Luke 7:18 Missed Expectations

Introduction

Opening: If you have travelled at an airport recently you may have witnessed a scene that I have witnessed many times before. Nowadays they’re pretty strict on what size of bag you can bring on the plane with you. They have little cages that if they believe your bag is too big, you must demonstrate the proper size of your bag by placing it in the cage. Inevitibly there is a man or woman standing in line preparing to board the plane that you just know, “The bags not going to fit.” Sure enough, as its their turn to pass the flight attendant they get asked to place their bag in the cage. You just watch this scene unfold, where their bag is not even close to fitting, but they are pushing and wedging and trying to force it. They’re getting frustrated. And all you can do as a passerby is just think, “You totally misunderstood the task. The qualifications for what would pass as a suitable size of carryon were clearly laid out in advance.”

Personal: Very often, we treat God in that same way. God has defined Himself and defined His relationship with us through His Word. He has not hidden the instructions so that they are difficult to find or difficult to understand. Nevertheless, many of us so overstuff our relationship with God with so many additional non-Biblical ideas, expectations, desires that quite frankly reveal that “We misunderstood the task. We’ve redefined God. And this is sin!

Job 42:7 ESV

After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.

Contextual: Today, we are conting our study in the Gospel of Luke. If you recall from last week we are right in the middle of Luke chapter 7. Remember that Luke chapter 6 and 8 are both heavy in the teaching ministry of Christ. Luke 7 contains these four vignettes of Christ’s practical ministry. Last week we discussed the first two of chapter 7, the story of the healing of the centurion’s servant, and the resurrection of the widows son. In both cases we discussed the extraordinary compassion of Christ. Today we look at the third story as Jesus discusses the doubts held by the disciples of John the Baptist. In this passage, Jesus will reveal the ways that three different groups have imported all kinds of false expectations about who Jesus ought to be and what he ought to do. And we’ll use their story, and how Jesus ministered to them, to reflect on ourselves, and how we perhaps import our own false expectations on Jesus.

Meaning & Application

I THE FALSE EXPECTATION OF PROSPERITY

The first group that Jesus speaks to is the disciples of John the Baptist. We read in verses 18-23,

Luke 7:18–23 “The disciples of John reported all these things to him. And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And when the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’ ” In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind he bestowed sight. And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.””

A Understanding the Context: To begin, we need a bit of context around John the Baptist. We have already been introduced to John the Baptist earlier in the Gospel of Luke, quite a lengthy introduction actually. We learned that John the Baptist was Jesus’ cousin. We learned that John the Baptist had a wildly popular ministry in Israel at the time, baptizing people in the Jordan River and calling them to repentance and preparation for what God was about to do. Even Jesus was baptized by John back in Luke 3:21-22. By the time of this text, it is very likely that John the Baptist was already in prison, and we know from Luke chapter 9 and other gospel writers, that John would be beheaded in that prison sentence. This would have a caused a tension between the common Israelite who loved John, and the leaders who felt didn’t like him.

B The Tension of John’s Disciples: The text begins with John sending his disciples to ask Jesus whether Jesus is the Christ foretold in the Bible or not. There are two ways to interpret why John sent his disciples.

John Had Doubts: Option A is that John the Baptist had doubts. He was in prison. Things were not turning out for him the way he imagined they would. His minisry had disintegrated before his eyes, and as he looked out on Jesus and what he heard Jesus was doing, he was genuinely wondering if Jesus was the Christ. Had he got it wrong? I’m not a fan of that interpretation because everything we read of John up to this point tells us that John didn’t have doubts.

John Was Caring for His Disciples: Option B, which I prefer, as do many of the early church fathers, is that John was in prison and knew his own disciples were doubting. And that he might be killed in prison. And he wanted his disciples to have the same kind of confidence that he had about Jesus. Remember, John’s disciple’s are probably thinking, “John is rotting in prison. Couldn’t Jesus, if he really is the Messiah, get him out.” You could understand why they would feel that way. So he sent them with this question for their sake, so that their faith could grow. So they come to Jesus, and they ask,

Luke 7:19 “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?””

