I want to approach the message, perhaps, in a bit of a different way, and I’m praying that the Lord will help me, as He did in the first service, to convey to you all the things that are in my heart. But as a starting point, if you would, open your Bible to the gospel of Matthew and the eleventh chapter. I want to read the opening six verses as kind of a foundation for our look to Scripture together.

Matthew chapter 11, verses 1 through 6: “When Jesus had finished giving instructions to His twelve disciples, He departed from there to teach and preach in their cities. Now when John”—that’s John the Baptist—“while imprisoned, heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to Him, ‘Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?’” This seems like a bizarre query from John the Baptist. We read, earlier, the annunciation to Zacharias and Elizabeth of the coming of the greatest man who ever lived up until his time, John the Baptist, the great prophet and forerunner of the Messiah, the one who would straighten out His paths for when He arrived. We’re very familiar with the fact that John introduced Jesus personally with these words: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” It was John who fulfilled his calling to be the forerunner of Messiah by introducing Messiah to the people of Israel.

Here we are, well into the ministry of Jesus, and John is asking a question that may surprise us. He wants information from Jesus. And so he sends some of his disciples, and his question is this in verse 3: “Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?” How could he possibly even ask that question? Well, he did. He wasn’t sure. He was confused about the very one whom He had introduced as the Lamb of God, the very one about whom he said, “He must increase and I must decrease.”

Well, Jesus sent him back an answer in verse 4. He said to the disciples of John, “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, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.” That ends with a mild rebuke: “You shouldn’t take offense at what I’m doing.” But the idea that Jesus was giving sight to the blind, giving physical capacity to the lame, cleansing lepers, giving hearing to the deaf and raising the dead and preaching the gospel was not what John the Baptist expected Him to do. That was the problem. It wasn’t consistent even with John the Baptist’s view of Messiah.

The Old Testament is a Mosaic of prophecies about the Messiah, and they are diverse, and they are enigmatic. They are paradoxical. They sometimes appear contradictory, so much so that even John the Baptist, the greatest, again, who ever lived, therefore the greatest prophet, struggled to understand whether Christ was, in fact, the Messiah.

And what we all know when you look at the Old Testament, sometimes the Messiah is introduced as a coming king and a coming conqueror. In other passages He is introduced as a man of sorrow, a man of loneliness and rejection. Some prophets tell of the Messiah as the King of glory, the King of heaven, the eternal Savior, desire of all nations. And other describe Him as having no beauty that we should desire Him, that He is a slave, a bloody, suffering, crucified, dead victim. There are paradoxical perspectives all through the Old Testament prophecies. On the one hand, they allow us to wonder, like John did, just exactly, is Jesus the Messiah? But on the other hand, they give us absolute, unequivocal proof that He is, that He is.

Now let’s pick up the story with John the Baptist in Luke 3, in Luke 3, and see what was going on with John’s confusion. Luke 3 begins, “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John.” That’s very important because what John says was direct revelation from God.

“The word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. And he came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins; as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. Every ravine will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be brought low; the crooked will become straight, and the rough roads smooth; and all flesh will see the salvation of God.”’

“So he began saying to the crowds who were going out to be baptized by him, ‘You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham for our father,” for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. Indeed the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; so every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.’”

We hear more of John’s words over in verses 16 and 17: “John answered and said to them all, ‘As for me, I baptize you with water; but One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.’ So with many other exhortations he preached the gospel to the people.” John preached the gospel of judgment. John was preaching the Messiah’s arrival and unleashing fire in a fury of judgment.

So it’s not surprising that when Jesus came, He didn’t do anything that even remotely looked like judgment. In fact, it was the very opposite. And that’s why John sent some of his disciples to say, “Are You the Messiah or should we be looking for someone else?” And Jesus sent the message back, “Well, judgment’s not the only part of My ministry. I’ve also come”—and Jesus quotes from Isaiah 35 and Isaiah 61 and says—“to show mercy: to heal people, to give the blind sight, and the lame, to enable them to walk, and to raise the dead, and to preach the good news. John, you didn’t have the full picture.”

John was the number one prophet. Jesus said in Matthew 11:11 he was the greatest man who ever lived up until his time. So he would be the greatest prophet. But even he was confused as to what the Messiah was supposed to do when He arrived. That’s not surprising.

