Life of Christ #10 – When Doctrine Gets in the Way of Knowing Christ

I told you I wasn’t going to do any of the parables as we went through the Lord’s life, but one parable is so intricately tied to this experience that there is no way to take it out of context, so tonight we will look at a parable. But before we do, we’re going to see the Lord Jesus in what is almost a farewell to John the Baptist, John the Immerser. This is on page 65 of this book (The Life of Christ in Stereo). It’s number 50. It’s Matthew 11 and Luke 7. The people John sent have just left. A crowd of people stands around, having watched this incident, and the Lord begins to talk to the entire crowd, not just to His disciples, but He addresses everyone.

I want you all to remember something. Here is, I get the impression, a thousand people at least, maybe two, maybe three thousand, I don’t know. He says to them, “What did you go out to hear?” Now, I don’t know if you understand what that means, but every one of those people who were following the Lord and who were mesmerized by His ministry, totally captured by it, every one of those people had heard John the Baptist.

One of the most difficult things that ever happens in the Christian faith is “beginning.” There may be a man over here who has 10,000 followers, but somewhere, he had to get those first 25, and that’s the most difficult you’ll ever get. And John gave the Lord Jesus his followers. Tens of thousands of people went out to hear John, and they were all standing there at that moment, following the Lord.

Now we come to the Lord’s tribute to John, and it has to be about the most incredible thing in Scripture in the honoring of a person. I think I’ve been told that the only person in the New Testament who was called good was Barnabas. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit. Maybe the only man in the Bible called good. Well, there are things said here of John the Immerser (Baptist) that are also quite incredible. The Lord says, what went you out to hear? Well, it wasn’t a well-dressed man. It was a man in camel’s hair. You didn’t go out to hear a king. He had a beard and wasn’t beautiful at all.

What did you go out to hear, then? A prophet, yes, you’re right, a prophet. That’s what you went out to hear. But I say to you, more than a prophet. And then this incredible statement: men born of women. Now, how many men have been born of a woman? I’ll turn that around. Name all the men in the world who have not been born of a woman. And the answer is none. Of men born of a woman, none has been greater than John the Immerser. That puts him right up beside Moses, Abraham, Elijah, Elisha, and David. And that’s pretty much it, isn’t it? Noah, if you want to throw in Noah. It puts him up with everybody except Adam, who was not born of a woman. Of men born of a woman, there’s none greater than John.

Why is John so great? I’d like to know the answer to that myself. I don’t know, but maybe it’s the task he was given. His task was to make way for the Lord Jesus, and sometimes we are honored by that which we honor. It’s been said that a crime is punished according to how dastardly it is, and the worst of all crimes is not murder; the worst of all crimes is treason. But then there are the good deeds of life, and there are the better ones, and the greatest, but certainly the greatest of all would be preparing the way for the Lord Jesus upon this earth. So we have Mary, and we have John the Baptist, and only those two figures played such a mighty role in bringing the incarnate God into this world.

John the Baptist, who went out probably while he was still a child, possibly lived with the Essenes, began preaching around age 30 in the desert, probably to passing nomads and caravans. Yet, people were willing to go into an uninhabited place to hear him. He proclaimed the day of the Lord. Ah, that’s an incredible feat. And now he dies, or he will die soon, in prison, after a very short life, his purpose done. Now, John’s death is very important. If we do not realize that John dies, some of this will not make sense. You have to remember that John dies.

Now come two more incredible statements. One of them is that he is Elijah. Now, I read something once. If you ever read what I’m about to tell you, don’t bother reading it. I do not think this is truer than the man in the moon. The man said, “If you have ears to hear, this is Elijah.” He assumed the people didn’t have ears to hear. Therefore, he was not Elijah. I don’t understand that kind of thinking. That doesn’t make any sense to me either: that he would have been Elijah if the people had received him, but because they didn’t, he’s therefore not Elijah.

The Old Testament people believed that Elijah was coming back to fulfill the last two sentences found in the Old Testament. Malachi says someone is coming who will make the way of the Lord, and they all believed that was Elijah. They were waiting for the prophet who would do that. And the Lord said, “You met that prophet, and you met Elijah.” As far as I’m concerned, He said, “If you have ears to hear here,” that means it literally wasn’t Elijah reincarnated, but yes, the spirit of that man came back to this earth again. When you met John the Baptist, you knew what Elijah was like. You met him. There he is, standing right out there, and he is the one. He is that prophet you have looked forward to.

Then He makes this statement, this incredible statement, but the least, or the smaller ones in the kingdom, are greater than John. Okay, He has just said that the law and the prophets were until John. This is the only dispensation I’ve ever found in the New Testament. And now, you know, folks, I’m not a dispensationalist. This is the only dispensation I see: something ended with John, and something began with John. He stands between two covenants. He’s the centerpiece between them. The law and the prophets were until John, but the least in the kingdom is greater than John. John lived under the old covenant and introduced the new. The kingdom of the heavenlies has drawn near, but John was not in that kingdom. John was not in that kingdom. John never entered that kingdom, never saw it, and never experienced it.

Then he (John) makes this statement. That’s, oh boy, what does it mean? And those who have entered the kingdom up until now enter it by force. They enter it joyfully, but they enter it by force. The kingdom is taken by violent men. Oh, what does that mean? Oh, what does that mean? All over the world, theologians want to know what that means. Any young Christian can tell you what it means. It means we have to be violent men and storm the kingdom. Now, that’s what it meant to me as a young person, and I was one of those violent men who stormed the kingdom and took it. But I’m an old man now, and I don’t have to get worked up over storming the kingdom. Sometimes I wish the storm would abate.