Responding to the Gospel - Luke 9:1- 9

Well it's been a blessed week and still rejoicing over last week as all of you ladies were baptized was a blessing to us. As a body of Christ you are a blessing to us. And we pray that we might be as a church a blessing to you.

I want to review the announcements to you. Tonight we'll have our prayer service at 6pm. Come out and join us at that time. And also the summer Bible study continues and it'll be Friday, August the 4th at 5 .30.

Do you realize we're getting into August this coming week? Time flies, doesn't it? And also this coming Saturday, August the 5th, we have a men's prayer and Bible study and breakfast. So we want to encourage all of you men to come out Saturday at 9 o 'clock for our men's fellowship and breakfast.

And we always have too much to eat so we need some more there to help take some of that up. And it's always a good time of looking in the Lord's Word and a time of getting to know each other a little better.

So make sure you put that on your calendar, 9 o 'clock this coming Saturday. And the counseling course is continuing through the summer so the following August 12th at 11am will be the Bible counseling course as it continues.

And again the missionary of the month is John and Becky Knox. And missionaries to Japan, as you think about them, uphold them in the Lord. They have a church that they work with and they also have a camp where they, it's usually an English camp where people come to learn English but then they use the scripture to teach them the English so you'll be in prayer from the, I think they had one last week but they said several people from the camp have started coming to the church.

Be in prayer for John and Becky Knox. And with that let's open in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father we come before you this morning, we present ourselves as a body of believers here at Faith Bible Church and would ask that you would speak to each one of our hearts today as we worship you, as we listen to your word, as we listen to the things you've laid on pastor's heart.

We pray that you would give pastor the liberty that he needs to speak to us and give us the word that you have given to him. We would pray for the song service and all that is, as we sing we pray that we might honor you, might consider even our own lives as we sing and our relationship to you and we would thank you for that.

We think of John and Becky Knox there in Japan, we realize it's a hard field to, for Christianity but we would pray Heavenly Father that you would encourage their hearts, give them the strength that they need to continue on for you and we would thank you for that.

We thank you for our country Lord that we have, that you've given us liberty and we see failings in our country but yet we do have liberty to honor you. We would pray for our leaders Lord and we think even though it's a year away we think of our elections and we would pray Heavenly Father that you would be gracious to us and that you would continue to give us a country that honors and glorifies you and raise up leaders Lord that would look to you for counsel and to know nothing else and we would thank you.

And we pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen. Dearly beloved we are gathered together.

To praise the Lord and let's stand and sing to Him. Good morning.

Good morning. We're going to be reading from Romans chapter 10 verses 11 through 15. For the scripture says whoever believes on him will not be put to shame for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon him for whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Now when they shall call on him in whom they have not believed and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a preacher and how shall they preach unless they are sent as it is written.

How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace who brings glad tidings of all good things. May the Lord add His blessings to the.

Reading of these words. Amen. Let's stand for our songs.

To our Heavenly Father we sing. Please turn with me to Luke.

Chapter 9 verses 1 through 9. Luke chapter 9 verses 1 through 9. And he called his 12 disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases. He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

And he said to them take nothing for the journey neither staffs nor bag nor bread nor money and do not have two tunics a piece. Whatever house you enter stay there and from there depart. And whoever will not receive you when you go out to that city shake off the very dust from your feet as a testimony against them.

So they departed and went through the towns preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. Now Herod the Tetrarch heard of all that was done by him and he was perplexed because it was said by some that John has risen from the dead and by some that Elijah had appeared and by others that one of the old prophets had risen again.

Herod said John I have beheaded but who is this of whom I hear such things. So he sought to see him. This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father we are thankful that we too have heard the gospel and to certain extent because the apostles whom Jesus had sent have preached the gospel faithfully.

Thank you that one day we might be able to track down that lineage as to how we heard the saving message and responded in faith. Help us also to be faithful to the gospel message of Jesus Christ so that many more may be saved.

In Jesus name. Amen. Now this passage comes right after Christ's display of power and authority. Remember how he stilled the storm just by the word of his mouth. He cast out thousands of demons by his own authority.

And then he healed a woman who has been suffering for 12 years just by her touching his garment. And finally he raised a girl from the dead with one command arise. And this passage shows us the implications of Jesus authority and power shown from the previous events.

