And His Own No.1 Doubt's Questions & Answers

Jesus Christ, you have come to us, you have brought with us praise, you have brought with you praise, you have brought with you praise. The reading today is from Matthew 11 verses 1 to 19. After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee.

When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, Are you the one who has to come, or should we expect someone else? Jesus replied, Go back and report to John what you hear and see. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.

When John's disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John. What did you go out into the desert to see, a reed swayed by the wind? If not, what did you go out to see, a man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who are in fine clothes are in king's palaces. Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.

This is the one about whom it is written. I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you. I tell you a truth, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist, yet he who is raised in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who has to come. He who has ears, let him hear.

To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others. We played the flute for you, and you did not dance. We sang a dirge, and you did not moan.

For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, he has a demon. The son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. But wisdom is proved right by her actions.

Amen. I'd like us to sing another hymn that's not listed on our board, but it speaks of the faith that we have in our Lord Jesus, even though we have not beheld him. Can you remind me of the number? It's on that piece of paper, yes.

165, thank you. We saw thee not when thou didst come to this poor world of sin and death, nor e'er beheld thy cottage home in that despised Nazareth, but we believe thy footsteps trod its streets and plains, thou Son of God. 165.

Let's look again at that passage which Felicia read. The 11th chapter of Matthew's Gospel. After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on to Galilee.

Verse 2. When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else? Jesus replied, Go back and report to John what you hear and see. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Everyone join me in verse 6. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.

Christianity stands, or it disintegrates, on the person of our blessed Lord Jesus. The New Testament, frustratingly for modern minds, revolves around one issue, and the issue is not racial intolerance. It is not the problem of the poor.

It is not some ethical discourse on how we ought, therefore, to live. Christianity, in the New Testament format, does not deal with political issues head on. There is one subject that dominates the New Testament.

There is one subject that dominates Christianity, and that is, or he is, our Lord Jesus Christ. The most important question that you can ever ask in life, or be asked in life, is simply this. Who is Jesus? What do you think of Him? And as a result of giving your reaction to what you think of Him, then other changes may follow.

Not only in your life, but as a result of lots of people being converted in society as a whole. Christianity, essentially, is what the theologians call Christocentric. You can't say that of other religions.

You take away Buddhism, you've still got the Buddhists. Take away the Buddha, you've still got Buddhism. Take away the gurus, you've still got Hinduism.

Take away Confucius, you've still got Confucianism. But take away Jesus of Nazareth, and you do not have Christianity. The most important question I argue, and my argument is not popular, because there are so many people who believe that actually Christianity stands for a way of life.

In one sense it does, but that is a consequence. It is not the prime objective of Christianity. The Christian gospel assaults the mind, and it does so by putting up the question, What do you think of Jesus? Who do men say that I am? Will you have this man to rule over you? Well, why do I say these things? I do so because in this introductory passage to the 11th chapter of Matthew's gospel, which we're going to be considering together in these next few weeks, we are confronted immediately with a problem.

The problem is that of our Lord's cousin John, and the circumstances in which he finds himself. It seems to me that the fulcrum, the pivot on which this passage swings, is the question that the disciples of John ultimately put to our Lord Jesus, Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else? The identity of the Lord Jesus, you see, is so important even in this context, and I'll give you the context in a moment or so. You cannot handle life's problems.

You cannot relate to life's baffling difficulties, unless you have an understanding of who Jesus is in all his sovereignty and in all his glory. You may be perplexed, and I cannot guarantee to send you from this church with the solution to the problem that confronts you. But I can send you away with a realization that there is one who is utterly in control of all that is mysterious and unpalatable in your life.

John, the cousin of Jesus, do you love your cousins? They say that blood is thicker than water. We're tied in very much in terms of relationship and loyalties to our relatives. I guess that's accurate or not so accurate depending on the strength of your family tie.

But as far as the cousin of our Lord John is concerned, he has a great estimate. Does he not, of Jesus? Look at him in the third verse, the third chapter of this gospel. Our Lord and John are in the same terrain that is there by the banks of the Jordan.

John, you recall, has been baptizing people, and he identifies our Lord Jesus, but he also predicts the nature of the ministry of the Lord Jesus. I baptize you with water, verse 11, for repentance, but after me will come one who is more powerful than I am, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

Superior to me, more authoritative than I ever will be, is my relative. It's not every cousin who will acknowledge that of his younger cousins. It's not every man that will acknowledge that of our blessed Lord Jesus.

But you see, this is a prime essential in being a follower of Jesus. You appreciate that he is beyond all that you can ever be. You have a little wisdom, you have a little knowledge, it's very small.

He has total wisdom. He has total knowledge. And what you require is, or what is required of you, is a dependence upon Jesus as John declared his submission to his cousin.

