Kingdom Prepared

When Jesus had finished instructing the 12, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities,

going back into his public ministry.

Assurance for doubt

Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of Christ, he sent word to his disciples asking, are you the one to come?

Here we see our first point, assurance for doubt. We kind of have to get a picture of who John the Baptist is to appreciate what's happening. We've been introduced to John the Baptist in Matthew in chapter three. John the Baptist has come before Jesus.

He condemns the Pharisees. He calls them a brood of vipers. You have to understand, in the context, the Pharisees would have been the religious leaders, those who are most esteemed by the public, and he's confronting them for their sin. He was a bold man whose message was repentance to the religious elites. He was out in the wilderness. He came to prepare the way.

Remember, when Jesus first comes to baptism in Matthew 3, John says, no, I should be baptized by you. And Jesus says, no, to fulfill all righteousness. My ministry begins, Jesus says, by identifying with sinners in baptism. And it earthly ends when he dies on the cross for sinners.

It's incredible. John the Baptist, he's the cousin of Jesus. Remember, he had a miraculous conception himself. His parents, late in age, a declaration or revelation said that he would be born. And then Mary, with the virgin conception, when John the Baptist was near her, still in the womb, the Holy Spirit calls her to do somersaults. He would have been reminded of these stories from his aunt, from his mom.

John the Baptist had incredible experiences. as the prophet of God to be established and ready to be a bold prophet, to prepare the way of Jesus, and he is a bold prophet, but we're dropped into his dilemma. We drop in with him in prison with doubt. Now, I want you to be encouraged by this, Christian. this prophet who had so much personal given to him individually, directly, revelation of who Jesus is. He's the one who proclaimed Jesus, this is him, the Lamb of God who will take away the sins of the world. The boldness and courageous faith he has from all God has given him, here late in life, in prison, isolated, And he's in prison because of that bold faith. He told Herod he's in sin for the woman he's married. He has doubt. He wants to know, Jesus, I need confirmation, I need affirmation, I need assurance while I'm here in jail, because Herod's a wicked man. John the Baptist has to know his life is coming to an end soon. Are you the one? Christian, I want to say this doubt's encouraging for us. All Christians have doubts.

All doubts are not sinful, but all sin has doubt. A very important distinction there. Any sin has some aspect of doubt in it, because we don't trust God and His goodness and His prohibition and His commandment and His grace. But not all doubts are sinful.

There's doubts that God welcomes us to bring to him. The psalm that we read earlier is a way of doubting. God, why do the wicked prevail? There's a good way to bring a doubt to God. Doubts sharpen our faith. I think John the Baptist here asked a reasonable question that has to be categorized as doubt.

He's in jail, his life might be ending. Everything about his life has been dependent upon Jesus being the one and he wants to hear affirmation and assurance. Jesus, are you the one? What's amazing about this is the language is so similar. In Matthew 3, he says, he who comes after me, because he's pointing ahead, now he says, are you the one to come? There's a way in which those are linguistically tied together in Matthew.

So it's encouraging, first, that such a man of faith, courageous faith, robust faith, he would have doubt. It's encouraging because we see him also as a model for what to do with our doubts. He goes to Jesus with his doubts. He doesn't isolate. He doesn't let it linger. He doesn't let it fester. He doesn't kind of pick it up and feed it. No, he seeks answers. He sends his disciples to ask,

are you the one to come or shall we look for another?

Doubts, fears, anxieties, they cause us to isolate, especially in our culture. When we have uncertainty, our instinct is to turn inward. This is why we gather regularly, to help each other come out of these kinds of doubts, to come out of the kind of festering and lingering fears and anxieties. God has given us his word, his scriptures, one another, to help us come out of the fears and anxieties that cause us to pull away.

John the Baptist, he takes his concerns straight to Jesus. He sends his disciples, are you the one to come? And he's asking for what God has promised, which means God will answer. He's asking for assurance. There are doubts that are unhelpful, those deconstructing doubts. When we start asking God questions that are according to our own expectations, our own worldview, our own presuppositions, here he's asking Jesus, are you the one that I was sent to proclaim.

Here this would be intellectual doubt. There are all different kinds of doubts. Emotional, that's how we feel. Volitional, there's a way in which we're just sinfully opposed to God. Here it's seeking an intellectual answer. A simple yes, no. Doubt too often plagues Christian. A doubt is meant to when properly handled, when properly we take it to God's word and ask God and learn how to ask the right question, it sharpens our faith. All Christians have to have doubt. I have doubt every week.

