The Greatest Human Prophet

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. I would invite your attention to Luke chapter 7, beginning at Luke 7, 18. And the disciples of John showed him of all these things. [00:00:31] And John calling unto him two of his disciples sent them to Jesus, saying, Art thou he that should come, or look we for another? When the men were come unto him, they said, John Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, Art thou he that should come, or look we for another? And in the same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues and of evil spirits, and unto many that were blind he gave sight. [00:01:05] Then Jesus, answering, said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard, how that the blind see, the lame walk, lepers were cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached. And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me. And when the messengers of John were departed, he began to speak unto the people concerning John. [00:01:36] What went ye out into wilderness for to see? A reed shaken with the wind? Or what went ye out to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they which are gorgeously appareled and live delicately are in king's courts. But what went she out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet, this is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. [00:02:09] For I say unto you, among those that are born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist. But he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. And all the people that heard him and the publicans justified God being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him. And the Lord said, Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? Or to what are they like? [00:02:44] They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace and calling one to another and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced. We have mourned to you, and ye have not wept. For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and ye say, He hath a devil. The Son of Man is come eating and drinking, and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of all her children. [00:03:22] Let's stand together for prayer. Gracious God, our loving Heavenly Father, we stand before you. We are a needy people, though at times we do not recognize it. We are in need of your healing touch. [00:03:55] We are in need of the conviction of your Holy Spirit. We are in need of strength to serve you. We are cumbered with the things of the earth. We pray that by your Spirit, even now, you will strip away the things of the earth that concern us [00:04:35] And our thoughts thereto, and direct us to the feet of Jesus, to learn of him, to mind those things of eternal worth. Dear Father, speak to our hearts just now, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. We'd like to pick up our study in the Gospel of John, or Gospel of Luke, rather. [00:05:21] It's been too long, hasn't it? We left off our study with the Old Year. and we'd like to pick it up now and that finds us in Luke chapter 7 and the questions that are directed from John the Baptist through his disciples [00:05:52] we believe John the Baptist is in prison just before his death at this point And he sends his disciples to ascertain whether this is indeed the Christ or do they look for another. And as you look at the passage of Scripture, you should reflect on some other things. [00:06:28] This is the same John the Baptist who earlier had said, Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Same John the Baptist who said, He must increase, I must decrease. This is the one whose shoe latchet I am not worthy to unloose. And now, he sends his disciples to ascertain whether this is the Christ. [00:07:12] Lest we be too hard on John the Baptist, let's remember that there are times in our own lives when we need clarification. And for John, it would have had to have been just some affirmation, I believe. Affirmation that, yes, this is the way it is, and his work, John's work is done. [00:07:48] It may have been his way of asking whether he was going to live very long. We don't know. We cannot know his mind at this point. But it is an interesting study. Here is the man who had declared and announced the coming of the Lord and who had acknowledged him publicly. And now he's just checking this out. We, however, need to see from this passage that John was truly a great man. [00:08:35] In fact, the Lord speaks about him several times. And in this passage, the Lord says something about John the Baptist that is extremely important. He says that among those, verse 28, among those born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist. [00:09:07] Anabaptist. And so, in the human sense, it can be said in the very words of the Lord, John the Baptist was the greatest prophet that ever lived. Now we would think of the Lord Jesus. He was also born of woman. But in the sense that the Lord says this, [00:09:41] He would not be including Himself. And therefore, other than the Lord Himself, John was the greatest prophet that ever lived. We want us to look at that passage a little further in a moment, but think about the ministry of John, his seeking affirmation of who the Lord was, and the Lord's reply in conjunction with the Old Testament predictions that John would have clearly known. [00:10:17] The Lord said, verse 22, Go your way and tell John what things you have seen and heard, how the blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached. That's the answer. The testimony of the power of God as predicted in the Old Testament, fulfilled through the Lord Jesus Christ. [00:10:47] That is witness to answer John's question. John had prophesied of the Lord's coming. He had prepared the way. He had announced Him. He had identified Him. And now the Lord says, here it is. Here's the evidence in the light of the Scripture. For who I am, the Lord does not give some great apologetic. He does not say, yes, I'm the man. He doesn't say it. He just lays out the evidence. Here it is. You've seen