Are You the Expected One?

Introduction

Prayer ; Heavenly Father,

Heavenly Father, As we look at this world around us, the suffering from disease, the poor leadership, the herd anger that brings about riots, hatred and division

It becomes difficult to keep our minds on You and Your Kingdom does not allow the things that are going on outside to overwhelm us. Not fall into the worlds way of dealing with problems, out of our strength, and complete forgetting that you have already given us the victory.

Father don’t let doubt cause us to question what we already know. Bring to our remembrance that you have promised that You will strengthen us, and You will help us, and You will uphold us in the right hand of Your righteousness. Bring to our remembrance that you have not given us a spirit of fear but of power and love and sound mind.

So, in my times of anxiety do not allow me to forget that it is you who prepare a table in the present of my enemies, you who anoints my head with oil, and cause my cup to run over. So, I can be confident that goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.

In the mighty name of Jesus Christ.

Main idea The future may seem uncertain in lite of our condition, but we must not put our faith in our feeling but in the evidence of what God says, and the faithfulness of his word.

Brief summary of my points 1.) Doubt is not a lack of faith, 2.) Even the most faithful can have doubt, 3.) we should our doubt as an opportunity to Seek God

Scripture Reference Matthew 11:2-6 KJV “ Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, 3 And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? 4 Jesus answered and said unto them, “Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: 5 The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. 6 And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.”

Background

This was a time of confusion for the Jews the people were torn between a number of different administrations each with the selfish goal of taking authority of some part of their lives.

1. There was the Roman Occupation the Jewish historian Josephus tells us that there had been a number of insurrections against the Romans which had failed. One of the requirements of Rome was that the Jews were to pay taxes to Rome, but the were not given any human right as what would have been given a Roman citizen. So the people hated the Romans for taxing them and treating them as second class citizen, but they had not choice the subjugated themselves to the Romans.

2. There was a second administration there called the Herodian, they were the lackeys of King Herod who was the son of Herod the Great who became King of Judah with the help of the Romans. King Herod and his Herodian liked the way things were even though they were supposed to be practicing Jews. Because they had power imputed to them by Rome so it was in their best interest to Support Roman occupation. And suppression of their own people.

3. The third administration was the Sanhedrin (made up of the Pharisees and Sadducees and scribes) they sought to flex their religious muscle on the people and keep them under subjection because of their spiritual beliefs.

The Romans would look down on the Jewish people, they tolerated the religious belief of the Sanhedrin, and condescended to the puppet kingship of the Herodians, just as the Herodians condescended to the spiritual authority of the Pharisees and Sadducees. And the Sanhedrin hated both the Herodians and the Roman

So with the Romans requiring one thing form them the Herodians requiring another, and the Sanhedrin still another you can see how they may been a little confused. And unsure of what to do

Doubt is Uncertainty About the future

In Matthew 21:21 KJV “ Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.”

One of the most confusing things in our walk with Christ is what should we do doubt. Many people do not have their doubt addressed because they think that doubt is a lack of faith. Or proof that you don’t believe. So rather than be labeled as a doubting Christian they hold their doubt to themselves and their doubt is never addressed. With time the doubt turns into unbelief, and they fall from the faith.

But I’m here to tell you that doubt is not unbelief, in fact I want you to know that in order to doubt you must have first believed. So, let’s address what doubt is.

Doubt is an uncertainty of what the future brings especially as it applies to the things of God. It almost always has its origin in a lack of evidence, the denial of evidence.

For instance, I don’t doubt that if I set in my living room chair, the chair will hold me. I have set in that chair many time in the past and it has held me every time without failure. As a matter of fact when I come home from a long day I often throw my computer bag on the couch and without even looking I flop my rear end into the chair. Because I am confident that the chair will hold me

Even the Most Mature Christian Can Have Doubt

I don’t want us to confuse the issues here, if John the Baptist can doubt, growing up with Jesus and being the only man who had holy spirit from birth. Being the last prophet in the Bible. Being the harbinger of the Lord Jesus Christ, if this man can have doubt. Then I won’t get all twisted up when doubt slips into my mind.

The Bible is full of powerful men and women who have doubted, many of them are in the book of Hebrew which we call God’s hall of faith.

· You have Abraham and Sara who doubted God’s promise

· You have Gideon who doubted God’s calling.

· You have Job who doubted God’s goodness.

· You have Thomas who doubted Jesus’ Resurrection.

· The in Matthew 14:28-31 we read about Peter …

Matthew 14:28-31 KJV “And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.29 And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. 31 And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?”

