The NXR Podcast - THE SERMON - Blessed Is The One Who Is Not Offended By Jesus

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00:00:27.360 Let's stand for the reading of God's word. Our text for today is the gospel according to Matthew chapter 11 verses 1 through 6.

00:00:34.780 Again, that's the gospel according to Matthew chapter 11 verses 1 through 6.

00:00:39.020 I'll read our text for it in its entirety. When I finish reading the text, I'm going to say this is the word of the Lord.

00:00:44.740 At which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying thanks be to God.

00:00:48.920 One final time, our text for today is Matthew chapter 11 verses 1 through 6.

00:00:53.840 The Bible says this.

00:00:55.940 When Jesus had finished instructing his 12 disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities.

00:01:03.220 Now, when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him,

00:01:12.180 Are you the one who is to come or shall we look for another?

00:01:16.540 And Jesus answered them, Go and tell John what you hear and see.

00:01:21.720 The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk.

00:01:25.940 Lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.

00:01:34.620 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.

00:01:38.960 This is the word of the Lord.

00:01:41.320 All right, please be seated.

00:01:42.820 We'll go ahead and dive right in.

00:01:44.100 By way of introduction, a 30,000 foot view for our text in its entirety, I've written the following.

00:01:50.400 Christ graciously confirms that he is, in fact, the Messiah, not through signs and wonders alone,

00:01:59.200 but through the power of his word and works, granting assurance to the weak in faith.

00:02:08.220 Granting assurance to the weak in faith.

00:02:10.340 What we see in our text today is the mercy of Christ extended to John, in this case,

00:02:15.880 namely John the Baptist, a cousin of Jesus, who was doubting in those final hours.

00:02:24.040 He was doubting. He did not have unbelief or disbelief.

00:02:28.680 He was truly a Christian.

00:02:31.180 He ultimately trusted that Jesus was, in fact, the Messiah.

00:02:35.020 But due to a delay in providence, due to the plan unfolding in a way that he did not expect,

00:02:42.820 with certain detours, John was in that moment confused and perhaps even frustrated. And so he

00:02:51.980 leans into Christ. He's not accusing Christ. He's not condemning Christ. But he is leaning in,

00:03:00.160 pressing in, and pleading with Christ to offer him a greater sense of assurance in his final

00:03:08.260 hours. One of the first texts in our broader text says this, now when John heard in prison

00:03:16.940 about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, are you the one

00:03:24.240 who is to come or shall we look for another? I've written in your notes the following,

00:03:30.540 John the Baptist's inquiry reveals not disbelief but confusion due to providential delay.

00:03:38.260 This serves as a reminder that God permits his children to experience seasons of doubt.

00:03:44.940 There's a difference between unbelief and doubt.

00:03:48.700 Genuine, regenerate Christians, children of God, will experience to varying degrees and at varying times doubt.

00:03:57.660 And that does not mean that we don't ultimately belong to Christ.

00:04:02.460 John's situation is not accidental.

00:04:04.720 It serves to magnify Christ and display the patience of his saints, or we could say magnifying the glory and supremacy of Christ through the patience of his saints.

00:04:18.260 As a headline for this first point in our text, I wrote the following, the weakness of even the greatest saint.

00:04:26.620 It's worth noting that Jesus himself, in regards to John the Baptist, says that he is the greatest born of women.

00:04:34.720 So we're not talking about just one of the disciples in this broader ring of Jesus.

00:04:41.760 We know that he had three, namely John and James and Peter.

00:04:46.300 He had 12 that include others.

00:04:49.020 And then he had 72.

00:04:50.940 And then you could argue for 120 that find themselves on the day of Pentecost in the upper room praying and anointed by the Holy Spirit with tongues of fire above their heads.

00:05:01.380 and speaking in other tongues of men, proclaiming that Jesus is, in fact, the Christ and then broader even than that.

00:05:09.000 We know that Jesus, after his death and resurrection, but before his ascension, appeared and revealed himself to over 500 of his disciples.

00:05:20.340 So we know that Jesus had many disciples. Lazarus was a disciple of Jesus, not one of the 12, but he was a disciple.

00:05:27.040 And on that note, both Mary, Magdalene, and also Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, were also disciples of Jesus.

00:05:36.640 They're not commissioned as apostles of Jesus to preach and teach and to write scripture,

00:05:42.300 but they are disciples of Jesus in that broader ring of disciples.

00:05:47.920 So Jesus had many disciples. That's the point.

00:05:50.640 But we're not focusing, in our text today, on one of the 500.

00:05:54.620 Right. We're not focusing on one of Jesus's disciples who followed him from a distance, who maybe had one or two engagements with Jesus over the course of his three years, give or take, earthly public ministry.

00:06:11.040 No, we're talking about John the Baptist. We're talking about a man who was commissioned by God to pave the way as a forerunner for Christ. We're talking about a man who Christ himself said was the greatest man born of women.

00:06:26.380 And this man, still, despite all his greatness and the providence and mercy of God, he finds it necessary in his final hours as he's rotting in jail, probably painfully aware of what's about to happen to him.

00:06:45.140 He's probably aware that his time in jail is not going to end in his freedom and release, but rather in his death.

00:06:53.720 And in that state, even the greatest saint, other than Christ himself, finds it necessary to send his disciples, not Jesus, but John's disciples, to go and beseech Jesus to confirm that Jesus really is the Messiah.

00:07:13.140 He's wanting to know at the end of his life that his life has not been in vain.

00:07:18.440 He's wanting assurance.

00:07:20.780 He's wanting confirmation.

