The Gospel of Luke 7:18-30 John asks a question
Luke 7:18-30 · Vern Peterman · May 10, 2015
Gospel of Luke, No. 26
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492653508003

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. This has been quite a wild week. Quite a wild weekend, hasn't it? Yeah, we've got our daughter Becky and grandson Decker visiting here. And then have this crazy Mother's Day snow. And I spent about three and a half hours at the dentist's office on Friday. And that was a real boring time. Anyway.

So, at any rate, with that as an introduction, let's go into Luke 7, 18-30 here. This passage here today is all about John the Baptist. John the Baptist is not present for this conversation and whatnot, but he sends a message through two of his disciples.

There are some things, perhaps, that you'll even find surprising in what is in this passage. As we've continued our investigation, Dr. Luke has had some unique content regarding John the Baptist. That unique content started from the very beginning. He tells about the account of the birth of Christ and the shepherds, but also unique content about John the Baptist. He tells about John's elderly parents, Zacharias and Elizabeth.

He's the only gospel author to do so. He talks about Mary's visit with them. It was really kind of interesting to ponder. Here Mary drops in on Zacharias and Elizabeth unannounced and then stays for three months. I don't know how you feel about having relatives drop in unannounced and staying for three months, but that's what Mary did. There was also something that was very emphatic in Luke 3, 1, and 2, during the beginning of the ministry of John the Baptist.

Dr. Luke goes from the big scale, who was the emperor, and then locally and regionally, who were the rulers, and then on down to who was high priest during this particular time. kind of provides some unique political context and timing there. But one of the things we find is Dr. Luke is thorough but he is not exhaustive. That is, he doesn't tell you everything that all the other authors tell you.

He includes details from before John the Baptist was conceived, things with Elizabeth and with Zacharias. He talks about John's brief years of ministry, and then to the time when John's life was close to being ended which we're going to be getting into today and Quoting later on we won't see it today. That's in chapter 9 Herod is quoting Herod Antipas about his beheading John so he'll make future reference and then we'll take a look at the death of John a little bit more when we get to that point and In Matthew 14, 1-12, and especially in Mark 16, 14-29, we give more details about how John's life ended. It involves the wife of Herod Antipas and her daughter Salome. We won't go into that in detail in our study, but we will reflect on it briefly when we get to chapter 9. So here's Luke 7, 18-20.

It says, the disciples of John reported to him about all these things. Summoning two of his disciples, John sent them to the Lord, saying, Are you the expected one, or do we look for someone else? So when the men came to him, these two disciples, right? When the men came to him, they said, John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, Are you the expected one, or do we look for someone else?

So they asked the exact question. They didn't paraphrase it or anything. Now one of the things to think about is just the impact of John the Baptist. We might be inclined to think that he was a man of rather minor impact, but not so. The cave where it is believed that he lived before the start of his public ministry has been identified and known, and you could go there and visit and see that cave. As many came out to see him in his location of public ministry from all walks of Jewish life there were people that came as soldiers others who came even as tax collectors and Listened to John and listened to his message Twelve of John's disciples were later found in Ephesus more than 20 years after John had been killed.

Okay, so he continued to have impact on among people decades later and even far away from Israel so that he was a man actually a great impact continuing to have influence in distant places and in decades later now what the new american standard has the term the expected one literally the greek means the coming one so the king james has a key that should come so literally it's the coming one And if you think about it from Genesis 3.15 to Genesis 12.1-3, that's the covenant with Abraham.

The end of Genesis 49.8-12 is where Jacob is blessing his sons, and one of those is Judah, and in the blessing of his son His son Judah, he gives a prophecy, and Jesus fulfills that prophecy.

2 Samuel 7, 8-16, I make reference to that, that is where the prophet Nathan, who was a court prophet with David, tells David that there will be a descendant of his who will sit on the throne, referring to ultimately Christ being the one who sits on the throne.

Psalm 22 is a psalm of David, about Christ's crucifixion, given a thousand years ahead of time. From Isaiah 7, 10-16 to chapter 53 of Isaiah, we have further prophecies about Christ. Chapter 7 talks about Christ being born of a virgin, and chapter 53 talks about Christ's crucifixion, burial, and resurrection.

Daniel 9, 24-27 talks about both Christ's first and second coming. Malachi 3, 1-6 talks of Christ's coming, and many, many more Old Testament passages. I've done just a really quick survey here. But as the Jews would read through those Old Testament passages, it was clear to them that there was one coming that they should be expecting and anticipating. So the Scriptures told abundantly about the coming one.

So, we have a question here before us, though. Why would John ask, are you the expected one, or do we look for someone else? Why would he ask that? After all, didn't John the Baptist proclaim, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world? Yes, he did. John chapter 1, verses 29 and 36. He says, behold the Lamb of God in both places.

Didn't John the Baptist witness what we read in Luke 3.22? Let me read it. The Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove and a voice came out of heaven. You are my beloved son, in you I am well pleased. Yes, he witnessed that. Wasn't he the one that said, he must increase but I must decrease? Why is he now questioning, are you the one? Are you the one? Should we look for somebody else? And the reason is because John likely began to question whether Jesus was really the Messiah, in that John had been in prison now for some time.

At least a year, if not more like two years, he was held in Herod Antipas' prison. Herod was one of the surviving sons of Herod the Not-So-Great. And he was also cruel and wild and very aggressive with his building programs at everybody else's expense.

Likely, John the Baptist was also expecting that Christ would set the prisoners free, because Isaiah 42.7 and 61.1 both talk about the Messiah setting prisoners free. So John apparently expected that Christ would set him free from this prison of Herod Antipas. And I have to tell you, prisons in those days were really nasty places to be. Courtney and Ingrid and Nancy and I visited Christ's prison where he was probably only for a few hours when we were in Jerusalem. And that would probably be a good example of the prison.

They were cold. They were dark. There was no obligation to have lights on. And they were oftentimes carved down into the rock. So you're basically just in this massive rock, nothing soft. and probably chained in some way to the walls or to the floor. Just dark all the time. There was no obligation to have any lights on. What they have in the way of pictures like this, a dramatization, is just so you can take a picture. Because really what a lot of the prisoners saw was just darkness.

Additionally, you didn't get a bathroom break. And they didn't bother cleaning it up from the last prisoners that were there. So it was a miserable, horrible place to be. And if you did not have friends on the outside, or family, coming in to bring you food and clothing and things like that, very good chance that you're going to die there.

In the case of John the Baptist, his parents were gone, and we don't know about any other family, but he did have disciples who would come to him and help take care of him. Nonetheless, it was a place that would wear on you. So John was saying, ah, but there are these promises the Messiah will set prisoners free. It would be really nice if he set me free from this place. But that never did happen. Instead, as we'll explore a little bit later, John was killed and never was freed from the prison.

So here's Luke 7.21, at that very time he, Jesus, cured many people of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits and he gave sight to many who were blind. So what happened is these disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus and asked the question, are you the one that we should expect or should we look for someone else? And so right then and there, Jesus says, wait a minute, and he goes about among the people that are right there, carrying diseases and afflictions and casting out evil spirits, and he gave sight to many who are blind, right there while the disciples of John the Baptist waited and witnessed. So he didn't simply send them back, tell John that this and this and this is happening, but he had them witness healings and exorcisms and curing of blindness, etc. Right there. You guys, just wait a minute. I want you to watch this. So right then and there. It says he cured many.

Now it has several different words there. Diseases, this word means sickness of various kinds. Afflictions, literally this word means to be whipped. And so figuratively it means disease or injury of some kind. Some parallels with the word diseases, but also other things as well.

Evil spirits, also called demons or unclean demons, and unclean spirits in the Gospel of Luke and the other Gospels. And then the blind, lacking sight from birth. Injury or disease and think about it in biblical times Any one of those might happen and there was very little that could be done in standard medical practice to try to restore it so here Jesus just healed those from any of these causes and just cured them and finally Jesus cured many of these maladies and and Just right there in front of the disciples of John as witnesses.

So these began with Luke 4.31 when Jesus had cast out an unclean demon out of the man in the synagogue of Capernaum.

That's where he began doing that, but he did it right here in front of these disciples. So here's Luke 7, 22 and 23, and he answered and said to them, go and report to John what you have seen. So he didn't say, just go and report to John this and this and this and this, but he had them see and hear for themselves and witness these healings and exorcisms and restoring of sight, to see that. And the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them. Blessed is he who does not take offense at me." Now let's take that apart here and go through it step by step. So here's He Jesus, after going through these various healings and exorcisms, right in front of them, says, okay, now, Go and report to John what you've seen and what you've heard.

The blind received sight. That happened at various times in Christ's ministry, but right there in front of the disciples of John the Baptist. That had been prophesied as something the Messiah would do in Isaiah 29, 35 and 42, as you see in your handout as well.

