60 Why John the Baptist's Doubts Should Encourage You (Matthew 11:7-15)

Krisan Marotta: Welcome to Wednesday in the Word. I'm Krisan Marotta, and this is my podcast about what the Bible means and how we know. This is the 60th talk in my series on the Gospel of Matthew, and today we're going to cover Matthew chapter 11, verses 7 through 15. Lecture notes with links to everything mentioned in the talk are on the link below this podcast, or you can go directly to wednesdayintheword.com slash Matthew 60. Thank you for joining me today. Well, we are continuing in chapter 11 of the Gospel of Matthew, and we're in a section that focuses on how the Jewish people in particular respond to Jesus. Jesus gave his disciples sober warnings about how they will be rejected and hated because they represent Jesus. And then Matthew gives us a series of stories which highlight the growing opposition to Jesus. The first story we looked at in the last podcast was John the Baptist. While sitting in prison, John becomes confused. John looks at what Jesus is doing and says, Are you the Messiah? I thought you were the Messiah, but you don't fit my messianic expectations. And one of the themes we've seen in Matthew's gospel so far is how Jesus is different than expected. In the end, Jesus will come again and fulfill everything that was expected of the Messiah. But the first time around, his life and ministry were confusing to people. Up until he died and was resurrected, I don't think his people understood that he was going to come twice. Matthew is highlighting the difference between what people expected and what Jesus actually came to do. And no story highlights that theme more than the one we looked at about John the Baptist. As you might expect, the fact that a prophet like John had doubts raises all kinds of questions. Of all people, the prophet John the Baptist ought to be convinced beyond doubting that Jesus is the Messiah. He had direct revelation from God that Jesus was the one. But Jesus was so different from what he expected that even John had moments where he didn't understand what Jesus was doing. And that raises a kind of question about John. If he's really a prophet, how could he become confused? How come he didn't understand everything? Well, the section we're looking at today is meant to answer that kind of question, to settle the doubts that the previous incident that we looked at in the last podcast might have raised. John has announced that Jesus was the Messiah, but Jesus is carrying out his work in a way that's surprising to John. John's been sitting in Herod's prison for a long time, and Jesus isn't fixing things the way John wants him to. John is imprisoned by one of the very rulers that the Messiah is supposed to conquer. As he sits in prison, wondering if each day would be his last, John grows confused and he begins to wonder if Jesus really is the Messiah. He sends his disciples to ask Jesus if he's really the one, and Jesus answers that he is, but he tells John, look, stop focusing on the things that I am not doing, and focus instead on the things I am doing. I am doing the miracles you expect the Messiah to perform, and I am preaching the good news you expect the Messiah to teach. And we looked at that section last week. Now we're going to pick up the story in Matthew eleven, seven. As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John. What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? Well, I think this first ties the previous section and our section today together. The disciples of John who asked the question back in 11 2 start to leave, and then Jesus turns and addresses this next section to the larger crowd of people who follow him and want to hear him teach. Presumably Jesus was out preaching in various cities. The disciples of John came to him and during some kind of pause or situation where it was appropriate to ask questions, they ask Jesus, Are you the one who's to come or shall we look for another? And Jesus answers them in such a way that the crowd overhears the discussion. Well now he's addressing any concerns that discussion might have raised. The event with John's disciples inspires Jesus to say what he's about to say. So let's read that section. This is Matthew eleven, verses seven through fifteen. As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John. What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings' houses. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you. Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist, yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John, and if you're willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Well, I have to warn you, this little section is filled with problems. There are some big problems and little problems, and I am still working on unraveling all of them. I suppose that's true to some extent with every passage, but this one in particular is still very much a work in progress. Let me walk through it in blocks. First let's look at seven through nine. As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John. What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold those who wear soft clothing are in kings' houses. What then did you go out to see? A prophet. Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. So Jesus starts this discussion by asking the crowd to reflect on John the Baptist. If they wanted to see John the Baptist, they had to go out into the wilderness. John lived and worked far from the comforts of the city. Matthew told us back in chapter three, verse one in those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness from Judea and then skipping to 3 4. Now John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. So John lived a basic and very challenging kind of life in the wilderness. And what did they expect when they went out to see him? Did they expect a guy who lived and worked in the wilderness to be like a reed shaken by the wind? I think that's in contrast to, say, a tree which is solidly planted against the wind and maybe only its leaves will rustle. The wind will blow a reed back and forth, whipping it in every direction, but a tree stands solid in the face of a wind. A person who is like a reed shaken by the wind would be someone who is changeable, someone who doesn't stand firm, who just whips every way depending on what political current is blowing by. And Jesus asks, is that the kind of person they expected John the Baptist to be? No, that's not what you'd expect from a prophet who lives in the wilderness. And they're correct, he's not that kind of person. So he just asks this question, Are you the one? But think about what you know about John. Is he the kind of person you'd expect to be blown every which way and have no firm foundation? No. Then he goes on, did you expect a prophet in the wilderness to be wearing soft, comfortable, luxurious clothes? No, people who dress in soft robes live in king's palaces, they don't live in the wilderness. John was not the kind of person who put his own personal comfort first. He claimed to proclaim repentance, and that's what he did. And then he says, Did you expect to see a prophet? Yes, they did, and that's what they saw. John is indeed a prophet. In fact, he's more than a prophet. And by more than a prophet, I think he means that John is greater than any of the other prophets, and he goes on to explain why. Jesus asks these rhetorical questions because he wants to teach the crowd how to think about John the Baptist. True, at the moment, John is confused because Jesus is not acting like he expected the Messiah to act. But what should people think about John because of that? Does that call his whole ministry and message into doubt? Does that make him unstable like a reed in the wind? Is he backing down and changing his message when life gets hard? Because he'd rather dress in soft robes and live in luxury in a palace? No. No, John is indeed the rock steady prophet that the people went out to see, and in fact he is greater than the rest of the prophets. Then Jesus goes on, let's look at ten and eleven. This is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you. Truly I say to you, among those born of women, there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist, yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. To support his point that John is a great prophet, Jesus quotes Malachi three one. John is the great prophet who calls Israel to repent so that they might receive the Messiah. He prepares the way for the Messiah. The Messiah is the fulfillment of all the promises, and John is the one who gets to announce him and call the people to confess their sins in preparation for the Messiah's arrival. That puts him at the head of the list of the prophets. John's confusion at the moment does not change the role that God gave him. In God's plan of redemption, no prophet had a more important role than John. Well, how does that mean that John is greater than, say, Moses or Elijah? Well, since the beginning, God has called a people and asked them to trust him and learn from him. But along the way the people rebel. Prophet after prophet had to call on them to repent, to remember the promises of God, to trust that God is carrying out this wonderful plan and ask them to turn back to him in repentance. Well, John is at the end of that line. He is the one prophet who says, You know, that great thing that God has promised, this is it. This is the fulfillment of that promise. The Messiah himself is arriving, and today is the day to repent. It's time to prepare yourself for him, so turn back to God because the Messiah and His kingdom are arriving. Well, no prophet had a greater announcement to make. No other prophet got to see the Messiah face to face. Other prophets had the privilege of announcing there's going to be a Messiah, but John is the only one who got to see the Messiah in person and say this is him. Yet at this point in his life, John does not quite understand what he's seeing. God gave him the role of preparing the way, but the way is turning out to be different than what John expected, and John's trying to reconcile his prophetic message with the unexpected nature of his Messiah. As we talked about in the last podcast, John knew that the Messiah would establish the kingdom of God. The Messiah is the anointed king of Israel, a son of David and a son of Abraham who will rule over all the earth, and John probably believed, like many other Jews of his day, that the Messiah would come once in victory. The Messiah would come and bring freedom to the children of God, but wrath and judgment for those who pursue evil, and he most likely expected this was the coming of the Messiah in which he would establish the righteous rule of God over all the earth. As John said earlier in his ministry, the axe is laid to the root of the trees, and the trees that don't bear good fruit are going to be cut down, and the Messiah is coming with his ax, he's coming with his winnowing fork to gather his wheat and burn the chaff, so he's coming to bring judgment on the enemies of God. And most likely John thinks that judgment part is going to happen now in his lifetime, and he's confused. Why isn't Jesus doing more of that judging and winnowing? And Jesus said, Blessed is the one who doesn't stumble over me. Even John could stumble. He could decide Jesus is just too different from his expectations and walk away. And that's the tension that we're addressing. John is the greatest in terms of the role he's been playing up to this point, but at the same time, he himself has to respond to Jesus. It is in this sense that those who are least in the kingdom of heaven are greater than John. I think he's saying those who have not stumbled over Jesus, those who are in the kingdom because they have embraced and believed that Jesus is the Messiah, they are willing to learn from him and change their expectations. Those people, we might call them the least because they don't have a great big important role like John, but they have already wrestled with whether or not Jesus is the Messiah, and they have come to believe it. They are greater than John because he still has to make that choice. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, Those who heed his words are like those who build on a rock. Those who learn from him, who build on the rock are in the kingdom, because they see and hear the unexpected nature of the kingdom and they embrace it. They don't stumble over it and reject it, they embrace it. In embracing the message of Jesus, their understanding exceeds that of John, the greatest of the prophets, because they've heard the truth, they've embraced it, and they're living it out. So that's the sense in which they're greater than John the Baptist, because John apparently at this moment is still on the threshold saying, I'm not sure yet. John is ultimately going to have to embrace the truth and say, Jesus is not the Messiah I expected, but he is the Messiah and I trust him. And I think we have every reason to believe John does in fact embrace that truth. We see this idea elsewhere in the New Testament. Hebrews 1, verses 1 and 2 says, Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom he also created the world. So Hebrews says God spoke in various ways through the prophets, and John the Baptist is the greatest of those prophets, but now God is speaking by his son, and this revelation is of an entirely new order. Jesus explained the kingdom in a way that had never been explained before. He gave us the most clear and profound explanation we've ever had. That's what the Sermon on the Mount was all about. Jesus is the one who explained most clearly what the kingdom of God is all about and what it takes to become part of it. John the Baptist prepared for and announced the arrival of the Messiah, but at this point in his personal life, he's still in the process of sorting out just what God is doing through the Messiah. We see a similar idea in 1 Peter 1 verses 10 through 12. Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicated when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you, and the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. Again we see Peter making this distinction between the prophets and now. The prophets were announcing this great coming Messiah, but they understood that the message wasn't really for their time and place. They were announcing a future part of the plan. We who live after the coming of the Messiah now live in the reality that they proclaimed. We have the benefit of a clear understanding that they didn't have. Well, John the Baptist is right on that threshold between the old and the new revelation. He's announced the coming Messiah, the Messiah is here, but the Messiah is acting differently than he expected. Like each of us, he has to decide how to respond. I think then this is Jesus' first point. Of all the prophets, John the Baptist had the greatest role in preparing for the Messiah. But now the Messiah is here, and anyone who embraces the truth that he teaches is in a better place than any of the prophets, including John. Now I don't have any doubts that John and the rest of the prophets fully embraced the truth they were taught. At this point we see John confused, but I fully expect that his confusion did not last long. All right, let's look at the next section. This is twelve through fifteen. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. If you're willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Okay, now we start getting to the problems. Verse twelve is very tough to understand. There's a lot of discussion about what this verse means and even how to translate it. And the issues can get very complicated. I'm not sure I've understand them all fully. I'm going to give you a brief and somewhat incomplete discussion because my understanding of this verse is still very much a work in progress. But I didn't want to stop our Matthew study because I have no idea how long it might take to sort this verse out, and I might never fully get it. Part of what complicates this passage is there's a possible parallel passage in Luke. I say possible because some scholars don't think the Luke verse should even be part of the discussion, while others think it's a very important part of the discussion. Now, I'm going to tell you up front that I reject any explanation that claims there was some kind of original source material and Matthew took it one way while Luke took it another way. Some argue that they took the same saying of Jesus and twisted it to mean what they wanted it to mean, and they wanted it to mean two different things. I think the Bible is inspired in a way that rules out that kind of explanation, and I reject any option that starts with the premise that this is an error in Scripture. Well, let me read you the Luke passage. This is Luke sixteen verses fourteen through seventeen. The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things and they ridiculed him. And he said to them, You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts, for what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. The