00:07:22.120 he's pleading with the Lord for consolation

00:07:26.840 Lord you may not set me free and this is Jesus

00:07:30.760 who according to Isaiah one of the things is not just cleansing lepers

00:07:34.580 and raising the dead and healing the sick and preaching good news

00:07:38.660 to the poor but also Isaiah prophesies of Jesus that he is

00:07:42.720 the one who will set captives free and John literally

00:07:46.700 is a captive and he could be hoping hey could

00:07:50.780 that part of Isaiah be fulfilled? In my case, that'd be great. That'd be nice. You know, could

00:07:56.620 you set me free? And there might be some inkling of that thought process that's going on in his

00:08:02.240 mind. But even more than that, I'm sure he may have had some desire for his liberty. But even

00:08:09.320 more than that, his greatest desire is simply to be assured that Jesus is the Christ. More than

00:08:17.480 being set free, I think his greatest desire, John the Baptist, is if I am to die, I want to know that

00:08:25.000 I'm not dying in vain. I want to know that I gave my life for the one who really was the promised

00:08:32.920 Messiah. And so he's pleading with the Lord for confirmation, for assurance. And if the greatest

00:08:41.180 man born of women can have seasons in his life of doubt where he beseeches Christ for a greater

00:08:51.280 measure of assurance, then certainly it is permissible for us as well to lean into Christ

00:08:59.600 in inevitable seasons of doubt, asking for his consolation and his comfort and his assurance.

00:09:08.360 That's part of why we, in our liturgy, every Lord's Day, have a moment of an assurance of pardon.

00:09:16.340 Why do you need to be assured of Christ's forgiveness?

00:09:19.700 You did it last week, and the week before, and the week before that, and before, and before, and before.

00:09:26.760 Why again? Because it is a common part of our lives.

00:09:33.620 In this life, when we see him, 1 John says, we will be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

00:09:41.260 But in this life, seeing Christ, trusting Christ, knowing Christ, is as though we see dimly in a mirror that's been clouded.

00:09:52.740 We know in part. Now, that doesn't mean that we don't know at all.

00:09:56.260 What we know, we truly know. But there is a partiality or a partialness, I should say, of our confidence that there's only so much that we know of Christ.

00:10:10.480 And that's not to say that there's not much that can be known from the Scripture.

00:10:14.960 And as the Holy Spirit works to illuminate the Scripture and reveal Christ to us through the Scripture.

00:10:21.080 But the point is that in this life, this side of heaven, our knowledge is still partial.

00:10:27.820 And so there will be, in various times of trials and challenge and difficulties and persecution and suffering and all the rest,

00:10:36.300 there will be inevitably moments of doubt.

00:10:39.080 And if John the Baptist could beseech Christ for assurance, so can we.

00:10:45.800 So can we.

00:10:46.500 psalm chapter 73 this is one of my favorite chapters in the psalms and i think that it

00:10:54.820 serves as a descriptive text i'm not going to read the whole chapter is fantastic and it's worth

00:11:01.280 reading on your own time but i'm going to highlight some of the verses of psalm 73 but i think it

00:11:07.500 serves as a as a powerful description of what john the baptist might have been experiencing and what

00:11:14.560 you and I may experience at times as well the psalmist writes this truly God is good to Israel

00:11:23.160 so he starts not with what he feels but he starts with what he knows now it's very clear that he

00:11:30.680 does not feel that God is being good to Israel when you look at the entirety of the rest of the

00:11:37.260 chapter the rest of the chapter he goes on to describe how he feels but he starts with what

00:11:43.520 he knows. And I think that that's a good template when it comes to prayer. When we go to the Lord

00:11:49.940 in prayer, even in seasons of doubt, even when our emotions and our feelings, what we feel, do not

00:11:55.660 align with what he said, start with what you know and then express to the Lord as humbly as you can

00:12:03.020 how you feel. But start with what you know. He starts with what he knows. He says, truly God is

00:12:09.960 good to Israel whether he feels it or not to those who are pure in heart but verse 2 now but as for

00:12:18.800 me my feet had almost stumbled my steps had nearly slipped I know that God is good to Israel and to

00:12:28.300 those who are righteous who are faithful to him pure in heart but for me personally I had a season

00:12:34.980 And I had a moment where that truth, verse 1, that God is good to Israel and he is good to his own people.

00:12:41.220 That truth that I know is true, as for me personally, I had a moment where I almost slipped.

00:12:47.040 I almost stumbled. I almost failed to hold on to that truth.

00:12:52.240 For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

00:12:59.620 For they have no pangs until death.

00:13:02.620 He recognizes that the wicked eventually get what they are owed.

00:13:07.740 They receive their due.

00:13:11.200 But in life, up until their death, it seemed to him, and it can seem to us at times,

00:13:17.900 that some of the most vile and wicked people on the planet, up until death,

00:13:22.740 it seems as though they suffer no difficulty at all.

00:13:26.660 No challenge, no suffering, no sadness.

00:13:29.880 that the lives of the righteous would be marked by persecution and suffering and difficulty,

00:13:36.640 and yet the wicked get off scot-free all the way up until the pains of death. Their bodies are fat

00:13:44.020 and sleek. It seems as though they have no want. Verse 5 now, they are not in trouble as others

00:13:51.960 are. They are not stricken like the rest of mankind. But when I thought how to understand

00:13:59.900 this, how do I reconcile this with the truth of God's word? I want to believe that God is just

00:14:06.120 and that he only does that which is just. And yet I see so many wicked prospering and so many

00:14:14.660 righteous suffering. And so I'm trying to resolve this in my heart and in my mind.

00:14:21.840 I far be it from me to accuse God, but at the same time, I'm struggling not to believe my

00:14:28.220 lying eyes. So when I sought how to understand this, to reconcile the wicked prospering,

00:14:35.600 the righteous suffering with the fact that God is just, it seemed to me a wearisome task.

