Welcome to our program. We're in chapter number 7. We will begin today at verse number 19. Be sure and have your Bible ready if that's possible. Luke chapter seven began with a focus on a centurion, and then, as we saw in our last broadcast, the focus changes to a widow whose only son had died, the miraculous raising him from the dead in that portion of Scripture. And today the focus turns to John the Baptist, and we're beginning to read in Luke chapter seven, verse number 18, and the disciples of John showed him all of these things. 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 has sent us unto thee, saying, Art thou he that should come, or look we for another? It's interesting that John has been laying in prison a year, possibly more, maybe two, He is certainly getting discouraged. We have lots of stories about doubting Thomas. Here we have doubting John. John had good reason to doubt, although there's never any excuse for that, but some of us, I think, doubt a lot quicker than what John the Baptist did. In any event, when these two disciples came to Jesus, he didn't answer their question. Art thou he that should come or do we look for another in verse 21 says and in that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues and of evil spirits and unto many that were blind he gave sight then it says in verse 22 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, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached, and then he adds a simple but direct rebuke. He says in verse 23, tell John this too, blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me. John didn't understand everything that was going on. Like most of us today, we think we know everything that's going on. John knew that he didn't understand, and we'll see that here in a minute. Well, it says in verse 24, when the messengers of John were departed, he began to speak unto the people concerning John. What went ye out in the wilderness for to see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what went ye out for to see, a man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they which are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately, are in kingís courts. But what went ye out for to see, a prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet. Yea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet. But what did you go all the way out there for? They left the beautiful temple and went out into the rugged wilderness, 50 or 60 miles, to listen to find out and listen to see what John the Baptist was up to. So Jesus said, what do you make that trip for? That's a good question. Do you go to church every week? What for? Why are you really going there? Is it just routine? Well, I think the Pharisees, and we see that further down through here, they want an answer, so they send the people out because they're coming to the temple in Jerusalem, nobody's there, everybody's gone out to see what John's doing. But he said, did you go to see a prophet? He said, a prophet, yea, I say unto you, verse 26, 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. For I say unto you, Jesus said, among those that are born of a woman, 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, not being baptized of him. Well, John has been sitting in a dirty, filthy dungeon. He's beginning to doubt. We look back in his life, we see a miraculous birth, an amazing ministry. We see he is the prophet that was prophesied that would proclaim the coming of the Messiah. He was very popular among the people, but he ended up in a dungeon shortly after the baptism of Christ and in prison for all this time. He asked the question in verse 20, art thou he that should come or look we for another? Why did he begin to doubt? Well, I think maybe perhaps the long time that he's been suffering in that dungeon. John expected something different than this. He was a forerunner of the Messiah. He understood that. The king was to come and he was to take control. Well, it certainly didn't look like he was taking control. Where's the armies? Where's the overthrow of the enemies? What is this about telling Peter to go and get some tax money and pay them? their tax money. You got it, remember, from a fish's mouth. What is that? We're supposed to be kicking these Romans out. And what about these sermons I'm hearing about you're preaching? Bless your enemies? We're supposed to be getting rid of the enemies. Now, John, he understood the Old Testament prophecies, and, you know, talking about that back in Isaiah 49, in verse 2, we have the phrase like a sharp sword. Zechariah 14, 3, then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations. And it says in Zechariah 14, 9, the Lord shall be king over all the earth. Ezekiel 13, 23, I will deliver my people, he said. Ezekiel also says, thus saith the Lord, in that day my people of Israel dwelleth safely. It's not looking this way to John, it's not looking this way to anybody else either. about Luke 1 and 71 that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us and Luke 1 and 74 that he would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies this is what he understood was going to happen so maybe if you and I had been sitting in that dungeon as long as John had been sitting there not really understanding everything he needed to understand in order to not get into this area of doubt. Well, he sends two of his disciples and they said, aren't thou he that should come or do we seek for another? Well, Jesus sent them back and he said, now go tell John what you see the same hour the infirmities, the plagues, the evil spirits, those that are blind, or even those that are raised from the dead. The poor have the gospel preached to him. Go back to them. Go back and tell John what you've seen. Well, when the messengers of John were departed, it says in verse 24, he began to speak unto the people concerning John. And three times he said, what went you out for to see? Usually people will be attracted to someone who can draw a crowd around them. John certainly was doing that. But as far as the standards of the world were considered, he was not a great man. He had no wealth, no education. He had no achievements. He had built nothing. He owned nothing. And he dressed kind of funny for that matter. But Jesus said that John the Baptist was greater than Adam or Noah or Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and