JOHN THE GREATEST

LUKE 7:18-35

      Prior to this account Herod Antipas imprisoned John the Baptist east of the Dead Sea in the high, desolate fortress Machaerus (3,800 feet above the Dead Sea) because of John's bold preaching (Ant., XVIII, v, 2). In a moment of discouragement John doubted and asked Jesus again to reassure him that He was Christ the Messiah (Lk. 7:18). Jesus did not appear to bring in the Kingdom in the time and manner John anticipated (Mt. 11:19). In a depressed mood, similar to that once experienced by his counterpart Elijah, John needed reassurance. G. Campbell Morgan called it “perplexity created by the methods of Jesus.”

      Edersheim wrote, “In these circumstances we scarcely wonder at the feelings of John’s disciples, as months of this weary captivity passed.” He continued, “In their view, there must have been a terrible contrast between him who lay in the dungeon of Machaerus, and Him Who sat down to eat and drink at a feast of the publicans.”

  I. Faithful in a prison (7:18-23)

      A. Doubts in the messianic kingdom (18-20)

      John’s entire ministry focused on pointing people to Jesus (Jn. 1:8, 3:30). In prison John received reports of the works Jesus did, works unlike John (Jn. 10:41). Then, John sent two of the disciples (Mk. 2:18) to ask Jesus, if He was indeed the Messiah.

      David Smith wrote, “Like the rest of the Jews, John had an imperfect ideal of the Messiah, and he doubted the Messiahship of Jesus because it did not square with his ideal.” Edersheim asked, “Was this the Kingdom he had come to announce as near at hand; for which he had longed, prayed, toiled, suffered, utterly denied himself. . . .”

      A. B. Bruce said, “By this time he has been a prisoner a good while, long enough to develop a prison mood.” Robertson said, “John longed for reassurance.”

      Edersheim said, “Let no one dare to say that the faith of John failed, at least till the dark waters have rolled up to his own soul.”

      B. Displays of the miraculous kingdom (21-23)

      Jesus sent word to John of the kingdom miracles taking place (Lk. 4:40).

•          Eyes opened (Mt. 9:30; Lk. 18:35)

•          Lame walk (Mt. 9:2; Lk. 14:13-21)

•          Lepers cleansed (Mt. 8:3; Lk. 17:12)

•          Deaf hear (Mk. 7:33-37)

•          Dead raised (Lk. 7:15)

•          Poor evangelized (Lk. 4:18)

      Jesus offended many by His kind of Messiahship. Jesus came for lost people.

Lk. 14:13 [ESV]. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,

      Soon, many religious people in Israel stumbled at the ministry of Jesus Christ.

1 Cor. 1:23 [ESV]. but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,

      Shallow faith fails in prison. Immaturity stumbles at the cross of Jesus.

 II. Fearless as a prophet (7:24-28)

      God gave John faith in adversity. The foundation of John’s faith proved unaffected by the hardships.

      Junior Hill said that when John was at his lowest, Jesus gave John his greatest compliment. Edersheim noted, “He to Whom John had formerly borne testimony, now bore testimony to him; and that, not in the hour when John had testified for Him, but when his testimony had wavered and almost failed.”

      A. Man of conviction (24-26)

Mt. 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

      John called for repentance (Lk. 3:10-14). John did not come as “a reed shaken with the wind”–changing and inconsistent, bending with every breeze. He did not come “clothed in soft raiment”–feeble and accustomed to flattery (Wesley). Robertson said, “The reeds by the Jordan bent with the wind, but not so John.”

      John boldly rebuked Herod Antipas (4 B.C.-A.D. 39), Herod the Great’s son and tetrarch over Galilee and Perea. John the Baptist condemned the scandalous marriage of Herod to Herodias, the wife of his half-brother, Philip (Mk. 6:17-18). Later, at a royal birthday party, Antipas granted Salome, the daughter of Herod Philip, a wish. Salome requested the head of John the Baptist (Mk. 6:21-29).

      James S. Stewart wrote, “From the days of Amos and Isaiah to the present, ‘Prophesy unto us smooth things’ has been an ever-recurring demand. . . the disease of modern preaching is its search after popularity.”

      After a young African was martyred for his faith, this writing was found in his room:

I’m part of the fellowship of the unashamed, the die has been cast, I have stepped over the line, the decision has been made–I’m a disciple of Jesus Christ–I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure–I’m finished and done with low living, sight walking, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, worldly talking, cheap giving and dwarfed goals. My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions are few, my guide is reliable, my mission is clear. I won’t give up, shut up, let up until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up for the cause of Jesus Christ.

      B. Messenger of Christ (27-28)

Lk. 1:17 [ESV]. and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.

      Robertson explained, “John is greater than all others in character, but that the least in the kingdom of heaven surpasses him in privilege. John is the end of one age, ‘until John’ (Mt. 11:14), and the beginning of the new era. All those that come after John stand upon his shoulders. John is the mountain peak between the old and the new.”

III. Friendly to the publicans (7:29-35)

      Both John and Jesus found sinners open to the message but the keepers of the law non-responsive.

      A. Repented and baptized (29)

Mt. 21:32 [ESV]. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.

      B. Refused to believe (30-35)

      Those who should have believed did not, but rejected God’s counsel through John the Baptist. The Pharisees and lawyers said no to repentance and baptism.

Acts 20:27 [ESV]. for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.

      Kyle M. Yates wrote, “Whenever the prophetic is swallowed up by the official or experiential religion is squelched by tradition, it becomes difficult for God’s Spirit to work through His children.”

          1. Games

      Vincent explained, “He pictured a group of little children playing at make-believe marriages and funerals. First they acted a marriage procession; some of them piping as on instruments of music, while the rest were expected to leap and dance. In a perverse mood, however, these last did not respond, but stood still and looked discontented. So the little pipers changed their game and proposed a funeral. They began to imitate the loud wailing of eastern mourners. But again they were thwarted, for their companions refused to chime in with the mournful cry and to beat their breasts. . . . So the disappointed children complained: 'We piped unto you and ye did not dance; we wailed, and ye did not mourn. Nothing pleases you. If you don't want to dance, why don't you mourn?’”

      Edersheim said, “They were like children in a market-place, who expected their fellows to adapt themselves to the tunes they played.”

      Neither the coarseness of John nor the cheerfulness of Jesus satisfied the hypocritical religionists. The Pharisees played the game but really did not want Christ.

          2. Grace

      Jesus came for sinners.

Lk. 5:32 [ESV]. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

Lk. 15:2 [ESV]. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them."

Lk. 19:7 [ESV]. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, "He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner."

      Bruce noted, “What a rabble! thought Scribes and Pharisees. Cause of profound satisfaction to Jesus. . . .”

“A malicious nickname at first, it is now a name of honor: the sinner’s lover.”

      Only the childlike in heart could receive Jesus. The Pharisees missed Christ, the wisdom of God.

Lk. 7:35 [GNB]. God's wisdom, however, is shown to be true by all who accept it.