Date:   12/16/07

Text:   Matthew 11:2-19

Title:   Whom Are You Expecting?

Theme: Our expectation of Christ must be directed by God's revelation in the Scriptures.

Introduction:   

  You remember the excitement when you found out you were coming to Houston and do research in one of the medical institutions. You thought of the great experience plus the prestige of working in one of the world's best research centers. However, soon after arrival, you become disillusioned. You are frustrated and angered by the way you are being treated. Your expectations and reality just don't match. (Or you heard great things about a certain restaurant and looking forward to go there. After you taste the food, you feel such a letdown. Expectation doesn't match the reality.

  Or there was the excitement of getting married, with great expectations of spending the rest of your life with someone you love. You look at each other with glittering eyes and great admiration. You are the subject of envy of your friends. Then several years later, you are so disappointed that you are looking for a way out. Your expectation and reality don't match.

  Our lives are full of unfulfilled expectations. The same can be said in our spiritual journey. People told me how much they like this and that church. It was the best thing that could happen to them on this side of heaven. Then several months or years later, the same people would complain of the problems we have here. Nothing we do is right. Many of us still remember the joy of coming to know Christ. At that moment we also thought of the changed Christ would bring into our lives. We envisioned a life that would be much smoother than what it had been. Yet, it didn't turn out that way. We feel being deceived, and slowly drifting away from Christ.

  During this Advent season, one major theme is the expectancy of the birth of Christ. What is the Christ that we expect? What kind of person, what kind of ministry, what kind of relation to us are we anticipating? You know, sometimes Christ can disappoint the expectation of some of us.

  The text before us today is about, of all the people, John the Baptist's disappointment with Christ. Let's take a look to see how his disappointment and Jesus' response to him mean to us.

I.   We acknowledge the presence of ‘Doubt' in our spiritual journey.

  Vs.2-3, “ 2 Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” at this time, John was in prison because he had denounced King Herod for taking the brother's wife, Heroias. It was an adulterous relationship. In return, Herod put him in the prison located 5 miles east of Jordan .

We must be surprised by how can someone like John asked such questions. He was the one who proclaimed the arrival of the Messiah. With the coming of Messiah, there would be fiery and severe judgment. He was the one, identifying Jesus as the Messiah. While in prison, John's disciples must have communicated some the things they saw about Jesus. They related to John about Jesus' deeds. “..heard in prison about the deeds of Christ.” John noticed something was missing. Where was the judgment that would come with the Messiah. There was still the cruelty and corruption of Caesar, the corruption of the religious leaders. He was being held in prison because he spoke what was right. The world was as wicked as before and yet Jesus did nothing about it. With this he asked the question: “Are you the one, the Messiah, or we are to look for another?” John's image of the coming Messiah and the nature and style of Jesus' ministry was so radically different, thus generating doubts in John's mind. Reality and Expectation don't match.

There was a story about a Christian witnessing to a Jewish rabbi in NY. The Christian said that the Messiah had come. Upon hearing that, the rabbi walked to his window and looked at NY city. Then he said, the city is as corrupt as before, the Messiah is not here yet.

I feel we can certainly identify with John the Baptist and the NY rabbi. When we first become Christians, we thought Christ will change us over night, fixing our bad tempers and habits. Or he would change our spouse, turning our marriage around. We thought we would be living a blissful life after our conversion. Yet, it was not like that. We find ourselves in more troubles at home and work. We saw Christians not living in harmony with one another, sometimes it is worst than our work place. Then there is our health. Why am I having so much problem with my health after the baptism? We ask: is this really what Christian faith is all about? Is this all that Christ can do for me? How come my child turns out this way? Where is his promise and power? If he is really in control, how come my world is still full of injustice and problems?

Some of us here this morning may feel this way. Our image of Jesus and his work is very different from the reality. This caused us to ask: is he really the Messiah, the savior and Lord of all? Who is this Jesus that is to come? Now, let's move on to see how Jesus responded to John's doubts.

