Holy Boldness

message. John shouted from the dessert but Jesus sat down at the kitchen table. His approach, for all its seriousness, was disarming, intimate, and tender. Apparently, this was not what John was expecting. And now, sitting in prison, he needed some clarification, so he told his disciples to go and ask Jesus if he was wrong about Him or was He, indeed, the one they were looking for. Jesus answered in typical, indirect fashion. And Jesus answered them, “ Go and tell John what you hear and see: 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.” (vv. 4-6) So what was Jesus’ answer? “Go and tell John what you hear and see:..” And then Jesus described His ministry in the familiar wording of the prophetic scriptures. He was quoting from Isaiah 35 and 61. He ex pected John to make the necessary connections. No explanations. Jesus simply pointed to the basic facts. And then He added a final exhortation against being offended. We can’t be sure if John was offended with the way his life was turning out. But we might assume that John could be in danger of taking offense with Jesus because he was in prison and strug gling to connect the dots between his own expectations and what God was doing through Jesus. One of the great tests of the last day church is becoming personal ly offended with God’s ways and timing of doing things. Unmet expec tations often cripple God’s people. God does not do what many think that He should do in the time many feel that things should be done. Therefore they throw away their confidence and grow discouraged. But Jesus was not John the Baptist. As John himself declared, “ One is coming whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.” (John 1:27). Jesus’ ministry did not look like John’s. It looked like something unprecedented even though it fulfilled Old Testament prophecy. That was the unique thing about Jesus. He did not just fulfill one prophecy but many, even those which seemed to contradict each other. For instance, Jesus fulfilled the prophecies of being a victorious king as well as a suffering servant. How do we reconcile victory through suffering? That’s the wisdom of God: the victory of the cross. This unique characteristic of Jesus gave many people trouble and Are you offended with God?

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