Dear fellow coworkers, I Greet you one and all in the name of our lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who came by the water and the
Spirit. The following an extract from the book of ‘The Gospel of Matthew (11) ---Rev. Paul C. Jong’s Spiritual Growth Series 2.
By the grace of our Lord I have translated 1&2 series into our TELUGU Language. Feel free to contact for free Christian Books
At http://www.nlmbookcafe.com/blog/prasada or at http://www.nlmission.com
God Bless You.
<Matthew 11:1-14>
“
Now it came to pass, when Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples, that He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities. And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, ‘Are you the coming one, or do we look for another?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of me.’ As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: ‘What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft clothing are in kings’ houses. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? 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 woman there has not risen one 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 violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.”
We Have to Understand the Ministry of John the Baptist
Exactly what ministry did John the Baptist fulfill before Jesus? Many Christians to day do not understand John the Baptist properly, and so they all need to take another look at him to understand him and appreciate his ministry properly. And so all they need to take another look at him to understand him and appreciate his ministry properly. All of us need to have the correct understanding and appreciation of the relationship between the ministry of Jesus and that of john the Baptist. By properly understand-ding this relationship, you need to get the first- hand
experience of receiving the remission of your sins by faith.
In today’s Scripture passage, Jesus Christ said to the disciples of John the Baptist, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”
In fact, the blind who met Jesus had their eyes opened, the lame could stand up and walk, the demon possessed could be set free from their demons when they encountered Jesus, and the gospel of Heaven was preached to the poor in spirit.
What we need to realize first here is that the ministry of Jesus included the work of opening he eyes of the blind. In this age and time, in other words, our Lord has given us the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the true gospel that open the eyes of sinners who are wandering in darkness.
Before encountering Jesus Christ, everyone had sin in his heart and was spiritually blind before God.
We, too, had not known the authenticity of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, nor understand who Jesus really was, and we all had been unaware of our own sins and our fatal consequences owing to these sins. And we had no interest in the true gospel word of the water and the Spirit, the truth of salvation that Jesus has given us.
However, many people have now heard the powerful gospel word of the water and the Spirit, and by placing their faith in this gospel word, their spiritual eyes have been opened and they have discovered the Truth that enables them to be saved from all their sins. Those who know and believe in this genuine gospel have now discovered the Truth of the remission of sin that they had not known before: Their eyes of faith have been opened, and they have come to do the work of God. As it is with our eyes of the flesh that we see everything in this world, we now can see the spiritual world brightly after our spiritual eyes were opened by our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. This is how one reaches the understanding that the ministry of Jesus is all for the ministry of the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Because of our sins, you and I had been spiritually blind and lame, able to neither see the God’s ministry nor do His work. In other words, we had also been sinners who were bound to be condemned to hell. However, was baptized Jesus Christ came to this earth, was baptized by John the Baptist, shed His blood on the cross, and there by fulfilled the works that remitted away all the sins of the world. Therefore, whoever believes in this Truth can experience that all his or her sins are completely washed away. Jesus Christ has washed away all our sins by actually coming this earth, being baptized by John the Baptist, and shedding His blood on the Cross. Even now, such works of God continue to unfold magnificently in the hearts of all who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. With the gospel power of the water and the Spirit, our Lord has opened the spiritual eyes of His believers and He has made us, who has been spiritually lame, to rise and stand up on our feet.
We need to realize here that if we try to do God’s work without even having faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, there will be absolutely no benefit whatsoever for both of our bodies and spirits. Those who still have not received the remission of their sins constantly think, “I should live virtuously, I must be good to everyone.” But no one is even remotely capable of achieving this, of doing what is good and virtuous.
Before we came to know the gospel power of the water and the Spirit, we had sin in our hearts and therefore we had all been sinners, and consequently, we could not know what God’s righteous work is like, nor do it. However, because our Lord accepted all our sins once for all through His baptism, and because He washed them all away with the blood that He shed on the Cross while shouldering the sins of the world, we were able to be saved from all our sins. It is because Jesus Christ has saved us from our sins by the power of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, that we are now able to live according to the will of God. We are now capable of enabling everyone else to also taste the power of this true gospel and be saved.
