Sermon Tone Analysis

This morning we will be in Luke 7:18.

I wanted to speak today on something that is very human.

I want to address the topic of doubt.

If you have ever read John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, you may remember the moment where the main character Christian and his friend Hopeful are captured by someone known as Giant Dispair and they are thrown into a dungeon at a place known as Doubting Castle.

As Christian spends more time in the dungeon, he grows deeper into despair but Hopeful stays true to his namesake.

As Pilgrim’s doubts grow, Hopeful tells him to think back to what Christian has already gone through and accomplished.

He had beaten Apollyon, he had made his way through the valley of the shadow of death, he had escaped out of Vanity Fair, and if he can get past those things, surely he would be able to get out of doubting castle.

The two men pray until morning and suddenly Christian has this revelation!

He says, “What a fool am I, thus to lie in a stinking dungeon, when I may as well walk at liberty!

I have a key in my bosom, called Promise, that will, I am persuaded, open any lock in Doubting Castle.”

Sure enough, they use that key and it unlocks every door in the castle and the two walk out.

Why am I telling you this?

I believe that there is not a single Christian in here who has not spent at least one night with total despair in their own Doubting Castle.

Even the greatest saints in history have spent time in Doubting Castle and that is what we are going to read about this morning.

Just as Christian held on to the promise and found his way out, we too can hold onto the promise of the Lord our God and find our way out of Doubting Castle.

If you haven’t done so already, turn your Bible to Luke 7:18 and we are actually going to read verse 18, jump to Matthew 11:2-3, and then return to Luke 7:20-28 because the two chapters reveal new information about the same passage.

By way of background, Christ in Luke 7 had just done an incredible miracle by raising to life the son of a widow and this causes a great fear amongst all those that are present and it causes them to glorify God and say, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited His people!” Now this report obviously doesn’t stay amongst that group of people, it goes far and wide.

In fact, Luke reports that all of Judea and the surrounding country hears of it and word reaches the ears of the disciples of John the Baptist.

Let’s pray and then we will go ahead and read these three sections of Scripture and we will go from there.

Luke 7:18 (ESV)

The disciples of John reported all these things to him.

Matthew 11:2–3 (ESV)

Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

Doubting John

What is happening to John?

What is happening in this passage?

John’s disciples hear what Jesus has been doing, and there is a possibility that some even witness what He had been doing, and they go and report to John what is happening.

The reason that I had us read Matthew 11:2-3 is because it is there where we read that John the Baptist is in prison and it is important for us to know that because it makes it easy to see how a man like John could have his doubts.

John’s not living under house arrest at the Ritz, he’s not even in the Swedish prison system where it’s like he’s got a miniature hotel room, John is living in a musky, dark, depressing, cage.

It’s easy to have no doubts when everything seems to be going well.

It’s easy to doubt when all around you is despair and darkness.

John has been imprisoned because he had spoken out on King Herod’s marriage to his brother’s wife and as John awaits his fate in this dungeon, he is not so far removed from the outside world that his followers have no way of communicating with him.

John hears from his disciples what Jesus is doing and he sends two of his disciples to Jesus with a question: “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

Was it John or his followers that doubted?

Now why does John send his followers to ask Jesus this question?

Or maybe the bigger question is this: does John send his followers to talk to Jesus because he is doubting or does he send his followers so that Jesus can address their doubts?

Now several of my ministry heroes, the great minds of John Calvin, Martin Luther, J.C. Ryle, and even further back to St. Augustine all said that a man like John the Baptist couldn’t possibly ask this question for his own benefit.

He was certain that Jesus was the Christ, he declared Him to be the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, he saw the Spirit of God descend upon Christ as he baptized Him in the Jordan, he heard God speak and say that Christ was His Son, so how could someone like John doubt?

In that case, John must be sending his followers for their benefit and not necessarily his own but I don’t think so.

I believe that it is John himself that needs the reassurance and is doubting.

How do we know this?

Because it is John that asks the question and the question does not appear to form in the minds of his followers.

