Earthly kingdom mindset always fosters a strange perspective on the Gospel that terminates in insidious degradation of spiritual bearing and a pecking away at the fundamentals of faith
“Art thou he that should come, or do we look
for another?” John, in prison asked after his
ears had been fed with the miraculous works of Christ, Mat 11:2-3.
About this same John, Jesus testifies:
Matthew
11:9-11
(9) But what went ye out for to see? A prophet?
yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet.
(10) For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before
thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.
(11) Verily I say unto you, Among them that are
born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist:
notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
John’s own testimonies about Christ will help bear
out the import of his question:
Matthew
3:11
(11) I indeed baptize you with water unto
repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am
not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
John
1:29, 33-34
(29) The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him,
and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
(33) And I knew him not: but he that sent me to
baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit
descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy
Ghost.
(34) And I
saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.
Jesus’ answer affirms what was reported to John but
concludes with a rebuke: “…And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be
offended in me v6.”Mat 11:4-6
By every standard, whilst heaven’s testimony remains
relevant, John cannot ask Jesus this question. Why? The force of the texts
before us in all respect of reasonability forbids it.
Now here are three reasons why John shouldn’t ask
the question:
1. No other than the Messiah, is the Lamb of God
that takes away the sin of the world; which he rightly testified about Jesus,
v29.
2. God who sent him, by the Spirit presented Jesus
as the Messiah to him, v33.
3. He that is, John believed God so much so that he
spontaneously testified that Jesus is the son of God, and the son of God is no
other than the Messiah, v34.
Granted that this claims were standing, then who
else was there to look out for? I don’t know what your theology is here, but I
know that we can’t explain away v6 (“And blessed is he, whosoever shall
not be offended in me,”) of Jesus’ answer.
What makes John’s question an unhappy one is that he
raised it after heaven had testified of Jesus to his hearing, after he himself
had testified of him and after he was fed with the feats of the Jesus he had
heralded. By all standards, it is incongruous with the foregoing and with his
ministry as the herald of the Messiah.
Since Jesus considered what left his mouth as the
appropriate answer to John’s question, we are left with the only conclusion
that the testimony of heaven had lost relevance with John at that point. For a
man of John’s spiritual stamina and station in revelation, to raise a question
of this nature, having made profound proclamations about the Messiah bespeaks a
soul rent in thought. What happened? A mind set on earthly kingdom, I should
think! The man may have expected the Messiah of Israel to act against the
opaque walls of the powers of Herod and the Romans, but was instead seeing hope
deferred, and so was shaken in mind. Earthly kingdom mindset always fosters a
strange perspective on the Gospel that terminates in insidious degradation of
spiritual bearing and a pecking away at the fundamentals of faith. Now observe,
the very one who had said about Jesus, “This is the Lamb of God, the Son of
God; the Messiah,” has turned round to ask the same Jesus if he were the true
object of the testimonies. How could he doubt the man he had ushered in, one
whose way he had prepared; one attested the Messiah of his own works? It is the
effect of spiritual degradation, actuated by earthly kingdom mentality. This
question has lingered after John.
OUR GENERATION
A point of the testimony of heaven, which has lost
relevance with believers today, is the destiny of souls without Christ, but
preceding it is the point of the passion of Christ and its necessity to the
salvation of the world. Believers have turned round to repeat John’s question
here. Consider with me Matthew 28:16-20.
(16) Then the eleven disciples went away into
Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.
(17) And when they saw him, they worshipped him:
but some doubted.
(18) And Jesus came and spoke unto them, saying,
All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
(19) Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost:
(20) Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
To a group composed of vacillating disciples the
Lord Jesus issued the lordliest fiat ever. Here were Disciples Unimpressed with the Passion of Christ. He had raised the
dead in open view to them, not once; he had told them that he would die and
rise again, not once. But here they were, deeply questioning if he had truly
risen from the dead. God desires service from people in their rational selves
but profoundly impressed by the passion of Christ and its necessity to the
salvation of mankind. Alas, this strain was not to be found with the group
before him now. The Lord did put up with their doubts anyway, when He appeared
after his passion in v17, until heaven should help them conquer it because they
were of no use to him in that state of mind. Saint Luke captures Jesus’
immediate attempt at restoring their faith by giving them insight into the
ministry of the Messiah:
Luk 24:46-49
(46) And said
unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to
rise from the dead the third day:
(47) And that
repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all
nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
(48) And ye
are witnesses of these things.
(49) And, behold, I send the promise of my Father
upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power
from on high.