law and the prophets were until John. Since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the law to become void. Okay, so are these two passages related? Well, maybe, maybe not. But if they are related, our job is to find a reasonable way of explaining how. While the Luke passage is in an entirely different context, both of these passages make the point that the law and the prophets were proclaimed until John, both of them refer to the kingdom, and both of them. Both of them use this very uncommon Greek word translated violent or force. In fact, the only places this word is used in the New Testament is in our Matthew passage and here in Luke. And this can get kind of technical, I'll try to keep it brief. The English Standard Version of the Bible translates Matthew as the passive voice. The kingdom of heaven suffers violence. And they translate the Luke passage as the middle voice. Everyone forces his way in. It's the same Greek word in the same form. But in Matthew the subject is the kingdom of heaven, and in Luke the subject is everyone. The same Greek word is used several times in the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. And in the Septuagint it means to strongly urge or to strongly seek to persuade. As best I understand it at this point, when this word is in the middle voice, it leans toward the meaning to overpower or to apply force. When this word is used in the passive voice, it leans toward the meaning to strongly urge or compel. And again, I'm simplifying, but that's my basic understanding. The problem is that the middle voice and the passive voice can have the exact same grammatical form. And then it becomes a judgment call whether the context requires middle or passive. Many scholars argue that Luke should not be translated as middle, and that it should be translated with the passive, like the Septuagint readings, something like Since the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, everyone is being strongly urged to enter into it. And at this point, that argument makes more sense to me, and it's my working assumption about what's going on in Luke. Now I haven't studied the Luke passage in very much detail, but that understanding of this word seems to fit the context really well. The basic idea of this word is to force, but it can be a kind of metaphorical usage of compel or urge. Now, does that have any relevance to our passage in Matthew? The language of the two passages is significantly different, although there are some similarities, and we do have the same form of the same word in Matthew. If you take them as parallel, if you think they're speaking to the same sort of thing in different contexts, and if you take the idea of this word as passive, compelling or urging, then Matthew becomes something like From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven is strongly compelling in the sense of making its case or pushing itself forward, and those who respond strongly grab hold of it for themselves. At this point, I like that understanding because in my worthless and good for nothing opinion, those that argue for this understanding made the strongest case for how it fits in the context. So let me see if I can explain the flow of thought. John the Baptist prepared the way for the Messiah, but those who are least in the kingdom are greater than John. You see, since the time that John announced the kingdom was arriving, the kingdom has been strongly urging us to join it, strongly pushing itself forward, and it urges us to grab hold of it for ourselves to repent and believe. The kingdom strongly calls for a strong response, and we must make that response. As I said, what attracts me to this understanding is the flow of thought in the context. We're in a context where John himself is in the process of sorting out his unmet expectations. He's wrestling with the question, can Jesus be the Messiah if he's not going to kick out Rome, overthrow Herod, and free me from prison before they kill me? John's wrestling with the same kind of question we all have to wrestle with. Will I continue to follow a Messiah who fails to do what I want him to do? Who doesn't do what I expect him to do? It makes sense in that context for Jesus to talk about grabbing hold of the kingdom. It makes sense for him to talk about embracing the gospel. John personifies the Old Testament prophetic tradition facing the unexpected way, those prophecies are coming true. Now, as I said, I think John fully embraced this unexpected Messiah, but until he does, any common believer who has already understood and embraced the gospel is better off than John. Now we could spend a whole lot of time working through the other options, some of the linguistic and grammatical issues. I'm aware that I haven't given you the other views, but I've just felt like to go through all the technical details would be too confusing for a podcast. If you want to pursue it further, I suggest you go hunt through the commentaries and the scholarly journals. I offered this as one way of understanding this verse. If you want to venture into the issue further, remember what we're looking for is a way of understanding verse 12 that fits into the flow of thought. John's disciples come to Jesus and say, John wants to know if you're the really the Messiah. Jesus answers that he is. That raises questions for the listening crowd. How can a prophet like John, who told us Jesus is the Messiah, now doubt that Jesus is the Messiah? So Jesus speaks to that tension and assures them, John is the greatest of prophets. You should listen to him. Then the immediate context in verse 11 is something new is going on since John announced the kingdom, and