At the
church where I serve, we have been looking at
various encounters that people had with Jesus that are recorded for us in an
account of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of Luke. And as we look at
these encounters with Jesus, we have been discovering several timeless truths
that will have the potential to powerfully impact our lives today.
This week, I would like for us to
look at another encounter that someone had with Jesus. And as we look at this
encounter with Jesus we are going to discover another timeless truth that can
occur when we encounter Jesus. So let’s discover that timeless truth together,
beginning in Luke 7:18:
The disciples of John reported to him about all these things. Summoning two
of his disciples, John sent them to the Lord, saying, "Are You the
Expected One, or do we look for someone else?" When the men came to Him,
they said, "John the Baptist has sent us to You, to ask, 'Are You the
Expected One, or do we look for someone else?'"
Luke brings us into this section of his account of Jesus
life by providing us the context for the encounter with Jesus that we are going
to look at this week. However, to fully understand the
context, we first need some additional pieces of information. The first piece
of additional information that we need involves Luke’s statement that “The disciples of John reported to him about all these
things.”
You see, just prior to this event from history that we
are going to look at this morning, Jesus, while traveling through a city in
Northern Israel named Nain, had interrupted a funeral procession to
miraculously bring back to life the person that they were having the funeral
for. Jesus basically stopped the funeral
procession, touched the coffin, and said “get up”. And the dead guy got up. And
as a result of Jesus doing the miraculous word about Jesus and His miraculous
activity spread throughout the Jewish nation. The word about Jesus and His
miraculous activity spread all the way to John the Baptizer.
Luke then tells us that as John the Baptizer received
word from his closest followers about Jesus and His miraculous activity, John
sent two of his closest followers to Jesus with a question. Now a natural
question that arises here is “Well Dave, if John the Baptizer was so curious
about Jesus and His miraculous activity, then why didn’t he go ask Jesus
himself?” That’s a great question. And the answer to that question leads us to
the second piece of additional information that we need, which was the location
of John the Baptizer.
You see, the reason why John the Baptizer sent two
disciples with a question for Jesus was due to the fact that John the Baptizer
was in prison after being arrested by King Herod for proclaiming that the
Messiah was coming and because John the Baptizer had called the King out for a
selfish and rebellious affair that he was having with his brother’s wife.
So as he sat in prison facing a possible sentence of
death, John the Baptizer sent two of his closest followers to Jesus with a
question: "Are You the Expected One, or do we look for someone else?” In
other words, John the Baptizer is asking Jesus “Are you
the Messiah, the promised one from God, or did I make a mistake”?
Now a natural question that
arises here is “why would John ask that question? After all, didn’t John the Baptizer, from the womb, believed that Jesus was
the Messiah? During the Announcing the Arrival series before Christmas, didn’t
John the Baptizer announce to his mother that the Messiah had just entered into
the room when Mary showed up pregnant with Jesus? Didn’t John the Baptizer hear
the voice of God and saw the Holy Spirit descend upon Jesus at His baptism? Didn’t John the Baptizer spend his life fulfilling his
role as the messenger who would prepare the way and announce the arrival of the
Messiah to the Jewish people? So why would John
doubt Jesus after all the he had seen and heard?”
You see, John doubted because
this was not how the story was supposed to go. John doubted because he had been
born and raised believing that when the Messiah came, the Messiah and the
kingdom of heaven would bring in peace and prosperity for those who were in the
kingdom. But John wasn’t experiencing peace. Instead John was in prison for
doing what he was supposed to do.
Maybe you can relate to John the
Baptizer. Maybe you are a follower of Jesus and your life as a follower of
Jesus is not going how you thought the story was supposed to go. You became a
follower of Jesus believing that things would automatically get better in your
life; your relationships would get better, your finances would get better; that
you would have a wrinkle free life. But that is not the case for you.
And now you have questions. Now
you have doubts. Now you are wondering if you made a mistake when you chose to
follow Jesus. How often can we find
ourselves in a place in our lives where we feel just like John the Baptizer?
Luke then brings us to our front row seat for this encounter with Jesus by
providing us another piece of information about the context of this event from
history in verse 21:
At that very time He cured many people
of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits; and He gave sight to many who were blind.
Luke tells us that as John the Baptizer’s close followers
approach Jesus; as John the Baptizer’s closest followers ask Jesus if He is the
Messiah, Jesus cured many people of diseases and afflictions and evil
spirits; and He gave sight to many who were blind. Now I want us to take
a minute and imagine ourselves in this event from history as one of John the
Baptizer’s closest followers. Can you picture the scene?
Imagine walking up to Jesus as He is miraculously healing
people of incurable diseases and saying “excuse me Jesus, John the Baptizer
sent us to you to ask you a question.” Imagine watching Jesus give sight to
someone who was previously blind as you ask Jesus “Jesus, John the Baptizer
wanted us to ask you if you were the Messiah or if he had made a mistake”.
Imagine waiting for Jesus to answer your question as He continued to do the
unexplainable, the miraculous, in front of your eyes.
You are one of John the Baptizer’s close followers. What
would you be thinking? What would you be feeling? What questions would you
have? “Did He hear our question? I don’t know? I think so? Is He going to
answer us?” How would you respond as you waited for Jesus answer? Tomorrow, we
will look at Jesus answer…
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