GREATER THAN THE GREATEST
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on April 22, 2020 under AM Bible Study |
AM Bible Study Group: April 22, 2020 from Luke 7:24-28
Theme: We who live under God’s New Covenant of grace are greatly privileged.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
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In our last time together, we began considering a section of the Gospel of Luke that deals with certain ‘misunderstandings’. And the Gospel writer Luke tells us the story of how our Lord corrected those misunderstandings.
The first misunderstanding had to do with how John the Baptist understood the Lord Jesus. Jesus, you’ll remember, had been performing miracles of healing and of casting out demons. But John the Baptist had been expecting Him to be the mighty conquering Messiah right away—who would immediately begin to bring in the glories of His kingdom reign. This was raising questions in John’s mind. Luke told us, in verses 18-23;
Then the disciples of John reported to him concerning all these things. And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to Jesus, saying, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” When the men had come to Him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to You, saying, ‘Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?’” And that very hour He cured many of infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits; and to many blind He gave sight. Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me” (Luke 7:18-23).
Our Lord corrected John’s misunderstanding. John had expectations that Jesus would immediately behave as the conquering Messiah that the Scriptures had promised. But John didn’t understand that Jesus would first provide our salvation by being the suffering Savior that was also promised in the Scriptures. He let John’s disciples see that He was truly fulfilling the promises of the Scriptures about Him; and encouraged them to tell John not doubt Him. And from this, we learned not let ourselves become disappointed with Jesus by placing our own expectations upon Him—but rather, trusting what the Scriptures actually tell us about Him.
And now; as we read on, we find that Jesus corrected another misunderstanding. This one had to do with what the people were thinking about John. John was the promised forerunner of our Savior. He was the one who was called by God to introduce the world to Him, and point Him out and declare that the kingdom of God was at hand. But now, John himself was in prison; and he was struggling with doubts about what Jesus was doing.
Was John’s ministry somehow failing? No. Jesus went on to tell the people that it wasn’t that John’s ministry was failing; but rather that the era that John was ministering in was now coming to a close, and was making way for a new era in God’s redemptive plan. Luke tells us;
When the messengers of John had departed, He began to speak to the multitudes concerning John: “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 clothed in soft garments? Indeed those who are gorgeously appareled and live in luxury are in kings’ courts. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written:
‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face,
Who will prepare Your way before You.’
For I say to you, among those born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (vv. 24-28).
John was the greatest man of his era. And he served in God’s plan to announce the coming of the Mediator of a new and more glorious era—Jesus Christ. And those who received God’s grace in that new and greater era, through faith in the Savior that John pointed to, would be more privileged than even John was!
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Now, I wonder, dear brother or sister in Christ; do you realize what a privilege it is to live in the times in which we live? I’m not talking about the cirumstances of this day and age in which we’re living. I’m talking about something far greater than that. Out of all the possible times of the whole history of the world that we could have been living in, we are living in the greatest era in the outworking of God’s redemptive grace toward humanity.
This is the period that the Bible spoke of and prophesied about often. The apostle Paul spoke of God’s mighty works to the Jewish people, recorded for us in the Old Testament; and said, “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Corinthians 10:11). The apostle Peter wrote;
Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things which angels desire to look into (1 Peter 1:10-13).
You may not have thought before about what exciting times these are, because they have been progressing along now for two-thousand years—ever since the Lord Jesus died and rose again. But we shouldn’t let the length of this period, or our brief experience in it, make us indifferent about it! Viewed from the standpoint of all of human history, you and I are very privileged. We’re living in very unique and exciting of times!
Now; consider carefully how our Lord expressed to us the privilege of the times we’re in. Look first at how He acknowledged that …
1. PEOPLE WERE DRAWN TO JOHN AS A GREAT MAN (vv. 24-25).
Luke tells us that the messengers of John went away to return to him. And Jesus then began to ask the people some questions: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?” (v. 24). And of course, when they went out to the Jordan River valley to hear John preaching, they didn’t go out to hear some wimpy preacher. Do you remember how he preached to the religious leaders who came to be baptized by him? Listen to a sample! He said to them;
“Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:7-12).
How could anyone ever sleep through a sermon like that? John was no ‘reed shaking by the wind’. He was a mighty wind shaking the reeds! That’s what people went out to hear!
Then Jesus asked again; “But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed those who are gorgeously appareled and live in luxury are in kings’ courts” (v. 25). But that wasn’t John. He wasn’t in luxury. He was out in the wilderness. He wasn’t dressed in beautiful robes like the priests and religious leaders of the day. You don’t go out into the wilderness to look for a delicate sermonizer dressed in a fancy suit. The Bible tells us “Now John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey” (Matthew 3:4). His manner of dressing and living—and even of eating—was like that of the mighty prophets of the Old Testament era. He, in fact, wore the garments that the Old Testament tells us were worn by the prophet Elijah.
Did you know that when John preached, people were so astonished by him that they wondered if he was the Messiah? They even asked him if he was the Christ; and he had to tell them that he was not who they thought he was. They remembered that the Scriptures seemed to have spoken of Elijah coming back one day; and they asked if he was Elijah … and he told them no. They knew that Moses spoke of how, one day, God would raise up another prophet like himself; and they asked if he was that prophet … and again he said no.
People in Jesus’ day realized that John was a great man. But they misunderstood him. They didn’t really understand just how great a man he really was in God’s plan. As we read on, we see that Jesus explained that …
2. HE WAS FAR GREATER THAN PEOPLE REALIZED (vv. 26-27a).
Jesus went on to ask, “But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet” (v. 26). He was, indeed, a prophet of God. He didn’t necessarily tell the future. Rather, he was a prophet in the sense that he declared a bold message from God for that time. But he was a prophet who was a very unique prophet in the long history of God’s prophets. He was, in fact, a prophet that other prophets of the Old Testament prophesied about! Jesus went on to explain, “This is he of whom it is written:
‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face,
Who will prepare Your way before You’” (v. 27).
Jesus was saying that John was that promised ‘messenger’ who was described long ago in Isaiah 40—the one who would proclaim the coming of the Christ. All the prophets prior to John had been pointing to Jesus from afar. But John heard the voice of God the Father say, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). John was able to look right at Jesus, and point Him out to people, and say, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” No other Old Testament era prophet was able to declare the prophetic message of salvation with more clarity and more immediacy than John.
Jesus made a truly startling declaration about John. And we should believe it whole-heartedly; because it came from the lips no one less than the Son of God Himself. Jesus said, “For I say to you, among those born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist” (v. 28a). All the prophets who had prophesied up to John’s time had preached in the era that preceded the coming of Jesus into the world. John was the last prophet of that Old Testament era. And of all who lived in that era, John was the greatest. He was greater than Moses—greater than Joshua—greater than Samuel—greater than Isaiah, or Jeremiah, or Ezekiel, or Daniel. He was, in fact, the greatest man—born of women—who had ever lived up to his time; because he, above all others, got to declare the immediate coming of Christ to the world. His prophetic ministry declared the beginning of a new era.
But now comes an even more startling statement from our Lord. John was truly great;
3. AND YET, WE HAVE AN EVEN GREATER PRIVILEGE THAN HE (v. 28b).
Jesus said that there had not been a greater prophet than John the Baptist; “but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (v. 28b). We who have entered into the kingdom of God through faith in Jesus Christ—in this new era of grace—are greater than John the Baptist. Even the least of us!
Now; you and I are not greater than John in character and power among men. He was a mighty man. And John is in glory now; beholding the face of Jesus. But we are greater in terms of our privileges and standing before God than John was in as he walked on this earth. John was a man of a different era than ours. He as a man of the Old Covenant period—a man born under the Law. But in Christ, we are men and women of the New Covenant period–people who now stand before God in complete righteousness by grace through faith; and who now have the law of God written in our minds and written in our hearts (Jeremiah 31:33). We live at “the end of the ages”—the times of the fulfillment of those things that the Old Testament prophets could only speak of from afar. And the least little citizen of the kingdom of Jesus Christ is now greater in privilege than the greatest prophet of the era that preceded it!
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Now; Jesus corrected a misunderstanding people had about John. He was a great man. But people thought he was the greatest that there would ever be. And he wasn’t. He was the greatest man of the Old Covenant era that had been characterized by the demands of the Law. But we are under a New Covenant through Christ; and are declared righteous by faith. We have a greater privilege than even John the Baptist could enjoy.
So; what should you and I do? We should do what Paul did. He wrote;
Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:12-14).
Click HERE for the live-stream archive of this Bible Study.
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