Believe me, those with little faith and those
without among the disciples were equally of no use to the commission at the
point of issuance, their connection with heaven wasn’t based on persuasion at
this stage. Rather they were perplexed and in misdirected zeal because they
were ambitious of earthly kingdom to this point. Act 1:6 “When they therefore
were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time
restore again the kingdom to Israel?”
Can’t you see the bent of their question up to now?
Let’s consider together the answer of Jesus to their question:
Act 1:8
(8) But ye shall receive power, after that the
Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in
Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of
the earth.
The Holy Spirit is the needed help of citizens of
heaven with whom the fundamentals of faith of Christ have lost relevance. He
was all this group needed and their timidity, reservations, doubts and
perspective beholden to earthly kingdom were all gone. True to the word of the
Lord, the Holy Spirit came, and the vacillating disciples were transformed into
another breed of personalities.
Once they had conquered their doubts and
reservations they put their necks on the line for what they once doubted; no
danger or overhanging cloud of torture could restrain them from testifying to
Jesus’ death and resurrection anymore.
The early disciples made a proof of the power of the
Holy Spirit in spreading the Gospel of Christ to all nations as we find from
the testimony of the apostles.
Act
17:6
(6)
…They drew Jason and certain brothers before the city judges, crying,
These who have turned the world upside down have come here too,
Act 19:10
(10) And this happened over two years, so that all
those living in Asia heard the Word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.
See, God is stronger than the world and power of
darkness put together, about which the church today is quibbling despite the
lordliest fiat ever, as borne on the 18th verse, Where Christ says ‘All
authority is given unto me in heaven and on earth…’ in view of which He orders
as target all ethnic entities of the whole world, for his church to go reach,
and not just geographical nations. But as long as the profundity of the cross
and the peril of souls without Christ raise questions in the mind of the
church, she would remain numb despite the power of Christ over the universe,
and the same power would hibernate.
Alas, believers today are apparently asking the
Lord, “Are you the one that was, or we should look for another,” despite the
undeniable feat the church displayed in conquering the empires of the world
with the testimony of Christ’s passion before. And it’s all because our minds
have been stolen and locked in earthly perspective fostered on the kingdom of
God. The church now cherishes her reservations; she is in bed with her doubts,
not captivated by the passion of Christ and what it means to salvation any
longer; they view of Christ a phantom insisting on illogical appointment. We view
unreached nations through the storms of deathly threats and not through the
Christ that walks freely on the sea that supports the storm. Hence, Christ is
restrained in the church and his authority limited in their doubts. The church
has rather doggedly brought back the question of the disciples into force by
instituting earthly kingdoms, catering to the flesh and the earthly in their
ascribed status of kings on earth, the same thing that impaired the vision of
the disciples ab initio, from seeing
things through the Lord’s perspective.
Little wonder then that Christian ministries have
betaken to handkerchiefs, holy water, anointing oil, bottled ‘blood’ of Jesus
etc. which people can buy. Christ’s power that is received by faith, they
cannot buy; for mere attempt at it, Peter cursed Simon in Acts 8, whilst the
power in these materials can be bought even without faith. Perhaps this was the
type Simon had used before Philip got down to Samaria.
Nevertheless, once the church is able to overcome
her vacillating, the Gospel of Christ will conquer all resisting powers, and
the nations of the world will fall before the testimony of his church, which
took the world with the power of the Gospel without the sword in the early days
of the faith.
I’m
aware that someone could easily ask, “Is today’s church then without the Holy
Spirit?” And I answer that I won’t say so. But I have my troubles with the one
in the nowadays church. With Him, the church is impassionate for lost souls and
instead of scattering believers on the face of the earth, they are galvanized
to build the tower of Babel. With Him, we, the ministers are all the more
charlatans than we are oracles of God, ministering. Don’t we have consultancy
fee in the Holy Ghost filled church? Isn’t your money your touch with the
anointing of the servant of God? Our miracles are rather bizarre; imagine
miracle money and powers on sale. With Him, curses are always there in the
spirit filled church to break as there are enemies to kill and sin is no issue,
but a matter of a feeble conscience.
If
I were to advise, I’d say, we should borrow leaf from John and ask, “Are you
the one that came on the day of Pentecost or we should look for another?” We
should therefore, go back to the upper room and wait upon the Lord to send the
one known to the Bible, and who will melt away our fears and put us on fire for
lost souls, to stand before kings and presidents with angelic confidence.
God
bless you all in Jesus' name.
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