Desires Blocked

Mission

In Matthew 10 Jesus is putting His disciples to work - one commentator referred to it as an ordination sermon - the disciple got their marching orders;

They are commanded - no hinting, no recommending, no suggesting - it was to be a part of their life and purpose, let’s look at 1 Corinthians 9:16 to see Paul’s thoughts;

This mission is clearly defined and demonstrated - Jesus now begins to teach them literally preparing them for His long departure;

Jesus’ intention was to grow the disciples to trust in His teaching to maturity.

Questions

Now Matthew turns our focus to John the Baptist - who Herod Antipas had imprisoned because John rebuked (challenged) him about divorcing his wife in order to marry Herodias;

Now John the Baptist is related to Jesus (Luke 1:41-45), John prepared the way for Jesus (Matthew 3), and John baptized Jesus (Matthew 3:13-17) yet Jesus had not reach out to him in his situation;

This brings John to question - “Are You the coming One, or we look for another?”;

John may have been feeling like his desires, to continue to share Jesus, had been blocked;

Do you sometimes feel Jesus is not reaching out to you in your virtual prison cell;

Actions

Sometime words are not enough to convince people - especially if they are in despair - so Jesus opted for actions as the answer;

Jesus instructed John’s disciples - followers - to go tell John what they saw why, again actions speak louder than words;

Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume Matthew 11:1–6

Healing the sick was the saving of bodies, but preaching the gospel was to the saving of souls.

Now these actions proved that Jesus was and is the Messiah and is support in the book of Isaiah;

John’s disciple not only heard what He had to say but they witnessed it first hand themselves;

Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the New Testament Chapter 11

In other words, Jesus was assuring John that He was the King, for He was performing the very miracles that the Scriptures said He would perform (see Isa. 35:5–6 and 61:1).

Christ offers a blessing over His children that are not offended by Him and are willing to take the journey He has laid ahead of them.