Restoration 2013: Jesus.

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Restoration Ministry

Mark Howard

Jesus:  The Winebibber

Father in heaven, we do thank you for another day of life.

A beautiful day because we've had the opportunity to know you today.

We've had an opportunity to fellowship with like believers today.

We've had the opportunity to make somewhat of an impact on the world around us today for you and for your son Jesus Christ.

Father I pray that you would bless our time tonight as we open your word, as we meditate upon spiritual things.

I pray that your Holy Spirit would guide our thoughts and give us a willingness, Father, to respond to the things you have to show us this evening.

And I ask and pray in Jesus' name and for his sake.

We're going to Matthew 11 to find out where we draw this from, from Scripture.

As I mentioned before in talking about this evening's topic, a winebibber is somebody who is an excessive drinker of alcohol.

Matthew chapter 11, we're going to find a passage in Matthew 11 tonight that I think is very important for us to grasp.

We've talked about it a little bit on former nights.

Matthew 11 begins in verse 1 there, it says, Now it came to pass when Jesus finished commanding his 12 disciples, that he departed from there to teach and preach in their cities.

And when John, this is speaking of John the Baptist, when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent 2 of his disciples and said to him, to Jesus that is, are you the coming 1 or do we look for another?

Now I mentioned something the other night that I actually want to look at this evening.

Hold your finger there because we're going back to Matthew chapter 11, but I want you to go to the Gospel of John, right?

The Bible says here, the next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, what?

Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

This is He of whom I said, after me comes a man who is preferred before me, for he was before me.

John says, I did not know him, but that he should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water.

And John bore witness, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him." Now that in and of itself is powerful.

So John says, I'm bearing witness that He is the 1 that was to come after me.

And I'm telling you that I saw the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove come and rest upon him at his baptism.

Now that would be pretty compelling evidence, right?

Verse 33 I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.

John basically says, when God sent me to baptize, he told me, now John, you're going to be baptizing people, a lot of people are going to come through, but I want you to look especially for the 1 whom when you baptize him, you'll see the Holy Spirit descend upon him and remain upon him and when you see that you'll know he's the 1.

So as if it wasn't enough to see it, God told him beforehand that when you see it, that seals the deal.

So John has seen all this and here he is testifying but it's the same John that we find here in Matthew 11 who now sends his disciples and has them ask Jesus, are you the 1?

Now I suppose there are a lot of lessons we can learn from that, but the 1 that I want you to take to heart tonight is this.

Sometimes the most faithful can fall into times of discouragement.

They had seen the works of Jesus and he says in verse 4, go and tell John the things which you hear and see.

The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them, and blessed is he who is what?

Now we're going to get into that a little bit more this evening.

So he sends them back to John, pretty much giving him a description of what Isaiah said the Messiah would do.

He knows that when John – see, I'm going to revisit this for those who weren't here – the Jews' idea of the Messiah was that he was going to come and wipe out the Romans and establish the Jews as the world kingdom.

And even John had allowed his thinking to become tainted with that false understanding of prophecy.

And because of that he wasn't ready to receive Jesus.

Now I hope you're reading between the lines here, but if you're not I'll spell it out.

There are a lot of Christians today who have been told that when Jesus comes, He's going to come in a secret rapture.

And their understanding of prophecy has them expecting a Christ and a return of Christ that isn't going to happen.

And it may be the means of bringing great discouragement upon them.

I hope God's people are ready at that time to give them hope.

So John, he expected something different, but Jesus knew that John was a student of the word and he knew that if he sent that message back, John would go back and he'd oh, Isaiah's prophecy.

He's doing exactly what he should be doing.

He's not doing what the religious leaders today are saying, but he's certainly doing what scripture foretold he would do.

Then Jesus turns to the multitude in verse 7.

Those disciples went back to John And Jesus began a eulogy for John the Baptist.

He says, right there in verse 7, what did you go out into the wilderness to see?

Indeed those who wear soft clothing are in king's houses.

Now this same passage, this same story is told in the Gospel of Luke chapter 7 and Luke there where he says soft clothing says gorgeously appareled and I will comment on that in a minute.

Indeed those who wear soft clothing are in king's houses, verse 9.

Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet.

For this is he of whom it is written, behold I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way before you.

Assuredly I say to you, among those born of women, there has not risen 1 greater than John the Baptist but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

And from the days of John the Baptist until now The kingdom of heaven suffers what?

We're going to come back to that as well.

For all the prophets in the law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come, he who has ears, let him hear." So he gives this description and he asks the question of the people.

Now here are the people, and keep in mind John's in prison, and the hearers now, the people he's speaking to, and I might just as easily say the good Adventist crowd he's preaching to, for the most part rejected the ministry of John the Baptist.

And they're now confirmed in their minds that he couldn't have been a prophet of God.

We've talked about this along the lines of sickness and poverty and imprisonment.

If John's in prison, he couldn't have been a prophet of God.

So in their minds, they're thinking they're confirmed and not accepting.

And so Jesus begins this eulogy of John, begins telling them of John and he asks them this question, what did you go out to see anyway?

Did you go out in the wilderness, and keep in mind, go out where?

Did you go out to see a reed shaken by the wind?

In other words, did you go out to see somebody who was easily swayed by public opinion?

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Jesus: The Winebibber

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