Community Baptist Church
December 14, 2025

      • Psalm 146:10HCSB

  • Angels From The Realms Of Glory (Regent Square)

      • Isaiah 35HCSB

      • Luke 2:18–24HCSB

  • Unspeakable Joy
  • The First Noel
  • It Came Upon

      • Matthew 11:2–11HCSB

  • Here we are on December 14! Where has the month gone? How are we just ten days from Christmas? As children Christmas seemed as though it only occurred every hundred years or so. We would wait and wait wait…and wonder…will Christmas come?
    As parents we often discover that Christmas occurs about every three months. I think one of the hardest tasks of being a parent is helping our children to manage their expectations around the ‘Christmas Event.’ OK, let’s be honest. We also have struggles from time to time managing our own expectations! Have you seen the advertisement of a young married couple walking in a snowy field? The man (i.e. husband/boyfriend?) speaks to the woman (wife/girlfriend?) ‘I have something for you!’ He whistles. A beautiful dog bounds into the woman’s arms. She then speaks and says, ‘I have something for you!’ She whistles and a brand new fully equipped pickup heads for the couple.
    Let’s be honest…who here would turn down a Christmas like that?
    I’d ask if anyone ever experienced a Christmas like that, but I don’t want to embarrass anyone!

    Seeing the Future…Expecting one thing and getting another

    The passage of Scripture Patt read a moment ago seems odd for the Christmas season. The events recorded occur months after John the Baptist announces that “One is coming after me [who] is more powerful than I!(Matthew 3:11).
    Matthew 3:11–12 HCSB
    “I baptize you with water for repentance, but the One who is coming after me is more powerful than I. I am not worthy to remove His sandals. He Himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing shovel is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn. But the chaff He will burn up with fire that never goes out.”
    Months have passed. John is in prison after Herod has heard enough from John about marrying his brothers wife. Lonely, discouraged, and cut off from family and many of his followers he hears reports of Jesus’ activity (see Luke 23:8) and is intrigued. His messages had been focused on calling people to repent and be ready for the unveiling of God’s kingdom. Yes, this Jesus, the One whom He had declared as the One to Come (see John 1), was teaching, healing, and travelling through the villages and towns around the Sea of Galilee. But there was no uprising, no movement towards kingdom building. Where were the armies being trained? Who had Jesus selected to assist Him in managing the day to day affairs of the kingdom to come?
    The evidence for which John looked was simply not there. Knowing the promises of God made through Isaiah, John was eager to hear of judgement. His own preaching was filled with judgement language:
    Matthew 3:7–10 HCSB
    When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to the place of his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance. And don’t presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones! Even now the ax is ready to strike the root of the trees! Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
    Jesus’ answered Jesus’ question:
    Matthew 11:4–6 HCSB
    Jesus replied to them, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind see, the lame walk, those with skin diseases are healed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are told the good news. And if anyone is not offended because of Me, he is blessed.”
    Sometimes the links between words are not as clear as we’d like. John’s question, ‘should we expect another?’ uses a Greek word that can be translated ‘to look for…’ And Jesus’ answer - ‘Go and report what you hear and see.’ The word ‘see’ is a very common Greek word that often describes more than physical vision. It is often associated with religious uses - visions, apparitions, and so on.
    What we look for often precludes us from seeing what’s right in front of us. I am notorious for missing the beauty of the sky as I’m driving - not because I’m insensitive to beauty but because I need to see what’s directly in front of me. John, in his imprisonment saw despair and likely he anticipated his death, and his ability to ‘look’ was limited. It’s as though John has blinders on that have restricted his focus.

    What did those disciples of John ‘see?’

