Assuring the Prophet's Doubts

It’s such an honor to be with you and open the Word of God together. Lately, and by lately, I mean in the last few years, I have been increasingly alarmed and saddened by the number of friends, former students, former church members, and other people in my life who have gone from at one time claiming the name of Christ to now no longer holding to the faith they once claimed. They might even say they are a Christian but they do not walk in a way that is consistent with Christ in scripture. They have begun to question the clear teachings and doctrines of the Bible. Over the years, this process became en vogue online and came to be known as “deconstruction” or “deconstructing your faith.” It is seen as a tearing down of everything in your faith and everything you have been taught to get all the way down to bare bones and outside of any influences that may have had input in what you believe. At the beginning, some would do this to build back up a true faith that was based on the actual teachings of the Bible. However, as many of these things do, it stopped with people simply tearing it all down and then living based on what they felt or some other shaky foundation. More often than not I have found that when someone says they are “deconstructing”, it is simply code for “don’t want to hold to the Bible’s sexual ethic.”

Where does all of this begin? Likely it began with a doubt. Maybe they were going through something in life that caused them to despair and doubt what the Lord was doing. It may have been something terribly difficult and they doubted. Now, all of us would probably admit to at some point wrestling with doubt in some area of the faith. The issue I want to address today and what I hope you will hear is not a simple message of “don’t doubt the Lord.” What I want you to see and what I believe Luke wants you to see is that it matters very much what you do with those doubts. Where do you take them? Too often people take their doubts to men or empty philosophies. In our passage today we see John the Baptist bringing a question of doubt about Jesus to the one who could truly respond… He asks Jesus by sending a couple of his disciples.

Today’s main idea is this: Jesus is the promised Messiah, God visiting His people. This is the answer to your doubting.

I. Evidences for the Messiah (v. 18-23)

At this point, John the Baptist has been put into prison by an evil man. He had been calling that man to repent of his wicked ways. He must understand the direness of his situation and that it’s likely that he’s in prison basically just waiting till he eventually gets executed. It’s a very human response to a situation like that to become impatient with what you had thought was going to happen. In your despair and suffering as a captive, doubt could potentially creep in. We don’t know a lot about the thought life of JTB here so we don’t want to make too many assumptions, however we can see what he does. He sends this question that he has to Jesus. He gets 2 of his disciples and they go to Jesus and repeat to him the question they were sent to ask.

Luke 7:20 ESV

And when the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’ ”

Is it you or should we be looking for someone else? Maybe John was thinking, “ You know, I’m in prison and I’m probably gonna die here. I want to know if you’re the guy. I need to hear that again.”

Anyabwile writes that, “Faith and doubt can find room in the same heart.” Moments of doubt can happen to a Christian and they are not disqualifying. They may not be signs of an unregenerate heart.

Look at what Jesus does in response. He doesn’t rebuke John for asking. He answers by doing God sized work.

Luke 7:21 ESV

In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind he bestowed sight.

He gets the question and continues to do the things that reassure John with evidence that the power of God is at work in and through Him. Then Jesus tells them what to report to John.

Luke 7:22 ESV

And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.

What is going on here? More than simply Jesus healing people to prove that He’s God. Yes, we have that. But there’s even more going on here. That message that He was sending to John was specific. It was a hat tip to John regarding something that John as a Bible guy would have known.

Isaiah 61:1–2 ESV

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;

This passage is the same that Jesus used in Luke chapter 4 when he read and gave a short message in the synagogue.

Luke 4:17–21 ESV

And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus has preached that this passage was about Him. Now, here he was doing the things in that passage and John would have understood that as solid confirmation that yes, he was correct when Jesus came to him in John chapter 1.

John 1:29–34 ESV

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

Jesus then makes a statement in verse 23 of Luke 7 that is interesting.

Luke 7:23 ESV

And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

John was not offended by Jesus’ name. He was imprisoned because he stood for the things of God. He preached a message and baptized with a baptism of repentance, calling people to turn away from their sin. Jesus is saying that those who maintain and persevere and aren’t ashamed or offended or walk away because of Jesus, those are the happy, blessed ones. They continue and don’t fall away and are happy in the Lord. So keep on believing John. Keep on believing in the face of doubt. You’ll be happy in the end that you trusted Jesus. Jesus meets doubt with assurance. You can feel safe about bringing your doubts to Jesus.

Jesus was assuring his friend, loyal supporter, and cousin of what he has believed.