00:14:42.140 and I think we all have those moments I have those moments where I'm sitting there and

00:14:48.500 theologically I'm trying to you know do the math carry the one make sure that it all adds up in

00:14:56.260 the end but it feels like I'm taking a square peg and trying to force it into a circle whole

00:15:02.520 God is just and he's sovereign over all things he does all things well there is no injustice

00:15:07.920 with God whatsoever, and there's Sam Altman.

00:15:10.980 How do I explain that?

00:15:14.340 You know, what do I do with that?

00:15:16.840 Like, what do I do with the fact

00:15:18.340 that there are all these people in the world today

00:15:21.300 that are faring far better

00:15:24.620 than many people who are righteous?

00:15:28.900 How do I resolve and reconcile these two things

00:15:33.160 that are seemingly, at least in human terms,

00:15:36.480 according to my finite perception

00:15:39.280 directly in contradiction with one another.

00:15:43.180 So when I sought to understand this,

00:15:45.100 to reconcile this,

00:15:46.540 it seemed to be a wearisome task.

00:15:49.600 Amen.

00:15:50.900 Until, skipping forward now,

00:15:52.680 verse 17,

00:15:54.100 until, what's the solution?

00:15:56.820 What resolves the tension for him?

00:15:58.880 Until I went into the sanctuary of God.

00:16:02.780 And then I discerned their end.

00:16:07.400 That is the end of the wicked.

00:16:09.860 He's looking at the wicked in terms of the present.

00:16:14.220 They're doing great.

00:16:16.640 They're doing great.

00:16:19.400 Everybody's locked in their home.

00:16:22.320 And Gavin Newsom is dining at the French Laundry.

00:16:25.500 And if that's the only perspective in that moment,

00:16:28.040 then it's hard to reconcile that with the perfect justice of god but it's when he goes into the

00:16:37.120 sanctuary so he's not just sitting there trying to understand everything with his finite mind

00:16:43.160 but he commits himself to worship right sometimes it feels like i need to solve all the world's

00:16:49.620 problems now sometimes what you need to do is go to church you just need to go to church

00:16:55.860 and you need to pause the world's problems,

00:16:58.640 the world will, it'll worry about itself.

00:17:01.540 God has it under control.

00:17:03.200 The problems will be right there.

00:17:05.660 You can pick them right back up where you left them.

00:17:07.780 I think of what Jesus says about worry and anxiety.

00:17:10.740 Don't worry for tomorrow.

00:17:11.960 Tomorrow can worry about itself.

00:17:14.160 And there's something immensely merciful.

00:17:17.460 It's not just a duty.

00:17:18.960 Oh, God has another command,

00:17:20.880 another thing that I need to obey,

00:17:22.820 another thing I need to do.

00:17:24.200 No, it's something that you need to do, not just in obedience and honor towards God,

00:17:29.860 but you need to do it for yourself because you're finite.

00:17:34.560 You can't just go seven days a week without rest, without pause.

00:17:40.800 You can't.

00:17:42.140 God initiated the Sabbath.

00:17:43.780 Remember what Jesus says.

00:17:45.240 God did not create man for the Sabbath, but he created the Sabbath for man.

00:17:49.180 the point of the sabbath was it wasn't that god said i have this holy day and it's really important

00:17:56.380 for me to be honored and worshiped on this holy day so i guess i need to create some creatures

00:18:02.480 in my image who might be capable of keeping my special holy day no it's the opposite god makes

00:18:10.820 man on the sixth day and in light of making man he says man's kind of weak and this is before sin

00:18:20.220 enters the world so before fallenness you still have finitude before fallenness in a pre-lapsarian

00:18:27.660 world you still have finitude and so even in light of man in a state of integrity without sin having

00:18:35.640 even come into the world. Even man unfallen is still finite. An unfallen man, how much more now

00:18:44.540 us since sin has entered the world. But even unfallen man in his finitude, God sees fit that

00:18:52.200 he would require a regular pattern of rest. And that that rest would ultimately be found not just

00:19:00.680 in the forsaking of obligations and duty, not just in naps, not just in recreation, but that true rest

00:19:08.040 might be found in worship. True rest is worship. It's worship of the triune God on the Lord's day

00:19:18.060 as we gather together with the excellent ones in all the earth, that is the saints. That is where

00:19:23.800 true rejuvenation comes from. There is a way of resting that actually makes you even more tired.

00:19:32.540 Have you ever rested like that? I just, man, I've been clocking in hours at work.

00:19:39.360 I'm run too thin. And I just, I just need to rest. And then the rest that you indulge in

00:19:47.200 is a shallow and vain rest it's just packing your day off with watching television or or something

00:19:57.540 shallow something trite and you don't actually feel rejuvenated when it's all said and done

00:20:06.260 no true rest is not merely recreation but it's worship and god created this sabbath day of rest

00:20:16.120 for man, and not the other way around. It's not that God created a special day on the sixth day,

00:20:23.600 and then made man on the seventh to keep a special day. He made man on the sixth day,

00:20:28.800 and then created the day, or issued the day of rest, which is worship, so that man might have

00:20:36.700 a regular pattern of rest in his finitude, even without being fallen, because he would need it.

