SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
My Worship Time Focus: “John Doubts Jesus”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt. 11:2-3
Message of the verses: “2 Now when John in
prison heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples, 3 and
said to Him, "Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?’”
I want to say before we get into looking at our
verses today that yesterday I had a chance, while doing my walk, to listen to
the sermon by John MacArthur on verses 1-6 of Matthew chapter eleven. I have to say that this was one of the most
informative sermons that I have listened to in a long while, and I have heard
many sermons as I listen to sermons many times when I do my daily walk. I think that as we continue to look at verses
1-6 that we will learn some great and very useful things.
The
first thing that we want to talk about here is that John the Baptist is the one
who is doubting who Jesus really is, and we could say that perhaps he was perplexed
or even confused and this is why he is doubting. I learned that the word doubt that is found
in the New Testament is only used once for a non-believer and the other are
talking about believers. Perhaps the
word doubt is not used, like in this section but one can understand that doubt
is involved.
John
MacArthur writes “The perplexity dealt with in these verses is the perplexity
of a believer, a true child of God and a citizen of His kingdom. John was not questioning the truthfulness of
God’s Word as revealed in the Old Testament or as revealed to him at the
baptism of Jesus. He was rather
uncertain about his understanding of those truths. Virtually all the gospel references to doubt
pertain to believers rather than to unbelievers; and the kind of questioning
Joh the Baptist experienced concerning Jesus’ identity can only occur in the
life of a believer. In that transitional
time, before the written revelation of the New Testament, there were many
things that seemed unclear and needed explanation and confirmation.”
Let
us look at Matthew 11:11 to see what Jesus had to say about John the
Baptist: “11:11 "Truly, I say to you, among those born of
women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he
who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” John was the greatest man who had lived until
his time, and, when they are confused, all believers can take comfort in his
perplexity. Another comforting thing that
we can take from this statement is to who the Lord was talking to, and that was
primarily to the twelve disciples that He had chosen, and we have to remember
that on many occasions Jesus said to the Twelve “O you of little faith” or “How
long will you doubt. (Matt. 8:26; 14:31;
21:21; cf. 28:17; Mark 11:23; 16:11; Luke 12:28.)
This
week I have begin to study Hebrews chapter five, which is the beginning of the
authors teaching about the priesthood of Jesus Christ, and I am comforted to be
reminded that Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, has gone through, or has
been tempted with everything that believers are tempted with, and yet He never
sinned like we do when we fall into temptations. Because of this truth believers can know that
Jesus knows what it means to have doubts
like John the Baptist had, and we as believers have, and we know that
this does not please Him, yet He truly understands.
We
will conclude this SD with a couple of examples that John MacArthur gives from
Scripture about doubt. “While Peter was
pondering the vision of the unclean animals, the messengers from Cornelius
arrived at the house where he was staying, and the Holy Spirit said to Peter, ‘Behold,
three men are looking for you. But
arise, go downstairs, and accompany them without misgivings,’ that is, without
doubt (Acts. 10:19-20). James warns
believers that ‘the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea driven and
tossed by the wind’ (James 1:6; cf. Eph 4:14).
But the doubt of which John the Baptist was guilty was the result of
weakness rather than sin.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I am thinking about what Peter was going through
in the verses that we have just looked at, and what he had to do was one of the
most important things done in the New Testament after the death, burial, and
resurrection of Jesus Christ, and that is to bring Gentiles into the church. This had to be very difficult to him, and no
wonder He had doubts, but he did what the Spirit of God told him to do.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I pray and trust that the Lord will give me
the words to speak at our Bible study this evening and also in our Sunday school
class Sunday.
11/19/2021 11:14 AM
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