In Christ’s tribute to John the Baptist, He establishes his faith, extols his greatness, and elevates his ministry. What kind of tribute will the Lord Jesus have for you on Judgment Day?
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Jesus’ Tribute to John the Baptist
Luke 7:18-35
Often when someone dies, a loved one will pay tribute to them. When George Whitefield, the famous evangelist of the 1st Great Awakening died, his friend John Wesley preached the funeral sermon. Though Wesley was an Arminian and Whitefield was a Calvinist, when Whitefield died, Wesley gave him a glorious eulogy. Here is a sample of that sermon: “I may close this head with observing what an honor it pleased God to put upon His faithful servant, by allowing him to declare His everlasting gospel in so many various countries, to such numbers of people, and with so great an effect on so many of their precious souls! Have we read or heard of any person since the Apostles, who testified the gospel of the grace of God through so widely extended a space, through so large a part of the habitable world? Have we read or heard of any person who called so many thousands, so many myriads, of sinners to repentance? Above all, have we read or heard of any who has been a blessed instrument in His hand of bringing so many sinners from “darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God?”
Well, here in Luke 7 we see Jesus giving a kind of tribute to John the Baptist, even before he dies. John is languishing in prison because he had the courage to call Herod to repentance for having his brother’s wife. Soon he would be beheaded for that righteous stand he took. But before his death takes place, Jesus gives a wonderful tribute to him in front of the multitude.
This morning we are going to move a little more rapidly because we are going to cover more ground. Usually we cover 10 verses or less, but this morning we are going to study 18 verses. In these 18 verses we have 3 subsections: Jesus Establishes John’s Faith – Jesus Extolls John’s Greatness – Jesus Elevates John’s Ministry.
1. Jesus Establishes John’s Faith: 7:18-23
John’s Doubts
We are told in verse 18, “The disciples of John reported to him about all these things.” Earlier in this very chapter Jesus has healed the centurion’s slave with a word from a distance, and then he has traveled a day’s journey only to raise an elderly widow’s son from the dead. Verse 17 concludes with, “This report concerning Him went out all over Judea and in all the surrounding district.” So, John’s disciples visited him in prison and told him of the incredible reports that were circulating all over Palestine. As John heard these reports, he summoned two of his disciples and sent them to the Lord with this question, “Are You the Expected One, or do we look for someone else?” The term Expected One is a title for the Messiah. For hundreds and hundreds of years the Jews had been waiting for One who would be their Savior and Deliverer.
When we first read these words we are stymied. Why would John ask this question? Wasn’t it John, as the cousin of Jesus, who would have known that Jesus was born of a virgin? Wouldn’t he have known about his spotless life? Wasn’t it John that said, “I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.” Hadn’t John see the Spirit descend on Jesus? Hadn’t he heard the Father say, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased”? Hadn’t John said often that he was not worthy to untie His sandals, and that He would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire? Hadn’t John called his disciples together and pointed at Jesus and said, “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world”?
Yes, yes, to all of those questions! Then, why did John ask his disciples to go to Jesus and ask Him if He was the Messiah or not? Wasn’t that already settled in John’s mind? It is because of this tension that some people have said that John didn’t ask this question for his own sake, but for the sake of his disciples. In other words, they say that John didn’t have any doubts, but his disciples did, so John sent them to Jesus to shore up their faith. However, that explanation just doesn’t seem to jive with what the Scripture says. We are told that John summoned two disciples and sent them to Jesus to ask if He was the Expected One. Then we are told that Jesus wrought miracles and then told John’s disciples, “Go and report to John what you have see and heard… Blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.” If it were only John’s disciples that were doubting, why would Jesus tell them to go and report to John what they had seen and heard. It is for that reason, that I think John himself was struggling with doubts.
Well, why would John struggle with doubts concerning Jesus? It was because there were many things that just didn’t add up. If Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah, where was His regal splendor? Where was His throne and crown? Why wasn’t he overthrowing the Romans? Why was He being rejected by the religious establishment of Israel? In the minds of the Jews, the coming of the Messiah was all about victory, conquest, sovereignty, rule, power, and glory. They overlooked those prophecies that spoke of the Messiah’s humiliation, suffering and death, and only focused on those prophecies which spoke of His glory.
Add to that the fact that John was languishing in prison. The prophecy in Isaiah 61 says that when Messiah came he would “proclaim liberty to captives, and freedom to prisoners.” Well, Jesus hadn’t proclaimed liberty and freedom to him. Here he was suffering in a cold, dark prison cell, subsisting on bread and water, when he had done God’s will and reproved a wicked king. If Jesus was the Messiah, why wasn’t He setting him free? I think that John’s sufferings brought him into a temporary state of doubt, which he needed to clear up.
