Luke 7:18-35 with Aaron Searles

Transcript

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So let's jump in. Luke chapter 7, verse 18 and 19. The disciples of John reported all these things to him. And John 19, verse 19, calling two of his disciples to him to him, sent them to the Lord, saying, Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another? So John gets the report, and it says, All, about all the things that had happened, all the activities of Jesus. So he hears this report. He hears about this unfolding of the ministry of Jesus, all of the healing. Now people are coming back to life. All of this is happening, and he still asks this question. He sends the two disciples, two of his kind of followers, two of the ones that were attending to him in prison, to go back to Jesus and ask him this question. Are you the one who is to come? Or shall we look for another? So what is going on with John the Baptist here? What's going on with this question? And it's a loaded question. You know, what's he, you know, maybe he's he asking, like, you know, what are you waiting for? Another one to come that's doing something that I have in my mind that you're going to do? What's going on here? Is it doubt? Is it grief? Is it stress? Again, it's Luke's orderly account culminates now. Again, people coming back from the dead, and he still asks this question Are you the one? Like, is there anybody else raising people back from the dead? Is there anybody else who can now walk because of Jesus? Is there anybody else who can now see and hear? And yet John's asking this question. Verse 20 and 21. And when the men had come to him, they said, John the Baptist has sent us to us to you, saying, Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another? Notice this, verse 21. In that hour. In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits. And on many who were blind, he bestowed sight. Right away. Right away. In that hour, he's operating, he's acting in the power of God as the Messiah, as God in the flesh. He healed many. Again, he cast out demons. He restored sight. So we could clearly see in that one hour, even in this asking of this question, we see he has power over the natural and over the supernatural. I want to read to you a quote from a commentary on this. It says this He produced a riot of healing, leading to unrestrained joy. Restored eyes beheld the blue Palestine sky, and the faces of family members, and both the healed and their loved ones whooped for joy, newly restored minds engaged in noisy worship. Again, so as I was thinking about this, you know, Peter needed a miraculous catch of fish to believe. Nathaniel needed, you know, an insight of where he was sitting and he believed. And it seems in the cover of this request, the cover of this question, this kind of passive-aggressive question from the prophet, like Elijah, John the Baptist, asked this question. Maybe kind of asking, did I do it? Did I prepare the way? Am I done? Am I finished? Did I do my job? And again, wondering. Wondering aloud, even, are you the one? Now place yourself in John's shoes or in his sandals. All his pre-born life. And yes, pre-born life, he's been in this moment, been preparing the way for Jesus. He had the Holy Spirit from the womb, it says in Scripture. You know, to kind of paraphrase this question, I thought you were the one I was preparing the way for. And now where is he? We know from other gospel accounts that he's in prison. He's in a kind of a mountaintop or hilltop palace prison of Herod's. And he's waiting there. He's not able to do what he was doing. He's not in the crowds, he's not baptizing people anymore. He's stuck in a prison wondering if Jesus is the one. Allowed. Wondering aloud if he's the one. And so Jesus responds to them, to his disciples, to two of John the Baptist's followers. Again, Andrew was one of them, but he switched to Jesus. But verse 22. And he answered them, Go and tell John what you have seen and heard. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. Verse 23, and blessed is the one who is not offended by me. So Jesus responds to the question, to the loaded question. And he responds with, look at the fruit. Look at the action. Look at the activity of what I'm doing. And in a similar way, I think we should do likewise when someone asks us a question. Are we living in such a way? Is our life fruitful for the purposes and the plans of Jesus? Is our life a reflection? Is it focused on what Jesus is doing through us? That, you know, our talk is cheap, but our action means something. As we talked about, you know, the fruit of a good tree is fruit. Good fruit, God's fruit. We're building our foundation on Christ. But Jesus is speaking to the fulfillment of the prophecy he read in his hometown in the synagogue of Nazareth. And he quoted Isaiah. What's interesting, if I can't remember if I talked about this when I preached on this, but Jesus left out the part in Isaiah about vengeance. Not that God isn't bringing wrath and vengeance upon sin, but he left it out when he read that quote from Isaiah. And so it's interesting that he left that out because, again, some commentaries, some writers speculate and they wonder like, what was the eschatology of John the Baptist? What was his theology of the end times? Did he understand the timing? He is human. And it seems like he's struggling with this. It seems like he had a different timeline for Jesus. It seems. We don't know for sure. But again, Jesus responds with essentially, read Isaiah. And he quotes all these different things. Read Isaiah. The blind see, Isaiah 61 and Isaiah 35. The lame are walking, Isaiah 35. The deaf are hearing, Isaiah 35. The dead are now walking alive, Isaiah 26. The poor have good news, Isaiah 61. Read the prophecy from 700 years ago about me. I'm doing all of those things. I'm fulfilling all of those things, Jesus is saying. To give confirmation to John the Baptist, like you did it. You're done. I'm here. It's all happening. It's all happening right now. And it's a really interesting verse, verse 23. I'd say the kind of the key verse really of this first kind of dialogue part, the first part of this passage that we're going through today. And blessed is the one who was not offended by me. Another beatitude. Another way to live, another way to be is to not be offended by God's timing. Not be offended by God's ministry. Not be offended by God's plans and purposes and how he's choosing to do it. Like who's in charge? I mean, can we not all relate to John the Baptist in this moment? And Jesus instructs him, and I think instructs us to this day. We have it here in Scripture. Blessed is the one who's not offended by me. So we have this now beatitude. And I would kind of summarize it or paraphrase it another way. And I would identify with John the Baptist in this moment. I think hopefully you can too in this, in the human condition as we follow Christ. God, I don't understand. I don't get it. I don't understand. I'm struggling. I'm doubting. I'm frustrated. I don't get your plan, but I trust. I trust in you. I trust in your promises, as we sang this morning. So we recognize the doubt. We recognize the pain. We recognize the timing, and we don't like the plan sometimes. We don't like how God's doing it, but we trust in him. We're not offended by his plan. We're not offended by what he's doing in our lives. So again, we can relate, I think, to John the Baptist. And I think we, you know, on the big level, on the on the larger story and on the on the on the smaller scale as well, on the daily understanding. I think we can all relate, like Jesus, please come back today. It's hard. This world is hard, this world is broken, it's evil. We can relate to that. And I think that's kind of what John the Baptist is speaking to, like the end, wanting the end. Surely now, come back now, Jesus, please. Have you seen the news? Have you seen what's going on in the world? Have you heard about the evil? Of course he has. We trust in his plan, we trust in his timing. We can relate to John the Baptist in the big picture. And I would say we can also relate to John the Baptist in the personal picture. John the Baptist gave his life to preparing the way for Jesus. His whole life before he was born was all about letting everybody know Jesus is coming. Jesus is here. This was his specific calling. And so, you know, you know, we're in this church and gospel collective, and we have these phrases on banners, and I forget, I forget that we have them up on the banner, on the wall sometimes. And we've got them up on the slides. I even noticed it this morning, like, yeah, we just keep hammering this thing. Where is Jesus calling you? God made you. You were knit together in your mother's womb. He made you, he designed you, he created you. I tell my students in school, he, and I've said this to you, he knows how many hairs are on your head, he knows the exact number of hairs. The Bible says he captures your tears in a bottle. The Bible says that when you can't sleep at night and you toss and turn, he counts how many times you toss and turn when you can't sleep. It says that in the Bible. The details, God loves you, He cares about you, and He made you for a purpose, He has a plan for your life. And again, I would ask you, where is Jesus calling you? Yes, there's the big picture, but how about the daily picture? Is it going how you thought? Are you seeing the fruit that you wanted to see? Is it happening in the timing that you wanted or that you had in mind? And just like John the Baptist, we can go to Jesus with our big questions, with our emotions, with our doubts, with our expectations. He heard the whole report and then he still sent the two disciples back. Are you the one? I believe God can handle it. I believe God can understand your pain and what you're going through. And as we talked about with our memory verse, as we've been talking about in the recent sermons and from obviously from scripture, this is where we find our strength is going to personal relationship with Jesus. Going to him in prayer, going to him with the little things, and finding our strength in him for our