By bringing new life through the Truth of salvation to you and me who had been spiritually lame, Jesus Christ has enabled us to be saved from all our sins and all our curses, What Jesus said here, that “the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up,” has now also been fulfilled in all of our hearts that believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, Before, as we had been sinners, we had also been spiritual lepers. At that time our hearts clearly had sin, and we could not be cleansed from all our sins, unless we placed our faith in this true gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Our Lord also said that the deaf would hear. When we had been sinners, we could not understand the Word of God even when we heard it. But now, because we have been clothed with the gospel power of the water and the Spirit by placing our faith in it, we can understand the Word of God, grasp its true meaning, and believe in it wholeheartedly.
Everyone throughout the whole world is now living under spiritual starvation and thirst. They suffer from their spiritual deafness and lameness. But the Lord is still giving them the chance to be healed all at once by letting us preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to them. We must have pity on them. We need to remember that when we did not know this gospel of salvation, the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we had no satisfaction whatsoever, and that we also could not help but live with all our sins remaining in our hearts. We should not forget His merciful grace that has turned sinners into the righteous.
As such, what our Lord spoke to the disciples of John the Baptist about the wonders that He actually exercised was to let them know that Jesus is the Son of God, the real Salvation and the Messiah to come.
Some may say that while John the Baptist was imprisoned, he was tempted and became doubtful as to whether Jesus was the Messiah to come, and that this is why he sent his disciples to Jesus. But this is absolutely not the case. Who was John the Baptist? He was the greatest of all those born of women. He was even greater than any other servants of God. In other words, it was not because John the Baptist did not believe in Jesus that he sent out his disciples to Him and had them ask, “Are You the Coming One?” On the contrary, he was now educating his disciples, so that they would know who Jesus really was.
John the Baptist already knew and believed that Jesus was the Savior and the Son of God; moreover, he had heard the testimony of God the Father when he baptized Jesus Christ in the Jordan River (Matthew 3:17), and he himself had also been a witness who had been testifying Jesus. It was because some of his disciples did not know Jesus properly that John the Baptist sent them to Jesus, in order to teach them that Jesus Christ is the Savior to come. In fact, after John the Baptist knew that Jesus Christ was the Messiah to come, he tried to retreat his ministry and send his disciples to the Lord. In order to reveal Jesus to Israel, John even said, “He (Jesus) must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). For example, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, had been clearly John’s disciple, but he followed the Lord after hearing John’s witnessing of Jesus (John 1:40). //--// ….to be continued
Yet today’s critics of John the
Baptist are saying all kinds of nonsense, even as they do not even know him,
claiming, “John the Baptist was a failure. He fell into temptation and failed
to believe in Jesus. His faith crumbled down while he was imprisoned.”
But my fellow believers, you must not
doubt the faith of John the Baptist. John the Baptist and Jesus had their own
duties that they had to fulfill together in the providence of God the Father.
This was to baptize and to be baptized, the ministries that were to fulfill the
righteousness of God. This is why Jesus and John the Baptist testified each
other’s ministry.
Matthew 11:7-9 states, “As they departed,
Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: ‘What did you go out into
the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to
see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are
in kings’ houses. But what did you go out to see? A prophet ? Yes, I say to
you, and more than a prophet.”
Jesus said here, “Why did you go out into the wilderness? To see a
prophet? If so, you are right. I say to you that John the Baptist is more than
a prophet,” Jesus then explained John the Baptist by referring to Malachi 3:1
in the Scriptures.
Matthew 11:10 is a passage that cites Malachi 3:1. In it, Jesus
said, ‘For this is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger
before your face. Who will prepare Your way before you.’ “Referring to the
passage written in Malachi 3:1, in other words, Jesus Himself testified that
John the Baptist was the very messenger of God who would be sent before Jesus
Himself.
Who is God’s messenger that is written
in Malachi 3:1? It is none other than John the Baptist. Malachi 4:5-6 also
point out that the messenger in Malachi 3; 1—“I send My messenger” – refers to
no one else but John the Baptist.
In Matthew 11:11, Jesus said,
“Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one
greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is
greater than he.”
Why did our Lord say this to us? Why
did He say that John the Baptist was the greatest of all those born of women?
Jesus is telling us here that John the Baptist was the very messenger of God
that was prophesied in the Old Testament, and that he is the representative of
mankind.