00:20:43.820 it is something that god requires but it is also something that we need a sabbath day of rest and

00:20:51.140 so the psalmist being overwhelmed and tired that word is intentional wearisome the task of trying

00:21:00.520 to reconcile and resolve the tension between the wicked seemingly prospering in this temporal

00:21:07.400 plane and yet God somehow being sovereign and just over all things these two realities seemingly

00:21:16.660 it's an apparent paradox is what we would refer to that as and so seemingly according to the human

00:21:24.120 perspective we're directly at odds with one another and he could not resolve this tension

00:21:30.560 on his own. And it's not until he goes into the sanctuary, rest through worship with the saints,

00:21:39.660 that all of a sudden he's able to resolve the tension. And he resolves the tension by going

00:21:44.560 into the sanctuary and then seeing from God's perspective. And what is it to see from God's

00:21:51.800 perspective in this regard? Well, one aspect of seeing through God's perspective, seen through

00:21:58.980 heaven's eyes is to see the eternal to not merely look at what is presently taking place but to look

00:22:09.060 to the wicked's end he's looking at the wicked's present situation but when he goes into the

00:22:16.540 sanctuary then all of a sudden he begins to take into account the long game then i discerned their

00:22:24.080 end. Verse 18 now to finish. Truly, you set them in slippery places and you make them fall into

00:22:34.620 ruin. It's the exact inverse of where he starts. In verse 2, he says, my feet had almost stumbled.

00:22:43.040 My steps had nearly slipped. But by the end, when he has a divine perspective, because he's entered

00:22:50.640 the house of the Lord and begun to see through God's eyes and not merely his own, he now sees

00:22:57.500 that although he was about to stumble, that he was about to slip by accusing God

00:23:04.100 of doing something unjust, now all of a sudden he sees that he doesn't need to stumble. He doesn't

00:23:11.720 need to slip. He doesn't need to condemn God of injustice because it's actually the wicked who

00:23:17.880 have been set up by God for the greatest fall. Their fall may not come today, but it will

00:23:26.320 inevitably come. And the fact that God for a time temporarily might exalt the wicked, seemingly

00:23:36.420 in temporal ways, only positions the wicked for their fall to be all the greater. All the greater.

00:23:46.500 So John the Baptist is rotting in prison.

00:23:49.740 And even the reason for being in prison,

00:23:52.220 I can only imagine.

00:23:54.900 I mean, why am I in jail again?

00:23:57.180 Oh, that's right.

00:23:59.320 That's right.

00:24:00.980 Because a wicked Jezebel feminist

00:24:03.940 propagandized and brainwashed her daughter,

00:24:09.420 a teenage daughter,

00:24:10.260 to dance like a whore at a party

00:24:14.780 in front of a bunch of men

00:24:16.200 so that a weak, perverted king

00:24:19.580 in a moment of drunken stupor

00:24:22.620 might make a deal with the devil

00:24:24.940 and then in a spirit of vengeance,

00:24:28.940 the mother might take it out on me

00:24:31.100 to provide a hedge

00:24:33.500 for me calling her out on her adultery.

00:24:38.620 That's right.

00:24:39.560 Okay, so like it's one thing

00:24:41.640 to lose your head in glorious battle

00:24:43.480 fighting against men and vikings and kings it's probably really frustrating to lose your head

00:24:50.500 because of a teenage girl dancing for her mom who's a feminist

00:24:56.960 right there's a lot of ways to go that probably wouldn't be my top pick you know i'd be like

00:25:04.620 really? Really? This is the way I go? So he's having a tough time, right? The long and short of it. He's

00:25:15.300 having a tough time. But it's really similar to the psalmist in Psalm 73. And what do we need in those

00:25:23.860 moments it's it's not that we're wrong not not in the immediate sense right the psalmist isn't

00:25:33.140 wrong it's not like god he goes into the sanctuary and god corrects him and says no the wicked are

00:25:38.640 suffering right now no the the implication is it if anything god agrees with the psalmist

00:25:46.720 you're right the wicked are doing great they're doing great for now for now

00:25:55.500 but their ease their comfort their affluence

00:26:00.140 their their temporal power will be a vapor it will be short-lived and in the end

00:26:10.820 i have positioned them and set them up to fall and for the righteous the psalmist being included

00:26:19.740 i have kept your feet from slipping i've positioned them to fall and preserved you from falling

00:26:28.660 that's the case for the psalmist that's the case for john the baptist and that is the case

00:26:34.520 for you and I in those moments when we're tempted to doubt and in those moments when we even give

00:26:41.980 in to that temptation and we do doubt is God just will Christ ultimately win will his church be

00:26:51.480 victorious will the mustard seed in fact grow into an all-encompassing tree will the little

00:26:59.400 bit of leaven actually have the potency to work through the whole batch of dough. The thing that

00:27:07.840 that helps us in those moments is entering the sanctuary, leaning in to Christ. In the case of

00:27:16.700 John the Baptist, it's sending his disciples to go and speak with Christ so that they might bring

00:27:22.220 back to John. What? A word from Christ. John the Baptist needs to hear Christ's word. I need to

00:27:30.940 hear directly from him. I need Christ to speak to me. And I'm willing even to die for him.

00:27:39.040 But leading up to my death, to my martyrdom, I need to hear the word of my Savior.

00:27:45.740 you the psalmist likewise i need a word from god where do i go in his case the sanctuary

00:27:53.140 in john the baptist case during the earthly incarnation and ministry of christ physically

00:28:00.040 on earth it's going and beseeching christ in person through his disciples to bring back a word

00:28:05.620 In our case, it's the Sabbath.

00:28:09.820 It's gathering with the saints.

00:28:12.440 It's the Lord's Day.

00:28:14.700 We can't afford to miss church.

00:28:18.180 We can't afford to not rest in God through worship,

00:28:23.520 receiving a word from Christ at least one day in seven.

00:28:28.900 Because apart from that, maintaining and sustaining our belief and our faith that God truly is just and that he really is sovereign.

