"The Question"

 "And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou?" (John 1:19 KJV)

  "See, my servant will prosper; he will be highly exalted. But many were amazed when they saw him. His face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human, and from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man. And he will startle many nations. Kings will stand speechless in his presence. For they will see what they had not been told; they will understand what they had not heard about. Who has believed our message? To whom has the LORD revealed his powerful arm?" (Isaiah 52:13 - 53:1 NLT)

  Today we come together to recognize The Messiah; whom those that should have known, did not know the time of His coming; even though they had all the records and the prophecies, their hearts were not ready to receive Him! Interesting bit of knowledge, is that they should have understood who John the Baptist was, as he was also foretold of; and as the forerunner to Christ, he prepared the way by calling people to, "the baptism of repentance." 

  Whether we realize it or not, if we cannot see the truth, it is because our heart is not prepared to be opened to receive the truth; no matter how hard we might try to find it, or how we go around looking for answers, even when the right answer is presented to us, it will be rejected by our heart! This is the case of these Pharisees that we see today: they should, by their knowledge, know the truth when it is standing right before them; put because of the condition of their hearts, they are totally and completely blind to what should be, otherwise, totally clear and obvious. 

  An interesting matter of discussion, if you are looking for something to talk about before or after church: Who art Thou? is the same question ask by Pilate to Jesus! Do you think his heart was ready to receive the right answer? Something to think about, because he was about as close as anyone could be to wanting to know the Truth. What do you think might have prevented him from knowing? 

  To be perfectly clear, if we do not think that we need salvation, then our heart is not going to be soft enough to receive any sort of message that might offer a way to be saved. If you can see what this might represent, the basic principle at work is fear! Yes, that word we seldom think about, mostly because we want to pretend that it no longer exist; at least not for those of us that have already been saved. 

  When our hearts get hard, for whatever reason, the very most relevant condition that is present is a lack of fear! Not fear for ourselves, because that is not what we are talking about. This is about our fear of God, which is not about our fear for ourselves, because when it comes to fear of God, this self thing goes right out the window! Self is what represents the human heart; but those that are born again have been given a new heart, one that is filled with the Holy Spirit. 

  Speaking of hard, those rocks that Jesus pointed to are pretty interesting to talk about! If you want something wake up the dead, then lift up the name of Jesus...

""Blessings on the King who comes in the name of the LORD! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!" But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, "Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!" He replied, "If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!" But as he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep. "How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes. Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you from every side. They will crush you into the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you did not accept your opportunity for salvation."" (Luke 19:38-44 NLT)