Luke chapter 7. We're going to be looking at verses 18 through 30 this morning. Luke 7, 18. The disciples of John reported to him about all these things. We'll review those in just a moment. Summoning two of his disciples, John sent them to the Lord, saying, Are you the expected one, or do we look for someone else? When the men came to him, they said, John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, Are you the expected one, or do we look for someone else? At that very time, he cured many of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits. He gave sight to many who were blind. And He answered and said to them, Go and report to John what you have seen and heard. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them. Blessed is he who does not take offense at me. When the messengers of John had left, he began to speak to the crowds about John. What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft effeminate clothing? Those who are splendidly clothed and live in luxury are found in royal palaces. What did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes. I say to you, and one who is more than a prophet, This is the one about whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you. I say to you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John. And yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. When all the people and the tax collectors heard him, they acknowledged God's justice, having been baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God's purpose for themselves, not having been baptized by John. Well Lord, we come before You to hear from You this morning. We thank You that You've given us Your Word, inerrant, divine, infallible, handed down to us. And Lord, we again ask that by Your Spirit You would teach us and that this Word would come to us in His power. In Christ's name, Amen. Are you the expected one? John might be the last person we would have expected to pose this question. Why would he do that? Well, we haven't heard about John here since chapter 3, really, when he was imprisoned by Herod the Tetrarch for rebuking Herod for having his brother's wife. But we heard a lot about John, especially in these first three chapters, before John was conceived. Remember, his mother was barren. We're told his parents were advanced in age. But an angel, Gabriel, appeared to Zacharias, his father, who was a priest. And he told him his wife, Elizabeth, was going to bear him a son. And they were to give him the name John. It was a name God gave him. And the angel said of this son, John, the one in prison who sent these disciples to Jesus, he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He'll be filled with the Holy Spirit while he's still in his mother's womb. He'll turn many of the sons of Jacob back to the Lord their God. He will go before the Lord's anointed in the spirit and power of Elijah to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. And Gabriel told Zacharias that his son would be the one who had been prophesied by both Isaiah and Malachi. He'd be the messenger of God, the voice of one crying in the wilderness. He would be the one to announce the Messiah to Israel. And now he's asking this question, are you the expected one? When John was born, his father prophesied of him. Chapter 1, verse 76. You, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High. You will go before the Lord to prepare His ways, to give His people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of sins. And so when John grew and was about 30 years old, he came into the desert, into the desert, preaching and baptizing and calling people to repent, telling them the kingdom of God was at hand. And he said this, and we see it in John 1, 23, he said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Now they knew that meant the one of whom Isaiah spoke. Make ready the way of the Lord. Make His paths straight. Every ravine will be filled. Every mountain and hill will be brought low. The crooked will become straight. The rough road smooth, and all flesh will see the salvation of God. This is what John preached. He called the people to repent of their sins, and he warned them of the wrath of God to come. Look back to chapter 3, verse 7. John began saying to the crowds who were going out to be baptized by him... John 3, 7. ...He said to them, You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and don't begin to say to yourselves, We have Abraham our father. For I say to you that from these stones God can raise up children to Abraham. And then he said this in verse 9, Indeed, the axe is already laid at the root of the trees, so that every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Now if you wonder how the people responded to John, look ahead now to verse 15. The people were in a state of expectation. Hearing John in the desert, in the middle of nowhere, They were in a state of expectation of Messiah. And John said of Jesus, the one who's coming is mightier than I. I'm not fit to loosen the thong of His sandal. He's going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. And when Jesus came to John to be baptized, John was hesitant, but he did it because Jesus requested it. A voice from heaven declared, Luke 3.22, you are my beloved son. In you I am well pleased. And John was there. But John was now in prison, in a prison dungeon inside the palace of Machairus, which was located down near to the east of the Dead Sea. The palace of Herod the Tetrarch. And he was imprisoned for essentially one reason. He rebuked and reprimanded Herod for taking up with his brother's wife. He threw him in prison. He's still there in this gloomy fortress. Now Jesus, meanwhile, was out preaching as well. But He was not preaching the wrath of God. He was preaching what? Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Someone hits you on the cheek, offer him the other. Someone takes your coat, give him your shirt. Don't be judgmental. Don't be condemning of others. Be forgiving of others. Give to others. Jesus was out there teaching that love, mercy, and forgiveness are the hard attitudes that demonstrate that one is His disciple. And not only that, Jesus exhibited those virtues. He wasn't a mighty military man. He exhorted His hearers to build on a foundation simply of obedience to His commands. And He was healing many of their sicknesses and diseases. He was casting out demons. And now He had healed the slave of a Gentile, a Centurion. And in the Centurion's servant, remember what we saw. We saw Jesus' power to heal without even saying a word, without even being there. After that, He had raised the son of a widow woman from death back to life. And remember the reaction of the people. Fear had gripped the people. They began glorifying God. A great prophet has risen among us, they said. God has visited His people. So the people realized that in Jesus of Nazareth, God was at work. And the news of Jesus was spreading far and wide. including into the prison. John apparently was able to receive his disciples, his friends, his visitors. And he's wondering what's going on. They came and told John about all these things. And John summoned two of his disciples. And he sent them to the Lord asking this question, are you the expected one? Are you the one we've been looking for? Isn't this an unusual question for John, after all that he had said of Jesus? Well, let's look at Matthew 3, 13, just to get a sense of John's view of Jesus. Jesus arrived from Galilee into Jordan, coming to John to be baptized by him. John tried to prevent him, saying, I have need to be baptized by you. You come to me. Jesus said, permitted at this time, it's fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. And so He permitted him. And after being baptized, Jesus comes up out of the water. And behold, the heavens opened. He sees the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him. And this voice out of heaven, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Are you the expected one? Well, this is a pretty good sign. John chapter 1, verse 29. John said this, Next day John saw Jesus coming to him, and he said, Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is He on behalf of whom I said, After me comes One who is a higher rank than I. He existed before me. Now John was born five to six months before Jesus. I did not recognize Him, John said. But so that he might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water. And then John testified, I've seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven. And he remained upon him. Now look at this. Verse 33, I did not recognize him, but he who sent me to baptize in water said to me... Who sent him to baptize in water? Well God did. He said to John, He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God. Now he's in prison, having declared all that he had said of Jesus. when He announced Him to the world. Having heard all of these things that Jesus was doing, that Jesus was saying and doing, how could John still be wondering whether Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah? Remember, we've seen that when Jesus, and John began his gospel with this, when Jesus came unto His own people, sons of Jacob, they did not receive him. They didn't recognize the day of their visitation. But John? John recognized him. Yes, even John though, who had announced Jesus as the Messiah, had a different idea of what Messiah ought to be. 316, he called him the one who's coming, the long-awaited Messiah. And John had every good reason to believe that Jesus was the Messiah sent from God. Because God himself had revealed this to him, the one on whom you see the Spirit descending. So how was it that John was now sending messengers asking, are you the expected one? Or should we be looking for someone else? Well, let's look back to the things John had prophesied. He said the coming one would come in wrath and judgment. He began saying to the crowds, you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Indeed, he said, the axe is already laid at the root of the trees. This is what John was expecting. So every tree that does not bear good fruit is what? Cut down and thrown into the fire. Luke 3, 17. His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor and to gather the wheat into His barn. He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. You know, it's going to happen. But it wasn't happening. Jesus wasn't doing any works of judgment. He had not overthrown the Roman oppressors. He hadn't even overthrown those Jewish religious leaders. No. He was doing works of compassion and mercy. Where's the fire? Where's the axe? Was somebody else going to come and bring the wrath and the judgment? As John saw it, These gracious