The noted eighteenth-century hymn writer Charles Wesley composed more than 7, 000 hymns in his life, including the magnificent Christmas hymn “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus.” The lyrics express rich theological truth concerning the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ: “Come, thou long expected Jesus, Born to set thy people free; From our fears and sins release us; Let us find our rest in Thee. Israel’s strength and consolation, Hope of all the earth Thou art; Dear Desire of every nation, Joy of every longing heart. Born Thy people to deliver, Born a child and yet a King. Born to reign in us forever, Now thy gracious kingdom bring. By Thine own eternal spirit Rule in all our hearts alone; By Thine all sufficient merit, Raise us to thy Glorious throne”.
Wesley’s identification of Jesus as “the long expected one” reflects John the Baptist’s question in this passage, Are You the One who is to come/Expected One (i.e., the Messiah; Pss. 40:7 [cf. Heb. 10:5–7]; 118:26; Mark 11:9; Luke 3:16; John 1:27)? Jesus repeatedly claimed to be the Expected One promised in the Old Testament. He said that Abraham joyously hoped for Him (John 8:56), Moses wrote of Him (John 5:46), and David called Him Lord (Matt. 22:41–45
There are always a lot of questions in regards to the coming of Jesus. We wonder if we can live up to His expectations. We wonder if we are sharing who He is faithfully and accurately. We wonder if He really cares about our struggles here and now, how He is going to be with us, or if we can even handle all the demands of another Christmas season.
Often doubt brings reflection and growth. Such is the case with John’s inquiries about Jesus. Not only does the Baptist get an answer that calls for his reflection, but Jesus uses the inquiry to help others consider anew the roles John and he have in God’s plan. The psychological adversity of doubt carries the seed of real growth, when the answer is sought from God’s perspective. (Bock, D. L. (1994). Luke (Lk 7:18). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.)
Looking for the answers from God’s plan through His word will not take us farther from Him, but closer with all the blessings to follow. In showing this blessing, Luke 17:18-23, shows us 1) The Question of Blessing (Luke 7:18–20), and 2) The Answer for Blessing (Luke 7:21-23).
1) The Question of Blessing (Luke 7:18–20)
Luke 7:18-20 [18]The disciples of John reported all these things to him. And John, [19]calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to the Lord, saying, "Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?" [20]And when the men had come to him, they said, "John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, 'Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?'" (ESV)
Even the greatest man who ever lived up to his time (Matt. 11:11), John the Baptist, struggled with doubt. He had believed that Jesus was the Messiah. He had witnessed the testimony to His identity by the Father and the Spirit when he baptized Jesus. John had declared that Jesus was “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29), and testified concerning His identity to the Jewish leaders (vv. 26–27). But despite his powerful witness to Jesus as the Messiah, doubts had arisen in John’s mind regarding His identity. Instead of supressing questions about Him, Jesus promises to bless our faithful inquiry of Him.
John fulfilled his mission to prepare the people for the coming of Messiah and to point Him out when He arrived. He then faded from the scene, as he himself had foreseen would happen (John 3:30). Once Jesus was introduced, the inspired gospel writers put the spotlight on Him. As this passage begins, John had been in prison for many months, perhaps as long as a year. Matthew (14:1–12) and Mark (6:14–29) give the story of his imprisonment and eventual execution by Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great and ruler of Galilee and Perea (Luke 3:1). John had fearlessly rebuked Herod for his illegitimate marriage to Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip (Mark 6:17–18). Enraged, Herodias sought to have John put to death. Herod, however, awed by John’s righteous and holy character (v. 20) and fearful of the crowds who revered him as a prophet (Matt. 14:5). According to Josephus, John was imprisoned and later executed by Herod at the fortress of Machaerus, which was at the southern border of Perea near the Dead Sea. (Josephus: Antiquities 18.5.2 [18.116–19].)
•In experiencing the blessing and joy of Christ’s coming, we must experience it uniquely for ourselves. Avoiding both the distractions and doubts, Christ calls us to see for ourselves exactly who He is. No one can answer this question for us.