it. [00:11:26] And he did some of those signs and wonders at that hour, verse 21, to give that additional piece of evidence before the very eyes of the messengers of John the Baptist. Now, having said all that, the main thrust that we would like to look at in this passage has a very personal application to each one of us. [00:12:01] Because the Lord talks about John as we have just read in verse 22, or rather verse 28. The Lord talks about John as the greatest prophet. There is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist. And then he introduces the rest of the passage that we read with this statement. Verse 28, the last part. He that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. [00:12:36] Now that's a mouthful and should generate a whole group of thoughts in our mind. John is the greatest prophet that ever lived. Human prophet. Greatest, shall we say, human prophet that ever lived. But there is one who is greater than John, and he's not talking about Jesus Christ. [00:13:19] He is talking about the one who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thus becomes a part of the kingdom of God. I believe that's what he's saying. And so, it is possible for everyone here this morning to be greater than John the Baptist, whom the Lord has just said is the greatest human prophet that ever lived. [00:13:57] Now, think about that. And then think about the commentary that the Lord gives here. And of course that greatness is not in and of ourselves. It is a credit to the grace of God and what God has done and is doing and will do for those who genuinely believe in Christ as Savior and Lord. [00:14:36] There is a contrast drawn in the rest of these verses between the religious and the saved. There is a difference between those who are religious and those who are saved. [00:15:07] That doesn't mean the saved cannot be religious, but it does mean that religion does not guarantee salvation. And you'll see that contrast, verse 29 and 30. All the people that heard him, the publicans and the publicans, justified God being baptized with the baptism of John. This is one class of people. And then in verse 30, [00:15:45] But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of Him. Another class of people. There's going to be a third class of people at verse 35, so stay with me. The first class of people are those who started out well. [00:16:19] They heard the ministry of John the Baptist, a call to repentance, And the all may be a bit rhetorical here, but it is this idea that the masses of people and the publicans heard the word of John the Baptist, sensed the need to repent, were baptized. [00:16:51] Baptized. Baptism of John here certifies the acceptance of his message in a public profession of what the message of John was. Question. Did all the people who were baptized with John's baptism, those who came in mass to the Jordan River to be baptized in a baptism under repentance, [00:17:27] did all of those people follow through and become Christians? I believe the answer to that question is no. As you read through the gospel, you will find that there were many who followed him, followed Jesus, but then there were few who were really transformed by his salvation. Many departed. Many fell away. [00:18:04] And so this all here would include all of those who heard the message of John, responded, Yes, I am a sinner. I have needs. I need to repent. We need to change this society. We need to get it straightened out. And so they were baptized unto the baptism of John. Now among those were a number that did go on with the Lord [00:18:38] and we see that through the book of Acts where there were some who were baptized in the baptism of John only and then they needed to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those things are true. But the masses, the crowds that came to John's baptism and started out, shall we say, well, did all of those follow through in receiving Jesus? No. I think not. [00:19:13] And as you read through here, we will see more of them. The other class of people in this part of the passage would be those who rejected even the baptism of John. Those who, like the Pharisees and lawyers, rejected the counsel of God against themselves being not baptized of John. And so you have those that rejected up front, and they were religious. Religious. And they did not respond at all to the ministry of God through John. Well learned in the scripture, but religious. [00:20:04] And that's all. So the two classes of people, 29 and 30, those who started out, who saw the need for repentance, who were baptized under repentance, and those who never started out. Those who simply rejected the counsel of God against them through the prophecy of John. John's some upstart out in the wilderness. We have it all together. They would say, we understand what the law is saying. [00:20:38] They rejected the prophet of Christ, the greatest prophet who ever lived, the greatest human prophet that ever lived, and never, apparently, responded to the ministry of the word of God, though they knew the Old Testament well. We tend to be very hard on the Pharisees. And it is right that we should be, but we also ought to remember that they probably knew the Old Testament better than we know any part of the Bible. [00:21:14] And they still went astray because of their religious approach to life. Now the Lord then gives some illustrations. Verses 31 and following. Where unto then shall I liken the men of this generation to? What are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling one to another, saying, We have piped unto you, and you have not danced. We have mourned to you, and you have not wept. [00:21:45] For John the Baptist came neither eating nor drinking, and the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you are critical. And here we have the commentary of the culture which I would say includes some of the all people in verse 29 and definitely includes the Pharisees and lawyers in verse 30. And the two pictures that are given, [00:22:20] The piping, the children in the marketplace, piping, we've piped unto you and you've