Sermon Tone Analysis

WHO IS THE REAL JESUS?

The Real Jesus, Part 1; His Teaching—September 8, 1996

Matthew 11:2–6

2 When John [the Baptist] heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples 3 to ask him, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” 4 Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5 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.

6 Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”

This is God’s Word

This is really a very important question to ask if you’re going to understand this interchange between John the Baptist and Jesus.

John the Baptist used to support Jesus.

If you’re familiar with the history here, John the Baptist at one point actually encouraged his disciples to follow Jesus.

Some of Jesus’ original disciples were originally, before that, John’s disciples.

Therefore, right away, if we’re going to understand this passage, we have to say to ourselves, “What’s going on here?”

John had supported Jesus’ messianic claims.

John had been a backer of Jesus.

Why is he now struggling?

That’s what he is.

This is a very disheartened question.

“Are you the One who is to come or should we look for another?”

Now why would it be John the Baptist, this great religious figure, this great man, would be in such difficulty?

Why would he be stumbling?

Why would he be struggling?

If you look, this wonderful text (it’s so brief, but it tells you so much) gives you two reasons.

There are two things in the text that tells us why John was confused about the identity of Jesus.

The first was because his life was going so badly.

You notice it says he heard in prison.

John the Baptist had been the sensation of the nation.

John the Baptist had been the star of the nation.

Huge crowds, multitudes came out to hear him, and he had gotten up to a place essentially of great popular power, and he had denounced corruption in the government, but he went too far.

Herod had thrown him into jail, thrown him into prison, and now his life was hanging by a thread, and he was irrelevant and forgotten because all the crowds had gone to Jesus.

One of the things that made him struggle with Jesus was he says, “Wait a minute.

If you’re the Messiah, if you’re the One, and I served you, why is my life such a wreck?

If you’re this great God, why are you letting such bad things happen to a good person like me?

How can I believe in you in the face of the tragedy of life and the tragedy of my life?”

The second reason he was filled with doubts is a little more subtle, but why does Jesus say, “John, don’t be offended”?

See the last verse?

Why does Jesus say to John, “John, don’t be offended”?

Clearly because Jesus understood that was John’s problem.

It says when he was in prison, he heard the things Jesus was doing.

He heard about Jesus’ ministry when he was in prison, and it filled him with offense.

What was it?

Well, we’re going to get to that in a second.

But here at the very beginning, let me just show you the burning contemporary relevance not just of this interchange but of the whole chapter 11 of Matthew, which we’re going to look at this month.

Here’s why it’s so relevant to us today, because in the Western world where we live there has always been a lot of indifference to Jesus, but never before, never in 2,000 years really, have there been so many people like John the Baptist who are struggling with Jesus Christ.

They struggle with who he is.

There has always been indifference, but now … In fact, when you read the New York Times, you’ll see that everybody who writes for the New York Times virtually feels exactly like John the Baptist, and that is, “How can I believe in Jesus Christ in light of the sufferings of my life and of the world in general?

How can I believe?”

Then secondly, “How can I believe in someone who is so emotionally and intellectually offensive in the things he says and does?”

Now we’re going to get to what those are, but the point is, John says, “I am emotionally struggling with how my life is going bad, and I’m also intellectually struggling with the offensive way in which Jesus Christ is conducting his ministry.”

The average educated person in New York feels exactly the same way.

I know because when I talk to them, they say, “Well, if he’s Jesus Christ, why is life so bad?

Why do all these bad things happen?

And secondly, if he’s Jesus Christ, how can he make these terrible claims, these claims of exclusivity?

These awful claims offend me!”

The same thing had happened to John, and do you see how relevant this is?

Hasn’t anybody here wanted to do this?

John asked the question the modern world is asking.

“In light of the suffering and evil of the world and in light of all your offensiveness and all these offensive claims, how do we know you are who you say you are?

How do we know?”

What’s so great is Jesus does not say, “How dare you question me?”

But he gives him an answer, and it’s a complete answer, and it’s an amazing answer, and it stretches on beyond this passage in the chapter, and that’s why we’re going to look at it.

But even here this morning, right away we learn so much if you have any interest in the answer to that question.

How does Jesus Christ tell us we can know he is the One?

What does he say is the evidence?

What does he say?

Here it is.

We actually can learn two things from the question and two things from the answer.

Two things from John’s question and two things from Christ’s answer.

Here’s what they are.

1.

The two things we learn from John’s question

If you’re going to find out whether Jesus is the One, first of all, you have to make sure you do not try to understand yourself before you understand him, and you also had better realize that if you reject him you’ll never be able to stop searching for him.

Those are the two things we learn.

First, as a minister, I have to say, I got startled when I saw what John asked, because over the years I have talked to many people who are trying to find out whether Jesus is real.

Lots of people want to know whether … They explore.

“Is Jesus real?

Do I want to be a Christian?

Is Christianity for me?”

Almost always … virtually always … they go about it differently, because John the Baptist has a problem.

He has a big problem.

He is in prison.

He is about to be killed.

His life is hanging by a thread, and yet, when he goes to Jesus Christ, he says nothing about his problem at all.

He doesn’t say, “If you’re the One, get me out of here.”

No. Instead, he says, “Are you the One?”

He is utterly different than the thief.

Remember there were two thieves on the cross on both sides?

The first thief (the scornful thief, I guess we’d call him, in history) looked at Jesus Christ and he says, “If you are the One, get us out of here.

Then we’ll know!” See, it’s very simple.

In other words, “Prove you are the One by solving my problem.”

Over the years, virtually everybody I’ve ever seen who comes to Jesus and approaches this question and wants to sort of look into Christianity always has a profoundly problem-centered approach to Jesus.

They want to know whether Jesus is going to give them the power and the support to live the way they want to live.

Let me just give you four very common examples.

Somebody says, “Well, I’m thinking about being a Christian or I’m thinking about Christianity.

I’d like to know whether it’s true, but I’m struggling because I want to be a doctor and I don’t know whether I’m going to be able to make it in med school.

Will Jesus help me get through med school?”

Or, “I’m struggling because I have a bad marriage, and I’m really thinking of divorce.

What’s the Christian view on divorce?

Will I be supported?”

Or, “I have a problem with self-esteem.

I have a problem with guilt.

I’ve been in a lot of abusive relationships.

If I come to Jesus, will he make me feel good about myself?”