SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/24/2021 10:08 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “Worldly
Influence”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
11:2-3
Message of the verses: “2 Now when John,
while imprisoned, heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his
disciples 3 and said to Him, "Are You the Expected One, or shall we look
for someone else?’”
We are beginning to look at the third cause of doubt
and that is worldly influence, and I believe that this will take two Spiritual
Diaries to complete this subject. After
we finish this third for doubt there is only one more to look at, which is “Unfulfilled
Expectations.”
One
may think that because of how John the Baptist lived that this may not be a
problem for him, for after all John was completely insulated. We see the term “Expected One” in verse three
and that is a Messianic term for the coming Messiah. Many during the time when Jesus was on earth
were expecting a “Political Messiah,” one who would bring Israel out from under
the strong arm of the Roman Empire, and I suppose that John may have been
looking for one like this too. The truth
is that Jesus had done nothing to oppose Rome, either in words or actions.
John
MacArthur writes “The Jewish people also thought the Messiah would eliminate
all suffering—all disease, affliction, hunger, and pain. Yet Jesus’ miracles, marvelous and extensive
as they were, had not fully banished those things from Israel, much less from
all the world. Many Jews also probably envisioned
a type of welfare state, in which all their material needs would be provided
for them. They expected health, wealth,
and instant happiness, and when Jesus fed the multitude on the far side of the
Sea of Galilee, they were ready to immediately crown Him king (John 6:15, 26).”
We
can determine that John the Baptist knew that Jesus refused to be made king,
and also that He had done nothing to change either the pagan and brutal political and military systems of Rome or
even the worldly and corrupt religious system of Israel, something John knew
much about. Sin was still very rampant,
injustice was still the rule, political and religious corruption were the
normal, and also the world was essentially the same as it had been for
thousands of years—except for a few cleansed lives and healed bodies. There was no visible kingdom in sight, and no
radical changes could be seen.
There
was another common misconception about the Messiah and that was that His coming
would be preceded by the coming a number of other men. The first who was to arrive was Elijah, and
then Jeremiah, and then a group of other prophets. So when Jesus asked His disciples “Who do
people say that the Son of Man is?’…they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist [who
by that time had been killed]; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah,
or one of the prophets’ (Matt. 16:13-14).
Now it is entirely possible that John the Baptist thought that perhaps
Jesus was not the Messiah after all but only one of those forerunners, as he
himself was.
The
truth is that Jesus’ own disciples had some of those misconceptions concerning
the Messiah. His disciples were
continually fighting doubts about Jesus, and the reason was that He did not fit
their preconceived ideas either. This
still was taking place even after the resurrection of Jesus as they ask Him in
Acts 1:6 “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”
Now Jesus had told them repeatedly about the nature of His mission and plan,
but the ideas they had formed from the world about them clouded and also
distorted their understanding. There was
something that Jesus told Philip right before His crucifixion that surely
applied to all the disciples when He told Philip “Have I been so long with you,
and yet you have not come to know me?” (John 14:9). It was even after Peter confessed that Jesus
was “the Christ the Son of the living God,” that he could not accept the truth
that the Christ would have to die, even though he heard that truth from Jesus’
own lips (Matt. 16:16). The disciples on
the road to Emmaus were puzzled for the same reason as seen in Luke 24:19-24). All of them had been victimized by what
people around them thought the Messiah should be and what He should do.
11/24/2021 10:38 AM
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