The Word of God through Christ shows His perfect life in all the aforementioned aspects regarding individual calling (after ALL night prayer) of the 12 disciples; and then the commission to preach and then warning of initial issues and much more extensive words all the way to the end of the chapter which reminds us of much later prophecies of Matthew 24. These words themselves have allusion to the personal persecution and martyrdom that would come to ALL the disciples (later referred to as the 12 Apostles with the replacement of Judas Iscariot bringing this number back from 11 after his suicide). They also foretell the end times persecution as we recall that Jesus said that all the cities would not be reached until the Lord came back ( Matt. 10:23). This verse could also predict that their current initial evangelism would terminate before that happens also but obviously the 144,000 and the 2 Prophets in Revelation will complete the process but the nation as a whole will not accept Him until He is almost returned as we see from the end of the book of Zechariah. This shows that all of the world and His Body at large has lessons that were to be learned and He prayed for all of us to be as one in John 17.
Going on to chapter 11 verse 2 we read: When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples 3 to ask him, "Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?"
I mentioned in an earlier post this situation; it would seem John should know better. The long space until Jesus was 30 and began His miracles may have been absent of miracles but you would expect the interlude until he was in prison would show him there were no doubts not to mention the reports of Christ's miracles. Nonethless Jesus in the next few verses merely gives them a first hand account of what He did but in a sort of third person report as God the Father would have dictated.
John the Baptist, imprisoned and knowing he will be killed needed assurance and encouragement that what he thought about Jesus and his own mission was not in vain. He was doubting, perhaps due to not necessarily knowing all about the Messiah's ministry, life, death, and resurrection.
Jesus sent back a messenger to John who did not scold John for his weakness of faith or for his lack of knowledge.
Jesus had the messenger quote from Isaiah about the lame walking, the blind seeing, etc. to show John that Jesus was the Messiah truly because He was fulfilling prophecies that John knew about from his training as the son of a priest.
How gracious of Jesus. I am sure that John was strengthened, but more importantly, he knew that he was chosen by God not only for his work as one calling in the wilderness, but as one who was God's own. He died knowing where he would end up and that was not in the punishment side of sheol. He died a violent horrific death, but most likely died in peace.
The Word of God through Christ shows His perfect life in all the aforementioned aspects regarding individual calling (after ALL night prayer) of the 12 disciples; and then the commission to preach and then warning of initial issues and much more extensive words all the way to the end of the chapter which reminds us of much later prophecies of Matthew 24. These words themselves have allusion to the personal persecution and martyrdom that would come to ALL the disciples (later referred to as the 12 Apostles with the replacement of Judas Iscariot bringing this number back from 11 after his suicide). They also foretell the end times persecution as we recall that Jesus said that all the cities would not be reached until the Lord came back ( Matt. 10:23). This verse could also predict that their current initial evangelism would terminate before that happens also but obviously the 144,000 and the 2 Prophets in Revelation will complete the process but the nation as a whole will not accept Him until He is almost returned as we see from the end of the book of Zechariah. This shows that all of the world and His Body at large has lessons that were to be learned and He prayed for all of us to be as one in John 17.
Going on to chapter 11 verse 2 we read: When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples 3 to ask him, "Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?"
I mentioned in an earlier post this situation; it would seem John should know better. The long space until Jesus was 30 and began His miracles may have been absent of miracles but you would expect the interlude until he was in prison would show him there were no doubts not to mention the reports of Christ's miracles. Nonethless Jesus in the next few verses merely gives them a first hand account of what He did but in a sort of third person report as God the Father would have dictated.
John the Baptist, imprisoned and knowing he will be killed needed assurance and encouragement that what he thought about Jesus and his own mission was not in vain. He was doubting, perhaps due to not necessarily knowing all about the Messiah's ministry, life, death, and resurrection.
Jesus sent back a messenger to John who did not scold John for his weakness of faith or for his lack of knowledge.
Jesus had the messenger quote from Isaiah about the lame walking, the blind seeing, etc. to show John that Jesus was the Messiah truly because He was fulfilling prophecies that John knew about from his training as the son of a priest.
How gracious of Jesus. I am sure that John was strengthened, but more importantly, he knew that he was chosen by God not only for his work as one calling in the wilderness, but as one who was God's own. He died knowing where he would end up and that was not in the punishment side of sheol. He died a violent horrific death, but most likely died in peace.
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