those who embrace it are in a better position than those who have not embraced it. Then we get this verse, and we expect whatever verse 12 means, it has to support and enhance the claim that those who are in the kingdom are somehow in a better position than John. So we've got these two ideas in the passage. John is the greatest prophet, and the least believer in the kingdom is better off than him in some sense. And verse 12 has to fit both those ideas. And its immediate position suggests that it contributes to the second idea about the least believer. So my tentative understanding is that Jesus is saying any common believer who has embraced the unexpected nature of Jesus' teaching about the kingdom is in a better position than John because they have strongly grabbed hold of the truth, which John has not yet done. Now Jesus returns to the importance of John. Let's look at thirteen through fifteen. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John, and if you're willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Okay, we've got problems to sort out in this section too. This whole section implies a kind of timeline. There's the past, the Old Testament law, and the prophets, all of which have been pointing to the Messiah, and John is the ending point of that line. He's the last and the greatest of those that proclaimed the message. He's announcing the Messiah himself is here. After John, we have the ministry of Jesus, the Messiah Himself. Jesus is explaining the plans of God with a greater clarity than anyone ever explained it before. As we saw in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus announces this is how the kingdom of God works, and this is the kind of person who's going to enter it. And it's not what you've been taught by your leaders. Jesus says and does surprising things. The disciples are beginning to understand this new message. They are living out the reality that the prophets proclaimed in a way none of them quite anticipated, including John. And John's the dividing line. We have the prophetic message, which is absolutely true, but didn't spell out in detail how the plan was going to unfold. And now we have the Messiah himself giving us more clarity and detail and saying that plan is going to unfold it differently than you expected. And John is on that threshold, still wrestling with how different Jesus is than what he thought the Messiah was going to be like. And that brings us to the other really hard question in this passage, and that's this little verse about Elijah. If you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. Now earlier we saw Jesus quoting Malachi 3.1, which reads, Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. Jesus said that verse in Malachi 3.1 referred to John the Baptist, and now Jesus refers to this idea that there is an Elijah who is to come, and John the Baptist is in some sense that Elijah. And that idea also comes from Malachi. It comes from the very last two verses in Malachi, chapter four, verses five and six. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes, and he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction. So the big question here is, does Jesus believe that both Malachi three one and Malachi four five are predictions of John the Baptist? Or is Malachi four five predicting something in our future? Is there an Elijah coming at the end of the age? Now you would think that this would be kind of an easy, straightforward question to answer. But these questions get all tangled up with many other issues, and how you answer them depends a lot on your other theology, your view of eschatology or the end times, and on how you think prophecy should be interpreted. And this is another one of those very thorny paths to tread. So let's just ask a related question. We've got these two ideas in the passage. John is the greatest prophet, and the least believer in the kingdom is better off than him in some sense. In this section, Jesus is emphasizing the importance of John the Baptist in God's plan of redemption. So what do these allusions to Malachi contribute to our understanding of John the Baptist and his role? In other words, how do they fit in the context of Matthew? What does Jesus want the crowd to take away when he says these things about John the Baptist? Well, to sort that out, let's start by looking at a passage that has a more clear relationship to John the Baptist. And this is Isaiah chapter 40, verses three through five. A voice cries in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low, the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Every New Testament author agrees that the voice here in Isaiah forty, the voice crying in the wilderness, is fulfilled in John the Baptist. The herald who prepares the way for the coming of the Lord is John the Baptist. We even saw that this is how John the Baptist understands himself. When he was asked who he is, John quotes this verse and says, I am this voice. And we read that in the last podcast and talked about it. John says he's not the Christ, he's not the Messiah. Then the priests and Levites asked John the Baptist, Well, are you that prophet that Moses said would come? And John says, No. And then they ask him, Are you the Elijah that Malachi predicted? And John says, No. And they say, Well, then who are you? This is all in the Gospel of John, chapter 1, verses 19 through 23. And John says, I am the voice in Isaiah 40. Interestingly, John also says, He is not the prophet, nor is he Elijah. So how does that add to our understanding of what Jesus is saying? There are those who think that John is the Elijah, Malachi predicted, and they argue that John meant, well, he wasn't literally physically Elijah, he's a different person, but he is that role. Others who think that John is the Elijah predicted in Malachi say, well, John knew he was the voice, but he didn't know he was the Elijah, but he was. Okay, the next piece of evidence. The Gospel of Mark ties Malachi 3 to Isaiah 40. So again, Malachi 3 1 says, Behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me. Now Malachi was written much later than Isaiah. Isaiah was written before the Babylonian captivity. Malachi was written long after they've returned from that captivity. And when Malachi writes, the temple has been rebuilt in Jerusalem, and the Jews are back living in the city. And then Mark begins his gospel this way. This is Mark chapter one, verses one through four. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, Behold, I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Now Mark says that he's quoting Isaiah, but actually he's quoting both Isaiah and Malachi 3. He starts out with Malachi, behold, I send my messenger, and then he quotes Isaiah about the voice crying in the wilderness. And that's acceptable. I don't want to get into that whole issue, but Mark juxtaposes these two and applies both of them to John the Baptist. And of course, in our passage, Jesus also applies Malachi III to John the Baptist. As we saw in 1110, he says, John is the one of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger. So it seems to me fairly clear that the New Testament teaches that Malachi III and Isaiah 40 are talking about the same person, a herald who will prepare the way for the Messiah, and John the Baptist is that herald. Okay, so now we have to figure out why Jesus brings up Elijah from Malachi 4, which remember says, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. Is there any passage which says that John the Baptist is the fulfillment of the Elijah prophecy in Malachi? Well that's debated. Let's start with Luke 1. The father of John the Baptist, Zechariah, is told how important his son will be. An angel tells Zechariah, this is Luke chapter one verses 16 and 17, and he, that is John the Baptist, will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready for the Lord a people prepared. Okay, so here we have an angel, a messenger from God, describing John the Baptist in language that is taken from Malachi IV. Elijah is mentioned, and we have a direct quote from Malachi four to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children. And he tells us that John the Baptist is going to come in the spirit and power of Elijah, and all of this has something to do with the passage in Malachi. But there are at least two possibilities for how they're related. One is that Malachi is predicting someone who's going to come in the spirit and power of Elijah, and John the Baptist is that person. And many argue that Malachi IV is a direct prediction of John the Baptist. Option two, Malachi is predicting that another Elijah, not John the Baptist, will come at the end of the age, but that John the Baptist is acting in the spirit and power of that Elijah who is to come. This camp would say Malachi predicts an Elijah who will come at the end of the age, but John the Baptist is acting at the time of Jesus in the spirit and power of that later Elijah. In other words, they understand the spirit and power language as saying Malachi did not predict John, but John will do something like this later Elijah. So Luke may be saying John the Baptist is that Elijah, or maybe he's not. Here's another passage. Jesus, Peter, James, and John are coming down the mountain after the transfiguration. And you'll recall that at the transfiguration, Jesus was revealed in glory, and Moses and Elijah appeared talking to him. And only Jesus, Peter, James, and John saw this event, and the event is over, now they're coming down the mountain, and we read this in Matthew 17, nine through thirteen. And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, Tell no one the vision until the Son of Man is raised from the dead. And the disciples asked him, Then why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come? He answered, Elijah does come, and he will restore all things. But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands. Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist. Now notice Jesus says two things here. First he says Elijah is coming and will restore all things, and then he says Elijah has already come and he suffered, and the disciples recognize he's talking about John the Baptist. So again, there are two options. Jesus could be saying, Malachi did predict that Elijah is coming and will restore all things, but actually Elijah was talking about John the Baptist. Or Jesus could be saying, Yes, at the end of the age, Elijah is to come and he will restore all things, and that event has not yet happened. It's in our future. But there is a sense in which Elijah has already come in John the Baptist. It's quite possible that Jesus sees John as a kind of forerunner or a shadow of the Elijah that is to come. So we have this situation where the Messiah comes twice. John plays the role of the herald to prepare for the first coming of the Messiah. And perhaps the coming Elijah is the herald who is going to prepare the people for the second coming of the Messiah. So John is very much like him. He comes in the same spirit and power, but he is not that person. Well, that sounds very much like our passage in Matthew 11, 14. Remember, he says, if you're willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. Remember, Elijah who is to come. And if you're willing to accept it. So in our passage, Jesus throws in this qualifying statement. He says, if you're willing to accept it, he