calling. This is where we get our daily calling. This is where we get our daily marching orders. And that's how we have to live one day at a time. We have that big picture, maybe calling, but where is Jesus calling you today? Who is he sending you to today? How are you receiving his truth and his love for the mission of his glory today? And we need to, again, the priority of being with Jesus no matter what. And I just add a note here, it is Mother's Day. And the calling of a mother. The sacrifice of a mother. And it doesn't always go, we know, according to plan. It doesn't always go easy, it's difficult, it's painful, it's hard. It may even seem at moments hopeless. But we believe in a God of miracles. And we trust in him and his plan and what he is doing. Let's continue on, verse 24. When John's messengers had gone, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John. 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? Behold, those who are dressed in splendid clothing and live in luxury are in the king's courts. A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. So Jesus goes from this kind of dialogue, this loaded question, this discussion. Now he's going to use this as a teaching moment for those that are around him. And so I want to just read to you again. This is from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 1, verses 4 through 5. This is the description of John the Baptist's ministry. And we can again just kind of glaze over John the Baptist, this guy who kind of, this wild guy who prepared the way. Well, listen to again a description of John the Baptist. John appeared baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Does that sound like a little group or little amount of people? It says the word all of Judea, all of Jerusalem. That's a lot of people. He had a major impact. So again, Jesus is speaking to this idea. Did you go out to see John the Baptist, you know, this man who had a massive impact? He did a good job. All glory to God. But he prepared the way. He got, he tilled the ground, you could say, in a sense, of repentance to prepare for the Messiah to come. And Jesus said, Did you go out to see a reed shaken by the wind? So what's going on there? Again, some different theories and thoughts on this. It seems to be a reference, a cultural reference, maybe a political reference. Some would say that this was a symbol of Herod. Herod had a symbol of a reed on a coin. Some would say, you know, this is just a reference to political. Others might say, you know, that this was a cultural again reference, that, you know, kind of the opposite of what John the Baptist was. He was not a reed, you know, he was not weak flowing in the wind. No, he was John the Baptist. He was this mighty strong guy. No, you didn't go out to see this guy blowing in the wind. No, you went out to see a strong force. Did you go out to see royalty? A man in soft clothing? So soft clothing, you had to be rich to afford soft clothing back in the first century. It weren't pajamas. Okay, so this is the nice clothes, is the soft clothing that Jesus is referring to. So did you go out to see a king or royalty or celebrity? No. John the Baptist wore camel's hair and ate locusts and honey. He was a wild guy. Imagine if you encountered John the Baptist today. Imagine that. But he was just like the prophet Elijah. And the people responded to him. So was he a prophet? Yes, Jesus says. He was, you could say, a prophet of prophets. You could say he's the last prophet. Before capital T, the capital P prophet that Moses prophesied. The last one, Jesus. So verse 27, this is he of whom it is written Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you. This is a quote from Malachi chapter 3, verse 1. Jesus tells them and us that John the Baptist is the prophet like Elijah. He is this one. He is the one that prepares the way. And by Jesus saying that, and saying that John the Baptist is that, he's also saying who he is, very clearly. He is God in the flesh. It leaves no question in our mind as we read the Gospels. Again, even though I get irritated by people online saying Jesus never said he was God. Like he's saying it right here. He's saying it right here. And here we have John the Baptist now in prison. You could say he's been overshadowed. He's kind of been left behind. He's now left literally in a prison. And this is really our calling. To be overshadowed, to be pointing to Jesus in everything that we do. It's not about us. It's not about our name, it's not about our title, it's not about our ministry, it's not about our impact. It's all for his glory. It's all for Jesus. Everything that we do, that is our calling. Continuing on, verse 28 through 30. I tell you, among those born of women, none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. Verse 29. When all the people heard this, and the tax collectors too, they declared God just, having been baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him. So we go again from this dialogue with John the Baptist now to Jesus again, taking this teaching moment. And Jesus