words that fell from the lips of Jesus and the miracles He was doing were not entirely in accord with the things John had predicted of Him. He presented Him as one who would come to punish and destroy. And Isaiah in his prophecies of Messiah also spoke of such judgment. Look at Isaiah 35, 4, which we read earlier. Your God will come with vengeance. Recompense of God will come. So this was not only prophesied by John. It was prophesied by Isaiah and others in the Old Testament. But what John did not realize, and this is why we must remember, there are no... Well there's one perfect man. Only one though. And John didn't realize was that the prophecies of doom and judgment were not going to be fulfilled in Christ's first coming. No, they would have to wait until He returns. In His first coming, Jesus came with divine grace. He came with mercy, works which demonstrated the love of God to wretches like us, including and climaxed by the greatest display of love that ever was, His suffering and His death on the cross. So in His first advent, He didn't come in judgment. He came to bring the good news of forgiveness of sins through belief in Him and in His righteousness. I know we figure, geez, John, Abraham, Moses, these guys must have known everything. But no, no. John did not yet know Jesus was going to have to die, would be raised, and return to His Father. And then one day return to judge the world, to pour out His wrath. This is why John was perplexed when he heard about all that Jesus was doing and what He was not doing. Where was the winnowing fork? Where was the axe at the root of the tree? So there's a lesson here. Prophecy comes to men without informing us or telling us of the time it's going to be fulfilled. God tells us what will happen, but He almost never and maybe never tells us when it will happen. That's what Acts 1-7 says. It's not for you to know the times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority. It wasn't even for John to know. And this is certainly true, folks, as to the timing of Christ's return. Nobody knows when He's coming back. Nobody knows. And the predictions as to when He will return are always wrong. One hundred percent of the time. And they always will be wrong. Because nobody knows. God has not revealed that to anyone. Now I want to look back to chapter 4, verse 18. Here's Jesus preaching in the synagogue in Nazareth. And there Jesus gives us a very strong hint that this was not yet the time of judgment. Now in Nazareth, Jesus had read from Isaiah 61, verse 1 and 2. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, He read, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and freedom to prisoners, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. And then Jesus said, Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. But there were more words in verse 2 of chapter 61 of Isaiah. And Jesus didn't read these words that day. The words He didn't read. The day of the vengeance of our God. It's not fulfilled in Him that day. The day of God's vengeance will be fulfilled when He returns. And that's why He stopped in Nazareth partway through verse 2 of Isaiah 61. Now interestingly, these two disciples of John, they arrive at a time when Jesus is among the people demonstrating His love and His power. Healing many people. Casting out demons. They happen to show up while He's actually doing this. And they say to Jesus, Master, John sent us to ask, are you the expected one? Or should we look for someone else? How would you like to have been them? He's raising the dead. He's healing people of every sickness. Are you Him? Well, Jesus' answer was this. Tell John what you've seen and tell him what you've heard. The blind see. The lame walk. Lepers are cleansed. The deaf hear. The dead are raised up. The poor have the gospel preached to them. These Old Testament prophecies showed that healing miracles and preaching of the good news would be signs of the Messiah. Divine authentication of the Anointed One sent from God. He'd be doing these signs. It was by works of grace and mercy and love, not in victories over Roman armies, that the Messiah's mission was going to be accomplished. Now the healing, there's something really interesting to me about the order here of these things. Healing of the blind, the deaf, the lame. All these were prophesied in Isaiah 35, verses 5 and 6. Look at it. The eyes of the blind will be opened, the ears of the deaf will be unstopped, the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will shout for joy. And to these, Jesus added two things. The cleansing of lepers and the raising of the dead. These are pretty great works. But you know what? There was a greater work, a greater work, a more important work, even than raising that dead man. It was a work that was prophesied in Isaiah 61 verse 1, and Jesus mentioned it here. He told John's disciples, go back and tell him this. What was this great work? It was the bringing of the good news to the afflicted, the preaching of the gospel to the poor. the preaching of the gospel of the poor, spoken of by Jesus back in the Sermon on the Mount. Those who've come to realize they are spiritually empty and destitute, in need of a righteousness from someone else. And what did Jesus say about those people who heard the gospel and responded? Theirs is not only the healing of a bodily disease, theirs