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Are You the One

From the gospel accounts, we learn that Jesus was a man who had grown up among the people, a seemingly ordinary man, who for those first thirty years of his life lived an ordinary existence. At the age[1] when priests enter the ministry, Jesus arrived at the banks of the Jordan River and was baptized by John, the one known as “the Baptizer.” Since he had drawn no attention during his earlier years,[2] Jesus was simply known as “the son of the carpenter,” his father Joseph being the carpenter.[3] From the moment of his baptism by John, the simple life Jesus led while he lived in the backwater town of Nazareth began to change.

Perhaps doubts were fostered in people’s minds, not because of what Jesus did as he began ministering and preaching the kingdom of God, but more because of who he was—the son of a simple carpenter—and what he was now saying to them. “And many who heard Him were astonished, saying ’Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands?’”[4]

The questions asked nearly two thousand years ago by those who came in contact with Jesus remain absolutely relevant today. They are relevant because they are meant to encourage us to think about Jesus, the man he was, and what he is all about.

Are you the One? Of all the unlikely places one might turn to answer this question, it was John the Baptizer who led us to the heart of the matter. While in prison waiting to have his head removed, John sent two of his own disciples to Jesus with the question, "Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?" [5]

In those days there was much talk, and the expectation was high about the One to come, ”the messiah,” as the people called him, the One who would remove the foreign occupiers and reestablish the fallen tabernacle of David.[6] Israel's hope was for a restored kingdom,[7] with all the glory which was hers in the former days. But instead of what they expected, this Jesus of Nazareth, a Galilean,[8] arrived with his fantastic claims, such as, “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.” [9] and "I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.”[10]

There were probably many reasons for John’s question. One reason could be that Jesus appeared to be a more ordinary man than had been expected as the hoped-for messiah. If the messiah was the son of David come to reestablish the throne, who, then, was this son of a carpenter, Jesus? The man and the message apparently did not fulfill expectations, even in the Baptist's mind. We do know that the people as a whole mused and debated about Jesus, while the Scribes, the Pharisees, the lawyers, and the chief priests[11] outright rejected him as the anticipated one.[12]

But how could John not know Jesus was the expected one, considering what occurred during Jesus’ baptism?[13] Jesus must have seemed a very unlikely candidate, to have motivated John to pose his question.

Why? What did John, and the others who were looking for the Christ (God's anointed one), expect that they did not find in Jesus? It wasn't just those searching for the Christ, but many others who came into contact with Jesus, who were either intrigued or troubled by this son of a carpenter who was going about teaching and preaching the kingdom of God. For many, the biggest issue was how to account for this ordinary Galilean going about performing marvelous works of healing the sick and the infirm, deeds unheard of since the days of the prophets.[14]

The answer to John’s question, “are you the one?” lies in Jesus’ response to John’s disciples. "Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over me."[15]

The key to Jesus’ words, "report to John what you hear and see" is in understanding that through these senses a man perceives the creation in which he lives and moves.[16] For the man who has the ability to see and hear,[17] his very perceptions lead him to reason that God is at work in everything.[18]

The deeper truth behind Jesus’ response to John is that one cannot expect to see God the Father, who is Spirit.[19] It is through faith that one is able to believe the declaration of His word which grants the ability to “hear and see.” When we hear Jesus speak, we hear God the Father speaking through him.[20] If we reject Jesus, the One whom the Father sent, we thus reject the Father.[21] Statements such as the one made to John’s disciples infuriated many, puzzled others, and attracted the few who stayed with him those three years or so while he walked the countryside preaching the gospel of God's kingdom.[22]
            The things John was admonished to hear and see were proofs Jesus was indeed the anointed one, and the kingdom of God was near. In words which have divided humanity, Jesus tells us, “blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over me." Many did stumble over his words. Many still do so to this day, as his words continue to divide.[23]

You can imagine the people’s curiosity and frustration over this Nazarene. Who was this man who came to them with such utterly extraordinary claims, performed incredible miracles of healing, and, to the dismay of the elite ruling class, associated with tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners of all backgrounds? Who was this man who claimed to be sent from God, coming to them with the authority of God's Word[24] without any regard for tradition?[25]

The expectation was high; God was to send a powerful prince and leader of the people who would once again sit upon the throne of Israel. Instead, they were faced with this Jesus of Nazareth, a lowly carpenter's son, healing the infirm, and opening the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf. He even raised the dead, to the amazement of everyone.