seems to be saying two things here kind of at once. He's complimenting John. He's saying, like, he's the best. John's awesome. John did a great job. He's the best. No one greater, right? But then it says, yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. So this, I'll be honest, is still confusing to me. And again, commentaries kind of help, and I think this makes sense, but here's a spoiler alert, okay? Spoiler alert. If you don't want to know what's about to happen in the gospel of in the gospels in this story, just spoiler alert. John the Baptist will not get to see the apex, I'll call it, of history. He will not get to see the gospel event. Jesus is the gospel, the person. Jesus is the gospel, but there were the days, the specific days that all of history hinge upon. And that is Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. Again, not symbolic, but actual act of salvation from sin and death. Jesus dies in our place. Jesus atones for our sin by his perfect sacrifice. Holiness and by his power. So he conquers death. He takes our sin by those who have faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. It's up on the banner to my left, your right. This is what I'm talking about, these critical, you could say, most important days in human history. And this is what we put our faith in as Christians. This is what we put our faith in is Jesus dying on the cross in our place for our sin, to take our sin away, and on the third day he conquered death by his resurrection. But again, you can see what the impact that John the Baptist had and how they respond to when Jesus says, He's the greatest. And they're like, yeah, he was. He is. He is the greatest. And it's just funny how it says, the tax collectors, too. Just making sure you understand the spectrum of repentance of the people who were putting or thankful for John the Baptist. And they declared to Jesus that he is just. They recognized that Jesus is speaking the truth. Again, recognizing the impact of John the Baptist's ministry and how massive it was and how important it was. But again, what was John's baptism? Again, his name is John the Baptist, so kind of important, John the Baptist. So as we already read, his baptism was a baptism of repentance. He was preparing the way by getting the people focused on repenting of their sin. Turning from their sin. It was a revival of turning from sin to prepare for the Messiah, the one who is holy, the one who is perfect to come. And you could say it's connected as well to cleansing, a symbolic cleansing that we see in the Old Testament, a marker of difference from this life to that life, of turning from sin and being cleansed by God. Recommitting your life to God's ways. So this was all happening before Jesus steps into the scene, steps into his ministry. And this is all preparing the way for Jesus, all getting everyone ready, the eyes and the ears and the lives ready for the Messiah, the one who actually saves to arrive. And he does. But I want to ask today, what is baptism to us? It's an outward sign of our repentance and turning from our way, our sin, to God. This is what when we give our lives to Jesus, we we turn from sin. And so when you get baptized, you're telling the world, I'm turning from sin, I'm putting to death sin in my life. And it's a public profession of your faith. You're not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of salvation. And so when you get baptized, you are telling your community, you're telling the world, this is what I believe in. I'm putting my faith in Jesus Christ. And you're identifying with Jesus in life and in burial. That's what you do. You go underneath the water. You are buried with Christ, as it says in Romans 6. And you come out of the water. So you put your faith, you're putting your death to sin in your life in the control and the consequences of it, and you're coming alive out of the water. Publicly proclaiming that you believe in the good news of Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. So when you get baptized, you're actually like participating, one in this public profession. You're telling the world like I'm a follower of Christ, I'm putting all of my faith into Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. And you're also, in an amazing way, participating in the symbolic act of the gospel. So I just encourage you, if you are a Christian, if you have put your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I encourage you to get baptized. Jesus instructed his disciples to go make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It's an important step in publicly proclaiming your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. And if you want to get baptized, come talk to me or one of the elders or one of the house church pastors. We would love to help you talk, you know, take steps to get ready to do that. We would love to, it's one of the best days of gospel collective when we do that. So encourage you to do that. Okay, so in contrast to this, um, going back to that verse, but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him. So