“RELIGIOUS SPOILED BRATS”
LUKE 7:31-35

I. Introduction
The sermon title in your bulletin may need some clarification. “Religious spoiled brats!” That’s “brăt,” not “brät.” This morning’s sermon will not be about a church picnic where some of Wisconsin’s favorite sausages have gone bad.

The dictionary defines “bräts” as, “…highly seasoned, fresh sausage of veal and pork, for grilling, frying, etc.” It defines “brăts” as, “impudent, unruly children – a scornful term.” Actually this morning’s sermon is not about impudent, unruly children either. It is about religious and self-righteous people who act like impudent, unruly children.

Bible commentators use a wide variety of very descriptive terms to define such people. They’re called belligerent, complainers, defiant, disobedient, incorrigible, objectionable, obstinate, stubborn, ungrateful, and impossible to satisfy. Those aren’t all the terms I came across this past week while reading about the people whom Jesus addresses in this morning’s passage. But they are the most descriptive.

Proverbs has much to say about people like that.
Proverbs 15:5 (children who refuse to receive discipline and correction)
5 A fool rejects his father’s discipline, but he who regards reproof is prudent.

Proverbs 19:26 (children who shame themselves by rejecting their parents)
26 He who assaults his father and drives his mother away is a shameful and disgraceful son.

Proverbs 29:15 (children who shame their parents by their actions)
15 The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child who gets his own way brings shame to his mother.

In Deuteronomy Moses speaks to this same issue. He pulls no punches.
Deuteronomy 27:16
16 ‘Cursed is he who dishonors his father or mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

In the NT there are two lists of serious sins attributed to those who have rejected God.
Romans 1 states that those who have rejected God and His truth have been turned over to a depraved mind. Paul lists their sins.
*Romans 1:29-32
29 (they are) filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips,
30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful;
32 and, although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

“…worthy of death”? Do any of the things in that list jump off the page at you when you read them? There are some things that seem to belong on a list of offenses that deserve the death penalty. Murder is there. Other things are pretty serious – things like wicked-ness, deceit, and hating God – but disobeying parents?
*2 Timothy 3:2-5 (speaking of the last days)
2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,
4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God;
5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; and avoid such men as these.

There it is right there in v. 5. “…holding to a form of godliness, but denying its power.”
The religious leaders Jesus is dealing with certainly have a form of religion. They say they know God and are able to lead you to Him. They revel in their form, their piety, and their self-importance. It’s as if they say, “Do you want to know God? Then you’ll have to come to Him through us. You’ll have to do it our way.”

“Their way” is the issue. They are like spoiled children in that their way is the only way. They are far more interested in doing things their way than they are in obeying God and doing things His way. So I think you can readily see that the attitudes and actions of the religious leaders in Luke 7:31-35 are not just simple religious preferences or adherence to customs and traditions. They are grievous sins.

These religious leaders really don’t know what the true gospel is. And to make matters worse, they don’t want to know. They especially don’t want to know the true gospel if it will upset the religious games they play. And so, in this morning’s passage, Jesus com-pares them to religious spoiled brats. Not spoiled “bräts,” but spoiled brats.
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II. Review
Jesus had been in Capernaum where He healed the Roman centurion’s slave. From there He went to the city of Nain where He raised a widow’s son from the dead. As the word of His latest miracles spread, the crowds that were following Jesus grew.

After Nain Jesus healed many people from blindness and all sorts of illnesses. Not only that, but He cast out demons from many who had been possessed.
It was during that time that the disciples of John came to Jesus with a question from the baptist, “Are You the Expected One, or do we look for someone else?” John was facing his execution at the hands of Herod and he wanted to be sure that Jesus was in fact, God’s Messiah, the Holy One of Israel. He wanted to be sure that he had not misunder-stood God’s prophecies, or had not been mistaken about Jesus Himself.

Jesus responded to John’s disciples in a loving and compassionate manner, sent them back to him, and told the crowds that up until that day, John was the greatest man ever born of woman. But the message John proclaimed was greater. And the Son of Man was greater still.