First he sends out the 12 apostles to preach the good news about his kingdom. Second the news of Jesus even travels to Herod's palace who wonders who Jesus could be. In fact this chapter will focus on who is Jesus.

And at the climax of this chapter chapter 9 will be Peter confessing that Jesus is the Messiah from God. Luke sets this up in order for it to unfold slowly with this great revelation Jesus is the Messiah.

Now the significance of Jesus power and authority is this. For the first time since Genesis 3 after the rebellion of Adam and Eve death and sin ruled over God's creation. Sure there were healings here and resurrections here by some of the prophets but they were just few and far in between.

But when Jesus comes into the stage when he enters the world his ministry brought something that was more ratcheted up, more intensified than ever. He has authority over sin and death. He is someone who can not only claim to forgive sins but he can show it by canceling any effects of sin.

At this point there hasn't been a single thing whether demons, natural disaster diseases or even death itself that could not oppose Jesus authority and power. And when we take a look at this picture we have to come to a decision who could this be?

Such a formidable opposition against the power of sin and death that has not been seen before has just arrived. So who could this be? And so the main point of this text is all who hear the gospel must respond to who Jesus is.

All who hear the gospel must respond to who Jesus is. First point after revealing his authority Jesus commissioned his apostles to proclaim and prove the gospel as they depend on God alone for full provision.

After revealing his authority Jesus commissioned his apostles to proclaim and prove the gospel as they depend on God alone for their full provision. Now the first two verses of this chapter starts with his commission of the twelve apostles.

After gathering the twelve Jesus gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure all diseases. And the number twelve is important because just as God chose the twelve tribes of Israel to form a nation to represent and to reveal his character and nature Jesus has chosen twelve apostles to represent him and to reveal who Jesus is to the world.

There is this parallel action here. This is not to say the twelve apostles replace the twelve tribes of Israel because God still has plans for the twelve tribes of Israel in the future but it's to say there's this parallel roadway in which they do meet and they both meet in Christ, in the person of Christ.

And now the apostles are important because they represent Jesus and they reveal the truths about Jesus. And this is why many of the New Testament books are either directly written by the apostles themselves such as Paul's epistles and Paul is that untimely apostle who came later but personally commissioned by Jesus nonetheless.

Matthew and John, the gospels according to Matthew and John are written by the apostles themselves right? And or some of the New Testament books are written under the authority of the apostles such as Mark and Luke John Mark, the author of Mark was the direct disciple of Peter, of the apostle Peter and Luke was the direct disciple of Paul, right?

So there was this apostolic authority behind all the books of the New Testament. Now as the twelve apostles, Jesus gave them power and authority over all demons and diseases and here power signifies the capacity to do the miracles and the authority signifies the jurisdiction, the right to perform these miracles.

Now instead of trying to separate the two, I think it is best to group both of them together. They were given both the ability and the right to perform these miracles when they went out to preach the gospel.

And the twelve apostles were given actually complete control over both demons and diseases. Now how are they different from Jesus? Because Jesus also had authority over demons and diseases. Well the major difference is that Jesus' power and authority and the twelve apostles' power and authority are different because the apostles derived their power and authority from Jesus, right?

It's secondary. It's indirect. While Jesus' authority and power over demons and diseases are directly from himself. The apostles have to be given these authority and power from Jesus. The source is Jesus.

They themselves, the apostles, are not the source of the power and authority. And what this tells us is that Jesus is greater than the apostles. The apostles are only great because of the one who sent them, right?

The apostles are only great because of their master. Now then verse two further unfolds what kind of ministry the apostles will participate in. He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

First, it is a ministry in which they're preaching. They're sent out to preach. The apostles were not to set up shop in their local hometown and wait for people to come to them and to be healed and to hear the message, but rather they were sent out.

They were to reach out to various regions around. And the purpose again is to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. And I label these two as proclamation and proof. Proclamation and proof. First proclamation here is to preach the kingdom of God.

Preaching the kingdom of God overlaps with preaching the gospel. As we can see in the summary verse of verse six, the apostles preached the gospel. So there's a replacement of the word here. While in verse two, it's the apostles are sent out to preach the kingdom of God.

A verse six says the apostles are they, they indeed preached the gospel. And what this means is in their immediate context. So in the first century AD before Jesus death and resurrection preaching the kingdom of God was to proclaim what God is doing in and through Jesus Christ to deliver his people, right?

