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Show THE GREATEST MAN "Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. (Matthew 11: 11) " delivering the eulogy for John the Baptist. John was not yet dead but was in prison waiting to have his head cut off and delivered on a platter. Jesus had great things to say about John. Maybe you and I can learn a lesson from Jesus was . this context. Jesus did not wait until John was John was dead to say good things about him. He said it to the multitudes while still able to hear and understand. Instead tearing people down, 1 ought to honor good people. W e ought to highlight their excellences, not we their deficits. From the beginning of time, there had greater than John who was born of a woman. Adam was great for he been no one tilled the and is the father garden of Eden of all mankind. Abel was great for he got God to accept his offering. Abraham was great for he was the father of the faithful. Noah was great for he found favor in the eyes of God. Moses led the children of bondage. David great as he whipped Goliath ad Israel out of Egyptian was deliver his head. Ezekiel was great as he preached and dry bones got up and live. Job was great having patience in God for restoration. Daniel and the three Hebrew boys were great praying 2 and being delivered from the lions den and the fiery furnace. Elijah was so great he prayed and it didn't rain for 3 years and six months. Elisha was so great that he caused an ax great that his head to float. Jonah one sermon cause was so the whole people of Nineveh to repent. Yet, Jesus, the All-Knowing, Ever-Present, Son of God said that John of ALL that of women, " ... are there hath not risen born a greater than John the Baptist." What really matters greatness is the Lord's estimate of not the world's. I don't know what Jesus had in but I John the the think of a few can Baptist things mind, that made stand out. First, John the Baptist was filled with Holy Until this Ghost from his mother's womb. day, I haven't heard of and I 3 anybody else that was born first time Holy Spirit filled. That is to don't know the suggest one that had God in him and and for him in every way. Second, John the Baptist preached in the wilderness and emptied the cities through him preached. The Bible says that everybody came to hear him. Not just the small or the large, the tall or the when he the poor, the black or the white but EVERYBODY went out to short, the rich or preacher preach. I have been trying to get the people I know, the people I work with, the people I do things for, the people in my neighborhood, the people in this city, the hear ths members of this church to He was in the great as a prophet, come a hear voice me. crying wilderness, thunder against evil 4 and wickedness. as Third, John the Baptist was as close one could get to the Master. He was related by blood. He jumped in his mother's womb when he visited six conception. He baptized Jesus. He preached repentance and prepared the way for the Master to come months after his with salvation. He denied himself and honey and locust. He humbled him self by wearing camel's hair and a girdle of skin. He devoted himself and said, "There cometh one mightier than I ate wild after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose." (Mark 1: 7) He gave place to an untrained, obscure new-comer. He was a man with the mind of Christ and nothing else. 5 Still, despite the forerunner John the Baptist's greatest, "the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater." In other words, those who have not only repentance but salvation are greater than John. Those who know the Lord and members of the Lord's church are are greater than John. Those who have been loosed from the law and washed in the blood of the Lamb are greater. You and I have the opportunity to see and experience some things John the Baptist could not so much as imagine. We have the grace, the mercy, the love, and the cross of Jesus' suffering. 6 |