Because as I'm studying, I have to think, am I gonna say this publicly? And I have to wrestle with what God has said and be clear, this is what God said, therefore I must say it. Believe it. Seek to obey it. If we're really gonna take the gospel truth seriously, there has to be good questions we ask.

Not only intellectual questions. How is this true? How does it fit with the rest of scripture? Maybe more of a volitional question. What will it cost me and is it worth it? A Christian life is asking good questions. That would be in the idea of the form of a doubt. Is it true? Is it worth the cost? Notice how kind Jesus is.

He answers him.

Go tell John what you see and what you hear.

Now, Jesus usually is never answering the Pharisees' questions directly, usually because they're asking the wrong question. Here, he gives him the answer he wants, not with a simple yes or no, but go Go tell him all the things that you see being done and he'll know I'm the Messiah because everything he said I would do, the Messiah would do, I'm doing. He blesses him with the eyewitness declaration. This is better than a yes, a simple yes.

Go listen, go tell him as trusted friends what you see. And notice what he says they see.

The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear.

He's restoring humanity. He's got the power and authority to heal.

The dead are raised to life. The poor have good news preached to them.

Go tell them the miracles that only God could do. Two specific ones, the dead are raised to life.

He's not just a wonder worker. He has the authority to give life, to restore even the dead, which points ahead to his final ministry of dying for sinners and rising again to give them life. He's the creator. But I want to zero in on that declaration.

The poor have the good news preached to them. There's that allusion to Isaiah. He's come to the least of these, or what the earth, the world would call the least of these. Every human being hears the good news. The rich like to hold back from the poor what is good. No, the king, the messiah, the true savior, when he comes, it's for all humanity. The poor have the eye of God and the love of God and the proclamation of the gospel. They hear the good news. The king has come to restore all people to himself. Even the poor. Come to Jesus.

Blessed is the one who is not offended

Notice that last thing he says in verse six. And it's not what they hear or see, but kind of the last statement regarding him.

Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.

The word here offended would be the same word as scandalized or the one who stumbles.

We read earlier from Psalm 118, Jesus, the cornerstone, he's either the foundation or the stumbling block. There's a way in which what Jesus has come to do is offensive. Everyone wants to believe in Jesus, the healer of the lame and the cleanser of the leper and he makes the blind see and the deaf hear. Everyone wants to believe in that Jesus who just makes life better here.

The offense comes when He makes it clear, I've actually come to heal you of a much worse problem. We are all in rebellion against God, our creator. We have all rejected him and his good rule, and I have come to restore you to be under the rule of God, which means you no longer rule yourself in sin. I've come to save you from death, to give you life. I've come to restore you, but the offense is when we realize There's something so wrong with me, God had to come down to save me. There's something I can't fix myself. There's something I can't undo that I've done. There's something so wrong with me that it's at the core of me and God himself has to enter into me to wash, forgive.

Here's some real hard questions today that you should wrestle with without according to God's truth. Am I really so sinful that God would judge me? That's a significant question. That's the one that is offensive. Am I really so sinful that God would judge me? The Bible resounds yes, yes. But that's a good question to bring to God's word.

Second, would God love me even when I am so sinful? The answer is yes. The scandal might first be, am I that sinful? And when we get to that point of the lowliness, then God lifts us up. Even while you are that sinful, I sent my son to die for you. Which leads to that third question, would God's son come to die for me? And did he rise from the dead? That last question is the objective reality, the historical event that everything is hinged upon. All of the Bible's story is based upon we're sinners who God has sought to save, but it all comes down to Jesus rise from the dead.

Those are things to wrestle with if you're not a Christian this morning, that we would love to come alongside of you and help you see from scripture what God has said and what he has done. It's very much tied to this question of John, are you the one? Those questions need to be wrestled with because Jesus is either the only Savior or there is no Savior. There's only one. There's one God, one Savior, Jesus Christ. He alone can save you. You must believe in him. Second point is promises to trust.

Promises to trust

And notice here, the disciples of John must have gone on and, well, the camera angle changes because Jesus now changes his direction. He is now going to talk about John to the crowd. He was talking to John's disciples about him to answer their question, but now he is going to turn to the crowds and talk about John.

And notice there's three questions.

What did you go out into the wilderness to see?

Well, there's three times he asks the same question. There's three possibilities. A, a reed shaken by the wind, B, a guy dressed up in fancy clothes, or C, a prophet. Sorry, I just did the A, B, three thing. Well, the answer is obviously prophet. A reed shaken in the wind. Did you see someone who just gets, like a politician, he just puts his finger in the wind to figure out The popular vote's going, and so that's where he wants to go.