When Jesus said, in Luke 7:28, that “…he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than (John),” what He meant was this:
“Although John was great, and although his privilege was great, the salvation of our souls is infinitely greater than any privilege or honor or blessing that God will bestow upon us in this life on this earth.”

The religious leaders had heard John’s message of repentance and conversion. They had heard him proclaim the Good News. Now they had seen Jesus heal the sick and raise the dead. Jesus was the Good News. They had heard John, the messenger. They had seen Jesus, the Message. But they didn’t like either one because neither one fit into their tem-plate. Neither one fit into their religious system. Their problem with John and Jesus was that neither of them was going to play their religious games.
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III. Text
So that brings us to this morning’s text. Jesus tells these religious spoiled brats what they are really like. He does so in a parable.
*Luke 7:31-35 (Please stand with me in honor of reading God’s Word.)
31 “To what then shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like?
32 “They are like children who sit in the market place and call to one another; and they say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’
33 “For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine; and you say, ‘He has a demon!’
34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking; and you say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man, and a drunkard, a friend of tax-gatherers and sinners!’
35 “Yet wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”

Before we get into the specifics of these verses I want to point out an overarching truth that is applicable to the church today. Too many of today’s church leaders and preachers are so steeped in political correctness, tolerating nearly anything, and making “nice” with the world, that they would rather compromise biblical truth than offend anyone.
Neither John the Baptist nor Jesus had that problem. God’s truth is not a “basketful of ‘warm fuzzies.’” God’s truth is not preoccupied with making the lost world feel good about itself. And God’s truth is most certainly not about telling sinners, those who fall short of God’s glory, that Jesus came to make them happy, provide them with whatever they want, and give them “Their Best Life Now.” That may be what people want to hear, but that’s not what John and Jesus had to say.

John and Jesus confronted and rebuked. They used strong language and they offended. They were anything but “seeker friendly.” For example, when the Jewish leaders came to John to see what all the fuss was about, he greeted them with the following –
*Matthew 3:7-12
7 (When he) saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
8 “Therefore bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance;
9 and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you, that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.
10 “And the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
11 “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
12 “And His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Here is a short and very simple synopsis of what John has just said to them.
“You people are like snakes. You need to repent of your sins. Your religion and your heritage cannot save you. If you do not repent you will go to hell. Jesus will judge you. He will separate those who have repented from those who have not. Then He will bring the repentant to heaven and send the unrepentant to hell.”

I admit that’s a pretty free paraphrase of the passage, but it is what it teaches. John used strong and offensive language. He had to. People’s eternal souls were at stake here, weren’t they? Well, that was John. But Jesus would never talk like that, would He? Well, Jesus called them thieves and robbers. Few churches today would hire either John or Jesus if the board of directors heard any of their sermons. (stay in Matthew)
John 10:7b-10 (speaking to the Pharisees)
7b “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
8 “All (the religious leaders) who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but (My) sheep did not hear them.
9 “(But) I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
10 “The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly.”

Jesus called the religious leaders and the false teachers thieves and robbers in John, but that pales in comparison to what He called them in Matthew.
*Matthew 15:14 (speaking of the Pharisees and false teachers)
14 “Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”

*Matthew 23:15, 17a, 27-28, 33
15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel about on sea and land to make one proselyte (a convert to Judaism); and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.
17a “You fools and blind men…”
27 “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.
28 “Even so you too outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
33 “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how shall you escape the sentence of hell?”

Jesus calls the religious leaders and the false teachers blind guides, hypocrites, sons of hell, fools, whitewashed tombs, lawless, serpents and vipers. He asks them how they expect to avoid hell. And that’s just what the Lord said about them in Matthew. Where is the political correctness? Where is the tolerance? Where is the promise of health, wealth, and happiness? Where is the building up of people’s self-esteem so that they will feel good about themselves?

