Messengers from John the Baptist

 Advent Meditations

December 16, 2020

Messengers from John the Baptist

“And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”

Luke 7:23 (NRSV)

Read Luke 7:18b-23

John sent his disciples to meet with Jesus because his faith in Jesus as the Messiah was wavering. John was worried that he was wrong about Jesus because Jesus was not meeting his expectations of the Messiah.

Miles Stanford wrote, “To be disappointed is to have believed in yourself.” (The Principals of Spiritual Growth) I first read that statement thirty years ago, and I am still pondering it. Perhaps John the Baptist had believed in his own sense of discernment about God’s promised Messiah and in his jail cell was having second thoughts. (An excellent book about John’s struggle is The Prisoner in the Third Cell by Gene Edwards. I first read it about twenty-five years ago, and reread it for the umpteenth time last month.)

There are times when Jesus does not meet my expectations. I confess that there are times when I am impatient with the ways of God. I wish God moved faster to answer prayers, punish injustice and renew the face of the earth. When anxiety tries to rule my life, I realize I have been trusting in my own discernment of the times. I have found Jesus’ words to Peter very comforting:

“You are blessed, Simon son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being.”

Matthew 16:17

My Takeaway: It was God who revealed to Peter that Jesus was the Messiah. Paul teaches us that God speaks to our spirit to affirm we are his children. (Romans 8:16) It is God who revealed Jesus the Christ to me and who affirms to me I am His child. It is God who will give me the discernment to understand the times in which we live.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2020 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.