedding and they'll criticize the funeral. Nothing satisfies them. They will always find fault because they're basically unwilling to participate, unwilling to be satisfied. And so Jesus says, that's what this generation is like. You just don't want to play. No matter what the game is, you will not be satisfied. You're like the children who, when called to play by their little friends, are uninterested and unwilling to join in, and you just have a bitter, critical, contrary spirit. Now look at verse 18, and here comes the application. For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, he has a demon. What is that? Well, John the Baptist came in funeral mode. John was austere. John came dressed in a camel's hair cloak, which would have been coarse and dark. John came eating locusts and wild honey, having no normal social relationships. He lived in the desert. By all human definitions, he was a recluse and a hermit. He came pounding away the message of judgment and fiery condemnation. He talked about an axe chopping at the root of the tree. He cried out for repentance and for that repentance to be demonstrated by fruit in one's life. He came in funeral mode. He was serious and austere. He lived apart from the normal relationships of life. He never entered into social activities at all. He was a voice crying in the wilderness. And you know what they said about him? He has a demon. He's possessed. I mean, anyone who acts that weird is demon possessed. Over in John 5.35, Jesus spoke about John and said, he was the lamp that was burning and shining and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. That's interesting, isn't it? They hadn't had a prophet in 400 years, and they could see that he was great. He had the power of personality to attract them, and so they rejoiced in his light for a little while. But the critics among them finally concluded, he's just nuts. He's demon-possessed. You see, he grated against their immoral and unspiritual nerves, and they railed against him. They tolerated him for a short while, enjoying the novelty and the excitement of his preaching. But he wouldn't let them be neutral bystanders. They couldn't be uncommitted onlookers who heard and observed without decision or commitment. When they saw they had to choose, they chose not to believe and follow him. Instead of accepting John's rebuke of their wickedness, they rebuked his righteousness. They charged the prophet who had no equal, who was greater than any other person with being demon-possessed. They simply reasoned that anyone who was as strange as John, who lived like he lived, must be possessed by a demon. And that was the worst thing they could say about him. He was demon-possessed. It would have been enough to say, well, you know, he's off somewhat mentally. Because there might've been a little room for sympathy in that. But when they said he's demon-possessed, they pushed it as far as they could push it. Instead of seeing his lifestyle as a rebuke to their indulgence, they just ridiculed him. But on the other hand, look at verse 19. Following John, Jesus says, the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they said, Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners, yet wisdom is vindicated by our deeds. Jesus was just the opposite of John. He came in His humanness, eating and drinking. In other words, He came and lived in the normal flow of social life. He had meals with people. He stayed in their homes. He attended the normal social activities of the society. He was at weddings. He was at funerals. He was at special events. He was in the synagogue. He was in the temple. He walked from village to village. He was by the sea with the fishermen. He even got into their boats. He was where the people were. He was a part of their life, and He shared food and drink with them. You see, He came in wedding mode. In fact, in Matthew 9, 14, John's disciples who were used to the funeral mode, this dirge kind of thing, came to Jesus and said, why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast? And His answer was, in effect, hey, you don't fast at a wedding. In other words, the Messiah is here, it's a celebration. And so Jesus, in a sense, came in a very different way than John did. And look at what they said. Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. You see, because he mingled, they criticized that. Because John didn't mingle, they criticized that. By the way, that term, gluttonous, is a term referring to a man who eats and drinks too much, and the result of eating and drinking too much is that the person could become a drunkard from drinking too much wine. And because Jesus associated with tax collectors and sinners, many of whom they knew to be gluttonous drunkards, they assumed that he did the same things. But because he came mixing with all kinds of hurting, needy people, sharing their sorrows and their joys, they said he was a drunk like many of them. And because John came living in the desert, fasting, despising food, isolated from people, they said he was mad and demonic. And the point of Jesus' statement is that they were just critical of anyone who wasn't exactly like them. There's nothing that could be done that could please them. One Bible commentator says, the plain fact is that when people do not want to listen to the truth, they will easily enough find an excuse for not listening to it. They do not even try to be consistent in their criticisms. They will criticize the same person in the same institution from quite opposite grounds. If