This is not the Jesus we hear much about today, is it? His words are actually stronger than John’s. They have to be. People’s eternal souls are at stake, aren’t they? It would be so easy if the regular performance of some set of prescribed religious duties held the key to eternal life. But it does not. And neither does being nice and spending your life delivering “basketfuls of ‘warm fuzzies.’” It would be so nice and so easy to tell you that those things were true and to make you feel good about yourselves, but I would be lying.

If I taught what the false teachers taught I would be nothing more than a thief, a robber, a false teacher, a blind guide, a hypocrite, a son of hell, a fool, a whitewashed tomb, a lawless man, and a snake; and I would be bound for hell. And tragically, any of you who believed me and followed me would be bound for hell as well.

That is why it is so critical that we tell the truth even when it is difficult to do so.
That is why we preach a gospel of repentance, confession of sin, and faith in the finished work of Christ alone for salvation. But the religious elites and false teachers of the world refuse to reject their legalism, and the self-righteous of the world refuse to humble them-selves before God, admit their sin, and be willing to turn from it.

So, in this morning’s text, we see Jesus standing in front of crowds of the religious elites and the self-righteous of His generation. He speaks directly to them.
*Luke 7:31
31 “To what then shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like?

There is a very interesting word in this verse. It’s “generation.” It’s translated from the Greek “gĕnĕa,” which means – get ready now – “generation.” That’s what it means. What’s interesting about it is not so much what it means, but how Jesus uses it. In Luke’s gospel, “gĕnĕa,” is almost always used in a negative or pejorative sense. The point is that the Jews of Jesus’ day were “…an unbelieving and perverted generation (9:41).” They were “…a wicked generation (11:29).” Later in Acts, Luke quotes Peter where the apostle calls the Jews a “perverse generation (2:40).”

But biblically, the term is timeless, in that it refers to any generation throughout human history that rejects the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus wasn’t only talking to the people who heard Him that day. He was also talking to all people who would hear and reject His words, regardless of the generation in which they might live. What are such people like?
*Luke 7:32 (Jesus speaking)
32 “They are like children who sit in the market place and call to one another; and they say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’

See if you can picture the scene Jesus is describing. Virtually every city and village had a public market place. It was usually in the center of the town. It was used for shopping, public meetings, and various other gatherings. When it was not being used for those things it would often be filled with children who would use the market place the same way children use a playground or public park today.

In Jesus’ parable some children were playing in the market place and trying to organize a game of “wedding.” But it seems that not all of the children wanted to play wedding. So the organizers complained, “We played all that happy music just like at a real wedding, but you didn’t dance” Those who did not want to play “happy” wouldn’t participate in the game of wedding. They said, “We’re not going to play that way.”

So the organizers decided to play “funeral.” If the other children wouldn’t sing and dance, maybe they would weep and mourn. But the others didn’t want to play funeral either. Again the organizers complained, “We sang all those sad songs just like at a real funeral, but you didn’t weep and mourn.”
Those who did not want to play “sad” wouldn’t participate in the game of funeral. They said, “We’re not going to play that way either.”

The organizers were frustrated. No matter how they presented a game or what style of play they suggested, the sullen and discontented children would do nothing. They would have none of it. They rejected it all. Nothing would please them. These children were Jesus’ illustration of the religious and self-righteous of His generation. They weren’t impudent, unruly children. They just acted like it. They were childish spoiled brats.

Let me make one important distinction here. There is a vast difference between being childish and being childlike. The Bible praises those who are childlike when it comes to faith in Christ.
Matthew 18:1-4
1 …the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
2 And He called a child to Himself and set him before them,
3 and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the king-dom of heaven.”

That’s childlike. It is good. The dictionary defines “childlike” as innocent and trusting. But childish is another story altogether. The same dictionary defines “childish” as silly and immature, and unfit for an adult. While childlike is good, childish is not. In the next two verses Jesus points out the result of their childish ways, that is, their refusal to do things God’s way, and their childish insistence upon doing things their way.
*Luke 7:33-34
33 “For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine; and you say, ‘He has a demon!’
34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking; and you say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man, and a drunkard, a friend of tax-gatherers and sinners!’