And this would include their need the listeners need to repent of their sin, turn away from their sin and turn toward God and to trust Jesus to be from God and to be the source of deliverance. And they were to believe what kind of authority and power Jesus held over all created things.

That's what it meant to hear the gospel the kingdom of God. When the apostles went out to preach the kingdom of God, that's what they would have heard. Now on this side of the cross, right? After the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the gospel of the kingdom is complete.

There's a complete picture. One thing is still the same. It still is what God has done in and through Jesus Christ to deliver his people. That hasn't changed at all except, right? We're given more details as to how God has done the deliverance, right?

What he has done and how he has done it. And really the gospel, right? Or the kingdom of God, the gospel of the kingdom of God is that the king himself, Jesus, he had to lay down his life to deliver his people from the realm of sin and death.

In order for his people, the king's people to enter his kingdom the king himself had to die for his people and rise from the dead. So preaching the gospel and preaching the kingdom of God for us is that only through the substitutionary death of king Jesus for our sin and through his resurrection we are brought into God's very kingdom.

So the gospel and the message of the kingdom of God, they're the same for us. And you have to be weary of those people who try to separate them. As if Paul preached the substitutionary death of God as the gospel while Matthew, Mark, and Luke preached the gospel of the kingdom supposedly different, but they're the same.

It's how God delivers his people through Jesus Christ. The gospel is the same as the gospel of the kingdom. Now, when the first century audience hears about Jesus, how will they believe the message? After all, they don't have the New Testament.

The proof is the derived power from Jesus to heal. You can see how the first audience may hear this news and they would have thought that's too good to be true. The Messiah here now? Show me. After all, in the Old Testament all the messianic prophecies really showed restoration.

There's healing. There's restoration from sin. There's reconciliation with God. Now, you can't even imagine the apostle Peter, he enters a new town. He's saying, is anyone sick? Not just a cough, but really sick.

And under Jesus' authority, Peter prays and heals the man who was at the town known to be irreparable, right? No cure. That's the proof. He preaches the message when people start questioning, like, how do we know it's true?

He was given the authority to heal. And that's what would have convinced the early first century Jewish townspeople. Wow, God is doing something great through this person named Jesus. What do we do? How do we respond?

Right? The message that God has brought His kingdom through Jesus is validated through the apostolic miracles of healing. Now, verses 3 to 5 show us the glimpse of Jesus' instruction for this new ministry.

The instruction starts with God's provision. Take nothing for the journey, neither staffs, nor bag, nor bread, nor money, and do not have two tunics apiece. Jesus gives a prohibited list of items for His apostles here.

A staff is a walking stick that was very common in ancient Israel. Especially they're traveling for miles, right? Through hard terrains, not concrete, right, paved roads. Now, a bag would have been a purse to hold money and food.

And even bread is included here, which is a basic need. And money signifies that the apostles themselves are not funding the mission themselves, right? But they must rely on the generosity of others whom God would use.

And not having two tunics apiece means only take one that you're already wearing. Now, what does this mean? Jesus' apostles, the ones that Jesus sent out, must completely rely on God for their provision.

Just as they are depending on Jesus for the power and authority over the demons and diseases, they must depend only on God for everything else required for ministry. It's not just the spiritual aspect, it's both the spiritual and physical that the apostles had to depend on God for.

Now, I must briefly note the differences that exist between Matthew and Mark's accounts. And this is from Mark 6 and Matthew 10. And the reason why I mention these two major differences is because people try to take a look at them and see the differences, and then use it to say, oh, see, there are errors in the Bible.

See, the Bible's contradictory, right? So, I want to go over the major differences and explain as to why there are not contradictions. So, first, both Luke and Matthew prohibit staffs, while Mark allows for one.

Second, Matthew prohibits sandals, while Mark allows sandals, and Luke does not even mention sandals. And many crooked minds have used these sections specifically to claim that Scripture is an error, right?

However, there are explanations to these discrepancies. So, first, the first major difference is that Matthew's command is, do not acquire. And translations like ESV has that. Even NKJV, I believe, has that.

It's a different verb than do not take. It's do not acquire. So, do not get it. So, what that means is, in other words, Matthew's command is, do not get extra sandals. You would expect, if you're going on a long journey, you might want to take extra pairs.

You don't know if you're going to run, if your sandals are going to be worn out by the time you get to the next town. But what Matthew's saying, don't take the extra pair. You're going to trust God with that.