doesn't just say, yep, John the Baptist is Elijah. He says, if you stop and think about it, if you're willing to accept it, John is the Elijah who is to come. Now it's quite possible that Jesus is saying if you sit back and compare the situations, you'll see the similarities. In a sense, John is the Elijah that Malachi was talking about. He is a foreshadow. He performs a similar role in preparing for the coming of the Messiah. John does in his day what the coming Elijah will do in a future day. Now, how you sort all that out depends a lot on your theology and your presuppositions. If you have a certain view of eschatology, then the evidence that falls in line with your view is going to speak loudest to you. If you have a different view of eschatology, then other evidence is going to speak loudest to you. And I'm still working all this out. As I said, this is a work in progress, but at this point, this is how I understand the passage. I think that we are living in what I would call the age of Gentiles. And by that I mean that in this age, by and large, generally speaking, Jews are going to reject Jesus and Gentiles are going to embrace him. But I think there is a day coming in our future when that is going to switch. There will be some event, maybe some crisis for the people of Israel, and God is going to pour out his spirit on them such that virtually every living Jew is going to turn to him in faith, and then Jesus will return for the second time. I think there is a coming Elijah who will perform the same kind of role that John the Baptist performed. A remnant of Jews responded to John the Baptist's call for repentance. Many turned to Jesus as a result of John's ministry, and in fact, some of the twelve started out as disciples of John the Baptist. However, in John's day, the majority of the Jewish people did not respond to his call. But as I understand it, at this point, I think there is a day coming when another herald will come to announce the second coming of the Messiah. Only this time the children of Israel are going to respond in great numbers. I think that's part of the prophetic picture, so it makes sense to me that John is a fulfillment of Malachi in the sense that he is like the Elijah who is to come. I think Malachi points ultimately to the end of the age, but that John played a very similar role the first time the Messiah came. All right, let me try to wrap this up. That's a lot of difficult questions. Let me see if I can put it together in some kind of way that makes sense. Jesus is talking to the crowd about two aspects of John the Baptist that seem to be in tension. That tension comes from the fact that John began to question whether Jesus was the Messiah. On the one hand, John is the greatest of the prophets. He brings Israel right to the door of the kingdom of God. He calls them to repent because the Messiah is coming. And this is the role that is described in Malachi 3 and Isaiah 40. He is the herald who prepared the way for the Messiah. John's role is very much like the role a future Elijah will play before the second coming, and that's what's predicted in Malachi 4. One last time Israel is going to be called to repent because the Messiah is coming again, and this time they really will. On the other hand, John is wrestling with his own unmet expectations. He's not yet grasped that the Messiah is coming twice, and the coming in judgment and victory is not yet. Any regular believer who has wrestled with the claims of Jesus and their own unmet expectations is in a better place than John at the moment because they have embraced the teachings of Jesus. And John still needs to grab hold of the kingdom for himself. And I believe he did. Jesus wants the crowd to understand the sense in which John really gets it and the sense in which he doesn't get it, and each aspect of that is important. On the one hand, they should listen to John and heed his call to repent. He is the last great prophet. He has a right to tell them the Messiah has come and they should pay attention. They don't want to dismiss John the Baptist. He has a very important message to deliver. On the other hand, Jesus is somewhat unexpected. Personally, each person is going to have to come to terms with his message. Each person is going to have to wrestle with the questions like, why isn't the Messiah coming in judgment now? Why isn't he putting all things right? Each person has to wrestle with that and say, I'm going to trust him, even if the answer is no or not yet. So the Messiah has come, and this time he's confronting everyone with a choice. Believe and repent. Everyone has to personally make that choice. Everyone either repents or stumbles over Jesus. And John is still wrestling with the choice, and it's an important one, but I have every confidence that John persevered in the faith. So John is the important prophet that we think he is, and like everyone else, he needs to make the choice to follow Jesus. Thank you for listening to Wednesday in the Word. This is the podcast that explains not only what a passage means, but also shows you how to figure it out. You can hear all previous episodes in this series on my website, wednesdayintheword.com. There is no charge, no spam, and no advertisements. If you've been blessed by this podcast, please subscribe, leave a positive rating or review wherever you listen to your podcast, but most importantly, tell a friend what you learned and where you learned it. Our theme music is graciously provided by my friend and favorite singer-songwriter, Reggie Coates. You can find Reggie's music at heartfeltmusic.org. Thank you for joining me today. I'm Krisan Marotta, and I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the Word.