While their teacher was in prison, some of the disciples of John followed Jesus (Matt. 9:14) and kept John informed with reports (Matt. 11:2). After some of them reported all these things to John about what Jesus was doing, John’s doubt became so acute that he took action. As all believers should, John took his doubts directly to the Lord and asked Him to resolve them. Since he was still in prison, John summoned, as verse 19 reports, two of his disciples and sent them to the Lord to ask Him on his behalf, “Are You the one who is to come/Expected One, or shall we look for another/someone else?” The question John asks is specific. The reference to ho erchomenos (“the one who is to come/Expected/coming one”) recalls the earlier reference in 3:16, where one detects an allusion to passages such as Mal. 3:1; Ps. 118:26 [Beale, G. K., & Carson, D. A. (2007). Commentary on the New Testament use of the Old Testament (p. 299). Grand Rapids, MI; Nottingham, UK: Baker Academic; Apollos.].
He does not wonder whether Jesus has been sent from God; he simply wants confirmation that his ministry is the promised ministry of deliverance. Even the best of God’s servants need reassurance from time to time. The reference to “the stronger one who is to come” recalls John’s own words in 3:15–16. So John is asking if Jesus is the Messiah (Bock, D. L. (1996). Luke (p. 210). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.).
So, as verse 20 reports when the men had come to Him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to You, saying/to ask, ‘Are You the one who is to come/Expected One, or shall/do we look for another/someone else?’”
•There is an important principle here. When we are perplexed we should take our burden directly to the Lord. We do not need to send two messengers. We can go straight to God via the throne of grace, by means of prayer(Bentley, M. (1992). Saving a Fallen World: Luke Simply Explained (p. 112). Darlington, England: Evangelical Press.).
It is not unusual for great spiritual leaders to have their days of doubt and uncertainty. Moses was ready to quit on one occasion (Num. 11:10–15), and so were Elijah (1 Kings 19) and Jeremiah (Jer. 20:7–9, 14–18); and even Paul knew the meaning of despair (2 Cor. 1:8–9). There is a difference between doubt and unbelief. Doubt is a matter of the mind: we cannot understand what God is doing or why He is doing it. Unbelief is a matter of the will: we refuse to believe God’s Word and obey what He tells us to do. “Doubt is not always a sign that a man is wrong,” said Oswald Chambers; “it may be a sign that he is thinking.” (Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, pp. 196–197). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.).
In John’s case, his inquiry was not born of willful unbelief, but of doubt nourished by physical and emotional strain. Four reasons may be discerned for the doubt John’s question expressed. By extension, they are also the causes for doubt in many believers
First, John was experiencing a personal tragedy. His ministry had been the most significant of all the Old Testament prophets, since he was the forerunner and herald of the Messiah. John had faithfully, selflessly, and fearlessly carried out his prophetic duty. Yet despite that, he found himself locked in a prison cell. That seemed inconsistent both with his faithfulness, Messiah’s power, and God’s purpose. Surely the Messiah had the power to free him. And when Messiah came, bad things should have happened to evil people, not to His faithful forerunner.
•One of the most difficult but common situations of this time of year is disappointment. Companies wanting to finish the year with positive balance sheets will close factories. People subject to familial strains will fall back into substance abuse. Even faithful followers of Christ are not immune. Although we cannot presently see why we suffer, we are called to faithfully endure for the cause of Christ.
•God was using John’s faithfulness to usher in the ultimate solution to humanities sinfulness.
A second cause of John’s doubt was popular influence. He was in part a victim of current misconceptions about the Messiah. Contemporary Judaism ignored the prophecies of the suffering (Ps. 22) and sin-bearing work (Isa. 53) of the Messiah, focusing instead on His coming to crush Israel’s enemies and establish His glorious kingdom.
•Illegitimate, unbiblical expectations can only lead to doubt and loss of joy when they are not met.
Please turn to Matthew 16 (p.822)
Jewish tradition also held—with no biblical warrant—that a series of prophets would reappear, culminating in the Messiah. That led to confusion and doubt about Jesus. Was He the Messiah, or one of those resurrected prophets (Luke 9:19)? John’s question to Jesus, Are You the one who is to come/Expected One, or do we look for another/someone else? reflects that popular misconception.