This is the lame walk in Isaiah 35.6. It says that that's what the Messiah will do. The lepers are cleansed. Now it's interesting, the lepers being cleansed isn't specifically given as a prophecy, but in 2 Kings 5 is an instance where a leper is cleansed in the Old Testament, so it is not a Messiah's prophecy, but it's something that was exampled among the Old Testament prophets. The death here, that was given as a prophecy in Isaiah 29 and 35.

And then the debtor raised up, that had happened as we talked about last week with 1 Kings 17 and 2 Kings 4.35 and 13.21. So it had happened in Old Testament times But also, it was studied last week, remember, in the city of Nain, as he had the two crowds.

One crowd was following Jesus and coming from outside the city up to the gate, and the other crowd was coming to the gate and exiting the city with the dead body of the son of a widow. And that's what Dr. Luke records in this kind of crazy collision between the two crowds. One of them is joyous and happy and the other is sad and crying. And Jesus walks up and says, don't weep. So that was recorded just immediately before. So Jesus didn't apparently raise a body just in front of these witnesses, but rather that had taken place, as Dr. Luke records, right before this event. And so people present could testify of that event. The poor have the gospel preached to them.

This is Isaiah 11.4 and 61.1 in the first part of verse 2. And then finally, blessed is he who does not take offense at me.

Now, real interestingly, Jesus is giving a warning because while John the Baptist has been this phenomenal guy who has put his life on the line, so to speak, to prepare the way for Christ. At this instance, John is about to take a wrong turn, and Jesus is graciously giving him warning. Because this passage, Isaiah 8, 11-18, especially verse 14, is a passage warning about those who stumble over Christ's message. And so he's actually, through these disciples, giving a very kindly given warning to John. It's put positively. Blessed is he who does not take offense at me, because there are those that will. There are those that will. John, don't be among them.

So, each one of these things that Jesus listed, to be told to John were either miracles or good news directed at the people of Israel. He went down the list, tell John about this and this and this and this and this. These actions were prophetic fulfillment of the Messiah as we saw those and all those were passages in Isaiah. At least once, or it was an echo of miracles performed by Elijah and Elisha as a picture of what the Messiah would do when he came. So every single one was one of those two. A prophecy out of Isaiah, or an echo of the miracles of Elijah and Elisha.

Now, blessed is the one who does not take offense. Jesus gave a good list of the things that he had done that were to be reported back to John. That list did not include, did you notice, setting anyone free from prison, even though that was prophesied of the Messiah. John had taken the right turn at many different stages of his ministry, but he was questioning if Jesus was in fact the Messiah. And that was a question he should not have asked. It was a question he should not have asked.

So he, Jesus, answered and said to them, Go and report to John what you've seen and heard. You yourself have seen these things. You yourself have heard them. Luke 7, 24-26, when the messengers of John had left, and boy did they get an eye and an earful. Whoa, the things that we have to report to John. Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John.

What did you go out to the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Those who are splendidly clothed and live in luxury are found in royal palaces. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, one who is more than a prophet.

So let's take a look at that. What did you go out to the wilderness to see? Jesus essentially asked this question three times, doesn't he? What did you go out to see? People went out of their way, out in the wilderness, to see John. Now isn't that amazing?

Instead of John coming into Jerusalem and preaching maybe from the temple courts or something, as Jesus did at times, John stays out in the wilderness and people come out to see him. People come out to see him. He stays deliberately away from the temple and all the activities in Jerusalem that everything was centered upon for the Jewish culture and he stays out in the wilderness and so people had to go out of their way often times to see John. But they did, they did and as we've seen he had a wide impact even in other places in the Roman Empire and even decades later.

So the first one Did you go out to see a reed shaken by the wind? Easily influenced. Easily influenced. Easily moved. This is the reed shaken by the wind. Is that what you went to see? Somebody who was just easily influenced and impacted by others? No. That's not what John was. But what did you go out into the wilderness? to see.

A man dressed in sock clothing, those who are splendidly clothed and live in luxury, are found in royal palaces. And I believe in this he's referring to Herod Antipas, who had John in prison. Soft and comfortable. Did you go out to see a man who was living in luxury?

No, not at all. This man just lived out in the wilds. wore rough clothing. You'd look at him and we'd say something like some kind of a mountain man or something, only it wasn't up in the mountains. Did you go out to see a man who had it good and had it easy? Very comfortable? No. That's not what you went out to the wilderness to see. But what did you go out in the wilderness to see?