people are determined to make no response, they will remain stubbornly unresponsive no matter what invitation is made to them. Grown children and women can be very like spoiled children who refuse to play no matter what the game is. And so Jesus points out that no matter what we did, you wouldn't play. It's just your testy, defiant, critical hearts. It's a bad response because he says at the end of verse 19, yet wisdom is vindicated by your deeds. In other words, Jesus says, you sit back and you criticize no matter what I do or what John does, no matter what our message is, you criticize. But in the end, the truth will justify itself by what it produces. You see, you know, you can criticize Christ, but where you're going to get into trouble is when you run into people whose lives he's changed, right? You can criticize the church, but where you're going to have problems is when you have to explain why the church has had the impact it's had on the world. You see, truth or wisdom are ultimately justified by what it produces. And that is an unanswerable argument. The wisdom of John the Baptist, which insisted on repentance, the wisdom of Jesus, which insisted on salvation, were shown to be justified by what they accomplished in the hearts and lives of the people who believed. The believers rendered the right verdict, and they became the testimony to the truth. Some people are just critical. You meet them. I meet them. They're not even looking for the truth. They just want to find everything wrong with Christ and Christianity, and that's a tragic response, because in the end, the truth will be justified by what it produces. You see, these people had a smugness that made them sit in condemning judgment, and they were wrong. Now, in these verses, there is a certain gentleness. The rebuke there is mild. When it says, wisdom is vindicated by our deeds, that's actually a very mild rebuke. He doesn't really crash down on the generation of critics. But something dramatic happens between verses 19 and 20. The gentleness is gone when you hit verse 20. There's almost a line of demarcation between verses 19 and 20. Something dramatic changes and judgment comes with fury in verse 20. And this of course accelerates the events that led to the people crucifying Christ. And because there's definitely an open flow of the wrath of God that comes in this next section. And that wrath comes towards those who are indifferent about him. We've seen the response of criticism, that is what men did. Now I want you to see the response of indifference, what men didn't do. Look at verse 20. Then he began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles were done because they did not repent. Woe to you, Corzine. Woe to you, Bethsaida, for if the miracles that occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Nevertheless, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades, for the miracles that occurred in Sodom, which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. Nevertheless, I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you." It's important to realize that what people don't do is also enough to condemn them. Back in Matthew 7, verses 26 and 27, In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, and everyone hearing these words of mine and not doing them may be compared to a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain descended and the rivers came, the winds blew and slammed against that house and it fell and great was its fall. Why was that man lost in judgment? Because he heard and did not do. Not doing anything about what he heard was sufficient. You see, people do not have to do anything bad to go to hell. They just have to do nothing at all to go to hell. I think about King Josiah's revival back in second Kings. He brought back the word of God to the people in second Kings 22, 13. He said, great is the wrath of Yahweh, which has set a flame against us because our fathers have not listened to the words of this book to do according to all that is written concerning us. It was what they didn't do. Flip over a few pages in your Bible for a moment to Matthew 22. Beginning in verse 1, Jesus is teaching them using a parable in which he is likening his kingdom to a king sending out invitations to his son's wedding feast. And in verse 3, it says, and he sent out his slaves to call those who had been called to the wedding feast and they were unwilling to come. So in verse four, it says, again, he sent out other slaves saying, tell those who have been called, behold, I have prepared my dinner and my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast. And now listen to verse five. But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business. Some of them just simply ignored his invitation. In Luke 17 verses 26 to 27, you have that fascinating statement by Jesus in which he said, and just as it was in the days of Noah, so it will also be in the days of the son of man. They were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. In other words, Just as people ignored Noah's proclamation that God's judgment was coming, so also when Jesus was present, people would ignore him also until it was too late. Mankind will just go on oblivious with their same routines of life, just like it was back in Noah's day. The Bible never mentions that there were critics of Noah, although I'm sure there were plenty of them laughing and ridiculing him and his preaching about vast amounts of water that were going to flood the earth. But Jesus made it clear that most people just ignored him and his warnings. It was just indifference, just going on with life as usual. And that's how people treated Jesus. Now those passages illustrate the indifference of men towards God, but not as aptly and not as powerfully as does our passage here in Matthew 11. So follow along again. Verse 20, then he began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles were done because they did not repent. The gentle rebuke of verse 19 is gone. They've had all the revelation they needed. He had performed a myriad of miracles, forgiven sinners, cast out demons, raised the dead, but they had not repented and received him as the Messiah. So he moves on to the statement of his judgment. This is his righteous anger, his wrath expressed in words of denunciation for those who will not acknowledge their sin. It is holy anger, holy fury that you see in this passage. Now Matthew mentions the cities of Galilee in which most of Jesus' mighty works were done. He's not condemning the physical cities, that is the houses, streets, and buildings, but rather he's referring to the people who live in those cities. Buildings and houses cannot repent, but the people who live and work in them can. But the people do ultimately reflect the cities, and the cities ultimately reflect the judgment because they go out of existence if God so chooses to do that. He did that with Sodom and Gomorrah. But he's talking about the people, and the reason he began to condemn them was because his mighty works were done in their presence, but they did not repent. They'd seen miracle after miracle after miracle by the hundreds, perhaps even thousands. He healed countless people. He'd fed thousands, and yet they wouldn't repent and turn to God. They're very much like the people that we read about in Revelation 9 who were told who were told that after a plethora of miraculous plagues that will take place during the tribulation, they still will not repent of any of their idolatrous worship, or their murders, their sorceries, their sexual immoralities and thefts. That's how the Galileans were. They didn't show any interest at all in receiving him as Messiah on his terms, only on their own terms. If he would have promised to feed them all they wanted and to overthrow Rome, they would have accepted him. But Jesus' basic goal in doing those miracles was to demonstrate His divine nature and cause them to repent and come to Him. But they didn't repent. Now listen, when people have that kind of privilege and do not repent, what happens is that their guilt becomes aggravated. And they are more severely guilty than if they had never heard at all or never seen a miracle at all. It is far better for someone to know nothing at all about Jesus Christ than to know the truth about him and reject him. There is eternal punishment for both, but for those who know of Christ and trample his blood under their feet, as it were, there is greater judgment, according to Hebrews 10, 29. The greater the privilege, the greater the responsibility. And no cities were ever more privileged than the cities of Galilee. The incarnate Son of God had walked their dusty roads. He had taught their favored people. He had performed His mighty miracles within their villages and towns, and He had given them overwhelming evidence, but in their indifference, they had not repented. The works and message of Jesus should have stopped those people in their tracks like the message of Jonah stopped Nineveh in his tracks so that it repented, but they didn't. They did not repent. Johann Bengel, the great Lutheran pastor of the late 1600s and early 1700s once said, every hearer of the New Testament truth is either much happier or much more wretched than the men who lived before Christ's coming. Those guys, these guys were the latter. They were much more wretched. They saw the living Christ, yet they turned their backs on Him in disdain, and so they fell under greater judgment because of their greater responsibility. And Jesus singles out two illustrations of unrepentant hearts in the cities of Galilee. Verse 21, woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! The word woe is a curse, a promise of doom, a promise of judgment, but it expresses sorrowful pity and regret as much as it expresses anger. As one Bible teacher puts it, this is not the accent of one who is in a temper because his self-esteem has been touched. It is not the accent of one who is blazingly angry because he has been insulted. It is the accent of sorrow, the accent of one who offered men and women the most precious thing in the world and saw it disregarded. Jesus' condemnation of sin is holy anger, but the anger comes not from outraged pride, but from a broken heart. Now Korazin was a little village nestled in the hills two and a half miles north of Capernaum. I've been there. It's one of the few places in Israel where the excavation of the synagogue ruins goes all the way down to the time of Christ. In other words, if you go there, you're walking on the same pavement, the same cobblestones that Jesus walked on. Very few other places in Israel are excavated all the way down to that level. But it is now extinct, meaning there is no village there currently, only ruins. And then there was Bethsaida. Bethsaida was just east of Capernaum, across the Jordan River on the northeast shore of the Sea of Galilee. It was the hometown of Philip. It was the town that Andrew and Peter were originally from. And Jesus had performed miracles there also in that little village. With Capernaum as his