Disappointed In Jesus

All right now, Luke Chapter 7. Turn your Bibles, open your Bibles. I hope you’re bringing your Bible to church. Okay, if you don’t, don’t feel bad. But I’d like it if you brought your Bible so you could read along with me, you can make notes in your Bible where you can think about things, things that you want to talk about later. Luke Chapter 7. Here’s the title of the talk this morning: Disappointed in Jesus, Disappointed in Jesus. Now, I know that sounds like something that shouldn’t be said in church but I think it’s- if we were, if we’re going to be at church that we can talk about what’s going on in our lives. If we were all honest, there’s been many times in most of our lives where we’ve been disappointed in God. Disappointed in the way things turn out. I mean disappointed in- in what’s happening around us. Maybe some of you are walking through a- a season of disappointment right now just not really, not really agreeing with that God’s doing in your life.

Now I want you to think about this story today, John the Baptist, we’ve talked about him already in this- in this series in Luke. John the Baptist is in prison as we open up Luke Chapter 7. And he’s- he’s sitting in prison and John- John was kind of a big deal. John was the- the young prophet, John was a- John was the young prophet that everyone came out to see. John was the one that people literally would walk miles, walk many, many miles out into the wilderness. If you read the story of John the Baptist, he didn’t really preach in town. He was out in the wilderness and people would walk miles out there to see John the Baptist, to listen to John the Baptist to marvel at this young fiery prophet.

But John the Baptist got himself in trouble because Herod, the evil ruler of their province, Herod had married his brother’s wife and John the Baptist pointed out to Herod that he was a sinner, that he needed to repent, that his lifestyle was not pleasing the God. And so John the Baptist, because of his boldness in confronting this evil leader was thrown into prison by Herod himself. And I want you to think about this for a moment, can you imagine how awful his treatment was in prison. Can you imagine for a minute if Herod, Herod said “Go to prison.” Can you imagine Herod probably pulled the guards aside and said “Look, I want you to make sure that this guy gets special treatment.”

I mean, Herod was furious at this young man. Furious that he would point out some kind of sin. So John the Baptist was not just in prison. I believe John the Baptist was in the worst part of the prison getting the worst possible treatment, the worst possible food. He was in a cold, smelly, awful prison cell. Meanwhile, his cousin Jesus was all the buzz around town. He’s in prison, and Jesus is now the one getting all the big crowds. Jesus is the one now who everyone is talking about. And I believe that most people they- well they remember John the Baptist were not talking about John the Baptist the way that they once did.

John the Baptist was not the big deal anymore. John the Baptist was in some forgotten prison cell and I believe that John the Baptist knew his fate. John the Baptist knew that he was about to be John the Beheaded. Seriously, he knew what happened to people who got thrown into prison. He knew what happened to people who had the audacity to confront Herod: their lives suddenly ended with a- with a- axe across the neck. And he knew that- that most likely, that was his existence; that was his future. Jesus though was travelling around, crowds of people following him. And I believe John was struggling with some great disappointment.

Let’s read here in Luke Chapter 7 verse 18. Notice the language here, it says “John’s disciples” so these were men and women who were followers of John. They were probably believers in Jesus, but they were followers of John. It says “John’s disciples told him about all these things, calling two of them. So John’s disciples come back to the prison and say, “Hey, man, Jesus is, he’s kind of a big deal out there right now. You wouldn’t believe the miracles that’s happening.” In fact, I believe probably what happened was they said, “You know what? His crowds are bigger than your crowds, John. His miracles are more profound than your miracles.”

Good friends like that always pointing out how everyone else is better than you. Alright, so those are really good friends to have. Alright he says calling to them, he sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who was to come? Listen to this question, “Are you the one who was to come or should we expect someone else?” John the Baptist and Jesus knew each other. They- they- it’s not like they had not met. They were cousins. Do you remember the story of John the Baptist when Elizabeth was pregnant with John the Baptist. She was probably six or seven months pregnant and- and then Mary became pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit.