Christmas 2007…In The Red Zone
Believer, Do You Know?
Matthew 11:1-19
During this Christmas Season, 2007, we’ve been looking at the story of the Most Important Night in Human History through the lens of the song Mary Did You Know? We’ve seen that for Zechariah and Elizabeth, and for Joseph and Mary, the experience was not the stuff of Christmas Cards. These were good, righteous people, each one selected to be the recipient of God’s blessing, and for each of them the blessing was coupled with burden. Their part in God’s plan brought them to the Red Zone – they were people of faith at the point of crisis.
Zechariah and Elizabeth faced years of disappointment, suspicion and heartache, unable to bring a child into the world. Joseph faced the unexpected and shocking news that his fiancée was pregnant – not only without his involvement, but with an outrageous claim that no man was involved! Mary faced challenges that had to be overwhelming for a young, perhaps 15-year-old girl.
Today we stand on the other side of Christmas – our focus naturally turns to the New Year that begins on Tuesday. I imagine that like me, you have a brand new calendar somewhere in your home – one that was given to you by the bank, or the Co-op, or the hardware store. Maybe you got a 2008 calendar for Christmas from a friend. Or maybe you carry one of those date books around with you, and you recently picked up a refill or a new one for the year ahead. You know what’s exciting about a new calendar? All those empty squares! Trish just got a new wall calendar for the church office – it’s about 5 feet long and 4 feet tall – it has the entire year on it – and it’s full of white, empty squares – each one representing a day of potential and opportunity.
But the truth is, we don’t know what is going to fill those squares, do we? We may write down an agenda – or a plan – what we hope will happen on a given day, or what we plan will happen on that day – but the truth is we have no idea what the year ahead holds for us.
As we look ahead, I want us to take a final look at an individual whose story is not usually associated with the Christmas season, but whose life certainly bookends it – John the Baptist. Dr. Luke, in his biography of Jesus, begins his account with the story of his parents, Zechariah and Elizabeth. Matthew closes his second chapter with the final scene of the Christmas story – Joseph and Mary return from Egypt, and settle in Nazareth, fulfilling yet another of the Old Testament Prophecies about the Messiah. Matthew then tells us about Jesus’ cousin, the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth. Please open your Bibles, and follow along as we read:
[Read Matthew 3:1-17]
We know from the account of Scripture that John was an important part of God’s plan. He was sent, as we have read, to be the forerunner of the Messiah. He was sent to get the hearts of the people ready for the appearance of the Son of God. He faithfully fulfilled that duty. We read of his effective ministry in the years before Jesus began his public ministry. John challenged the people to abandon the hollowness of their “religion,” with it’s rules and efforts to earn God’s favor, and instead repent, turn from their arrogance, and call on God’s mercy. He challenged the hypocritical religious and political leaders alike.
Here in Matthew we see that John constantly made the point that he was not the Messiah, but that the Messiah would follow. We know from Luke’s account that John recognized the presence of the Savior while in his mother’s womb. Upon the arrival of the Jesus, in His mother’s womb, John leapt for joy! He knew the identity of Jesus when He came to be baptized, but it was even further confirmed by what happened after that baptism – the heavens opened, the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove, and a voice from heaven proclaimed, “This is my Son, whom I love, with Him I am well pleased.” In the opening chapter of John’s biography of Jesus we see that John the Baptist specifically pointed out Jesus to his own followers and said, “There is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! I testify that this is the Son of God.” (John 1:29&34)
John is clearly a solid believer, a faithful prophet and an effective witness of who Christ is.
After looking at the other folks whose stories we’ve looked at this month, you might not be surprised to learn that John’s life took some unexpected and difficult turns, and John faced his own Red Zone. He, like the others, became a person of faith at the point of crisis. Flip in your Bibles over to Matthew chapter 11. Let’s start with verse 2.
When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”
Ponder those words for a moment.
“Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”
These are the words of a person of faith at the point of crisis.
“Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”
These are words spoken by a person for whom life has been turned on its ear. The proverbial wheels are coming of their wagon, and they are questioning everything they thought they knew.
“Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”
These are the words of a person who was sure they were doing what God wanted them to do – they were sure they understood the plans God had for them, but things aren’t going the way the thought hey would, and now they don’t know what to believe!
“Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”
These are the sentiments that have echoed down through the years – maybe into your own life.
“Jesus, are the one? Because this just isn’t how I thought thing were going to work out – and if I’m supposed to be looking for someone else, or some other plan, I’d sure like to know about it!”
Can you relate? Maybe – a lot of us come to this place at some point in our lives. A moment of stunned confusion and deep disappointment with our lives when we look to the heavens and wonder if we got it all wrong. If you haven’t been there, chances are you might some day.
