The Greatness of John the Baptist, Part 1

Let's pray together. Lord, we thank you for this day and that you truly are almighty. Bible prophesied that you would be the mighty God. The son that would be given, the child that we would be born is called El Gabor, the mighty God. And we thank you, Lord, that when you arrived, you arrived in great might and great power. And that throughout your ministry, you demonstrated the glory of the kingdom of God. For you truly are and were that king. And I pray, Lord, that today that we would see even more clearly your kingship.

That the prophet John, when he came to preach, came proclaiming about the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. Having proclaimed that message, he would point to the long awaited Messiah, Jesus Christ, our Lord. And today, Father, may we see how it is the ministry of John and the ministry of Christ are intertwined. And he pointed to the true and only Messiah, the almighty God, Jesus Christ, our Lord. We pray in your name. Amen. I'd invite you this morning to turn with me to Luke chapter seven.

This is where we are at, Luke chapter seven, verses 24 to 30. And we'll be in this section this week and next week as we understand, for lack of a better phrase, the greatness of John the Baptist. We've heard a lot about John, especially in chapter three and in chapter one. And now we come to chapter seven and he becomes the topic of conversation once again. And I know I've been off for a couple of weeks and just to bring you up to speed, in verse number 18, it began with a personal confusion. This section began with a personal confusion.

That is, John the Baptist was confused about the identity of Christ, the Messiah. He believed that Christ was that Messiah. He preached that Jesus was that Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world. But he had been in prison for a while. Having been in prison, he had heard a lot about Jesus. But Jesus wasn't doing what he thought Jesus the Messiah should be doing. So he summoned two of his disciples because of his personal confusion to go to Christ to ask him, are you the expected one?

A term designated for the Messiah. Are you the Messiah? Are you the long awaited Messiah? And so those two disciples went to Jesus, ask him that question based on John's personal confusion. And from that, we saw then that there was a prophetical clarification, a prophetical clarification. What Jesus did then was explain to these two men that he had come to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah. And he would say these words, 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, and blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over me.

So within this moment, these men had come to Christ to ask him, are you the expected one? In one brief moment, there is a sweeping plethora of miracles that takes place there among the multitudes. And then he says to these men, go tell John what you have seen and what you have heard. That all these things have taken place just as it was foretold by Isaiah the prophet. And blessed is the one who does not stumble over me. That leads us into this next section. This leads us into how it is Christ uses that conversation with these two disciples from John to build on his ministry to prove once again that he truly is the Messiah.

You know, nothing happens by accident in the plan and purposes of God. And he uses this opportunity because the multitude was there. They had heard what Jesus said. They had seen the miracles that took place in one instantaneous moment as he would sweep across the crowd and cause the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the lame to walk. It was an amazing thing before their very eyes. And he would prove to these men by the words that he said that he was the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy. And so because of John's personal confusion, Christ then would give a prophetical clarification that would then lead to a rhetorical question.

And that's where we'll pick up our outline this morning in verses 24 and following. John the Baptist, John the Baptist is a great prophet. And I'm sure that there were people in the crowd who wondered about the fact that John would even ask such a question. But what Jesus does in the next scene is help us understand how his ministry and the ministry of John were intertwined. And what it does is it forces the crowd to make a decision. You know, you got to love the way Jesus presents himself. He puts you in a corner and he causes you to make a decision.

He wants you to understand and to estimate all that's taken place and force you to say, yes, you are Jesus. Yes, you are Lord. Yes, you are Messiah or no, you Jesus are not Lord. And no, you are not Messiah. You either believe one way or you believe the other. You're either a follower of Christ or you are not. And so he wants to do it because throughout his whole ministry, what has he done? He's presented himself as Messiah. He has presented all of his messianic credentials that the people of Judea and the people of Galilee will see that he is their deliverer.

He is their redeemer. He is the coming one. He is the expected one. He is the Messiah. He is the fulfillment of Abrahamic covenant of Davidic covenant. He is ushering in the new covenant. That's who he is. And so throughout the whole gospel of Luke, Luke has presented to us this man, Jesus, who is God in the flesh to prove that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. And so he is going to use the scene that just took place about John's personal confusion and his prophetical clarification by clarifying the fact that all the prophecy in the Old Testament pointed to one man, the Messiah, and he is that Messiah.

