Recognizing the Right Messiah

Transcript

Auto-generated from the audio. Click a timestamp to jump to that part of the video.

[0:00] Our sermon text is from Matthew, pardon me, chapter 11, starting with verse 2. And again, I remind us that we're in Advent. This is about the arrival of Jesus. Just to recap, Advent 1 was about the arrival at the end of time. So it was kind of pointing towards the end of time and all things that are coming at the end. Advent 2 last week was about John the Baptist sort of preparing the way for Jesus. Today is actually more about John the Baptist, as Victoria mentioned, but this time is actually more about the Messiah and how to recognize the Messiah when he comes. And John is sort of a test case in how to figure out what the Messiah looks like. And then next week we have Matthew's much shorter birth narrative about Jesus. So that's what Advent looks like for us. So we're halfway through this week and next week and then Christmas. So don't celebrate Christmas yet. Don't listen to Christmas. I'm kidding. But you could. You could just kind of go, well, it's not Christmas yet. We're still in a time of preparation. This is sort of the Lent to Easter. Advent is to Christmas in a way.

[1:04] But again, today is really about John the Baptist sort of indirectly, but really about how do you recognize the Messiah? If you're waiting for the Messiah, if you're preparing for him to come, how do you know when he's come? What does he look like? Make sure you got the right one. So let's go to our reading, Matthew 11, 2 through 11.

[1:26] John the Baptist, who was in prison, heard about all the things the Messiah was doing. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, are you the Messiah we've been expecting? Or should we keep looking for someone else?

[1:41] Jesus told them, go back to John. Tell him what you've heard and seen. The blind see, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cured. The deaf hear, the dead are raised to life. And the good news is being preached to the poor.

[1:58] And he added, God blesses those who do not fall away because of me. As John's disciples were leaving, Jesus began talking about him to the crowds. What kind of man did you go into the wilderness to see? Was he a weak reed swayed by every breath of wind? Or were you expecting to see a man dressed in expensive clothes? No. No.

[2:25] Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? of heaven is greater than he is. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word, and we ask that you would add your blessing to it. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, a little background. John was in prison. We should probably figure out why that's the case. And he, John was in prison, but he didn't really need to be, but actually, he really did need to be. Are you confused yet? Let's get to it. So what had happened is he had criticized the royal family and how their marriage arrangements inside the family were verging on the incestuous. And that's kind of exciting, you know? So I have a family tree I can show you of this royal family, Herod's royal family, and it looks like a plate of spaghetti. I can show it to you. It's pretty funny. A little too much, a little, some lines that shouldn't be connected is probably the best way to put it. So that was what the royal family was looking like, and that was a mistake of John to criticize the powerful. Criticizing the powerful will get you into trouble. But what they were doing was against the laws that govern family relationships, the laws that God had given over the years. God didn't like it. John said, God is not pleased with this. All your marriages and divorces and some of these interrelationships

[4:16] that had gone kind of crazy. So he was put in prison for it. And prison wasn't a good place then. It's not a great place now, but then it was a lot worse. There was not a lot of good things happening in prison back then. And like I said, he didn't need to do that. He could have stayed free, but in another way, he did have to do that because that's who he was. You got to get to the point about who John really was. He had to do what God called him to do. That was really his function.

[4:46] One of the things that God had called him to do was to proclaim that people needed to repent and turn away from evil and turn towards the Messiah. And so that call wasn't just to lowly people, people who couldn't take it out on him. That call also had to go to high people, people in power, to the wealthy, to the powerful. And so he was faithful. He was obedient. He had this fire.

[5:17] And he said, I have to call them to repentance so that they're ready for when the Messiah comes, so that they can come and give their lives to the Messiah. So he didn't shy away from insulting the Pharisees, as it turns out. Now, they weren't as powerful as, say, the Sadducees. That's an interesting story. But they had some power, some social power, some religious power, and he did actually insult the Pharisees.

[5:46] And then he insulted the royal family, and he ended up in jail for it. And that's actually, in a way, you think about it, that's good news, that he actually thought to criticize the people in the highest place because he was calling them to repentance. And if he was calling them to repentance, in his heart, then there was hope that they would turn, isn't there? And that they would receive new life. So the gospel is for everybody. It's for the low and the high. Now, whether they took it or not, that's a different question. But the offer was there. And the offer, in this case, looked like a criticism, but it was an invitation to turn away from evil and turn towards the Messiah, who he was always pointing to. Now, here's the interesting thing that happens in our passage today, is that in prison, languishing there with a lot of time to think, and this is sometimes a bad thing if you have too much time to think. But of course, it's always good to think, but if you think too much, it kind of goes in a circle.

[6:52] John began to doubt. And he sent his disciples to Jesus to say, are you really the one that I was expecting, that we've all been expecting, or should we go looking for somebody else, right? Um, which is odd because he had met Jesus. Jesus went down to the Jordan River to be with John, and John had actually baptized Jesus. And John said, I'm not worthy to close the Velcro on his Nikes. That's sort of a modern way of saying, I'm not, I can't even tie your sandals up for you, right? He says, Jesus must, this Jesus must grow in prominence, and I must shrink away. But then he sends his disciples to say, was I right about you? Did I get it wrong? You know, and maybe he was thinking, I'm not sure exactly, but I think this is part of it. And we have our Old Testament reading to, kind of help us here, that Jesus wasn't doing what John thought he was going to do. It wasn't looking to John like he thought it would look. Now, if we go back to our reading from Isaiah, did it catch some of your attention about what would happen when the road is prepared, right?

[8:09] Um, verse 4, say to those with fearful hearts, be strong and do not fear for your God is coming, right? And then he says, he's coming to save you. And that was the expectation for the Messiah. Now, we understand the Messiah as coming and actually destroying the enemies of sin and death and darkness and injustice, but not destroying human beings. Jesus never acted in violence. He never did, ever. In fact, he preached against violence. And we always have to remind ourselves of that. Jesus never condoned violence. It was not the way. Of course, he said, he was not going to do it. He said, if somebody strikes you on the cheek, you have to turn the other cheek, right? This is Jesus. So Jesus wasn't destroying John's enemies. Who were the enemies? I think we understand this. It was the Romans. It was people who were occupying the land, taxing them. Roman soldiers walking all around their town. They didn't like it. And so he's saying John was thinking, okay, I prepared everybody so that you could do what we're all expecting you to do. And even Jesus' disciples, they expected him to do this. I've belabored this point so many times. You're probably sick of it, right? Everybody was always looking for the wrong thing when they looked at Jesus.

[9:24] They were expecting some kind of political power to rise up and manifest itself in a military force that was going to clean out the land of all the foreigners. This sounds strange. Anyway, I don't know what I'm thinking, but I don't know why this sounds eerily strange. But anyways, so we imagine that's what John was thinking.

[9:48] He's like, I haven't seen it yet. John was like, I haven't seen it yet. Because for one thing, if that had happened, I wouldn't be in jail now, would I? Right? Herod and his family would be gone. The people who put me in jail would be gone. I'd be released. So John, I think, wants to be out of jail. I think he's wondering if Isaiah 35 really meant what he thought it meant. And then the alternative was that Jesus isn't really the one. So should we go looking for somebody else? But at least he sends his disciples to ask Jesus, are you the one? Or should we go looking for somebody else? And I want to stop right here because I think even if I'm kind of joking about politics and things in the world, this is a reality for all Christians. We are actually always hoping Jesus will look a little different than the Scriptures give us Jesus. Does that make sense? Yeah. We actually want Jesus to be a little different than the Jesus as revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures. So we want God to smite our enemies, whoever they may be. You know, if this was like a form on the internet, you could insert the name of your enemy here.

[10:56] Type, type, type, type. There's a button down there that says smite. That's what we want God, that's what we want Jesus to do, right? But then Jesus comes along and says, love your enemies and pray for them. And you're like, that doesn't sound right. That does. I think you made a mistake somewhere there. Are you the one?

