New Creation Realities – 4
This time I want to look at why Jesus makes a statement that we are greater than John.:
Matt. 11:11Most assuredly I tell you, among those who are born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptizer; yet he who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he.
Luke 7:28 “For I tell you, among those who are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptizer, yet he who is least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he.”
I always wondered about this statement. Wasn’t Elijah or Elisha greater than john? What about Moses and some others that did great and wonderful things in the Bible.
Think about Moses for a minute with me. First God speaks to him personally in a face to face encounter through a burning bush that is not consumed. Then he throws his staff down and it becomes a snake and he picks it up again and it is a staff again. He turns water into blood, causes ten plaques to come on Egypt and delivers a nation out of bondage and slavery. Then he speaks to a rock and brings forth water. Isn’t that a great man in the kingdom? Jesu doesn’t think so.
What about Elijah. He calls down fire from heaven and then God speaks to him in an audible voice. HE stops the rain for three and a half years and then makes it rain again. He performed eight miracles in his life that included raising someone from the dead. Wasn’t he a great man in the kingdom. Jesus didn’t think so.
Elisha is next. Double the amount of miracles that Elijah did. Also raised someone from the dead, multiplied the oil in a bottle for a widow and her son, healed a leper king and many more. Prophesied a famine to stop and it did. Surely he must be great in the kingdom and even better than John the Baptist.
John never performed a miracle I his life. Surely Elisha bust be bigger than John in the kingdom. Jesus didn’t think so.
What about all the others we have not even mentioned like Daniel, David, Solomon, Joseph and Abraham. The list goes on and on. The question remains as to why Jesus would say John is bigger in the kingdom than all of them. And then you must understand that if you are in his kingdom, through the born again experience, you are greater than John. That is what Jesus thinks.
So what made john the greatest of all the prophets?
John not only had a message of repentance, which most of the prophets had, but he had an announcement to make. He was the one that would no longer talk about a coming Messiah. He was the one chosen to announce that Jesus was here.
John 1:29 The next day, he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
All the prophets before John was looking into the future and knowing that God will send the Messiah, but knew that it was not in their lifetime. John was the one that would experience the reality of seeing the Messiah walk amongst them as a nation. For them it was a prediction for him it was reality.
So why does Jesus think that we are greater than John who saw him and announced him?
God was not looking at the miracles, He is looking for the message. Jesus is the message of God. He is the Word of God made manifest. The Word not amongst a people but inside a people.
In the kingdom today we don’t see him but we have him in us, and his word written on our hearts. In the Book of John it clearly states that “The Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us.”
Jesus as the Word of God came two thousand years ago and when he ascended to the Father he gave us a promise.
John 14:16-20 I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever,— the Spirit of truth, whom the world can’t receive; for it doesn’t see him, neither knows him. You know him, for he lives with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more; but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
HE did not leave us as orphans, He send his Spirit and through the Spirit he now lives inside of us. This time it is not Him amongst a people, but Him inside of people. This time it is not one prophet announcing his presence, it is all that have him announcing his presence. Indeed the word has become flesh, indeed the word is flesh in people amongst every tribe and tongue and nation. Think about it. Jesus has chosen to multiply himself and live in all of us.
Why are you greater than John the Baptist? Jesus never lived inside of John but he is living in us and because we all now have Him, we are greater than any prophet that ever lived. It was not the miracles that made them great, it was the message. They were announcing and waiting, John announced and saw, we announce and experience. It was not the miracles, it was the message. You have the Word of God, Jesus the word made flesh in you, as the message of God in you. That is who you are.
Rom 10:6-8 But the righteousness which is of faith says this, “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down); or, ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.)” But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart;” that is, the word of faith, which we preach: