Rejoice! Point the Way to Jesus!

Rejoice! Point the Way to Jesus!

Advent 3 T Matthew 11:2-11

INI

“Are you the one to come, or shall we look for another?” says John the Baptist. Yet, ‘among those born of women, there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist’. Why? Because He’s always pointing people to Jesus. He makes straight the way of the Lord. He’s always preparing the hearts of those who hear his words to receive the Christ with joy.

In that way, John the Baptist models what modern preachers should be – ones who prepare people to receive Jesus. For the one who’s secure in their sin, He preaches fire and brimstone. Because they know not the reality of God’s Law and His wrath against sin. This isn’t some psychological trick either. Rather, it’s proclaiming the reality that one is living in their lives. The reality is, unrepentant sinners live as slaves to something that’s killing them.

This was John’s preaching to the scribes and Pharisees. He even called them a ‘brood of vipers’.  Because they were so deceitful with God’s Word. He told them to ‘bear fruits in keeping with repentance’ (Matt. 3:7) because instead of hearing the Word of God and repenting, they heard the word of God and hardened their hearts to conforming to Him. Instead of clinging to Christ, they clung to themselves and their ideas of right and wrong. This is the kind of preaching the unrepentant need to hear, lest they never receive the healing mercy of Christ.

However, for the one who’s in despair over their sin, is in search for freedom from sin, and truly want to walk in the ways of God, John points them to Jesus. John himself had a group of disciples. They followed him around and preached a similar message like John. But when John preached an offensive word to King Herod about his sexual immorality, the King became offended by the Bible and threw John in prison for it.

Now in prison, John’s disciples are sort of wandering aimlessly without a leader. So, John points them to the leader they need, the Messiah. He tells them to go ask Jesus a question He already knows the answer to. He tells them to ask: “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” Once they do, Jesus answered by telling them that He is fulfilling prophecy from Isaiah 35 – “The blind receive their sight. The lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.” These are the works of Jesus! Jesus is preaching to John’s disciples that He is the one they need. He is the one they should follow. Because aware of their sins and shortcomings, Jesus is the only one who can give them restoration from their sicknesses, diseases, and defects.

In this, Jesus teaches us that He’s come not for the righteous people who believe that they need nothing from Jesus. He’s come for sinners. Because sinners need what the God-in-flesh brings! For he’s here to raise the humble! He’s here to raise the least in the kingdom of heaven to be as great as John was!

And to cap it off, Jesus says to John’s disciples, “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” That is to say, blessed is the one who hears of their sins, repents, receives forgiveness from the Lord, and follows Him. Through His preaching, John the Baptist prepared the way of the Lord. He preached a damning Law, showing man’s need for a Savior. But Herod was offended by needing Jesus. He killed John because of it. This just shows, not everyone who hears the Word of God will receive it. Because they’re offended by the message of the Gospel, which is inherently offensive. But this message was necessary for Herod to hear if he were to ever receive the Christ.

It’s sort of like the work being done on the cemetery right now. There had to be a whole lot of ugly work done first. The cutting down of trees, the burning of a brush pile, capping dirt over the land to smooth it out. It’s not exactly the prettiest sight when it’s being done. But it’s a necessary step before seed can be put down, and soil be put on top of it. And once that grows, it will be a beautiful space for our cemetery expansion.

Law and Gospel works similarly. The Law is hard to hear. It’s offensive. It gets ugly. But this work isn’t done in vain, or for no reason. It’s done to prepare you to receive the beauty of the Gospel and the forgiveness of sins in Christ. The Law humbles you, so that with the Gospel, the Holy Spirit may exalt you to new life.

So, what does all this have to do with Advent? Well, today is called ‘Gaudete’ Sunday. Gaudete is Latin for the first word from our Introit, which translates to ‘rejoice!’ Now, it seems odd to have a Sunday about rejoicing in the middle of the advent season, a time when we prepare for the Second coming of Jesus. But here’s the reason we rejoice: Even when things don’t look promising going into the future, God’s promises should be clung on to for dear life. And His promise is this: He will come again to bring all enemies under our feet. There will be victory and triumph over our sinful flesh and the devil. There will be life absent of our present sufferings – sicknesses, diseases, and grief of death. For He will bring a sinful people unto Himself, restored, forgiven, and redeemed. Because of this, we rejoice! Even as we patiently wait in our present sufferings for the one who is yet to come.

Again, John the Baptist exemplified this well. He was in prison! He probably knew he was going to die there unless some miracle happened! Yet, John didn’t tell his band of disciples to concoct a plan to break him out of jail. He didn’t seek his own selfish freedom from prison. He selflessly sought a freedom for His disciples, by pointing them to Jesus.

The apostle Paul dealt with similar things. He continually boasted in the Lord despite His sufferings. He was beaten, imprisoned, stoned, endured hunger and thirst willingly so that He might likewise point others to the Christ. He endured a ‘thorn in the flesh’ which harassed him constantly. Multiple times, Paul asked God to take it away. God’s response to Paul is one that tells us why we have a reason to rejoice in the first place, even as we suffer. God says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect by weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).

The Lord promises that things will get harder before the end time, when He comes back again. But even while we endure the hardships promised to followers of Christ, we rejoice. Because even though His messengers preach the Gospel message, which is offensive to the world, we continue to preach the necessity of the Christ as Lord – for He comes to enrich the poor, heal the sick, bind up the brokenhearted, and give life to the dead, not only in this life. But by His grace and mercy, He uses the weakness of death to show the power of the resurrection. He uses the weakness of poverty to show the power of a life lived by His grace. He uses the weakness of a life broken by sin to show His power of restoring sinners to godliness. This is our reason to rejoice and be glad. For the King is coming back again.

So, let’s be like John. Point people to receiving Jesus, which means giving God’s Law to people secure in their sins and giving the Gospel to people in despair over their sins. Because Jesus is coming back to rescue His children. For this, rejoice and be glad! For your Father hasn’t left sinful man in their sufferings, diseases, and poverty. But He has sent His Son to redeem them, and lift them up out of their weaknesses to restore them to Him in His kingdom.

Prayer:

Almighty, everlasting God, for our many sins we justly deserve eternal condemnation. In Your mercy You sent Your dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who won for us forgiveness of sins and everlasting salvation. Grant us a true confession that, dead to sin, we may be raised up by Your life-giving absolution. Grant us Your Holy Spirit that we may be ever watchful and live true and godly lives in Your service; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

INI

Pastor Joshua Ralston