Now John was a prophet. John was a preacher. And remember as we talked about John in chapter three, that he was a great preacher of the truth. So much so that people would would come in droves to the wilderness to be baptized by John. And what the people were doing in that day was completely unusual for Jews to do. It would be Gentiles who would be baptized because they wanted to be a part of Judaism. But for a Jew to be baptized was quite unusual because it was a proselyte baptism. John would, they would come down into the river and John would be preaching a gospel of repentance.

And that once received, you'd be baptized. And that baptism became a symbol of the fact, listen carefully, that you were apart from God, that you were separated from God, that you were unclean. So to have all these Jews coming down to the Jordan River to be baptized was quite unusual because they would have to admit that they were unclean. They would have to admit that they were outside the covenant of God. They would have to admit that they were no better than a pagan Gentile. That was an amazing thing.

And thousands of people, the Bible says in Matthew and Mark, that all of Judea had come down to the Jordan to be baptized by John.

Now we know that every single person didn't go down, but it speaks of the magnitude of his ministry. That all these people were coming down to the Jordan to be baptized by John to hear this preacher preach. And then there would be a baptism based on their desire to repent from their sinful ways as they were making ready the coming of Messiah. So they believed the message that John preached. And so Christ is going to capitalize on all that. See, Jews, very prideful people. They're part of the great family, the great lineage of Abraham.

That's why when Paul was listing all of his credentials of Philippians chapter three, he was talking about that he was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, that he was from the tribe of Benjamin, that he had been circumcised on the eighth day. He was listing all those things that qualified him as a religious person. And Jews believe that they were religious people. And then John the Baptist comes along, begins to preach and tell them, no, you're not really religious at all, but you need to repent and be baptized based on the remission of sins.

And you need to prepare for the coming of the Messiah. Hundreds, thousands of people would make their way to the wilderness and were baptized by John. And John was a hell, fire, and damnation preacher. He was not one of those easy to listen to guys. He was one who preached with fire. He was passionate about what he believed. And so he would come and he would tell people the truth to help them understand that the message he gave was a message from God. Now that put people in a dilemma. Listen carefully, because they believed that John was a prophet from God.

They believed in the ministry of John. If you believe that John is a prophet from God and that he preaches the truth, then you must accept Jesus as the Messiah. But the problem was they didn't accept Jesus as the Messiah. So he's got them, for lack of a better phrase, trapped in their own miscued theology. He has got them in a corner. And so what he wants to do now is to show them that if you truly believe in John the Baptist, you must truly believe that what he said was true and that I am the Messiah.

The conclusion of this is quite remarkable. But that's, that's where Jesus is going. He wants these people to come to grips with the reality of life, the reality of his identity. And so he forces them to a decision, a decision that everybody must make. Is John a true prophet of God? If he's a true prophet of God, he speaks the truth of God. And if John points to Jesus, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world and points to Jesus as the Messiah, then you must believe that Jesus is the Messiah.

And that's where Christ has them at this moment. Christ had come and he had healed virtually all who came to him. He had raised the dead. He had cast out demons. He had proven himself over and over again that he was the Messiah, that he was the one that John had preached about. John was now in prison for his commitment and for his desire to present Christ. So Christ is going to help them understand you must make a decision about who I am. Everything comes down to who Jesus is, right? Who is Jesus?

If you believe that he is Lord, that he is King, that he is God, you follow him. If he is not that in your mind, then you won't follow him. But that's who he is. And so there's a statement that Christ makes in verse number 28 of Luke 7. He says, I say to you among those board of women, there is no one greater than John. There is no one greater than John. Now, there'd be no argument about that. But on the surface, nobody would stand up and say, well, I beg to differ with you, Jesus. There is somebody greater than John.

No, no, there was nobody greater than John the Baptist. Remember back in Luke chapter 1, turn back there with me for a second, would you?

Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1, remember Zacharias and Elizabeth, they were up in years. They were in their 70s, possibly even their 80s. And Zacharias was an old priest and Elizabeth was barren. And the Bible says this in verse number 13 or verse number 14.