00:28:44.380 when we see so much wickedness

00:28:47.360 in this world,

00:28:49.080 to do that apart from the Lord's day,

00:28:51.940 apart from receiving a word from Christ,

00:28:54.160 apart from leaning in,

00:28:56.460 is indeed a wearisome task.

00:29:00.800 The second point from our text today,

00:29:03.260 the works serve to validate the word.

00:29:06.340 We've seen this principle time and time again

00:29:08.780 throughout the Gospel of Matthew.

00:29:11.780 And here we see it once more.

00:29:14.300 Jesus says to John's disciples,

00:29:17.220 go and tell John what you hear and see.

00:29:22.680 Not just what you see.

00:29:25.440 It's both.

00:29:27.460 John's disciples are sent by Christ

00:29:31.320 to go back to John and not merely say,

00:29:34.600 tell John what you've seen.

00:29:37.640 What is John even doing questioning?

00:29:40.480 How dare he question me?

00:29:43.340 has he not seen the works that I've done?

00:29:47.780 Or at least if he hasn't,

00:29:49.240 then you go back and tell him the works that I've done.

00:29:52.020 I've raised the dead.

00:29:54.120 I've multiplied food and fed 5,000,

00:29:58.020 just the men.

00:29:59.900 I've walked on water.

00:30:01.800 I've turned water into wine.

00:30:04.000 I've healed the sick.

00:30:04.960 I've cleansed lepers.

00:30:06.440 I've caused the lame to walk

00:30:08.520 and the blind to see,

00:30:09.740 the deaf to hear.

00:30:11.040 how could he question how could he doubt go back and tell john what you see

00:30:19.560 but jesus says that but it's not all that he says in the mind of christ which is very relevant

00:30:28.980 we should care about how he thinks christ seems to find it necessary to not only validate the

00:30:38.340 fact that he is the Messiah by what he does and what can be seen, but also what he says and what

00:30:47.040 can be heard. Go and tell John what you hear and see. In your notes, I've written this. When Christ's

00:30:54.900 divinity is questioned, he does not appeal to novelty, but rather even Christ, who is God

00:31:02.480 incarnate. He appeals to the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecies. He appeals to what is

00:31:11.460 written, the Word of God. His miracles are not mere wonders, but visible tokens of his promised

00:31:20.620 redemption. Our faith, therefore, as it is with John the Baptist, so it is with us. Our faith

00:31:27.740 lies upon Scripture's testimony

00:31:30.740 and not upon our own personal experiences or emotions.

00:31:38.060 Jesus doesn't just say, I did this or I did that.

00:31:42.400 He says, I've done this and that

00:31:44.720 in direct fulfillment to the word.

00:31:49.220 And one of the things that he does to fulfill God's word

00:31:53.160 spoken through the prophet Isaiah

00:31:55.020 is not just wonders that can be seen,

00:31:57.740 but sermons preached good news preached to the poor it's not only opening the eyes of the blind

00:32:06.940 and the ears of the deaf raising the dead and cleansing lepers but it's also Jesus the preacher

00:32:14.580 it's not merely the works of Christ but the words of Christ and all this done in fulfillment

00:32:22.340 to the word of God, namely the word of God spoken through Isaiah, chapter 35, verse 5 and 6, which

00:32:29.880 says, then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the

00:32:37.180 lame man leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. So three main points, as I see

00:32:48.080 it in our text today. One, even the greatest saint has moments of weakness, and in those moments

00:32:56.180 we may doubt, but we may not disbelieve, and we should lean in to Christ and go into the sanctuary

00:33:04.500 where we gain perspective. Number two, the works of Christ serve to validate the Word, and our faith

00:33:13.660 ultimately rests on God's

00:33:15.860 written testimony, the Scripture

00:33:17.720 itself, and not our own

00:33:19.900 personal experiences

00:33:21.220 or emotions. And now the third

00:33:23.760 and final point.

00:33:25.880 We may be confused

00:33:27.680 and doubting,

00:33:29.980 but we may not

00:33:31.620 be offended.

00:33:34.620 Jesus doesn't

00:33:35.620 say to John's disciples,

00:33:37.920 go back and tell him this

00:33:39.700 and that, and

00:33:41.580 also

00:33:42.280 blessed is the one who never asks questions

00:33:46.640 or blessed is the one who never doubts

00:33:50.440 or blessed is the one who is never confused.

00:33:56.180 All those things, although certainly not ideal

00:34:00.080 and we'd like by the grace of God, the power of the Holy Spirit

00:34:03.360 to aspire beyond confusion and doubt and questions.

00:34:09.760 But all those things, although not the ideal,

00:34:13.640 implicitly from Jesus' response seem to at least be permissible

00:34:17.460 in the mind of Christ.

00:34:20.660 But the one command he gives

00:34:23.240 as something that is explicitly forbidden,

00:34:28.080 that is not permissible,

00:34:30.860 is taking offense at him.

00:34:35.040 You can have questions for Jesus.

00:34:37.440 and you can at times even have doubts about Jesus.

00:34:44.580 But what you're not permitted to do

00:34:46.940 is to take offense at Jesus.

00:34:51.300 The very end of our text says this,

00:34:53.980 and blessed is the one who is not offended by me.

00:34:57.660 In your notes, I've written the following.

00:35:00.080 Many take offense at what part,

00:35:04.020 what characteristic of Jesus?

00:35:06.840 Well, there are many.

00:35:09.080 But within the context of our passage today,

00:35:13.320 perhaps the specific attribute of Christ

00:35:17.460 that John may have been tempted to take offense at,

00:35:21.160 he did not.

00:35:23.260 It causes him confusion.

00:35:25.080 It causes him doubt.

00:35:25.980 But he ultimately is not offended.

00:35:28.440 But the one characteristic or attribute of Christ

00:35:31.020 in the context of our passage

00:35:32.420 that John could have been offended at

00:35:35.040 would have been the humility of Christ.

00:35:38.540 Many stumble because Christ is far more patient than we are.

00:35:43.100 True faith clings to Christ

00:35:45.240 even when his kingdom appears to be hidden

00:35:48.320 and contrary to expectation.

00:35:51.520 In the context of our passage,

00:35:55.860 it's not that Christ is not victorious.

00:35:59.380 And none of this goes against

00:36:01.020 the gradual progressive increase of his kingdom through the church here on earth in this temporal

00:36:10.800 plane throughout the gospel age in visible tangible ways there's nothing in our text or

00:36:18.660 any other text for that matter that that says that well that's that's an impossibility or that

00:36:25.820 wouldn't be biblical right so the idea that that Christ who is head of the church and that the

00:36:31.440 church is Christ's body here on earth and that the church on earth is militant the church militant

00:36:37.500 and that the church because of Christ will ultimately gradually progressively succeed

00:36:43.260 throughout this gospel age and permeating the whole earth so that the whole earth is filled

00:36:49.080 with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea all that I believe is true

00:36:54.220 to say it simply the point that i'm making here at the end of the sermon is not a point against

00:37:03.420 post-millennial eschatology but it is a point to say that even if post-millennial eschatology is

00:37:10.960 true as i believe it is even if it's true there's still the reality that it may happen

00:37:19.000 slower than we would like.

00:37:23.080 There are seasons where it feels as though

00:37:26.060 the kingdom of Christ is advancing

00:37:28.840 by leaps and bounds.

00:37:31.780 And then there are other seasons

00:37:33.440 where it feels as though

00:37:34.660 the kingdom is not advancing at all.

00:37:38.880 And in those moments,

00:37:40.560 it is possible,

00:37:42.480 it can be tempting

00:37:43.760 for disciples of Christ

00:37:46.700 to take offense at Him.

00:37:49.000 Jesus, why are you seemingly, in this place, at this time, being so slow?

00:38:00.840 Or, if we throw all caution to the wind, and we're not exercising the fruit of the Spirit, that is self-control,

00:38:09.680 we might even give in to the carnal temptation of accusing Christ, not merely of slowness, but of weakness.

00:38:18.320 Why are you being so weak?

00:38:22.560 Win, Jesus.

00:38:25.880 Win.

00:38:28.560 Show your enemies your power.

00:38:31.780 Your enemies are mocking you.

00:38:34.680 They laugh at you.

00:38:36.940 They laugh at your people.

00:38:40.440 Why would you allow this?

00:38:44.540 Show them your strength.

00:38:47.340 display your glory, your supremacy, your might?

00:38:54.700 Why would you let the tech lords

00:38:56.960 presume to be demigods?

00:39:02.900 Why would you allow all the rest of the world

00:39:06.680 that worships false gods to invade and infiltrate

00:39:13.080 and conquer what were prior Christian nations?

00:39:18.140 And why, for that matter,

00:39:19.560 would you allow those Christian nations themselves

00:39:21.820 to, for long now, apostatize

00:39:26.080 and turn their back on you?

00:39:30.920 There have been glorious days in the past

00:39:36.280 where Christianity was strong

00:39:39.900 and all the earth seemed to marvel.

00:39:46.120 And now we're being laughed at.

00:39:51.200 We're being mocked.

00:39:54.260 I think of John Bunyan,

00:39:56.080 the author of Pilgrim's Progress.

00:39:58.240 He talks about a character in the story

00:40:02.860 who was a fair-weathered fan.

00:40:07.880 Mr. I believe it was buy-ins.

00:40:10.800 Mr. Byenz, who basically wanted to follow Christ

00:40:14.580 and be a pilgrim on his way to the celestial city

00:40:18.440 when, according to his own words,

00:40:21.020 the character in the book,

00:40:22.440 he says, I love to walk with religion.

00:40:25.620 And he's using religion in a positive way.

00:40:28.220 This is before all the,

00:40:30.840 all the, you know, it's a relationship,

00:40:33.320 not a religion.

00:40:34.040 Like, religion is okay.

00:40:35.480 It's good.

00:40:36.980 Religion is a good thing.

00:40:37.960 And so he's using religion positively, and he says, I love this character, Mr. Byens, the fair-weathered follower of Jesus.

00:40:47.320 I love to walk with religion when she is adorned with splendor and walking through the city streets in her glass slippers.

00:41:01.740 In other words, he's saying, I love to go when the wind is at my tail.

00:41:10.760 When the wind is at my back.

00:41:12.940 I love the Christian religion.

00:41:16.100 I love following Jesus in those moments of time and place where Jesus is glorified.

00:41:25.680 I would love to be a Christian in the 1500s.

00:41:31.740 or the 1600s, or the 1700s, in England, or maybe in Spain.

00:41:39.180 I would love to be a Christian when Christianity is at its high watermark.

00:41:45.620 But in other times, when there's no longer tailwinds, but rather headwinds,

00:41:51.460 when there's great hindrance and opposition, and when there's a cost to following Christ,

00:41:57.460 Well, in those times, I like to just kind of take a break and just sit on the sidelines and wait for fairer weather, for fairer moments.

00:42:10.960 And then I'll get up and follow Jesus once more.

00:42:18.400 And I think that there are many ways to be offended by Jesus.

00:42:24.440 You can be offended by his strength.