Is he a weak man who just wants popularity? No, he spoke against all the authorities to the point of being in prison. He was not a weak man who just wanted popular public opinion. Is he in nice clothes? Is he just a fancy boy in fancy clothes? No, he wore camel hair, which has got to be uncomfortable. Everything about him did not seek to have some kind of royal or elite status. He's in the wilderness in camel's hair.

So what did you go out to see? A prophet. Someone who was given a message by God and must proclaim that message to God's people. And he came to Israel to proclaim, repent, for the king is coming. Repent, turn from your false worship, Israel. Turn to the one who's about to come. He was telling them God's son, the true king, promised of old, is coming.

He gave us a framework. After we sinned, God immediately promised he would reverse the curse with a son. Genesis 3. We fast forward and we see Abraham. He promised a son would be born. Abraham's people are promised, this is the line through whom the sun will come. And then prophet after prophet after prophet is seeking to help God's people trust God's word and point further and further to God's king. And it's developing in a way that the clarity of who the king would be is growing. The robustness of how great this kingdom would be is growing.

And John the Baptist, he's the last Old Testament prophet. He gets to say, here he is. Not behold another lamb who's waiting for the sin to truly be removed. Not just this lamb that's gonna have the judgment pass over you. No, he is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world by taking it upon himself. He's a prophet who proclaims, make straight your path, repent, trust God. The king is coming, and now he's here.

Repent of your false worship. Those are verse seven. He says, verse seven through nine, what did you go to see? What did you go to see? It's a prophet, and more than a prophet,

a messenger who goes before your face, who will prepare the way before you.

That's from Malachi. We also know from Isaiah, he was coming as the forerunner. Notice he tells them more about John the Baptist.

Truly, I say to you, among those born of women, there is arisen no one greater than John the Baptist.

Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

That least language, we saw that last week. Whoever gives the water to the least of these, that micro, the disciples in the kingdom were small. God does great things through those who are small. God's kingdom is made up of little ones.

A theology of greatness

We have one big king. But what Jesus is getting at here in verses 11 is a theology of greatness. We need a right theology of greatness. There's no one greater than John. There's a comparison. But those who are in the kingdom are greater than him. You can see greatness as a problem and a promise throughout scripture. Later, you can look at the Tower of Babel.

They wanted to be great. They wanted to build a great tower to reach up to the heavens, and they wanted to make a name for themselves. They all organized together in a united way to bring about their own greatness. It was so great, God had to come down and see it.

The Bible is funny. God's mocking this great tower. He has to come down to see how great they've tried to make their name. Then he, with one word, just disperses them all. Man's problem of achieving his own greatness, God destroys. It's fleeting. There's no real greatness there. But then he turned over to Genesis 12, the beginning of that covenant promise to Abraham. He promises that he will have a great name. He will have a great nation come from Him.

God is for greatness. God is your greatness. The problem is we usually want to have our own greatness, our own way, according to our own expectations, whereas God, He does give us greatness. He made us in His image. That is already a greatness among all creation. We all have unique abilities. as image bearer, it's a unique blessing to have the greatness of God's image declared to us and to be made after his image.

I say this because I'm thankful we're blessed with high-functioning, capable, ambitious, let's focus in young adults, all wondering what will be greatness, what kind of greatness could I accomplish, what kind of greatness should I accomplish? I want to encourage you, Do a study of what God's greatness is. Build your life seeking to do what he says is truly great, because that is the lasting true greatness you can pursue and achieve. So much of what we think is greatness is going to be fleeting and unsatisfying.

God promises and provides true greatness. John the Baptist was the greatest at some level because he's the last prophet. He's a great righteous man. The blessings he had were so unique. Of all those who've gone before, he is the greatest, but now those in the kingdom, there's a new greatness. There are blessings that are new in the new covenant that make the greatness greater. But remember, if they hated John the Baptist for his righteousness in proclamation, They hated Jesus Christ for his righteousness and proclamation, the greatness. They're going to hate us for that greatness.

Look at verse 12.

From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven was suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.

That's evident. John is in prison. At some level, I believe Jesus is giving an apologetic and an answer for those who might think there's something wrong with John the Baptist because he's in prison. There's people who could dismiss him because he's in prison, he's suffering. No, Jesus is making it clear, he is of the kingdom, he is suffering for righteousness' sake.

For all the prophets in the law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come.