And you will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He will be great. Well, how great would John be? Answer, chapter 7, verse number 28. He is the greatest man ever born of a woman. Now, the phrase born of a woman is just a colloquialism that means a human birth. Anybody who was born a human, John stands way beyond them. He is the greatest. The only one greater than John is Jesus. But Luke 1 says he's the son of the most high God. He was the son that was given.

He was the child that was born. But any born, anybody born naturally in a human way, there is no one greater than John. He's the greatest. He is the most magnificent of all that had been born of a woman. And that statement would not be argued by anyone in Judea or in Galilee. Now, think about it for a moment. When we think of greatness, we would come up with all kinds of definitions as to how we would categorize somebody who was great. We have illusions as to what makes someone great. If they win a Nobel Prize, we would say they were great.

If they won a Pulitzer Prize, we'd say they were great. If they became an MVP of a league, we'd say they were great. We look for all kinds of ways to honor people who are great. We honor those who are all-stars. We honor those who have medical achievements or educational achievements or literary achievements. We honor those kinds of people. And we characterize them in terms of great. We even have debates about who is the greatest. We were talking, we were coming back from the beach yesterday with the kids.

And my wife is really big into the Olympics. And she watches them. She is big into the Olympics. She's got this whole big book on the Olympics. And we had this debate about who was the greatest athlete ever. And so we began reading through the different pages that she had. And we came across Jim Thorpe. And he was an Olympian way back in the early 1900s. And he was an amazing athlete. Not only was he a professional baseball player and a professional football player, but he won a gold medal in the pentathlon and a gold in the decathlon.

And the decathlon was all accomplished in one day. All the events took place in one day. Bar none, Jim Thorpe, greatest athlete who ever lived. But that can be debated, right? Greatness can always be debated. Well, who's the greatest quarterback that ever lived? Used to be Brett Favre into the scenario that happened just recently with Brett Favre. But who was the greatest quarterback who ever lived or the greatest running back or the greatest basketball player? Who was the greatest, greatest doctor who ever lived?

We can debate that endlessly. But if Jesus says, you're the greatest, guess what? You're the greatest. John is the greatest man ever born of a woman. What made him great? What made John the greatest man ever born of a woman? Was he greater than Adam? Yes. Greater than Noah? Yeah. Greater than Abraham? Yes. Greater than Moses? Yes. Elijah? Elisha? Jeremiah? Ezekiel? Daniel? David? Those are great men. But they can't hold a candle to John the Baptist because Jesus said he was the greatest man born of a woman.

The greatest man. Read Hebrews 11, the great hall of faith. Nobody in that chapter, as great as they may be, can stand next to John the Baptist. He is the greatest of all men. And yet we read about John and how do we characterize John? Well, we characterize John as unusual, anti-social, politically incorrect, insensitive, bothersome, irritating. That's how we would characterize John the Baptist. He had no wealth. He had no accomplishments. He had no education, formal education that is. He had no specific achievements.

He wrote no books. We don't even know what his sermons were except for a few excerpts in the Gospels. We don't even know what all that he said. We know very little about his life. He built no organization. He didn't even dress very well. We would look at his dress as a poor, uh, we'd abhor his dress.

It was nothing like we think someone who's a prophet of God should dress, one who would be a spokesperson for God. He was quite different. Was he humble? Yes, he was. Very humble man. Is that what made him the greatest of all men, because he was humble? He said, Christ must increase. I must decrease. When Christ came on the scene, he knew he had to go back in behind the scenes because he was there to point to the Messiah. When Messiah arrived, I mean his job was basically over. He pointed to the Messiah.

He didn't try to try to receive honor and recognition for his ministry. No, he was a very humble man. Was he an honest man? Yes, very honest man. Spoke the truth. So honest that when he was confused about who Jesus was, he sent two of his disciples to ask who, are you the Messiah? Are you the coming one? Did I make a mistake? Did I do it right? And we admire people who are honest and can admit their own faults. We admire people who are humble. Is that what made John great? No, that's not what made John great.

Not at all. What did make John great? This passage tells us. Verse number 24. And when the messengers of John had left, he began to speak to the multitudes about John. What a great way to segue into a great presentation of the truth. He was going to come down and they had asked, are you the coming one? And Christ performed the miracles. And he said, I've done this and this is who I am. And he quotes from Isaiah, I think it's 35, 61 and a couple other chapters in Isaiah, just to prove that he was the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy.

