Last time together we looked at parts of Matthew 7 and John the baptiser. 2- We noted several important matters of great relevance to us today as we think more of the Kingdom of God and Jesus the king.
Now when John heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to him, “Are you he who comes, or should we look for another?”Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. Blessed is he who finds no occasion for stumbling in me. Mat 11:2-
We wondered ‘why did John seem confused, disillusioned?’ While in prison, he had heard of the amazing, compassionate works of Jesus. But yet doubts assailed him. Even him.
Yes, even John who had actually seen the Holy Spirit come and land on Jesus when he baptised him and it was John who declared God had sent him to prepare the way for the Messiah, and who exclaimed ‘Look there is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’. He had doubts! Also Jane reminded us that even after Jesus’ resurrection we read ‘some doubted’.
Is it any wonder that we sometimes have doubts?
To John and any observant Jew, Jesus seemed to be breaking all the religious rules. Like John, Jesus keeps picking fights with the Jewish leader elites, but not in the way John was expecting—Jesus does not seem to be on the same page. There locked up in a gloomy, uncomfortable prison—hadn’t Jesus said something about releasing the captives? Didn’t Jesus come to establish the Kingdom of God here in earthly Israel and thrash the foreign rulers? Do I look for another?
As the two disciples of John went their way, Jesus asked the crowds about John. What did you go out into the wilderness to see? He asked them why did you go out? To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and much more than a prophet. For this is he, of whom it is written [in Malachi 3:1] ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’
Then he stunned them by emphatically saying Most certainly I tell you, among those who are born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptizer; yet he who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he.
Since the prophet Malachi, prophesying had ceased as the Jews acknowledged. Now John’s preaching had also ceased, and since then there had been no prophecies concerning the Messiah and his kingdom. The time for prophesying the coming Messiah has ended. He is here!
Christ has now come and he is proclaiming the good news of the kingdom. See what is happening—all the signs of the long-awaited, prophesied One are taking place now! And people then were—and now are in 2019—entering the Kingdom of Heaven. And now any one in Jesus’ kingdom, even the least, is ‘greater’, more influential, than John—they have the most glorious access to the King himself! They have entrance to the power and the gifts of the Holy Spirit! They can see an open heaven, where anything is possible should they choose to believe! They are his inheritance, his holy nation!
Such blessed people find no occasion for stumbling in Jesus.
Since John, the last of the OT prophets like Elijah, a line has been drawn in the sand! The Old covenant has passed away and the New has come.
Jesus then said that since John-B the Kingdom of Heaven is being taken ‘by force’. It is now the new covenant under which we, poor, faulty, weak, mortals, despised by the world are yet a mighty force, commissioned to behave with a supernatural force to live out daily the power of God unto salvation, the wonderful Holy Spirit broadcasting to many souls. Now the people of God can be seen behind the scenes, secretly, powerfully, patiently and effectually, and yet not against the wills of others—instruments of Jesus’ love and power—lights in ever growing darkness.
Ian Thomson 