So, when Matthew says, do not acquire sandals, it's not saying, take off your sandals, go barefoot, but rather, just go with what you have. So, the staff would make sense. Do not acquire staffs would mean, don't take multiple staffs.

Of course, over time, the staffs would break, right? No, just trust God with it. Just go with what you have.

Now,.

The fact that Matthew and Luke align with not having staffs is quite important. What this is telling us is that Luke is probably going with the concept of Matthew's, don't take extra stuff. Right? Luke and Matthew probably had the same source.

So, hence, Luke's prohibition of staff is most likely the prohibition of taking extra staffs. Right? So, what that means is, they're actually not contradicting one another. Mark is telling you, just take one staff.

Matthew and Luke are saying, don't take extra staffs. Just go with what you already have. Because, presumably, they already have one. Right? And they're depicting just different viewpoints. They're depicting different angles to the same instruction.

And, in the end, all three of the gospel authors make the same point. The apostles of Jesus Christ need to only trust God for all provision for themselves. They do not provide for themselves. Because God will provide.

Now, after covering the material provision, Jesus instructs them regarding their lodging. After all, they do have to stay somewhere. And, in verses 4 -5, we see the two scenarios. One is, whatever house you enter, stay there and from there depart.

Right? First, they do not have to book hotels when they're representing Christ Jesus. Right? He informs them that there will be people who will host them. Not only host, they will host them for the whole duration of their ministry in that specific town.

And this is vastly different from the ancient traveling philosophers that existed in the Greek culture. There were traveling philosophers who would go around town to town. Right? To share their ideas.

And then lodge in that town. And these philosophers, what they would do is, they actually had to go from house to house and beg for provision and lodging. But for the apostles, God will provide. You just stay in that one house until God says you're ready to go.

You don't have to go from one house to the next. Jesus guaranteed them full lodging. Now, verse 5 gives the protocol for rejections. After all, living in a fallen, rebellious world, not all would welcome and warmly welcome those who are preaching the good news of Jesus Christ.

And whoever will not receive you when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet as a testimony against them. Shaking the dust off one's feet was really a visible sign of good riddance.

It was a warning of actually a judgment to come. I don't want anything to do with this town. Even the dust that's stuck on my feet. Right? After all, the city just rejected the messengers of the gospel.

The message that can save them from the righteous judgment of God. And then verse 6 shows us the summary result of what happened after their commission. So, they departed, went through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.

So, it did happen. And the 12 accomplished what Jesus had sent them out to do. And as mentioned above, preaching the gospel replaces the preaching the kingdom because they overlap in meaning. The significance is clear.

It is what God is doing through Jesus Christ in order to save. It's the same good news that transfers you from kingdom of darkness to Jesus' kingdom. Now, first, I would like to go over the wrong application of this text.

The wrong application of this text is to directly apply this as if we are the apostles. Right? As if, get rid of your extra Birkenstocks. Right? Throw away your wallets. Right? And moreover, right, a really bad one would be when some people make healing their sole focus of their ministry.

These people do not see that healing is the evidence of God's kingdom coming through Jesus given by Jesus himself. Right? It's the authority that Jesus has given to specifically the 12 apostles to show as the proof for the gospel.

What they do is they detach the significance of Jesus' appearance from the signs. These so-called healing pastors or healing ministers, they may have conferences and they charge an exorbitant amount of money to manipulate people's feelings by artificially getting their hopes up that by being one of the thousands, maybe you'll be called on and you might be able to see again.

You might be able to hear again. And they most often end up being fraudulent. Right? To this day, there have been so many fraudulent cases in which we find out people who claim to have been healed, it was set up.

Right? Secular journalists have uncovered this because they've seen the mic connection with the earpiece on the pastor. Right? That is the wrong application of this passage. This passage does not guarantee authority to heal for people here.

It was for the apostles. Now, I'm not saying God can't heal people today. For sure. If God wanted to heal people, He totally can. He's a gracious and merciful God. And He's answered some of our prayers for some of you when you were sick or when you were going through surgeries.

What I'm saying here is there are no person walking around with the authority to heal all diseases today because the 12 apostles are no longer with us. And this passage, that part directly applied to the apostles.

Not us. However, there are certain principles from the apostolic commission that transfer to the church ministry. Right? First, as Richard read to us this morning, Romans 10, it applies to us that we are to go out to preach the gospel.