And so now those disciples turn and walk away and Christ then turns to the multitude because they were all observing this. Remember there were droves of people around the Messiah. They were always there. But he uses this as an opportunity to teach them. He uses this as an opportunity to bring them to a point of decision that somehow they must come to a conclusion as to his identity. So he turns to the multitude and he begins with a rhetorical question. That's point number one of our outline.

The rhetorical question. What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind. Now you can imagine the scene along the Jordan River. There were all kinds of reeds, these tall stalks that would blow with every, would move with every wind that would come across them. And so Christ says to the multitude, when you came down into the wilderness to be baptized, when you came down to hear this preacher preach, what did you come down to see?

Did you come to see some reed blowing in the wind? Did you come down to see some spineless individual? Did you come down to see someone who was just kind of laid back and kind of soft and kind of mellow? Is that the kind of person you came down to see? He asked them a rhetorical question. He's not asking them to respond. He's getting them to think about what they did. He's getting them to review the decision they made when they came down to the river to repent and to be baptized. He's getting them to re-examine everything they did.

This is extremely important today for us to come to grips with, because there are a lot of people who have made decisions about Christ. A lot of decisions, a lot of people who came and were baptized in that very pool behind me in this church. Because at one time they viewed Christ in a certain way. We'll talk more about that in a moment. So Jesus is getting them to reflect on what they had done when they came down into the wilderness. When you think about the wilderness, you think of Isaiah chapter 40, verse number three.

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. Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh will see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Now we know that that John was the fulfillment of that prophecy. Isaiah 40, verse number three.

We know that because John said that he was, back in Luke chapter three, that he was that voice crying in the wilderness. He was that voice. And so Jesus asked this question, when you came down to the wilderness, what did you come to see? What did you think you were doing when you arrived? Do you think that when you came down you saw someone with no conviction? Someone who was a coward? Someone who would vacillate? Who would be unstable? Who fluctuated? Who was a weakling? Not in your life. When you came down to the wilderness, what did you hear him say?

Well, you heard him say this, that when the Pharisees and Sadducees arrived, according to Matthew, he said, oh you brood of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Now how was that for a greeting for the religious establishment? He could have said, hey guys, so good to see you. Thanks for coming down to find out what we're all about down here. No, instead he said, oh you brood of poisonous snakes. Who told you to flee from the wrath? What are you doing down here? That's how he greeted the religious establishment.

John, you know, he had a way with words. He would not be welcomed in most pulpits today because he preached about repentance. So about three-fourths of today's pulpits would not even have him come to preach in his church because he preached about repentance and turning from sin. But the way he said it, people were offended, but he said it like it was. So when he came down to the river, when he came out to the wilderness, I mean some of you came some 30, some 40, some 50 miles. I mean you couldn't get in your car and just drive there in 45 minutes.

You had to walk to the Jordan River. We, when we do baptisms in Israel, we do it in the northern part of the land of Israel, up by the Sea of Galilee. That's not where John did his baptisms. He did them in the wilderness, in the Judean wilderness is where he did his baptisms there in the Jordan River. And so for these people to get out there, they had to be pretty serious about what they were doing. They had to be pretty ecstatic about going out there. They had to really want to be there. And so Christ says when you came out here in the wilderness, what did you expect to see?

Just another normal preacher who would vacillate, fluctuate because he was cowardice and weak. What did you come out to see? A reed blowing in the wind? No, you came out to see one completely different to that. Somebody who went eyeball to eyeball with Herod the Tetrarch and never flinched. Who called him into account because of his incest and because of his immorality and was thrown into prison because of that. You see there could have been some people in the multitude thinking, well John's asking all, what's John doing asking all these questions about whether or not Jesus is a Messiah or not.

So Christ wants to set him straight. When you came down here, what did you come to see? You came to see a man who was strong. You came to see a man who was courageous. You came to see a man who was bold. You came to see a man who would not flinch in the face of adversity. You came to see a man who was uncompromising. You came to see a man unlike any other man because when he spoke, people listen, and when he spoke, he spoke the truth. He never backed down no matter who he spoke to. That's who you came to see.

