THE TRANSFER

There was a tremendous transfer that took place when John the Baptist was imprisoned, waiting to be put to death. It was the entrance of Jesus bringing the gospel. John was the Forerunner and Jesus was the Runner. John had been preaching in the wilderness, “Repentance of sin” and that all should repent and turn to God. He called the religious leaders, “a brood of vipers” (a bunch of snakes), and he said the ax would lay down any tree (Israel) that did not bear good fruit. John was proclaiming a God of justice who would reward the good and punish the bad, and that a glorious king was coming in triumph to bring down the anger of God upon the unjust and unrepentant sinners. He believed, like many do now, that the only way to uproot evil is to destroy those who are to blame for the evil. He basically taught a religion much like the Jews, of a God who caused men to fear his justice, and to recognize somehow that God has a right to do this and that people should try to appease him somehow with lots of prayer, sacrifices, giving money and extreme repentance, and that God was pretty much looking for some reason and some person to practice his judgment on and each person was led to believe it was them. Much of the religion of evangelicals today is as it was with John.

When Jesus came preaching the gospel of the Kingdom, he too called for repentance, but he called for other things as well. John had called for a clean sweep of the threshing floor and gathering wheat into the barn and burning the chaff with unquenchable fire and Jesus came behind him to totally overthrow the existing religious system and to supersede John’s message. John was confused and perplexed. In prison he heard of the works of Christ and he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the coming one, or should we look for someone else?” Jesus could have been very defensive at this point, but he simply said, “Go and report to John the things you see and hear: the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” These were the confirmations of Christ’s work. These were the marks of a new way, a different kingdom, and a whole new concept. The transfer was taking place and now has taken place.

“Go tell John the things you see and hear.” Jesus