Matthew 16:13-19 13Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (ESV)
•The blessing of the coming of Christ is knowing that He is the anointed one of God, the Son of the God who is alive. He is God’s unique Son, who fulfills the Old Covenant promise of a divine Son as anointed King (2 Sm. 7:14)
•The Blessing of Christmas is for all those who recognize Christ as the anointed King
Third, John’s doubt stemmed from incomplete revelation. Lack of information breeds doubt (cf. Matt. 22:29), and John was missing one crucial piece of information not clearly revealed in the Old Testament. It is true that the Old Testament implies two advents for Messiah, one as the suffering servant, and the other as the conquering king. But the Old Testament does not explicitly reveal the already 2, 000-year gap between those two advents. During that time the Lord would turn from disobedient, rejecting Israel (Matt. 23:37–39) to the Gentiles and establish the church, which is made up of both Jews and Gentiles. Not until that period ends and all Israel is saved (Rom. 11:26) will Jesus return, complete His glorious kingdom, and fulfill all the promises of the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants.
•Where do we go when in trouble? If we start by polling our friends, finding solace in social occasions, or perhaps the recesses of our imagination, then we can devise all kinds of speculations about why things are happening. When we let scripture dictate our attitudes, ideas, and actions, then we will avoid jumping to conclusions or wild human speculations of dire results.
The final and perhaps most significant reason for John’s doubt was his wrong expectation. John was a fiery preacher, warning of God’s impending judgment and calling for repentance (cf. Luke 3:3–17). His warning of judgment picked up where the Old Testament ended (Mal. 4:1), and John expected the Messiah to execute that judgment on the wicked when He arrived. But Jesus, instead of bringing destruction and judgment upon unbelievers in His first Advent, instead brought to them healing and compassion. The ax was not laid at the root of the trees, nor did the winnowing fork toss the chaff into the fire (Luke 3:9, 17). The Day of the Lord with all its fury and judgment of the wicked, had not arrived. That did not make sense to John, who had called for sinners to repent in order to avoid Messiah’s soon and sudden judgment. This judgement is coming at His return, His second Advent.
•We become disappointed when we don’t get what we expect. For Christmas, children tend to ask for a long list of items, and inevitably become disappointed, when they don’t get everything they asked for. When our hope rest on God’s promises, we will never be disappointed, for He always accomplishes that which He says He will accomplish.
Quote:In his book, Spiritual Depression, Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes: “Doubts are not incompatible with faith.… Some people seem to think that once you become a Christian you should never be assailed by doubts. But that is not so, Peter still had faith (as he panicked in the storm in Matthew 14).… His faith was not gone, but because it was weak, doubt mastered him and overwhelmed him and he was shaken.…Doubts will attack us, but that does not mean that we are to allow them to master us.
( D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965), 154.)
2) The Answer for Blessing (Luke 7:21-23).
Luke 7:21-23 [21]In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind he bestowed sight. [22]And he answered them, "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. [23]And blessed is the one who is not offended by me." (ESV)
As the great high priest who sympathizes with the weaknesses of His people (Heb. 4:15), Jesus dealt gently with John’s doubt. In that hour/At the very time that the two messengers from John arrived, He healed/cured many people of diseases and plagues/afflictions and evil spirits, and on many who were blind he bestowed/gave sight. The opening CLAUSE is a summary of Jesus’ ministry to the crowds. His actions clearly revealed who He was, if they could only recognize its prophetic fulfillment (Utley, R. J. (2004). The Gospel according to Luke (Vol. Volume 3A, Lk 7:21). Marshall, TX: Bible Lessons International.).
This was a special display of His miraculous power especially for their benefit and John’s. Jesus had rejected the Pharisees’ similar requests (cf. Matt. 12:38–42; 16:1–4), because they asked in unbelief. John, however, was seeking to have his faith strengthened and completed.
•We must never fear or avoid honest questions.Granted there are some who through out an accusation who don’t actually want to listen to a response. They deserve none. But with our own personal doubts, or honest inquiries from others, the more we look into the truth, the stronger our faith will be. It is a blessed thing to inquire of God. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Heb. 11:1).
After the display Jesus saidto the messengers, in verse 22“Go and tell/report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news/the gospel preached to them.”
•To Go and tell what is seen and heard is the blessedness that we are called to do. The Christian's task is to bring joy to those who are spiritually blind, lame, sick, dead and poor. The biblical word of our testimony is what God will use to open eyes, enable people to fulfill their God given tasks, restore spiritual wholeness, regenerate, and show those who are poor in spirit, that the spiritual richness of the Kingdom of God is available to them.
