The Most Unique Ordinary Mere Man - Part I Matthew 11:1-15

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July 20th 1969 Something happened the previous generations thought impossible
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Mankind walked on the moon Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the men to do so We think about world history
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It's remarkable when this church started in 1881 they got around by horse and buggy
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There was very little of the technology that we enjoy today It was not until 1886 that the automobile was invented and it became available to the public in 1908 through the
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Model T, but only the wealthy had it the airplane
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First ascended into air in 1903 through the Wright brothers Later on airplanes were used for the public and they were used in large number during World War two
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But once man realized you could fly in the atmosphere The next step was to fly into the dark vast
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Expanse where the moon and stars are you go outside at night you look up We can go there.
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The first aircraft that entered outer space was Sputnik October 4th 1957 it was 12 years later that the
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Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon And can you imagine being these men?
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No one in the world had ever done what they had done What they did was unique and history forever records this great feat that they accomplished
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But as amazing as their experience was it pales in comparison to the experience of the men and women of Scripture Can you imagine what it would have been like for Adam and Eve?
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Abraham Jacob Moses Mary the twelve disciples all of these talked with God They talked with the
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Creator mere Humans now it is true that we talk to God, but we talk with him through prayer
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And we hear him through the Bible but these people were in the very presence of God and heard the voice of God whether hearing the audible voice of God or Being in the presence of the
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God -man Jesus Christ because when Jesus spoke he was speaking the very words of God It would have been utterly fascinating to have these encounters with God well
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Their experience was unique There was one man Who had the most unique experience of all?
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his calling Was to be the bridge between the Old Testament and the
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New Testament between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant and his name was
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John the Baptist in Heaven one day. He will be one of the most fascinating people to talk to In our text today as we continue our sermon series through Matthew.
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We are going to see Jesus interact with John Through messengers and we are going to find
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John in a perplexed state Which is unusual for him So this time
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I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me to Matthew chapter 11 This is the sermon is gonna take two
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Sundays to get through Today we're gonna look at verses 1 through 10 next week.
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We'll look at verses 11 through 15 And if you're using a red Bible in the pews you can you can follow along with us there as well
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The sermon is titled the most unique mirror man, and here's our big idea
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To understand John the Baptist is to better understand the Messiah To understand
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John the Baptist is to better understand the Messiah and we're gonna see five reasons Why we'll see the first three reasons today
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But before we jump into our text, let me give you a little recap where we were two weeks ago Of course last week was Easter, but two weeks ago.
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We were in Matthew and we looked at only three verses we looked at verses 40 through 42 of chapter 10 and in that passes
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Jesus talked about faithful servants and the reward they will receive and the reward that those who believe their message will also receive
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That text called us to understand that we serve a God who loves to reward and we saw two practices
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How the first is by receiving God's messenger and message? By receiving the messenger and the message you enter the road to glory the second practice
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How is by helping with the needs of your heavenly family that the little ones as the text says as we do this?
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God will reward us the fact that God rewards us is truly remarkable. So we saw that two
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Sundays ago But this leads us back to our text today We're gonna take it one verse at a time here
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I'm gonna begin by reading verses 1 through 3 Matthew chapter 11 When Jesus had finished instructing his 12 disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities
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Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ He sent word by his disciples and said to him
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Are you the one who is to come or shall we look?
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For another now in the previous chapter, we saw
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Jesus addressed his disciples about the trouble they would face As he sent them out.
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He had to tell them the trouble That was inevitable as followers of Jesus Christ.
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The world is opposing you. You're a Christian. You're gonna face opposition So Jesus disciples would be sent out to preach and Jesus himself
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Of course preached and this is what verse 1 tells us Jesus preached and taught in their cities and The and these would be the cities of Israel and more specifically
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Galilee because that's where Jesus and his disciples spent most of their time during his ministry in Matthew 10 23
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Records that Jesus told his disciples that they were to start their preaching and teaching in the towns of Israel Now the question that arises here is
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What would Jesus have taught? What was his central message when he was out teaching and what was the central message that he was giving his disciples?
