Hearing God’s Word

Have you ever been given something that was very important to the person who gave it to you?  When I was about 13 years old my grandmother let me borrow a book that was very important to her.  It was an historical look at Russia’s last Emperor, Nikolay, and the brutal murder of his family at the hands of the communist Bolsheviks when they took over.  She had wrapped it up in a small white garbage bag so that it wouldn’t get wet.  I took it to my house and began reading it.  However, one day it went missing.  I looked everywhere and could not find it.  At that point, I had that sinking feeling you get when you know you have to face the music.  I never knew what happened to that book.  But, I learned a lesson about how to take care of those things that are valuable to another. 

Two weeks ago we looked at the Parable of the Soils, which pointed out that we need to take care how we receive God’s Word.  God’s Word is precious to Him, not just because it is His, but also because of what it can do for us.  We can be guilty at times of flippantly receiving something that is incredible important to God.  In today’s passage we will see this again with another parable and a visit from the family of Jesus.  Let’s look at Luke 8:16-21.

Parable of the Lamp

In verses 16-18 Jesus tells a parable that is very simple.  It is a picture of what it is like to receive the Word of God.  In the previous parable God’s Word is likened to a seed being broadcast onto soil.  Here God’s Word is likened to the lighting of a lamp in a room.  Now the lamps of those days would be oil lamps that would have a hole or a narrowing on one side and they usually had a wick.  Thus, just as God casts out seed, so here, God is the one who lights the lamp.  He does this by giving Truth to us.

Now a lamp needs oil in it in order to sustain a flame.  Throughout Scripture oil is a type of the Holy Spirit.  Now God is always working through His Spirit to prepare hearts to receive the Truth of God. In this sense God is supplying oil.  However if we do not retain this supply it will never fill us up in order to sustain a light.  Thus we need the Truth of God and the help of the Holy Spirit to ignite a light within us.  This will enable us to “see” the reality of life all around us.

Once a flame has begun, the light will immediately fill the room.  Light by its nature spreads out as far as it can.  Thus our life and its sphere of influence is like the room that the lamp is in.  We will not only be able to see better for ourselves, but anyone who intersects our life can benefit from this Truth of God burning in our life.

Now Jesus points out that the light is not lit in order to be hidden.  God has a purpose in putting this light in our life.  It is meant to reveal and make things known to us and those who are around us.  It is revelation by nature.  It is not enough to have good feelings towards God inside us.  When His light is operating in us, it is intended to be acted upon and thus give light to others.  If we fail to express God’s Truth in our life then we are contending with the very purpose of God.  Thus Jesus warns in verse 17, “For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be know and come to light.”  What God gives to me in secret devotion should be revealed by me in my life.  But, if not, then the day will come when it will be revealed against me at the judgment seat of Christ.

In both parables we notice this; if the Word is not taken care of it will be squelched or lost.  Here we must keep the oil level high enough, monitor the wick, and protect the flame.  If we do this then we will bear fruit by patiently guarding and nurturing the light of God’s Word in our life.  However, if not, even what light we have received will be lost.  How do I receive God’s Word?  It is an extremely valuable thing.  Without proper value, we will find ourselves losing the light that God intends us to have.

My Relationship To Jesus…

Now at this point word comes to Jesus that His mother and brothers are outside.  Although this seems to be an interruption, it ends up emphasizing the point that Jesus is making about what He is teaching them.  Luke most likely shares this in order to strengthen the point of our need to properly hear the Word.  Family is one of the closest relationships we can have.  Yet, the brothers of Jesus did not believe in Him.  This lack of believe and the strange things that Jesus was doing no doubt enabled them to stir up maternal fears in Mary.  “He’s crazy.  He’s going to get himself killed.  Why doesn’t he settle down and marry a good Jewish woman and start a family?”  In another place we are told that his family tried to even make him come home at one point.  Now, the point of this story is not that Jesus wouldn’t see his family.  No doubt, he did after he made his point.  But it presented a perfect time to emphasize what he had just been teaching.

Jesus basically says that those who hear the Word of God and do it are his mother and brother, i.e. family.  Thus our closeness to Jesus first depends upon hearing the word of God.  To be close to Jesus is to first be close to the Word of God.  We cannot divide it into parts we like and parts we don’t.  Neither can we make distinctions like only reading the words of Jesus as opposed to the apostles.  Some even try to go through the words of Jesus and determine what they think he really said.  This is not being in relationship with Jesus.  This is trying to manipulate the Word of God to our own thinking.  If I want to be close to Jesus then I need to receive all of God’s Word.

