What did you go out to see?

December 15, 2019

Matthew 11:2-15; Isaiah 35

Intro:  What did you go out to see?  Jesus asked this question of the crowds after he sent the messengers back to John.  It was the kind of question that makes you ponder.  Many of them had gone out to see John while he was baptizing along the banks of the Jordan River.  And Jesus asks this question because He wants to remind them, “What was it that you were hoping to see?”.  

It’s one of those “timeless questions” isn’t it? He could just as well ask this question of you and I today.  What did YOU go out to see?  Why are you here and not in bed?  Why do you come and hear God’s Word and desire to know and understand what He says?  Was it simply so you could see a guy all dressed up in a robe and fine clothes?  What then did you go out to see?

I.  It wasn’t simply John, John is just like you and me.

A.  John didn’t have all the answers

            And like us, no matter what he’d heard, he still had doubts.  No matter what he’d seen…and he’d seen some incredible things…he could still be shaken.  This should comfort you when you feel guilty for your own uncertainties at times.  Among those born of women (which is everybody like us), there have been no greater men than John the Baptist.  And yet even the greatest of men have doubts…even when they’ve physically seen the actual fulfillment of the Word that God had spoken to them.   

John had seen an incredible thing.  The Spirit had descended upon Christ like a dove.  The Spirit of God had told him that this would happen.  And what an incredible, “mountain-top” moment it must have been for John when, according to God’s Word, what God told him was going to happen, actually happened!  The Spirit of God descended on Christ like a dove.  God told him that this was going to happen.  It happened and John testified that it happened.  

But now, in the seclusion of his cell.  Now, when despite his faithful (though risky) proclamation…the enemy frolics in the daylight while he is confined to his prison.  Now, when he suffers for doing what God has commanded…now he doubts whether he’d seen or heard anything at all.  He’s forlorn and dismayed.  He’s discouraged and he’s faltering in his faith. 

 

2.  Like you and me, John was just a man

            There was a limit to his strength.  There was a wall that exceeded his conviction.  And even though he’d seen and heard and played such an instrumental part in the unfolding of God’s plan of salvation…even then…the memory fades.  The present circumstances drown out those “mountain-top experiences” and even those incredible moments of grace.  And John, comes to the end of his internal strength.  He comes to the end of his resources and his ability to reason with himself and his ability to “will himself to believe” …and he starts to question if it wasn’t just all one big mistake.

John is just a man like you and me. And like He does with all men who are willing to hear, Jesus wastes no time.  Even before He addresses the crowds, He sends the messengers to Him.  “Go and tell John what you hear and see:  the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”  In other words, “YES John!  God’s Word is being fulfilled.  Do not be offended (or SCANDALIZED) when what I do isn’t what you think I would do or what you think I should do.  TAKE HEART:  Good news is being preached, even as it is being now preached to you…poor and lonely in your cell.

THE SALVATION OF GOD IS SURE, AND IT’S NOT JUST SOMETHING WE ALL WANT TO SEE; IT’S SOMETHING WE’RE ALL GOING TO SEE WHEN CHRIST COMES AGAIN IN HIS GLORY.

 

II.  Now, Jesus turns to the crowd with a question He might just as well ask you and me: 

A.  “What did you really go out to see?”

We’re not all that different are we? You didn’t come out to see some entertainer or to simply hang out with your friends. You went out to see that work of God that turns the deserts into fields of green.  You went out to see water flowing from a rock.  You went out to see, the blind see & the deaf hear, and even the lame leap for joy.  And you went out to see these things because you were compelled by faith, to look for the coming glory of God!

You went out because you want to see Him who comes in the Name of the Lord.  You went out because you want to be standing on that Highway when He comes.  You went out because you want to be where, as Isaiah says, not even a fool can be led astray…where you will see the salvation of your God!  That’s what you went out to see!  

B.  And you continue to go out to see, even though sometimes you totally feel like John.

            You go out to see, because that’s where you need to be.  You need that Word that has been sent to you by means of messengers, to remind you…in the midst of an age which says, “behold my thoughts!” and “behold, my ways are just as good as your ways”…you need that Word that reminds you of whose Words and thoughts are higher…those words and thoughts that are not of men, but of God.

            You go out to see, because from the days of John the Baptist until even now, you know that the Kingdom of Heaven has suffered violence and that the violent continue to try and take it by force.  You know that in the days of John, he was taken and imprisoned and violently beheaded simply for faithfully saying, “Thus saith the Lord…”.  The violent did to John what they did to Christ in order to try and take it by force…when they came with swords and clubs and a great crowd…and even as they stormed into a garden in the middle of the night and arrested Him; and beat Him; and mocked Him and stripped Him of His clothes…even as they stood there and said, “You see…the kingdom of heaven belongs to me!  I told you so.  It doesn’t belong to that guy.  It belongs to me…and you’d better do what I say and you’d better agree with what I think” -- because even now, the violent seek to take it by force.

 

Conclusion:  But God’s salvation is sure.  Even in the days of Jesus we had a foretaste of what is to come.  His people saw the lame walk, the deaf hear and the blind regain their sight.  And His people eagerly look for these things now, even as we look with anticipation for Him for His coming again.  So, don’t be scandalized or offended when it seems like His justice is delayed.  His justice has been carried out already when before the violent crowds the Kingdom of Heaven Himself was seized and crucified.  This was God’s violent wrath against sin being carried out on Him who handed Himself over for us.  This was God allowing the violent to grasp Him with all their might that He might forever burst their bonds; break their hold; and crush their strength – like the head of a Serpent.  This is Christ giving Himself unto death that He might show us that God’s salvation is sure when He was raised up on the Third Day.

            For this reason, we begin to rejoice.  The King is coming.  The bonds have been broken.  The veil has been lifted.  You shall come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon your heads.  You shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.  In the Name of Jesus + Amen.

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