Matt 11:7–15 — Pressing Into the Kingdom

The title of this sermon is taken from verse 12: “The violent take it by force.” Before considering that difficult and fascinating statement, however, we must consider the entire section about John the Baptist.

John had been imprisoned by King Herod because he told Herod that it was unlawful for him to have his brother’s wife. John condemned Herod for violating God’s law, and Herod responded by imprisoning him. Matthew 14 records that Herod would later have John beheaded, making him a martyr for the gospel.

While John languished in prison, he became perplexed. He sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” Jesus replied, “Go and tell John what you hear and see.” He then listed the works he was performing: the blind received their sight, the lame walked, lepers were cleansed, the deaf heard, the dead were raised, and the poor had good news preached to them. That final phrase, drawn from Isaiah 61, explains the purpose of the miracles, healings, and exorcisms. They were outward and visible signs of the proclamation of the gospel—the good news of deliverance from Satan’s power, sin, and death itself.

John had expected Jesus to come with the winnowing fork of judgment and burn the chaff with unquenchable fire. Jesus will indeed come in judgment at his second coming, but in his first coming he came to preach the gospel to the spiritually poor and needy people of Israel. Jesus was assuring John that he was the Messiah, while also requiring John to revise his expectations concerning the Messiah’s work. The Messiah came to save his people from their sins, ultimately through the cross and his own suffering.

This exchange between Jesus and John, conducted through John’s disciples, gave Jesus an opportunity to explain the redemptive-historical significance of John’s ministry. “As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John” (v. 7).

The Final Arrow (vv 7-10)

John was the final arrow pointing to Christ. The image is not an arrow shot from a bow, but an arrow on a sign beside a road. Travelers may pass several signs announcing food and lodging ahead, but the final arrow identifies the place and directs them to turn there. John was that final arrow.

Jesus first asked two rhetorical questions about what John was not: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing?”

John was not a reed swaying in the wind, adapting his message to whatever people wanted to hear. He was a steadfast, stern, and uncompromising prophet of God. Like Elijah, he spoke truth to power and suffered as a result.

Nor was John a man dressed in soft clothing, living amid luxury in a royal palace. He was a rough, craggy, Elijah-like man who lived in the wilderness. He was a prophet. Yet Jesus did not stop there: “A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet” (v. 9).

Jesus explained why John was more than a prophet by quoting Malachi 3:1: “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.” In the original text of Malachi, Yahweh declares that the messenger “will prepare the way before me.” Yet Jesus renders it “before you.” This change is possible because of the close connection between Jesus and Yahweh. Jesus is God incarnate—Yahweh coming in the flesh—and John is the messenger who prepares the way before him.

Malachi 3 foretells the messenger who will prepare the way for the Lord’s coming in power and judgment. Malachi 4 then identifies this messenger as Elijah—not Elijah literally raised from the dead, but an Elijah-like figure. Jesus identifies John with this promised figure in verse 14: “If you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come.”

This prophecy also helps explain why Malachi stands at the end of the Christian Old Testament canon. The Jewish canon orders its books differently and concludes with 1 and 2 Chronicles. In the Christian order, readers reach Malachi’s prophecy of the messenger who will prepare the way and then turn directly to the Gospels, where John the Baptist appears and prepares the way for Christ.

John therefore symbolizes the culmination of the Old Testament. As the final prophet and forerunner, he bore witness to the Messiah. In the same way, the entire Old Testament bears prophetic witness to the coming Messiah. John’s fundamental message was, “After me comes one who is mightier than I.” He did not proclaim himself; he was the forerunner, the arrow pointing to the far greater person who would come after him. The Old Testament has a similar, John-like ministry. From Genesis to Malachi, it prepares the way for Christ.

Donald Hagner captures this beautifully:

“John is the climax of the old order: a prophet like those of the past but more than prophet. He is the one in whom the OT expectation has … been distilled into one final, definitive arrow pointing to the presence of the Messiah.” — Word Biblical Commentary on Matthew

The entire expectation of the Old Testament is distilled into this final prophetic arrow announcing that the Messiah has come. This is why John plays such an important role in the Gospel narratives. By baptizing Jesus, he publicly presents him to Israel as the fulfillment of God’s Old Testament promises.

