OUR FATHER'S GOOD NEWS OF HIS KINGDOM WAS FIRST PROCLAIMED AMONG THE POOR 

Luke chapter 7 verse 19, speaking of John the baptist who was in prison for challenging King Herod for his immoral behaviour,  says this;

he sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

In this verse, we see John is trying to come  to terms with what was happening to him and to the nation of Israel. He had been given the call to be a forerunner for the Messiah and then to baptize him and announce Jesus to His generation as the awaited Saviour. 

He had done these things he was called to do and had the expectation that the Lord he had introduced would ascend to the rulership of Israel displacing king Herod, sit on the throne of David as the scriptures had prophesied and a glorious reign of justice and righteousness would be ushered in

From John's perspective, these things had not happened and this prompted his concern. Herod was still the king over Israel and in fact was the one who had imprisoned him. There was no righteousness because Herod was defiantly acting immorally while he was king of Israel and there was no justice because he, a stringently righteous man of God, was sitting in prison.

To clarify the situation for his own peace of mind, John, from his prison cell, sent two followers to ask the Lord Jesus if he had correctly identified Him as the Messiah at the Jordan river when he baptized Him or if he had made a mistake and should wait for the arrival of the correct Messiah.

When John's message reached the Lord, He was performing many miracles of healing and he told the messengers  in Luke chapter 7 verse 22, to report back to John what they had witnessed;

So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. 

The Lord was letting John know that he had indeed heralded the Messiah but that his expectations were premature. The sign that the true Messiah had come would be the appearance of miraculous healings, the dead being raised and the good news being preached to the poor.

The glorious kingdom of justice and righteousness would surely follow.

Amen.

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