Unexpected Messiah
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Handout
Good morning!
I hope all of you had a great week.
Last week, Carey preached, and if you weren’t here, please listen to the message.
It was incredibly good.
There were several things God said through Carey that need repeating and processed by us all.
They will also come into play as we study our passage for today.
Jesus does the unexpected.
God uses the history of the people to reveal himself.
Sin is not wrong doing; it is wrong being. Sin is our claim on our lives.
As we work through our passage today you are going to see those same ideas come to the surface again.
I love how God does that.
He repeats ideas and themes through is words so that we begin to see them more clearly.
Today, we are going to cover a pretty large section, so let’s get right into it.
Join me, and let’s read Luke 7:18-35 together.
18 Then John’s disciples told him about all these things. So John summoned two of his disciples
19 and sent them to the Lord, asking, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”
20 When the men reached him, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to ask you, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?’ ”
21 At that time Jesus healed many people of diseases, afflictions, and evil spirits, and he granted sight to many blind people.
22 He replied to them, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are told the good news,
23 and blessed is the one who isn’t offended by me.”
24 After John’s messengers left, he began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swaying in the wind?
25 What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothes? See, those who are splendidly dressed and live in luxury are in royal palaces.
26 What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.
27 This is the one about whom it is written: See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way before you.
28 I tell you, among those born of women no one is greater than John, but the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”
29 (And when all the people, including the tax collectors, heard this, they acknowledged God’s way of righteousness, because they had been baptized with John’s baptism.
30 But since the Pharisees and experts in the law had not been baptized by him, they rejected the plan of God for themselves.)
31 “To what then should I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like?
32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to each other: We played the flute for you, but you didn’t dance; we sang a lament, but you didn’t weep!
33 For John the Baptist did not come eating bread or drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon!’
34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’
35 Yet wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”
If you are paying even the smallest amount of attention to this passage, there should be a question in your mind.
Not a small, quiet question, but it's more like a car of fire alarm going off in your head.
We read a lot, so return to verses eighteen and nineteen again.
18 Then John’s disciples told him about all these things. So John summoned two of his disciples
19 and sent them to the Lord, asking, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”
John, as in John the Baptist, is sending some of his disciples to Jesus to ask if Jesus is the "one who is to come” or if they should wait for another.
He is asking what you are probably thinking he is asking.
This question is a reference to Ps 40.7
Then I said, “See, I have come;
in the scroll it is written about me.
John asks Jesus if he is the Messiah or if they should expect someone else to come!
The alarm going off in your head should be “WHY?”
Why would John be asking this?
Luke is not as explicit in his gospel about Jesus and John the Baptist's experience at the river as Matthew in his gospel account.
Look with me at Matthew 3:13-17 to see how Matthew tells the same story.
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him.
14 But John tried to stop him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you come to me?”
15 Jesus answered him, “Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John allowed him to be baptized.
16 When Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water. The heavens suddenly opened for him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on him.
17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.”
If John experienced all this, why would he ask Jesus if he was the Messiah?
John is confused.
He baptized Jesus, the Holy Spirit said this was His son, and John witnessed all of this.
You would have to imagine that if you were there for that miracle, you wouldn’t ever question that again.
That would be settled in your mind.
But now he is in prison, confused, and needs to find out if Jesus is the one.
Did he hear God?
Did he see what he thought he saw?
I think it has less to do with what John had previously experienced and more with his circumstances when he asked the question.
John was in prison, and he knew the prophecies about the Messiah.
1 The Spirit of the Lord God is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives
and freedom to the prisoners;
Why was John still in prison if the Messiah was supposed to set the prisoners free?
I think that is perfectly legitimate question, but there is no clear answer.
This idea points us back to what Carey talked about last week.
There are times when God doesn’t do what we expect.
Interestingly, I wrote my outline for this passage a few months ago.
My first point was very similar to one of Carey’s last week.
Life Group Questions: Can you share when you received something (gift, experience, etc) and it was different than what you thought it would be?
Jesus is different than we expect.
Jesus is different than we expect.
Many of us have faced these kinds of questions or wonderings that John is having.
Jesus was not doing the things that John expected.
Life Group Questions: When have you experienced Jesus in an unexpected way?
Life Group Questions: What did that teach you about Him?
One of the commentaries I read this week had the following idea.
Luke: An Introduction and Commentary Luke 7:18–23
John the Baptist was in prison. Evidently he was expecting Jesus to do something spectacular. When nothing seemed to happen he sent men to Jesus to find out why and possibly to provoke some action.