C Why Would They Have Doubts: Why would they have doubts? I suppose it could be that they, like many others had all kinds of false assumptions and expectations of who Jesus would be. They didn’t expect that John the Baptist, their fearless leader, would wind up in prison. Most Israelites at the time expected the Christ, when he finally came, to be a political revolutionary. In fact today, many Jews are still awaiting a political revolutionary messiah to show up on the scene. Can you see how they’re trying to force this overfilled bag into the cage, and it just won’t fit?

D How Jesus Responds: I love how Jesus responds. He turns around and begins healing and saving all the downcast and forgotten and marginalized. The groups that are mentioned in this passage are the categories of people that in that day woudl have been completely overlooked: the sick, the demon possessed, the blind, the lame, the leper. This is so important to recognize what Jesus is doing here. Do you remember when Jesus gave his first sermon back in chapter four? When he gave that sermon he read from the prophet Isaiah, who wrote about 700 years prior about what the Christ would do.

Luke 4:18–19 ““The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.””

So when Jesus responds to John’s disciples, by doing those exact things, he’s cutting through all the false expecations that they might have been carrying with them about political revolution, and prosperity. And he’s saying, “You have fundamentally misunderstood the task. I’m doing what God’s Word always said the Christ would do.”

The Prosperity Gospel: This first group permits us a moment to ask ourselves about the nuanced ways that we import the false expectation of prosperity into our understanding of Christ. John and his disciples were ascetics who intentionally lived without any luxury in their life. And yet there is a false strain of expectation that was incorrect. There is a movement within Christianity today, known the Prosperity Gospel. Teachers of the Prosperity Gospel instruct their people that God desires them to be healthy, wealthy, and prosperous. And that with enough faith, they can overcome any barrier to accomplish the proserous ends God has designed for them in this life. What a pitifully sad set of false expectations to place on Jesus.

I guess John the Baptist didn’t get the memo that if he only had a bit more faith, his head wouldn’t have been cut off.

As a matter of fact, I guess Jesus didn’t get the memo before he was falsely accused, stripped, beaten, mocked, and murdered.

Smaller Ways: Many of us would not subscribe to the Prosperity Gospel, but like John’s disciples we import micro versions of it into our faith without realizing it.

Suffering: We do this when we fail to have a fully biblical view of suffering, and the role suffering plays in the life of a follower of Christ. Many of us simply dont’ know what to do with suffering or long term suffering. We have forgotten the words of Romans 8:32.

Romans 8:23 ESV

And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

Denying Oneself: Another way we do this is when we fail to deny ourselves. The Apostle said that he counted everything as loss for the sake of knowing Christ Jesus. To forfeit simple pleasures in order to take hold of the greatest pleasure! Are we willing and ager to deny our lusts of the flesh, and desires of the flesh, and pride of the flesh, for the sake of intimacy with Christ.

Application: Behold Christ!: As Christians we must root this out of our faith, and we do that by beholding Christ. That’s what Jesus did for John’s disciples who had imported a soft prosperity gospel into their own expectations. The more we behold Christ in his glory, the more these other silly expectations that we put on God begin to fade away, and we’re left with the purity of Christ on his terms.

II THE FALSE EXPECTATION OF GREATNESS

Immediately after John The Baptists’s disciples leave, Jesus turns to the crowd and addresses them.

Luke 7:24–28 “When John’s messengers had gone, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who are dressed in splendid clothing and live in luxury are in kings’ courts. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written, “ ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’ I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.””

John the Baptist the Greatest: This interesting little section is vital, and the key to unlocking it is verse 28.

Luke 7:28 “I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.””

Jesus begins with very high regard for John the Baptist. Christ views the role that John the Baptist played in redemptive history as greater than Abraham, greater than Moses even. Why? There are two reasons I see from the text

His Prophetic Mission (24-25): The first is that he was a prophet. This puts him in the camp of the great prophets of old. As a prophet, he was a hard man. He did not wear soft clothes, or live a in a fancy house. He had a singular mission to proclaim God’s Word without compromise. He made a lot of enemies. He called the religious leaders of the day a “brood of vipers” that were “going to Hell.” His message was not catered or softened in any way to make people like him or try to make people like God. He told the truth of who God was. Let me just pause here and say something very important. If ever you find yourself in a Church that is afraid to say the unadulterated clear teaching of God’s Word, that is afraid to call sin, sin. That is afraid to boldly take their stance on God’s Word, no matter the cost, flee. We need prophetic teaching. But that is not the reason John was the greatest.

