08-03-2025 He’s Still Jesus

Text: Matthew 11:1-6.

                   We all know the concept of buyer’s remorse.  After someone makes a purchase then they start to doubt whether they made the right decision.  Then they start thinking about the price they paid.  Finally they get sick, sometimes, literally, as they doubt their own choices.  John the Baptist experienced something like buyer’s remorse when he was in prison. We find it in Matthew 11:1-6 that says:      “ (1) And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding his Twelve Disciples, He departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities.  (2) Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, (3) and said unto Him, are You He Who should come, or do we look for another?  (4) Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again those things which you do hear and see:  (5) The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them.  (6) And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me.”  While in prison, John the Baptist, is struggling with his life decisions.  There may be times when we struggle with choices and decisions like he did.  So he sent his disciple to ask Jesus about what he was feeling.

                   We find in verse 1 that after instructing His Disciples Jesus sent them out to minister on their own.  This was the next phase in their discipleship that would ultimately prepare them for their mission after Jesus returned to Heaven.  Up to this point as they lived and walked with Jesus, they were learning from Him while He was preaching and teaching.  Now Jesus was sending them to practice what they had learned from Him.

                   Verse 2 shows while John was in prison he had heard the things that Jesus was doing and sent two of his disciples to ask him some questions.  After a run in with Herod’s ex sister-in-law and now wife, John was in prison waiting to be executed because he had held to God’s truth.  He had done everything right but was now suffering.  Jesus tells us later in Matthew 11:11 that John was the greatest man ever born up until that time and yet he now had doubts and wanted to know from Jesus if He was the right one or if there was someone else they should be looking for as we are told in verse 3.

                   Clearly being in prison was causing him to doubt and wonder why he should be punished for doing what was right.  This is the same man who baptized Jesus in the Jordan River and once said, as recorded in John 3:30, He must increase but I must decrease.  Yet now he was asking Jesus if he was wrong to believe that He is the Messiah.  This is the John who announced the coming of Jesus, announced Jesus’ presence in the world, baptized Jesus, and gave his entire life to announcing Jesus as the Messiah to come.  Now he was in prison suffering for doing what God called him to do.  He was wondering if he missed something and may have been wrong about Jesus.

                   Jesus’ answer is found in verses 4 and 5, but it wasn’t a simple yes or no.  Instead, He answered John’s question with results.  Jesus said everything John expected the Messiah to do is being done.  Blind people now see,  crippled people are walking, diseased people are cured, deaf people are hearing, and dead people are alive again, and the Gospel is being preached to the poor.  Jesus told the messengers to tell John everything they see God doing to including that blessed is the one who is not offended by Me found in verse six.  In the original language, verse 6 says “don’t let all of this be a stumbling block.”  In verse 6 Jesus is telling John that his current circumstances shouldn’t cause him to stumble in his trust of Jesus as the Messiah.

                   Did you have a good week before you came to church this morning?  If you did, you should be happy because you are blessed.  But for lot of people, including some of you here, perhaps things didn’t go so well.  Did you see a lot of bad things occurring in this world that turned the lives of people upside down even though they didn’t deserve it?  Whether your week was good or bad, we’ve all experienced times when nothing seems to go right, causing us to feel like everything is falling apart, and despite our best intentions, things go horribly wrong.  These are the times when we can understand exactly how John must have felt while he was sitting in prison.  He served God the best he could, he did his best to bring Jesus’ glory and praise to the world, and he made sacrifices so that more could be made of Jesus.  John had done everything God told him to do to point to Jesus as God’s chosen One and all he got was a jail cell and would eventually lose his head.  He may have been having second thoughts about what he had given his life for. 

                   Does all of this sound familiar to you?  Perhaps there have been times in your life when you asked God why certain things are happening.  You may have a problem that you just can’t find a way out of.  When we find ourselves in circumstances such as these there’s only one thing to do:  Cry out to Jesus.  Think of the man Mark writes about in chapter nine of his Gospel who brought his son to Jesus to cast out an evil spirit.  He told Jesus “If you can, help my son.”  Jesus said:  “If I can, do you not believe?”  And the man cried out, “Jesus I believe, help my unbelief.”  When we look at what Jesus has done in our life we can see that He gives us hope, He gives us eternal life, and He changes us in ways we can’t deny.  He does things that no matter how hard we try we simply can’t do on our own.  The truth is, we can’t do many things unless Jesus steps in and helps us.  We need to let His past actions in our life confirm that He is who He says He is.  Let Him help your unbelief.

                   Billy Grahm tells the story that defined him early in his ministry.  He and a friend went into the ministry about the same time.  Later his friend gave up the ministry telling Billy he just couldn’t believe the Bible anymore.  Billy was totally confused about the whole situation.  One day he went out into the woods where he made a decision and told God that he chose to believe the Bible and everything in it and he would live by that decision, and he never looked back.

                   Many times the circumstances of our lives can be completely overwhelming causing confusion and even doubt.  If you find yourself there, or if maybe you are there now, you can make a choice.  You can decide not to let your circumstances control your heart and despite all that’s going on.  You can make the choice right now to believe, no matter what’s swirling around you, and trust Jesus with all that you are.  Simply believe that Jesus is everything He says He is.  After all, He has done everything He said He would do, He loves you more than you will ever know, He cares about you more than you can fully understand, and He is completely trustworthy. 

                   Until we meet again, may God bless you and keep you, may He shine His light on you, show you grace, and give you peace in all the days ahead.