Right? And it is a wonderful thing when people go out to preach the gospel. Right? How beautiful are all the feet that bring the good news. So it does apply to us because elsewhere in the New Testament, God makes it clear that part applies to us as well.

Right? Second, a Christian ministry requires a total reliance on God. It is not up to us to save one soul. Right? It is not up to us when influences in the city. It's not even up to us to financially support this church.

In the end, all the provisions for this church that's needed for the ministry of the gospel comes directly from God. There's no number of flashy programs and gaudy entertainment that will sustain this local body indefinitely.

For this church, what sustains us is God's merciful provision. It is his faithfulness. Lastly, a Christian ministry is gospel focused. Sadly, we see all of these so-called kingdom ministries. I don't even like using the word kingdom as an adjective when it's a noun because it's confusing.

But these ministries, they call themselves kingdom ministries. And you would expect to hear the gospel, but you don't because what they do is they forget the king. They feed the hungry. They clothe the poor.

They visit the sick. And those are all great things that are commanded in the Bible. Right? But they're not kingdom ministry unless there is the proclamation of the gospel to those who are materially held.

Such a program has nothing to do with the kingdom of God. In the end, these people who are met with some of the basic physical needs, but their most dire need of reconciliation with God goes unmet. Unless these people hear that they can be forgiven of their sin and adopted into God's family by trusting that Jesus died for their sin and rose from the dead, they're just slightly more comfortable as they head to hell.

None of them are transferred to the kingdom of God by being clothed and by being fed. By being taken care of. This is not to say don't do that. It's to say if you're going to call it a kingdom ministry, make sure the gospel of the kingdom is open to them.

That they actually experience reconciliation with the king, by the king, through his death and resurrection. And think of it this way. If someone who is not from Jesus' kingdom can do it, it is not a kingdom ministry.

If a non-believer can feed the poor, clothe the naked, visit the prison, it's not a specifically Christian ministry in that sense. Now, what is the implication of Jesus' revealed authority? All must respond to Jesus in view of his authority and power.

All must respond to Jesus in view of his authority and power. So as the apostles proclaimed the gospel and provided proof, the news even reaches to the highest level of Judea, right? Galilee. King Herod.

Verse 7. Now Herod the Tetrarch heard of all that was done by him. And this really shows how powerful and popular the early Christian ministry was in the first century. The Tetrarch here means Herod was one of the four leaders around this region.

Herod was ruling over Galilee specifically. Now, I'll set the context here for Herod. This is Herod Antipas who reigned in Galilee and Perea, the northern region of the land of Israel, from 4 BC to AD 39.

Now mind you, he was not a Davidic king. He does not have lineage back to David. He was a ruler installed and approved by Rome. In the other gospel accounts, he married his sister-in-law, Herodias, which obviously was against the law of God.

However, under Herod, might makes right. So he does it anyway. Who's going to stop him? Now, there is one person who does speak against him, and that's the prophet John the Baptist. And when he does speak against Herod, they imprison John.

And remember, might makes right. So then, on Herod's birthday, he foolishly promises his step-daughter, the daughter of Herodias, ask for anything. Your dance was so pleasing to me, right? And she, after consulting her wicked mother, perversely asks for the head of John the Baptist.

And subsequently, Herod beheads John the Baptist in prison and delivers the head on a platter to his step-daughter. That's the context that we didn't quite get from Luke. But you can get that from Mark, chapter 6.

So, upon hearing about Jesus' ministry, the second part of verse 7 makes sense. And he was perplexed, because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead. Right? Some in the public believe that Jesus' ministry was truly from God.

After all, the miracles, restorations, the preaching of the kingdom of God, it seemed like this was some eschatological prophet. So, the news went around, oh, maybe this is John the Baptist who came back.

After all, John the Baptist was that prophet to proclaim the coming of the Messiah. Now, verse 8 gives us the two other options that Herod even considered. And by some, that Elijah had appeared. Elijah was one of the more famous prophets in the Old Testament, as he was known for his miracles, right?

Raising the dead, fire from heaven that burns down the wet sacrifices, right? He hears from God. Now, in Malachi 3 and 4, God does promise in the last days that Elijah will return. So, because Jesus' ministry was so powerful, people assumed that the full restoration was coming, in which they believed Jesus must be the returning Elijah.