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to teach He would have taught the very thing he told his disciples to teach and that is the gospel of the kingdom in Matthew 10 7
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Jesus told the disciples to preach that the kingdom of heaven is at hand
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The Jews would have known about a future kingdom where the Messiah would reign over the nation of Israel Was that but as I have explained in previous sermons
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Their understanding of this future kingdom was wrong their understanding of this future Messiah was wrong
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Their understanding was worldly They wanted the Messiah to come and drive out their enemies and Make them a world power where they no longer had to be taken advantage of by the
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Romans In Matthew 4 17 Jesus told the Jews this though This was the message
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Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand The only people who would enter this future kingdom were those who recognized their sin
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Turned from their self -righteousness and put their trust in the Lord But as Jesus sends out his disciples and he himself teaches to the people of Israel there is a man who taught this message before Jesus and his disciples and that is
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John the Baptist in Matthew 3 2 John told the people of Israel to repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand
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And he told them in verse 8 of chapter 3 bear fruit in keeping with repentance
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John knew his place. He knew that he was not calling people to believe in him
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John knew that he was fulfilling prophecy and he knew the role That he was fulfilling this morning
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I read Isaiah 40 verse 3 that predicted He would come a voice cries in the wilderness prepare the way of the
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Lord make straight in the desert a highway for our God Is it interesting how
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God sends John? to the wilderness to preach He didn't send him to the city.
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Isn't that interesting? He's just this strange guy Preaching in the wilderness that people are flocking to him
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And could you imagine what this would have been like Isaiah proclaimed this prophecy 700 years before John came on the scene and John He would have grown up just like us
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He would have had parents who took care of him. He had friends that he played with as a child
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No kids are kids right no matter who you are. I mean whether it's a future president or whether it's a future
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CEO Or a king Or a queen
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Kids are kids kids. What do kids do they play John would have been like that He would have had desires and aspirations for his life like us as he grew older, but as he was growing up Somewhere along the way
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God called him God called him to be his prophets and he knew that he needed to do what
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God called him to do Imagine he's like wait that prophecy is talking about me Yeah, don't do your job
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John was a very interesting guy He would not have been a known commodity
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Matthew 3 1 says that he preached in the wilderness to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah 43 Matthew 3 4 says that John wore a garment of camel's hair and A leather belt around his waist and his food
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Listen to this was locusts and honey wild honey. Anybody have that diet?
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You know, he would have been an oddball, but when he spoke people listened because he spoke with the power of God God designed for John the
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Baptist to be a phenomenon and he was as he preached repentance masses of Jews flocked to him to repent and be baptized
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God's design is Isaiah 40 verse 3 predicted is that John would be the forerunner to the
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Messiah. He would be the bridge the one who came before And what
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John preached first Jesus would preach after him And when you look at John's ministry it started out great
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Countless people flocked to him to be baptized. He's thinking this is a great job, right people are coming But just like Jesus John would have enemies
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John was not in the business of getting people to like him by giving them a soft message
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No, he spoke the truth of God without compromise and he didn't back down to anyone
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Just like Jesus went after the corrupt Jewish leaders during his ministry.
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So did John in Matthew 3 chapter 7 verse 10 This is the conversation that John had with the most powerful
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Jews in Jerusalem. Listen to this When Josh when John saw many of the
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Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism He said to them you brood of vipers
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Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance and do not presume to say to yourselves
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We have Abraham as our father For I tell you God is able from these stones that the stones being
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Gentiles From these stones to raise up children for Abraham Even now the axe is laid to the root of the tree
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Every tree Therefore that does not bear fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
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That was a nice greeting, huh? Wow You talk about boldness These are people who have power
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These are people who can do things to him if he says the wrong thing and look what he does
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He says I'm a prophet. I'm here on God's behalf. I'm gonna say what I need to say and he did
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He told him if you don't repent you're going to hell John also did not back down from someone who was even more powerful than the
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Pharisees Herod the Tetrarch Also known as Herod Antipas Now we remember
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Herod the Great from the beginning of this gospel in the Christmas story Herod the Great was the one who heard about the birth of Jesus.