is the kingdom of God. Tell John, this is the saving work of Messiah, the preaching of the good news to the poor in spirit. And this answer from our Lord must have brought to John's mind those prophecies of Isaiah, as if Jesus were very gently saying to John, do you remember those prophecies? All these things were also promised of Messiah, and all this is being fulfilled today in me. Jesus' message to John ends with these words, And blessed is he who is not repelled by me. One translates it. But the real literal translation here is, blessed is he who is not trapped in regard to Me. The word here translated offended in the NAS. The word here is actually that of a trap with a crooked stick. And then there's bait attached. And when the victim comes up and touches it, the trap is sprung. It catches the victim and it kills it. The point is the rejection of Jesus is fatal. Acceptance, receipt of Jesus is a blessing. So John is not to let the absence of works of wrath blind him to the glory of the works that were now in full progress. These works that Jesus was doing are the works of salvation. That's what he came to do, to save. And at the appointed time, he'll come again in judgment. What about the tone of Jesus' words to John here? Some read His words to John here as kind of a gentle rebuke. And I think that's probably right. Because Jesus is treating John here tenderly as He did the blind man, as He did Peter after He denied him three times, as He did Thomas. All of them faltered. All of them had their doubts. Some see the character going into Doubting Castle in Pilgrim's Progress as kind of a picture of John here. But Jesus reminds John. I mean, look at how he ends all of this. Blessed is he who doesn't take offense. He reminds John that a special blessing awaits him. And all those who don't fall into this trap of looking for the wrong things in the Savior. Blessing is for all those who continue, by God's grace, to trust in Him. Many such traps, folks, have been laid throughout human history. Always for the same reason, because of people deciding for themselves what God ought to be. A God who's fair and loving wouldn't do A-B-C. A God who's fair and just would do A-B-C. That's the trap. That's the trap. God has always revealed Himself to us in His Word and in His Son. And we must never seek to design a god of our own imagination, as so many do. That's why you have Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, New Agers, because they want to deny the true God. It's a trap that's set for them. So we see the wisdom and the tenderness of Jesus here again in His message of what is really reassurance to John and to us. He is exactly who was promised. Remember, Jesus is all-knowing. And I think he understood that in the crowd there may have been some who thought he was rebuking John. And he doesn't want there to be any misunderstanding about that. So he asks the crowd now a series of questions concerning their relation to John during his days of preaching and baptizing out in the desert and along the Jordan River. So we can now picture these two disciples of John departing from view. They're headed back on their journey to the prison at Machairas where John is. And now Jesus turns and begins to speak to the multitude about John the Baptist. He did not want them to draw any wrong conclusion concerning John. Okay, so John isn't omniscient. Nobody else is. The fact that John was perplexed about the works of Jesus should in no way diminish Him in their eyes. And so Jesus addresses the crowd. I mean, after all, John was the very one who had pointed out Jesus as Messiah. And by the way, this meant to believe John is to believe in Jesus. Well the first point he makes is John wasn't some fickle, vacillating person. No. And Jesus wants us to know here that we must not rush to condemn a person solely on the basis of his lack of understanding. A lack of understanding which can be corrected by looking to the Word of God. And Jesus' words here will lead the crowd to reflect on the impact that the Baptist had made on them in the Judean desert. So look what he asks first. What was it that caused you to travel all the way from Galilee out into the middle of nowhere in the wilderness of Judea? Why would you do that? Did you go there to see some man who resembled a reed being swayed by the wind? A man who yields to popular opinion with no solid convictions of his own? No. What drew the people to go out to John was the fact he was the very opposite of such a reed. This man was known to everybody to be a man like a sturdy oak, not like a reed shaken by the wind. Israel was filled with men who waffled. You had to waffle if you wanted to be in the favor of both the Jewish religious establishment and the Romans. He had to follow the prevailing opinions of the day. Not John. At that very moment, he was in prison because he would not compromise on God's commandments. He was in prison because he would not compromise. The Jewish authorities, those Pharisees, scribes, we don't see any of them in prison for rebuking Herod. They overlooked Herod's sin. They didn't confront him out of fear or expediency. Even when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, they were still worried about what? Losing their position. Losing their nation. Not John. John stood firmly against evil. And he was willing to suffer the temporary