Jesus performed all these works while he went about mingling with the lowest of society, even women,[26] while preaching the gospel of God’s kingdom. The people's anticipation of the messiah, the promised king, [27] was not met in this Nazarene. Even his closest disciples had difficulty understanding Jesus’ motives and goals.[28]

 

Whether or not one accepts the person of Jesus and the gospel he preached, it’s important to see the urgency for his listeners to at least believe in the works.[29] For it was the works God was performing through him[30] that in the end would judge and condemn those who rejected him.[31] The culpability of man is at its highest when the works of God are brought to bear.[32] Such was the case of Jesus healing the infirm and performing miracles.[33]

The wonders, miracles, and signs performed by God's prophets contained both a blessing and a curse. More than a thousand years prior, Moses warned the people, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers. It is to him you shall listen.”[34] On the one hand, the works of God were a blessing for those who believed and trusted in the God who performed them through His agents. The works and miracles of God, however, could also become a curse.[35] The curse of God was clearly demonstrated in the reality of the nation upon which God had conferred His name.[36]

The scriptures identify the people of God’s choosing through their deliverance from bondage, and the blessings He poured out upon them; but in the end, the nation as a body politic rejected both the God[37] who led them out of bondage, and in the distant future, the one Moses foretold.

Human nature, being what it is, demands evidence and miracles to prove God is who He says He is.[38] To see is to believe, or so a man will cry out, but seeing and even participating in the miracles of God is by no means a guarantee of belief. Forever preserved is the example of the people who followed Moses through the wilderness! An entire generation saw and experienced the miracles of God throughout their wanderings, yet, because of their rebellion and unbelief,[39] they perished in the wilderness.

We must bear in mind that the message Jesus preached, “the kingdom of God is at hand,” was accompanied by the works the Father had given to him. In other words, the preaching of the gospel of God’s kingdom, in light of the works Jesus performed, is inextricably linked. The link between the message, the messenger, and the miracles is most critical for us if we are to identify with Jesus, and understand how God was working through him.[40]

 

In the sight of the people, there is another important point to consider regarding the works and the message of Jesus. Not for more than seven hundred years, not since the days of Elijah and Elisha, had there been a prophet in Israel, sent by God, who performed miracles! These two prophets bore witness before a corrupt and disobedient people, who in the end bore the consequence of turning their backs on God while clinging to the gods of their imagination.

The kingdom was eventually torn away from the nation, a people destitute of faith,[41] who never did see the rightful King sit upon the throne of David. The nation of God, called Israel[42] for His name’s sake, was sent into captivity and dispersed among the nations; most never returned. It would be nearly two generations later that a remnant of that nation returned, thereby keeping the Seed line alive. The promise of God's chosen servant was to be fulfilled through the Seed, and those who had returned to the land under Ezra and Nehemiah were God's furtherance of His promise and intent.

The generation who witnessed Jesus and the works he performed would also experience the horrific loss of their homeland. As Jesus had warned them, the judgment of God came down upon that generation. Jesus predicted that once again the people would be scattered, and the temple would be destroyed, and with it the sacrificial system, the priesthood, and the way to approach the one, true, living God.

The new and living way to approach God had arrived![43]

 

The culpability of the people with whom Jesus interacted rose to a high point when he came performing miracles. The miracles were the confirmation that, once again, God was working through His prophet. If the people would not accept him and his message,[44] then they could have at least believed in the miracles and the works as the evidence[45] that God had sent[46] His prophet![47]

The most important element of Jesus’ answer to John’s question, “are you the one?” is these words, “blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over me."[48] The reply Jesus gives to John reveals the core truth which separates those who stumble, from those who do not, and thus are true followers.[49]

If Jesus is the one, then it is a blessing for the people who do not stumble over him. Of necessity, the blessing depends upon whether or not a man stumbles over the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom of God Jesus taught and preached. You cannot separate the man from the message. Doing so leaves you with neither.[50]

 

The person of Jesus and the message he preached are inseparable from the purpose of God. The importance of seeing and understanding who Jesus of Nazareth was, the issue John's question centered upon, is directly related to the message he preached. The core of Jesus’ message to John is an uncomfortable truth that many have stumbled over and continue to stumble over today.