Now, John was a man of the wide open spaces, a man whose ministry attracted people to him with the dynamic of his character. Although he didn't preach in a place like this, they swarmed from the villages, from the towns of Judea, and they listened to this man with the blazing eyes. He was preparing the way for his cousin.

Now, when you're a man of the open air, when you're a man of the fields, suddenly to find that your liberties are curtailed and you're incarcerated in some dungeon, that's a very difficult situation. It's bad enough for any of us, but particularly the people who are born and who live their lives out in the open places. And this was the condition of John.

Matthew will tell you more about his arrest and imprisonment and final murder when you get through to the 14th chapter. What you do find here, however, in the second verse of the 11th is that John is in prison and he hears about Jesus, what the Lord Jesus is doing. And it seems that the activity of the Lord presents a problem, if not for John, certainly for his disciples.

You discover the nature of the difficulty in the question I've already referred to. Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else? It's debatable whether John was in a state of doubt at this point or a state of depression, or maybe a mixture of both. Certainly John's own followers were in the former category.

They were doubting. It seems as though they had access to John in the dungeon. You remember that cousin of yours? You said that after you would come one who was so great that you were not worthy to unlatch his sandals.

Well, we're getting news of him. He's preaching in the area. He's doing remarkable things.

Now you have credited him as being the coming one, the Messiah. If he is who he is, why are you in the condition you are in? You see the point? We're talking about relatives. We're talking about cousins.

In a family there's loyalty, or there should be. If he's as good as all that, why are you as you are? Now, I wonder, as I say, whether John was more in a state of depression than doubt himself. I find it hard to concede that John was doubting because John had declared something of the greatness of our Lord Jesus.

But there were things about Jesus that John didn't really understand, were there not? I mean, for example, you read in the ninth chapter that Jesus associated with tax collectors and sinners, and John had preached against that. You also read that John's disciples fasted, and here is our Lord Jesus. And he's not the ascetic.

You know what that word means? The man who sort of rids himself of social pleasures. Our Lord is not like that. He goes to parties.

His disciples are not bent on fasting as John's disciples were. And here is John, and he's got one or two questions in regard to the way his cousin's ministry has developed, and he's in this dungeon. That's enough to give anyone a depression, isn't it? And then his close colleagues come along and they insinuate doubt.

So what does he say? Go and ask him. You see, my friends, sometimes I find myself like John, and people come to me as though I've got the answers. And I haven't.

I've got faith. I think I've got a high level of faith. I don't say that piously.

My faith has been tested time and time again. But I thank God for the degree of faith that I have. But there are times when I cannot answer questions.

And the only thing I can say to the person who comes along with difficulties is this, go to Jesus. Ask him. You say, how? Well, you see, the record of Jesus is inscripturated in these first four books of the New Testament, and there's the overflow of the Revelation in the rest of the epistles.

And here our Lord Jesus will confront you. Here he will speak to you. If you have difficulties, then you go to John, and John will tell you.

He will advise you. Take you to Jesus. He sent his disciples to ask him, are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else? And so they came.

They came to the blessed Lord. Did he answer their questions? Well, yes and no. Very often our Lord will not directly deal with the situation.

He will bring certain other information, which is of superior importance, and he'll ask you to think through this. He says, go back to John. Tell him what you hear.

Tell him what you see. And now there's a codified message. Verse 5, The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who are in leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the good news is preached to the poor.

Codified message? Why will I use this terminology? Well, go to Isaiah 35, and you'll see I'm not trying to complicate things, but actually simplify them. In the 35th chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah, what do you find? Well, a description of what will happen when the coming one, the Messiah, is on earth. Verse 3, Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way.

Say to those with fearful hearts, Be strong, do not fear, your God will come. Here is a representation of the Messiah's ministry. Verse 5, Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

Then will the lame man leap like a deer and the mute tongue shout for joy. See the point? John is a man whose mind is saturated in Scripture. Our Lord has a mind that is baptized in Scripture.

He is the man of the Scriptures. What is happening in your ministry, cousin Jesus? Go and tell John. The blind receive sight.

The lame walk. Those who have leprosy are cured. Jesus is backtracking in the Old Testament.

He's into the prophetic Scriptures. John, what those Scriptures say is being fulfilled in me. If you'd had a choice of listening to John or listening to Jesus, for whom would you have opted? Well, that's a crazy question.

You'd have all gone to the Lord Jesus. But why? John had passion, didn't he? Jesus had compassion. I'm not saying that there was no compassion in John.

But what I am saying is that the distinctive difference between our Lord Jesus and John is the amount of compassion and pity that there is in the ministry of the Savior. Here's John in his preaching. And he talks to the religious elite.

And he talks to the Roman soldiers. You brood of vipers. Now, I'll admit that now and again I use strong language here from the town pulpit.