In 1 Peter 1:10 and 11 we have a statement that kind of covers the ground with this: “As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.” That’s a statement that basically says the prophets had a hard time trying to figure out what person could fulfill all these diverse prophecies. The prophets had a struggle with that, and so we’re not surprised that John did as well. Not surprising.

And it’s not surprising also, in the light of what Jesus said in Matthew 13, verses 16 and 17, listen to this: He says to His disciples, “Blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” Even the prophets who prophesied weren’t sure. There was so much diversity, they couldn’t be certain of whom they themselves were actually writing.

Now that takes us back to where we started, Mathew 11. Go back to it. John’s confusion was certainly enhanced by his condition. You notice in verse 2 of Matthew 11 it says he was imprisoned. He was actually put in prison by King Herod Antipas. He was locked up in a gloomy fortress of Machaerus, located about five miles east of the Dead Sea out in the wilderness. His prison was in one of the Herodian palaces. His imprisonment was an imprisonment—it was grim. And certainly it made him wonder just exactly whether or not Jesus was the Messiah, because instead of Him coming to judge his enemies, John is under the judgment of the very enemies of God. A grim imprisonment.

But apparently he was allowed some visitors; and when he had the opportunity, he sent some who had visited him back to Jesus to ask Jesus to explain what is going on. At that time John may have—he may have had some inklings that he was going to be beheaded, as he was. But even apart from that, just being in that prison was very, very different than what he expected when the Messiah arrived. And John had received his revelation directly from God. He failed to see how to resolve the confusion of expecting the Messiah to come and judge and reign and bring salvation; and instead of that, Jesus brings compassion, the nation turns on Him, there’s no act of judgment except on the prophet who announced that He was coming as the Judge.

Jesus sends back the message, “That’s not the only thing I’m coming to do,” and He sends back the comments that I read you in verse 5—compassion, healing, and preaching the gospel—and tells John and anyone else not to be scandalized by the fact that He doesn’t appear to be who they expected. This is a very important word, by the way, for all Jewish people throughout all of history, because the continual rejection of the Messiah, Jesus, by the Jewish people even to this very day and this very hour is predicated on the fact that He didn’t do what they expected Him to do. Instead of bringing judgment on the enemies of God, He Himself was executed. That is so alien to what they expected that that’s the foundation of their rejection in spite of what Isaiah 53 says.

So many amazing prophecies about Jesus; enough, really, to be confusing. Let me give you some illustrations.

Turn to Isaiah chapter 7, Isaiah chapter 7, one of the most familiar and beloved prophecies of the Messiah. But it is full of paradoxes, enigmas. Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold”—and that behold is there because what’s about to be spoken is a shock—“a virgin will be with child and bear a son.” “A virgin will be with child”—that’s not possible—“and bear a son.” And not only that, but that son will be named “Immanuel.” A virgin—almah in the Hebrew—a virgin has a son. A virgin has a child and bears a son. There’s two things there: a virgin with a child, that’s the humanity; and the bearing of a son, a son given by God, because His name is Immanuel. He is not only given by God, He is God.

How am I to understand that? How could Isaiah understand that? A virgin who has a child, who at the same time is a given son? Given by who? Given by God Himself—that’s John 1:14, begotten by the Father—a child who is human and yet divine, who is both a child of a virgin and God Himself. “Immanuel” means “God with us.” That’s incomprehensible.

Isaiah in chapter 9 received another prophecy of the birth of Messiah, the coming of Messiah in chapter 9, verses 6 and 7, “For a child will be born to us”—again, through the virgin, that’s His humanity—“a son will be given to us”—the Son of God, the only begotten of the Father. So here is a child who is both human and divine, and to emphasize the fact that He is divine, that He is Immanuel, God with us, “the government will rest on His shoulders.” And it doesn’t qualify that word “government” with any descriptives. “The government”—the rule, the sovereignty—“will be on His shoulders.” He carries the full burden of sovereignty on His own shoulders. He is sovereign.

He is also called “Wonderful Counselor,” which speaks of His supreme wisdom. There is no counselor that is such a wonder of a counselor as He is because none have His wisdom.

He is the “Mighty God.” And again, that’s exactly what it means. He is God Almighty. He is—notice this, a child and a son who is also the “Eternal Father” and the “Prince of Peace.” “Prince” would indicate the Son of the Father; and yet He is both the “Eternal Father,” and the Son of the Father who is the “Prince of Peace.”

“There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace.” This is where His sovereignty is extended into permanence. “On the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.”

What kind of a child is this? A son with a human mother who is a virgin, a son with a divine Father, is both man and God because He is, in essence, Immanuel, because He is the Almighty God, because He is the Eternal Father, because He is the Prince of Peace. Who could possibly fulfill all this? This is really incomprehensible. How could Isaiah have any idea of the realities of which he wrote?

In Luke 1:35 the angel said to Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God,” the Son of God. “Yes, you will conceive in your womb and have a son. He will be great and be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” Everything that was in the Isaiah 9 prophecy was reiterated by the angel to Mary at the birth of Christ. How can one person be truly man and truly God? This is the mystery of godliness.

In Genesis 3:15, He’s the seed of the woman. In Daniel 7:13, He’s the Son of Man. In Psalm 2:7, He’s the Son of God. In Genesis 22:18, He’s the seed of Abraham. And yet He Himself said, “Before Abraham was, I am.” He is both David’s Lord and David’s son, so says Psalm 110. That is to say, He is the Father of David and the son of David—Father of David in His divinity, the son of David in His humanity.

There is nothing to compare with this in all of human history. So we can understand there’s a little bit of confusion. How can He be son of David and David’s Lord? Well, Colossians 2 says, “The fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him bodily.” So the mystery of His person is enough to confound anyone, even the very prophet who wrote.

Let me tell you a second mystery: the mystery of the line of Judah. In Genesis 49:10—you don’t have to turn to it—it says that the Messiah will come from the tribe of Judah, from the tribe of Judah. “The scepter”—the right to rule—“will not depart from Judah until Shiloh comes.” Shiloh’s the one whose right it is. So the Messiah will come from the line of Judah.

That’s, on its face, simple enough. Through Judah will come the progeny that leads ultimately to the Messiah. But there’s some issues there that has to be dealt with, and I want to show you these. Go back to Genesis 38, Genesis 38. This is a frightful story, honestly, but it’s very instructive for us with regard to Christ as the Messiah.

We won’t go through the whole story in Genesis 38, but Judah had some sons, and he had a son who married a woman named Tamar. Tamar married his first son and the son died, and according to levirate law, when a son dies, if there was another brother the other brother would take her up and end her widowhood and take the place of his brother and marry her to keep the family line going. So a second brother married Tamar. We won’t go into all the details of that, but he also died. So now Tamar, the daughter-in-law of Judah, has had two of Judah’s sons marry her, and both of them are gone.

So Judah has another son, another son who should have been available named Shelah. I know that’s not a good name for a son, but that’s long ago. So the right thing for Judah to do would have been to give the third son to Tamar and to pick up the levirate law that allowed the family line to pass on by giving another son who had not married. But I can understand a little bit of hesitation in Judah’s mind: “I gave her two, and they’re both dead. Maybe I’m not going to do this again.” And that was his decision. So he really was disobedient. It was an act of unrighteousness on Judah’s part not to provide a son.

So she was going to get out of her widowhood one way or another. She was going to have children one way or another. So if you look at the middle of Genesis 38, verse 14, Tamar knows that Judah’s going to be around, “So she [removes] her widow’s garments and [covers] herself with a veil, and [wraps] herself, [she sits] in the gateway of Enaim, on the road to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah had grown up, and she had not been given to him as a wife. When Judah saw her, he thought she was a harlot, for she had covered her face.” That’s what she wanted him to think.

“So he turned aside to her by the road, and said, ‘Here now, let me come in to you’; and he didn’t know that she was his daughter-in-law. And she said, ‘What will you give me, that you may come in to me?’” There’s a price for this. “He said, therefore, “I will send you a young goat from the flock.’ She said, moreover, ‘Will you give a pledge until you send it?’” “Until you send the goat, will you give me something that will guarantee that I’m going to get the goat?” “‘What pledge shall I give you?’” verse 18. “She said, ‘Your seal, your cord, and your staff that is in your hand.’ So he gave them to her and went in to her, she conceived by him. She arose and departed, removed her veil and put on her widow’s garments.” She got what she wanted. She got pregnant, and that family was going to have to take care of her because she was going to bear the children of Judah.