headquarters, he had conducted miracles all around the surrounding Galilee area. In fact, in John's gospel in chapter 21, verse 25, he says, there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written. So they'd seen hundreds, if not thousands of miracles. And these two towns of Chorazin and Bethsaida are just two examples that Jesus uses of the many Galilean towns in which he had performed miracles. They weren't the only towns deserving of judgment for rejecting him. They're just two places that represented all of the villages and towns of Galilee. But look what he says in verse 21. For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon, which occurred in you, They would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Now you must understand that in the minds of the Galilean Jews, Tyre and Sidon were historically the two most wretched cities. They were located just north of Galilee in the area known as Phoenicia. The Phoenicians were seafaring people, sailors, commercial traders who had colonized much of the Mediterranean area. And those seaports were everything that a seaport is. If you've ever been in a town where there is a commercial seaport or fishing industry, you know what I mean. All of the sailors who have been at sea for weeks or months show up, and all they want to do is get drunk, carouse, fight, and engage in sexual immorality. And Tyre and Sidon were two cities that were deep in the pit of Baal worship. The cities were immoral as far as you can imagine. They were Gentile, pagan, heathen societies. and God destroyed them. In Isaiah 23 and Ezekiel 26 to 28, we learned that the commercial seamen and the colonizing Phoenicians of those two cities were proud, greedy, cruel people. In fact, Ezekiel portrays the king of Tyre as so arrogantly proud and so utterly evil that he is a picture of Satan. Amos denounces them in his prophecy because they captured and sold Jews into slavery to the Edomites. Joel tells us that they also sold Jews to the Greeks. Jeremiah 25 and 47 say that God was going to pour out his wrath on them. So the prophets really denounced the vile wretchedness of those two cities. And so the Galileans, to the Galileans, those cities were bywords for vile places. And that's why God destroyed them. They were corrupt, immoral, idolatrous, pagan, pleasure mad, proud, wicked, and worthy of extinction. And yet Jesus says, For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon, which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. In other words, you're worse than they are. Here was a smug, self-righteous, moral society, Jewish people going about their daily routine, none of the grossness of Tyre and Sidon, and yet the Son of God says they're worse off. Why? because they were unable to perceive God in their midst. He says that Tyre and Sidon would have repented. And then he says in sackcloth and ashes to show that their repentance would have been genuine. Sackcloth was coarse, dark camel hair. Like that was John the Baptist war. It was a symbol of mourning. And when you wanted to mourn and show humility, you put on sackcloth and then in a custom that it was common throughout the Middle East, you threw ashes all over yourself or else you would just wallow in a big bed of ashes left over from a fire. That was how you expressed your extreme sorrow. That was not something God commanded in scripture. It was just a Middle Eastern custom. Job 42 tells us that Job did it. Daniel 9 tells us that Daniel did it also. Mordecai did it, as did the king of Nineveh after Jonah preached to the Ninevites. So Jesus is saying, Tyre and Sidon would have genuinely repented if they had seen what you saw. Tyre and Sidon didn't have your privilege. Now, for a Jew to be told he was worse than a Gentile was the absolute end in that society. It's not surprising that for Jesus, things now began to accelerate towards the cross. And if that wasn't bad enough, look at what he says in verse 22. Nevertheless, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. Now, what is the day of judgment? Well, I believe that what he had in mind here is the great white throne final judgment when all the dead of all the ages are brought before the throne of God to be judged for their eternal judgment. And he says that the judgment of Chorazin and Bethsaida will be more severe than the judgment of Tyre and Sidon. Such an idea was absolutely inconceivable to the Jews. It was inconceivable because the Jews would have agreed with the condemnation of Tyre and Sidon. They would have thought they deserve it. There's nothing worse than the Gentiles. But the Lord says it'll be better for them than it will be for you. That tells us there are degrees of punishment in hell. And the worst, more severe hell belongs to those who had Jesus Christ in their midst and walked away from him. more severe than the most vile, most immoral people who hadn't even heard about Jesus of Nazareth. The Jews were accustomed to thinking of themselves as safe for eternity because they were Abraham's seed and because they kept their traditions. And so they looked with contempt at the Gentiles. And so this statement would have been absolutely beyond belief to them. Jesus says it will be more tolerable for the wicked who never heard about Christ than for those who saw his miracles and heard his teaching. So there are degrees of punishment in hell. It's all horrible, but it goes from bad to worse. It has a lot of implications for the person who's heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, but rejected