[11:14] Right? Right? Right? Das Kapital by Karl Marx. Is there a Jesus in there that we like? Or it could be The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli. It's way on the other end of the spectrum. Or it could be The Lyrics to Imagine by John Lennon. You're not going to find Jesus there, I don't think. Or you could look for it in the Declaration of Independence. As nice as that document it is, but it's not in there either. That was a very humanist document. There's a few mentions of the creator, but the people who wrote it were deists. They're different people. These are all human works in the end. So John was looking for something he wasn't finding. He sent Jesus. And by the way, I don't want to plant a seed here, and I'm going to ask you a bit later, what are you looking for in Jesus that you aren't finding? What are you asking Jesus to be that he won't be? The Scriptures never tell you he'll be. Hold on to that thought. And I'm going to ask you to volunteer, the brave or the not so brave, to volunteer at the end what they think. And I'll share. I'll share with you. I'll share my list. I have a list of things I wish Jesus would do that I actually know he won't, but I wish he would. So even Jesus' disciples, they were waiting for him to flex his muscles

[12:51] a little bit, at least metaphorically. And they wanted him to clean out the land. They had a list. They had a list of things they thought the Messiah would and should do. John had a list. The disciples had a list. All sorts of people had a list. Jesus had a list, but it didn't look like anything else like everybody else's list. It was God's list. And so now we get to Jesus' list. This is really great. I love how Jesus, when he's asked a very direct question, not always, sometimes, but not always, does he answer directly, right? He answers indirectly. Are you the one we should be looking for? Are we the only one we're looking for? Should we look for somebody else? And he could have just said, yep, me. That's the end of the conversation. No, you got it. He doesn't say that. He doesn't say me or yes. He says, well, let's think a little bit. This is the good kind of thinking, right? Let's reflect a little bit.

[13:50] He says this, what have you seen? What have you heard? What have you seen? What have you heard? That's his answer. It's kind of like a parable. I'm going to make you do a little bit of mental work because then you're going to own the answer a little bit. What have you seen? What have you heard? Go back and tell John what you've seen, what you've heard. And this is, this is, this is, the list. Okay. If you want the list, this is the list. Here's what's happened. The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf can hear, the dead are raised. That was kind of hiding there in the list of all those other things as if it was among equals. If it was among equals, there's a great Latin phrase I could give you. Primus inter pares, the first among equals, the first among equals, the dead. The dead are raised. What? Why didn't you start with that or end with that? Put it in the middle. I don't get it. The dead are raised. Like, is, is that, like, isn't that enough? Like that one alone? Would that be enough? That would be enough, I think. Okay. All of those are things that you could see. And then now for what you can hear, the good news is being preached to the poor. Now, the poor, is this a justice thing where we're really sort of favoring those who don't

[15:07] have anything and we're, we're bringing them up because it's an inverted kingdom? Well, I think so. But also Jesus talks about the poor in spirit in Matthew. That's everybody. Those who are lost. Those who need the good news preached to them, which is really everybody. Blessed are the poor in spirit, right? So the good news is being preached to the poor. And then, by the way, Jesus says, God will bless those who don't fall away because of me. And I take that to mean because I wasn't the one they were looking for, but they follow me for who I actually am and what I've actually done. So he's saying, in a way, it's almost like a little prayer. He's saying, please, God, don't let anyone stop following me because I didn't make their list. But please, God, save them because we can change their list. To look at this list, the one that just came before this. Lepers cured, deaf can hear, the dead are raised. The good news is preached. So that's the list of what Jesus actually does. His resume speaks for itself, right? And you want to think about how similar Jesus, and John, actually are. John had to get himself into prison to be true to God's call in his life. He couldn't play it safe. He had to speak to the great and the lowly with the same voice.

[16:20] What integrity. I love that, right? And Jesus is the same. He walked headlong into danger as he approached the city of Jerusalem, right? He had to keep doing what God called him to do. He healed and he preached. He did not raise an army, all because he was true to who he was. And being the general of an army, he was true to who he was. And he was true to who he was. And he was true to who he was. And he was true to who he was. And he was true to who he was. And he was true to who he was. Right? Right Right Right him, right? And we have to know what Messiah looks like so that we can prepare for his coming.

[17:13] So it can't be our preferred version. I think of it this way. It's not like a meal we can customize on DoorDash and wait for it to be conveniently delivered in 20 minutes. It's not that. It's the real version of the Messiah, the version God's been promising and preparing all along. It's like a seven-course feast that takes time to prepare. And some of it is hard to digest, quite honestly, but only because it's good for us and our stomachs are too used to junk food. You can insert junk food mentally where you want to. This is the only real food for the soul. This is what God is preparing for us, and it takes time. It takes setting aside all the things we want and taking on the things that God would have us want and do.