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He was threatened and And he wanted him dead so he ordered the death of all the babies in Bethlehem ages 2 and under Herod Antipas was one of his sons and ruled the region of Galilee according to Luke 3 1
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Now in our text in verse 2 we learned that John is in prison Herod Antipas is the reason that John finds himself in this prison cell as we see in our text
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Matthew chapter 14 verses 1 through 12 tells us how John ended up in prison Another son of Herod the
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Herod dynasty lots of sons, but another son of Herod the Great Aristobulus had a daughter named
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Herodias This daughter married her father's brother.
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So she married her uncle Herod Philip and Committed the sin of incest
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John the Baptist confronted him in Matthew 14 for John told him it is not lawful for you to have her
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So John held Herod Philip to the standard of the Mosaic law To commit incest is a grave sin and he called out
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One of the most powerful Jews in this region at this time. He says it's not lawful For you to have her.
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I don't care how high up you are in authority. What you're doing is wrong Now Herod Antipas Phil's brother was upset at John for confronting his brother's sin of incest
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So Herod Antipas puts John in prison Later John would be beheaded
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But here in our text, this is where we find him He is in prison and we find him in a very perplexing state, right?
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Because I've read you some of the things he said, right? He calls out Herod He calls out the Pharisees and Sadducees for thinking this guy this guy nothing can shake him and we find him in a shaken state and It's perplexing for us to read this what
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John Says here through his member John's in prison He's he and he has disciples just like Jesus had disciples
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John had disciples and he sends word Through his disciples and he asks. Are you the one who is to come or shall we look for another?
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And this is remarkable John knew that Jesus was the Messiah in Matthew 3 12
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He said he who is coming after me is mightier than I whose sandals. I am not worthy to carry in In Matthew 3 verses 13 through 17
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John baptized Jesus and he witnessed the Spirit coming upon him like a dove in John 129
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John said concerning Jesus behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world
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Jesus knew or sorry John knew that Jesus was the Messiah He knew that he was the
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Son of God He knew that he is the one that people are to believe in for forgiveness of sins
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According to John 129 he knew that he was going to die in the place of sinners Why else would he call him the Lamb of God?
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So as we think about John's doubt We need to ask the question here. Is this wavering faith or is this confusion about?
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Whether Jesus really is the Messiah and sometimes you hear about people having a crisis of faith.
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So is it is it that or is it? I'm confused about the
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Messiah. Are you him or not? What we will see is the answer is the seconds
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John is confused based on false expectations about who the Messiah was going to be he predicted in Matthew 3 verses 11 through 12 that Jesus would bring judgments as The King John thought
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Jesus would spend most of his time Proclaiming judgment in the central place of Jewish corruption
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Jerusalem John thought Jesus would be where all the action is Jerusalem. That's where everything happens.
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Why are you up in Galilee? Why are you up in the sticks? But Jesus was spending most of his time in Galilee and while he preached some judgment
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He spent much of his time doing acts of mercy healing people John thought
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Jesus ministry was gonna be a lot like his, you know, John preached repentance and that's like that's what he did Jesus yes, he did that but he did so much more.
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He was doing all these acts of mercy healing people Casting out demons and John also looked at his own ministry as the
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Messiah's forerunner He thought that his ministry of pointing people to Jesus Would have been longer
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But he found himself in prison Not that long after He started his own ministry and he's there with little hope that he would ever get out
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So you could see why he would be thinking the way he is He also probably thought that Jesus reception among the
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Jews would have been warmer than it was but largely speaking He was rejected not only by the
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Jewish leadership, but even by the common Jew John's view of Who the
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Messiah was going to be and what the time was going to be like? Was somewhat wrong
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So this is why he sends his disciples to act ask this question to Jesus So to understand
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John the Baptist is to better understand the Messiah and the first reason why is that he became perplexed about Christ's Ministries, this is not wavering faith.