Jesus drives home His point. It is simply this. John’s ministry was an analogy to the funeral game. Normal life was illustrated by eating and drinking, but John fasted and drank no alcohol. His message was serious, somber, and warned of the wrath to come. He said that people needed to have sorrow over their sin and they needed to repent. He confronted them and told them straight out – if they did not repent, they would go to hell.

How did the religious spoiled brats respond to John? “We don’t like that message. So we refuse to believe it. Besides, it doesn’t fit our religious template.”

Since John was so different from most of those to whom he preached, they decided they could dismiss his claims if, instead of acknowledging that John came from God, they could say he came from Satan. So they accused him of being demon-possessed.
They hated John’s message. Who did John think he was to tell them they had to repent? They were religious, self-righteous, and very proud of themselves. So they attacked John’s character in order to justify their rejection of John’s message. Can you relate?

But what about Jesus? What could they do with Him? Jesus wasn’t like John. Jesus came eating and drinking, not fasting and abstaining. He participated in all the normal social activities of the culture. His ministry was an analogy to the wedding game in v. 32. In fact, in John’s gospel, Jesus actually compared His ministry to a wedding when he spoke of Himself as the bridegroom and His apostles as the groomsmen (3:29).

Where John was aloof, Jesus was the polar opposite. Jesus was warm, compassionate, merciful, and gracious. He was always interacting with other people. He went to their gatherings and socialized with them, even those considered to be society’s outcasts. So the religious leaders and the self-righteous accused Jesus of associating with sinners.

God had sent His message of forgiveness of sin and the promise of salvation to His peo-ple. He had sent John the Baptist, God’s prophet, but the people didn’t like his message of repentance and conversion. Besides, John fasted and abstained from alcohol. He was just too legalistic, just too narrow, and just too conservative.

Then God sent the Message Himself, He sent His Son, but the people didn’t like the Mes-sage either. Unlike John, Jesus ate and drank heartily. Unlike John, Jesus was joyful. And unlike John, Jesus associated Himself with sinners. He was just too licentious, just too broad-minded, and just too liberal.

The generation of Jesus’ day hated both John and Jesus. Of course, what John and Jesus did was never the real issue. The real issue was that both John and Jesus exposed the people’s sin. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, neither of them would play the people’s religion. Neither of them would participate in the religious spoiled brats’ games.

This is why you and I have trouble in this world. When you and I take a stand for Christ, you expose people’s sin. It isn’t so much what you do or don’t do. It isn’t even so much what you say or don’t say. It’s the message that you convey. It’s the Jesus whom you love.

You don’t convict others of their sin – He does. They hate Him. And that spills over to you because you are His. Isn’t that what Jesus said?
John 15:18-19
18 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.
19 “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

But there is Good News. Not all who hear the gospel will reject it. Not all will act like spoiled brats.
*Luke 7:35
35 “Yet wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”

No matter how many people hate the Lord and reject Him, there will always be those who receive Christ. Those who respond to the message are wisdom’s children. That’s what Jesus is saying. From where does the wisdom Jesus refers to in Luke 7:35 come?
It comes directly from the Bible you hold in your hands this morning.
*2 Timothy 3:15-17
15 …from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
17 that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

Wise children are humble and obedient before God. They will listen to Him and do things His way and be saved. Foolish children are proud and disobedient. Like spoiled brats they will demand their own way and will be lost.
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IV. Conclusion
For the last two thousand years the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been faithfully preached and taught. The preacher’s style or cleverness or wit is not the issue. Regardless of who has preached and taught the gospel, it has produced results that will literally “blow our minds” when we stand before God and see what His Son and His gospel have accomp-lished for all eternity.

The world hates the gospel because it exposes people’s sin and rebellion against God. So the religious, the false teachers, and the self-righteous reject the gospel because they are like spoiled children who expect God to play their game, to dance to their tune. But He never will.
1 Corinthians 1:18
18 For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

~ Pray ~