consequences of fidelity to the Word of God and the name of God. He was no reed shaken by the wind. So then Jesus asked, did you go out to see a man dressed in soft clothing? That word for soft here is the same word that was rendered effeminate back in 1st Corinthians chapter 6, verse 9. And we know from Matthew that John wore a coat of camel hair. And this wasn't the refined camel hair that you might find in the clothing store today. This was rough. Hendrickson says this, "...those who wear soft garments..." Our picture here of men without backbones, sycophants who readily kowtow to those in authority. "...and are rewarded with a high office in the king's palace, a position that enables them to be richly appareled and to live luxuriously in keeping with the high station in life to which they have attained." Well, the crowd knew. They knew well John was a very different man. He did not seek the favor of the influential and get a nice skirt to wear. No. Not only did he not flatter the king or seek his favor, he rebuked him. So now, instead of enjoying palace life, he's in the palace okay, but he's locked in the prison dungeon. He's now in the royal house of Herod, but not the handsomely dressed courtier. A wretched prisoner, still clad in his same old rough camel's hair. And Jesus reminds him by this question. When you went out to see John, did you go to see a man who knew how to secure the royal favor? No. You didn't go to see someone like that. You went out to see a man who had courage. Courage to rebuke even a king. A man who could not be bought. Oh, to see such characters in our leaders today. A man who couldn't be bought by royal favors. Who showed absolute fidelity to God and His Word. No, you didn't go out to see that, Jesus says. You went out to see a prophet of God. And more than a prophet, By these words, Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, confirmed for the multitude the place of John the Baptist in God's eternal plan of redemption of a people for Himself. Jesus authenticates John here. More than a prophet. Why would He say that? Because John is the one prophet who himself was prophesied. We just read about him this morning. Behold, I send my messenger before you. the voice of one crying in the wilderness. So he was not only like the other prophets, one who announced that Christ would come. He introduced them to the people. He prepared the way for him. And here's Jesus now quotes from the prophecy of Malachi. Jesus authenticating Malachi's prophecy. as the Word of God. Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. So yes, this man John was the messenger promised by Yahweh. who would announce the arrival of Messiah and introduce the people to Him. And so Jesus places John above the rank of prophet. More than a prophet. And what else was Jesus doing by these words? He confirmed what Gabriel had declared to Zacharias. He confirmed what Zacharias had prophesied of John. He confirmed what John himself had declared that He was the voice crying in the wilderness. He was the messenger promised by God hundreds of years earlier through the prophets Isaiah and Malachi. He confirmed that He was the one who would go before the Messiah to prepare the way for Him. And in confirming all of these things about John, Jesus was also confirming something else. He was confirming that He indeed was the Messiah. the Savior sent from God. And by Jesus' own testimony, there was no man born of women who was greater than John. Because no man born of women was more righteous than John, perhaps. Jesus didn't elaborate on that because He had a larger point to make Now these words, born of women or born of woman, point our attention directly to the fallen state of man. All of us were born in sin. Including John. Not including Jesus. All men are born subject to and headed for death. John was one of these men. He wasn't God. He was a man of the fallen world, born in sin. But in His work in this world, no one is found who is greater than He. And think about His history. Just briefly, He'd been conceived in a barren woman like Isaac. He'd been filled with the Holy Spirit while still in His mother's womb. He'd announced the arrival of Messiah Behold, the Lamb of God is taking away the sin of the world. He called all men to repent as the only way for a sinner to enter the kingdom of God. He called all men to a life of bearing fruit for the kingdom of God. And when Jesus arrived, what did John do? He humbly receded into the background. He resisted any temptation to seek to continue to call attention to himself. He only called attention to himself to point out Jesus. His humble spirit is seen in these words. John 3.30, He must increase, but I must decrease. And you know, when Jesus talked about greatness, whatever He did, true greatness, He always linked it with what? Humility. Humility. Look at Matthew 18.1, At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? They had some work to do too, didn't they? ...He called a child to Himself, and He set him before them. And He said, Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of God. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 20, verse 26, It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall become your servant. Whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, to give His life a ransom for many. And then in the clearest possible terms in Matthew 23, verse 11, but the greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted. Jesus came to inaugurate the kingdom of God. He brought the kingdom of God among men. And among men, no one is greater than John. But in the kingdom of God, all are greater than the greatest of this fallen world. The kingdom of God, all are clothed with a robe of Christ's righteousness. In the kingdom of God, all are adopted children of God. Even now in the kingdom of God, God Himself dwells within us. He dwells in our midst. And when the kingdom comes in its fullness when Christ returns, God Himself will dwell in the midst of all His people. And yes, we have every reason to believe that John is in the kingdom of God. All right, now we come to verses 29 and 30. There's some disagreement here. And I have a dear friend in Columbus who asked me the other day, well why are there so many different versions of the Bible? Well this isn't really a matter of different versions so much as a matter of different understandings about these two verses. Although we end up in the same place no matter where we begin here. If your Bible records Jesus' own words in red letters, these two verses in most translations go back to black letters. As though Luke is now inserting a comment here on what Jesus was saying and was about to say. Right in the midst of Jesus' words. Interrupts him. Now if that's true, and it could be, it's the only time Luke ever did this. Interrupt Jesus in the midst of his remarks to comment. Now this is one of the reasons why a number of sound commentators believe that verses 29 should also be in red letters. And that Jesus was still speaking here. I believe that's the more likely truth here. But either Jesus spoke these words or they were inspired by His Spirit. And why is there uncertainty about this? Well, here's what the original language actually says here. In the Greek, there's no object after the word heard. And if your Bible italicizes words that have been implied or they believe are implied, you probably have the word this. When the people and the tax collectors heard this. most English versions supply the word this. As if Luke were commenting that when the people and tax collectors heard Jesus talking that day, they did this. But, and I believe that King James is the one who has him here, which I believe is correct. So many commentators and Greek scholars believe that the word that should be implied here is the word him. Referring to John. That Jesus was saying When all the people and the tax collectors heard John, they responded either by being baptized and repenting or by rejecting him. And this is supported by the fact that's exactly what Jesus says here. He follows these words with a reference to the reactions to John's preaching. So here's what this verse says, I believe. When the people heard John, They, the common people, and even the tax collectors, acknowledged the justice of God. And they repented. They didn't try to remake Him into a god of their own imagination. And that this is seen in the fact that they responded to John's preaching by being baptized. A baptism with a view to repentance and belief in the One who is coming. And had in fact now arrived When they heard John, Jesus says, many repented and were baptized. Now in contrast with those who heard John and repented and were baptized were the Pharisees and the lawyers. Experts in the Old Testament law of God. These guys were very good at understanding ceremonies and minutia. But they never came to grips with the will of God, with His essential message of the law. So the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the call of God through John. So the answer to the question that we began with, a question sent by John, are you the expected one? Hallelujah! Yes, he is the expected one. He came with many, many blessings, but the most important blessing of all, the good news of forgiveness of sins. He came, folks, to restore us to spiritual sight, to open our eyes and our ears to divine truth. He came to cleanse us of all our sin. He came to heal us of every spiritual infirmity. And He came to raise us from spiritual death to spiritual life. He came to bring many sons to glory. And this is what Jesus wanted John to know. And it's what He wants us to know. He's going to come in judgment one day. And that axe at the root of the trees, that winnowing fork, will be a horrifying thing for those who don't come to Him, believe Him, repent of our sins, and turn to Him. Yeah, He's the long-awaited Messiah. He's the Savior of the world. And folks, He calls us to come to Him, believe in Him, and to live. Let us pray. Lord, we thank You that You lay out Your plan of redemption in such glorious terms. That You spoke these words through Isaiah 750 years before Christ. That You spoke these promises through Malachi nearly 500 years before John came into the wilderness. that You sent Your Son and He affirmed all of these prophecies. And even more so, that He fulfilled them. That He came with Your grace and mercy and love. And with the good news that despite all we've done by Your grace, we can be forgiven. And so, Lord, let us receive this Word. delivered by your spirit and power. And Lord, may we respond in a way that is honoring and pleasing to you in gratitude, worship, and obedience for your kingdom and for your glory in Christ's name.