Jesus On Doubt And Discouragement

Sermon Transcript

Our text is Matthew 11:1-11. It says, “Now it came to pass, when Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples, that He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities. And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, ‘Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see 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. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.’”

Verse 7, “As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: ‘What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written: “Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You.” ‘Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.’”

As we see in our text, we find that John the Baptist is not with the rest of the disciples; they’re out with Jesus. But He sent two of His disciples to John. This powerful man of God, John, as the forerunner of Messiah, was in a place you wouldn’t expect him to be. John was in prison, in a difficult place, and he was struggling. This prophet of God, the forerunner of Jesus, who announced the Messiah, was in prison, and he was at a low point in his life. The great and powerful prophet was struggling with understanding and he was doubting. You hear his doubting in his question: “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”

As we look at the question asked by this preacher, this forerunner of Jesus, I want us to consider several things. First of all, consider the man who asked the question, the great John the Baptist, and the setting in which he asked it—he was in prison—and the answer given by Jesus to that question. I believe that as we do this, we will see a wonderful and powerful truth that will be helpful for everyone here, in light of the event of the past week on Wednesday and what happened to Charlie Kirk.

After the question was asked by John the Baptist, the next thing we see is how John was commended by the words of Jesus. John was struggling and sent a message to Jesus: “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” But Jesus was not frustrated with John at all by his question. He doesn’t put him down in any way. Yet in fact He commends John. Verse 7 says, “As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John….” And what did He say? What was His evaluation of the life of John as he’s in prison? Jesus asked several questions for the purpose of showing what kind of man John was.

Jesus asked, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?” No doubt Jesus had in mind the long, cane grass that grew along the banks of the Jordan River where people gathered to hear John preach. Like high grass in the field, if the wind blew from the north, the grass bent toward the south. If the wind blew from the south, the grass bent toward the north.

Jesus was asking them that when they heard John, was his message based on whichever way the wind was blowing? Did they hear a man preaching a message that was governed by popular opinion? If Jesus was cruising the planet today in a body as in John’s day, He no doubt would have asked, “Did you hear a man, when John was preaching, who was shaped by what the polls say, who put his finger to the wind to find out what was popular and then begin to introduce that rhetoric and change whatever needed to be changed to be popular and win the vote?” The answer would be, “No.”

When people heard John the Baptist preach, they heard a man, like Charlie, who looked them straight in the eye and told it like it was and never flinched. John was not a preacher who preached what the people wanted to hear; he preached what the people needed to hear. That is so needed today. Men will stand and preach what needs to be heard.

I heard about a preacher who got up one Sunday morning and said, “I have three sermons: I have a $100 sermon that lasts 5 minutes, I have a $50 sermon that lasts 15 minutes and I have a $10 sermon that lasts a full hour. So now we will take an offering and see which one I am going to preach.” It would change your giving; wouldn’t it?

John the Baptist didn’t take an offering to see what he was going to preach; he had a message from God. That’s what people need. And John never wavered in declaring that message.

In verse 8, Jesus also asked the people, “But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments?” Jesus was asking if they had seen a man dressed in designer jeans and expensive clothes or preachers in sneakers. The next statement in verse 8 sheds light on who in particular Jesus was describing. He said, “Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses.” No doubt he was referring to the nobles of King Herod, whose luxurious and effeminate lifestyle typified soft raiment. The art of these couriers was the flattery of the king. So Jesus was asking that when they heard John speak, did they hear some spineless sissy, who only sought to make them feel better, or did they hear someone who pulled out the dagger and went straight for the heart.

I pictured in my mind that John the Baptist was the kind of preacher who roared like a lion. Maybe he even got a little excited and pounded the pulpit. He was shouting, “Repent!” The people didn’t hear one who was timid, uncertain and confused. I imagine that John perhaps was like H.B. Charles or E.V. Hill. He got goin’! He was passionate about the message, because he was passionate about God.

Are you?
The last thing Jesus asked the people about John, in verse 9, was, “But what did you go out to see? A prophet?” A prophet is one who declared the message of the Lord. Yes, John was a prophet. But Jesus said, in verse 9, “Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet.” In verse 10, He declared, “For this is he of whom it is written: “Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You.”