His Unique Role (26-27): Jesus quotes from Malachi 3:1, written about 400 years before the time of Christ regarding the exact role John the Baptist played. In verse 27 we read that John’s role was to prepare the way the Christ to come. All the prophets had some part to play in that work, but John the Baptist’s was unique. John the Baptist famously said,

John 3:30 ESV

He must increase, but I must decrease.”

We are Greater: But look at what Christ says next, “Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” This means that the man who has the tiniest drop of faith in Jesus, just a mustard seed, the guy who never really matures in his faith, but sneaks into heaven as 1 Corinthians 3:15 describes, simply because he clung to Jesus, that rascal of a man, is greater than John the Baptist. Why? Let me give you a few reasons why.

Times of Promise v Times of Fulfilment: John lived in the days of promise, but the least Christian lives in the days of fulfilment. John spoke of he would come and take away our sins. But he died without ever seeing it. But the simplest Christian today is a person who lives on the other side of human history, in the days of fulfilment. With the clarity of the New Testament, you can see the cross, where his blood was shed for you!

We Have the Spirit: What’s more, you have the Holy Spirit in you. Certainly John the Baptist experienced power of the Spirit of God moving through his ministry, but the simplest Christian, is baptized and filled by the Spirit in a way that John the Baptist only every spoke about theoretically. If your faith is in Jesus, the Spirit has been given to you as a down payment of your salvation, to lead you, to guard you, to secure you. John didn’t have that.

We Have the Church: What’s more, you have the Church, the precious bride of Christ. Brothers and sisters saved by grace, who all offer the various spiritual gifts to one another, to build one another up, to encourage one another, to embolden one another. John had the law, but he did not have the Church of Christ.

We Have Union with Christ: Further, you have Union with Christ. This is historic language to speak of God’s covenantal bond with you as a Christian, a bond that was cemented the moment your faith was placed in Christ. At that moment, of faith, God transferred you from the Kingdom of darkness, to the Kingdom of Christ. The Scriptures say at the moment you died with Christ. Your old self was crucified with Christ. And a new person was born. Jesus called this being “born again.” Without beign born again no man can enter the Kingdom of God. But once you are born again, no man can ever lose that birth, because Christ has secured Himself to you. Sinclair Ferguson describes our Union with Christ this way

“Through the work of the Spirit, the heavenly Father gives you to Jesus and gives Jesus to you. You have Him. Everything you can ever lack is found in him; all you will ever need is given to you in Him… For the Father has “blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.”

Marvel at This: Most of our thoughts about God are far too small. We think about the Church like its a club, and very rarely do we marvel at it for what it is, Christ’s bride. When we think of God, we settle for such small thoughts. We forget that he is transcendant and independent of us. He has no need of us. He rules the cosmos sovereignly without any interference. He existed in a Trinity before the Earth was spoken into existence. He is the greatest good a man can have, the most priceless treasure a person can discover. The hunger in our souls to find our true identity, can only be found “in Him.” He is marvelous to behold, awesome in power, mighty to save. And if you’re a Christian, he chose you before the foundation of the Earth, and placed his seal upon you, not because of any works you’ve done, but simply out of his good pleasure.

How this Messes: You Christian, the least of you and me, are greater than John the Baptist! What a reversal of expectations. In a world hungering for greatness, inundated with the quest for fame, Christ cuts through it all

III JESUS ADDRESSES THE PHARISEE’S FALSE EXPECTATION OF MANMADE RELIGION

Lastly, Christ addresses one more group, that is the Pharisees. This group had the classic false expecations of manmade religion.

Luke 7:29–35 “(When all the people heard this, and the tax collectors too, they declared God just, having been baptized with the baptism of John, but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.) “To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, “ ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’ For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.””