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This is I Don't understand Are you the Messiah or is there someone else who's going to come who's the
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Messiah? The second reason why to understand John the Baptist is to better understand the
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Messiah is that his Misunderstanding is corrected by Christ. His misunderstanding is corrected by Christ So what we're going to see is that Jesus responds to him by making a reference to the
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Old Testament to show him that indeed he is the man so verses 4 through 6 and Jesus answered them go and tell
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John what you hear and see The blind receive their sight and the lame walk
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Lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear and the dead are raised up and the poor have good news preached to them and Blessed is the one who is not offended by me
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It's interesting that Jesus tells John's disciples to pass on to John what they hear and see
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Because he doesn't just quote The Old Testament here. He also does Miracles in their midst that when he says the word see here.
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He's saying let me show you I'm the Messiah by doing some supernatural things in front of you
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And so he would have done that to them, but he also takes them to the Old Testament The things that they heard from him and according to Isaiah 29 28 the blind received their sight
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According to Isaiah 35 6 he made the lame walk According to Isaiah 53 for lepers are cleansed according to Isaiah 35 5 the deaf hear according to Isaiah 26 verses 18 and 19 the dead are raised and lastly according to Isaiah 61 1 good news is preached to the poor and When he mentions the poor here, it's talking about The poor in spirit and who are the poor in spirits?
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They are the ones according to Matthew 5 3 They are the ones who are sorrowful for their sin.
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He preaches the good news to them These are the ones who receive the message the ones who know that they need a
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Savior Well, he preaches it to the self -righteous, but the self -righteous don't take don't don't receive it
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It's the ones who are the poor in spirit who receive the message and that's a good application for us, right?
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What the best place to be? As a person on planet Earth is to be one who recognizes that you are a wretched sinner before a holy
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God And it almost sounds counterintuitive right because we're told you're supposed to feel so good about yourself you're supposed to think you're the greatest and No, well,
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I'm not saying hate yourself, but what I'm saying is Recognize that you are a great sinner before God You need a
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Savior. That's the poor in spirit. And that's what the Messiah came to do And Jesus is saying
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I did this in the Old Testament said I was gonna do it So what
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John is what Jesus is telling John as John is in prison He's like I'm doing exactly what the
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Old Testament said. I would do it's your it's your misunderstanding. That's the problem here you don't you didn't understand it correctly and Jesus knowing
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John knew that this would be enough information to persuade him to take away this wavering of Doubt that he has about Jesus Identity and what we know about John to this point.
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Is that he is a man of strong faith Jesus is addressing his doubt of confusion rather than a faltering faith
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And in our next point Jesus is going to commend John in glowing terms as we will see and When when
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John heard this news from Jesus, he would have been greatly encouraged He would know with certainty what he already knew that Jesus is the long -awaited
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Messiah Predicted in the Old Testament and John indeed was his forerunner Now you'll notice in verse 6 that Jesus says blessed is the one who is not offended by me
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After Jesus told John's disciples that he was fulfilling what the Old Testament said he would fulfill
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Jesus wanted to pass along this last message to John Remember John's not doubting his faith here as If he's having a crisis of faith, but it's rather doubting
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Jesus identity and and this confusion Jesus ministry did not exactly match what
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John thought the Messiah was going to be so he questioned But Jesus is telling John that he needs to readjust his expectation of who the
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Messiah is and believe with strong faith That Jesus is in fact this
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Messiah So in other words, he had strong faith. It faltered a little bit, but the strong faith is coming back and Jesus words are gonna be the one are gonna be the device here.