II.    Christ redirects our ‘Doubts' to His words .

  John's disciples asked Jesus, Are we to look for someone else? In vs.4-5, “ 4 And Jesus answered them, "“Go and tell John what you hear and see:" 5 "the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them." When we read this, we understand that these words were a description of Jesus' deeds. But what did John hear in these words? John knew these are prophet Isaiah's words. Jesus was quoting several passages from Isaiah. The one thing he left out was the judgment part. You see what is happening here? John heard about the deeds of Christ. And now Jesus was telling John about Isaiah's description of the deeds of Messiah. In other words, Isaiah's description of Messiah's deeds was the same as the deed's of Christ that John had heard both from his disciples and now Jesus himself.

  John was in that desert prison for quite a while. Physically and emotionally he could have been exhausted. His vision of the Messiah had become blurred. He could not see clearly the real world around him too clearly. Thus causing him to question, to have doubts about Jesus' identity.

  John asked, are you the one? Jesus did not get mad at him, instead brought John to the scriptures, and showed him what was spoken in there. Now, what does it mean to us?

  I remember this past Monday, after working at the computer for an hour or two, I got up and looked for something. I saw things were kind of blurry, not as sharp as it could be. I thought, this is bad, something had happened to my eyes. Then all the horror scenarios began to come up: what if I can't see, can I still preach? A few moments later, I realized I was wearing my reading glasses. What a relief. Isn't it true that some times when our eyes of faith become dim, we don't see things clearly, we missed the truth about Jesus Christ.

It is ok to have doubts about Christ. When our personal expectation of Christ does not match with reality, we should ask questions. Where should we find the answers? We're to come back to the scriptures, like Christ did. We need to adjust our expectations with the scriptures' teaching. When we expect Christ to change us over-night, we're to ask, where did the bible say that? When we expect that the journey of faith is a downhill path with no obstacles whatsoever, we are to come back to the scriptures and hear Jesus' words such as John 16:33, “ 33 "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

  When we have doubts, or seeing another person with doubts, we must not rebuke ourselves or others. Instead with patience, bring the other person to God's words. Very often in Christian circles, we downplay people's doubts or questions. When someone has doubts about God's existence, goodness and faithful, our typical answer is that you need to have faith, don't ask too many questions. Sometimes we are even taught that people's questions are but a smoke screen to cover up some moral issues. Therefore we don't need to respond to those questions. I want to thank God that through Francis Schaeffer I learned that no question is unimportant. We are to treat each question seriously. When the eyes of faith is dim, when things become blurry, come back to God's word so that we can see clearly again.

III.    Christ redirects our ‘Doubts' to His true identity .

  After John's disciples left, Jesus turned to the crowd and talked to them about John. vs. 7-9, “ 7 As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: "“What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?" 8 "What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings' houses." 9 "What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet."

  Jesus asked the rhetorical question: did you go to the wilderness to see a reed shaken by the wind? It was the imagery of a wavering reed. Reed was one of the symbols for King Herod. The irony here is that the reed is easily moved by the wind. This infers that Herod was easily persuaded by other people's opinion. Even though Herod dislike John for what he said, yet he was afraid of the people and dared not kill him. Later, it was Herodias' words, his brother's wife, that caused Herod to kill John. He was like a reed moving in wind.

  Jesus' second rhetorical question: did you go to the wilderness to see man wearing nice clothes and living in the palace? It is possible Jesus was referring to prophets that lived in the king's palace. In the OT, there were prophets who lived in king's palace, saying words that the king liked to hear. They are like the hired or professional prophets, living comfortable lives. The answer to these questions are obviously NO. John had that steel like moral convictions, just the opposite of the wavering reed. John did not live in the palace but instead in the wilderness, wearing clothes made of Camel's hair. This John, Jesus said is greater than any prophet. Why? Because this John was the one prophesized in the OT to prepare the way of the Messiah king. He would be the advance person for the Messiah.

  John is the greatest prophet because like other OT prophets, he proclaimed the coming of Messiah. He went one more step by identifying Jesus as the Messiah. No other prophets had such privilege. This is the reason Jesus called him more than a prophet, being the greatest among prophets.