Walking Through the Text: What’s happening is that Jesus is reading the room and bringing some points of clarity. The Pharisees, who were the religious leaders of the day did not like John the Baptist because he had called them out on their hypocrisy, same reason they didn’t like Jesus. But Jesus here calls the Pharisees out for their double standard. Verse 32 when Christ says,

Luke 7:32 “They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, “ ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’”

Here Jesus is comparing the Pharisees to little children with expectations. To John the Baptist, they played the flute for him, but he wouldn’t dance. In other words, they came down on John for living such an ascetic life of fasting and they said, “be more lively.” But John didn’t play their game. With Jesus, they sang a dirge (that’s sad song typical for funerals), but Jesus didn’t weep. Unlike John, Jesus’ ministry was full of eating and drinking and joy. With both John the Baptist and Jesus, they were trying to force those men into preconceived notions of what good religious men ought to be. It was pure manmade religion. But verse 35

Luke 7:35 ESV

Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.”

Jesus says, “The proof is in the pudding.” Look at the people worshiping God. Don’t get so stuck in your manmade religious expectations that you can’t exult in the worship of God!

Illustration: Gary: Years ago, I had the privilege of leading a man to Christ after Church one Sunday. Some of you in this room remember his baptism. He was a pretty hard man. He had spent yaers in gangs in Chicago. In fact that day that he came into Church he was coming off a multi day drug, drinking, and prostitute filled bender. His face just looked ashen. He walked into our church that day with a feeling of emptiness. Over lunch he was describing his life to me, and the emptiness he felt. And by God’s grace he believed the gospel that day (I believe he also stole my wallet, but there’s grace for that). But over the next year I got to see the slow transformation of that man’s life. And he used to have these frank conversations with me. He’d say, “Raef, man this church is amazing. I’m learning so much. The people here are so wonderful. But…” He’d say. “But… the guys I know, in the world that I was in, there is something about the way everything is so kind and tidy and professional, that they would just feel totally judged coming in here.”

Tax Collectors: There were layers to that comment that I’ve reflected on a lot. This passage speaks to it. Twice in this passage we read about tax collectors. Remember, tax collectors were the hated class. In fact Tax colletors and prostitutes were in a despised class of their own, and next week’s passage we deal a woman who likely was a prostitute. But here in this passage we see Jesus ministering to “tax collectors.” Back in verse 29, we read,

Luke 7:29 “When all the people heard this, and the tax collectors too, they declared God just, having been baptized with the baptism of John,”

Then down in verse 34 we read that the Pharisees didn’t like Jesus because…

Luke 7:34 “The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’”

Jesus it turned out, spent quite a bit of time with guys like Gary. And the Pharisees didn’t have space in their man made religion, for messy people like that.

We Are the Blind: We can very easily allow the false expectations of manmade religion to infiltrate the purity of the Gospel. The true Gospel is great equalizer, because it puts a guy like Gary, and a guy like me on equal footing before the throne of grace. The Gospel declares that we must associate ourselves, and see in ourselves that we are the lepers in need of cleansing, we are the blind in need of sight, we are the sinners in need of salvation, and only when we understand that ourselves can the free gift of salvation be received. Before you can believe the gospel, you must believe your deep need of the Gospel. Christ’s blood was shed for sinners like us, not of who Gary is the chief, but of whom I am the chief. The Pharisees with their manmade religion knew nothing of this.

We Sneak This In: And I think what Gary was hinting at, is that sometimes in a Church like Park, guys like Gary can feel a little judged. Some of it certainly is self imposed and in insecurities. Those are real dynamics at play. And a Church never needs to apologize for having order in their services, 1 Corinthians tells us to do so. But we must work as a people of God to remove those barriers and to live into the gospel truth, of sinner saved by grace. That’s the dynamic of this text, the pharisees have no room for a Christ that surrounded tax collectors and sinners, and lepers and blind and lame. Do you have space in your life for people like this? Or is your Christianity so clean and so tidy, that you really do just put an arm’s distance between you and the mess out there. We must be the salt of the Earth!

Closing

It is very easy to allow false expecations to creep into our faith. But we must root them out. We must not settle for a clean American gospel. If our version of Christianity fits too neatly into any one culture or fits too neatly into how we would do things if we were in charge, we likley got it wrong, and need to repent and realign to God’s Word.