That comes from Malachi as well. Malachi promised one like Elijah would come, and now Jesus is making it clear this is John the Baptist. God has been building up this promise after promise after promise that snowballed and snowballed into a greater and greater promise, and now finally John the Baptist gets to say, here he is. The Gospel of John describes this in a different way. Jesus is the true light, and John is testifying to the light. Jesus is the true Son of God and the true King, and John is telling you this is who we've all been waiting on. The beauty of John the Baptist's ministry is he just points. This is the one you've been looking for. Christian, our ministry is just slightly different than John the Baptist. Instead of pointing ahead, we're pointing back.

He's come. He's come. We can believe in him who has come as the true light of the world. If you want to know what true greatness is, it is knowing Christ who is crucified and risen and establishes his church. Bit of an application here. Don't trust anyone who says we need to unhinge the Old Testament from the New. This is one true word. It is all ours as the church. The Old Testament only actually makes sense in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is our word. It cannot be unhinged because it is a foundation to understand who Jesus has come to be. There's our lastly, verse 15.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Let me interpret this. There's a way in which you can hear someone but not listen. Every parent understands this fully. There's a way in which the audible noises vibrate in the eardrum and you hear noises and they might even compute as words, but there's a big difference between hearing and listening.

Jesus is inviting us, listen. There is a promise of God that's been made throughout the ages. John was simply the last one to make that promise that is to come, and Jesus is now the one who is here. There's a way in which don't let these words just vibrate as echoes in your eardrum, that you just simply hear it. It must be listened to. There must be a weight to it. Weigh it. Ask good questions. Bring your doubts to it.

Correction for corruption

Has God made all these promises over hundreds of years? in a way that only Jesus fulfills who God has promised to save us from our sin. Jesus has spoken to the crowd. He's told us who John the Baptist is. There's promises just built up in all of who John is that we must trust. Our last point is a correction for corruption. which seems to flow clearly out of he who has ears to hear. He's concerned we're not actually listening. He's concerned that the generation does not understand who John is, therefore does not understand who Jesus is. Verse 16, correction for corruption. Taking notes, correction for corruption.

But to who shall I compare this generation? It's like children sitting in the marketplace. Is it like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to their playmates? We played the flute for you and you did not dance. We sang a dirge and you did not mourn.

All right, we've got to do a little bit of translation of culture. In our culture, we kind of have a Peter Pan syndrome. We think children are the way of the wisdom. We look to the children because we think there's an innocence there that is true. There's a way in which we think not growing up is good. Children in this culture were not valued. They weren't responsible. They weren't building society.

So we sometimes think, oh, children, that's always good in scripture. No, the children here, there's a way in which they're being silly, they're immature. And not just the song, we played the flute for you and you did not dance, we sang the dirge and you did not mourn.

There's a way in which the children, they're always just unsatisfied. Maybe there's a movie that Phil Goldbluth, we did this and we expected you to behave a certain way, we're disappointed. What we expected is not satisfying. There's a way in which maybe these children, they're filled with folly with their playmates, they're always demanding and never satisfied. Well, I guess we need like some real clarity as to what this means. He clarifies what this means to be children who were playing a song but not liking what the outcome is.

For John the Baptist, he came neither eating nor drinking, and they say he is a demon.

Because John the Baptist had a religious life of denying himself, they called him a demon. And then they would say, the son of man, that's how Jesus references himself, he came eating and drinking. And they say,

look at him, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.

All right, to translate what he's saying, haters are gonna hate.

You can be super righteous in a way that you're denying yourself all the time, or you can be righteous and enjoy the things of God all the time. No matter what, those who hate God and His righteousness will find a way to hate you. You cannot satisfy someone who hates God. Those who hate God are going to find some angle to slander you and deny you Now, they might not call you a demon, but they will demonize you. Remember, Jesus himself, they called him Satan, not just he has a demon.

Slander, the name calling, the false associations, they're ad hominins. It's a logical fallacy, but pretty effective. The lies and the liars, those who hate God, they won't actually want to engage in the truth, They'll attack the person. And you see, these are just personal attacks.

Let's not deal with what John the Baptist is saying regarding repent. Let's just say he's a demon because of the way he lives. Let's not actually talk about and wrestle with what Jesus has come to teach and to say. Let's make him guilty by association. He hangs out with tax collectors. We live in a world that is under This isn't war, it's a spiritual war. It's been raging for some time. The Bible describes this from Genesis 3. Satan attacked Adam and Eve first because it was his way of getting at God. God's image bearers, Satan attacked. Christians are restored humanity. Satan attacks God's beloved.