Not some reed blowing in the wind. Not some weak, vacillating, fluctuating coward. No, you came to see John the Baptist. He continues, verse 25, but what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who are splendidly clothed and live in luxury are found in royal palaces. What, did you come out to see somebody in soft clothing? The word soft, malakos, same word used in first Corinthians 6, 9 as effeminate, referring to male prostitutes.

Homosexual prostitutes. When you came down here to see this man in the wilderness, would you come down and see a soft guy? No, those guys are reserved for the palaces. The people who kowtow to Herod, the people who try to gain a higher standing with those in high ranks and they kiss up to them. But no, you didn't come down to see a guy like that. John wasn't soft. John was strong. John wasn't cowardly. He was courageous. When you came down to the Jordan River, you saw a man unlike any other man. He was a distinct man.

He was a prophet of God. He was a unique individual. The Bible says in Matthew 3 in Mark 1, he was rough.

He wore camel skin for his clothing. I remember one day when I was younger, I went down to the store to buy me a camel haired sport coat. And you know, when you buy a camel haired sport coat, by the time it gets to you, it's pretty refined there hanging in the Macy's or the Nordstrom's or whatever you got going on, right? Well, you know, John didn't do it that way. He just took it right off the height of a camel and put it around his back. That's the way it was. Tied it together with a leather belt.

And he ate honey and locusts. This was his diet. He was a man who took a Nazirite vow. One of three men in the Bible who took a Nazirite vow for life. Samuel, Samson, and John the Baptist. And number six talks to you about that Nazirite vow. It was a vow of consecration by separation. It was a unique vow. That's why there was no razor that would go to his head. People say, well, what difference does it make if a guy has long hair or not? Well, when you took a Nazirite vow and no razor came to your head, listen carefully, it means that you had no concern for fashion.

Today, people grow their hair long or men grow their hair long because of a, quote, fashion statement. But in those days, when the hair just began to grow and there was no razor that would go to the head, it was not a fashion statement. In fact, it was very unbecoming of the individual. It was a statement. It was an outward statement that was made to show that he had no concern for outward fashion. He was so consecrated to God, so devoted to God, that he didn't want anything about his appearance to detract from his commitment to the Lord God of Israel.

He took a Nazirite vow. He was completely committed to his God and nothing would come between it. That's why when Samson, remember Samson took a Nazirite vow, had his hair cut by Delilah, remember that? He said his strength was in his hair. It's not that the fact that he had long hair that gave him strength. The hair, the length of his hair, and the reason he didn't cut his hair is because it was a symbol of his consecration and devotion to God. And when that hair was cut, it symbolized that he had compromised that conviction.

That's why he lost his power. Whenever you compromise your commitment to God, you always lose strength and power, right? And it wasn't until he repented that he was restored and even with shorter hair, he was still able to exude great strength because he had repented and got right with God and he killed more in his death than in his life. But that's the way John the Baptist was. He took a Nazirite vow along with Samuel and Samson for life, but he was greater than those two guys because Jesus said so.

He was the greatest of all men, John the Baptist was. He was a man of great conviction. He was a man who lived a life of abstinence. He was a man who lived in such a way that it was characterized by self-denial, self-denial. It's no wonder he was the forerunner to the Messiah, for Christ said, if any man commit to me, let him deny himself, right? Well, the forerunner to the Messiah, he lived a life of self-denial. He was the perfect picture of what it meant to deny yourself. That's why or why one of the reasons he was the greatest who ever lived.

He portrayed self-denial. His whole life was about preparing for one mission. That's proclaiming the Messiah, Jesus Christ himself and make sure that he pointed to the right person. In spite of all that, that is not the reason Jesus said he was the greatest man who ever lived. So we move from the rhetorical question to the biblical revelation. This is what Jesus says, but what did you go out to see?

A prophet? Yes, I say to you and one who is more than a prophet. When you came down to the wilderness, what did you see? You saw a prophet. You saw one who spoke for God and to speak for God would mean that you would speak the truth of God. And so when you came down to the wilderness, you saw one called by God to beckon you to turn from your sin, to cleanse your heart. And he brought conviction because of his lifestyle. He brought conviction because of his boldness. He was a prophet of God. His message was strong against sin.