Yet, I must also put it into practice.  How I receive the Word is just as important as having it, if not more.   When we act upon the Truth its power is unleashed in our life and makes a difference for us and for those around us.  Now it would be easy to make this about simple obedience.  However, the relationship of a mother and brother are not those who must obey us.  Rather, this is about love.  Even if I don’t love what Jesus is saying, my love for him can help me to do the right thing anyways.  “Nevertheless, because You ask us to, we will throw our nets out again.”

In 2 Thessalonians 2:10 we are told that people perish because they refused to receive a love of the Truth.  Everyday God is trying to give us Truth and a love for it.  The problem is not on His end.  It is on ours.  This is a difficult Truth that many who have been inundated with God’s Word have never truly known Him because they refused to embrace it in their life.  Yet, many who have had precious little Truth embraced it whole heartedly.  May God help us to be that light which he has made us to be in this nation and this generation.

The True Jesus: Forsaken

This Sunday is Easter or better, Resurrection Sunday.  We are going to return to our study of the Gospel of Luke next week.  But today I want to look at a question that Jesus asks while He is on the cross in Matthew 27.

Have you ever been forsaken by someone?  Or have you ever found yourself alone with no one who seemed to care?  Whether you were forsaken by parents, friends, loved ones, or someone else, it is a grievous thing to go through.  Take heart in this, you are in good company.  The Bible tells us that Jesus knows exactly how you feel because He went through the very same thing.  Let’s go to verses 45-46 and pick up the story.

Jesus Experiences A Dark Time

It is not by coincidence that darkness comes over the land for the last 3 hours of the death of Jesus.  It cannot be a solar eclipse because Passover occurs during the Full Moon and the sun is on the other side of the earth (besides the fact that they last less than 10 minutes).  Several ancient historians from the first century refer to earthquakes that were followed by a strange darkness lasting for 3 hours in what we would call AD 33.  I don’t believe we have enough information to understand what was physically happening to cause the darkness.  However, it is a powerful sign that this is a dark time.  The Savior of the world is dying on a cross and the heavens go black.  In fact the Creator of all things is suffering a symbolic dark night.

It is made dark by the unjust trial He had been given and the unjust punishment He was receiving.  Jesus had done nothing wrong, especially that would be worthy of death.  Still, He is run through a midnight trial with witnesses brought against Him that were so bad that the religious leaders balked at giving a sentence.  It was only when He was asked point blank, “Are you the Messiah,” and answered in the affirmative that they agreed to execute Him under a charge of blasphemy.  Was it really blasphemy to claim to be the Messiah?  Think about it.  If it is blasphemy to claim to be the Messiah then the Messiah could never come and save Israel.  Nowhere in the Law does it state it is blasphemy to claim to be the Messiah.  However, if you did claim to be the Messiah you had better save the people.  Instead of waiting to see if He does anything to save Israel, they quickly decide to kill Him.

Next, it is a dark night for Jesus because of the way in which they execute Him.  They go out of their way to publically shame Jesus before the whole nation.  He had been beaten to a bloody pulp and then paraded in front of the people.  He was chosen for execution over the top of a notorious criminal who deserved death.  On top of this is the Old Testament statement that He who hangs on a tree is cursed of God.  Lastly, as He hung on the cross people were taunting Him to prove He is the Messiah by coming off of the tree.  This public shame is a dark and heavy thing to put up with in light of the fact that you are doing it for them.

Yet, what made the time darkest for Christ had nothing to do with the religious leaders or the people.  It had to do with His Father in heaven.  Jesus had an eternal relationship of love between Himself and the Father.  Yet in this moment it is halted.  Instead of miracles of divine help, the supernatural becomes strangely silent during the crucifixion.  When God refuses to overturn this crucifixion it is taken for God’s agreement by the people.  Surely God wouldn’t let the true Messiah be killed, would He?

The Cry Of Jesus

It is at this darkest moment in the existence of Jesus that He cries out, “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?”  This is an amazing statement; that the Father would forsake His Perfect Son.  Clearly anyone in this situation would feel forsaken by God.  In fact, it is quite universal to feel that the God of the heavens does not care about you and will not help you in times of great injustice and in times of being forsaken.