Jesus Himself in Luke 7:22 tells John’s disciples to go back and tell John His answer.

If it was for the benefit of the followers, there is really no reason to go back and tell John about it.

Jesus doesn’t say to John’s disciples, “here is how I will address your doubts.”

Instead He says, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard.”

Even if John’s followers are doubting who Jesus is, they are not the main recepients of Christ’s message.

How is it then that John is doubting?

Why is he doubting?

Why is John doubting?

Looking at John’s circumstances, it’s easy to see why someone would be going through a season of doubt so maybe the better question would be, “how is it that someone like John, someone who was so certain about who Jesus was, how could he have these doubts?”

It largely comes down to the type of ministry that Jesus was doing.

What was the common thought around Israel of who the Messiah was supposed to be?

The idea was that He was to be a political Savior.

He was to be the one that would restore the nation of Israel and would hopefully defeat the Romans.

The thought of a suffering, dying, and merciful Messiah was unheard of to the Jews.

When you look at John’s baptism, it was a baptism of repentance and he says in Matthew 3:11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

You see John believed that the Christ’s ministry, the Christ’s baptism, would be one of judgement.

John believed that his message was going to prepare hearts for repentance and Christ’s message would be a message of judgement but from John’s perspective the total opposite is happening!

Jesus is healing and raising the dead, He is being merciful and compassionate towards those that are coming to Him, instead of condemning the world; He has come to save the world.

So, John is thinking, “Wait, did I baptize the right guy?“

This is why his question to Jesus is, “are you the one who is to come or shall we look for another?”

John knew what he saw.

He knew who Jesus was.

He heard and saw amazing things but even he doubted.

What is absolutely amazing is how Christ addresses John’s doubts.

Turn again to Luke 7:21-23

How does Jesus address the doubts?

Notice first what Jesus does not do.

He doesn’t say to John’s followers, “How could John be doubting?

He saw what happened at my baptism!

March yourself back there and tell him to get it together!”

Christ’s response to John is perfectly in line with the report of His ministry that has reached the ears of John.

What Jesus does do is show the followers of John His power and by extension His glory.

He is saying, “here is a small portion of what I am capable of doing” but He doesn’t stop there.

The answer that He sends back to John is Scripture.

Isaiah 35:5-6 “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.

For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;” and then He references Isaiah 61:1 “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;” Do you see what Jesus is saying now?

He’s saying, “John, you know the Word of God so you should recognize what I mean when I tell you this.

Who am I? I’m exactly who Scripture testifies to me to be.

What kind of Messiah am I? The very one that all of Scripture points to.”

Philip Graham Ryken said, “How did Jesus answer?

Not by trying to meet John’s expectations, or giving in to the demand to change his ministry by suddenly performing mighty acts of judgment, but simply by continuing to do the work God had called him to do: showing mercy and preaching the gospel.

Yes, Jesus will come to judge the world, but he came first to save it.”

How then does John respond to that?

Scripture is silent on it but I have a feeling that he was satisfied with the answer that he was given because what John needed in that moment of doubt and weakness was not a new and greater revelation of who God is but what He truly needed was a reminder of who he already knew God to be.

John didn’t need a new revelation; He just needed a clearer one or a refreshing of the revelation that he already had.

John is not the first saint to doubt.

I want to quickly go through some saints throughout the Bible that went through similar periods of doubt and really to encourage our own souls, focus in on how God addressed them and there doubts.

Doubting Saints Throughout Scripture

Abraham

Let’s look at Abraham.

In Genesis 15, one of my favorite chapters in Scripture, we see God making a covenant with Abraham.

In verse 16, we see that Abraham already believes and that belief is counted to him as righteousness but look at what we read in Genesis 15:7-8 “And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”

But he [Abraham] said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?””

Abraham says, “God you have given me a great promise but how can I be sure about it?”

Notice what God doesn’t say.

He doesn’t say, “What you don’t believe me or trust me?

That’s it you’re getting nothing.”