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That's gonna bring that back and it's interesting when we read the Bible What happens? faith
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Our faith is strengthened when we hear the Word of God and when John hears the words of Jesus here
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His faith is gonna be strict. That's why we need to be in the Bible We need to hear from God We need to hear his promises and then our faith will be strengthened if you don't read your
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Bible. You're gonna be tossed all over the place Your faith is not going to be strong So may we be in the word and To believe this message from Jesus John would be blessed and in verse 6
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He says blessed is the one who's not offended my meat by me now the word blessed here is the same word the same
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Greek word that that Jesus uses in the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5 and the word blessed
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They in our English translation. There's two different Greek words One of them means happy and one of them means that you are under the favor of God In the
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Beatitudes, it says happy, you know, happy are the poor in spirit Happy are the meek
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And so on and so forth happy are the peacemakers and So what what
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Jesus is saying here is happy. Are you if you are not offended by me? Happy are you if your expectations of who
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I am are adjusted and you believe what I say joy and peace comes from knowing
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Jesus as the Messiah It is this way for John and this way for us if you believe who
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Jesus really is you are full of joy but if you have a false understanding of who he is you are not or if we forget who he is as we go through our days a
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Correct understanding of Jesus a correct understanding of how precious he is what he's done historically what he's doing now
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What the Bible says he will do in the future a correct understanding of Jesus. That's the meaning of life
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Jesus is the true source of all lasting joy peace comfort and hope right if you want joy if you want peace
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If you want comfort if you want hope one place Jesus nowhere else.
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It's very straightforward in John 15 11
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Jesus said That his joy would be in us and his joy is full
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So Jesus speaks to John and he speaks to us happy is the one who is not offended by him
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But receives him for who he is and delights in who he is in full To understand
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John the Baptist is to better understand the Messiah and the second reason why is that his misunderstanding that John's Misunderstanding is corrected by Christ and the third and final reason today
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That we are going to see To understand John the Baptist is to better understand the Messiah is this
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The third reason why is this his ministry as the forerunner is?
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authenticated by Christ His ministry as the forerunner is authenticated by Christ Now this conversation that Jesus is having is with John's disciples but there are also many other people present listening to this conversation and This leads
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Jesus to say what he does in verse 7 The people would have been curious, you know, they knew
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John like what's going on here Okay, verse 7 as they went away Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John What did you go out in the wilderness to see a reed shaken in the wind by the wind?
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We just saw the conversation with John's disciples who sent a message through John asking
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Jesus if he really was the Christ then what verse 7 tells us is that John's disciples went away and Jesus addressed the crowds and Jesus disciples would have been included in this number and He addresses here any doubts
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That they may have about John And this is important because who is
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John John's a very important person If you doubt John you might doubt the
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Messiah John is the forerunner. He's the one he's the only one who's preparing the way for the
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Messiah with this unique ministry And as the crowds are listening to this conversation between Jesus and John's disciples, they were perplexed
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That John would ask Jesus if he's really the Messiah If you think about that This is the guy who saw
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Jesus baptized and the dove descend on him. This is the guy who said I'm not worthy to untie his sandals.
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This is the one who says in John that he came before me It meaning he's
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God so that so Jesus has to address this these
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Jews present knew about John They knew he was a prophet They knew about him baptizing people in the
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Jordan River But what Jesus does? before all these people
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Is stand up for John? He doesn't throw him under the bus He stands up for him and he affirms that indeed
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John is a man a strong conviction like everyone thought previously
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These new doubts about John just throw him away Jesus communicates this by saying what did you go out in the wilderness to see a reed shaken by the wind?
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That doesn't describe John Now the word reed
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It's not something that we are too familiar with in America In the
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Middle East you would be a reed is a tall thin plant That is easily blown by the wind.
