Fresh Bread

Guest (Male): You are listening to Fresh Bread, Dr. Harry Reeder's daily devotional from the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.

Harry Reeder: In Luke chapter seven, having seen Jesus affirm John the Baptist as the fulfillment of the messenger who prepares the way for the Messiah, who comes in the spirit and power of Elijah, and also that John the Baptist is a great man, but if you're in Christ, those in the Kingdom of God are even greater than John the Baptist. What makes John the Baptist great is not his greatness, but the fact that he's in the Kingdom of God. Just like you, we are children of the King. We are joint heirs with Christ. And those who had the baptism of John could hear it. Those who had rejected it could not hear it.

But what does He now say to all of us? Here's what Jesus says in Luke chapter seven and now verse 31: "To what then shall I compare the people of this generation? And what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, 'We played the flute for you and you did not dance; we sang a dirge and you did not weep.' For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say he has a demon. The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, 'Look at him, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.' Yet wisdom is justified by all of her children."

What is it that Jesus is telling us? Here's what he is saying. Here's John the Baptist. He is known for his sparse diet. Remember locusts and honey and he abstained from alcoholic beverages and you reject him. He said this generation's like children playing in the marketplace. They dance to the tune of the culture and they dance to the tune of the sinfulness of their heart and the bondage of the sin nature in their will. That's what you're doing.

The flute is played of rebellion against God and you dance to it. So when a messenger from God comes and there he is in his rough clothing, his courageous preaching with conviction, he is not known for his dietary fare. On the contrary, he just lives off locusts and honey. He doesn't come drinking wine and eating bread and you reject him. And then here comes the Son of Man. And Jesus says, "Here I sit and I'll eat bread, drink the wine at the table," and you say, "Look, a glutton and a drunkard."

So here's one who is abstaining and known for sparse fare and you reject him and ridicule him. Hey, what's the issue? I'll tell you what the issue is. The issue is you. You keep making excuses for why you will not respond to God's word preached through a John the Baptist or respond to God's word incarnate and preached through Jesus. And you make fun of one lifestyle and you ridicule the other and make allegations against the other lifestyle. You know what the issue is? The issue is not the lifestyle of John the Baptist and the lifestyle of Jesus. The issue is your heart.

You actually see life through lenses which you want to create reasons for you to reject God's call to you to repent of your sins. If you want to know about a minister, look at the fruit of his ministry. Not only listen to what we say and do, look at what our ministry produces. Wisdom is born by her children.

What is being reproduced? The fruit and the wisdom of ministry will be born in the fruits of that ministry. God, give us a ministry that is faithful to Your word, that proclaims with clarity and conviction and compassion and courage the truth of Your word, that exalts Jesus so that the fruit of our ministry is not people following us but people following Jesus. A God-honoring, God-given ministry is done by men of God who point their disciples to Jesus, not to themselves.

Now you see the fruit of ministry. Wisdom is born out by her children. May God allow us to be instruments as ministers of the Gospel so that we produce children who are children of the living God, born again and adopted into the family of God. And that's another slice of fresh bread.

Guest (Male): Why would Jesus, our sinless Messiah, need to be baptized? Request this month's free Fresh Bread gift offer, Dr. Reeder's series Unlocking the Relationship of Baptism and the Great Commission. Call 1-800-488-1888.