I love Carey’s point last week referencing C.S. Lewis’ work: Jesus is not a tame lion.
There are probably a few people in the world who can read the body language of a lion, but they don’t know for 100% what he is thinking or what he might do.
Is he about to attack, is he playing, etc.
In the same way, we don’t know all that God is thinking or doing.
We know what we want him to do, but that doesn’t always mean he will do that thing.
We have our own expectations of who Jesus is or what he will do, but sometimes Jesus does something different, and we don’t know what to do with that.
Like John, when we are going through difficult times, whether sickness, stress, or pain, we often have doubts about Jesus.
We wonder if we have misheard or if our experiences have somehow betrayed or misinformed us.
The only thing we can do in those times is to continue trusting or ask a question.
That kind of questioning isn’t new.
It has been born into us through our inherited sinful nature.
That was the enemy's game plan: to make us question God.
If you have read Screwtape’s Letters, you know that doubt is one of the enemy’s tools.
And, because of our sinful nature, when things get difficult, we default to doubt.
But don’t be discouraged yet; we have a long way to go in this passage.
Look with me at how Jesus responded to John’s question and doubt.
21 At that time Jesus healed many people of diseases, afflictions, and evil spirits, and he granted sight to many blind people.
22 He replied to them, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are told the good news,
23 and blessed is the one who isn’t offended by me.”
In response to John’s doubt, Jesus points to his activity for proof.
People were healed, raised from the dead, sight was restored, the lame walked, the deaf could hear, and people were told the good news.
Luke has already testified to many of these activities, and we will continue to read about what Jesus did.
Jesus' works were speaking for themselves.
This was obviously sufficient because we have passages like 1 John 1:1-4
1 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have observed and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—
2 that life was revealed, and we have seen it and we testify and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us—
3 what we have seen and heard we also declare to you, so that you may also have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
4 We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
Knowing Jesus happens as we experience his activity in our lives.
He is also made known as we abide in him.
The story about meeting Connor and Jobe this week.
The reality is that what we experience of Jesus is who He is.
Jesus is what He does.
Jesus is what He does.
Life Group Questions:What has God done in your life that has revealed his character to you?
God had been communicating through leaders and prophets since the beginning.
Throughout that history, God’s people rebelled, ignored, or misunderstood who God was and what he wanted for his people.
Jesus came for this reason.
He came to reveal to the world the kind of relationship God wants with people.
Jesus came to reveal to the world how God feels about them.
Jesus came to reveal to the world how much God loves them.
All of the things Jesus did and said why he was here on earth were for that purpose.
Jesus reveals who he is and his authority by the works of his hands.
Jesus came to right the incorrect understanding that literally all people had about God.
No one clearly understood God, not even John the Baptist.
The works that Jesus was doing were fulfilling the prophecies that had come before him.
Then the eyes of the blind will be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
Then the lame will leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy,
for water will gush in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert;
Jesus is proving to John and humanity that He is the Messiah.
He is proving that through the work that he is doing, just as it was prophesied.
We read in verse 18 and verse 21 that word was spreading about what Jesus was doing, and John knew about it.
But here is the kicker.
Because the thing that John wanted wasn’t happening, he was questioning.
Life Group Questions: How do our own ideas blind us from what God is trying to do?
Life Group Questions: How do we overcome this?
I know we can all identify with that.
The beauty is that even if we doubt or simply misunderstand, it doesn’t affect our relationship with God.
Even though we don’t always recognize what Jesus is doing, it doesn’t delegitimize us as the sons and daughters of God.
Our lack of understanding doesn’t change God’s love for us.
Our lack of understanding doesn’t change God’s love for us.
Look with me at how Jesus responds to John’s question.
This is so important for us to understand because it will revolutionize our faith.
This will change it completely!
John is doubting Jesus.
Publicly, I might add, and look at how Jesus responds.
24 After John’s messengers left, he began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swaying in the wind?
25 What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothes? See, those who are splendidly dressed and live in luxury are in royal palaces.
26 What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.
27 This is the one about whom it is written: See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way before you.
28 I tell you, among those born of women no one is greater than John, but the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”
John’s confusion didn’t even phase Jesus.
Our lack of understanding doesn’t change our status with Jesus.
This is a message that we need to preach to ourselves every day.
Life Group Questions: How can we remind ourselves daily of God’s grace?
I think it is fair to say that we all have had times when we doubted what God was up to.
