Rejoice patiently in the good things Christ is doing

Just how hard can things get as we wait for Christ’s second coming? Look at John the Baptist. He proclaimed Christ as the Coming One. In fact, he preached the whole counsel of God, which included God’s design for marriage. He preached openly against King Herod, who had unlawfully taken his brother’s wife to be his own. John was arrested and thrown into prison for it. There he sat in prison, waiting to be executed. And Christ the Coming One wasn’t doing a thing to stop it.

The fact is, Christ’s first coming hadn’t solved the world’s problems, nor had it solved the problems of His faithful ones. On the contrary, things had gotten worse for John, not better. Death loomed before his eyes. The Old Testament prophets, in many places, had painted a glorious picture of the coming of the Messiah, as we’ve been considering on Wednesday evenings. John was seeing none of that glory. Was John himself beginning to wonder about Jesus? Or were his disciples the ones who were wondering? Maybe both. In any case, John’s perspective was limited by the bars of the jail cell; he couldn’t see anything that the Christ was doing. So he sent some of his remaining disciples to Jesus to ask Him about it, which was a very good thing to do.

Are You the Coming One, they asked Him, or do we look for another? The prophets had foretold a time of judgment, a time of justice at the arrival of the Coming One. The prophets had foretold a Messianic era of peace and prosperity for God’s people, safety from their enemies, the spread of God’s kingdom throughout the world. The prophets had also foretold the suffering, death, and resurrection of the Messiah. So far in Jesus’ ministry, they hadn’t seen any of those things. John himself foretold that the Coming One would baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. But John didn’t see any of these things, either. Things seemed to have stalled for a little while. God’s plan of salvation didn’t seem to be advancing very quickly or very forcefully, didn’t appear to be moving toward any of the grand accomplishments prophesied for the Messianic era. So, are You the Coming One, Jesus? Or should we expect someone else?

You can understand John’s question, can’t you? We ourselves often fail to understand God’s timing of things. To us, it would make sense for Jesus to come and do everything at once: atone for sins AND convert sinners AND fix the world’s problems all at once, quickly, easily, as soon as He came the first time. But that’s not what we see. We see a world that’s gone mad in every imaginable way, and in some ways that no one could have imagined just a decade ago. We see the Gospel being silenced, being obscured by false doctrine. We see Christians believing for a while and then falling away. We see the Church in shambles. We see the little groups of God’s faithful people throughout the world struggling just to survive. Can this really be the Messiah’s kingdom?

What did Jesus say in response to John’s disciples? Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. It’s true, not everything that the prophets had prophesied was taking place yet. There were things about the Coming One’s kingdom that hadn’t been fulfilled yet when John sent his disciples to Jesus. And there are still things about His kingdom that have yet to be fulfilled. But look, John, at the miraculous things that are being done according to the prophecies, Jesus says, at the Gospel being preached, just as the prophecies said it would be, at the prophecies that are being fulfilled, at the individuals who are being helped by the Christ even now. Or rather, since you can’t look there inside your prison, listen! Listen to the Word of God as your disciples bring it back to you!

Jesus didn’t do everything all at once that the prophets said He would do. But then, the prophets never said that He would do everything all at once. In fact, the prophets, for the most part, foresaw the whole New Testament era, from Christ’s first coming to His second coming, as one enormous painting set before their eyes. Some things that they foresaw are on one side of the painting, in the early days of Christ’s ministry. Other things that they foresaw are on the other side of the painting, waiting for Christ’s return at the very end of the age. And still other things they described in down-to-earth figures of speech, even though they were referring to inward, spiritual events in the Messiah’s reign. Focus on the good things that the Christ has done and has been doing. Be patient! Don’t minimize the importance of the good things, just because you haven’t seen everything yet.

Then Jesus speaks a blessing, laced with a warning: And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me. If you insist on putting Jesus on your own timetable, if you’ll only believe in Him if He offers a speedy solution to the trials you’re going through at the moment, if you refuse to rejoice in all the good He has already done and is now doing for His kingdom and for you, then you will be offended by Him. You will stumble over Him, because He rarely works in the ways that seem to make sense to us. If He did, of course, He wouldn’t be God, who says, For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me. Hear His Word, calling you to repentance. Hear His Word, calling you to faith. Hear His Word, announcing to you the forgiveness of sins and pronouncing a blessing upon you. And then see all the good things that Jesus has done in fulfillment of prophecy.

John died before seeing any more of God’s saving plan being carried out. But we know how much more the kingdom of God has advanced since that moment. After John was beheaded by King Herod, Jesus continued to preach. His preaching grew more poignant, more direct. He was simultaneously selected by the people of Jerusalem as their Savior and rejected by the leaders of Jerusalem as their Savior. He was crucified. He was raised from the dead. He ascended into heaven. He sent His Spirit into the world. And His kingdom has spread to every corner of the globe, all according to the Old Testament prophecies and His own prophecies. As we heard in last week’s Gospel, Heaven and earth will pass away. But My words will never pass away. Sure enough, we are still hearing His words, speaking them, learning them, confessing them, passing them on to our children. The Church is still being built. The Church hasn’t been snuffed out of existence, nor will it ever be. See the good things Christ has done and is doing! Rejoice patiently in those good things, even as you wait for the rest of the good things to happen in His good time.

For now, Jesus points you back to John. He reminds the crowds who were with Him about John’s ministry. He reminds them why they went out to hear him in the first place. Not because he said nice, pretty things. Not because he was handsome or finely dressed. They went out to hear the truth from him, and the truth isn’t always pretty, isn’t always nice, isn’t always comforting. But it was the truth: This is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You. The same truth that John the Baptist proclaimed 2,000 years ago is still the truth today and still applies to you here. The Christ is coming! And with Him, judgment for the impenitent and redemption for the penitent and believing. So prepare the way before Him! Repent of your sins! Look to the Christ for healing and redemption! He is doing great things in the world, even now, although your perspective and your knowledge of it may be limited. Rejoice patiently in the things Christ is doing! And know for certain that all the other good things He has promised will come when He comes again, even the destruction of sin and death and the restoration of righteousness and life. Amen.