Jesus’ Reassurance
So, how did Jesus respond? Interestingly, He doesn’t say, “Yes, I am the Expected One.” Instead, He said, “Stick around and watch a while.” Then He cast evil spirits out of people with afflictions, and cured people of diseases, and gave sight to many blind people. Then He turned to them and said, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them.”
Basically Jesus is saying, “If you want to know if I am the Messiah, just look at My life. I am doing what the prophets said the Messiah would do.” Jesus is alluding to Isaiah 35:5 which says, “Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will shout for joy.” Isaiah 61:1 also said of the Messiah, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted.” Well, Jesus was doing all of that. “Go back and report to John, that I am fulfilling the prophecies concerning the Messiah.
Jesus’ Reproof
Finally in verse 23, Jesus gives John a gentle word of correction: “Blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.” It is as if Jesus is saying, “John, don’t stumble at Me. Don’t let your faith fail you now that your experiences of suffering are casting a dark cloud over you. Don’t doubt what you know to be true because you can’t see how everything lines up. Hold on to in the dark what you saw so clearly in the light.
Life Application
Here we have a great Old Testament saint of God who is struggling with doubt. He sends his disciples to Jesus to ask Him if He really is the Expected One. Now, what does Jesus do? Does He angrily condemn John because he is doubting? No, instead He answers the question! He doesn’t just answer the question – He gives a real-life answer to the question. He asks the disciples to look and watch and listen for a while, and then quotes Scripture for John to help him regain assurance of faith.
Friends, we may go through seasons in our Christian life where we struggle with doubts. We may have temporary doubts about the Christian faith, or the person of Jesus, or the exclusivity of Christ, or a hundred other questions. If or when that happens, what should we do? I submit to you, that you should do exactly what John did. Go to Jesus! Ask Him to clear up your doubts. Then re-examine the life and ministry of Christ. Look at His peerless, sinless life. Look at His longsuffering as He suffers and dies. Look again at the evidence for His bodily resurrection. When I was pastoring at Milpitas Bible Fellowship in the late 1990’s, there was a young man named Sean that went through a severe time of depression and doubt. We had house church gatherings that he would come to. I can remember the sense of heaviness that he carried around with him for months. Well, last week Debbie and I went to a memorial service for his mother. At that service he was handing out little booklets on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He shared with everyone that it was when he focused on the resurrection of Jesus, that his doubts were dispelled and God brought him through that horrible season of depression. Basically Sean did what John’s disciples did. They focused on the Person and Work of Christ. Folks, if you pass through a season of doubt, I encourage you to just go to Jesus. Read the gospel accounts. Examine His life again, and especially the evidence for His resurrection. It is true – blessed are those who do not take offense at Him.
2. Jesus Extolls John’s Greatness: 7:24-28
Jesus has a gentle word of correction for John, and then He has many words of praise for John. Notice, though, that his word of correction was made in private to John’s disciples who would take the message back to him. Then His words of praise were made in public. Verse 24 says, “When the messengers of John had left, He began to speak to the crowds about John.” What a great principle. Correct privately but praise publicly. Jesus taught us in Matthew 18 that if your brother sins, you are to go and reprove him in private. Well, here He modeled that for us.
Notice that in verses 24-26, Jesus asks the crowd three different questions, all expecting negative answers. All three of the questions begin with, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see?” Let’s look at each of those three questions.
A Reed Shaken By The Wind – Conviction
When John preached along the Jordan River, the reeds would sway in the wind. So, was John like those reeds that would go wherever the wind blew them? Was he fickle and wavering when it came to standing for God’s truth? Absolutely not. John was a man of unswerving conviction. He had an iron backbone. I read the things that John preached and I think, “This guy’s got guts!” He said things like, “You brood of poisonous snakes, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Don’t take comfort in the fact that Abraham is your father. God has an axe and He is going to chop down every tree that doesn’t bear good fruit and throw them into the fire.” Does that sound like a reed shaken by the wind to you? John was a man of absolute conviction. He would not be moved. He would not change his message when the religious big shots showed up. He wouldn’t even change his message when it was King Herod. It was his uncompromising stand for truth that got him thrown in prison and finally beheaded. Do you take after John in this respect? Are you a man or woman of Biblical conviction? Do you stand for the truth when it is unpopular? Or are you a man-pleaser?
