WHAT WENT YE OUT TO SEE?

Matthew Chapter Eleven

Sermon of the Week #200826 – June 29, 2008

In Matthew chapter eleven John the Baptist was in prison and would soon be decapitated. John had been hearing about the works of the Christ and sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus, “Art Thou He that cometh or look we for another?” All members of the house of Israel expected the coming of Jesus, because David had prophesied in Psalm 118:26, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.”

In a similar way today millions are expecting the second coming of Jesus, because He said in John 14:3, “If I go I come again.” And in Acts 1:11 at His ascension into Heaven two angels announced, “This Jesus who is received up from you into Heaven shall so come again as ye beheld Him going into Heaven.” At the moment of the return of Jesus no one will have any doubt as to His identity. John tells us in Revelation 1:7, “Behold He comes with the clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they that pieced Him; and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn because of him.”

John had been hearing about the works of the Christ. He had heard that He had raised the dead, cured lepers, restored sight to the blind, and John wanted to hear from Jesus, “Are you He that cometh?” You can hear a lot of things on the radio, television, churches, and read many books about the coming of Jesus the first time, or the second time, that did not come from Jesus; but John wanted to hear it from the Lord Himself.

John, shut up in the prison, heard about the activities of the Lord and sent two of his disciples with this question, “Art thou He that cometh or look we for another?”

Jesus answered by telling them to go and tell John what they saw and heard. One version says that Jesus said, “Tell John again the things which ye hear and see.” There are some things we need to hear over and over again. Sometimes a person’s faith may waver if a false doctrine is repeated over and over, such as telling seekers of truth to bow their heads and asking Jesus to come into their hearts. There is more to receiving salvation than bowing your head, and raising your hand; such as repentance, and obedience in baptism. So tell them again and again to brace up their faith. Jesus said, “Tell him the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up and the poor have good tidings preached to them, and blessed is he whosoever shall find no occasion of stumbling in Me?”

Peter tells how many find an occasion of stumbling when he said in his first epistle 2:7, “The stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the head of the corner.” Then he said, “They stumble at the word, being disobedient.” There is no place where people stumble over Jesus as at the point of His identity as the crucified and risen Son of God who died for our sins and through His blood we are redeemed.

Then there are some who take offence at Jesus because of the hypocrites in the church. They quit and the church suffers for two reasons: first, because of the hypocrite; and secondly, by the loss of the holy sanctified person who quit because of the hypocrite. Blessed are they who find no occasion of stumbling in me.

Then there are others who take offence at Jesus because of some of His teaching. Hell is one good example. Jesus had more to say about Hell than anyone else in the New Testament, and yet they say because Jesus loves everybody, He would not say such things as He actually did say in Mark 9:43-48, where He mentioned five times about some people being cast into Hell. Some say there is no such place and take offence if the preacher mentions it. Blessed are they who find no occasion of stumbling in me.

We must also take note that many are offended in Jesus because of the demands He makes on our lifestyle. In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7:13-14, Jesus said, “Enter ye in through the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many are they that enter in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and straight is the way, that leadeth unto life and few there be that find it.” Those who choose the broad way and still walk in darkness find comfort in accusing those who strive to walk in the narrow road as fanatics. Blessed are they who find no occasion of stumbling in me.

According to the seventh chapter of Luke, just before John sent the two disciples to Jesus, the Lord had raised from the dead the son of the widow of Nain. What a demonstration that must have been to see a dead man rise up in his coffin on the street in broad daylight. No wonder they said, “A great prophet has arisen among us and God has visited His people.” Jesus said, “Go tell them what ye see and hear.” One time I asked a Jewish Christian why he became a Christian. He cited John 7:31, when some of the Jews said, “When the Christ shall come what signs will He do more than this man has done?”

While we may not see a physical resurrection today, we do see the results of many who have had a spiritual resurrection, born of water and the Spirit, and the influence of the redeemed on mankind.

This was the message that Jesus sent back to John, and it was a reassuring message for him. John now knew what Paul, another prisoner, would later say of himself in Philippians, “The Word of God is not bound.” John knew that although he was in prison the Word of God was not bound. In a similar way the Word is not bound on this broadcast. From a small village the Word on this broadcast can be heard anywhere on this planet. The Word of God is not bound.

John also knew that his work would not die after he left planet earth. God buries His Apostles and his preachers, and raises up others to fill their places. No one is indispensable in the kingdom of God, but Jesus.

And then in this cluster of things that Jesus mentioned, one thing stands out above the rest, the poor have good tidings preached to them; the rest are miracles. Why was preaching good tidings added to this list of miracles? At second glance, preaching the gospel does belong in the group of miracles, because the preaching of Jesus was just as big a miracle as anything else that He did. His message was a supernatural message because it came down from Heaven like the rushing of a mighty wind, and they preached that day as the Spirit gave them utterance.

These are days when people want to get in on the miracles. If you really want to get in on the miracles, the best way to do that is to preach the gospel, and when someone responds to the Lord and repents, and is immersed for the remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Lord works the miracle of salvation. The song says it for us:

It took a miracle to hang the world in place,

It took a miracle to put the stars in space.

But when He saved my soul, Cleansed and made me whole,

It took a miracle of love and grace.

WHAT WENT YE OUT INTO THE WILDERNESS TO BEHOLD?