The passage says when Peter saw the that the wind was boisterous he got scared, because of his circumstances he took his eye off of Jesus the one who had called him.

And some of us are just like Peter, we have let life conditions cause us get scared and we began to doubt (become uncertain about what the future holds for us.) whether it be losing a job, or losing a love one, whether it is contracting a sickness or fear of the condition of school, or governments or whatever the uncertainty may be.

But I got a God name Jesus who is able to empathize with our weakness in every way.

I got a God name Jesus who has no problem walking across the water just so he can reach down and pull me out of my infirmities.

I got a God name Jesus who made me a promise that he would be with me always.

I got a God name Jesus who loves me so much that he willingly climbed up on the cross was nailed thought his hands and feet, died on the cross, was buried in a grave and on the third day got up just so he could spend eternity with me.

So I don’t get too twisted up when doubt sit in, because I’m too busy keeping my eye to the hill from winch cometh my help my help comes from the lord.

Doubt is An Opportunity to Come Closer to Jesus

There is two strange things happening in this passage if seems unusual that John would ask this question “Are you the Expected One ( Messiah) or should we look for someone else. John knew who Jesus was more than anyone else. John’s purpose as a prophet was to make way for the Messiah. He is called the harbinger of Jesus Christ. And the scripture says that John knew the Messiah while he was still in his mother womb. The answer to John’s question lies back in Matthew 3:11-12

In that passage John proclaims that the one who is to come will separate the chaff from the wheat and burn the chaff with fire. But when john send his disciples to Jesus, he find himself in prison and Jesus has not defeated sin in Jerusalem.

How many people know that many times God will tell you what He going to do but won’t give you any idea as to where when or how he going to get it done. And when we don’t know the particulars, we sometimes fill in the blanks,

And when things do not work out in the way you have filled in the blanks doubt start to set in. You began to question what you know to be true; you start saying things like maybe God hasn’t spoken to me on this subject.

And I think this is what happened to John. God did not give john the details of what he was doing because John did not have need of that knowledge. God only give us enough to get us to the place He wants us to be. He tell Abraham get up leave your family and friends and go to a place I will show you when you get there.

The second strange thing in this passage was Jesus’s answer. He did not say to John’s disciples “tell him yes I am the messiah” he gives them a list of things that he has done apparently some in the sight of John’s disciples. Now this is not an attempt by Jesus to impress John or his disciples with his power. What Jesus is doing is referencing Isaiah’s prophecies about the coming Messiah and applying them to himself.

Isaiah 35:5-6 KJV “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.6 Then shall the lame man leap, as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.”

And …

Isaiah 61:1-2 KJV “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; 2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn”

You see when his disciple returned to him with Jesus’s Message John would have recognized this as Isaiah prophecy being fulfilled in Jesus. And on the parts of the two passages that address “streams forming in the desert”, and “the day of God’s judgement and vengeance.” Jesus was assuring John that these things will come.

Application

So let wrap this up. In Romans 8:28 KJV “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

The operative word here is all things. That include the good things, the bad things, and the downright ugly things somehow God in his sovereign ability has weaved them together for your good. The scripture says Jesus know our infirmities, and he cares. So that the doubt, the question, the fears that we experience do not catch him off guard.

when John who was in prison for preaching the Gospel of repentance. And he began to doubt he did not pull away from God, he sent his disciples to get the facts right from God’s word.

And for us The natural instinct when we have spiritual doubts and fears is to stop reading your bible, stop going to church, stop attending bible study, stop praying. To isolate ourselves from everyone because we are ashamed of our doubt.

But what we need to do is learn from John and not separate form Jesus because of the doubt but to take that opportunity to get closer.

Conclusion

Doubt is not the absence of faith, it the uncertainty about the future. You can have faith and doubt, and every Christian will at some point in his life doubt. So don’t be ashamed to talk to someone about your doubt. So many Christians have fallen away because of doubt they have had have never been answered. Finally, The devil uses our doubt to cause us to not trust God, we have to use our doubt as an opportunity to get closer to God.

Closing prayer Lord Jesus, you have made known to us the things of the Kingdom today. Show us how to apply what we have learned in this service to our daily lives. Help us to make wise choices throughout the week for Your glory. help us to be strong and courageous and doubt should show it face, cause us to desire to draw even the more close to you. so that we might confidently walk as upright son and daughters of the almighty God. in Jesus name amen

Benediction For this reason I bend my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner self, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to all the fullness of God Ephesians 3:14-19