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It just goes easily And the people of Israel would have known exactly what he's talking about This would have been a common plant that was grown right by the
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Jordan River And what Jesus is telling the Jewish crowd is that when they heard
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John preach in the wilderness? He was not like a reed Blown by the wind
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He was not a man thrown to and fro by every wind of doctrine. I Preached that text yesterday at the men's retreat
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Ephesians 4 14 do not be thrown to and fro by every wind of doctrine
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No John was a man of strong solid conviction
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When John preached he believed every word he said It was painful for John to ask
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Jesus if he really was the Messiah but for a compromiser, it wouldn't be painful a
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Compromiser would move on to the next thing but not John John was fully invested in his trust in God and he was confused about Jesus ministry
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So he painfully asked are you the Messiah or is there one still to come? To see
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John's strong conviction. All we need to do is look to his earlier ministry He called out the
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Jewish false system of his day when he rebuked them in Matthew 3 7 if you love the world
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If you're a compromiser If if you go wherever the wind is blowing
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You're not gonna call out the most powerful people in the land You're not gonna call out Herod.
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You're not gonna call it the Pharisees and Sadducees. You're gonna pick your spots You're gonna be calculated That's why we don't like politicians a lot of times, right?
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They like okay, I can only say this right to this group. I can only say this Just why don't we just say whatever we want right and then and then let the chips fall
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That's what John did John is a spokesperson of God that Jesus is proud of What that's thinking we want
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Jesus to be proud of us, don't we? He's proud of John John probably never heard this compliment from Jesus But how wonderful it is and John's disciples
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Probably weren't there in time before he was executed, but this would have been incredibly encouraging for him to hear
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But like I said before he already heard word right that Jesus that's all he needed Jesus of Messiah, okay,
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I'm good but How wonderful it would have been to hear this as well about what
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Jesus says about him What could be more wonderful to hear than Jesus is proud of you and in one sense right he is
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We're counted with the righteousness of Christ and we believe right when God the Father looks at us He sees the righteousness of Christ you saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone
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But there is you know, there's this process of sanctification right this process of growing and holiness that happens throughout our walk with the
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Lord He can be more pleased or less pleased based on how we're doing and John Jesus is very pleased with John We want to make
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Jesus proud by being faithful to him by by standing for him by living for him in Matthew 10 verses 32 to 33 we also heard
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Jesus say everyone who acknowledges me before men I also will acknowledge before my father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men
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I also will deny before my father who is in heaven What a horrible place to be for Jesus to be ashamed of us
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But what a wonderful place to be if he is proud as we stand with him Always that should be at the aim of all of us at the end of the day
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The opinion of the world doesn't matter When John challenged the Jewish elites, they hated him like they hated
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Jesus, but he was okay with that The reason John is In prison at this point is because he spoke out against Herod Philip and he was thrown into prison and then later he'd be beheaded
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Because of John's faithfulness. He was beheaded think about that If if he wasn't faithful, he would have lived a long life
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His faithfulness led him to get his head chopped off And so we understand what a Christian is we need to understand that this is what you're committing yourself to It's fullness of joy.
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It's life forevermore But there's also if you're faithful You might die for Christ.
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Well, the wonderful thing is is that God Approves of you and he approves of you forever and you'll live with him forever and Jesus right here is approving of John Even though John His future is not good in an earthly sense, right?
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He's gonna die But John wouldn't trade it for anything. It is because John is a man of conviction that he finds himself in prison
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Cowards don't suffer for the Christian faith, but people of conviction do He is suffering because he is a man of conviction and how much better to suffer for being one of conviction than one who buckles
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In recent sermons, I've explained that we have we've entered a difficult time in our nation We we've entered times where it's not fashionable to be a
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Bible belief Bible believing Christian and to take a stand will cost you It'll make your life more difficult
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It's so much easier to go with the flow of society Right to be thrown to and fro by everyone a doctor people just want to go what or whatever is fashionable
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You look at 30 40 50 years ago in our country, right? It was fashionable to be to be a Christian and So people went with the flow now, it's not so they don't go there but but it's kind of nice because it really weeds out the real ones from the false ones and We can live as Christians in these times and We are to stand on conviction remembering to do it in love and as we do this we are approved by Christ And this is the only this is the only approval that we should seek
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It's the only approval that matters in the end Then Jesus continues here
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To affirm John the Baptist by giving another illustration in verse 8. He says this What then did you go out to see a man dressed in soft clothing?