All he did was preach against people's sin and how it is they needed to turn from their sin and embrace Jesus as Messiah because he is that coming one, that long expected one. He had the demeanor of a prophet. He was separate from society. He lived a life of self-denial. But Jesus says, when you came down to the river, you came, did you see a prophet?

No, I want to tell you something. You saw someone who was more than a prophet. Well, how can he be more than a prophet? I mean, to be a spokesperson for God and to be able to tell people about God and then turn them to God. I mean, what greater calling could there possibly be that this guy was more than just a prophet? He was a prophet who was prophesied to come. You see, every prophet came and every prophet went, but no prophet before John was ever prophesied to come except John. Christ says, yes, I say to you, and one who is more than a prophet.

Verse 27, this is the one about whom it is written. Whoa, there was something in the Old Testament written about this guy. There was a prophecy about the coming of a messenger, one whose voice would cry in the wilderness. And he, he paraphrases Malachi 3.1, so as to interpret correctly who it is that Malachi speaks of. It says, behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way be for you. When you came down to the river, what did you see? Did you see a prophet? You did see a prophet, but he's more than just a prophet.

He is the prophet that was prophesied to come. And these Jews would know about Malachi's prophecy. Now in our Bible, Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament. Now remember, these people hadn't seen a prophet in 400 years. 400 years they had not seen a prophet. And John the Baptist, like a locomotive, comes out of the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. So everybody in Judea and everybody in Galilee had began to hear about this man, and they were going in droves down to the river.

And Christ says, when you got down here, what did you see? You saw a prophet, yes, but you saw someone who was more than a prophet. He was the prophet who was prophesied to come. And that's what Malachi 3.1 is all about. Remember Malachi 3, verse number one?

Behold, I am going to send my messenger, and he will clear the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight. Behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. Malachi 3.1 speaks of that one who would come and clear the way. In other words, provide you the opportunity to repent because there is coming one who is the ultimate messenger, the Messiah himself. And Christ says in Luke 7 that John is the fulfillment of that prophecy.

He's the man. He is the one who was prophesied to come. John's greatness was in his calling, his unusual privilege to be the forerunner to the Messiah. His greatness was in the very fact that as a prophet, he would clarify for sure the identity of Israel's Messiah. He pointed to Christ, and Christ says, I want to tell you why you went out to see him.

Because he was that voice that cried in the wilderness. He was that messenger that would come before the Messiah. That's why you went out to see him. Remember, further in Malachi 4.5, it says, Behold, I am going to send you Elijah, the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. Now listen carefully. Some people say, well, that means that Elijah will definitely come before the great and terrible day of the Lord. No, it doesn't. Say, well, that's what it says. Yes, but it says one like Elijah.

Say, well, it doesn't say that. It says, I'm going to send you Elijah, the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. Yes, that's what it says, but it means one like Elijah. Why? Read on. It says, And he will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse. Go back to Luke chapter one. Luke chapter one says this in verse number 17. It says, And he will turn back many sons, many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God.

And it is he who will go as a forerunner before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. See, he goes back and quotes Malachi four verse number six. See, to show you that the interpretation of Malachi four or five is that that not necessarily a literal Elijah will come, but one who will come in the spirit and power of Elijah. And if you go on to read in Matthew 11, Christ says, If you would have believed John and believed that I was the Messiah, John would have been the fulfillment of Malachi four, verse number five.

He would have been the Elijah. See that? Go to Revelation 11. There are two witnesses. People say, well, one like Moses, one like Elijah, but it doesn't say it's Moses and Elijah, does it? Now we can conjure up all kinds of ideas and say, well, I think it's Elijah and I think it's Moses because of this, because no one knows where Moses' body's buried and Elijah was taken up into heaven in a whirlwind. And so it's probably going to be Moses and Elijah in Revelation 11, because if Moses and Elijah come back, the Jews are going to believe.

But it doesn't say that in Revelation 11. You can speculate that all you want. It doesn't say that. And Jesus says, Jesus says, I'm going to tell you why you came to the wilderness.