Jesus appears to be evaluating John’s ministry, but he is using John’s identity to reveal his own. John was the forerunner and messenger who prepared the way for Jesus the Messiah. The arrow points to Christ himself, and the reality of the fulfillment that came after John’s ministry proves that John was a pointer, sign, and forerunner.

The Present Kingdom (vv 11-15)

Jesus declares, “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (v. 11).

John’s personal salvation is not at issue. Jesus is not saying that John was unsaved or personally excluded from the kingdom. He is speaking about John’s role in the history of redemption. The new reality dawning in Christ’s person, ministry, and work is so wonderful, so full of life, salvation, forgiveness, hope, healing, and restoration, that even the least important member of Christ’s kingdom is greater than John. Christians live in the era of fulfillment rather than the era of promise and prophetic expectation.

A massive fault line divides those two eras, like a boundary between tectonic plates. On one side lies the old covenant order of types, shadows, and prophetic expectation. On the other lies the era of fulfillment and the presence of God’s kingdom in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Although John was the last prophet and the culminating distillation of the Old Testament promises, he still belonged to the old side of this redemptive-historical divide—the age of promise rather than fulfillment.

Verse 13 states the distinction plainly: “For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John.” This is a powerful declaration that the entire Old Testament was a prophetic witness to Christ. Its ceremonies and types—the Sabbath, the land promise, the temple, and the priestly ministry—pointed to Christ. The Law pointed to Christ. The prophets, including Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, pointed to Christ. The entire Old Testament, from Genesis to Malachi, leads to Christ.

We must therefore read the Old Testament with the conviction that Christ is its point and message. Picture a target with concentric circles: Christ is the red dot at the center. The Old Testament contains many details about the patriarchs, Israel, and the kings of Israel and Judah, and readers may easily become lost in them. Yet all those details focus upon the central target, Christ himself.

We now live in the new covenant age of fulfillment. John, great as he was, belonged to the old side of the divide. Many Gospel passages teach that the kingdom is future. A day of judgment will come when Christ separates the sheep from the goats and gathers the wheat into his barn. Yet other important passages, including this one, emphasize that the kingdom is already present in Christ’s first coming. Jesus, the King of God’s kingdom, entered the world, performed miracles, preached the gospel, and went to the cross. That is the presence of the kingdom. Matthew 11:11–13 teaches this truth with particular force.

The decisive fault line in redemptive history is therefore Christ’s first coming, not his second. John stood at the very edge of the old age, marking the transition into the new covenant era and the presence of the kingdom. The kingdom will come in greater fullness at Christ’s return, bringing judgment, glory, the new creation, the destruction of sin, and the removal of the wicked. Nevertheless, the kingdom has already come in Christ’s person, ministry, and teaching.

The Application, focusing on verse 12 (the violent taking the kingdom by force)

Verse 12 states, “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.” As evidence that the kingdom is present, Jesus points to people who no longer merely wait, hope, and expect its arrival. They are forcefully pressing into it.

Matthew 8–9 presents many examples. The leper came to Jesus and said, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” The woman with the flow of blood believed, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.” The blind men cried, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.” Although the majority of Israel remained unbelieving, these needy men and women came to Christ with holy violence, laying hold of the kingdom and receiving his grace and salvation. They were no longer merely lamenting in exile and waiting for deliverance; they were already entering the kingdom by faith in Christ.

Matthew 11:12 has generated considerable debate. Its language may be understood in terms of either unholy violence or holy violence. The majority of contemporary interpreters adopt the unholy violence view. On this reading, the kingdom is under attack by violent opponents such as Herod, who imprisoned John and would later kill him, and the Pharisees, who opposed Jesus and accused him of performing miracles by Beelzebub’s power. The verse would thus describe literal violence intended to stop the kingdom.