So what brought John to this place? How did the miracle child or Zechariah and Elizabeth, the cousin of Jesus, the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord!” end up in such a state that he wasn’t sure of Jesus identity?
Two things led to this – take a look at the beginning of verse 2: “When John heard in prison…” The first thing that led John to crisis was his circumstances. He was being held in the fortress of Machaerus by King Herod Antipas. Herod had committed adultery by marrying his brothers wife, and John had spoken out against the political leader of Israel’s lifestyle. God had given John the job of calling Israel to repentance – to turn their back on their sins and their shallow religion, and really seek after Him. John was doing that job, and it had landed him in prison. Here was a man who had lived in the wild – eating locusts and honey, wearing clothes made from the hair of camels – preaching in the remote deserts of the southern Jordan River valley, suddenly locked in a cramped prison cell in a remote fortress. His entire life had been devoted to proclaiming the word of God – but now he is silent. His circumstances had brought him to an unfamiliar, uncomfortable place where he felt useless – unable to do what he knew he was created for. Maybe he had gotten it all wrong.
There’s a second reason for John’s crisis. Verse 2 continues, “When John heard from prison what Christ was doing he sent his disciples…” John was confused by Jesus’ conduct. Jesus simply wasn’t doing what John thought He should be doing.
John had a set of expectations of how the Messiah was going to act. John himself gives us a glimpse of what he expected in Matthew, chapter 3, verse 11-12. He was speaking to the people, calling them to repent, and get ready to meet God. He says,
I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
John had an image of what the Messiah was going to be like, what he was going to do, and how he was going to act. It was not surprising that John had those notions – virtually everyone did. They saw the Messiah as a political and military leader, who would overthrow the enemies of Israel, establish the throne of King David forever in an earthly kingdom, and lead them all to prosperity and peace as the rulers over all men. Virtually everyone felt that way. The people, the Pharisees, even the disciples, after spending three years following Jesus, were expecting him to set up an earthly kingdom, right up until the night before He was crucified. So it’s not surprising at all that John was confused by Jesus conduct.
If you look at John’s words, you see that he was expecting what you and I would call a “Fire and Brimstone” preacher – one who would come and preach powerful messages, that would bring sweeping change, and strong condemnation of sinners.
But that’s not what Jesus was doing. We read of Jesus hanging out with sinners – and being “moved with compassion,” not condemnation! He preached “the good news” of the gospel. He talked about the blessing of being meek, of loving our enemies, and he even healed the servant of a Roman Centurion! It just wasn’t the way John thought the Messiah should act!
On top of all that was the theological concerns that John had. In chapter 9, verse 14, we see that John sent some of his disciples to Jesus to ask why He and His disciples were not fasting like John and the Pharisees did. Why didn’t he behave in a way that conformed with the accepted and expected practices of a good, religious Jewish man? John was really struggling with the way Jesus was doing things, wasn’t he?
Can you relate? Are there times when you just don’t understand what Jesus is up to? You thought you did, you thought you had your purpose and your theology all lined up, and you were sure you were doing what God wanted you to do, and all of a sudden, without warning and without any seeming purpose, it all falls apart?
So how does this get resolved for poor John? What does Jesus say to him, and to us, when it seems like things aren’t going the way we thought they would?
Take a look at His response in verses 4-6 of Matthew 11:
Jesus replied, "Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me."
The first thing Jesus does is remind them of Who He is, and What He is doing. Look around you – do you see what I am doing? Do you remember Who I am? This is actually a lot like the response Job got when his world was falling apart. God came to Job and said, “Do you know Who I am? Do you know all things, like I do? Did you put the stars in place, and tell the oceans where to meet the shore? Do you hear a deer cry out when giving birth? Do you know Who you are dealing with?
Jesus does the same for John through his disciples. “Go and remind John of just Who I am. The blind see, the leper is cured, the deaf hear, the dead live – the poor receive the good news.” Jesus challenges John’s selective interpretation of the prophets. When He was just beginning His ministry, Jesus went to the synagogue in His hometown, and to announce His ministry He read a passage from the prophet Isaiah that described His mission. He read,
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom to the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, and to release the oppressed.