II. Evaluation of the Prophet (v. 24-28)

John’s messengers leave and Jesus speaks to the crowd about John. This is great. I listened to a sermon on this that said, John never got to hear what Jesus said about him this side of eternity. The crowd was around. They likely knew about the question he had just had from John. This guy John the Baptist was a guy that the people went out to hear and were baptized by and here he was questioning if Jesus was the one they were waiting on. Jesus takes a moment to talk John up to the people.

He assures the people that not only was John in fact, a great prophet of the Lord and even more. He connects John to Malachi 3:1

Malachi 3:1 ESV

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.

He’s identifying John as the one who comes before and Himself as the Coming One. But Jesus goes on and puts John in the same category as people like Moses in Elijah when He says none born of women is greater than John. That means those other guys are not greater than John the Baptist. He is a great prophet of God and the forerunner of The Messiah, Jesus Christ.

Jesus then adds something that seems strange. He talks about how great John is but then says that the least in the kingdom of God is greater than John. What are we to think of this? Let me point out that John lived on the other side of the cross. We live on this side of the cross. John did not get to experience the kingdom in the already/not yet as we get to. He didn’t experience the kingdom of God in the here and now as we get to. This statement is consistent with Jesus’ teachings about the kingdom and the least and the greatest.

Then, in verses 29 through 35 we have an examining or really, it’s Jesus revealing the hearts of the people by their actions.

III. Examining the Hearts of the People (v. 29-35)

First, in verses 29 and 30 we see two responses to what Jesus had said.

The normies and even the tax collectors declared God just. They had been baptized by John. John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. There was a turning away from their sin. They recognized that, as Lig Duncan said, “they were the problem.” They saw their sin and knew they needed to turn from it. They declared that it was right that God call them to turn from their sin. They were saying God is justified in punishing their sin. They know who they are and admit it.

But there is this other group, the Pharisees and the lawyers. The text says they rejected the purpose of God for themselves. They had not repented. They had not agreed that they were the problem, that their sin was the issue. They would rather point to other people as the problem rather than admit that they were sinful and needed to repent. They would rather stay in their sin than turn away from it because they would have to admit that they were wrong and someone else, John and Jesus were right about their sin. And they rejected the purpose of God. How sad that is! How many walking around us have heard the Good News of Jesus that He died in their place on the cross, as a sacrifice for their sin and love the part where someone loves them but won’t admit that their sin deserved the wrath of God which made the cross necessary….

Jesus goes on to use a childhood Illustration from that time. He illustrated these people as a generation who won’t be satisfied with anything. They’re like children who are playing the flute and that sad kid that won’t dance. So they sing a sad song for the sad kid but that doesn’t suit the kid either. John was a bit of a recluse out in the wilderness staying away from bread and wine and they said he had a demon. Jesus had a very social ministry going to parties and feasts and they called him a glutton and a drunkard and accused Him of being a friend of tax collectors and sinners. They wouldn’t be happy and satisfied with anything of it. These people just can’t be pleased. It’s because they reject the purpose of God for themselves. They are like obstinate, stubborn children.

Luke is pointing out that the notion of salvation by segregation or staying away from certain people or things is worthless. Salvation is found only in the God-man, who visited His people and dwelt among them and it is this God who you can be certain of. This Jesus who proved by His work that He is who He says He is and in His death and resurrection proved that the sacrifice for sin worked.

Jesus closes this section with a statement that might seem odd to you at first.

Luke 7:35 ESV

Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.”

Let me make this simple for you: Wisdom is shown to be genuine by the fruit that it produces. This might not be apparent in planning stage of what is going on. But the fruit that comes out the other side is vindication that it was wisdom. On the contrary, the fruit will also show if it was a lack of wisdom.

Conclusion and Application:

I don’t know what you’re dealing with in life right now. It might be something that is incredibly distressing. It might be a despair that causes you to doubt God’s goodness or doubt what He’s doing right now. I want to encourage you and plead with you to take those doubts to Jesus. Our God is big enough to stand up to questions. Other religions don’t want you to question. But our God answers the questions with Himself.

Don’t be like the Pharisees and lawyers. Don’t reject the purpose of God for yourself because you are unwilling to own up to your sin and repent. Don’t be like those who were obstinate children and refused to be satisfied by anything. Find your satisfaction in Jesus alone and not your own attempts at holiness. It is only He who satisfies.

More here….

Pray

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