Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm20130327.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Matthew: Jesus As Israel's Messiah And His Kingdom
Part XV: Christ As Israel's Messiah Seen By The Opposition To His Ministry, Matthew 11:2-16:12
A. Christ As Israel's Messiah By The Opposition Faced By Both John And Jesus
(Matthew 11:2-19)
  1. Introduction
    1. Matthew's Gospel reveals Jesus is God's Messiah to Israel though He did not establish His Messianic Kingdom at His first coming because Israel rejected Him. (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV , 1978, p. 1337, "Introduction to the Gospel According to Matthew"; Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 16)
    2. To validate Christ's identity as Messiah regardless of His rejection by Israel, Matthew's Gospel reveals an episode where Jesus identified with the draining rejection John the Baptizer faced in Matthew 11:2-19, and this passage offers application for us if we face similar draining opposition as God's servants today:
  2. Christ As Israel's Messiah By The Opposition Faced By Both John And Jesus, Matthew 11:2-19.
    1. John the Baptizer was once considered a great prophet by Israel: people from Jerusalem, all Judaea and all around the Jordan had gone out to be baptized of him with the baptism of repentance, Matthew 3:1-6.
    2. However, John was then imprisoned for charging Herod Antipas of sin for marrying his brother's wife (Matt. 14:3-4), and imprisonment was a theologically disillusioning place for John who thought that if Jesus was the Messiah, He should be setting up a Kingdom, not leaving John in prison, cf. Matt. 14:5.
    3. Thus, to be Biblically sure of the facts, John sent two of his disciples (Deut. 19:15) to Jesus to learn if He was the Messiah or if John was to look for another, Matt. 11:2-3. There had been a lapse in John's faith, for John 1:29-34 records him as having once publicly testified that Jesus was the Lamb of God Who took away the sin of the world, and that He was also the Son of God, a confession of His deity.
    4. Jesus did NOT chasten John for this spiritual lapse; rather, He told John's disciples to go back and relate to John the things they saw and heard in Jesus' ministry regarding His fulfillment of Isaiah 35:5 and 61:1, passages detailing the signs to be performed at the arrival of the Messiah! Jesus then gently pronounced a blessing on those who were not offended in Jesus, men who believed Scripture even in times of great disillusionment and discouragement such as John faced in prison, Matthew 11:4-6.
    5. Then, to explain His gentle treatment of John, Jesus claimed John was not a weak, vacillating man, but the Forerunner of Messiah, one of the greatest men in history, Matt. 11:7-11a; Isaiah 40:3; Malachi 3:1.
    6. Yet, Jesus observed he who was least in the Kingdom of Heaven was greater than John, Matthew 11:11b.
    7. This explanation needed clarification, so Jesus provided that clarification in Matthew 11:12-19 as follows:
      1. Christ clarified that forceful men resisted the work of John, Jesus, and of Jesus' apostles, Matt. 11:12:
        1. The verb "suffereth violence" (KJV, v. 12) translates biazetai, which, if taken in the passive voice, means "is violently treated,'" and "take it by force" ( harpazousin) means "to grasp' in the sense of resisting or laying claim to it on their own,'" Ibid., Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 44.
        2. Israel's leaders had wanted a Kingdom, but one that politically opposed Rome, not what John, Jesus and His disciples offered, "(s)o they were resisting or laying claim to it on their own," Ibid.
      2. John was thus a great man of God, the culmination of the Old Testament prophets and the prophet Elijah who was to come as predicted in Malachi 4:5. (Matthew 11:13-15)
      3. However, not only their leaders, but Israel's common folk were spiritually hardened, rejecting John and Jesus regardless how they ministered much as children who cannot be pleased by their playmates: they rejected John since he "did not eat or drink," saying "John had a demon," but they then rejected Jesus "as a glutton and a drunkard and a friend of tax collectors and sinners,'" Matthew 11:16-19a KJV.
      4. Nevertheless, the true wisdom of John and Jesus would be vindicated by their "works," the figurative meaning of "children" in this context, Matthew 11:19b; Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to Matthew 11:19.
Lesson: John and Jesus alike suffered unjust rejection by a spiritually hardened Israel, but Jesus gently encouraged John as a great man of God to stick to Scripture truth for edification amid the hardship of the opposition he faced, and Jesus promised him vindication in the end for his godly efforts.

Application: May we not harshly judge the upright for spiritual fatigue; the opposition they face is very draining, so God calls them only to heed Scripture and let their works in time vindicate their efforts.