Well, it all unfolds in an ugly way, verse 24, “About three months later . . . Judah was informed, ‘Your daughter-in-law Tamar has played the harlot, and behold, she’s also with child by [adultery, or] or harlotry.’ Then Judah said, ‘Bring her out and let [us burn her. Bring her and we’ll burn her!]’ It was while she was being brought out that she sent to her father-in-law, saying, ‘I am with child by the man to whom these things belong. . . . Examine and see, whose signet ring, cords, and staff are these?’ Judah recognized them, and said, ‘She is more righteous than I, inasmuch as I did not give her to my son Shelah.’” “She’s more righteous than I. She’s trying to force me to do what I should have done.” I mean, she’s not righteous, but she’s more righteous than he was. “He [didn’t] have [any] relations with her again.”

Verse 27, “She was giving birth . . . [and] there were twins,” twins. Perez and Zerah came forth. So now Judah’s got two illegitimate children. How does that work for the messianic line? How’s that fit in?

Listen to Deuteronomy 23:2. This is the law of God: “No one of illegitimate birth shall enter the assembly of the Lord; none of his descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall enter the assembly of the Lord.” It took ten generations before an illegitimate child would be considered legitimate, to be put into the family line. The curse would be lifted only after ten generations.

Turn to Ruth chapter 4. You know the story of Ruth of course, but it ends with this very interesting genealogy. And the genealogy, verse 18, of “the generations of Perez,” one of the twins born to Tamar from Judah. Here are the generations of Perez, starting with Judah. And if you go through the names all the way down, there are ten generations, and then the name of David. David is the first one in ten generations who can be counted in that line. How precise is God in dealing with His own standard. The curse is lifted at the tenth generation. David is the tenth generation from Judah; thus, David is free from any generational taint of the sin of Judah, free to enter the congregation of the Lord, free to reign as king, and free to be the ancestor of the Messiah. And Tamar shows up in Matthew 1 in the genealogy of Jesus, and God not only shows His grace, but He shows how He conforms to His own law. Ten generations, exactly, to David, and he is free from any curse. The mystery of Judah.

There’s a third paradox, a third enigma to confront, and I’ll just run this by you quickly. Micah 5:2 says Jesus will be born in Bethlehem, in Bethlehem. He’ll be born in Bethlehem, plain and simple. But Hosea chapter 11 verse 1 is a prophecy about Israel, but it is a prediction also of the Messiah, and it says He will be called out of Egypt. He will be born in Bethlehem and called out of Egypt. Isaiah 11:1 says that He will be “a branch,” netser, netser, suggesting the name of the town Nazareth—that is named after netser, which is the word for a shoot or a branch.

How can all this be? How can the Messiah be from Bethlehem and from Egypt and from Nazareth? Turn to Matthew chapter 2, and we see it clearly; and it’s marked for us in the text. Matthew 2:1, “Jesus was born in Bethlehem.” Verse 5, “in Bethlehem.” Verse 6, “Bethlehem”; Micah 5:2 is quoted there. But if you drop down to verse 13, the “angel of the Lord [appears] to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.’ So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt. He remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘Out of Egypt I called My Son.’” It’s the action of Herod that precipitated the flight to Egypt to fulfill that prophecy.

And then down in verse 21, “Joseph got up, took the Child and His mother, came [back] into the land of Israel. [And] when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there”—to Judea. “After being warned by God in a dream, he left for the regions of Galilee, and came and lived in a city called Nazareth.” Why didn’t he settle in Judea or somewhere around Jerusalem? Why Nazareth? Because in a fit of anger, shortly before his death, King Herod changed his will—as apparently he did often—and he put Archelaus, his worst son, the most violent son, in charge of Judea in the place of Antipas, who was assigned to Galilee in Perea. And Joseph was really fearful of Archelaus because Archelaus had killed three thousand Jews at Jerusalem in one massacre. He was cruel beyond belief, and Joseph wasn’t going to expose this young Child to the threats of a murderous leader, so he went to Galilee and to Nazareth. So if Herod doesn’t change his will, Jesus doesn’t become a Nazarene. They all fit together in God’s perfect, perfect plan.

Well, at least two more, quick.

The paradox of His right to the throne. Let’s go back to Matthew chapter 1, and this will be just quick, just to capture a name.

In the flow of the genealogy of Jesus starts Matthew 1:1, “The record of the genealogy of Jesus.” You come down to verse 11, and you see the name Jeconiah, or Coniah, as he’s sometimes called. In the line of Jesus is this Jeconiah. He is from David’s line through Solomon, OK. From David, through Solomon, you come to Jeconiah.