Yet, Jesus is not just asking God a question.  He is actually quoting a verse of Scripture from Psalm 22:1.  Thus He is doing more than telling us how He feels.  He is calling the attention of those who saw this or hear the story to that Old Testament passage.

When you analyze this Psalm it is amazing.  It actually reads as if it was written by Jesus while He is on the cross.  It starts with the question of Why.  It then moves to point out that God has helped people in the past, but this One is a worm and will receive no help.  It talks about how persecuted and physically broken He is.  However, at the end of the Psalm a strange transition occurs.  The simple line, “You have answered me,” ends the grim side of this Psalm with the tortured author praising God and declaring that this is all God’s doing.

Thus the question of Jesus is not just a question.  It is telling us that He believes He is living out Psalm 22 and that no matter how much of a worm He has become and no matter how forsaken of God He will be, in the end God will hear Him.  It is a statement of explanation and of faith in a dark moment.  These dying words are clearly not words of doubt, but simply a way to let us know that in the midst of despising this forsaken situation, Christ knew He would be heard.  It may not look like it, but I will declare it among the Great Assembly.

Was Jesus Forsaken?

Well He was in the sense that God did not help Him and abandoned Him to the will of wicked men.  God did not protect Jesus.  Of course, if we look at the resurrection and the ascension, and the prophesied Second Coming, it is clear that He was not completely forsaken.  Yet this abandoning to an unjust death and public humility is only part of the His being forsaken.  Some have pointed out that God is more than abandoning Jesus.  He is actively pouring out His wrath upon Jesus.  This unthinkable break in the eternal love that has existed between Father and Son is the greatest agony.  God is not just neutral, but even worse; He is the very one pouring out His wrath and our punishment upon Jesus.  Why such a strange thing?  Is God truly a cosmic child abuser, who abandons those who serve Him, in the end?  This really is not fair.  Jesus is not a child being forced to endure something.  He is a grown, adult Son who is actually working in harmony with His Father in a Rescue operation.  God is not a cosmic child abuser.  He is the epitome of self sacrifice in grim circumstances; taking upon Himself the punishment of us all.  This is the plan that He and the Son had agreed to in eternity past as they counted the cost to creating.  Before God says, “Let there be light,” He and the Son have already agreed to the plan that required the Son to allow Himself to be nailed to a cross and the Father to pour out the punishment due all of mankind upon the Son.  Jesus Himself said, “No one takes my life from me.  I lay it down.”  This leads us to 2 Corinthians 5:17 and following.

Jesus was reconciling us back to God.  He is not just suffering, but He is removing a barrier between us and God so that we can have fellowship with Him.  We are sinners and He must judge us.  This is the white elephant in the room that can’t be avoided.  God does not avoid it.  Rather, He takes the pain upon Himself, that we might have a broken relationship restored.

Furthermore,  2 Corinthians 5 says that our sins are put on His account.  Yes, apparently God keeps records of all our deeds, words, thoughts, and actions.  Those who reject Jesus will have to give account for all the things that are written on their account.  But, those who turn to Jesus in faith, will have all of their sins placed on Christ’s account, which by the way is already covered.

It says that “God made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us.”  This is a reference to an Old Testament ritual that happened on the Day of Atonement.  Israel was required to make sacrifices on a specific day every year to make atonement or covering for their sin.  On this day two goats would be chosen.  One would be sacrificed as a sin offering and the other would be sent into the wilderness to die.  However, before sending this goat into the wilderness, the High Priest would lay his hands on the goat and symbolically transfer the sins of the nation onto the goat.  This goat would then symbolically carry their sins into the wilderness and the sins would die with the goat and never return.  This is the concept of the scapegoat.  Now in the world a scapegoat is often a part of the sin in the first place.  They are made to take the rap while everyone else gets off.  But in this case the scapegoat had nothing to do with the sins.  It is not just unfair.  It is unthinkable.  Now picture in your mind as sin upon sin is laid upon this goat.  Yet, Jesus is dying for the sins of the whole world, for all time.  There is seemingly no end to the sin as it is heaped up until no goat is visible only sin.  When the Father pours out His wrath, it is not really upon His son, but upon the sin that He carries.  Never forget that this is exactly how God feels about our sin.  It is something He hates and yet because He loves us He is willing to take our punishment upon Himself.  The Sinless One takes our sin upon Himself and carries it away; never to be heard from again.

How Can I Experience this?

