WHAT ABOUT JOHN?

WHAT ABOUT JOHN? Matthew 11:1-19 With grateful acknowledgement of these sources of direction and inspiration: the Holy Spirit; the Word of God; Myron Augsburger, The Messiah’s Answer for John the Baptist ” in The Communicator’s Commentary: Matthew; George Beasley-Murray, Jesus and the Kingdom of God; Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah; Michael Green, Matthew for Today; John MacArthur, Matthew 8-15 January 9, 2005 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introduction (Matthew 11:1-6) It’s been a long time since we’ve seen John! I suppose that conversation had come up among the disciples and Jesus in the past year or so. After all, John the Baptizer had actually been involved in the inauguration of Jesus’ ministry back at the beginning. A couple of them had been there; the others had heard the story from them and had a sort of distant respect for this man, this legend. I mean, you don’t soon forget the man who lived in the desert who wore camel-skin clothes, dined on locusts and honey, and preached excoriating sermons against the religious establishment. Some called him prophet; others called him pest. Some loved him; others loathed him. He was certainly different—and very courageous. It wasn’t long ago that John’s prophetic ministry met with real trouble. Among the other regular scathing pronouncements, like the Pharisees were nothing but a brood of vipers and all the religious bureaucrats needed to repent, John threw in a real zinger.  He publicly rebuked the king’s decision to take his sister-in-law to be his own wife. John told the king this divine opinion one day and, well, Herod the tetrarch didn’t take it all that well, even though he secretly admired John as a holy man. But it really got his wife’s goat, and so Herodias started making plans to get back at him. It seems Herod the tetrarch held a birthday party for himself one day and in the middle of the bacchanalia, while he and his friends were drunk, his step-daughter came in a performed a little erotic dance for them. Well this dirty dancing dazzled drunken Herod and, in a moment of weakness, he promised her anything she wanted.  Her mother, Herodias, Herod’s wicked wife, had connived with her and prompted her to ask for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Herod consented, somewhat reluctantly, and had John arrested, bound and put into prison to wait the day of beheading. (See the story at Mt 14, Mk 6) That is where John is at the time of our reading—on death row. Now, death row can be an intimidating place. While anxious about every footstep you hear outside your cell, wondering if this is when they’ll call you to the chamber of death, your mind can play tricks on you. You start imagining things; you start doubting things you once were sure of.  You know, John had pretty much invested himself in this ministry of being the forerunner of Jesus, the Messiah. He foretold His arrival, then baptized Him when He arrived at the Jordan. He kept preaching, but fully expected Jesus to begin to take over the leadership. After all, as the Messiah He was fully expected to raise an army of resistance and go to war against the hated Romans, and win Palestine back for the chosen people.  John even agreed to let his own notoriety wane while Jesus became famous and popular. But it hadn’t seemed to happen. Before he landed in prison he hadn’t noticed any uprising. And certainly since he’d been here there was little or no word of any political or military coup. What was Jesus waiting for? John could have wished something would happen soon, so Herod would be out of the picture and he would be spared losing his head. This makes me think of the Gregory family, who last fall left the comfort and security of their lives among us to go to work with the mission in Brazil—all in obedience to what they felt was God’s call. Brent left a very good career, they left their friends, sold their beautiful home, and off they went. Now they are living in a very plain apartment in the middle of a city where no English is spoken. Language school can be quite boring, none of their old friends are there, they have no car.  We can only partially understand how cut off they feel. And they’re going through a rough time—hurt, doubt, second-guessing their decision. It is not easy. Pray for them with extra intensity this week. Ask the Lord to reaffirm His plan for them. Pray for the assurance they desperately need right now. It is so natural for them to doubt, to wonder. Transition: Matthew 11:7-11 In verse 11 Jesus does something for John the Baptist that He does for no other person—He honors him. I would like to spend the next few minutes talking about the qualities the John had that caused Jesus to say such nice things about him, even naming him as the greatest man on earth up to that point. There were three such qualities. 1. John was a man of spiritual honesty (Matthew 11:7-11) So it was natural for John to doubt—to wonder if it was all just a pipe dream—Jesus’ messiah ship, his own prophetic calling. Like so many other attempts at liberation from Rome, did they miss it again? Finally John smuggles word to his loyal disciples and asks them to go, find Jesus and just ask Him right out, once and for all, Is this thing going down, or what? Or, are you even really the Christ? Are we waiting for someone else? John was understandably desperate for some answers! Let me pause a moment here and remind us all of an important truth. God is not offended by your doubts. He doesn’t give up on you when you question Him or when you feel like you’re ready to give up on Him. He is patient with us. Notice how Jesus did not respond to John’s disciples. He didn’t say, “You just go back there and tell John that I am shocked at him! I am appalled that he still doesn’t understand! Go on! Wow, am I mad!” If you’re a teacher, and you’re just introducing the subject of Algebra to your sixth graders, and after class little Mortimer comes up to you and asks you a question about the lesson, what will you do? Get angry and tell him to get lost? Of course not! You’re the teacher! You want Mortimer to ask questions, because you want him to understand!  Look, this whole plan about taking sinful people, saving them through the death and resurrection of God’s Son, and then using them in His plan to reach others with the message—this is a tall order for sinners! If anyone knows how dense we are, and how slow to catch on, God does! He’s not going to rap your knuckles if you question His ways or doubt His faithfulness. He loves you, and He has a long-range plan for you. God is never offended by your doubts and misgivings, and He is always pleased with your honesty. The omniscient Lord of the Universe knows everything you think and feel anyway, so why try to hide it from Him? Don’t ever be afraid to admit you don’t understand or you’re having doubts or misgivings about your faith. He knows all about it already! As Psalm 51:6 says, "You desire truth in the inner parts…" Be honest with God, be real. He loves you. If you are sincere before Him, He will always take you where you are and lead you to where you need to be. That’s what Jesus saw in John—the quality of spiritual honesty, and honest searching.  Jesus’ reply to John was quick and to the point. Tell John that the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised and the poor are hearing the good news. Jesus was virtually quoting from Isaiah’s prophecies about the signs of the arrival of the Kingdom of God. John knew these teachings. Jesus was saying, Don’t worry, John, the kingdom is arriving—and here’s the evidence! It may not be what you thought it would be, but the prophetic is being fulfilled! You can count on God to help you to understand and to help you cope when you are impatient or confused or doubting. He won’t always give you the absolutely complete answer you hope for, but He will give you all you need. Philippians 4:6-7 tells us "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." John the Baptist was the kind of man who was up front with God about his faith, and his lack of faith. He was spiritually honest. He had spiritual integrity. Brothers and sisters, don’t ever succumb to the temptation to be “fake” with your faith—to pretend to be something or someone you are not. Be honest with God, then, honest to God, be honest with one another. 2. John was a man of courageous faith (Matthew 11:12-15) You could call John the Baptist a lot of things, but you could not call him a wimp! Here was a man who understood his calling, and he did it to the best of his ability. Imagine being called to be a weird, desert-dwelling, attention-grabbing oddball. Now, some of us are like that naturally. But suppose God called you to this wild prophetic ministry. And suppose He led you to dress really funny, live as a hermit, preach every day at the riverside, get people’s attention by irritating them and baptize penitents. It would take a great deal of grit to carry on that kind of ministry. And that kind of grit is spelled f-a-i-t-h. Faith is finding out what God wants of you and, once you know, going out and doing it with all your heart, no matter what the consequences might be. I suppose the hardest part of being a John the Baptist would be knowing that God was calling you to be an oddball and act kind of crazy.  I think I would be willing to do it—if I really knew God wanted me to do it…like, if He personally visited me and told me exactly all the details. …and then I want you to get camel-hair clothing, and (write this down) I want you to eat locusts and wild honey…and later on I will want you to call the religious leaders “a brood of vipers”… What are you really sure God wants of you? Have you sought His will in this matter? Have you prayed and pressed hard to get an answer? This is in itself an act of faith, isn’t it? Being courageous enough to ask God what He wants of you. Because, let’s face it, what are we afraid of? That He’ll tell us to get camel’s hair clothing and locusts for dinner! Maybe today, it’s a fear that He’ll ask us to go to Africa, or Brazil.  Here’s how faith faces that kind of fear. It says, I know God. I know He is good and He is faithful. And I know He will only give me things to do that He really wants and that will be good for the kingdom. And I know that, even if it is hard, He will help me. Faith is trusting God’s faithfulness in such a way that you are free to ask Him to lead you wherever He wants you to go, and to be whatever He want you to be.  Courageous faith asks God for a calling. And then, of course, courageous faith steps out in obedience to that calling, once it is understood. Here is where John the Baptist truly excelled. He was not afraid to do whatever God led him to do. Can you imagine the morning that God told John about Herod?  Alright, Lord, let me see if I have this right. You want me to go to Herod’s house (in my camel-hair outfit, right?). Then you want me to talk to him personally and tell him that marrying his sister-in-law was a sin. We are talking about Herod, the tetrarch, right? And you want me to do this…today, right! You know this will probably not go well, Lord. Yes, yes, of course you know everything.  