And you came out here because you know John is a prophet. And you came because you knew in your heart that he was more than a prophet, because he was the one who was prophesied to come. Isaiah 40, verse number three, he is the voice that cried to the wilderness.

Malachi three, verse number one, he is the one that would come to clear the way before the messenger of the Lord would arrive.

And Malachi four, verse number five, he is that one who would come in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children and the children back to their fathers. He is that man. That's why you came. You came down here because you knew in your hearts that there was a prophet sent from God who came to prepare the way for the Messiah. That's why you came. See, he's got him in the corner, right? The problem is they didn't believe that Jesus was that Messiah. They didn't believe that Jesus was the Messiah.

So now they have a very difficult dilemma they have to solve in their own minds. You know how they solve it? You read on the chapter, they come to the conclusion that John was demonic. Had to be. Because you see, if John was true, Jesus is true. If they accept the message from John about Jesus the Messiah, then Jesus is that Messiah. And they were not ready to embrace Christ as their Messiah. That's clearly evident. They didn't do that. So Christ shoves them all into a corner and puts them all right there and says, okay, when you came down to the river, I want to tell you why you came down here.

You came because you knew in your hearts that John was the forerunner to the Messiah. You knew that. And he came and he pointed directly to me as your Messiah. Now, what are you going to do? What will you do with Jesus the Messiah? You know what they did? Because they would not embrace Jesus, they changed, listen, they changed their mind about who John really, truly was. They changed their mind. And that's the evidence of the wicked heart of man. That it will undo what it has already confessed to avoid what it does not want to believe.

That's why I said earlier, there are a lot of people in church, a lot of people come to this church who have believed the truth that was spoken. And were baptized in that baptismal based on the truth they believed that was spoken. And when Jesus calls them to a life of self-denial and a life of obedience to the Lordship of Christ, they will not follow. Thus undoing everything they once professed because they will not believe in what Jesus says.

Happens all the time. These people, I mean, in droves, they came. They just came like ants down an hill, coming to the wilderness, filling the Jordan River to be baptized. And we studied in Luke chapter three, all that John had said. And these people were being baptized based on the remission of sins. You came down to the river because you knew that you were separated from God. You came down to the river to be baptized because you knew you were outside the covenant of God. You knew that you, when you came down to the river to be baptized, you were admitting that you're no better than a pagan Gentile.

You knew that at one time, you knew that. That's why you came. That's why you came. But you see, their hearts truly were not committed to Christ, the Messiah, because they would not embrace him when he arrived. And the same is true of so many people today. It's sad to say it's been people in our church that I personally have baptized, that I sat next to them in that baptismal pool as they shared their testimony as to what Christ had done in their lives. But when the push came to shove, and they had to obey the lordship of Christ, and they saw the diagnosis of the Lord about their life, and the demands that Christ makes upon their life, they would undo that profession because they would not obey his kingship, thus verifying that they never truly were saved to begin with.

And that's these people in Luke 7. Countless numbers of them. That's why Christ shoves them into a corner, not a literal corner, but shoves their theology into a corner because they got to come. They got to make a decision. You either embrace me now and accept the word. That's why he said earlier, Blessed is he who does not stumble over me. And now he's going to portray to you a whole slew of people who will stumble over his words because they will not embrace him as the messiah. In fact, they will undo everything they once said about John and his greatness, just so that they don't have to believe in Jesus as their messiah and king and lord.

That's what Luke 7 is about. So we ask you this question, is Jesus your messiah? Do you believe everything John said about Jesus? That he was that prophesied prophet to come, that forerunner of the messiah that would show us and point to us the messiah? And you say, yes, I believe that. And then when you hear the words of the messiah, do you shudder and shake and tremble and submit to them? Or do you turn your back and walk away because you will not embrace the words of the messiah? That's what Luke 7 is about.

But the story goes on to clarify it even more. But for that, you got to come back next week. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for the truth of your word. What a joy it is to have our lives examined by the truth. That you are that great physician who very clearly and succinctly deals with the center of our lives. And I pray that as a people of God, we would be submissive to your authority and follow you with all of our hearts, never looking back. For you said, no man having put his hand to the plow, looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.

I pray that, Lord, our lives would be totally consecrated to you for your service and for your glory. In Jesus name, amen.