00:42:27.440 And there are many today,

00:42:29.300 many who even profess to be followers of Jesus,

00:42:31.940 who are offended by his strength,

00:42:34.760 offended by his holiness,

00:42:37.160 offended by the fact that Jesus is not a relativist,

00:42:40.720 that Jesus is not a tree-hugging hippie,

00:42:42.840 that Jesus actually has universal, immutable,

00:42:46.720 transcendent laws and morals and standards.

00:42:50.540 There are many who are offended by that Jesus, the Jesus of the Bible.

00:42:56.780 But I think that our text is timely and relevant for us in our context, because as far as I'm aware, there aren't many in our church who are offended by the strength of Jesus.

00:43:09.360 Many of us, we long for Christ to truly be king.

00:43:13.580 He is king. But we long for him to be worshipped and respected as king. We want to have a Christian

00:43:22.580 nation. We want Christian law. So we're not offended by Christ in his strength. But we could,

00:43:30.120 like John the Baptist, be tempted to be offended by Christ in his humility, by Christ in his

00:43:37.480 patience. And notice, there is a dynamic difference between the weakness of Christ, as it were,

00:43:48.340 versus the patience of Christ. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 21 through 25.

00:43:57.620 The Apostle Paul says this, for since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through

00:44:03.460 wisdom. It pleased God through the folly, the apparent seemingly folly, foolishness of what

00:44:12.620 we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, endless

00:44:21.120 debates of philosophy. But we preach Christ crucified. A stumbling block to Jews, they

00:44:31.860 They want signs of strength and falliness to Gentiles, to the Greek.

00:44:40.700 Because this is like a philosophy that they've never even encountered before.

00:44:46.740 How would God save the world through the death and humiliation of His Son?

00:44:56.260 Verse 24 now.

00:44:57.320 But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks alike, to those who are his people being saved, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

00:45:10.000 Both strength and wisdom.

00:45:12.680 For the foolishness, as it were, that seems as foolishness.

00:45:18.220 There is no true foolishness with God.

00:45:20.100 But from our human perspective, what we might be tempted to think of as foolishness of God, even that is wiser than men.

00:45:30.620 And what we might be tempted to perceive as the weakness, as it were, of God is stronger than the strength of men.

00:45:41.400 This same concept, I think, is also espoused.

00:45:45.300 If we cross-reference over to 1 Peter 3, verse 9, it says this,

00:45:49.560 The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise.

00:45:53.740 I think that's what John the Baptist is struggling with

00:45:56.320 as he awaits his death in prison.

00:46:00.300 The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise,

00:46:03.360 as some count slowness.

00:46:05.680 But He is weak? No.

00:46:09.280 Patient.

00:46:11.600 The patience of Christ can look like weakness to men.

00:46:16.180 And if we're not careful,

00:46:19.560 We may not merely doubt,

00:46:22.180 but we actually might transgress

00:46:24.480 and fully step over the line

00:46:27.040 and actually take offense at Him.

00:46:31.800 Christ is not weak,

00:46:33.580 but He is patient.

00:46:36.320 So the Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise

00:46:39.280 as we might see slowness,

00:46:42.180 but rather He is being not weak,

00:46:44.560 but patient toward you.

00:46:47.860 Notice that too.

00:46:48.620 It's not just that he's being patient towards all the unbelievers out there who need to get saved.

00:46:54.360 That's in the verse. That's the very next part.

00:46:57.600 But there's also a patience toward you, even those who are already his disciples.

00:47:03.960 Not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

00:47:10.820 It's no secret. All of you know my eschatology.

00:47:13.800 you. I believe that Christ will not win despite a losing church. I don't believe that we win

00:47:23.420 with a buzzer beat. I don't believe that we're just going to be saved by the bell, losing and

00:47:30.280 losing and then losing even more all the way up until the very bottom of the ninth. And then

00:47:37.000 Christ comes in and things turn around.

00:47:42.160 I actually believe that Christ doesn't win despite a weak losing church, but that Christ

00:47:48.460 wins through a militant and victorious church gradually throughout the gospel age.

00:47:56.460 But even with that eschatology, there are moments we can see merely by history and observation.

00:48:05.660 There are moments, and some of these moments, far longer than we would prefer, where the church takes two or three steps forward, but then takes one or two steps backward.

00:48:19.040 And in those moments, it can be tempting, especially for those who have a view of Christ and his gradual victory in this temporal gospel age through his church.

00:48:34.080 It can be tempting for us to take offense at Christ and to perceive him as weak, when in reality he's slow.

00:48:44.040 And there is, again, a dynamic difference between Christ being weak versus Christ being slow.

00:48:50.800 His seemingly slowness has everything to do with his patience and nothing to do with a lack of his power.

00:49:01.100 it's not a lack of power but a presence of patience and his patience is not just toward

00:49:09.240 the unbeliever who he intends to save but he's being patient toward you there's something he's

00:49:16.780 doing in you through suffering there is something he's accomplishing and forging in you through

00:49:25.860 difficulty. His slowness, as we see it, is his patience. A patience in a universal sense

00:49:34.920 that none of his own, that is the elect, should perish, but that all might be saved. But also his

00:49:42.380 patience towards you. It's a patience that he might wait so that he would be able to justify

00:49:49.560 all the unbelievers he intends to save.

00:49:53.120 But it's also a patience

00:49:54.460 so that he might sanctify you

00:49:57.580 and all those he already has saved.

00:50:00.060 There's a further sanctification

00:50:01.700 he intends to accomplish in his people

00:50:05.460 before the culmination

00:50:08.140 of his ultimate and final victory.

00:50:10.680 And he is using a momentary setback,

00:50:15.020 what seems like us losing,

00:50:16.940 in order, as a scalpel, to make the incision

00:50:22.220 so that He can go in and perform surgery on our hearts

00:50:25.760 to forge us more and more into His image.

