Today we have five young people who desire to profess their faith before God and the church. And one of the central questions that they will be confronted with in their life is the question of the identity of Jesus Christ. And what it means to follow him.
We have three questions in our text today. These are questions for all of us. The first is, “Is Jesus the one?” the second is “Who is John?” And the third is what are we expecting from Gods work? It is these three questions that also give structure to the text today. They tell us about Jesus, John, and the the people reaction to him.
Jesus the Messiah is the one sent by God.
- The ministry of Jesus
- The identity of john
- The perversity of the people.
explanation of ministry of Jesus
18 The disciples of John reported all these things to him.
We left John the Baptist in prison in John 3:20 and have not heard from him since. He is stuck in prison, because of his preaching against sin. But even from prison, John must have kept his hears to the ground, and was hearing all kinds of things of Jesus, whom he had baptized. His disciples are going back and forth, telling him what Jesus is doing, and saying. The more they say the more he wonders… And finally, he sends two of them there.
And John, 19 calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”
Of all the people that we would never expect this question from, it is John. Isn’t it? Afterall, John knew he had a special place in human history, and the history of salvation. He was standing on the precipice of the new age. He was supposed to prepare the way for the Messiah. He had baptized Jesus, seen the dove symbolizing the Spirit, heard the voice of the Father. He had said, “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the people!” And now he is asking this question?!
He is in prison, you might say in “doubters castle,” wondering if Jesus is the one to come. Maybe he thought that Jesus would quickly put an end to the power of darkness and judge the wicked. He had preached that the ax was at the root of the tree, that the winnowing fork was in his hands separating wheat from chaff (John 3:9,17) And he is wondering where the ax at the root of is the tree? Where are the fire of judgement and the Spirit?
His expectations were unmet my Jesus performance.
So John wants to know. Is Jesus the anointed prophet priest and king, the one promised from long ago or should we look for another?
Maybe this is a question that you have had. Is Jesus really the Messiah? Many people see him as a good teach, a moral man, maybe even prophet. Others reject him. Others ignore him. Where are you this morning? Do you believe that he is a messiah? These young people will say an absolute yes! What about you?!
You see it is not just unbelievers that sometimes have these doubts, but believers!
And when the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’” They repeat verbatim. And what happens?!
Jesus doesn’t answer. He just keeps right on doing what he is doing for a an hour as they tag along. We read… 21 In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind he bestowed sight. In the next hour or so they see all kinds of people coming to Jesus. Messed up people, sinful, blind, diseased, possessed. One after the other they come and what happens? They are healed. Restored. Forgiven. Freed. This is what judgment oof John the Baptist looks like. .
We read in Isaiah, “Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance. With divine retribution He will come to save you.” We don’t associate retribution with salvations. We don’t associate vengeance with hope. But the next verses says, “5Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 6Then the lame will leap like a deer and the mute tongue will shout for joy.”
And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers[e] are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.
Are you wondering If Jesus is the one? Look to His work! You see the progression here in the text. From least to greatest. It ends with…the dead are raised up, and the poor have the good news preached to them. Without the last one all else is just extra! This is why these young people will promise to passionately seek the preaching of the gospel!
Preaching is on of the central parts of his ministry as the Messiah! He has to preach the good news. In Luke 4:43 when his disciples try to stop him from moving on he says, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well, because that is why I was sent.” He doesn’t say we need to move on to keep healing, but keep moving to preach. Any attempt to explain the work of Jesus that leaves out the preaching to the poor misses the point. We want miracles! But the greatest miracle is the preaching of the Gospel! And notice he says, “The poor have the good news preached to them.”
The POOR! DO you fit in the list that Jesus describes. The poor, wretched needed blind. Here is the stumbling block of the gospel – it does not accept the self-sufficient, self-righteous, or self-satisfied! But only those who come into the kingdom on their knees to be lifted by Jesus alone. The church goer must come on his knees like the prostitute. The wealthy man in his business suit like the homeless in rags!
this can be offensive. That is why he says, And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
Have you ever been tempted to fall away on account of Jesus? when you come to the sin, and the cross, and judgement… what a gentle reminder this was for John the Baptist! It is the fool in the eyes of the world that associates with Jesus. The kingdom comes – not through power, money, and wealth – but through suffering, weakness, and poverty of spirit! Jesus hangs out with the broken, the weak, the rejects of society. With gentiles, and widows, and sinners, and tax collectors.
Are you offended by who Jesus loves. Who he associates with? And on top of that – this does not feel like a world changing movement.
are you the one who is to come? Don’t we sometimes ask the question. Are you really the one, Jesus? We can also feel like John feels here. When we watch the news, when we see all that goes, we can say did Jesus really do something? Morally our nation is collapsing, and its people are suffering. Socially we are rootless. Technologically we are more advanced than we understand or enjoy. The Christ is here and we ask, Are you really the one who is to come?
Clarification of identity of john
The next question comes form Jesus himself. Challenging the people on the identity of John.
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 kings' courts. What then did you go out to see? A prophet?
What did you go out to see? first two questions demands a no answer, and the third demands a yes.