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Behold those who wear soft clothing are in Kings houses Okay, so as we read this we have no idea what he's saying, right?
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So we have to dig into this a little bit What is a man dressed in soft clothing in order to get on the king's side under the king is good favor
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Some scribes Threw off the cheap and ratty clothing. They usually wore and put on luxurious robes in its place
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They were they wore this specifically in the king's court so that the king would notice them because you couldn't be in the court unless he looked a certain way and The king liked this because by letting the scribes wear nice clothing in their presence
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They were indebted to him and they couldn't say anything bad about him. Otherwise, they would lose this favor
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This is what false teachers do They are self -indulgent.
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They value their appearance. They value their status. They want to be liked
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They want to be liked by the king so they don't call out the king but instead try to fit in by wearing nice clothes in his court
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But Jesus is asking the crowd Does this describe John the Baptist?
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Of course not Not even close Matthew 3 4 records that he wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt about his waist never his food was locusts and wild honey and In our society, you know people love to be cool, right?
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What's in? What's fashionable? And be sure of this John the
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Baptist was not cool Not even close His attire and diets were far from luxury and more importantly about John he didn't care what people thought
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He was willing to speak the truth. No matter what it cost him as I mentioned. There's a reason he's in prison He spoke the truth and now he's paying the price
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John was not in on the in crowd. He valued standing for the truth and pleasing the
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Lord that much He was the farthest thing from a compromiser a Compromiser is one who says something to gain approval
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But cares little for what he says and is willing to change if it is convenient, right? Where are the winds blowing?
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That's where I'm gonna go. Right? That's what the plant right by the Jordan, right? It just goes right with the wind
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We've seen a lot of that in our country and not just in our country, but in the church We've seen a lot in the church and it makes me want to throw up.
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I don't know about you It's painful to see You know and I'm a runner personally and one of my heroes from from the past is a guy by the name of Eric little in the 1920s
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He was the fastest sprinter in the world and he was a Christian His parents were missionaries to China and he planned to go to China as a missionary after his athletic career was over His best event was the hundred meter dash and he was set to run in the
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Olympics He was the favorite to win gold In fact the person who won gold he beat earlier that year
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But something happened that made him not run in this event little got news that the prelims for the 100 meter dash were on Sunday and It was little's conviction that one should not work on Sunday as it was a day that is set aside for the
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Lord for rest and worship So he did not run his best event, but instead he ran in the 400 meter dash
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Which is one lap around the track Right Jordan can tell you how how much further 400 is than 100
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It's a long ways He was ridiculed by his countrymen for not making this compromise, but he would not be swayed
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He would not run on Sunday. He would not run his best event now
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He was not expected to compete for a medal in the 400 meters, but people who knew little knew not to count him out
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In an incredible upset He won the gold medal. He ran the race like it was a 200 meter sprint
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He went out as fast as he could and what he said was my strategy is Run the first half as fast as I can and the second half with God's help
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That's what he said and that's how people thought he was gonna burn out and he hung on and he crossed the line in First he was a man of conviction he was willing to face ridicule to do what he was what he was persuaded was right and These are the kind of people that we want to be
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And my prayer is that our church would be a church family full of conviction If we are faithful to Christ no matter the cross, right?
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We want to be full of conviction full of love those two things right Strong on the truth with big hearts
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All right, sometimes you see people strong in the truth, but they're just jerks, right? We don't want that strong in the truth with big hearts, right?
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Love rejoices with the truth, but love also has a big heart. So we need to do that What Jesus is telling the crowd here is this is who
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John is John was confused about the identity of the Messiah that led him to doubt but this doubt bothered
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John He was honest to address it and Jesus affirms to the crowd that John really is an
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Authentic man and that he was an honorable prophet of God And this is a reminder to us
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That sometimes we will have doubts Doubt is never a good thing. But there is a kind of doubt that the
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Lord is gracious toward There is a kind of doubt where the Lord will quickly affirm us
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If we have doubts about the Christian faith or about what God is doing in our lives and we hate that we have those doubts like John did then the
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Lord will affirm us and remind us of the truth of his Word and remind us that he is at work in our lives and we need to trust him.