And he went and he did it, and it eventually cost him his life. What will it cost you to do what you know God wants you to do? When will you do it? I’ll tell you exactly when you’ll do it. You’ll do it when you trust Him. That’s when you have courageous faith. That great theologian, John Wayne put it this way, Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway! In the film Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Sauron's dark forces begin to overcome peaceful Middle Earth. The hope for Middle Earth lies in the hands of two hobbits, a dwarf, an elf, and a man named Aragorn. Knowing that a militia of ruthless soldiers is heading for the country of Rohan, Aragorn comes to help its people. As he walks about the palace he finds the King of Rohan's daughter practicing with a large sword. She doesn't know Aragorn is watching her. In a gothic parlor, lit only by a few flames, she wields the large silver sword like an experienced soldier. Though petite, she is formidable. As Aragorn suddenly steps out of the darkness, she reacts with agility and their swords clash. Aragorn comments on her skill. She replies, "The women of Rohan have had to learn that just because you do not carry a sword does not mean you cannot die upon one. I fear neither death nor pain." Curious, Aragorn asks, "What do you fear?"  "A cage," she says. "To stay behind bars until use and old age accept them and all chance of valor has gone beyond recall or desire." People of faith, we have one life to live for the King of kings. Our greatest fear should not be any of our enemies, or any harm to ourselves. Our greatest fear should be the cage of disobedience and missed opportunity. Jesus honored John the Baptist because he was a man of spiritual honesty and courageous faith. But there is one more thing about John that I want us to see—and to emulate. It is tucked away in verses 12-19. 3. John was a man of firm conviction (Matthew 11:16-19) John’s calling required of him that he be a “transitional man”. He was a man with no comfortable identity in this world. Verses 13 makes it clear that John was not really an Old Testament prophet—they all prophesied until John—but he was identified with them anyway. Jesus identifies him as a forerunner for Himself, the Messiah, in verses 14-15. All of Israel was expecting an Elijah character to come and announce the arrival of Messiah, and Jesus clearly says here that their expectation of that order of appearance was right on. John was Elijah! Not exactly an Old Covenant prophet, but not a New Covenant preacher either.  In one sense he was the Last Samurai of the Old Testament prophets, though. He was certainly pointing ahead to the Messiah—he even got to baptize Him and inaugurate His earthly ministry! But John was not a “Christian”! He would not before he died experience a relationship with Jesus based on His atoning death and resurrection. Even his baptism didn’t quite fit in. In the book of Acts when individuals were baptized into the baptism of John they were told by the apostles that his baptism was inadequate, because it had to do only with the forgiveness of sins, and Christian baptism (baptism into Christ) included the promised Holy Spirit.  Poor John didn’t fit in anywhere! When you don’t fit in, staying true to your convictions can be a real challenge. Take one of these teenagers aside and ask them how much of a challenge it is to maintain their faith and values in the halls of secondary education where the pressure to conform to ungodly standards is so strong it is stifling. Ask a couple of our great college students what it’s like maintaining Christian behavior, let alone Christian witness, on the secular university campus. In the workplace, you’ve felt the enormous pressure to abdicate your convictions and conform to standards of worldliness. It is a fight—a tough fight. And no one in the other camp understands you or your struggle to maintain the integrity of your faith. It is often hard in this world to remain true to what you know is your godly calling. This is why Paul exhorts us in Romans 12 to offer our lives as living sacrifices to the Lord. "Do not conform any longer", he says, "to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." (Romans 12:1-2) The world around you is hostile to such convictions. Jesus said, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world it would love you as its own…If they persecuted me they will persecute you also." (John 15:18-20) And it’s interesting—it isn’t as if the world has any real convictions or standards itself. Those in the world just don’t want you living up to your standards. They will come after you no matter what your convictions are, just because you’re not doing what they happen to be doing at the moment. Look at verses 16-19 again. Jesus says that the world (“this generation”) is like little children, jealous and upset with their friend who won’t play with them. "To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others: 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.'" A true story: in the operating room of a large, well-known hospital, it was the surgical nurse's first day on the medical team, and she was responsible for ensuring that all instruments and materials were accounted for before completing the final steps of the operation. She said to the surgeon, "You've only removed 11 sponges. We used 12 sponges, and we need to find the last one." "I removed them all," the doctor declared emphatically. "We'll close the incision now." "No," the rookie nurse objected, "we