all the other names that are named in Hebrews chapter 11. He said there's not a greater prophet than John the Baptist. Well, there's quite a few reasons why he was great, but again, God's standards for greatness and ours are different. One of the things was that he was a man of conviction. That is, he firmly held to what he believed. He didn't change, he just preached it all the way through and it ended up getting them in prison and getting his head cut off, but he's a man of conviction. He was a man of courage. He was ready to do things that others feared to do. He was Christ-centered, and to be centered on something is the point from which all activity is directed. He was a man who had power on his life. He had control to influence people's behavior. The entire nation of Israel was influenced by him, and he was confrontational that he would deal aggressively with his situations. Well, We see here that Jesus said, first of all, what went you out for to see? A reed shaking in the wind? Now what? I don't know if you see these reeds, they're shaking in the wind. That's about all they're good for. You're not going to take any reeds down and build furniture with them. A reed shaking in the wind? That's not John. Ephesians 4, 14 talks about those who are tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine. No, that wasn't John the Baptist. God's standard of greatness. We could go back to John chapter 1, verses 6 through 36, and we won't take the time to go through all of that, but it says in verse 6, there was a man sent from God. That's the first thing. And then it says in verse 7, the same came for a witness to bear witness. And in verse 8, he said he was sent to bear witness. And in verse 15, it says, John, bear witness of him. And there's a standard of greatness, bearing witness, bearing witness. He opened his mouth. Now, if you're going to be a witness in a court, you're going to have to open your mouth and say what you know. And that's what John was doing. Very few Christians will do that today. He said in verse 29, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. And again, verse 36, Behold the Lamb of God. He was sent from God. He was bearing witness that Jesus was who he said he was. And that was some of the things that made John great but we have this really interesting verse here in verse number 28 that says for I say unto you Jesus said among those that are born a woman there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist all right but listen to the rest of the verse but he that is least is in the kingdom of God is greater than he. Well, how can we be greater than John the Baptist? Well, first of all, we can have a greater witness. We've seen that in John chapter 1, verses 6 through 36 again and again. The Lord refers to John as a witness. We can have a greater witness. This broadcast, we're coming from Sarnia, Ontario, we're coming from a very small church, and yet we have witnesses all over the world. We get emails from all over the world, from around, all over, Australia, and from New Zealand, and from Guam, from Israel, we've had correspondents from almost everywhere. And so, yeah, we can have a greater witness, John didn't have a microphone. John didn't have a computer. John didn't have the means by which we have to get the gospel around the world today. Not only that, we are living on the other side of Calvary. John didn't understand. He didn't have the complete Word of God. He didn't have the Holy Spirit living within him like we do. The Holy Spirit in that era would come upon people for service, but John's not serving right now. He's sitting in a dungeon. We can have a greater influence than John had because we know things that John never knew. The Bible talks about several mysteries in the New Testament, and they have been revealed to us, and John didn't know about those. Then we have a greater understanding when it comes to the rapture of the Christian. the depravity of man, justification, the book of Revelation, but the greatest thing I think that we're looking at here when he says greater than John, John had a plan that he was presenting for Israel, and it's very important to understand that. John was presenting the King, the Messiah, for the nation of Israel. He was presenting God's plan for Israel. Today, our responsibility is to present God's plan of salvation for everybody. Now, when John was talking about God's plan for Israel, he was talking about Jesus being their King, And they would rule the world with him. They rejected him. We will not have him reign over us. But that was John's message. Our message is a much greater message. Not that that one wasn't important, but the message of salvation is the greatest message in the world. And that's one reason why we will make such a fuss and continue to make such a fuss about those who call themselves fundamentalists today, who have changed the plan of salvation, saying you do not need to repent. in order to be saved. Well, the Lord concluded this message in verse 31 through verse 35, telling them how spiritually immature they were. The Lord said, where unto then, verse 31, shall I liken the men of this generation? And to what are they like? Or here's what they're like. He said, they're like unto children sitting in a marketplace and calling one to another and saying, we have piped unto you and you have not danced. We have mourned you and you have not wept. They're talking about games they played and they're just crybabies. They're little, they're little brats is what they are. And he said, for John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine. And ye say, Hath the devil and the Son of Man came eating and drinking? And ye say, Behold, a gluttonous man, and a wine-bibber, and a friend of publicans and sinners. And he concludes his message with verse 35, he says, But wisdom is justified of all her children. What are the children of wisdom, the offspring of wisdom? Well, to be wise is to be able to make good judgments, and the opposite of that is unwise, lacking good sense or judgment. You'll find, if you want to study it in the Bible, you'll find the word wisdom and understanding in 53 verses. You'll find those two words. well in our next message we're going to look from verse 36 on through this chapter where a pharisee invites the lord over for lunch and a prostitute shows up it's an interesting portion don't miss it