[18:00] So the next part, and this is the final part about the scripture itself, is a lot of I keep saying this is one of my favorite parts of scripture, and you're like, well, how many does he have? But this is one of them, because Jesus doesn't criticize John. I love this. He doesn't say, oh, what a, you know, we're cousins. Like, we're cousins. He knows me. How could he say this? You know? Didn't his parents tell him who I was? He doesn't criticize John. He praises him, right? I think he knows he's in prison. He knows he's despairing. He knows he doesn't have the full picture. John's in prison because he was faithful to the call. So what does Jesus say? He says, not how could you doubt, or you're bad because you doubted, but he says, John is the greatest prophet that ever was, the greatest person that ever was. High praise from Jesus. I mean, it's really amazing. And, by the way, the one who is least in the kingdom, the people who understand who and what the Messiah really is, that least one is still greater than John.

[19:03] So it kind of sets the tone. Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? John is going to hopefully hear from his disciples. They're going to come back to him and say, yeah, you know, we've seen and we've heard.

[19:37] And the dead have been raised. The lepers are cured. You know, the blind see. And the good news is being preached. And then we think, hope, that in prison John hears all that and goes, of course, he is the Messiah. Who could do all these things other than the Messiah? It doesn't look like I thought it was going to look. It looks actually better.

[19:59] A lot less blood. Only one person has to bleed instead of thousands. Right? It's important. And so he would then, I think he would gladly trade being the best human outside the kingdom to being on the level of the least person inside the kingdom.

[20:17] And like many stories in the scriptures, we don't know how they end. Did John get there? I think so. I hope so. We'll know someday. We'll know. We. We do know that his obedience to the call put on his life cost him his human life. And that's a story for another time. But he gained the only true life. Right? And that's what Messiah came for. So that you could have the true life and not change it. Not not hope that you have this one life, but you have this true life. So I want to tell you and I'm going to ask you. So there's two. Eric's going to come around with the microphone now for the brave or the not so brave. If you want to speak, I want to hear it.

[20:53] But I'll start. I want to go around and give you a chance. And the microphone is so people at home can hear and you can hear each other. I guess I'm going to tell you what I've seen and heard that tell me that Jesus really is the Messiah. Right. Because this is where doubt comes in until you remind yourself, oh, what have you seen? What have you heard? What's on my list? So but I'm going to start.

[21:19] By telling you what I wish Messiah would have been, but isn't. So I want the Messiah to smite evil people now. I want him to smite. People who start wars and innocent and torture innocent people. I really want that.

[21:34] I can't change that. I want that, but I know he's not going to do that. And I want the Messiah who tells me I'm right because I love being right. And I also want the Messiah to convince other people that I'm right because that would feel good, but he's not going to do that.

[21:50] And. That's my list. Those are the two things I want Messiah to do. That's what I'm looking for. I'm not finding it. I never will. I'm okay with that. But I just want to tell you, that's my honest list. Now I want to tell you what I've seen and heard that tells me that this really is the Messiah. So I've seen the gospel preached and people come to faith in new life. I've seen it. I'm not talking about myself. I've seen other people preaching bring other people to new life. I've seen marriages healed. Amazing. I've seen a demonic force leave the room when we prayed against it in the name of Jesus. This happened. It happened to me. I'm an analytical, scientific person. I can't explain it to you. I can't even try. But I experienced it. I saw it happen.

[22:36] I think maybe the biggest miracle on this list is my heart's changed about all sorts of things and still is changing on all sorts of things. God isn't done with me yet. I've seen healing that cannot be explained medically.

[22:50] And I've had the urge to call someone at just the time they needed help. Like the spirit was prompting me to do it. And I can't explain that rationally either. But it happened. So what I want us to do now and again, raise your hand if you're willing to do this, what's on your list of what you want Messiah to look like, but doesn't.

[23:12] Or what have you seen that tells you that this is the Messiah or both? You can do both parts of the list, one part or the other or both. Raise your hand. And Eric, I want us to share. Did you get that? I want us all to share. It's OK. I started. So now you guys can raise your hand and Eric will bring you the microphone.

[23:29] Yes, Adele. Well, one thing I want that's not going to happen is I've always wanted Jesus to give me the strength that I had as a child. And what I've seen is much like what you've seen. I've personally, I've been miraculously healed. I've seen it in others.