it as compared to the heathen in the jungles of the Amazon River region or in rural India who've never even heard the name of Jesus Christ. Based on Romans 1, all sinners who reject God's revelation of himself will end up in hell, but those who have the privilege of hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ and reject it will have even greater torment in hell. Then Jesus gives a second illustration in verse 23. He says, and Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will descend to Hades for if the miracles that occurred in Sodom, which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. Jesus made his headquarters in Capernaum. Matthew 9 refers to it as his own city. It was a town on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. It was a little fishing village. It was a place where all the disciples mingled with the people, where Jesus did many miracles. He healed the centurion's servant. He healed the demoniac in the synagogue. He healed Peter's mother-in-law. He healed a paralytic whose friends let him down through the roof. He raised Jairus' daughter back to life. He gave sight to blind men. He healed a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years. He did all of those miracles in Capernaum. And the people of Capernaum were under the illustration that they were flourishing, that they were prosperous, and they were so self-righteous that they believed they were gonna be exalted to heaven. They were very religious. And so Jesus asked the question, will you be exalted to heaven? And he answers it, you will descend to Hades. The term Hades is sometimes used in scripture to refer to the place of all the departed dead. But it's often used as it is here to represent hell, the place of eternal punishment for the unsaved. He's saying that someday those people will be brought before God and Jesus Christ will be the judge and they will be sentenced to hell. They're already incarcerated in a place of torment even now, but final sentencing awaits the great white throne and they will be severely sentenced for what they did not do. It's very interesting here that Jesus uses phrasing that mirrors God's curse on the King of Babylon in Isaiah 14, 15. Most commentators believe that when God speaks there to the king of Babylon, that king, while a real person, is a representation of Satan, Lucifer, when he rebelled against God. It says in verses 13 and 14, but you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven. I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the Mount of Assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will make myself like the Most High. And then verse 15, watch this. Nevertheless, you will be thrust down to Sheol, to the recesses of the pit." And here in our text, Jesus tells Capernaum, you will descend to Hades. The idea is the same. Just as Lucifer's pride resulted in condemnation to hell, so too Capernaum's pride resulted in its condemnation to hell. Like Lucifer, Capernaum experienced the presence of God. Lucifer rebelled. Capernaum ignored him. And the condemnation was the same. And notice what he says in verse 23. For if the miracles had occurred in Sodom, which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. If someone asks you what are the worst, most vile cities in human history, you might say Las Vegas. After all, it's known as Sin City. Or you might say San Francisco. But if you ask most Christians what's the most evil ancient city, they would immediately think of Sodom. Even in the secular world, people will sometimes mention Sodom as a very evil place. Why? Because what other city can you think of that was so incredibly evil? that God destroyed it by raining fire and brimstone on it. What other city was populated by a whole group of homosexuals who tried to rape angels? And when they were struck blind, instead of running in terror, they just kept trying to find the door so they could carry out their vile intentions. And to a Jew, the worst city they could think of would have been Sodom. Sodom was the worst. God himself described Sodom's sin to Abraham as exceedingly grave. And because his nephew Lot lived there, Abraham begged for Yahweh to show mercy and God promised not to destroy the city if only 10 righteous men could be found in the entire city and there weren't even 10. And we're told in Genesis 9-4 that when the two angels went to the house of Lot that were living there, that all of the men of the city, young and old, from throughout the entire city, came to the door of Lot's house to try to seize the two angels and rape them. It wasn't just a few guys, it was all the men in the city. gathered to join in the act. That's how vile that city was. And after being struck blind by the angels, verse 11 says they wearied themselves trying to find the doorway. They were so consumed with their lust that they exalted themselves trying to find the door to carry out their vile behavior. But do you know what city was worse than Sodom? Revise your list. Jesus says it was Capernaum. Did Capernaum have a problem with homosexual rapists roaming around? Not that we know of. Generally, from what we know, it was a city filled with very religious people. Now, I'm sure that just like any other city filled with sinners, they had a representation of every kind of sin, but did they try to attack God's people and sodomize them? No. What was their sin? What was their crime? They just ignored Jesus. That's all. They saw all of his miracles. They heard his teaching. And yet they turned away and ignored him. That