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You know, I have a family member Who is hostile towards Christian faith and his doubt is one of he doesn't want it to be true
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But if you're truly a believer in Christ You're deep down you believe it but you might have doubts that come up sometimes
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And God is gracious towards you because he's still he considers you his disciple and he wants to restore you
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He wants to affirm you Jesus did not rebuke John but rather reminded him of the truth.
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He already knew and this was enough for John to be encouraged And after Jesus tells the crowd that John is not a compromiser.
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He tells them who he really is in verse 9 What then did you go to see a prophet?
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Yes, I tell you and more than a prophet What Jesus says in verse 9 is that John truly is a prophet from God?
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And this is incredible. God is giving his endorsement to John the Baptist There were many false prophets historically and John is not one of them and there were some prophets who were true
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We're just weren't as good as they could have been John's not one of them either the
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Bible describes What false prophets do right? What do they do? They accumulate for themselves teach or they accumulate for themselves people, right?
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They want to tell people what they want to hear build a crowd get a following and they do it for selfish reasons
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But this does not describe John the Baptist Jesus says that John is a true prophet from God According to 2nd
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Peter chapter 1 verses 20 through 21 true prophets do not speak their own opinion
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But they speak the very words of God That's what John did everything that John spoke as he prepared the way for the
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Messiah were words approved by God and John performed the precise function that God planned for him long ago
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He fulfilled prophecy and he did it faithfully And then we see here this prophecy in verse 10.
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This is what he fulfilled Behold I Send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way before you
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This describes who John is He's quoting Malachi 3 1 which we read earlier in the service
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This prophecy for Malachi is similar to that the prophecy from Isaiah 40 verse 3
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He is the one which it is said a voice cries in the wilderness prepare the way for the
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Lord So in this whole passage we have seen Jesus defending the credibility of John John wavered in doubt as to the true identity of Jesus, but this should not be taken as a wavering of faith or an unreliable prophet
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John is not a reed shaken in the wind He is not one who wears the king's clothing or rather a rock -solid prophet of the
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Lord And we should be a me we in our own lives in our walk with the
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Lord May we aim to be one approved by the Lord? Where Jesus can vouch for us and say yes
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That person is faithful to me Remember the passage I read everyone who acknowledges me before men
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I will acknowledge we want that to be us just like Jesus is doing for John here Some people will hear the words.
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I never knew you Depart from me you workers of lawlessness what more terrifying words to hear than that, but others will hear yes
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This is my disciple This man or woman or child is faithful in the
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Lord, and he will vouch for us, and he will affirm us To understand
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John the Baptist is to better understand the Messiah and the third reason why is that his ministry is authenticated by Christ Now next
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Sunday. We will look at verses 11 through 15 so points 4 and 5 and Jesus is gonna say something remarkable about John.
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He's already said some very glowing things, and he's even gonna go higher than that Next Sunday, and I look forward
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At looking at this with you So this time let's bow our heads in prayer Father in heaven what a wonderful God you are
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What a wonderful calling you've given us What a wonderful life it is
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Lord to follow you To live a life of true life, it's so sad
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Lord when we when people are dead There's no spiritual life in a person But may our church be one where it's it's full of life in every person where the spirit is dwelling in every person where people are
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Seeking you Loving you more living for you standing for you
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Do this Lord? May we be like John the Baptist we can relate to this man. He was a man
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He was an extraordinary man, but he was a man And we are Humans as well
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Help us to learn from this Lord and thank you for the affirmation affirmation of Jesus Christ It may he be pleased and may you be pleased with us
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Lord as we go through this journey of the life of faith It's in your son's name.