But I have not yet ever called a congregation a brood of vipers. John did. I mean, he called a spade the spade, didn't he? You know, either you get ready for the Christ or he will come with an axe.

I mean, there's no messing about with John. The incredible thing is that people swarmed to hear him because he certainly was not a preacher that ingratiated himself with his congregation. Go for it, John.

And John did go for it. Now, there is one amongst you who is greater than I am. But when John hears about the ministry of Jesus and reports are reaching him, look at the first verse.

Jesus is there teaching and preaching in the towns of Galilee. What's he hearing? Well, Jesus is healing. Jesus is engaged in exorcism.

Jesus is ministering to the sinners. Jesus is speaking to the Roman soldiers. Jesus is meeting head-on human need.

But where's the vengeance bit, Jesus? It's all grace. Grace. Grace.

And more grace. Do you remember when our Lord was in the temple? No, not the temple, the synagogue. His own town of Nazareth.

He starts to preach. His sermon debut is from one of the Old Testament prophets. Again, the prophecy of Isaiah.

You can read it in Luke's Gospel in Chapter 4. And the Lord Jesus, He reads from the predictions of what Messiah will do when He comes on earth. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He's anointed me to preach the Gospel.

To preach the Gospel to the poor, and so on and so forth. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And then He breaks off.

Now, if you check him in Isaiah, you will discover that Isaiah goes on to judgment and wrath and God's anger burning in human sinful society. Now, you get exactly the same thing when our Lord is quoting, sending this codified message back to John from Isaiah 35. He deliberately misses out the judgment bit.

Now, why is that? The Lord Jesus did not come to the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. Now, don't draw too hasty a conclusion. That does not mean to say that if you reject the Gospel of Christ, you are bound for eternity.

What it means to say is this, that when you do stand before the Lord Jesus Christ in eternity, you will confront Him as your judge. The time for judgment is henceforth, John. I will warn, I will plead, I will use pity, I will heal, I will grant sight to those who are blind, and so forth.

I will minister to the sick. John, this is a time for grace. Now, you can understand the impatience of John's disciples, can't you? They've taken their knowledge of Jesus from what John has had to say.

He's greater than I am. And here is John, and there's Herod. Is there anyone so revolting as Herod? I mean, look at the man.

Can you really call him a man? He's a quizzling. He's conniving with the Roman authorities. He's got women dangling from his apron strings.

And the greatest of all the prophets is in jail. Now, if his cousin is greater and he's on planet Earth, why doesn't he sort Herod out? All right, let's go back 15 minutes. 20 minutes.

What did I say was the heart of the Christian gospel? It's not to deal with the apartheid that still remains in South Africa, though the situation is changing there. It is not to correct the evils of capitalism, and most certainly not to buttress the unacceptable face of capitalism. The essentials of Christianity is this, to put and to get an answer to the question, Who is Jesus? You see, there were political problems in those days, and Jesus didn't tackle those problems, not head on.

He went to the heart of the matter. He spoke to the individual person. Why was Jesus so unpopular? Listen to this.

I read this quite late last night. It comes from the writings of Dr. Lloyd-Jones. Our Lord had a strange faculty for annoying people.

Right? Our Lord had a strange faculty for annoying people. I mean, here He is in Nazareth, and they pick up stones. When I go back to Sheffield, that doesn't happen.

When our beloved Lord is placed alongside Barabbas, and Pilate gives the people the option of who to release, they say, Away with Jesus. When the Lord is in a pitiful state on the cross, they're mocking Him and throwing up shafts of abuse. He saved others.

Himself. Cannot say. Now, here's my question.

Why was Jesus so unpopular? Philosophers are not unpopular. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle. Let's jump to the medieval European philosophers.

Descartes. Locke. Let's come to the 20th century.

Bertrand Russell. Professor Ayer of one of the historic universities, A.J. Ayers. He's not an unpopular man.

People are not throwing hostility and abuse at him. Why does Jesus get so treated? Well, you see, the problem with our Lord is He doesn't deal with these general political issues. Not that He sanctions Rome and its jackboot policy.

No more than He sanctions the religious bigotry of a Judaism gone wrong. Jesus will come to the heart of the matter and He'll deal with the individual. He'll have him or her to understand that he or she is a sinner and that he or she needs to repent and to turn around and to become a different person.

And that's an unpopular message. An 18th century British Prime Minister said in a typically British way, refer to Lord Melbourne, things have come to a pretty pass when Christianity gets personal. Christianity has always been personal.

And that's why our Lord Jesus was so unpopular and yet philosophers themselves by and large have not been at the butt end of mockery. Jesus refers to His friends from John's little consortium of disciples and He says, go back and tell John what you're seeing. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those are lepers are being cured, the deaf are being heard.