brings about the deepest damnation. And so he says to Capernaum, you will descend to Hades. Jesus says if the Sodomites had seen the miracles that I've done in your presence, those vile centers would have repented. And it would still be a city to this day, but you ignored me. So instead you're going to a place of torment in the torment of Capernaum will exceed the torment of Sodom. Look at verse 24. Nevertheless, I say to you, there will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you. And once again, You and I cannot really understand what an incredibly devastating statement that would be to make in that society. Because Capernaum exceeded Chorazin and Bethsaida in privilege, and Sodom exceeded Tyre and Sidon in wickedness. So this is the ultimate contrast. The most wretched city in history up against the most blessed city in history, and the most blessed city receives the severer judgment. The point is, you can't just play around with Jesus Christ and think that it somehow changes how God feels about you. You simply bring deeper guilt upon yourself. For centuries, Sodom's indescribable abominations and total destruction have filled people with a sense of horror at the magnitude of God's judgment. But when you think about evil cities, you don't think about Capernaum. Yet it is the most wretched of all cities. Sodom would have repented. As deep in the pit as Sodom was, the people there would have repented if they had seen what Capernaum saw. Now listen carefully. Do you know what the sin of all sins is? And what it was that blinded Capernaum to the truth? It was that they thought they were already righteous. At least with rotten, wretched, vile sinners, they know they're not righteous. But self-righteous people won't admit it, and so theirs is the greater judgment. That's why throughout the New Testament, Jesus forgave prostitutes and tax-collecting cheats, and he blasted self-righteous religionists because they had no need of him. How could Capernaum be worse than Sodom? I mean, what did they do? Well, we never read that Capernaum hated Jesus. We never read that Capernaum rioted against Jesus. We never read that Capernaum persecuted Jesus. We never read of any eruption against him like in Nazareth in Jerusalem. So what makes them worse? Indifference. The scent of these flourishing places was not violence. It wasn't the scent of sensuality. It was just indifference. There's no record that they opposed Christ or mocked him or ridiculed him. They just didn't pay any attention to him. Geoffrey Stuttard Kennedy was an English Anglican and army chaplain during World War I who was well known for his poetry. In his poem titled Indifference, he writes of the response to Jesus in Birmingham, England during his day. One stanza of his poem reads like this. When Jesus came to Birmingham, they simply passed him by. They never heard a hair of him. They only let him die. For men had grown more tender, and they would not give him pain. They only just passed down the street and left him in the rain." That's the situation in Capernaum. He didn't matter to them. They had a passing interest in his teaching. His miracles entertained them, nothing more. His providential goodness never touched their hearts. His doctrine produced no change in their lives. A self-satisfied, complacent lack of concern about Jesus, whether in the form of Pharisaic self-righteousness or popular indifference, is condemned by Christ as the grossest of evils. On the outside, they were eminently respectable. But hell will be hotter for them than for the people of Sodom. The self-righteous Orthodox person is even more repulsive in God's sight than the most idolatrous and immoral pagan. And so while there will be those at the last judgment who will say, Lord, Lord, we did all these things in your name, I believe there will also be those who will say, but Lord, we never did anything against you. and therein will lie their severest condemnation. Let's bow together in prayer. If you're here today and you find yourself to be a critic of anything related to Jesus Christ, or you're simply indifferent towards him, I call you to consider what that means for your eternal future. Don't be like the scribes and Pharisees who criticized and rejected Jesus because they didn't like his teaching and his demands. And don't be indifferent like the people of Galilee who witnessed Jesus Christ, who was God in flesh, who saw his miracles, listened to his words, and yet, in the end, they simply shrugged their shoulders and walked away. Instead, repent of your sin, turn to Jesus Christ as the only means by which you can be reconciled to God and trust Him as your Lord and Savior. Father, we come to you in the name of your Son, Jesus, who was and is the only Savior of the world. Lord, we ask that today you might work in the hearts and minds of everyone within the sound of my voice to cause them to examine their heart to determine where they stand in relationship to Jesus Christ. Lord, you tell us in your word to be all the more diligent to make certain about your calling and choosing us. So help us to check our own standing before you. None of us want to stand before the judgment throne and hear those words depart from me. I never knew you. Father, convict us of our sin. Help us to overcome our indifference towards your son. May we work the fruits of genuine repentance in our lives. So that we enter your presence to the welcoming words, well done, good and faithful slave, enter into the joy of your master. In whose name we pray, amen.