This passage continues on with another
difficult phrase: “But he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater as a
failure by this phrase. They say, “Because John was doubtful about Jesus’ being
Messiah, he was evaluated as the least one by the Lord.” But this is absolutely
nonsense.
Rather, what Jesus is actually saying
here is that although John the Baptist was the representative of mankind,
spiritually speaking, he was a lowly man who could not be compared to those who
have become God’s own children. In other words, although John the Baptist was
the representative of all human beings in the flesh, he could not be compared
to the born-again.
Actually, John was the greatest one
from a human point of view. He was raised as a Nazirite, and lived an ascetic
life in the wilderness eating locusts and wild honey. From the viewpoint of
human righteousness is of no use when it is compared to the righteousness, he
surely was the greatest one. But this human righteousness is of no use when it
is compared to the righteousness of God, which is given to everyone who can
enter His kingdom by faith. And because those who have become the people of the
Kingdom of Heaven
by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit have received the
righteousness of God, they are greater than anyone who only relies on his own
righteousness. One may become the
representative of mankind on this earth in the flesh, but he is smaller than
those who have become God’s people by believing in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit.
Therefore, when Jesus said, “And from
the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence,
and the violent take it by force, “He said to because John the Baptist has
baptized Him at once and thereby passed the sins of the world to Him. As such,
John the Baptist was the last High Priest and prophet of the Old Testament, and
his ministry ended when he baptized Jesus and bore witness to Him. Jesus is
telling us, in other words, that everything of the Old Testament ended with His
own appearance and the appearance of John the Baptist, and with John’s ministry
of baptizing Jesus.
Put differently, from the time when
John the Baptist and Jesus came to this earth, all the righteousness of God was
fulfilled. It is because Jesus came to this earth and was baptized by John that
the age of the New Testament is the age of the gospel of power, and it is an
era in which whoever believes I this gospel of the water and the Spirit can
receive the remission of sin and become God’s own child. As the age of the Old
Testament lasted until the days of John the Baptist, when Jesus Christ came to
this earth took upon the sins of mankind with His baptism, shed His blood, and
remitted away all our sins, henceforth the gates of Heaven have been flung open
to all who believe in this Truth.
As Jesus took upon all the sins of
everyone on this earth by being baptized, the age of the New Testament was then
begun. All the Old Testament’s Word of prophecy were fulfilled through John the
Baptist and Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ accepted all the sins of mankind once
for all by being baptized by John the Baptist, shed His blood on the Cross, and
has thereby blotted out all the sins of this world. This is why our Lord said
that from the days of John the Baptist until now the Kingdom of Heaven
suffered violence.
It is because Jesus accepted the sins
of the world by receiving His baptism from John the Baptist that whoever
believes in this Truth can now enter Heaven by faith. Put differently, it is
because John the Baptist passed mankind’s sins to Jesus through this baptism
that Jesus took upon all the sins of the world once for all. Because John the
Baptist was born of the descendants of the household of Aaron the High Priest,
he could fulfill his role of passing the sins of the world to Jesus as the last
High Priest of the Old Testament.
That anyone who believe in this Truth
can now enter Heaven by faith is because John the Baptist had passed all the
sins of the world that the age of the salvation of mankind has now dawned upon
us. With this greatest historical event, the age of the Old Testament ended, and
the age of the New Testament started. And Jesus fulfilled His ministry as our
Savior to perfection by taking upon all our sins of mankind with His baptism,
shedding His blood, and rising from the dead again. Therefore, a new age has
opened for all those who believe in the baptism that John the Baptist gave to
Jesus, in which the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence.
The Kingdom of Heaven
cannot actually be taken by force with the strength of the flesh. What, then,
is the spiritual meaning of this passage? It is this; Jesus is telling us the
mystery of Heaven, that because He accepted all the sins of this world when
John the Baptist baptized Him and when He in turn received this baptism, and
because He was crucified, shed His blood, and rose from the dead again, anyone
can now make Heaven his by believing in this gospel.
Our Lord said, “All the prophets and
the law prophesied until John.” In other words, the prophecies of the Old
Testament lasted until the days of John the Baptist. Of course, it is more
accurate to say that the age of the Old Testament lasted until the birth of
Jesus. But it is exactly when John the Baptist baptized Jesus that the
prophecies of the Old Testament were spiritually fulfilled.
|
