Denounced

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

DENOUNCED

Matt 11:20-24

20 Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. 21 "Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. 23 And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths. If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. 24 But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you."

NIV

There is a truth here which seems a little harsh, yet at the same time contains an incredible amount of mercy. This idea of Jesus denouncing cities because they did not repent in response to all the miracles he did in them shows us something both about God and about men. The more God does to draw people to himself, the less of an excuse people have to refuse to repent. Jesus did so much in these cities yet the impertinence of the people is why he denounced them. Just consider for a moment the treatment Sodom and Gomorrah received because of their sin. Yet they did not have the gospel preached to them nor witnessed miracles performed, people healed, the blind given vision, the lame walking, mute speaking and demons being cast from tormented souls. Sodom received it’s judgement almost two thousand years before these cities received theirs. But because they did witness all these things and heard the gospel and still continued in their lifestyle of rebellion against God, their punishment will be worse than that of the city of Sodom. Does that infer there are levels of hell or punishment? That might be something to ponder on another time, but the truth we should consider is how do we respond to the gospel. Although he denounced these cities there were at least three of his disciples that came from one of them. Phillip, Andrew and Peter came from Bethsaida, thus even though the city as a whole remained unashamed or impenitent about its sin, there were some within who heard and responded. This might translate into our family settings. It would be a wonderful thing if when one of us within a family structure heard the gospel and responded then all of our family would join us. But that is just not the case. Perhaps within our immediate family there is a greater opportunity to see the others respond as we have, but within our extended family we might see a greater amount of impenitence. The harshness of this truth is that when someone has the opportunity to hear the gospel message and continues to deny the truth, denounce the gospel, reject it’s offer, and remain unashamed, they destiny is worse than those who lived in Sodom. It seems all we can do is present the truth to them. The Spirit is the one who convicts people of their sin and need of repentance. Some have even been witness to miracles, yet deny the truth. It would be great if somehow we could convince them, but even Jesus with all the divine power he was able to display was not able to convince those people within those cities. We need to come to grips with that fact. All we can do is witness to what God has done in our lives, leave the rest up to the Spirit. If they reject him, they are doomed, unfortunately. This is why God has said that what may be known about him is plan and can be seen in all he has created so that no man is without excuse. Even though we may not have been able to preach the gospel to every person, they still have all that is needed to know God. That is why Jesus will denounce them. He already made that proclamation.

Matt 10:32-33

32 "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. 33 But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.

NIV

This is one of those fulfillments of his statement. We know this is going to happen over and over again. Yet we should also be on guard of not getting lazy in our faith. We who have heard and responded to the gospel need to remain faithful to the message. We have learned how we cannot merge the truth with untruth. We cannot merge God and the world. We cannot serve both God and money or the ways of the world, the system the world offers for our provisions. We cannot merge righteousness with sin. Although we cannot ever escape all sin and thus attain perfection, we can resist those temptations to the best of our abilities with the aid of the Spirit. The point is we should not simply incorporate the truth in our old life. We should not continue to abide by the rules of the world, while confessing we put our faith in Jesus. If we do that, would we be somewhat like those cities, hearing the message but not actually responding fully? Another concept to ponder on. The idea seems to be, just as those three disciples left everything behind them and followed Jesus, we need to leave everything behind us and follow him. Leaving behind the city we once lived in, the city that is denounced by Jesus. This would bring us to that which we have said before. Once we lived in the city of sin and darkness but Jesus has called us out of the darkness and created a bridge to the city of love and light. Let us truly live in this new city, and not look back, as Lot’s wife did. Living here, living in Christ we never need to fear being denounced.