SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/20/2021 10:32 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “John Doubts
Jesus”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
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?’”
As we look briefly at the life of John the Baptist
in relationship with Jesus we find that at the time his disciples came to Jesus
he was in prison because of accusing Herod of an adulterous marriage to his
brother’s wife. John would eventually die over this as Herods wife would scheme
to have him killed. Now before that John
had already announced Jesus’ coming as the Messiah, addressed Him as the Lamb
of God, baptized Him in the Jordan River, and declared in humility that “He
must increase and I must decrease” as seen in John 3:30. He had already acknowledged Jesus as the Christ
and trusted Him as His own Lord and Savior.
As we look at all of these wonderful things that John has done we still
find that he is now perplexed and he sent word by his disciples, and said to
Him, “Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?”
John MacArthur writes: “The fact that John sent his disciples to
Jesus is a strong testimony to his faith.
In his heart he believed that Jesus truly was the Messiah and trusted
Him as his Lord; but the events or lack of them caused his mind or emotions to
put a cloud of doubt over his assurance.
He was saying, in effect, ‘I have firmly believed You are the Messiah;
but have I been wrong?’ He was not
asking for information but for confirmation.
He believed, but his faith had become weakened. John came to Jesus through his disciples,
saying, like the father of the boy Jesus cleansed of and evil spirit, ‘I do
believe; help my unbelief’ (Mark 9:24).”
As
we look through the Scriptures we can see that a number of John’s disciples had
already been observing Jesus for some time, probably on John’s instructions,
after all John had a lot at stake in the ministry of Jesus. It was shortly after the banquet Matthew gave
in honor of Jesus and to which he invited fellow “tax-collectors and sinners,”
the “disciples of John came to Him saying, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast,
but Your disciples do not fast?’”
Another incident was after Jesus raised the son of the widow of Nain
that “the disciples of John reported to him about all these things” as seen in
Luke 7:18.
John’s
disciples had access to Jesus even while John was in prison, and were probably
reporting back to John. Now we know that
John was an outdoor man from what we read about him in Scripture, and now John
was in a dungeon where no light could get to him and he had to be very distraught
which may have caused him to send his disciples to Jesus asking about if He was
really the Messiah. John was not
thinking right. Living near Cleveland,
Ohio 99% of my life, and knowing that this city receives the second least
amount of Sunshine, only to Seattle causes me to become depressed, especially in
the fall and winter where the sun does not shine due to cloud cover. I realize that this is a very weak comparison
to what John was going through, but it still causes me to not think as well as
when the sun shines and so I can better understand what John was going through.
Now
I want to talk about the words “Are You the Expected One? As these words are
Messianic, speaking only of the Messiah.
“ho erchomenos” was a common
designation for the Messiah as MacArthur writes. We see this title in Psalms 40:7 and 118:26
and is frequently used or alluded to by the gospel writers like Matt. 3:11;
Mark 1:7; 11:9; Luke 3:16; 13:35; 19:38; and John 1:27. MacArthur writes “Every Jew of Jesus’ day
would have known that to ask if he were ‘the Expected One’ was to ask if He
were the Messiah.”
He
continues “It should be reassuring to us that even a man of John’s spiritual
stature and gifts was subject to doubt.
From the text and from John’s situation, at least four reasons for his
doubt can be seen—reasons that also cause many Christians today to doubt. Those reasons are difficult circumstances,
worldly influence, incomplete revelation, and unfulfilled expectations.” Lord willing we will begin to look at
Difficult Circumstances in our next SD.
11/20/2021 11:03 AM
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