The holy violence interpretation, however, is the traditional view found among the church fathers. The 1984 edition of the NIV expresses it well:

“From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.”

This is the better interpretation for two reasons.

First, Luke 16:16 provides a close parallel:

“The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it.”

The force is plainly positive: the good news is proclaimed, and people force their way into the kingdom. Some proponents of the unholy violence view maintain that Luke’s text is not a true parallel, or that Matthew and Luke interpreted the same saying differently. It is better, however, to recognize Scripture’s unity and allow Luke’s parallel to illuminate Matthew.

Second, the context supports the holy violence view. Jesus appeals to people pressing into the kingdom as evidence that it has come. The kingdom is not merely a future reality; it is present. People forcing their way into it demonstrate that presence.

The kingdom’s forceful advance is evident in the authority of Jesus the Messiah. He preached the gospel of the kingdom with authority, cast out demons with authority, raised the dead, and forgave sins with authority. In Christ’s person, the kingdom came with holy power. Christ invaded the kingdom of darkness and rescued sinners from Satan’s grasp. His miracles—healing the sick and delivering those oppressed by demons—demonstrated this invasion.

Before Jesus’ ministry, the kingdom was only prophesied. One could hope and wait for it, but now people may lay hold of it by faith. They may seize it like plunder, an image contained in the verb translated “take it by force.” The kingdom has come because Christ has come.

The passage therefore calls us to engage in holy violence. Faith is more than passive assent to gospel truths; it involves ardent seeking after Christ. Calvin writes,

“Let us also learn from these words, what is the true nature and operation of faith. It leads men not only to give cold and indifferent assent when God speaks, but to cherish warm affection towards Him, and to rush forward as it were with a violent struggle.”

Such faith begins with an awareness of one’s desperate need for grace. A person who has no sense of being a sinner, guilty before God and in need of Christ and salvation, will not possess this eagerness and ardent desire for Christ. Yet holy violence involves more than recognizing one’s need. It also requires hearing the grace offered in the gospel promise.

Why did crowds of lepers, sick people, and other needy sinners gather around Jesus? They had heard the good news he proclaimed and the reports of his miracles. Consciousness of sin must be joined to the gospel offer. The preached gospel stirs the affections with a holy energy to reach Christ.

A school of fish fighting over live bait offers a vivid analogy. Underwater recordings sometimes show fish converging in a frenzy upon a single morsel. Something similar appears throughout the Gospel narratives: needy people crowd around Jesus with urgency and excitement, eager to receive his grace. Calvin describes it this way:

“A vast assembly of men is now collected, as if men were rushing violently forward to seize the kingdom of God … They come together in crowds, and receive, not only with eagerness, but with vehement impetuosity, the grace which is offered to them.”

Verse 13 then supplies the ground for this holy force: “For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John.” The word “for” is significant. The violent take the kingdom by force because the Scriptures have given them God’s promises. Apart from God’s Word, they would have no basis for coming forward zealously to receive his grace. God himself invites sinners to come to him. He promises not to cast them out and declares that those who believe in Christ receive grace and salvation.

To seek grace with holy vehemence is therefore to plead God’s promises. Jesus gives the same invitation in Matthew 7:7–11: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” The parallel in Luke 11:13 assures us that God will not withhold the Holy Spirit from those who ask him.

God delights when his children come to his throne of grace and prevail upon him. The promises of Scripture whet our appetite and make us eager for the blessings he desires to give. He calls us to plead for them and seek them. The promise itself invites us to use holy force, as it were, to pry it open by faith.

We must therefore be earnest in seeking Christ and all his benefits. This earnestness belongs not only to the beginning of the Christian life but to its entire course. In the simplest terms, it means praying for the gift of the Holy Spirit. We have received the Spirit, yet we continue to pray for more of his gracious work. God uses our hungering, thirsting, and seeking after his grace as the means through which he answers our prayers. May he give us holy violence to lay hold of Christ’s grace, draw the marrow from his promises, and seize the spoils of the victory he has won for us.