It wasn’t that Jesus wasn’t doing what the Messiah was supposed to do – the problem was with John’s expectations of what He was supposed to do. Jesus says, in effect, “I am Who I am. I am doing exactly what I am supposed to be doing.” He’s telling John to “put your eyes on Me, not your circumstances. Stop looking around at where you are, what you are going through, and what you thought you knew, and put your eyes on God.” John had testified earlier that Jesus was the Son of God, but somehow he had stopped looking to Jesus for his direction, and had started putting his own expectations in the forefront. Instead of measuring his actions by Jesus’ agenda, he started measuring Jesus actions by his agenda. That’s a bad place to go, a bad habit to get into! Yet sadly, many of us do exactly the same thing. When things are going well, we’re ready to testify about Jesus power, and His truth, and His love and grace, but as soon as things take a bad turn, we start questioning Who He is, and what He’s up to…
Jesus continues by saying, in verse 6, “Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.” So what does that mean? The phrase we have translated in our Bible as “fall away” comes from the Greek word skandolizo, which is also used in other places as “to cause to stumble,” or, “to trip up.” Jesus is basically saying, “Blessed is the one who is not tripped up by what I am doing.” A lot of people in Jesus’ day were “tripped up” by what he did. In fact, by the end of his ministry, the crowds that had welcomed Him with shouts of “Hosanna!” were calling for His death, and the disciples who had said, “We won’t abandon you,” had fled. Why? Because they had been “tripped up” by circumstances and unmet expectations. Life hadn’t gone the way they expected, and Jesus hadn’t done what they thought He was going to do.
Isn’t it amazing how practical the Bible is? Haven’t we all had our moments when we have been “tripped up” by the unexpected twists and turns of our lives? Haven’t we all, at one time or another, looked around at our circumstances, like John, and said, “Hey, wait a minute! I’ve been doing what you want me to do; I’ve been faithful in my life and mission and now look what it’s gotten me! What’s going on?” Sure we have! And that doesn’t even address the times when we find ourselves in difficult situations because we have not been faithful, or we’ve made bad choices!
So here’s the point – God is God. He alone knows beginning from end. He alone knows the final impact of the circumstances we face and the plans that He has for us. Our part in living for him is twofold: Remember Who He is. And don’t let what He’s doing trip us up. When life takes those unexpected, unfair turns that seem to go against everything we thought we knew – remember Who is in control, and keep trusting in Him.
One last observation: Remember last week, we made the point that when Gabriel came to Mary he told her she was “highly favored” and that she had “found favor with God?” We said last week that 9 months later, when she was giving birth in a dirty, stinking barn, she was still “highly favored,” and “blessed among women.” Her blessing was not determined or measured by her circumstances.
The same is true of John. Look at verse 11 of Matthew 11. Jesus says this:
I tell you the truth: among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist…
Even while in prison, even when his voiced had been silenced, even facing death by beheading, even when questioning Who Jesus was and what He was doing, Jesus described him as the greatest man ever born to a woman. John’s status did not change, even when his circumstances changed. Even when John had lost focus on who Jesus was, Jesus never lost sight of who John was.
Listen - Your circumstances do not determine your blessing! If you are a child of God you are blessed! Even if you lose that job - you are blessed! Even if you get that call in the middle of the night with terrible news - you are blessed! Even if the doctor has "that look" on his face as he tells you the test results - you are blessed! Having a blessed life doesn't mean we have an easy life - or even a comfortable life - it means we have a life blessed by the Creator of the Universe - that our lives are in His hands! The promise of Proverbs 3:5&6 is that as long as I am trusting in the Lord with all my heart, and not leaning to my own understanding, and acknowldeging Him in all my ways, then He is directing my path - that means that where I am is where I am supposed to be! And I am blessed - regardless of my circumstances! That's how Paul was able to say "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation."
Last week we traveled to Des Moines, Iowa to be with Carol’s extended family. One of her nieces was telling us about a flight though thick fog. The pilot had come on and said, “Well, we’re approaching the airport, and the local tower is going to give us a chance to land. But if it’s too bad, we may get diverted to another airport.” They began their descent. There was nothing familiar out the windows, just that oppressive gray/white impenetrable blanket. The people on that plane were out of control – they were powerless and incapable of changing their circumstances. Their lives were literally in the hands of a skilled individual who had the benefit of something called ILS, a ground-based instrument approach system which provides precise guidance to an aircraft approaching a runway, using a combination of radio signals, radar and high-intensity lighting arrays to enable a safe landing during low ceilings or reduced visibility. It allows the pilot to see what no one else on the plane can see – he has a different perspective.
Throughout this series, over the last month, we have seen the stories of good, righteous, blessed people who faced challenges, disappointments and struggles that they did not foresee or understand. They were in a fog of confusion, doubt, fear or even anger. Through their stories, we’ve seen that God is always faithful, accomplishing His purposes, even when His plans don’t match ours. May we learn from their stories that we can trust in Him, through the fog and confusion of life, to be in complete control.