The question remains.  How can I know that I am at peace with God and that Jesus has carried my sins away?  In 2^nd Corinthians 5 it simply says that those who are “in Christ” become a new creation.  Yet, this process of becoming “in Christ” is described elsewhere in several actions.

First, I must ADMIT that I am a sinner and in need of a savior.  As a healer, Jesus did not come to heal people who were already well.  Similarly He did not come to save people who don’t want a savior.  No one will be forced to accept this reconciliation to God.  All of us are spiritually sick and in need of God’s healing.  Until we admit this we cannot belong to Him.  This humbling of ourselves is the only thing that God will accept because it is the very nature of Jesus.  He humbled Himself and did for us what we could not do for ourselves.  It is only right that we should humble ourselves and admit that we can’t pay for our own sins.  We need a savior and God has given us Jesus.  Take it or leave it, but this is the only choice.

Second, I must BELIEVE that Jesus is God’s answer to cover my sin.  Some persist in thinking that they are good enough.  “Surely, I haven’t done anything worthy of great punishment!”  Yet, they have never stood before a Judge who knows everything they have ever thought and done in secret as well as that done in the open.  Now, when you ask most people if they are good, they will answer yes.  But if you ask them are they perfect, they will balk and then say, “nobody’s perfect.”  Yet, somebody is.  God is the perfect Judge and His Son is the Perfect One who was sacrificed for our sins.  You can accept God’s plan or you can fight against it.  But you won’t win by rejecting His offer of peace because you are not perfect.  Put your faith in Jesus by recognizing that He is God’s answer for your sins.  He is the only One worthy of our praise.

Third, I must CONFESS with my mouth that Jesus is my Lord.  Jesus is not just our sin-bearer.  By right of Deliverer, He becomes our Lord.  We owe Him our life and thus all we do should be for His purposes.  Although it might sound horrible to be obligated to another, remember that He is pure, righteous, trustworthy, gentle, humble, and loving.  To confess before others that Jesus is your Lord and Savior is to publically identify with Him.  Don’t think that you can accept Him in your heart while publically rejecting Him.  Jesus said, that if you deny me in front of men, then I will deny you before my Father.  It is not easy to confess Jesus before a world that crucified Him.  The world is no different today.  Whether it does so by redefining Jesus or cursing Jesus, this world rejects the True Jesus, what He stands for, and what He did.  Will you follow the world or hear the Holy Spirit calling you to be reconciled to God?

Lastly, we must Follow Jesus.  He said, “Pick up your cross and follow me.”  We can’t do what Jesus did in that we can die for the sins of others.  Neither do we need to because Jesus did it once and for all.  However, we do need to die to the purposes that our flesh wants to live for.  We have to come alive to the leadership of Jesus.  Die to this world and live to God.  Die to yourself and live to God.  This is the way of Jesus.  If we will do this, then God will work through us to be the Deliverer of others.  Not because we can pay for their sins, but because we can bring the truth of who Jesus is to them and the Truth can set them free.  Be free today!  Choose Life!

Forsaken audio

Children of Wisdom or Folly?

Today we will be in Luke 7: 29-34.  Here we see that the ministries of John the Baptist and Jesus were very different in some ways.  Of course they were similar in others ways.  They both preached repentance in light of the coming Kingdom.  But they did so in two very different ways.  Perhaps this is part of why John had doubts when he was in prison.  Either way, Jesus draws on the book of Proverbs as He challenges the people about their response to John’s ministry and His.

The Bible uses a literary device called personification.  It is when you take an abstract concept and speak about it as if it were a person.  Thus in Proverbs 8, Solomon speaks of wisdom as a woman who is a teacher calling out to men to come and learn.  The reason Solomon does this becomes clearer as you look at another woman in Proverbs 7.  This woman is an immoral, seductress who tries to allure men into her bed.  Solomon warns that no matter how much it appeals to your flesh it will lead to death in the end.

Now I know that some get stuck on the way that everything is couched in terms to protect men from immoral women.  The truth is that the opposite is true as well.  Young women are hearing the voice of the immoral man calling to her to join him in sexual immorality.  These opposing voices in life are appealing to two very different parts of our nature.  Immorality appeals to the urges of our flesh, whereas Wisdom appeals to our mind.

In today’s passage Jesus uses this personification of wisdom and takes it one step further.  Those who listen to the voice of immorality or wisdom become children of the same.  They head down a path of learning and growing in immorality or wisdom.  Let’s look into it.