The good news, John, the good news is being preached to the poor. This is the time for proclamation of good news. And some of the poor are listening and some of the poor are responding.

John, child of the 20th century, blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me. Don't stumble, John. Don't stumble, you friends of John, simply because the presuppositions that you have of me are not being fleshed out.

You see, Jesus is His own man. He's not the man that John's disciples imagine Messiah will be. He's not going to attend to these secondary issues.

He's going to attend to the primary issues. You know, there are many Jesuses today. The world is awash with Jesuses.

You say, what do you mean? Well, there's the Jesus of liberation theology. There's the Jesus of communism. There's the Jesus of capitalism.

There's the Jesus that is a product of the minds, the fertile minds of human beings that have actually distorted the Gospel. The world is awash with Gospels. But I tell you, there is only one true Gospel.

There is only one true Jesus Christ and He is His own man. And He has come into the world as a representative of God. And He confronts individual people as they are per se.

And He asks them to respond to the fact that they are sinners and that God is a righteous God. And one day God will pass a condemnation eternally over every act of sin. But now is the day of the Gospel of good news.

Now is the day of grace. Jesus is His own man. And the best thing you can ever do for the Lord Jesus, if I can use that human language, is not to be scandalized by Him.

To accept Him as He is. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me. Many moderns fall away because of the cross of Jesus.

They can accept His code of ethics. They can accept so much of His teaching. But the miracles and the cross and the resurrection, that they will not accept, is a stumbling block.

It was to the Greeks. It was to the Jews of yesteryear. It still is to modern men.

You're stumbling because of me. Because you don't want the Jesus of the Gospels. You want your own Jesus.

But there is only one Jesus. It is our Lord and Savior. And the message that He brings to the world, that man in sin can respond to the grace of God.

Now you see, these disciples of John, they go away. And Jesus has dealt with the issue in a fashion that they never anticipate. You see, John still remains in jail.

I mean, quite frankly, if this was a narrative written by human beings, you'd have John Freed, wouldn't you? I mean, if this was just a piece of romantic writing, if it was literature in sense of drama, if it was just pure mythology, you'd get John sprung. Of course you would. Everybody likes a good story.

The problem with the Gospels is they're so honest. John doesn't get sprung from jail. A few weeks elapse after John's disciples have visited Jesus and the head of the baptist is on a platter as a result of the whim of a girl who tries to please her mother.

And yet, within the purposes of God, if you can accept it, this is what the Sovereign Lord has allowed. He does not resolve all the human dilemma in the way that we want Him to resolve human dilemma. He brings other issues to bear.

He lifts you onto a different perspective and He says, think not just in terms of time, think in terms of eternity, think not just in terms of immediate judgment, think in terms of grace. And if you've got difficulty with your circumstances, that you were bereaved, I speak, believe me, my friends, with love and a tender heart. When others of your contemporaries still have their partners with them, that you're going through an illness and other of your friends are healthy, that some people have prayed and their prayers have been answered and you have prayed and your prayers have not been answered, do not be scandalized in Jesus because of that.

You see, the man who sends the codified message back to John and does not have his cousin sprung from jail because he's working not to John's disciples' plans for his life but to the plans of the Father, he's the man who's got the cross in front of him. He knows what it is to be scandalized. He's going to go through the hell of crucifixion for you, for me.

He's going to be raised again in the power of an endless life on the third day and He's going to demonstrate that all power belongs to Him and ultimately the kingdoms of this world shall be the kingdoms of His Christ and our Lord Jesus shall reign forever and forever. And so He asks what? He asks you to look at what He's doing, to believe what He's saying and to trust Him even when your life goes through unpalatable circumstances. Blessed, blessed cousin John, blessed you friends of John, blessed you children of the 20th century, blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.

Jesus asks for your trust and for you to embrace the Jesus of the Gospels as the only historic Jesus Christ. You can trust the man from Nazareth. Let's pray.

Father, we're left with a picture of John still in jail but his cousin's spoken to him and sent him the telegram that John knows indicates that ultimately all is well, that the control on his life is still being exercised by his cousin. Lord, help us to believe that too. Lord, we're human and we'd rather like to be released from jail.

We'd rather like to have all our problems be eliminated. You understand our humanity but Lord, we want to trust you when you do not allow prayers to be answered, to believe that in the non-answering of prayer is the greater benefit for us and for your kingdom. Lord, we want to know only one Jesus, not the Jesus of modern man but the Jesus of the Gospels.

Help us to embrace him in his name. Amen. The clock's beaten me.

Let's stand and sing. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him, all creatures here below.

Praise him above, ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Let's stand.

Let's say the grace to one another and then be on your way. Hope you'll have a good day and do come back this evening. We'd love to have your fellowship.

The grace. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore. Amen.