they weren't having it. They weren't participating, they weren't getting swept up in the revival that was obviously going on throughout all of Jerusalem and all of Judea. They were missing out on it. They were on the opposite side. They were just observers, not looking at and not participating in the repentance. They were begrudging Pharisees, not getting baptized, and so, and there was this larger group of lawyers or experts of the law also not participating. They missed it. They missed the moment, they missed the preparation. Their hearts weren't ready. They were hardened toward God, they were stubborn towards God, they knew better than God. So they thought. So I have a takeaway for that. To learn by their not-so-good example. And for me, it's a prayer for humility in my life. I pray for that for your life, that you have an ongoing regular prayer for humility, to see Jesus in your life, to repent of your sin, to see what he's doing in your life, to see where he is at work. God, help me to see. Help me to see. Help me to not be hardened towards what you're doing in my life. Help me to be teachable and moldable and trans to be transformed by your truth, God. Help me to not be so busy. Help me to listen to the whisper of the Holy Spirit, to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and to act. Help me to be humble, God. And help me to act like you in love and in action. So again, a takeaway that I don't want to be like a Pharisee and an expert in law. I want to ask for God to give me humility to see and to be obedient to what Jesus is doing in my life. Okay, last passage that we're going to look at today, verse 31 through 35. To what then shall I compare the people of this generation? And what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another. We played the flute for you, and you did not dance. We sing a dirge and you did not weep. Verse 33. For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, He has a demon. The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, Look at him, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Yet wisdom is justified by all her children. So Jesus is rebuking. He's gone from this dialogue with John the Baptist and having this back and forth, talking about the character of John the Baptist and what that was all about. Now he's rebuking the generation. He's rebuking the response, the hard-heartedness of those and listening to Jesus. So John the Baptist was not eating bread and not drinking wine, and they said essentially he's fasting. He's committed his entire life, everything, and they called him a demon. Can you imagine? Giving your whole life to God and being called demonic. Or Jesus now on the scene. Jesus is now acting out and operating in as the Messiah and God in the flesh. And they call him a glutton and a drunkard. Saying he's eating too much and he's drinking too much wine. So I would say that you can't win. You're too spiritual, or if you participate and hang out with tax collectors, you're a sinner. In other words, you can't win with people full of pride. You will never satisfy them. They're full of judgment, and Jesus spoke to this earlier. So do not judge, do not condemn. Forgive and be generous. Be the opposite of how they're acting. He says again in verse 35, yet wisdom is justified by all her children. So I would define wisdom as taking and walking the right path. God's ways. It's not just knowing the path, it's not just knowing the truth, but living the truth, living and walking in the right way. And the children is, you know, it's the outcome, it's the legacy, it's what you produce. And are we children of wisdom? Are we, you know, producing children that love God and love people as it's instructed? Or are we producing, or we living in such a way that we're calling everyone demonic? Are we being judgmental? Are we, you know, pointing out the speck in everybody else's eye instead of looking at the pride in our own eye? So, in conclusion, I have three points of application to end today. Going back to John's question to ask, using his disciples to send the question. I think likewise we bring our doubts, our challenges, our calling to Jesus. In personal relationship with God. So we do that in again relationship with him, attached to the vine. And I'll go back to this question that we have in this banner. Where is Jesus calling you today? I can get caught up in the big picture, I can get caught up in the bigger plan, but I've got to think about today. I've got to worry about today. I've got to think about what I can accomplish today? What is God calling me to do today? Love him. Love my wife, love my kids, love his church, love the people that I'm around today. Not getting busy and caught up in other things or other plans or whatever. So we bring our doubts, our challenges, our calling to Jesus in relationship. But again, where is Jesus calling you today? I'm not just saying that just to say that. I'm saying that because I really want you to think about it and to pray about it and talk to Jesus about it. Where is he calling you