A prophet? Yes. Was he a prophet? Yes. and one who is more than a prophet, that is, above the prophets. You have high regard for Elijah, and Elisha, and Isaiah, and Daniel. You have a high regard for those prophets? He's a prophet, yes, but he's got a station and a role above all those prophets that you highly regard. this is the one about whom it is written behold I sent my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way before you now that's a quote from Malachi 3.1 when Malachi 3.1 says behold I'm going to send my messenger and he will clear the way before me now as you compare those two you say wait a minute there's some differences why are there differences between Malachi 3.1 and what Jesus quotes there two reasons we'll look at one is because What Jesus said and Malachi 3.1 said were from different levels of translation. One, what Jesus said was translated from Hebrew into Greek into English.

And then Malachi 3.1 is directly from Hebrew to English. So you've got an extra translation in what Jesus said.

But one more thing, Jesus changed the pronoun to have the Father speaking directly to him. Do you notice that? Jesus changed the pronouns to have the Father speaking directly to him. As I see it, this conversation took place in heaven, and Jesus was the one who heard it. So he's reporting it as the Father speaking to him. Behold, I send my messenger ahead of you, Jesus, who will prepare your way, Jesus, before you. This is the Father talking to the Son. Isaiah 43 and 4 has a very similar message, and this is one that Matthew quotes.

A voice is calling, clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness, make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. Let every valley be lifted up and every mountain and hill be made low, and let the rough ground become a plain, and the rugged terrain a broad valley. Now, throughout Old Testament and into New Testament times, it was customary to have an announcer, a herald, well ahead of when a king or other royalty was coming through so that the rock could be cleared from the road and rises and dips and turns could be smoothed out. Here's an ancient road, for example. It would be a good example of where some rocks need to be moved out. Here's a part of what would happen. Here's the farmer.

He's out there plowing. Plowing is hard work, right? But once you get this rock dislodged with your plow, What are you going to do with it? You want to get it out of your field. So where do you throw it? In the road. You throw it in the road, because that gets rid of the rock. So then, what happens when you have royalty coming through, you want the rocks out of the road. So where do the rocks go? Back in the farmer's field. So it's a back and forth thing.

So figuratively speaking, John the Baptist was sent ahead of Christ's coming, like this herald, to prepare the way and get people ready for Christ's coming, into the ministry to the people of Israel. John was a way-preparer. We could look at it. That was his role. And all the other prophets, for all the reasons that they would be well-respected and regarded, only John had this way-preparer's role. That's why he was more than the prophets. Only John had this role of preparing the way for Christ's coming and for Christ's ministry.

Here's Luke 7.28, I say to you, among those born of women, there is no one greater than John, yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.

So it's great to have this verse on Mother's Day. Among those born of women. But what's interesting is John is the greatest, but less than the least. Is that puzzling or what? Let's explain that. Among those born of women, none is greater than John, but as great as John the Baptist was in significance and importance preparing the way for Christ's coming, he only anticipated the Kingdom of God. He anticipated it.

The Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven. Those Jews who actually enter the Millennial Kingdom will be those Jews who believe and will have survived the tribulation period. Those are the Jews who will populate Israel during the coming millennial kingdom. Be those who believe and will have survived the tribulation period. He who survives to the end, as Jesus says in Matthew 24, will be saved. Isaiah chapter 2 talks about the survivors of Israel.

And then next, the least in that kingdom will rank greater than John. So being in the kingdom is a great honor and a great privilege. So here is to give a graphical representation. So when we talk about the Millennial Kingdom, we know what we're talking about. The first and second coming in the Millennial Kingdom here. The first coming was when Christ came the first time. And since then we've had the Church Age starting in Acts chapter 2. that the church age will end at the rapture when the church is taken up to be with the Lord and we meet Him in the air.

And by the way, people will talk about, boy, I hope I'm around when the rapture happens. That would be great, right? But keep in mind, all Christian believers from Acts 2 until the rapture will all be raptured. Okay? Will all be raptured. It says, I am privileged to say sometimes at graveside services, I say, this is great that we're doing and it's honorable, and it ought to be honorable and respectful, but this is only temporary. Just keep that in mind.

And then the tribulation period, a seven-year period of horrible times. as Revelation 6-19 describes, ending with the Second Coming, Christ coming to earth again with us, and with the angelic creatures, and then the Millennial Kingdom, a thousand year period of time, when Christ will reign on the earth from Jerusalem, we will reign with Him, from Jerusalem, We will have a different inheritance in that kingdom than the Jews will, which will be in the land. For us, it will be accompanying Christ. And then, at the end of that, will be the end of this present heavens and earth, and the new heavens and new earth being generated, described in Revelation chapters 21 and 22. So this is the layout Jesus is saying, those Jews who are in that millennial kingdom will have a greater ranking, even the least of them, than John the Baptist. As privileged as he was to be the herald for Christ who would come.

