Introduction:
Our Lord has answered John’s struggling faith with evidence from His own activity that accorded with Old Testament promise.
He praised His messenger, making clear that John’s character was that of a true man of God.
And, as a result, we had the opportunity to see what makes for godly servants. We saw John’s humility, stability, loyalty, faithfulness, and ruggedness.
Our Lord made two shocking statements in the 11th verse.
We must always remember that our Lord was preaching almost exclusively to Jewish people. He addressed their messianic expectations which were informed by the promises made to their fathers — the promises found in the Scriptures.
Now, there were Gentiles who came to Him. There were Samaritans who believed in Him. But the primary focus of His ministry, and of His disciple’s ministry, was the nation of Israel.
Even as the book of Acts begins — in the earliest portion of that record — the matter of first priority was to proclaim Jesus the Messiah to the Jewish people.
That people — the Jewish people — would have found these two statements shocking.
• That no one was greater than John the Baptist.
What about Moses?
What about Abraham?
What about David?
What about Elijah?
John was the greatest, Jesus says. What qualifies John for that praise?
• That the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John.
The least who belongs to the kingdom is greater than John.
What is our Lord emphasizing?
He is emphasizing the GREATNESS OF THE KINGDOM.
He is emphasizing the greatness of the era of fulfillment as compared with the era of promise.
This morning we think about how John the Baptist represents the closing of one era in salvation history, and the inauguration of a new era that is superior. We think about something better.
• THE KINGDOM EXPECTATIONS OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE
This is where we must begin if we are to understand these verses.
Let me begin with two disclaimers.
I do not deny that today there is both a now and not yet with respect to the kingdom of God.
I believe that the New Testament presents the kingdom of heaven to us in ways that indicate that certain aspects of the kingdom of heaven are already experienced in this age — in the church age.
There is a sense in which entrance into the kingdom of heaven is an immediate reality when one places his or her faith in the King as Lord and Savior. The kingdom of heaven is an immediate reality in the spiritual sense.
ESV Colossians 1:13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
We are kingdom citizens.
There is a king.
There are subjects.
There is a realm in which His authority is acknowledged, and He is ruling — HIS CHURCH.
And this is something MORE than just the universal kingdom which always existed since creation.
This means that there are aspects of the new covenant which we already know, and those aspects include kingdom blessings.
THE PERMANENT INDWELLING OF GOD’S SPIRIT
THE INDWELLING SPIRIT AS THE FIRSTFRUITS, THE FIRST TASTE, OF A KINGDOM INHERITANCE
ESV Ephesians 1:13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
THE AUTHORITY IN THE CHURCH TO BIND AND LOOSE WHAT GOD HAS BOUND AND LOOSED — THAT IS A KINGDOM AUTHORITY
ESV Matthew 16:18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
WHEN WE HEAR GOD’S WORD CONCERNING THE NEW COVENANT, WE HEAR OF THINGS THAT WE KNOW NOW, AND WE ALSO HEAR OF THINGS THAT THE WORLD HAS NOT YET SEEN.
ESV Jeremiah 31:31 "Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD.

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