John was more than a prophet; he was God’s herald. He was especially prepared and commissioned to announce the arrival of Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a man who had a message sent directly from God. Jesus wanted the people to understand that John was not just an ordinary man. He didn’t fall into the category of average or normal. He had none of the religious trimmings and trappings of his day.

We read how Jesus evaluated John. We also read how Jesus exalted John. Clarence Mccartney, a Bible commentator of years ago, said, “If praise is to be measured by the lips which pronounce it, never was a man so praised as was John the Baptist.” Whose lips praised him? The lips of Jesus, God Himself. No greater compliment or tribute has ever been paid to a man than what Jesus said about John. In verse 11, Jesus said, “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” What praise we hear from the lips of Jesus!

Solomon wrote in Proverbs 27:2, “Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.” I think one of the most unpleasant things anybody can do is to brag about themselves. Have you ever heard of anyone like that? They’re just full of themselves. They’re constantly bragging.

I heard about a preacher who said to his wife, “Honey, you know there aren’t many great preachers in our day!”

She smiled and said, “No, and there’s one less than you think.”

People who are always bragging on themselves are obnoxious.

I think about a Texan who landed in Sydney, Australia and was picked up by a taxi. He no sooner got in when he started to rant about the small-town airport and how in Texas they had larger runways on their ranches. When they crossed the Sydney Harbor bridge, the Texan grumbled, “I have a duck pond bigger than this harbor, and I have a bridge across it that makes this one look like a toy!” And when they got onto the Sydney-Newcastle Expressway, with contempt, he said, “Is this a road or a track?”

Through it all, the driver of the taxi said nothing. But when a kangaroo suddenly jumped out in front of the cab, causing him to slam on the brakes, the driver couldn’t help himself and yelled out, “Stupid grasshoppers!”

Solomon tells us to leave the bragging to others. If we deserve any praise, let others do the praising and not ourselves. So here are the words of Jesus, complimenting, honoring and expressing His appreciation of John.
I’m sure on Wednesday, when the bullet connected with Charlie Kirk’s throat, immediately he heard—what hopefully all of us want to hear—a commendation from our Savior: “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21). Don’t ever settle for anything less. We don’t want to just hear “done”; we want to hear “well done.” That should be our goal as we live out the Gospel and share that message, both by the way we live and the words that we say, which is forgiveness and the message of the Cross of Jesus Christ.

Some may brag about themselves, and others may seek out the praises of men, but the only thing that matters at the end of the day is what the Lord thinks about us—not what people think about us. So don’t live seeking to impress people. The only praise that we should desire and seek is that which comes from our Lord.

The next thing I want us to see here about John the Baptist is that he was confused by the ways of Jesus, as many of us are. Not only was John commended by Jesus through His words, but John was also confused by Jesus’ ways. Many of us find ourselves in that same place today. “God, where were You?!”

John the Baptist was in prison, and the Holy Spirit grants us access to his cell. We find here, noted for us, that there is a struggle, of massive proportions, going on in the heart of this servant, this preacher, this forerunner of Messiah. Verse 2 says, “And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, ‘Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?’”

Think about those words coming from John the Baptist. There certainly is a hint of discouragement in those words. When you look at the circumstances, it’s not hard to understand why he would be discouraged, because he wasn’t in a penthouse but a prison. He wasn’t living in the lap of luxury but in a dark, damp and dreary dungeon. The food was tasteless. It was enough to depress anybody, especially when you consider that John was a man of the desert with wide-open spaces. Imagine what it was like for him to be confined in a cell with four, narrow walls.

Discouragement is one of the devil’s prized tools. He loves to bring discouragement. John Stott said, “The Christian’s chief occupational hazards are depression and discouragement.” The devil knows if he can get Christians discouraged, they often quit praying, quit reading their Bible, quit witnessing and quit serving God. Discouragement is an occupational hazard and a tool that is frequently used by the enemy.

Perhaps hearing the news of Charlie Kirk’s death on Wednesday, you became discouraged. You began to doubt.

John was in prison, yet Jesus was in the neighbor but didn’t go to see John. No doubt when John heard that Jesus was in town, he thought, Ah, the Lord’s going to come to visit me here in prison! But as the days dragged on, not only had John not seen Jesus, but he hadn’t even heard a word from Him. That would be discouraging.