The stumbling is accompanied by the mixed message found within the divided Church of our day. It is a message preached and taught by literally hundreds of denominations and from tens of thousands of pulpits and classrooms worldwide, spanning centuries of Church history.

The message delivered by what the world perceives as Christianity is a gospel which has strayed from the message of Jesus. It is a false gospel, and it is the reason for the widespread division of the Church of God.[51] This should not surprise us, as the doctrine of the Christ[52] had already been perverted before the ink dried on the parchment!

The first of this dark reality, and the primary reason the Church is divided today, is the distortion of the person of Jesus, who he was, and what he has become.

The second dark reality is the distortion of the gospel of the kingdom of God which he preached. Those who gave us what became the New Testament Scriptures reveal that the person of Jesus and his message were under attack from those false teachers who had already crept in, as attested by the warnings of the apostles.[53] Before the last apostle was laid to rest,[54] this perversion was well entrenched in Church doctrine.

 

The Gospel Jesus preached is not the gospel of orthodox, mainline Christianity! Jesus’ preaching of the dominion of the kingdom of God on earth has become all but invalidated within the message disseminated by denominational Christianity.

Since the close of the apostolic era, up to and including the pulpits and classrooms of our day, nearly all that comprises what the world views and accepts as denominational Christianity is empty of the promise of the kingdom of God as the hope of the people of God. The promise and hope of the reign of God upon this earth, where God is to dwell in the midst of His people, has become irrelevant in the message(s) the church teaches and preaches today. This irrelevancy has profound implications, for the gospel of the kingdom of God has nothing to do with the hope denominational Christianity espouses today.[55]

The disconnect between the gospel of the kingdom of God Jesus taught and the gospel(s)[56] being preached from the pulpits of denominational Christianity is all but complete. The hope of the kingdom of God on earth,[57] where God promises to dwell in the midst of His people, is simply not the hope preached from the pulpits of the Church!

If these things are true, the question is raised, which has the greater preeminence, the messenger, or the message he brought? If the message of God's kingdom has become all but irrelevant in the Church, what, then, of the messenger?

 

As a side note, there are four fundamental concepts expressed in the four gospels of the New Testament scriptures. These concepts should form the basis of our New Testament theology. They are the kingdom of God, the King, the rejection of the kingdom of God, and the rejection of the King. Everything else the apostles left us, all the doctrines about sin, the believer’s justification before God, good works, and the believer’s inheritance, are predicated on these truths being fundamental to the four gospels we possess today.

It is certain, and mostly ignored, that the gospel of the kingdom of God Jesus of Nazareth preached and taught continued to be preached and taught by the apostles.[58] The preaching of God’s reign upon the earth, along with the promise God would dwell in the midst of His people, did not end, nor was it postponed, by Jesus’ death and resurrection; it was the continuation of what the prophets like Isaiah and Zechariah wrote. [59]

 

In the final analysis, the expectation of the reign of God on earth, the promise of God to dwell in the midst of His people,[60] was the good news Jesus preached to the people.

However, the reign of God on earth is not the message of the divided Church today. Where in the Church can one find the hope in the promise expressed in the words of Jesus, “blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth”? [61] Where is the word of Yahweh taught, "For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea."[62] And where is the hope expressed among the churched that, as God promised, "I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people”?[63] The establishment of the reign of God on earth is the gospel of Jesus. It is this teaching of Jesus which was and continues to remain the hope[64] of God's children.

This same hope was recorded in the Acts of the Apostles,[65] the hope which the disciples continued to preach and teach. If we are to believe Jesus of Nazareth is the one sent from God, and he is the fulfillment of the promise made to the fathers,[66] then the message of Jesus is most relevant. As the sent one,[67] Jesus came to us speaking the words the Father gave him;[68] the good news that the kingdom of God on earth is at hand. The message of Jesus continues to be as relevant today as when he preached on the hillsides of Judea.

"He that has the ears to hear, let him hear."[69]

 

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