But, of course, someone greater than Elijah was there. And the last option was that Jesus was one of the old prophets. And by others, that one of the old prophets had risen again. Now, from the, during the intertestamental period, what I mean by intertestamental means in between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

There was a silent gap of about four centuries, around three centuries, three to four. And what people believed was that some of the dead prophets would come back. I mean, some of the big ones, like Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah.

And, of course, the third option is more general than the first option, or the second option, right? Elijah coming back, and John the Baptist coming back. Now, it could be just one of the old prophets, right?

They heard and saw Jesus, and they knew that Jesus could not be just an ordinary rabbi, like an ordinary teacher. He couldn't be just an ordinary pastor. He's doing something marvelous here. He's preaching really powerfully here.

And what this shows us is that even the immediate audience could not just dismiss Jesus as just another good teacher, that the modern people have no problem doing. His miracles and authoritative teaching made him beyond a good teacher, and more of some sort of prophet.

Now, although Mark and Matthew show us that Herod, in the end, decided to believe the first one, that John the Baptist came back, Luke actually leaves us hanging. He only shows us the deliberation process, what Herod is thinking about, rather than the resolution of it.

So Herod said, John I have beheaded, but who is this of whom I hear such things? So, he sought to see him. And this is done on purpose for Luke to not show the resolution of how Herod made up his mind.

And it's really to get the readers to question, then who is Jesus? After seeing all these miracles and authorities, then who can Jesus be? The readers, just like Herod, are left asking themselves, huh, who is Jesus?

If not John the Baptist, if not Elijah, if not one of the old prophets, then who is he? We don't have this fresh eyes when we read this text, mainly because we know who Jesus is. We know. We've been spoiled.

Someone spoiled it for us. But the first century readers of Luke would have been like, huh, who could this be? Even Herod's asking this question. Now, this is important for us this morning, because when we come face-to-face with Jesus' power and authority, we too have to ask the question, who is Jesus?

It does not matter whether you hold the highest office of the land, like Herod, or no office of any kind, like one of those unknown townspeople. One must respond to the gospel. In fact, not choosing to answer the question is a response in itself.

For some reason, people think, unbelievers nowadays believe agnosticism is like a humbling, a humble option. You know, I'm not that well-educated. I just don't know. I don't know who Jesus could be. I don't know if God exists.

I think so, but I don't know which God. You know, people think that's a humble option, or it's not a choice at all, but it is a choice. In fact, it's actually a choice to reject what God has revealed in Scripture.

It's to say that, well, Scripture's not enough for me to convince me of who Jesus is. It's actually a prideful choice. It's just as prideful as to reject God fully, just as to say, I don't know who this God could be.

Now, this morning, the most important response one can ever make really is, who is Jesus, considering what you have heard about Him in Scripture? Right, the early first century townspeople, they heard it through the very mouths of the apostles, right?

They've actually seen Jesus do the miracles. They've seen, so they could actually make that valid choice. Well, maybe Jesus is from God to deliver His people. For us, we have something better, right? We have the written record of Jesus' ministry and His death and resurrection for our sin, and when we consider God's Scripture, I don't think we can just come off with saying, oh, He's just merely another Jewish rabbi, right?

He's just merely a good Jewish teacher. After all, even King Herod didn't think so. That was not even an option he considered. Now, I'm not saying King Herod was right to think that it's John the Baptist coming back, because that's totally an underestimation on his part, for sure, but I believe the modern man underrate Jesus even more, despite the more we know about revealed Christ, right?

Most Americans have access to Jesus' climactic act of deliverance on the cross and from the tomb on the third day He rose. Yet, we tend to really undervalue who Jesus is. Yeah, He's just one of many religious leaders.

He's just another moral teacher, similar to Buddha and Confucius. We have the Bible, and we have the Bible in multiple versions, and it's so accessible you can go to, stay in any hotel room and you might find a Gideon's Bible in one of the drawers.

Bible can be accessed on your phone for free. Bible can be heard on the radio for free. For Americans, how much more serious and urgent do our responses need to be of who is Jesus when we're given so much more than the first century Jews?

He cannot be just a good religious teacher. He cannot be just another prophet. He cannot even be the final eschatological prophet who ushers in the great Messiah. He has to be the Messiah Himself. The very person whom God used to deliver His people once and for all from sin and death and to restore them back to God.

That's the response that's required for all of us who encounter Christ in Scripture this morning. Let us pray. Father, we are privileged and fortunate that we have access to so many of the miracles and proof of who Jesus is.