The Word interprets the Signs
Matthew 11:2–11
December 13, 2020 anno Domini
Last week Jesus said there will be signs. The signs He spoke of were not good, but they served a good purpose.
This week John the Baptist is trying to read the signs. John is in prison – not a good sign. He wonders, “Is Jesus really the coming one? The One to whom all the prophets point? Perhaps there is someone else? Shouldn’t those who follow the Christ have a better life and a smoother road?”
Do not be surprised that John the Baptist would doubt or come under the attack of the Devil – the father of lies. John is the forerunner of Jesus. He is Elijah fulfilled – the last of the Old Testament prophets and the first the New Testament Apostles. If the Devil can take out a prophet and apostle, what a victory!
John prepared the way for Jesus by calling people to repent, by calling sin sin. John was no respecter of men. He was like Roman Catholic Cardinal Charles Chaput who said a few days ago that President-Elect Biden should not receive communion because he supports abortion. John the Baptist called King Herod an adulterer and what did adulterous Herod do? Throw John in prison. Don’t you think John doubted his preaching and wondered if he should have done something different? Do you ever struggle to confess or act upon what you believe? Do you regret your confession when it creates division and anger? Do you ever wonder if the road of confessing Christ is the right path? Then welcome to John’s prison of doubt about the signs and the direction of his life.
Learn from John the Baptist to stop looking at your prison and to start asking Jesus for answers. Close your eyes and listen to God’s Word for direction. John sent his disciples who asked Jesus, “Are you the one who is come, or shall we look for another?”
Jesus gives the disciples His Word to take back to John, a word with more signs. Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
All Jesus gave John was His Word. He told John’s disciples about signs but didn’t promise any signs for John. Jesus didn’t say, “John, just believe and I’ll bust you out of prison and we’ll make Herod wish he never crossed paths with the Baptist.” Nothing for John. No freedom. No stay of execution, just the Word with those signs.
But those signs were no random signs. When Jesus gave sight to the blind and made the lame walk and cleansed lepers and opened the ears of the deaf and raised the dead He fulfilled at least 5 prophesies of Isaiah. Jesus didn’t just do great works. He worked the works only God could work, and He worked the works God said He would work when the Son of Man came on earth.
The Word which told of the signs gave John the truth – Jesus is the Coming One, even if John was in prison, even if he was about to be killed. Everything in John’s life felt like he was wrong about Jesus. Everything in God’s Word said he was right. That is what you need when you struggle to confess, when you doubt, when people get angry with Biblical Christianity. This is what you need and you have it. Jesus says you have it better than John, “Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
You have the Word of God which tells you of a greater sign that will help you endure an even more difficult road than John the Baptist, if God so chooses to send you down such a road. You have the sign of the resurrection of Jesus. Every sign that the disciples gave John could be verified. It wasn’t just a story. There were witnesses and evidence and facts. The blind guy could testify, “Now I see.” The lame guy could hop, skip, and jump. The deaf guy could say, “Don’t yell, I can hear you.” Plus, there were hundreds of witnesses to these miracles including the loved ones of dead people who were now alive. It wasn’t just the Word of Jesus that was convincing, it was the fact that Jesus did what the prophets said and He did so before witnesses.
You have the greatest sign of Jesus. You have the fact of His resurrection. No one has found the bones of Jesus for 2000 years. The Romans and the Jews had the means and motive to find that body and produce it, but they could not. There is a lengthy list of eyewitnesses to the resurrection whom you could have interviewed back in Jesus’ day who saw Him alive three days after He was dead and buried.
John the Baptist got no sign for himself, just the news of the signs of healing and life Jesus worked in other people’s lives. Only a few got the signs themselves – a few blind people saw. A few dead people lived again. Only a few got to see the resurrection. Thomas got to see the wounds in Jesus’ hands, but Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed.” That’s why John the Baptist was considered so great by Jesus. He would not live to see the resurrection, but he believed Jesus was the Christ. He believed when all the signs of his own life said, “Don’t confess Jesus. Stay safe. Stop preaching. Make peace with Herod and don’t offend the powers that be. Go along to get along.”
- If you lose your job or reputation or your granddaughter over the name of Jesus…
- if the whole world thinks you’re a dinosaur from a bygone era for still believing all of God’s Word…
- If you are mocked for thinking marriage is one man and one woman, or that humans are either male or female according to their biology, or that freedom is Biblical while socialism is not…
- if you land in jail and face death for confessing the name of Jesus …
…remember this – you have a greater sign from God.
You have the resurrected Lord Jesus sitting at the right hand of God. You have the water of His baptism poured on your head and His true Word in your ears and His body and blood on your tongue. Always look to Jesus when the signs of life are confusing you or the Devil is whispering sweet lies in your ear. Listen to the Word of Him who was raised from the dead. “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.”” … “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (John 13:36, 14:3, ESV). You are going the same way as Jesus – the way of death and the resurrection. Your destination is glory by way of suffering and the cross. You have God’s Word on it along with all the signs, chiefly the sign of the resurrection, in the name of Jesus. Amen.