The enemy tries to turn that doubt into shame and feelings of guilt.
But notice how Jesus responds to John’s doubt.
He doesn’t speak negatively about John in any way.
He proclaims John’s greatness.
Jesus responds to our doubts by reminding us of our status as children of God.
He is “The” prophet that God’s people have been praying and waiting for.
He is the one who came to prepare the way.
Jesus reminds them that people journeyed into the desert to go and see John because they knew by his message that He was a prophet.
Then Jesus goes on to say that John is not just a prophet but the greatest of all men that has ever lived!
In any loving relationship, the goal is for all the people involved to act out of love, not duty.
Jesus’ actions are always motivated by love, and John even says that Jesus is love.
Because Jesus is love, his desire is that we respond with love.
Therefore, Everyone gets to decide how they want to respond to Jesus.
Luke tells us of the two different responses that Jesus says are given.
31 “To what then should I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like?
32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to each other: We played the flute for you, but you didn’t dance; we sang a lament, but you didn’t weep!
33 For John the Baptist did not come eating bread or drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon!’
34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’
35 Yet wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”
We are again reminded of Carey’s message from last week.
Sin is not wrong doing; it is wrong being. Sin is our claim on our lives.
Because of sin, man rejects the word of God, whether from a prophet or the Messiah.
Because of sin, man rejects the word of God, whether from a prophet or the Messiah.
In this last section, Jesus calls out the hypocrisy in mankind.
We are never satisfied, and that is what he is calling out.
John acted in one way, and they called him a demon, and Jesus acted the opposite, and they called him a drunkard.
You have undoubtedly heard people say, “You can’t please everyone.”
Jesus is making that point.
It didn’t matter that God sent the greatest prophet in history or the Son of God.
The people found something wrong with both of them.
One, Jesus called the most righteous man that ever lived, and the other was perfect in all things.
The people found fault in both.
Jesus calls out this hypocrisy in the religious leaders and our lives.
Mark records Jesus pointing out to the religious leaders that they were breaking God’s laws in order to enforce their own.
9 He also said to them, “You have a fine way of invalidating God’s command in order to set up your tradition!
If our lives focus on what we want, we do the same thing.
This is what Carey was talking about last week.
We are sinning by claiming the right to our own lives.
But I want to point out that we willingly gave up that right; it was not demanded of us.
We said we were doing it out of love but then prove the opposite by taking it back when Jesus doesn’t do what we want.
Expectations versus expectancy seem synonymous but are emotionally different. They both deal with anticipated behaviors, but the former we impose on the people we care about, whereas the latter we accept.
Denley McIntosh, Missionmatters.com, October 25, 2022
Expectation is what is causing John T.B. to be confused and question if Jesus is the Messiah.
It brought doubt for John.
It also brings doubt for us.
We need to learn to live with the expectancy that God is doing something without expectation of what that something might be.
Life Group Questions: What does living this way look like for us? Can you share an example from your own experiences?
We are not to impose our desired actions on the creator of all things as if we know better than him.
The reality that the people at the time of Luke’s writing and the people of today must face is that Jesus is not what we expect him to be.
And that is a good thing because, on our best day, we could never even imagine the goodness of God.
God is working in our lives, whether we see it or if it is in the way that we want.
No matter how things look right now, we must remember that the God we choose to listen to is the creator, the miracle worker, the son of God, and the risen savior.
We have witnessed, in this body, the miraculous work of God.
Jesus ends this message with a promise.
But wisdom is shown to be right by the lives of those who follow it.”
If we listen to Jesus (wisdom), in the end, regardless of what people say about us or do to us, we will be shown as righteous because of our obedience.
Life Group Questions: What does this promise mean to you? How does it affect your love for God?
This word, sophia, translated as wisdom, is the same word used to describe Solomon’s wisdom.
In nearly every instance that this word is used in the New Testament, it describes wisdom from God.
If we think of wisdom in modern terms, it is composed of insight, proper judgment, and knowledge.
Because of our previous experiences with God (insight), we know he is working for our best (knowledge), and we choose to follow his guidance (proper judgment).
Live in peace, knowing that no matter how things look, if you live wisely by listening to Jesus, your choices will be right, and one day the world will see that.
I can’t say when that will be, but Jesus says this will be true.
We can count on our lives looking differently when we follow an unexpected Messiah.
Our lives will not look like everyone else's, and that is intentional.
God will reveal himself to and through you; you can count on that.
Let’s pray.
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