The title is Jesus, the one and only. Jesus, the one and only. And the text is Luke 7, 18 to 30, roughly. Let's pray. Gracious heavenly Father, we thank you for the one and only Jesus Christ. None other is like him. May we recognize his uniqueness today. And we ask it in his name, amen. So we're looking at Luke 7, and as we're going through the book of Luke, we had mentioned, I had mentioned earlier that, you know, he presented the Sermon on the Plain, and it had a high bar to, it was a high bar. So who is this that's saying these things? And so we saw last week that he was, uh, He was powerful because he spoke from a distance and then healed someone on a deathbed so that they were no longer sick. And another person that was dead, he raised from the dead. So he's powerful. And we saw that he is compassionate because no one even asked him. to raise the dead there but he had compassion on the mother of the deceased boy and so he raised the dead and but still I mean that's quite a set of credentials okay but you know you can imagine somebody might be powerful and somebody might be Compassionate But we want to see today that he's the one and only not only is he powerful. He's the he's the one and only okay so Looking at our text now So so, you know, he had he had done all these things these miracles and the disciples of John the Baptist They went back to John the Baptist. They said look at what all is happening so John the Baptist wanted to confirm that the identity of Jesus. So we get the benefit of that. And you might say, well, even John the Baptist wasn't sure. There you go. So maybe you have some doubts sometimes. That's okay. John the Baptist had some doubts sometimes. He didn't know everything all the time. Neither do we. It's okay. But just confirm things. And he was confirming these things. You might say, well, isn't he the one that baptized Jesus and said, behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world? Yeah, that's the same John the Baptist. So, wow, so he could even have some wonderings at times. Even the man whom God called to do those things, okay, could even have those questions. So it's okay to have some questions, okay? It's okay. So reading in Luke 7 verse 18, I'm looking at the bulletin, the disciples of John also reported to him about all these things. And after summoning two of his disciples, John sent them to the Lord saying, are you the coming one? He's asking, he has his disciples go back and ask Jesus if he's that unique person that everyone is looking for. The unique person that especially really the Jews were waiting for, okay? And ultimately that the whole world is looking for ultimately, although they don't know it. They need Jesus. They're really not seeking him. They're seeking something. He's the answer to what they need, okay? So you might say they're seeking him in that way, but they don't really seek him. Truly. Anyway. So, uh, are you the coming one? Are we to look for another verse 20? When the men came to him, they said, John, the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, are you the coming one? Uh, you notice those are capitalized in this version. Different versions use different capitalizations. Just a little aside here, you know, in English, in the 1700s, our English, American English in the 1700s, which was like British English. Okay. Uh, They typically capitalized every noun. If you wanted to see what the nouns were in a sentence, you just look for the capitalized words. They didn't limit it to proper nouns. Every noun was capitalized. But then slowly we've gone to just using capitals for proper nouns. In this case, coming one is capitalized because it refers to God, and so they capitalize in this version things that refer to God. So if it says me or he, and it's referring to God, those will be capitalized, and coming one is capitalized. And just like it says, are you, and that's capitalized. Just as a little aside, if you're wondering why there's a bunch of capital letters there, that's because it's referring to Jesus and he is God. Are you the coming one or are we to look for another? And you know, I saw in the news lately, that an amazing, man, I wish I'd written this down. This just came to mind, but when you take little tiles and you make a pattern with those tiles and it says something. And so they found this, they uncovered this as they were building something. Did you see that? And they, they uncovered this in, um, in Israel somewhere. And, uh, it's, uh, it's from, I think the floor of a, of a church from like the year, um, 200, something like really early. Okay. In that area. And it's got, uh, Jesus is God basically in it And see and there's arguments about oh, does it really say that it doesn't even say that they say but they don't understand that in the in the Greek to abbreviate Jesus in Since you'd be using Jesus a lot They just put the first letter. Okay? Yeah, yezu, okay Yeshua I'm not sure anyway the point is the first letter and the last letter and then in Greek to abbreviation you put a bar above it that means you've abbreviated something in English we have contractions to indicate it we put a little quote in there where something's missing. Here, they joined together the letters and put a bar over it. That means something in the middle is missing. That's their contraction. And it has the contraction for Jesus and the contraction for God, you know. with a bar over it. Anyway, people look at that and they say, it doesn't say it. Well, it does because it's got the contraction for it right there. And so if you see that, if you ever see that and you look for that, look for that. You'll see that little bar over these few words there. That's what they're doing. It says more than that, but I can't remember all the details. But Jesus is God. And I've said this to