today? Next question. It's really uh, you know, I'm I'm teaching someone how to drive right now. That's what I'm spending my days, some of my days, maybe later today, I'm teaching someone how to drive. And one of the things that is very, very important when you're teaching someone how to drive is blind spots. You have to be disciplined. Okay. Doesn't matter how long you've been driving, 20 plus years or whatever. You always have to check your blind spots. And I think as Christians, we've got to check our blind spots over and over. We cannot get comfortable. We can't get lukewarm. We've got to check our blind spots. So we've got to pray that prayer of humility. God, wake me up. Show me where I'm have a blind spot. Show me where I'm stubborn. Show me where I've I've allowed judgment in. Show me where my thoughts are not your thoughts. A prayer of humility, a prayer of check my blind spots. Help me, God, see. Help me to see what you're doing. Again, the Pharisees and the experts, you know, the law, they didn't need, they didn't pray that prayer. But we've got to pray that prayer in humility and ask for revelation from the Holy Spirit from God. Because we want to leave a legacy of wisdom. And you can't get wisdom if you don't have humility. So we pray for humility. Finally, I want to end with baptism again. Just an encouragement. You know, sometimes I wonder, like as a pastor, like, how am I going to introduce the idea of baptism? You know, we we do this in August in our church. We've been doing it at Main Beach. We'll see if we do that this year. Um again, if if that's something that this can just be the blip on the radar for you to be praying about, is this this is this the year for you to publicly profess your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior by getting baptized? So that that might be a takeaway, or this faith in Christ. I never want to assume that everyone in here has faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. And so I'd always just encourage wherever you're at, it's the the good news is this God loves you. God created you. But in our sin, we separated ourselves from God. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Every single one of us is separated eternally from God, but God in his love, who made us and created us, left heaven to be with us, Jesus Christ. And he lived the perfect life, and he died on the cross to atone for your sin. And on the third day he conquered death. That's the gospel, that's the good news. We simply believe that in our heart and profess it with our mouth, and we can take confidence in knowing that by believing in that, by believing in the work that God did, not the work that I do, but the work that God did, now I am saved. I will spend an eternity with God in heaven. And that brings comfort to any bad day because we know our eternity is anchored with Jesus. So I invite you to put your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior today. Don't be stubborn like the Pharisees and the experts of the law who missed it. It was right in front of them. This is the good news. This is the good news for you today. Put your faith in Christ. Let's pray. God, we do again just say thank you for this day. We thank you for your word, God, for your for the story that we can learn from and we can apply to our lives, God, how good you are, God. The healing that you brought and the healing that you bring today. And God, we just say thank you for this truth. God, help us to be connected to you, God. Help us to bring our challenges and our doubts and our our calling to you, God, to really be surrendered to you, Jesus, to what you're doing in our lives and what you're calling us to today. Help us to be obedient to your voice, to your truth, God. God, we pray for humility. Help us to not be stubborn, God. Help us to not harden our ears and our mind and our lives to you, God. Help us to be soft towards you, Jesus. Give us eyes, give us ears to see and hear what you're doing in us and through us. And help us to be surrendered to that, God. Help us to jump in to the transformation that you are doing in us and through us. And God, I pray for those that in this room who have faith in you as their Lord and Savior, that haven't gotten baptized, God, I pray that you would stir their heart towards you, God, towards what you're doing. And to step into what your word says and be obedient to being baptized. And God, uh, I just also pray for those in this room, God, who have not had a moment where they have put their faith in you as Lord and Savior. God, I pray that today would be the day that they put their trust in you, God, that they would confess and repent of their sin and turn from their sin and acknowledge that you are the only way. You're the truth and the life. And there is no other way to the Father but by you, God. I pray that they would put their trust in you today, God. Believe in their heart and profess with their mouth that you are again Lord and Savior. God, we thank you for this day. We thank you for this time. We love you, God. In your name we pray. Amen.