There are times when we get discouraged. The things we go through and the places we find ourselves in can be very discouraging. And what’s even worse is the seeming disinterest and lack of care from God.

Have you ever felt that? “Where are You, God?!” And you don’t hear a word. The enemy will whisper to you and say, “Look. He doesn’t care about you!”

As we look in John’s prison cell, we not only see a discouraged man but a doubting man. John not only had the outward struggle of being in confinement physically, but he had inward struggles of being personally lonely and struggles with doubt. Deep in his soul, he was struggling emotionally. These struggles are seen in the question he asked; he sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”

Here’s the mighty, powerful forerunner of Messiah, this fiery preacher, now wavering in his faith. What he had preached as an exclamation point now becomes a question mark. “Are You the Coming One?” At the Jordan River there had been no question as to who Jesus was. In fact, John shouted it: “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

Oswald Sanders said, “Even a man of granite can be a prey of torturing doubt.” Even the strongest of us can find ourselves at times wavering in our faith. Have you ever struggled?

Why was John the Baptist doubting that Jesus was the promised Messiah? Then answer is in verse 2. “And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ….” His doubt was caused by the works of Jesus, or as G. Campbell Morgan said, “the methods of Jesus.”

In John’s mind, the way Jesus was doing things was not the way he thought Messiah would be doing things. By now, John had expected, along with many of the disciples, that Jesus would have set up His kingdom. He had expected the Lord to come as a cleansing fire and laying an axe to the root (Matthew 3). From what John could see, the Lord was making no efforts to set up the kingdom that He thought would be set up. Jesus wasn’t judging the people who were oppressing Him and out to kill Him. The seedbed of his doubt was that the Lord was not doing things the way that he thought He should.

We’ve all been guilty of that. We’ve all questioned the way God has done things. Especially this week. “Why, Lord?! You could have stopped all that. This man was a powerful tool in Your hand connecting with the youth. He wasn’t yelling and screaming at anybody or calling anybody a name. He would let people talk. He was having an impact, God! This was a bad idea!” Do you feel that way? Many do.

“Lord, why are You not answering my prayer! You promised that You would answer my prayers! But you haven’t! Why did You allow this to happen?! Why didn’t You stop this? You’re sovereign; You could have stopped this! But You didn’t.”

Have you ever wanted to counsel Jesus? Maybe you have a friend who doesn’t know Jesus, and you say, “Lord, here’s what needs to happen.” Then you start telling the Lord how He can get them to the Cross. Have fun but it’s a waste of time, because He’s wiser, He knows better and He is sovereign. He has absolute control.

When the event took place on Wednesday, God didn’t say, “Oops!” That word doesn’t exist in His vocabulary. God knew.

We may be confused and perplexed. John was confused by the ways of Jesus, though he was commended by the words of Jesus. But finally John was convinced by the works of Jesus.

In the final thing in our text, we see John was convinced by the works of Jesus. The two disciples had carried John’s question to Jesus and then carried His answer back to John. The message Jesus sent back to John was one of assurance. The sequel is not recorded, but no doubt the message John received from Jesus took him from that place of doubt and discouragement to encouragement.

As a result of that message from Jesus, we see that John was assured by the works of Jesus. What were those works? Verse 4, “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see 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.’”

Jesus said to John what He essentially says to you and me when we doubt, when we question. Jesus basically said, “John, I’m working! Look, man. Miraculous things are taking place. I’m sovereign, I’m God, I’m in control. I know what I’m doing. The blind are receiving their sight! Nobody can do that. The lame are walking! Lepers are cleansed! The deaf are being made to hear! The dead are being raised to life! And the poor are hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Yes, John; I’m working. And it may not be the way you think I ought to be working, but I am working.”

Saints, I want to assure you today that God is working. But He doesn’t always go the way we think He should go. There are times when we may not see His work. We may not sense His work. Even though I may not see it, He’s working. Even though I may not hear it, He’s working. Be assured today, saints, that in this situation on Wednesday, God is working. And He’s a good God with a good plan! Know this: God is never inactive. He’s always active. And He’s always at work.

As a preacher of the Word for many years, I’ve learned that I don’t always see what God is doing. And a lot of the times the things that are happening don’t make any sense at all. And there are times that I’ve felt I’ve failed, though I’ve done my best to connect, yet nothing has been accomplished. But down the road I find out that the person I was counseling and shared the truth with, who got mad at me, screamed at me, kicked the door, took off out of the church, so we’re all upset and I thought, Maybe I blew it, Lord. Maybe I messed up. Maybe I didn’t have the right attitude—only to find out a month or years later they said, “You know, when you shared that with me, I was so mad and ran out of there, I was so ticked off and I wanted to punch you. But those words rang in my ears.”

That’s because they were words of God. They are the words of the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father and the only Prince who can bring peace—in your life personally and in what’s going on in this country. God’s always at work. You can be assured of that. You can be assured of those words.

And you can also be assured of the ways of Jesus, verse 6. Jesus said, “And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” Listen carefully to what Jesus tells John here. I think in these words we find one of the most powerful lessons that we can learn in the Christian life. The word “offended” speaks of “that which causes a person to stumble.” Someone has translated this statement as, “Blessed is he who finds nothing in Me to stumble at.” It’s like the great, old preacher, Vance Havner, with his Southern drawl, saying, “Blessed is whosoever that does not get upset by the way I run My business.”

That’s what the Lord is saying. “Listen, it’s My business! You are My people. It’s My will as a good God, as a sovereign God, to do it My way. And My way is the best way. In fact, it’s the only way.”

Jesus was saying to John, “Yes, John, I’m at work, and I’m doing things My own way. Don’t get upset, because you don’t understand what I’m doing or how I’m doing things.”

If you’ve been a Christian for any length of time, He doesn’t always do things the way we think He should. But happy is the person who doesn’t get upset with the way God does things.

I want you to understand that God has the right to do things His own way. He is the Creator. He is the sovereign God. I think, to my knowledge, that Jesus never did visit John the Baptist in prison. And He did nothing to prevent John from being beheaded. “Why, Lord?! Why didn’t You at least visit him?!”

In the book of Acts, we read of Peter being thrown in jail, but in Peter’s case, the Lord delivered him. James was thrown into that same jail, but he was beheaded. “Why?! I don’t get it! I don’t understand!” Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.” It’s trusting in Him! “God, you’re a good God. And I believe you’re a good God. You have a good plan, even though I don’t see it now.” God always has a reason for what He does. Our heavenly Father’s ways may twist and turn. He may take us around the block to get us next door, but He makes no mistakes.

We are sometimes like a little boy I read about who couldn’t understand why God put so many vitamins in spinach and not in ice cream. I think that too. I’m like that little boy; I love ice cream. Why does spinach have to have all the vitamins?

But our part is not to be offended. God has a reason. God has a reason for the things He does. And He doesn’t need to explain everything He does to you. He’s not beholden to you or me; He’s God. We just have to trust Him—not with part of our heart, but with all our heart. We have to acknowledge Him—“You are God. You are sovereign in all Your ways. You are good.”
That whole scene on Wednesday doesn’t make any sense. But God says, “Acknowledge my Lordship. I’m in control. I’m sovereign. I could have stopped that; I chose not to.”

“But I don’t understand.”

“You don’t need to understand.”

Corrie ten Boom put it like this: “Don’t wrestle; just nestle.” Rest in the fact that God is good, that He can do no evil, that He is in control.

During World War II when Hitler was attacking London, for safety purposes, some of the children were loaded into train after train and moved out of the city. One boy was asked, “Where are you going?”

He replied, “I don’t know. The King knows.”

We may not understand all that’s going on, but God does. We need to recognize that God simply wants us to trust Him. The hymn goes:

“Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”

No matter what’s going on in your life, acknowledge His lordship, and say, “Lord, I trust You to do what’s good, what’s helpful, what’s right, what’s going to bring glory and honor to Your name and what’s going to bring peace, rest and refreshment to me.”

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6). He won’t always direct them the way you want them to go. He says, “Depart from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it” (Psalm 34:14).

We’re all nervous, anxious and wrought because of what’s going on. But you don’t have to live like that, if you just “Trust in the Lord with all your heart.” He’s a good God with a good plan. Though we don’t see it now, it’s guaranteed. But we will see it one day. Further along we’ll know all about it. Further along we’ll understand why.

Cheer up, my brother and sister. Live in the sunshine. We will understand it all by and by. Trust Him.