Here is Israel's land by tribe. It looks kind of like stripes on the American flag here. And it goes from the Mediterranean all the way to the Euphrates River. You'll notice that. And so it will not be this little tiny country of Israel, but it will encompass what is now about eight countries. And so this is given as a general statement in Genesis 15, and then the designation by tribe is Ezekiel 48. So you can check that out if you like. Here are Luke 7, 29 and 30, which will finish our study of this passage.

When all the people and the tax collectors heard this, interesting, the people and the tax collectors, They acknowledged God's justice, having been baptized with the baptism of John. So now you have in contrast verse 30, but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God's purpose for themselves, not having been baptized by John. The Pharisees and these lawyers were the culture heroes of the day.

Everybody looked, oh boy, these guys are the greatest. These guys are the greatest. As a matter of fact, one of the reasons why the Jews in general rejected Christ as the Messiah was because they thought that, boy, the Messiah is just going to love the Pharisees. And that if you were a Pharisee, you thought, boy, the Messiah is just going to love us. We're just the best and the greatest.

And because that didn't happen, and Jesus instead ended up pronouncing judgments against the Pharisees, And speaking woes against them, in Matthew 23, most of the chapter. They said, well, certainly this can't be the Messiah, because the Messiah is going to love us. And you don't. So you can't be the Messiah.

Now, John either baptized or he didn't. And how did he make that decision to baptize some and not others? Anyone who had come to John in repentance, that is a change of mind, would be baptized by John as a symbol. The baptism didn't accomplish something. It symbolized something. That they had changed their minds and that they identified with John's message. But the Pharisees and the experts in the Law of Moses had mostly figured that they had already arrived and didn't need to repent to change their mind. So John wouldn't baptize them because they had rejected God. thinking we've already got everything we need and we really don't need to change anything. So, application.

John has drawn his own conclusions about what Christ could or should have done and then began to doubt Christ's identity and all that John had done to prepare the way in the years before. He was ready to sweep away his life of ministry questioning, wait a minute, is this really... are you the one? Have I been wasting my time? Am I here in jail for nothing?

It is possible for people to reach their own wrong conclusions about what God should or shouldn't do. Have you ever run into that? Therefore be mad at God, or question Him, or even walk away and not believe. That's interesting. I tend to have a fair amount of interaction with some aggressive atheists and agnostics.

And many of them will say, well God, if he's really God, shouldn't do this, and he shouldn't do that. And they'll arrive at their conclusion based on what they think God should or shouldn't do. This passage demonstrates, we've got to be careful about the conclusions we arrive at, about what God should or shouldn't do. Another application is, better let Jesus do the evaluation.

John was in prison, had been in prison for a time, and prisons in those days, as I've described earlier, were terrible places to be. It was a place where if people didn't take care of you from the outside, you're probably going to die. John's placement in prison was by the man who had the highest rank in Piraeus and Galilee, Herod Antipas. In that area, this guy was at the top.

Even though John had just about made a serious error of judgment, questioning, Jesus, are you the one? Jesus said that he was the greatest among those born of women before the kingdom. A lot of times our evaluations of things can be off. Better let Jesus do the evaluation. Let Him be the one to judge.

Another application here is, what's biblical repentance? People are often inclined to think that the repent means to feel really, really bad. Right? Or really, really sorry about something they did or didn't do. Sometimes people think they're repenting when they're really just sad they got caught. But they might even think that to repent has to go along with weeping and sobbing.

But those things are just not what biblical repentance is all about. Biblical repentance is about changing one's mind so as to end up in belief. That's repentance. of various kinds and external expressions of various kinds may go along with it, but that's not the core of repentance. Repentance is changing one's mind so as to end up in belief. That's the biblical definition of it.

As we look at this account of John, and we're going to see one more as we go through Luke in chapter 9, it is amazing to look at John's life, and even thinking through all the amazing things that John did, and Jesus, even with John having stumbled here asking this question, Jesus still says, He's greater than the prophets.

It's amazing, man, to look at and examine and to learn from. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for what you've revealed here in your word. We thank you for your love and care for us. We thank you for the good things that this passage reveals. And I even imagine what it was like for those two disciples of John to walk away and to go back and report to John about what had taken place. And just are amazed at that. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.