The miraculous signs Jesus had performed were unmistakable evidence that the kingdom had been inaugurated(although it will not be present in its fullest sense until Christ returns) and the King was present. John, steeped in the Old Testament, knew that such passages as Isaiah 26:19 and Daniel 12:2 point to a future resurrection of the dead associated with Messiah’s kingdom. The resurrections Jesus performed were a preview of that resurrection. But for now, this was the unique element that pointed to the nature of Jesus’ mission. God graciously included those whom Jewish society neglected. This is a hint of God’s inclusion of the Gentiles (Utley, R. J. (2004). The Gospel according to Luke (Vol. Volume 3A, Lk 7:22). Marshall, TX: Bible Lessons International.)
Please turn to Isaiah 35 (p.595)
In these events may be seen the fulfilment of Is. 35:5f., and the person who recognizes the fulfilment will know that Jesus is the coming One, and will not be put off by his failure to live up to traditional expectations (Marshall, I. H. (1978). The Gospel of Luke: a commentary on the Greek text (p. 287). Exeter: Paternoster Press.)
Isaiah 35:3-10 [3]Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.[4]Say to those who have an anxious heart, "Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you." [5]Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; [6]then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; [7]the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. [8]And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray. [9]No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. [10]And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. (Esv)
•Isaiah 35:5–6 associates healing the blind, lame, and deaf with the messianic kingdom, while Isaiah 61:1 describes the King’s preaching of the gospel to humble, captive, oppressed, spiritually blind sinners (cf. Luke 4:17–21). The healing miracles and the preaching to the poor have Messianic significance. They are the divine accreditation of Jesus’ mission. It was in such works of mercy and not in spectacular victories over Roman armies that Messiah’s work would be accomplished (Morris, L. (1988). Luke: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 3, p. 162). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.).
Finally, Jesus then told the messengers to remind John in verse 23, “Blessed is the one who is not offended/does not take offense/fall away by/at Me.” The words are a translation of a Greek verb which pictures a person stumbling over a stone. Jesus is that stone over which some do stumble (1 Peter 2:8). The Pharisees and experts in the law did stumble over Jesus; so did the people at his home synagogue in Nazareth. Jesus is urging John and his disciples not to fall away. We need the same encouragement (Prange, V. H. (1988). Luke (p. 82). Milwaukee, WI: Northwestern Pub. House.).
•There are many people today who criticize the church for not “changing the world” and solving the economic, political, and social problems of society. What they forget is that God changes His world by changing individual people. History shows that the church has often led the way in humanitarian service and reform, but the church’s main job is to bring lost sinners to the Saviour. Everything else is a by-product of that. Proclaiming the Gospel must always be the church’s first priority (Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 197). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.).
Those who are not scandalized (cf. 17:1–2) by preconceived ideas of the messianic task but instead judge by what they see happening will know that Jesus is indeed the Promised One and will as a result be blessed. Those, however, who are offended because of their preconceived notions and by what they do not see happening (such as the judgment of the nations, or the restoration of political independence and greatness for Israel) will miss out on this blessing.
Jesus’ reply to questions posed to Him relies heavily on the Old Testament, with allusions to Isaiah 35:5–7, 26:19, 29:18–19 and 61:1. All the passages occur in contexts where God’s decisive deliverance is awaited. So Jesus answers the question about his person with passages that describe the nature of the times. The question is, “Are you the coming one?” The answer is, “Discern the times by what God does through me.” We are not to be offended by Jesus, not taken aback by the unusual nature of his ministry. It might not be what we expected, but it is what God promised. Do not worry; the time of fulfillment comes with him (Bock, D. L. (1994). Luke (Lk 7:18). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.).
John needed to rise above his personal tragedy, the popular views of the day, his lack of complete revelation, and his wrong expectations. He needed to put his complete faith and trust in the convincing evidence that Jesus was the Messiah. His faithfulness to Christ, even to the point of death showed his commitment.
Although the beatitude is addressed in the original setting to John the Baptist, it is so worded that it also is applicable for Luke’s original readers and present-day hearers/readers as well. As in Jesus’ day, Luke’s time, and today, the final eschatological verdict is dependent upon people’s attitude toward Jesus. In the final judgment they will stand or fall based upon whether they are his followers (cf. 6:47–49; 9:23–26, 48; 12:8–9; 14:26). (Stein, R. H. (1992). Luke (Vol. 24, p. 227). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.)
(Format note: Some base commentary from MacArthur, John F (2011-02-21). Luke 6-10 MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Macarthur New Testament Commentary Series) (pp. 141-150). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