  However, right after this, there came an equally shocking statement from Jesus. Vs. 11, “ 11 "Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." Yes, John is the greatest, but in God's kingdom, he was smaller than the smallest one. Why? You see, even though John prophesied about the Messiah's coming, even though he identified Jesus as the Messiah, his understanding of the Messiah's was limited. But for those who are in the God's kingdom are the ones who have seen a fuller picture of the Messiah. Those in the kingdom, see the Messiah suffered, died on the cross and then resurrected, and ascended into heaven. And we know that he will come again. At that time, there will be the final judgment as prophesied by the OT prophets. Those in God's kingdom are also the ones who point others to this Messiah, Savior and King.

  The reason for being great is because one have seen and heard the Messiah's redemptive work. You see our greatness has nothing to do with how successful is our ministry, how much money we give, our intelligence, spiritual gifts, great in administrative or preaching skills. True greatness is to have known the Messiah, submitted oneself to his rule and pointing other to him. True greatness is knowing Him and telling others about Him.

  From John's doubts, Jesus skillfully pointed us to his true identity. He is the Messiah king, the ruler over all.

  Vs.12 is difficult to interpret, “ 12 "From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force." It could mean that the kingdom of heaven had been advancing with force, and there were also violent opponents trying to destroy it. Or it could mean from the beginning, the kingdom of had faced violent opposition. Whichever interpretation we take, one thing is common: the devil is doing his best to cause us to doubt who Jesus is. Therefore blessed is the one, who does not fall because of Jesus.

IV.    Christ wants us to response to Him with wisdom .

  Now what? Yes, he is the Messiah King, but how did the people responded? Jesus used a illustration to explained this. Vs.16-19, “ 16 "“But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates," 17 " “ ‘ We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.'" 18 "For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.'" 19 "The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.” There are two different interpretations of this parable. One is to take John the Baptist as the one who sang the sad song, and Jesus as the one who played the flute with a joyous mood. The other interpretation is that the children were Jesus opponents. They were playing in the street. One group played flute and said, come and play and dance with us. The other group sang sad songs and said, come and join us in our mourning. To the group that played the joyous mood, John the Baptist refused to join. And to the mourners, Jesus refused to join them and be sad. What Jesus is saying, whether it was John or Jesus, people had made up their mind to reject them. Jesus was saying that God sent different messengers, but people only want to criticize them. People wanted to be joyous and happy, but John fast and preached a message of judgment and repent. The people wanted to be sad, but Jesus joined the sinners to eat and drink with them. All that these people wanted to do was to play games and missing the kingdom.

  Isn't this same today? God has sent to us many different messengers. We have those who are intellectually gifted, such as CS Lewis, Schaeffer and Ravi Zechariahs. There are those gifted in illustrations and applications, such as Max Luccado and Swindoll. There are those gifted in careful exegesis such as MacArthur. No matter who they are, people criticized them as being too intellectual, too much story telling, too emotional or too superficial. No matter what, our minds were made up to reject both the messenger and the message. The last sentence, “Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds” is a summarization of the story. Your rejection or reception of the message will reveal if you have wisdom or not. The ones with wisdom will receive the message and the messenger. The one without wisdom will reject both.

Conclusion:

As we prepare ourselves for the birth of Jesus Christ in another week, what are we expecting? Are we expecting a magician, with a wave of his wand, will remove all our troubles and problems in life? Are we expecting an obedient and yet powerful servant who will help us to get what we want in life? Are we expecting a superman that we come and take us out of our problems? Or a mighty person who will make our dreams come true? You know, if this is the kind of Jesus we are expecting, we'll be terribly disappointed.

In this Advent season, it is important that we come back to the scriptures, clear our eyes, adjust our expectations, so that our image of this child that is to born matches the child as described in the Bible. Yes, he is the Messiah, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. If he is the King of kings and Lord of lords, then our only response is to be obedient to him in all walks of life. If he is our Lord, then we'll pursue things that matter to Him most: Faith, Hope and Love, Holiness, Compassion and Humility. If he is the King of kings and Lord of lords, then we can rest assure that He knows the best. No matter what situation I find myself in, I can trust him with my all. I like to close with this little quotation I heard from Ravi Zechariah's podcast (with a minor modification):

My knowledge of this life is little, my eye of faith is dim, but it's enough for Christ knows it all, and He is with me.