A Man Dressed In Soft Clothing – Self-Denial
The people didn’t go out to the Jordan River to see a reed shaken by the wind or a man dressed in soft clothing. They knew that John dressed in a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt. I really don’t think that a camel’s hair garment qualifies as “soft clothing”! John wasn’t your Hollywood type Playboy wallowing in wealth, and luxury and ease? Jesus said those types of people live in luxury in royal palaces. But John lived in the deserts. His diet was locusts and wild honey. His dress and diet showed his self-denial. John could have lived a more “normal” life, with his family in town, enjoying the comforts that it would have afforded. Instead, he chose continual communion with God, alone in the deserts, eating bugs and honey. Jesus’ point is that John was not only a man of unswerving conviction, but also a man who practiced self-denial in order to commune with God and do His will. Do you take after John in this regard? Do you practice self-denial in order that you can commune with God and do His will? What are you willing to give up in order to have more of God? What are you willing to refrain from in order to do His will? Are you willing to fast and give up food? Are you willing to get less sleep to have more time with Him? Are you willing to give away your hard-earned money in order to advance God’s kingdom?
A Prophet – Unique Role as Forerunner
Yes, John was a prophet, but he wasn’t just any ordinary prophet. Jesus says that He was more than a prophet. Jesus quoted from Malachi 3:1 to say that John was God’s messenger to prepare the way of Jesus Himself. That’s why He follows it up by saying, “I say to you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John.” Now, Jesus wasn’t saying that John was the most holy, or most devoted man, or most zealous man who had ever lived. He was saying that John was the greatest man in history, because He was given the greatest privilege in history. He had the privilege of preparing the way for the Messiah, God in human flesh, the Redeemer. Neither Elijah, or Elisha, or Moses, or Isaiah or Jeremiah or Ezekiel had the privilege of preparing the people for the personal appearing of Jesus Christ. That was John’s great privilege alone.
Application
Folks, this was not John’s finest hour. John was in a state of confusion and doubt. So, what does Jesus do? He turns around and brags on John to the crowd! He says John is a man of unswerving conviction. He is unbending concerning the truth. John is a man of great sacrifice and self-denial, putting communion with God before his food and clothes. And a prophet? You don’t know the half of it! He is the greatest prophet who ever lived. In fact, he’s the greatest man who has ever walked this earth. Oh, how gracious and kind Jesus is to His servant. Friends, this is a picture of Judgment Day for all of God’s faithful servants. We are going to stand before Him, and He is going to single us out, and He’s going to start bragging on us. He’s going to tell those billions of people, “Let me tell you about My servant.” Jesus is going to tell that vast assembly every good think you ever did for His sake. He’s going to detail every time you sacrificed your time and your money and your energy to do God’s will. He’s going to show the watching world when your faith was manifested in actions – when you shared Christ with others, when you wept with those who wept, when you prayed for suffering people, when you gave your money to help others and advance His kingdom. Jesus has a Book of Remembrance, and He is writing down every good thing, and He never forgets. That should fill the weakest believer with unspeakable comfort.
The Christian’s Privileged Status
Notice carefully Jesus’ startling words at the end of verse 28, “yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he”! This verse has perplexed believers for centuries. What exactly did Jesus mean by that?
First of all, what did Jesus mean by “the kingdom of God”? The kingdom of God is the saving rule and reign of God. Everyone who has ever been saved is in that kingdom. However, when Jesus began preaching He said, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” Yes, saved saints in the Old Testament were in the kingdom of God. However, Jesus was introducing a new form of the kingdom of God. The Old Testament saints lived in the Kingdom in the era of promise. The New Covenant had not been ratified. The sacrifice had not been made which would put away sin. They lived in a time of types and shadows and promises. They were looking forward to the time when Messiah would come. After Jesus died and rose again, believers live in the Kingdom in the era of fulfillment. Everything that Old Testament saints looked forward to, we know and have. Everything they hoped for, we understand. All that they believed would come, we know has come. John could never truly preach the gospel, because the gospel is all about the death and resurrection of Christ. John died in prison and never knew of Jesus’ death and resurrection. He didn’t understand that Jesus would ascend to heaven, and return again one day. He never experienced the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.
You want to know how privileged we are? We understand all of that. We understand the cross and the resurrection, and the coming of the Spirit, and 2nd coming of Christ. We who live on the other side of the cross see it all. So, the least of us who live as believers in the age of fulfillment is greater even than John who lived in the age of promise. Notice what Jesus says in Luke 10:23-24, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see, for I say to you, that many prophets and kings wished to see the things which you see, and did not see them, and to hear the things which you hear, and did not hear them.”
Folks, a brand new Christian who doesn’t know anything except that Jesus died for his sins and rose from the dead, is greater in the kingdom than even John the Baptist, because he sees and understands things that saints in the Old Testament never saw or understood.
3. Jesus Elevates John’s Ministry: 7:28-35
In this last section we see how great, and lofty and exalted was John’s ministry. Basically he was the human instrument in that day through which God worked to save His people. John was God’s instrument through repentant people were saved, and his message was the grounds by which unrepentant religious people were damned. No one was nonchalant about John’s ministry. Either you loved and respected him and his message or you hated and despised him and his message. John preached the truth, and you either humbled yourself, repented and were saved, or you stiffened your neck, resisted, and were lost. Let’s look at the two different groups that John ministered to.
