Are You The One?

The LORD is my strength and my might, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

Let us invoke the presence of God: LORD, we thankyou for adding a new day in our life and bringing us together here. As we are worshipping and meditating in your Holy sanctuary, we invoke the presence of your holy spirit and filled each and everyone by your spirit. We asked in Jesus name. Amen.

Shall we all stand and Sing Chorus Create in me a clean heart O God (CH no).. Pease be seated.

May I ask Mr. Gospelmawia to intercede for others on our behalf and the congregation will respond by singing Give your to my heart O Lord…

Thank you Mr. Gospela. The given passage for this morning meditation Luke 7:18-35, which talked about Messengers from John the Baptist to Jesus. Before we go further may I ask Ms. Vanlabiaktluangi Sailo to read out some portion of the given passage.

Thank you Nu-I for your participation.

If we look through the whole passage Luke 7:18-35, we see many issues, story and illustration. this morning I may not be able to take out all those things, so, I will take out only some few points.

Shall we pray. “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable by thy sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.”

In the given passage we have read that John sends two of his disciples to Jesus with an important question. “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” John wants to know if Jesus is the one who is the Messiah. We may be amazed that John asked this question. John knew he was the forerunner to Jesus. This was told to him from the day of his miraculous birth. John knew he was the voice in the wilderness to prepare for the coming of the Lord as we seen in Luke 3:4-6. John went about preaching, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). John was the one who baptized Jesus when the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus in the form of a dove. He heard and saw these things. However, now John is in prison. Things do not seem to be going according to plan. John is supposed to be preparing the way for Jesus, not sitting in prison for preaching the good news. So John sends two of his disciples with an important question while John sits in prison. Are you the one or are we looking for another?

Jesus’ response to John’s question is awesome. Verse 21 tells us that during the time of this question Jesus is healing many people of diseases, plagues, and evil spirits. He is also healing the blind and giving them sight. Jesus has a message for John. I think it is important to notice the gentleness in Jesus’ answer. Jesus was not angry with John for asking this. Jesus gives John the encouragement he needs. Go tell John that the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the good news preached to them. Go tell John what you have seen me do. Jesus did not do this display as some sort of power show to prove himself to John.  Rather the miracles that Jesus performs are the fulfillment of messianic prophecies.

Jesus’ answer is that he is fulfilling the promises concerning the Messiah. His answer by his miracles means, “Yes, I am the one who was the come. I am the Messiah.”

The conclusion of Jesus’ message is just as important. “And blessed is the one who is not offended by me” (7:23). Jesus’ words are a slight warning for John and for all others who learn about Jesus. Do not be tripped up by the way Jesus carried out his mission. The style of Jesus’ messianic mission did not match most forms of Jewish eschatological expectation. Many had the wrong expectations about what Jesus would do. Many thought the Messiah would be the overthrower of Rome. Many thought it would be a time of economic prosperity when the Messiah came. Jesus teaches a very important lesson. Do not have the wrong expectations about Jesus and what he will do. Trust that he is the Christ even though he did not meet the expectations of the people.

From this passage we can reflect today’s context..

We have many of the same issues with Jesus today. Many discredit that there is a God because if there was a God, then why is there war? Why do innocent children suffer? Why doesn’t God intervene against evil? How can there be so much evil in the world? Others have different expectations of Jesus. Even John seems to have certain expectations of Jesus. Jesus makes the point: he is the Lord and Messiah but he does not do things according to our plans or ways

Jesus’ View of John (7:24-30)

Once Jesus sends John’s messengers back to John, Jesus begins preaching to the crowds about John. Jesus asks what the people expected to see when they went into the wilderness to see John. Do you think you are going to find a push over living in the wilderness preaching? Did you think you were going to find a luxurious, laid back preacher living in the wilderness? He ate locusts with wild honey. What kind of person did you think you would find? The point is that they knew there was a prophet living out there. They knew that John was a prophet from God. They knew John was great. That is why they went out to the wilderness to see him.

Then Jesus intensifies his point. Yes, John was a prophet. But he was greater than a prophet. He was the prophesied forerunner to the Messiah. John is the one the prophet Malachi declared would come to prepare the way for the Lord. Not only was John a great prophet, he was the greatest person ever born of woman. Jesus simply said that besides himself, John is the greatest person to ever walk the earth. No one was greater than John.

Carefully consider what Jesus says in verse 28. “Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” John was the greatest person to ever walk the earth besides Jesus. But if you are in God’s kingdom then you are greater than John. Do you understand how great it is to be in a relationship with Jesus and belonging to his kingdom! Your position in Christ is so privileged and so great that your relationship with God is as precious as the greatest prophets of God.

When the crowd heard these words, they glorified God declaring him just. The people are acknowledging that God’s way is right. They are accepting that God’s call for repentance was correct. They needed to repent. However, the Pharisees and the lawyers continued to reject the purpose of God for them.

Rebuking The People (7:31-35)

Jesus now tells a parable to explain the condition of these people. He says they are like children, but not in a good way. They are like children who call to one another, “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.” Jesus calls the people immature, complaining children. Notice the parable is of complaining kids who cannot get the other kids to do what they want. I am quite experienced with this problem with my own children and their friends. A child cries and complains because the others won’t do what he or she wants them to do. We played the flute but you didn’t dance. You did not do what we wanted. We sang a dirge and you didn’t weep. You did not play by our rules and fit our expectations.

Jesus uses this parable to describe the people’s criticisms of John and himself. The people knew that John was a prophet from God. Since John did not come eating bread or drinking wine the people declared he had a demon and rejected him. Jesus came eating bread and drinking wine but the people rejected him also, calling him a drunkard and a glutton. It did not matter how the messenger came, they rejected the messenger and the message. Rather than listening to God’s messengers, they are telling the messengers what to do. They want Jesus and John to play by their rules. Here is what we want John to be. If Jesus is the Messiah then this is what we want him to do.

Are we complaining or following? Do we dictate to God our terms of service or do we submit to Christ’s terms? Too often we want God to follow our rules. We will obey if God does what we want him to do. We will come to worship when we want. We will serve when it is convenient for us. God will accept what I want to give him. When we think like this we are just like these people that Jesus was addressing. God does not submit to us. We submit to him.