The war is still raging. even though the battle has been won with the resurrection of Christ? This generation he's describing, which I think is continuing on to today, those who hate God are going to hate all things that are righteous. Human life, the things God has said are good, they're gonna hate justice, they're gonna hate those who proclaim Christ and Him crucified. We want to make sure we can broaden this out. Satan is against all that's good, and those who are following Satan and sin hate all that's good. There's been events this week that I think we need to put under this heading. We live in a fallen world where we hate justice too easily. We live in a fallen world where the things that are good are clearly under attack.

The meaningless murder of Irina Zaruzka, a woman, I don't know if she's a Christian, but just the attack on a human being where there's not a single good Samaritan there. Other human beings just watching her die. The injustice. It should bother us. That the life that is good, the life that is honorable and full of dignity because of what God has said, just passing away after a meaningless murder of someone who should not have been on the streets, a clear denial of justice because of a hatred of what is good and right, that has to be put under the heading, we are under the curse still, where those who hate God and his righteousness and his justice are going to attack. Again, that's not Christian persecution, that's just putting it under the heading that there are those who just hate God and all things good and righteous. And I believe that is an event that has to be explained by that. The other one is the assassination of Charlie Kirk. I don't think you should chalk this up to politics.

He proclaimed what was good and dignified about humanity. He spoke of what was sanctified about marriage. He proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ. We might not like everything he said. Might not like who he's associated with or how he said it. That man was murdered for proclaiming what was good.

There's a war. I'm telling you, this is a framework we live under. There is a war against what is good and right and true. Christian, you need to count the cost that you have entered into that war. We live in a post-Christian society. We used to believe love your neighbor was accepted, borrowed capital from Christianity. That is not the case anymore.

How will we live in this world

We live in a world that is now clearly demonstrating more and more hatred of what is good, right, and true. How will we live in this world where there should be real fear? One response is to get angry, to fight back with the same kind of attack. Here we could go through scripture after scripture.

Do not trust in princes, horses, swords, and I'll translate it, guns. The war is not physical. It is spiritual. If you want to get armed for battle, you take up God's word and you know God's promises. You wanna get armed for battle, you pray. The greatest power this earth knows is the power of the gospel that doesn't take life, it redeems life. The greatest power this world could possibly know is the power of Jesus Christ and you carry that power with the proclamation of Jesus Christ in prayer. Don't be confused that you need earthly power to fight against this spiritual battle. No, we have God's word. We have God's Spirit, we have the church, we have the power of prayer. Trust in the prescription of Jesus Christ.

So one response would be let's figure out a fight according to the world's ways. The other would be let's hide. We gotta go back to Jesus' last discourse. If you wanna know the dangers, he was already very clear with us. He's sending us out as sheep among wolves. Hiding is too easily justified.

The gospel truth is what this world needs. We need to live it, proclaim it. The opportunity we have to invest in students here, Jefferson Park, to train up that next generation, that is such a joy and a privilege to want to train up that next generation who's going to persevere Lord willing. Now the only God response is to trust God, in his righteousness to know Jesus and to make him known. Notice the real concern of the generation really comes down to name-calling and slander. They say he has a demon, they say, look at him, he's a glutton, he's a tax collector. This is a major problem, and I say this because I think it's my problem.

Hope I'm not projecting. I too often pulled back from being bold and clear mainly because I'm worried about who they might associate me with. Mainly because I wonder what they might think because of what I say regarding like what kind of slander. The reality is that you can't control that. You can only control that you're proclaiming him who they must know, the one who has come, Jesus Christ. That fear of what they might say or what they might think that paralyzes me into this isolation that tries to protect my reputation. Well, that doesn't allow me to actually speak the truth the world needs to hear. Jesus Christ has come to save them. Reality is those who hate God, they will never be happy no matter what you say.

There's that last statement,

yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.

That word justified, that's more the testimony, it's witnessed. If we have wisdom, it's proven by our actions. Wisdom must be lived out. It's not some whimsical, mysterious idea. It's not just proverbial. No, wisdom here, the true wise life is lived out.

Christian, I encourage us to consider whatever doubts keep us from trusting God in a way that sends us out in His mission, let's wrestle with those doubts together. Let's encourage each other in those doubts. Let's faithfully proclaim the only hope this world has. Will you pray with me?

Father, we thank you that you are the one true God. And you did not leave us in your sin, but you promised, even though we had rejected you, that you would save us. We thank you that we can see the power of your grace in the way you've promised and promised and promised even to a people who rejected you over and over again. You sent your son knowing he would die at the hands of those who he came to save in order to save them. He's risen again. Lord, may we boldly and courageously trust him, know him, and make him known. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.