PM20050918 Watch This!

Watch This!                                                                                     4/19/2007 PM

Written by: Luke Harris with added notes from The Preachers Outline and Sermon Bible

Scripture: Matthew 11:1-6

Have you ever in your Christian walk looked at a situation and thought, boy, wait till God gets a hold of you. 

You know, like the experience Jonah had.  He went to Ninevah reluctantly and after he proclaimed the prophecy he found a shade tree to sit under and watch the fireworks rain down on them.  But instead God showed grace and it floored Jonah.

Do you ever feel that way, you think to yourself, mm mm, when God sees you doing that He is really going to smite you.  Then we see an act of God’s love or His mercy and it floors us. 

This happens to a lot of believers and they can get discouraged in their walk but I want to encourage you tonight that Jesus came as a God of love, and we should go and do likewise.

John Questions Jesus’ motives

Context (v. 1)

Jesus had just given a laundry list of instructions to the disciples to send them out to minister.  This would be their hands on training.  He finds himself ministering alone. 

It’s at this point that John sends some disciples to talk to Jesus.

1) John’s Perplexity: He pictured a stern Messiah

      John is an interesting character…last in the line of the OT, greatest among men, fulfiller of Malachi 3:1

      Here we see him struggle with a certain aspect of Jesus, namely his love. 

      A.  Jesus works were works of love

      B.  John waited for a Messiah of judgment

      John paved the way and then set back to watch the fireworks

      John thought he would be a part of the Roman overthrow yet here he was in prison.

An important principle, even the greatest of godly men needs reassurance sometimes of Christ.  The Saints of the Scripture were men and women with passions like we experience

But even in John’s time of question, he never wavered from his faith, he trusted Christ anyway, he proclaimed the message despite not knowing the whole picture, and importantly he did not let questions destroy his faith.

John was in the low point in his life (as if living in the desert and eating locusts wasn’t low enough) and he came unashamedly to Jesus.  We can do the same you know. 

Do you have a burden?  Do you have a concern?  The best place to bring it is to Christ.

We like John may have questions but here is what I want you to see.  Don’t let the questions block you, trust him regardless.  Many question but then don’t follow through on their commitment.  They fail to make a total commitment to Christ.   Have you made a total commitment?  If you have questions bring them to him.