The Repentant
Luke 7:29 says, “When all the people and the tax collectors heard this, they acknowledged God’s justice having been baptized with the baptism of John.” What that means is that when many of the common people heard John preach, they knew that it was the voice of God, and they were baptized. But, remember that John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. These are the tax collectors and prostitutes and common sinners. They repented, confessed their sins, and were baptized as a sign of their repentance. John’s ministry brought forgiveness of sins to those that repented. That’s how elevated and significant his ministry was.
The Unrepentant
However, there were others who did not repent. Verse 30 says, “But the Pharisees, and the lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves, not having been baptized by John.” What a terrifying statement. They rejected God’s purpose for themselves. What was that purpose? To repent and be baptized. However, they would not repent. In the first century, only Gentiles were baptized, in order to become proselytes and become Jews. There was no way that these proud religious Pharisees and lawyers would ever stoop to put themselves on the level of a dirty Gentile dog! They would never admit that they were the problem, and that they were just as guilty in the eyes of God as Gentiles were.
Then, Jesus goes on to describe these unrepentant religious people. He says they are like children who play together in the market place. Children love to mimic their parents and pretend. In this illustration Jesus says that some of the children said, “Let’s play Wedding.” Someone got to be the Bride, and someone else the Groom, and someone else the best man. Others were the musicians playing the flute. However, the other kids would not play the game or dance. Then the children said, “OK, let’s play Funeral then.” Someone got to be the dead person, and others were the family he left behind, and the others were the mourners. But the other kids wouldn’t play this game either. They wouldn’t weep when they sang the dirge.
Jesus applies the illustration in verses 33-34. He said John the Baptist came playing the Funeral Game. His preaching was all about sin and judgment and wrath. John preached to make people said, to wail over their sins, to repent. John sang a dirge. His preaching was fearful, hell-fire and damnation preaching that produced mourning over sin. What did the religious people do with that? They didn’t like it at all, because it would mean they would have to humble themselves and admit that they were sinful like everybody else. This they would never do.
Then Jesus came along playing the Wedding Game. John came eating no bread and drinking no wine, and they said he had a demon. That’s just a figure of speak to describe normal living in the first century. John was not normal. He was a hermit. He was separated away from the people. He wasn’t in the know about everything that was happening. John was so anti-social, and he lived so differently and bizarrely that they said he was mad and it could only be attributed to demon-possession. But Jesus was the opposite. Jesus was very social. Jesus went to the parties and the feasts. He rubbed shoulders with everybody, religious and irreligious alike. Jesus went to the feasts of the Pharisees, and he went to the feasts of the sinners, tax-collectors and harlots. Jesus preached about forgiveness, salvation, joy and blessing. What was their response to Jesus? They said He was a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.
John called for a fast and they rejected him. Jesus called for a feast, and they rejected Him. John said the Kingdom was a fire and they rejected him. Jesus said the Kingdom is a festival and they rejected Him. John preached judgment and they rejected him. Jesus preached joy and they rejected Him. You see, nothing would please them. John’s funeral type ministry didn’t please them, and Jesus’ wedding type ministry didn’t please them. They were like little children who didn’t get their way so took their ball and went home. Neither John’s ministry nor Jesus’ ministry could reach them, because they were proud and self-righteous.
Jesus concludes in verse 35 by saying, “Yet wisdom is vindicated by all her children.” A wise decision will be vindicated by the good results it brings to pass. Likewise, Jesus and John’s ministry will be vindicated by the kind of people that it produces. Their holy and godly lives will vindicate that Jesus and John were from God in spite of the fact that their style of ministry was so different from one another.
Application
As we draw this message to a close let me ask you, “Are you like the tax collectors and sinners who humbled themselves, repented and were baptized? Or are you like the proud self-righteous Pharisees who rejected God’s purpose for themselves because they would not humble themselves. They wouldn’t respond to John’s dirge or Jesus’ dance. Where do you stand with God? Until you come clean, and acknowledge your sin to God, and repent in your heart, you will never be right with God.
Jesus gave this glowing tribute to John. And folks, as hard as it is to believe, one day if you are faithful unto death, He will give you a glowing tribute before everyone who has ever lived. “Then each man’s praise will come to him from God” (1 Cor. 4:5). Live with conviction. Deny yourself and live unto Christ. Don’t live for the approval of man, but for the approval of God. And on that final day, you too will receive praise from the very lips of Jesus Christ. What higher goal could we possibly live for? Let’s pray.
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