As the disciples of John went on their way, Jesus asked the multitude, “What went ye into the wilderness to behold? Was it a reed shaken by the wind?” A reed grows by the riverbank and will bend whichever way the wind blows.” Jesus asked, “Is this the kind of a preacher you went out to hear?”

There is a disease that has infected the brotherhood. It is very infectious. No one has ever seemed to be able to identify it until now. Recently, I looked through the microscope of faith and was able to see it plainly. This funny-looking germ is called, THE BENDS. Our preacher’s have become infected with BENDITUS. The symptom is whenever a preacher begins to sway back and forth as he preaches. His message is determined by whichever way the wind is blowing.

However, it is not only the preacher who may have Benditus; it is the whole congregation that has come down with Benditus. Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:14, “Henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the slight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.” Then in Hebrews 13:9, “Be not carried away by different and strange doctrines.” Then in James 1:6, “For he that waveth is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed.”

There is only one blast of wind that does not have much effect on the churches. It is that tremendous wind in Acts 2:2, “And suddenly there came from Heaven a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the Word of God as the Spirit gave them utterance.” That wind did not come from the east, Middle East, from the west, north or south, but straight down from Heaven.

There have been some great changes in the world since that far-off day when the Church was born, but the Lord has not changed, His Word has not changed, sin has not changed, God’s method of forgiveness has not changed, Hell has not changed, Heaven has not changed. It is often said, “We should not change our theology, but change our methodology.” This doubletalk has actually changed the theology along with the methodology. The program of many churches seems to be determined by what is popular at the moment, and many have come down with a severe case of Benditus.

WHAT WENT YE OUT TO SEE?

Then Jesus repeated the question and said, “Were you looking for a man wearing soft raiment? Behold they that wear soft raiment are in king’s houses.” John wore a camel’s hair coat, and ate locust and wild honey. Hear him as he preached one time and said concerning King Herod, “It is not lawful for thee to have her.” Herod had stolen his brother, Philip’s wife. But did John have to remind him of that? Why should he be so negative? He could have preached a positive message, and left that out, and he could have prolonged his ministry. If he had only left that part out he could have been around and helped Peter preach the first gospel sermon on the day of Pentecost. It really was not expedient for John to say, “It not lawful for thee to have her.” Expedient means it was not good for business for John to say it.

You see, the trouble with John is he did not live in the soft-raiment syndrome. There was nothing anyone had that he wanted. He did not play politics to vie for a prominent place in the hierarchy of the brotherhood. All he wanted to do was preach the Word of God. May his tribe increase? We have said it many times before and we say it again. It is just as disloyal to the Word of God to leave something out, as it is to contradict the Word of God. Don’t expect things to change. Because we enjoy living in the King’s house, wearing the King’s clothes and driving the King’s car, even if a king is the only one who can afford the price of the gas.

BUT WHAT WENT YE OUT TO SEE?

And then Jesus said it again from another angle, “What went ye out to see a prophet? I say unto you, much more than a prophet.” Jesus said there has never arisen a greater than John. There were some great prophets in the Old Testament, such as Isaiah who prophesied in Isaiah 53:8, “He is brought forth as a lamb to the slaughter.” That prophecy was fulfilled as mentioned by Luke in Acts 8:32, by Philip preaching to the Ethiopian eunuch. That prophet also predicted that he would not only be crucified, but with whom, when he said Isaiah 53:12, “He was numbered with the transgressors.” That prophecy was fulfilled in Luke 22:37. Another illustration of the greatness of the Old Testament prophets is Psalm 24:16, “They pierced my hands and my feet.” That prophecy was fulfilled in Mark 14:24. But John was the greater than all the great prophets because he was the last in a long line of prophets to predict the coming of Jesus into this world.

However, Jesus also said John was more than a prophet. He was more than a prophet because he not only prophesied that Jesus was coming, but announced that Jesus had come. He said, “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” He was more than a prophet again because he not only prophesied the coming of Jesus, but he himself was part of the prophecy. In the last chapter of Malichi it was predicted that God would send Elijah the prophet before the coming of Lord. Jesus said on the Mount of Transfiguration that John was the Elijah that was to come. And then John was also the greatest of the prophets because he was personally acquainted of Jesus.

And with all His greatness Jesus said, “He that is but little in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” The least member in importance in the kingdom of Heaven is greater than John because according to Jesus, John was not in the kingdom of Heaven. He had preached the message that the kingdom of Heaven was at hand. When he was put in prison, Jesus in Matthew 4:17 continued the same message, “Repent ye for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” Since the kingdom of Heaven is the Church, the least member of the Church is greater than John because John was not a member of the Church. Paul reminds us in Colossians 1:13 that we have been translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love. Before Jesus, the New Testament Church did not exist. Jesus said in Matthew 16:18, “Upon this rock I will build my church.”

The Apostles asked Jesus just before He ascended, in Acts the first chapter, “Lord, doest thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” Jesus told them they would receive power not many days hence. That prediction was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost when the gospel of the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus was proclaimed, and the people who believed it were told to repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. When 3000 responded to this invitation, it was declared that God added to the church that day those that were saved. Any church started before that was started too soon, and any church started after that was started too late. And now that question again, “Art thou He that cometh or look we for another?” Ladies and Gentlemen, if Jesus is not what you are looking for there is none other.