Now, is that a problem? It’s a serious problem. Turn to Jeremiah 22, Jeremiah 22, verse—well, we’ll just look at verse 28. Here is a prophecy about Coniah, or Jeconiah. Jeremiah 22:28, “Is this man Coniah a despised, shattered jar? Or is he an undesirable vessel? Why have he and his descendants been hurled out and cast into a land they had not known?” That’s the Babylonian captivity. “O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord! Thus says the Lord, ‘Write this man down childless, a man who will not prosper in his days; for no man of his descendants will prosper sitting on the throne of David or ruling again in Judah.’”

What? No offspring of Coniah can ever rule, can ever sit on a throne. And yet—back to Matthew 1—Jeconiah is in the line from David to the Messiah. How is that possible? Well, while you’re looking at the genealogy, notice this. The genealogy keeps saying, “the father of,” “the father of,” “the father of,” “the father of,” “the father of,” “the father of.” The lines go through the father. And you come down to verse 16, “Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born.” It doesn’t say Jesus was born of Joseph because He wasn’t, and that is precisely how the curse of Jeconiah is bypassed.

Jesus was never a descendant of Jeconiah, never. He received the right to rule the kingly line, but not the DNA of Jeconiah. He was not begotten by Joseph. John 1:14 says He was begotten by God. Mary was a descendant of David through the line of another one of David’s sons, Nathan. Joseph came through the line of Solomon, but Jeconiah put a curse, which is consistent with God’s intention that Jesus has the right to rule but no descendant of Jeconiah will ever sit on the throne. The perfection of God’s providence in every detail.

One final mystery. All throughout the Old Testament, Jesus is identified as a stone or a rock. A stone to strike, a stumbling stone, a tested stone, a cornerstone, a choice stone, a stone builders reject, a stone, Daniel 2, cut out without hands, a smashing stone, a crushing stone. How can Messiah be all of that? How can He be a stumbling stone, a rock of offense, a cornerstone, a precious stone, a choice stone, a sure foundation, a smiting stone? How can all that resolve in one person? You think that might be complicated. It actually is not.

Look at 1 Peter chapter 2, 1 Peter chapter 2. Peter does all our homework for us. He sums it all up. First Peter chapter 2, verse 4, “And coming to Him”—this is talking about salvation—“as to a living stone which has been rejected by men”—a rejected stone—“but is choice and precious”—a choice and precious stone. And, “You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For this is contained in Scripture”—that is to say, all the ways in which Christ is a stone are laid out in Scripture; and Peter lines them all up. Scripture says, “‘Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone, and he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.’ This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, ‘The stone which the builders rejected, this became the very corner stone,’ and, ‘A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense’; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed.” Whether Jesus is a precious stone or a stumbling stone depends completely on how you respond to Him. If you believe in Him, He is a precious stone; if you reject Him, He is a crushing stone.

Listen to His words, Matthew 21:42, “Jesus said to them, ‘Did you never read in the Scriptures, “The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief corner stone; this came about from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes”? Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it.”’” And here’s the most important part: “And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.” You have a choice: You fall on Christ, and you are broken in repentance and saved; you wait till He falls on you, and you are crushed in eternal judgment.

So we’re not surprised that even John the Baptist couldn’t sort out all the prophecies. So how blessed are we, right? We have all the answers to validate that Jesus is the Savior of the world, the only one.

Father, it’s been such a delight to look into Your Word and again see with clear understanding the truth concerning our blessed Savior. As we think about Christmas, it sometimes can seem like it’s pretty simple: “A child was born.” But the truth is, it was unfathomably complicated for Christ to be everything that was prophesied about Him. It had to be Jesus, it had to be Him, and it is; and that’s why we celebrate.

We look with sentimentality at the infant, and we rejoice. When we look at the massive text of Scripture with all the features of this prophetic Mosaic, and as we continue to look at those scriptures, the face of Christ emerges clearly. And the message is clear: Fall on Him, and you will be broken, but He will put you back together again with eternal life; reject Him, and then He will crush you in judgment.

Yes, John the Baptist had a right to expect Jesus to judge, and that’s what He’ll do when He returns. But for now, He offers Himself as our Savior. Open hearts to Him even today, we pray in His name, for His glory. Amen.