The Response to John & Jesus

Last week Jesus detailed why the people went out to the Jordan River to hear John.  It was because he body proclaimed the Truth as a true prophet of God.  Now Luke steps back from the narrative and points out the responses of those who heard John and Jesus.  Some of them received John and Jesus.  Notice that after Jesus healed and taught then the people “justified God.”  Now if it is God justifying us it means that He is doing something to us that we lack.  But when men “justify” God it is not the same meaning.  God is justified whether or not any men recognize it or declare it.  Thus it takes on the meaning that is closer to recognition.  We don’t make God any more just, but we can publically declare that He is.  Luke ties this public reception of what Jesus had said and done to the fact that they had earlier received John the Baptist by being baptized for repentance.  This makes sense because John was pointing people to Jesus.  Here we see Jesus publically affirming John and the ministry that he did.

It is humorous to see Luke point out that “even tax collectors” were justifying God.  Now tax collectors in those days were in a strange place.  They were definitely well to do and not hurting financially.  But they had to sell out their people in order to be so.  Thus tax collectors have no monetary problems, but have major social problems.  They are outcasts.  There is something about being shut out whether financially or socially that helps us to hear the message of God.  Now this brings up the Pharisees and the Lawyers.  This group despised the tax collectors and saw them as the lowest of the low. 

This sets up a powerful contrast of the average people, and even the lowest, embracing John and Jesus, while the rulers, leaders and well to do rejecting them.  The “unworthy” of society recognize the truth while the “worthy” do not recognize it and even persecute it.  The same is true today.  Do you spend your time trying to fit in with the “worthy” of society?  Or, do you trust God to be the one who declares your true “worth.”

So Luke paints a picture of a large number of people rejoicing and praising God for Jesus.  Yet, in the midst of this is a group that refuses to rejoice and, in fact, despise Jesus.  They didn’t need wisdom from Jesus because they believed they already possessed it.  The first step of wisdom is to recognize that before God your “wisdom” is folly or foolishness.  Even though they had received wisdom from God through Moses, they did not handle it with humility.  Instead in great pride they used it to stand against the truth.  Luke ties this to the fact that they refused to be baptized by John.  They rejected John and now they reject Jesus, in the same way that the regular people embraced John and Jesus.  Now this is an important point because Jesus is moving to make a point about the thinking that the Pharisees and Lawyers used to reject Him.

The Folly of Their Thinking

Now ultimately, many of those who were praising Jesus now, would turn away from Him when He chooses to go to the cross.  There is something about God choosing suffering that causes mankind to shrink back in horror and disgust.  Thus Jesus employs another metaphor from their everyday life.  “To what shall I compare this generation?”  This picture that Jesus describes is one the people would have been very family with.  Going to the marketplace is a large part of their lives.  They all could relate to being children with their parents at the marketplace, and then later being the parents bringing their children with them to the market place.  Kids grow tired of adult things quickly.  Thus the kids would gather together and play games while the adults did the shopping.  Now it is clear that in those days it was common for the kids to play imaginary games in which they would act out funerals or festivals.  The key to this is that the kids are playing imaginary games while the parents are involved in reality.

This leads us to his first point.  The kids in the story encounter an adult and want Him to join in their imaginary games.  Now though an adult might do this for a short time out of love for the kids, the adult must refuse to play all the time.  They have real things to deal with.  The kids here are those who rejected John and Jesus.  They expected God to do what they wanted.  However, John and Jesus (like adults) refused to play along with their imaginary solutions.  Jesus came to do adult work, not play imaginary games with us.  Do we do this at all today?  Do we as a generation, like little kids, demand that God, who is the “adult,” play with us in our imaginary world and solutions?  Do we demand that God do what we think He should rather than recognizing who He is and stop playing?  God is no dog to jump through the hoops that we would put before Him.  It is we who should humble ourselves and come to the teacher to learn, not the other way around.

The next problem was that their judgments were biased in their own favor.  Jesus points this out by noting the big difference between Him and John.  John was a recluse who was the epitome of self-denial.  When he did come out of the wilderness to interact with people, he was still isolated from the people.  Rather than joining in with them in life, he challenged them to change.  On the other side, Jesus was always around people, eating and drinking with them in their homes.  Now keep in mind that both are from God and speak the Truth.  But, their methods are very different.  The Pharisees and Lawyers rejected John because he was so detached from them and their ways that they claimed he was demon possessed.  Look at him with his wild hair, feeding off the land, out in the wilderness.  He must be possessed.  Of course, John wasn’t demon possessed.  He spoke clearly, intelligibly, didn’t cut himself, or attack people.  Their judgments were biased in favor of the outcome they wanted.  John’s message was unappealing to them and so they judged his life to be of the devil.  However, Jesus did not come this way.  He was the opposite.  He had no problem associating with people and eating with them in their homes.  Yet, he also associated with sinners.  Again the Pharisees reasoned that he must be a glutton, drunkard, and a friend of sinners (aka “a sinner too”).  Now God has sent them both with two very different attempts to draw them to His wisdom and they reject both.  In fact they had been doing this for centuries.  When you look at the lives of the prophets, you see that they represented many different varied lives.  But they all had the same message for the people.  God in His mercy has sent many people with various personalities and lives.  But they all contain the same message.  If we are so set in our ways and thinking that nothing God says or does can get through to us, then we are in the most pitiful circumstances.

Jesus ends with the statement, “Wisdom is justified by all her children.”  Here we have the same issue as before.  Wisdom is not made to be right by us.  Rather the fact that it has people who respond to it and embrace it like a little child, justifies it against those who reject it.  Which do you choose:  the seductive allure of immorality, or the promise of Wisdom?  Which do you choose: the joys of the immoral bed or the fruits of a classroom?  Our flesh pulls powerfully towards immorality.  But know this.  If you choose that path you then become a child of it and will only grow to know the depths of it.  And, the depths of it are called death.  No one will be able to tell God that He can’t expect them to believe because of lack of evidence.  He will only need to point to the countless millions who did believe.  Wisdom is justified by all her children.  Choose wisdom today!

Wisdom or Folly Audio

The True Jesus: Of Faith and Doubt

In today’s passage, Luke 7:19-23, we get our last glimpse of John the Baptist before Herod Antipas has him executed.  John the Baptist represents the ultimate, faithful prophet.  He is a picture of great faithfulness to the Lord.  Yet, whether it is Elijah in the wilderness or John the Baptist in prison, we see that they were only men doing their best to do the right thing in trying situations.  They had to battle with doubts just like you and me.

It is an error to think that those who are faithful never have doubts, or that those who are courageous never have fears.  So if you have fears and doubts, take heart today.  It doesn’t mean you can’t exercise great faith and courage.  In fact, it is the presence of fears and doubts that makes faith and courage remarkable.

The Circumstances of John

Back in Luke 3:20 we were told that Herod had imprisoned John.  So let’s look at the background to this.  The day to day history of the Herods is equal to any soap opera today.  Herod the Great, who ruled when Jesus was born, died a few years later while he was still a toddler.  Rome then divided the kingdom among Herod’s sons.  Two of them were Herod Antipas and Herod Philip.  Herod Antipas ruled over the area on the east side of the Jordan and around the Sea of Galilee.  Over the course of time, Herod Antipas fell in love with Philips wife, Herodias.  She wanted him as well.  So, Antipas divorced his wife and married Herodias.  On top of all of this Herodias is actually their niece.  This gives you an insight into the lack of morals within these royal families.  John the Baptist had publically rebuked Herod Antipas for these actions.  It was then that he had John imprisoned, reasoning that John had a lot of followers and they might be inclined to revolt.

However, Herod was afraid to kill him because he saw John as a righteous prophet.  Furthermore, he would have John brought out of prison before him, from time to time, because he liked to listen to John’s preaching.  However, Antipas liked his preaching more like someone likes a song.  It sounds lovely, but he is not going to change his life because of it.  He was a man ruled by passions and filled with many conflicting emotions.  It is in this environment that we read John sending two of his disciples to Jesus.

The Questions of John

Most likely John was held in prison up to a year.  So it is understandable that he began to question his understanding about who Jesus was.  John’s questions are twofold.  Is Jesus the Messiah?  Or, is he just another forerunner like John?  Now John had already publically testified on numerous occasions that Jesus was the Messiah, the coming one.  However, he now wonders if perhaps he was mistaken.  In the moment when Jesus was being baptized it was very clear to John who he was.  But, given time in a prison he began to lose his clarity.