He asks what did you all go out to see in the middle of the desert. Why did you go out in the desert in the hot sun, to watch some reeds? OF course not. They did not go to see a reed blow back and forth by human opinion. Did they go to see some nicely clothed person hoping people like the way he looks! A people pleaser? NO? Then what are they looking for?! They were searching for TRUTH! They went to see a prophet!
Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.
He was more than a prophet. A prophet that cared not for human opinion! A prophet who obediently spoke the word of God! A prophet --- but more then a prophet!
Those seeking a prophet, he assures, will not only find one, but the very prophet of whom Malachi spoke, the messenger who prepares the way for the coming one. The greatest the OT has ever seen!
This is he of whom it is written, “‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way before you.’ I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John.
Can you imagine saying this about someone. If you just ended there, that would be an amazing statement! NO ONE born that is greater. But wait, there is more….
Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”
Dear borthers, these 5 young people that stand before us are in a sense greater then John! That is an amazing statement! They are greater because they have, and we have SO MUCH MORE!
John belonged in the line of the OT prophets. his ministry was a preparatory ministry. So what he knew and blessing that he received was looking forward. It was preparing the way for the king, and kingdom!
But those who enter the kingdom, come after. Their grasp of things is far greater. John was not around when Jesus was crucified, was risen, when he ascended, when he poured out his spirit. When the church received the word of God! John the Baptist is in the same group of 1 Peter 1:10…. They desire to look into these things. And the 1 Peter 2 talks about us when it says, “but you have tasted the kindness of the LORD” You have it!
(When all the people heard this, and the tax collectors too, they declared God just,[g] having been baptized with the baptism of John, 30 but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.)
What is Luke doing? He is giving us a little parentheses, that tells us what he is driving at! STOP looking for the Jesus of your expectations, and start looking for the Jesus of your need. Stop wanting him to do something for you (conquer romans, give power, make you rich) and ask him to do something to you (change your heart, forgive you, justify you, adopt you, glorify you!) This was the difference between the people coming to Jesus and it is still the difference. The pharisees and lawyers come to him on behalf of deserving. The people and tax collectors say we don’t deserve. Salvation is a gift and not a right.
That is the reason some of you may struggle to believe in Jesus. You think you have a justifiable way into the kingdom of God that is based on your background. On your attendance. On your hard work. But you keep running into the word grace. A word that requires you to come kneeling into the kingdom, admitting you are poor wretched blind and pitiable. let go of your expectations, stop wanting to hear what itching hears want to hear, and simply listen to the truth.
And when you hear the truth, you admit God is right. This is what the people, and tax collectors have. They knew they were sinners, and not righteous. Do you see? They all saw God’s way was right, except the smart religious people. Hell will be full of religious and good people.
Which brings us to our last question.
Illustration of perversity of people…..
“To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? 32 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 sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’
The simile compares “The people of this generation” (genea) to a group of children who stubbornly refuse to play with another group. No matter what the one group offers, whether playing a pretend wedding game, or a pretend funeral game, the other group refuses to participate. It is like petulant spoiled children. That want everyone else to dance to their tune. That want to run the church and make it in their image. And when anyone does not play along, they sulk.
When Luke uses the word, “generation,” it is almost always with a negative sense. Disciples who are unable to cast out a demon are dubbed a “faithless and perverse generation” (9:41). Jesus asserts, “this generation” will be “charged with the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world” (11:50-51). And he predicts to his disciples that he will suffer and be rejected by “this generation” (17:25).
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!’
You are petulant and perverse. You all want to play your own game, says Jesus. One group wanted to condemn John, and the other Jesus. And both were doing the work of God.
In our consumer-oriented church culture this is very applicable. Some are looking for something more cheerful. Not so much about sin, guilt, and bad stuff. We didn’t imagine running into the sin thing so quickly they say.
Another group comes in, and they say we are looking for something somber, proper and traditional. He speaks way too much about grace, like its for everyone – even the lgbtqi person.
What do you think this is? The people and church play the tunes, and I, the preacher am supposed to dance. Is that what is supposed to happen?
You see this whole passage is about doubt, and the identity of Jesus. Is he who he says he is. Yes! He is! But he is NOT who you want him to be! He is not on your team or my team. We must see that!
Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.”
If you come with human expectations you will be disappointed. If you come broken, and needy, God is there. That is why these young people the first question they will answer is that they know there are sinners.
The evidence of the gospel is in the people that accept it! Not in the people that reject it! There is an song that captures this…
… Oh the games people play now
Every night and every day now
Never meaning what they say now
Never saying what they mean
… And they wile away the hours
In their ivory towers
Till they're covered up with flowers
In the back of a black limousine
… Look around tell me what you see
What's happening to you and me
God grant me the serenity
To just remember who I am
… 'Cause you've given up your sanity
For your pride and your vanity
Dear church, come to Jesus, the embodiment of wisdom. Lay aside your pride and expectations. Come as you are. And see him as he is! A savior for the crowd. The tax collector, the outsider, the sinner. I know some of you here who feel like outsiders. You aren’t in Jesus Kingdom, and you ought not to feel that way in this church. He came for you. For me. For us! Lets confess his name together.
Amen.