used 12 sponges." "I'll take the responsibility," the surgeon said grimly. "Suture." "You can't do that, sir," blazed the nurse. "Think of the patient." The surgeon smiled, lifted his foot and showed the nurse the 12th sponge. "You'll do just fine in this or any other hospital." When you know you're right, you can't back down. The world’s standards are in a constant state of flux, never fixed, never rooted in any conviction. Whatever the mood of the moment, whatever the whim of the trend-setters, whatever prevailing wind of popular thinking is in vogue at the moment—it will do. Today it may be the flute, tomorrow a dirge. But whatever it is, you’d better conform, because if you don’t we’ll tease you and taunt you and pressure you until you finally give up your old-fashioned convictions and dance the way we want you to. Verse 6: "Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me." What is the reason for the world’s dislike of Christian convictions and unchanging standards? It produces guilt in the worldly conformers. In their hearts and the deep recesses of their thinking they know it is right to conform to God and not to the relativistic caprice of a hedonistic humanity. And it doesn’t make any difference what you do, if it’s different from them they will hate it. Look at verses 18 and 19 – "For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He has a demon.” The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, “Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and ‘sinners’.” But wisdom is proved right by her actions." It pleased the Lord that John was a man of conviction, that he did what He knew the Lord told him to do, no matter what the Pharisees or the Herods told him to the contrary. It pleases the Lord when we live as people true to our convictions, too. Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, recently offered WGN Chicago Radio sports-talk host David Kaplan $50,000 to change his name legally to "Dallas Maverick."  When Kaplan politely declined, Cuban sweetened the offer. Cuban would pay Kaplan $100,000 and donate $100,000 to Kaplan's favorite charity if he took the name for one year.  After some soul searching, and being bombarded by e-mails from listeners who said he was crazy to turn down the money, Kaplan held firm and told Cuban no. Kaplan explained: "I'd be saying I'd do anything for money, and that bothers me. My name is my birthright. I'd like to preserve my integrity and credibility."  "Christian" is the birthright of every follower of Jesus Christ. We have a responsibility to live every day in a way that brings honor to that name. Let us resolve to be a people who diligently seek to know God’s will, and who diligently apply ourselves to be consistently obedient to His standard, regardless of what the hostile world around us is doing or saying. Listen, what’s wrong is wrong, even if everybody is doing it, and what’s right is right, even if nobody is doing it. Let us be people of conviction like John, and thus please the Lord. Spiritual honesty, courageous faith, firm conviction. These are what please the Lord. And do you know the first step in developing them? Simply this—you must become a Christian, a Christ follower. It is only in Him, and only with His Spirit in you, that you are able to become the honest, courageous person of conviction He calls you to be. The film Chariots of Fire is a true story about two British runners competing in the 1924 Olympics. Eric Liddell, a devout Christian, was encouraged by his missionary dad to "run in God's Name, and let the world stand back and wonder." Contrarily, Harold Abrahams, Liddell's teammate, ran for personal glory.  On the boat to the Paris Olympics, Liddell learned that to compete in the 100-meter dash, his best distance and the race he was favored to win, he had to run the qualifying heats on Sunday. He resolved not to run on the Sabbath. During a reception in Paris, Liddell was pressured by Scotland's aristocracy to run.  Lord Birkenhead began: "We decided to invite you for a little chat to see if there is any way we can help resolve this situation." Lord Cadogan said, "There's only one way to resolve this situation. That's for this man [Liddell] to change his mind."  Unruffled by the pressure, Liddell responded, "I'm afraid there are no ways, sir. I won't run on the Sabbath, and that's final. God made countries, and God makes the kings and the rules by which they govern. And those rules say that the Sabbath is his, and I, for one, intend to keep it that way."  The Sunday Liddell could have been running, he worshiped in a Paris church and preached from Isaiah 40, which states: "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." Abrahams, however, prepared for the race and confessed to Liddell, "I used to be afraid to lose. But now I am afraid to win. I have ten seconds in which to prove the reason for my existence, and even then, I'm not sure I will." Abrahams did win the gold medal in the 100-meter, while Liddell applauded him on the sidelines. But his gold medal gave him only fleeting satisfaction. Later in the Olympics, Liddell competed in the 400-meter, an event he had not trained for and was not favored to win. Surprisingly, Liddell not only won but also broke the world record. In 1925, Liddell went to China to serve as a teacher and missionary. When life in China became so dangerous that the British government advised British nationals to leave, Liddell stayed behind and was interned in a prison camp, where he died of a brain tumor in 1945. His last words were, "It's complete surrender."    [Back to Top]