00:50:31.820 And then He sews us up, and all of a sudden,

00:50:34.600 it's a shout on, pray on, we're gaining ground once more.

00:50:37.780 And the church experiences three steps forward.

00:50:41.160 Or you and your Christian household experience three steps forward.

00:50:45.460 And then in his patience, presence of patience, not lack of power, he seems to be, in our perception, slow again.

00:50:59.440 We're not getting quite the results that we'd like to get, or at least certainly not in the timing that we would like to see.

00:51:07.180 but once more it's his patience it's his kindness patience for the unbelievers who are elect who he

00:51:15.980 intends to justify and patience towards those believers who through setbacks and suffering

00:51:23.800 he intends to sanctify and this is the normative Christian life and all of this none of it

00:51:32.680 goes against or contradicts victory.

00:51:36.920 And not just ethereal victory in the 17th dimension,

00:51:40.640 but gradual, temporal, tangible victory here and now.

00:51:44.420 But victory on his timeline, not ours.

00:51:50.900 And the victory he's trying to accomplish,

00:51:53.580 we should keep in mind,

00:51:54.900 like the psalmist in Psalm 73,

00:51:56.860 when he enters the sanctuary,

00:51:58.720 he gains perspective.

00:52:00.480 he's able to see from a higher point of view

00:52:07.120 that we're seated with him in heavenly places

00:52:09.160 and we can see perhaps a bigger picture

00:52:12.620 when we ascend the hill of the Lord on the Lord's day

00:52:16.240 to go and to worship him in spirit and in truth

00:52:19.480 that we can see from the delectable mountains

00:52:23.200 to use Pilgrim's Progress again

00:52:24.720 we can catch a glimpse of the celestial city

00:52:27.120 and maybe get at least a notion

00:52:29.640 of why God might be taking his time

00:52:33.680 more than we would if we were in charge.

00:52:36.660 And if anything, the reason is this.

00:52:40.000 I can't tell you all the particulars

00:52:41.820 with all the particular situations going on in your life.

00:52:45.000 But in the big picture, I can say this.

00:52:47.140 The reason that Christ is slower

00:52:50.480 in bringing about his victory here on earth

00:52:52.900 than we would be if we were in charge

00:52:54.640 is because he wants his victory to be greater

00:52:57.900 than the victory that you and I would settle for.

00:53:01.200 If we were in charge, we'd want a faster victory,

00:53:04.120 but we would settle for a lesser victory.

00:53:06.960 We would.

00:53:08.440 And the victory that he's committed to achieving

00:53:12.180 is a victory that is total

00:53:14.620 and a victory that is thorough.

00:53:18.520 It's not just that all the nations

00:53:20.580 would be Christianized,

00:53:22.700 but it's that his church, you and I,

00:53:25.880 would be sanctified.

00:53:27.900 Thoroughly, deeply, and that comes through His providence in suffering.

00:53:36.460 And there is a way, when we step into the sanctuary and see through heaven's eyes,

00:53:42.400 there is a way that this seemingly wearisome task of reconciling a victorious Christ

00:53:51.060 and a sovereign and just God

00:53:53.920 with a temporal world

00:53:56.920 where the wicked seem to prosper.

00:54:00.560 This can be reconciled.

00:54:03.680 But it's reconciled when we rest

00:54:06.880 in worship and enter the sanctuary.

00:54:09.800 In the case of the psalmist,

00:54:12.100 or to put it differently,

00:54:13.980 but the same concept

00:54:15.180 in the case of John the Baptist.

00:54:17.020 It's reconciled when we get word

00:54:19.820 from Christ. John needed to hear Christ's word and assurance. The psalmist needed a word from God

00:54:29.160 as he entered the sanctuary. And we too need a continual word from the Lord. We receive that

00:54:37.140 all week long as we disciple one another, as we study the scripture that is the word of God,

00:54:45.020 But we especially receive a word from Christ on the Lord's day where he promises to be not only present.

00:54:53.160 Christ is always present for his people.

00:54:55.780 But he promises to be especially present when two or three are gathered in his name.

00:55:02.220 And he promises to give to us a word.

00:55:06.060 And man is not sustained by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

00:55:13.340 And that word gives us, grants us perspective to see the end game, to see the big picture.

00:55:23.620 Christ really is sovereign. He really is just.

00:55:26.880 And for his reasons, the wicked momentarily may prosper and the righteous momentarily may suffer.

00:55:38.440 And that's it. Here are a few applications to the weak.

00:55:41.860 To those of you who have been struggling with doubt, take heart.

00:55:46.200 Christ knows your frailty and he gently strengthens you.

00:55:51.700 He does not condemn your doubt, but he will condemn you taking offense.

00:55:57.120 He does not scold the weak in faith, but confirms their hope through his word.

00:56:03.080 He did it for John the Baptist. He'll do it for you.

00:56:07.180 To the strong who are not presently struggling with doubt,

00:56:10.860 Do not despise the weak, but imitate Christ's patience.

00:56:17.300 And to all of us, a final application,

00:56:20.860 let your assurance rest not in circumstance,

00:56:24.400 but in the unshakable promise of God revealed and fulfilled in Christ.

00:56:30.040 Let's pray.

00:56:30.920 Father, thank you for your word.

00:56:32.800 Bless it to our souls that you might bring for yourself great glory

00:56:38.620 in this life and the next.

00:56:40.860 We pray this in Jesus' name.

00:56:42.900 Amen.

The NXR Podcast - July 27, 2025

THE SERMON - Blessed Is The One Who Is Not Offended By Jesus

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