[23:58] I've I've seen the doctors. Not able to explain away a back that was crooked, that that was then straightened. I've seen. Well, I'm going to cut to the chase, I. I'm so excited, my my dear daughter, who you all have prayed for for years while I was on my way to church here today.

[24:26] And I'm so grateful that you're here today. She sent me a text saying that she and her husband loved their new church and they've signed up to be baptized. Praise God. And that is the greatest gift God could ever give. Yeah, that's been on your heart for so long.

[24:38] Praise God. Wow. Yes. You made it harder. Adele, nobody can follow that. Somebody else raise your hand. Raise your hand. What have you seen? What have you seen? I know there's some stories. Zach. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right.

[25:17] Right. Right. I guess the biggest thing I've seen God do is just completely transform the values of individuals in ways I can't explain. You know, to care for others above themselves, to forgive when it makes no sense. So some of those things to me are evidence of a savior because I just can't explain it any other way. Yeah, that's good.

[25:44] Somebody else, raise your hand. Yeah, Natalie. Yeah, I confess I want the Messiah to make my life easy. Amen. And have no problems. No tantruming children. Yeah, but I have seen even God transform my parents' hearts. When I first went into ministry, they were very against it. And by the time we got married, my mom made a speech saying if it weren't for God calling me to ministry, none of this would have happened. And she was really grateful. And it changed her faith in her life to the very end.

[26:26] Where's God? Yeah. Yes. Go the silly route for the first part. I, you know, I think I always just went, and just now I make everything easy, but mostly fix things, especially minor inconveniences. Minor inconveniences, yes. Minor inconveniences, especially. Always wanted to do. And then the one... We'll go for the second one, but for the first one also. I remember a lot in college, especially on final times. And I went to Westmont College. So we're all Christian pretty much there. And we're all praying like, Lord, second coming before finals. Please, please.

[27:04] So, yes. Yeah. Minor inconveniences. So Jesus, the handyman. He fixes the minor inconveniences. I like that. Really, it's so true. Yeah. Yeah, Karen. And by the way, Jesus cares about all those, all these things. It just, he may not do anything about them right now. We should say that he does care about them. Yeah. Go ahead, Karen. Yeah. So I have a lot of things in my mind, but I'll just try to think about our years was we volunteered as missionaries with Mercy Ships for 13 years. I think the biggest miracle was that God could bring a bunch of people from all over the world with different upbringings and views, and we could all be focused on trying to be Jesus. Yeah. With skin on, in a sense of trying to bring hope to those that were poor, to those that were, needed healing and needed love. And there's a saying that missionaries say is that more people leave the mission field because of other missionaries than because of the inconveniences and other things that you face. And there's true. I mean, I do think that Satan doesn't like it when people try to get together. But it's not an easy thing for people to come together with different political views and with different lots of things. And be able to serve with one purpose in mind.

[28:22] So to me, that's one of the biggest miracles I've ever seen. I did see some healing and other things like that when we were with Mercy Ships in Africa. And those are always near and dear, but too long of a story to tell now.

[28:37] Thank you, Karen. Yeah. Let's do one more. There's time. Yes, Divya. Yeah. For me, I want always to. Not have kids suffer or people with disabilities suffer. But as you mentioned in the scripture, yes. You know, so many times it has mentioned that he's here more for the week or he's more here for the kids. So that gives me hope every time I read that. And miracle wise, as you said, like, I'm like one of the most analytical scientific person have to think evidence based. But I've seen miracles many, many times. I was just telling Liyah on the way on Tuesday from her after school program. that it's amazing that how God's God kind of helps me or individually gives me time to answer my questions so directly and that's kind of amazing I have done nothing to deserve that but that happens even as a small kid like even smallest things like my favorite pen is lost and I have looked at this place like ten times before and I pray and I come back and it's sitting right there and I'm like did that happen so from then on till now I've worked two years in a village with very little resource and have seen healing in the most impossible situations and I have seen something much lesser not do well in big hospitals with big resources so I mean I could write a book on it it's

[30:04] that that many miracles I have seen so that's amazing well thank you good well we could keep going I'm sure but you you've talked a lot about the coming of Jesus yeah shown in people's lives. And we pray that you prepare our hearts in these next few weeks for the coming.