not danced, we've mourned to you and you've not wept, are two idiomatic expressions as I would understand it. The piping is a reference to weddings, and the mourning is a reference to funerals. And he says it's like children playing make-believe in the marketplace, [00:22:54] saying, let's have a wedding, and come and play with us. And another group of children saying, let's have a funeral, Let's have a make-believe funeral. Come and play funeral with us. It's that picture as I would understand it here. And what the Lord is saying, I believe, is these are the people who are playing church, to put it in modern application. [00:23:35] There are lots of people that are playing church. Probably all of those in verse 30 and some of those in verse 29. Yes, they come. They participate in the things of God. But it is simply like children playing in the marketplace. It is not the real part of their lives. [00:24:08] They come to church and play the game. To put it again in the modern application, they come to church, they play the game, they do what Christians should do. And then they leave church and go about reality. In other words, the things of God are ethereal. They're simply a part of this religious game. And reality is out there in the workaday world. [00:24:46] And what the Lord, I believe, is saying to them and to us is, That that is 180 degrees wrong. That the workaday world is not reality. It's passing. It's changing. [00:25:18] That reality is encompassed by those things related to Jesus Christ. And we can only be profitable servants at all if that. And the testimony, remember, was we are most unprofitable servants. But we can only really be genuine in our faith. if the work-a-day world is enslaved to our reality in Christ. [00:26:01] Otherwise, we are like children playing in the marketplace, playing these little make-believe games. And I would have to say to us that it may be true of all of us to one degree or another that we are like children playing in the marketplace when it comes to the things of God as we examine priorities. We have developed this dichotomy [00:26:36] in the modern church today where the real world is outside the church And our little religious world is inside the church. And it should be the other way around. Reality, not just church of course, is all of the Christian life. But reality is our relationship to Jesus Christ, if we have one. [00:27:07] And outside, in our work-a-day world, that's just a passing fantasy. It's going to be gone. And for millions of years, we will have to put up with what we stored up in the real world. and many of us are bankrupt on that score. [00:27:43] And so in the shadow of his reply to John the Baptist and in comparison with John the Baptist he is saying the one who is really a Christian who does more than start right by being baptized according to the baptism of John In that focus, we could make the application who does more than start right by accepting Jesus, identifying with Jesus. [00:28:15] Who does more than that? The one who goes on in the Christian life. That one is justified. And so he says at the end, after having pointed out that this wishy-washy group of people before him criticized John on the one hand for his wilderness life, his primitive lifestyle, his sorrowful message of mourning, [00:29:03] and criticized the Lord Jesus, on the other hand, for sitting down with publicans and sinners and feasting and saying that they will feast while the bridegroom is present and when he's gone, they'll fast. All of those connections, if you think about the message of the New Testament, of the Gospels in particular. So they criticize John for being too Spartan, and they criticize the Lord for sitting down to feats, never getting to the issue. [00:29:49] But he says, those that get to the issue, I believe that's what's between these lines. Wisdom, true wisdom is justified of all her children. There's the third classification. First classification, those who start out well, but don't follow through. Second classification, those who reject the whole thing in the name of religion. [00:30:27] doesn't fit in their box. And the third classification, those who follow through on the lordship of Jesus Christ, who hear the message, respond to the message, who grow, who are those who are characterized by the good ground in the parable of the sower and who bring forth fruit. Wisdom is justified, what the Lord taught, introduced by what John taught. [00:31:09] Those who follow through on the Saviorhood and thus the Lordship of Jesus Christ are the justified. And the word justified here is not particularly related to the doctrine of justification. It just means that which the Lord has ministered in its completion is fulfilled in those who receive it all [00:31:40] and who follow through. And so it is said, those who persevere to the end shall be saved. And so, which classification are you? Does it get you nervous when you start really analyzing what the Bible says about salvation, about grace? [00:32:15] Get nervous because your box might shake a little? Maybe a lot? It could be in danger of being like the Pharisees and the lawyers who simply rejected it all because it didn't fit in their box. Or like those that started out well, went to the baptism of John, heard John preach, responded, but didn't follow through. When the going got rough, you bailed out. [00:32:51] Or are you like the suggestion that we have in this passage of the third class? Those who started out well and by the grace of God continued in the teachings of the Lord Jesus and thus prove that he or she that perseveres to the end shall be saved. Let's pray. [00:33:28] Dear Father, the question with which the thoughts were concluded, we ask that your Holy Spirit will visit us mightily right now and in the hours to come and probe us, each one, in accordance with our spiritual need. [00:34:04] Help us to sort out those things that are simply in the realm of make-believe. The things that will pass away as compared to those things which will last forever. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for watching!