We might also point out that John doubts Jesus, not God’s promise to send a Messiah.  Just like the disciples were confounded by what Jesus did and allowed to happen, so John is perplexed.  Surely Jesus would have taken his place as king of Israel by now.  This central issue of who Jesus is has continued to be the main thing to this very day.  However, it does require a foundational belief that God has made promises that He will keep.  To a world that believes in a creator we must convince them that Jesus is the Son of God sent to perform salvation.  But to a world that doesn’t believe in any supernatural Creator, we must convince them that such a God exists.  Jesus is the key to this.

Part of the problem here is that John most likely didn’t foresee ending up in prison.  Remember that while John is in prison Jesus is teaching that He came to set the captives free. It is here that we see the importance of the spiritual message behind what Jesus was saying.  If Jesus meant he came to empty the prisons of the Herods then he failed miserably.  Clearly Jesus was speaking spiritually.  Faith is always tried when the physical situation seems more important to us than the spiritual.  John is in the furnace.

In these moments discouragement sets in.  Physical pains and difficulties over a long period of time wear us down and deflate our courage.  Of course, John doesn’t ultimately lose faith.  But his faith was severely tried.  When he had doubts he sought answers from Jesus and this is exactly what we must do in our times of doubt.  It is difficult to be under a cloud of discouragement.  It would be easy to condemn those who are discouraged for not having enough faith.  I would challenge you that discouragement is part of the process of purifying faith.  It is a necessary opponent that we must battle.  Instead of condemning discouragement, we need to be like Barnabas was.  Saul who was a new Christian was not trusted by most of the Christians.  In this discouraging time Barnabas came along side of him and promoted him to the brothers.  Love encourages people to turn to the Truth.  And that is exactly what John the Baptist did.  He sought an answer from Jesus.

The Answer Of Jesus

As John’s disciples arrive with the questions, they witness a scene in which Jesus is healing and preaching.  At some point when there is a break they are able to ask their question.

Jesus first says, “Go tell John all the things you have seen and heard.”   The blind were seeing, the lame walking, lepers cleansed, deaf hearing, and the dead raised.  Notice that in each of these a deficiency is met with the sufficiency of Jesus.  In fact all of these are pictures of spiritual problems.  We can be spiritually blind, lame, blighted with a deteriorating disease, deaf, and even dead.  Jesus is the answer to them all.  This is exactly what the Messiah was supposed to do.

At the end of this part he also says to tell John that the Gospel is preached to the poor.  The Gospel is the good news that they can have a part in the Kingdom of God through Jesus.  In light of the way John describes the earlier healings we could say that the poor receive the riches of heaven, Jesus himself.  This is intended to reach the heart of John the Baptist.  In his heart he knew that the Jews had mangled the Truth of God and instead of healing the hurting were making things worse.  Jesus was changing all of that.  Just like the Scriptures said that the Messiah would.

Lastly, Jesus adds a powerful statement, “Blessed are those who do not stumble because of me.”  Now remember this is intended to be an encouragement to John and to us.  He is reminding John of the stumbling stone of Isaiah 8 and 28.  In one place Isaiah says that God is going to take a stone that the builders reject and make it the capstone.  Notice the builders stumble in their analysis of God’s Rock.  In the other place we are told specifically that the Messiah would be a stumbling stone.  “He will be a sanctuary, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, as a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.  And many among them shall stumble; they shall fall and be broken, be snared and taken.” Isaiah 8:14-15.  Paul notes this in Romans 9 when he says that many in Israel stumbled over the Messiah because they sought righteousness by their own works of the Law, rather than throwing themselves by faith upon the mercy of God.  They trusted themselves over God.

Do you have doubts and fears?  Then hear the Truth about Jesus.  All the physical miracles He did point to spiritual issues that only He can heal.  Take hope in the reality of those things that Jesus has done.  He will do what God has said He will.  Don’t lose faith.  Remember that God is concerned about those who are ground down in this life and offers the riches of heaven to all who will respond.  You are a part of that group.  Don’t give up.  Lastly, you will be blessed if you don’t stumble over Jesus.  Many people today stumble over Jesus.  They do so by either totally rejecting him, or remaking him into an image that they can be comfortable with.  Both lead to destruction and cannot help.  Save yourself from this wicked generation, believe on the Lord Jesus, and be saved from the coming judgment.  And, like John, even if you are to lose your head for your faith in Jesus continue to go to Him for the answers you need to continue in faith.  Faithful to the end.

Faith and Doubt audio