some people that say they're Christians. Is Jesus God? They're like, no, I'm not sure. He's the son of God. I don't know, you know, what are they teaching you? Wherever you're going to church, you know, you're not, you're not believing that Jesus is God? I don't know. Okay. So he's the one, he's the one, the unique one, the one and only. Are you the coming one? Are we to look for another? So it's important. John wants to know for sure that he's the one, you know, because that's important. And it's important for you to know that he's the one, you know, he, he, he went to great trouble here. His disciples reported, they went back over to him. Then they came back to him. It's a whole, you know, you think, well, didn't, didn't John the Baptist, when he baptized Jesus, didn't he give him a certificate of baptism? Didn't he take a picture, have a song and a video recorded and all that? No. Maybe he forgot. Maybe he forgot the details. You know, he hears about somebody doing these miracles. And he says, I wonder if that's the guy baptized. Maybe it's like that. Right? You wonder why. Well, it's not like he can look on the news and say, yeah, that's the guy. You know, so he wants someone to go over there and physically report back to him so he can know that he's the one, okay? It's not like today where you have instant communication and pictures and all kinds of stuff. So it's a little less confusing when you think of it that way, okay? It's a possibility. So anyway, that's okay. But he wanted to make sure. And we also need to make sure. So at, verse 21, at the very time, at that very time, he cured many people of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits. And he gave sight to many who were blind. Maybe you call this prophet to prophet. What do you say, when you're a doctor, you maybe give free doctoring to another doctor, I can't think of the word, but just a courtesy, that's the word. Prophet to prophet courtesy, okay? It's a courtesy. Most people, Jesus would say, I'm only gonna give you the miracle of Jonah. Some people, he says, all I'm giving you is Jonah, that's it. I'm going to be raised in three days, and that's the evidence I'm giving you. No miracles for you. You seek your miracle? Okay. But here, prophet, courtesy maybe, and it's important for John the Baptist to confirm that this is the one, because John's the one. In a minute, you'll see he's one of those ones, okay? There's a couple of different ones, all right? And so as a courtesy, you might say, and as a part of God's plan, and for the sake of the gospel and us, and this gospel by Luke, Jesus did these things right then. And he answered and said to them, after he did all those things, go and report to John what you have seen and heard. People who were blind receive sight, people who limped walk, people with leprosy are cleansed, and people who were deaf hear, dead people are raised up, and people who are poor have the gospel preached to them. Nice. And blessed is anyone who does not take offense at me. And you know, something I don't think I mentioned last time when we were talking about the rich and the poor. You know, back at this time, people thought, and you've heard this before, but good to remember, people used to think, well, that person's rich. God's blessing him. He must be good. He must be wise. He must be going to heaven because he's rich. That's what people used to think. You know, and people think that today you don't, don't, don't, don't laugh too hard. People think that today, God's blessing that it's the rich people that are going to heaven. They're being blessed. He contradicted that in his sermon on the plane, just like that. And, uh, and also the servant on the Mount, but, but here, uh, He says, the poor have the gospel preached to them. Jesus came to preach to the poor. And blessed is anyone who does not take offense at me. It's a blessing to receive and believe everything about Jesus. That's true, right? Obviously. And people are inclined to take offense at Jesus, on the other hand. That's true too. Oh, he wouldn't even have to mention that. See? Jesus has hard sayings that we need to hear. And so don't take offense at what he says. and who he is and what he does. So verse 24, when the messengers of John had left, he began to speak to the crowds about John. Isn't that nice? Some more prophet to prophet courtesy, I guess. John spoke about Jesus and Jesus spoke about John, right? And in your bulletin, the question is about a profit-to-profit face-off. Isn't that interesting? Not a courtesy in that case, okay? It was a real showdown. But verse 24, he spoke about John. He said, what did you go out into the wilderness to see, a reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see, a man dressed in soft clothing? Those who are splendidly clothed and live in luxury are found in royal palaces. But what did you go out to see, a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and one who is more than a prophet. This is the one. So he's a one also, one of a kind, like not the same kind as Jesus, but just as Jesus is one of a kind. unique in his special way and ways. John the Baptist was unique, okay? He was unique. He's the one about whom it is written, behold, I'm sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare the way, your way before you. So he says, I say to you, among those born of women, there is no one greater than John, yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. We're gonna leave it right there. We'll find out the rest next time, because we need to go to the Lord's Supper. So let's have a word of prayer. Gracious Heavenly Father, thanks so much for your word. Thanks so much for the prophet John the Baptist. And for his example, we thank you so much for the greatness of the Messiah, Jesus. We ask in Jesus name, amen.