Why Jesus did not tell John the Baptist he was the greatest

Welcome to episode 304. Let's get right into this episode, and I want to continue on and kind of conclude what we were talking about with John the Baptist. If you remember back in the previous episode, and I'm going to link to it somehow here on this YouTube video if you're watching this on the YouTubes, but I talked about how John the Baptist— how Jesus said, I'm going to paraphrase, of those born of women, none have risen higher than John the Baptist, but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven shall be greater than he. And I want to remind you that John the Baptist, before Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected on the third day, John the Baptist was under the Old Covenant. And when Jesus died and was resurrected, that's where we get the New Testament. You've got the Old Testament and you got the New Testament. And in order to— and I'm in real estate, I'm not an attorney— but in order to have a testate you have to have a death. And I don't want to get involved in all of that because I wasn't prepared to talk about that, but I want to talk about John the Baptist was not under the same covenant that you and I are under. He was not under grace. He was under the law. And so John the Baptist was bound by the law, and Jesus himself said, of those born of women, none were greater than John the Baptist. I want you to hear what started that conversation. If you didn't know this from your study, your Bible study, John the Baptist was put into prison not long after he told the world that Jesus is the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. He proclaimed that, and I'm not trying to play God, and I'm not trying to tell you what John the Baptist's role was in this world, but I believe that John lived his life his whole life to know the Bible inside and out, the Torah, the Old Testament. John knew that. He was an animal. And this guy just didn't care. He walked around in camel fur. He ate locusts and honey. He lived out in the desert. This guy, he just didn't care what people thought. And he was going to tell you what he thought God was telling you. And that's what he did. And that's what he dedicated his whole life. But I believe— this is Gregology— I believe that John, that once John the Baptist declared Jesus the Lamb of God, his ministry was about to be over. He was preparing the way, and that's what Jesus said, that he was preparing the way to make straight the path. He was kind of the clarion call, getting everybody ready for the Messiah. And John the Baptist told his disciples, he must increase. And I must decrease. That what he declared about Jesus to his disciples, because they were saying, John, all of our people are going to over to his church. And I'm paraphrasing, of course, kind of tongue-in-cheek. But I want to talk to you— John is now in prison. This is kind of where some people kind of get sideways, is we think with the prosperity gospel that kind of gets out there. And I'm not against abundance mentality and abundance teachings, because Jesus himself said, I'm I came that they may have life and have it more abundantly. So Jesus promised an abundant life. He just didn't say that we're going to have a bunch of money or we're going to have a bunch of stuff. Spiritually, we were going to have more than anybody ever had. I don't think anybody in the Christian community can argue that we have it better than the Old Testament saints, and I'm not going to go there. Wasn't prepared to talk about that. But I just want you to picture John. He's sitting in this prison. He's given up his whole life to prepare the way for the Lord. The Lord shows up on the scene. John declares the Lamb of God. He does his thing. And next thing you know, he's sitting in prison and has been sitting there. And then he catches wind of all of these miracles going on with Jesus. And so I want to pick it up in Luke 7, and I think it's in 19. 2 And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to Jesus, saying, Are you the Coming One, or do we need to look for another? 3 When the men had come to him, they said, John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, Are you the Coming One, or do we need to look for another? 4 And that very hour he cured many of infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits, and to many blind he gave sight. Jesus answered and said to them, Go tell John the things you have seen and heard, that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended by me. When the messengers of John departed, he began to speak to the multitudes concerning John. And I'm going to stop there. Now I want you to picture this. John is in prison, and John sends his disciples— two of his disciples that are close to him probably came and visited him in prison. They told John, I think in the previous verse in 7:18, Luke 7:18, that all of the things that Jesus was doing— and he sent them out and asked him specifically, 'Are you the coming one, or do we need to look for another?' And instead of Jesus telling John's disciples Hey, you go tell John that of, of those born of women, none are greater than John the Baptist. And don't you think, if you're sitting in prison, don't you think that that had been a good thing for Jesus to tell you? I, I mean, really, honestly, I believe that I would have liked to have heard that. But instead, they asked Jesus the question, and an hour later, Jesus turns to them and answers. I want you to see before Jesus answered him, I'm sure that there was a line of blind people, sick people, lepers, all of those things, and Jesus healed them all. And then after he got done doing all of that, I'm sure there was still a line going out the door or out the desert to wherever Jesus was. He turned to John's disciples and said, you go tell John the things that you have seen. And I want you to know that Jesus could not have said anything stronger to John, because remember, John was an animal. He knew the whole Old Testament. He knew Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah. He had it memorized, the whole book of Isaiah. And when Jesus said, the deaf shall hear, the lepers are cleansed, All of those, all of that is in Isaiah. And so Jesus sent John back to the Word of God. And that's one of the reasons, reason number 27, while I'm always telling you, look, you need to get into the Word of God and have the Word of God get into you, because Jesus himself called John out as being the greatest man born of women. But you and I are greater than John the Baptist because we have salvation. We live under the grace of God because Jesus paid the price for you and I. And John died in the law. John died before Jesus died. John did not die under grace but under the law. And I'm not going to get into that, but Jesus, I believe, had to go down into Abraham's bosom and lead captivity captive. But Jesus went down and got all of the old saints of the Old Testament, and he led them into paradise. And I wanted to finish up on John. Jesus didn't say, hey John, you are awesome, you are wonderful. John, King David, Elisha, Elijah, nobody was better than you, buddy. He did not say any of that. He healed the sick, he cleansed the lepers, he raised the dead, and preached the gospel to the poor. He did all of that and then turned to John's disciples, and he did not speak about John until John's disciples had left. He wanted John to have the word. He wanted to drive John back to the word of God. And that's what I want to do with you today. I want to get you into the word of God This story is in Luke and it's in Matthew. It's in Luke 7, and I want to say it's in Matthew, I think, 11-ish. So I want you to kind of read that story and just think about if you were John, if you dedicated your whole life to this one thing and you did that one thing better than anybody did that one thing ever before, and then you are still in prison. And I just want to encourage you, God's ways are not our ways, but all this prosperity gospel. Again, we're supposed to live an abundant life. I think it's sidetracked that says, you know, if you're prosperous, then God has smiled on you, and if you're poor, then God is upset with you. That is not true. You are to serve God or mammon. You gotta love one and hate the other. You're gonna hate one or love the other. You can't serve two masters. That's what Jesus said. So let's just choose to serve God, and if God opens the windows of heaven, and gives you money or thank blessings, then he's giving you that to pour into and to help build his kingdom. Remember, it is not yours and my kingdom. This is the kingdom of God we're building. And John knew this. John told his disciples, he being Jesus, must increase, I must decrease. And that's what I want to encourage you today. Let's live like John the Baptist. Let's present ourselves a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our reasonable service. We are to decrease, we are to die to self, and then we become alive in Christ, and we start walking out this thing for the Holy Spirit or with the Holy Spirit's guidance. We start getting after what God created you and I to be. And I— let's stop right there. Let's just pray. God, I thank you so much for your word. God, I thank you for this listener or this video viewer, I want to pray in Jesus' name that you would just encourage, empower, and inspire them to get into your word. Lord, I pray that you would just open it up. Holy Spirit, everything that they read, get it— get them to a place where you want them to be. God, I thank you. I love you. We ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you for being a part of this, and I look forward to visiting with you in the next episode. Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www. Www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com