Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Partial credit is a beautiful thing.

It’s a gracious act given to a student by the teacher.

I was thankful for those teachers who would grant partial credit to answers on a test.

I may not have gotten the entire answer correct, but I got some of it correct.

So it may be that there is a question about Abraham Lincoln and the War Between the States.

As part of my answer I wrote that the Emancipation Proclamation was given in 1862 rather than 1863.

Everything else was correct, but the date was wrong.

Some teachers would say that the entire answer was wrong because that date was wrong.

Those pharisaical legalists!

But the gracious, more Christ-like teachers would say that the date was wrong, but he conclusion was correct and so give me partial credit.

So it is with our faith.

There are thoughts and feelings and expectations that we have when it comes to Christianity that may be wrong, all the while we still believe in Jesus as the Son of God.

The conclusion is correct: Jesus is God in the flesh and has lived, died, and resurrected to reconcile me before the Father and glorify the Father in me.

And yet, still have little parts of the faith that we’ve misunderstood or were taught wrongly and so believe.

That seems to be the case in the passage here this morning.

And as we study this passage, my hopes are that we can cast doubt on our doubts and look toward Jesus with fresher faith.

And to do so, I see four steps that need to be taken.

And understand that I’m not a steps kind of preacher typically.

Three steps to greater health, five steps to a stronger family.

That’s not me.

But I do think that we see these four steps happening within this text.

The first step that we need to take is the step is to be honest with yourself and others about your doubts.

The second step is to seek trustworthy answers.

The third step is to be open to the truth.

Finally, to stay true to the end.

Notice that all of these steps in some way bring truth into focus.

Be Honest

Seek Trustworthy Answers

Be Open to the Truth

Stay True to the End

Be Honest

Seek Trustworthy Answers

Be Open to the Truth

Stay True to the End

Be Honest

If we are wanting to cast doubt upon our doubts and look toward Jesus with greater faith, the first step we need to take is to be honest with ourselves and others.

John’s life started with promise.

He was born to Zechariah and Elizabeth from the promise of an angel.

He was told that he would turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers.

He would be the forerunner of the Messiah and ended up baptizing him in front of a crowd.

He proclaimed that Jesus was the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world.

People were coming out to see John.

He was calling the nation to repent.

Like Elijah, he was covered in animal skin and wearing a leather belt, speaking on behalf of God—calling out sin and proclaiming that the Kingdom of God was at hand.

The religious elite despised him, but the regular people loved him.

Everything seemed to be going according to plan.

But much like Elijah, things suddenly fell apart.

At the height of John’s ministry, he was arrested.

John had dared speak against Herod’s second marriage to his brother’s wife Herodias and so he was placed in prison.

No more preaching.

No more baptizing.

And while in prison, John’s disciples come for a visit and tell him all these things Jesus is doing.

It seems that whatever he heard either caused some doubt in John’s mind or perpetuated the doubt that was already there.

We know that because of the question that he asked.

Is Jesus the one they were to expect or is it going to be someone else?

What once felt so right, now seemed in question.

And he shares that question with two of his disciples.

This is crucial for Christians.

We need some trusted friends with whom we can speak openly and honestly.

We need two or three people that are spiritually mature enough to talk to about our feelings of doubt (or anger or sadness or joylessness or whatever emotion).

It doesn’t necessarily have to be the closest of friends, but it does need to be someone (or some people) who won’t bristle at doubts and questions that we may have.

Solomon wrote,

Here is John the Baptist, a spiritual giant among the Jewish people, and he calls in two of his trusted disciples to talk with them.

The original Greek text says “a certain two disciples.”

These weren’t just any two disciples.

These were specific disciples—disciples he could trust to take his questions to Jesus.

Disciples he could trust with his doubts and concerns.

And John was honest with them.

He didn’t harbor the question deep down inside himself.

He didn’t act as if the question or the doubt didn’t exist.

Let me ask you, do you have one or two people with whom you can be honest?

Many Christians will sadly answer that they don’t.

We’ve become so individualized in our faith—so privatized in our Christianity—that we have no one with whom we can be honest.

And herein lies the danger: Doubt grows in silence.

It grows in secrecy.

If we are determined not to speak of our doubts (or any feeling for that matter) and if we are determined to pretend that they do not exist, they will continue to grow because as long as they are hidden we cannot openly seek the truth.

Seek Trustworthy Answers

Which takes us to the next step.

The first is that we need to be honest with ourselves and others.

But the second is to seek trustworthy answers.

That’s what John did.

He couldn’t go himself, seeing that he was in prison, but he sent those two certain disciples he trusted to find answers.

He sent them straight to the source.

Often when we hear of someone’s struggles, if we aren’t taken aback and appalled, which I hope we aren’t (but I know I’ve reacted in this way before), we don’t know what to say or do, and so we say we’ll pray for that person.

Prayer is good.

Whether that person knows it or not, he/she needs our prayers.

Whether he/she wants it or not, we need to make sure we pray for him/her.

But there is more that we can do.

Don’t overlook the fact that the disciples of John went to Jesus for answers.

That’s a very practical step that they took to help their doubting friend/rabbi find answers.

They did for him what he couldn’t do for himself.

That is needed in the Christian community.

How many answers could be found if only we had a chance to look.

But the enemy wants us to be too busy to look.

We have jobs to do, our children’s dance classes and music lessons and sports practices to race to, dinners to cook, spouses to spend time with, and the list goes on.

And we wonder how we got so busy!

And there is no time to think deeply or research or ask the questions that could help us in our struggles.

There again, we need trusted friends who can give us trustworthy answers.

John was able to send friends to Jesus, but Jesus is no longer on this earth to hear from audibly.