    Luke 3:15 HCSB
    Now the people were waiting expectantly, and all of them were debating in their minds whether John might be the Messiah.
    John was certainly one of those living in a state of expectation! Remember these words from his father on the day of John’s birth:
    Luke 1:76–79 HCSB
    And child, you will be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare His ways, to give His people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins. Because of our God’s merciful compassion, the Dawn from on high will visit us to shine on those who live in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
    Being the son of a priest, having been set apart by specific instruction from the angelic messenger, John was raised with a heightened sense of anticipation and expectation. His ‘call’ (Luke 3:2) drove him into the wilderness as the
    Isaiah 40:3–5 HCSB
    A voice of one crying out: Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert. Every valley will be lifted up, and every mountain and hill will be leveled; the uneven ground will become smooth and the rough places, a plain. And the glory of the Lord will appear, and all humanity together will see it, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
    The Lord is on His way, the Lord is about to act in a decisive way.
    Jesus’ acts echo another promise from Isaiah:
    Isaiah 35:4–10 HCSB
    Say to the cowardly: “Be strong; do not fear! Here is your God; vengeance is coming. God’s retribution is coming; He will save you.” Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy, for water will gush in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the parched ground will become a pool of water, and the thirsty land springs of water. In the haunt of jackals, in their lairs, there will be grass, reeds, and papyrus. A road will be there and a way; it will be called the Holy Way. The unclean will not travel on it, but it will be for the one who walks the path. Even the fool will not go astray. There will be no lion there, and no vicious beast will go up on it; they will not be found there. But the redeemed will walk on it, and the redeemed of the Lord will return and come to Zion with singing, crowned with unending joy. Joy and gladness will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee.
    Do you ‘see’ and ‘hear’ the connection? That which Jesus was doing was about kingdom business. Maybe Jesus wasn’t raising an army, maybe Jesus wasn’t training a management staff for kingdom affairs. But what was Jesus doing? In Jesus God is working to restore that which was broken, that which was out of sync with God’s creation and kingdom plans. The power Jesus exercises is kingdom power in its fullest expression. So, Jesus closes with a question…

    What did you ‘see’ in John the Baptist?

    Matthew 11:7–14 HCSB
    As these men went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swaying in the wind? What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothes? Look, those who wear soft clothes are in kings’ palaces. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and far more than a prophet. This is the one it is written about: Look, I am sending My messenger ahead of You; he will prepare Your way before You. “I assure you: Among those born of women no one greater than John the Baptist has appeared, but the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been suffering violence, and the violent have been seizing it by force. For all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John; if you’re willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who is to come.

    REFLECT AND RESPOND:

    The Kingdom Has Drawn Near

    Don’t be distracted by what you expect the Kingdom of God to look like. Like John when we think of God’s Kingdom we expect decisive acts of judgment. Instead we see evil growing, increasing in its power. We expect to see brilliant light - and instead we are threatened by the encroaching darkness.
    The past two weeks every morning I’ve been focused on John’s gospel (no, not John the Baptist…the other John). In it he writes
    John 1:10–11 HCSB
    He was in the world, and the world was created through Him, yet the world did not recognize Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him.
    His own family, his own neighbors, his own ethnic group failed to see Jesus as He really is. And sadly, we often fail to see Him as He is -
    Isaiah 61:1–3 HCSB
    The Spirit of the Lord God is on Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of our God’s vengeance; to comfort all who mourn, to provide for those who mourn in Zion; to give them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, festive oil instead of mourning, and splendid clothes instead of despair. And they will be called righteous trees, planted by the Lord to glorify Him.
    Are you brokenhearted?
    Jesus invites you to join Him in the Kingdom where those who trust Him can be healed
    Are you captive, in a prison of your own making?
    Jesus offers you a way out and into His Kingdom by receiving Him and believing in His Name
    Are you living in a constant state of loss and failure?
    Jesus offers you a promise: This is the time for God’s favor, this is the time to receive comfort, this is the time to exchange the past for the beautiful promise of His eternal presence.

      • Matthew 3:11–12HCSB

      • Matthew 3:7–10HCSB

      • Matthew 11:4–6HCSB

      • Luke 3:15HCSB

      • Luke 1:76–79HCSB

      • Isaiah 40:3–5HCSB

      • Isaiah 35:4–10HCSB

      • Matthew 11:7–14HCSB

      • John 1:10–11HCSB

      • Isaiah 61:1–3HCSB

      • Galatians 4:4–7HCSB

  • Adore
Community Baptist Church
sschenewerk@gmail.com
5416799569
http://www.winstoncommunitybaptist.com
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