Transcription
Let's turn today to Luke's gospel, chapter 7, and verse 18.
The disciples of John reported to him about all these things. And summoning two of his disciples, John sent them to the Lord, saying, "Are you the one who is coming, or do we look for someone else?"
Now, John the Baptist was the one who had seen the Spirit of God descending like a dove upon Jesus, who had pointed out Jesus to the multitude and said, "Behold the Lamb of God, the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit and Fire." And he was the one who recognized Jesus, said the baptism in the River Jordan, and said, "I need to be baptized of you." There was such a certainty in his heart at that time that Jesus was the Messiah, the Christ.
But now he had been imprisoned by Herod and locked up in jail. His faith begins to evaporate. He wonders whether Jesus is the Messiah after all, and so he sends two of his disciples to the Lord, saying, "Are you the one who's coming, or are we to look for another?"
And we can ask ourselves, why did this doubt come in a man like John the Baptist, about whom Jesus said that he was the greatest person ever born of women? In verse 28, further down this chapter, the reason the doubt came in John the Baptist's mind was because God didn't seem to be answering his prayer. Jesus, the Messiah, who had come to deliver people, didn't seem to be delivering him from prison.
Remember that John the Baptist, with all his godliness and being the greatest man born of women, was still not under the New Covenant. He was an Old Covenant Jew, a very God-fearing Jew, the greatest of all the Jews of all time, as per Jesus' words. But he did not have that understanding of the message of the Gospel that we have today. The deliverance that Jesus came to bring was not a deliverance from the Romans or from Herod's prisons, but from the prison of sin, from slavery, not to the Romans, but to Satan. He didn't understand that. In fact, none of the disciples understood that Jesus came for such a deliverance. After his resurrection from the dead, we read even the disciples asking Jesus in Acts 1:6, "Lord, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel now? Are you going to set us free and drive out the Romans now?"
The understanding of the Messiah that every single Jew had, even the God-fearing ones, was that the Messiah would come and deliver Israel from the Romans or whoever was ruling them. But Jesus came to set the prison doors open and to set the captives free from the prison of sin. And that was why the doubt came in John the Baptist's mind. When there was physical discomfort and apparently no open prison doors on earth, he began to wonder, "Have I made a mistake?"
We can learn a lesson from that for ourselves, that when we don't see God working in the way we expect him to, we can begin to lose faith too. It's because we have a certain expectation that when we pray to God for something, that he should answer in a particular way. We're not satisfied having made our request; we leave it to God to decide how he answers. We make our request, and we also have determined in our mind how he should answer, and that is what causes the problem, and that is what causes unbelief. And John the Baptist had the same problem too.
And we read here, the men came to him and asked this question. And at that very time, verse 21, Jesus cured many people of diseases and afflictions, evil spirits, and he granted sight to many who were blind. He did so many miracles there. Obviously, if he had far to do all that, he certainly had power to open a prison door. And he answered and said to John the Baptist's disciples, "Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and greatest of all, the poor have the gospel preached to them."
"Go and tell John the Baptist that this is the type of ministry I have come for: to heal the saints and to proclaim the good news to those who are poor in spirit, who are longing for freedom from sin." And tell him also, verse 23, "Blessed is that man who keeps from stumbling over me, who is not offended when I don't answer prayer in the way he expects me to answer it. Blessed is the man who does not stumble over me, who doesn't get disturbed in his faith because he doesn't get what he wants to get, because God decides something else is better for him." What a message for a lot of Christians today who are expecting God to work in a particular way, and when they see God doesn't work in that way, they'll get offended. Blessed is he who is not offended over me, who doesn't stumble over me.
In verse 24, when the messengers of John had left, just in case the multitudes began to despise John for losing faith, he began to tell them that John the Baptist was far greater than all of them. He began to speak to the multitudes about John. "What did you go out in the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind?" You think John the Baptist was one of those people who would fluctuate according to which way the wind was blowing, seeking to please men, seeking to find out what would be most appealing to men? Like a lot of preachers today, when they get up to speak, they're like reeds driven by the wind; they seek to find which way the wind is blowing in that particular congregation or audience and speak that which will please them. Such a person can never be a prophet. A prophet can never be a reed that is shaken by the wind.
Verse 25: "What did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Did you go out to see a man who was more concerned about his dress than his heart?" No, he said, "Those who are looking for splendid clothes and who are concerned about the fashions and who live in luxury are found in royal palaces." What a word that is! Those who live in luxury are not prophets. The prophet can't be one who lives in luxury; they're found in royal palaces.
But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and one who is more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, 'Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.'" Jesus said that John the Baptist was more than a prophet. He was the one about whom it was written in the Old Testament in Malachi 3:1, the forerunner of the Messiah, the messenger who was sent in front of Jesus to prepare the way, the greatest of all the prophets.
And he went on to say in verse 28, "I say to you, among those born of women, there's no one greater than John." He was the greatest man born of women up until that time, the greatest man in the history of the human race. But Jesus said something further, that he himself had now come to begin a new covenant, a new agreement. And in this, those who enter into this agreement with God and thus enter into the kingdom of God, the least person in that kingdom would be greater than John the Baptist. Just think of that. "He who is least," verse 28, "in the kingdom of God is greater than he."
In other words, one who has entered into the New Covenant. Not just one who's accepted Christ and says, "My sins are forgiven." There are lots of believers today who are not greater than John the Baptist. They are born again, no doubt, but they have not entered into this New Covenant with God. You can't say that the believer you meet today in many churches that preach the new birth or even the filling of the Spirit are necessarily greater than John the Baptist. Think what a fiery man John the Baptist was, who didn't care for the honor of men. Can you say that believers today are greater than him? And yet Jesus said that possibility is there.
And we can ask ourselves, why aren't so many believers greater than him? It's because they have not risen up to their privileges; they have not laid hold of everything that is their birthright under the New Covenant. But those who do, and there are very few who do, perhaps less than one percent who really lay hold of their privileges or birthright under the New Covenant, they can rise to a greater and a more godly life inwardly, partaking of God's nature in a way that even John the Baptist could not. He's not talking here about ministry; he's talking about life. It's not that our ministry will be greater than John the Baptist, but the quality of our life can be superior to what even John the Baptist experienced under the Old Covenant.
And when all the people, verse 29, and the tax gatherers heard this, they acknowledged God's justice, having been baptized to the baptism of John. They praised the Lord that this was true because they were baptized for the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and the lawyers, who had rejected God's purpose for themselves, not being baptized by John, they had rejected God's purpose because they were not baptized. There are people today who have rejected God's purpose in not being baptized after they are born again, exactly like those Pharisees and lawyers.
And then Jesus said, "To what then shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like?" They're like children who sit in the marketplace and call to one another. They say, "We played the flute for you, and we wanted you to dance, but you didn't dance. And then we sang a dirge, and we wanted you to weep, and you didn't weep." You see, these children were expecting others to dance to their tune, as it were, to do what they wanted to do. He says, "When John the Baptist came, he was eating no bread or drinking no wine. He said, 'Oh, he's got a demon.' But the Son of Man comes eating and drinking, and you criticize him too: a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners."
"Yet wisdom is vindicated by all her children." Religious people always find some fault, whether it's in an ascetic like John the Baptist or one who lives a normal life like Jesus. Something is wrong. One has got a demon; the other is a gluttonous man. When we don't want to obey God, we'll always find fault with his servants. That's what the Lord was saying here. May God help us to learn that lesson and avoid that mistake.