18 John’s disciples told him about all these things. Calling two of them, 19 he sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” 20 When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?’” 21 At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. 22 So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. 23 Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.” ~ Luke 7:18-23
Our text begins with "18 John’s disciples told him about all these things. Calling two of them, 19 he sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?"
We all understand believing doubt, or doubting belief. We all have said, "I believe but my faith is incomplete, my faith is challenged and battered by doubts." Amazingly this is exactly where John the Baptist is in our text for today. This one of whom the Lord Jesus said, "The greatest prophet of all." Here is a prophet of God, the forerunner of the Messiah, the last of the Old Testament prophets and the greatest, who is struggling with doubt.
To date, there was plenty of reason to believe that the Lord Jesus was the Messiah. Some believed, but most did not. Doubt plays a big role in whether we believe or not. John Drummond points out that the Lord Jesus consistently made a distinction between doubt and unbelief. “Doubt is can’t believe; unbelief is won’t believe. Doubt is honesty; unbelief is obstinacy. Doubt is looking for light; unbelief is content with darkness.”
We shouldn't be surprised to find a believer, John the Baptist, struggling with doubt. If the greatest man who ever lived had doubts, then maybe it's understandable that we have some doubts as well.
Today, we find John in a prison. He's been in prison for many months. And his disciples, according to v.18, reported to him all the things the Lord Jesus was doing. For some time John had no firsthand information about the ministry of the Lord Jesus. He can't hear and he can't see the Lord Jesus. And doubt was growing on the edges of his faith.
So John sends his disciples back eighty miles to where the Lord Jesus was ministering in Galilee and says, "Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” Doubt comes from our inability to deal with negative circumstances when we perceive ourselves as being faithful people. Like John the Baptist, our doubts come when we are convinced that we belong to the Lord, we're loyal, we're faithful, we've lived and served Him and things aren't turning out the way we expected.
When we have illegitimate expectations, when we've bought false ideas about the way things should be and we think God doesn't deliver on His promises, we will have a problem with faith. This sentences us to a life of serious debilitating and discouraging doubt that robs us of our forward lean and our hopeful usefulness.
Honest doubt, is not bad. It could be a great starting point toward deeper faith in the Lord Jesus. Doubt is a bad finishing point because as a starting point doubt is connected to rationality. And part of rationality is to be able to discern what is true and what is not. One of the features of the sorting process is the skepticism that causes us to evaluate. Doubt is an essential part of faith.
Almost everything that John the Baptist expected to happen didn't. John grew up understanding when the Messiah comes redemption comes, salvation from all who hate the Jews will come. John believed that when Messiah comes, the Abrahamic Covenant will unfold, and the Davidic Covenant will be reality. John didn't understanding the time sequences in between.
When the Messiah came, it didn't happen. And John comes to this point and he's down in a prison, completely out of circulation and all he hears about is the Lord Jesus traveling around healing people, raising dead people, and casting out demons. And most of the people healed and delivered were not believers in the God of the Bible. So, he naturally struggles with doubt.
John suffered from incomplete revelation. When we, like John, lack enough information, we must go to the one who has the information. When we have doubts, we must go to the Word of God and get our doubt turned into faith.
We read in v. 21-22, "21 At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. 22 So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor." In response to John's disciples question, at an instant, the Lord Jesus responded by healing many.
In His response the Lord Jesus said, “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.” This was evidence that the kingdom had begun, even though the earthly fulfillment of that kingdom is yet future.
Then in v.23 we read, “Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.” We are going to wrestle with understanding God's ways, that's ok. We must not let the lack of revelation and wrong expectations cause us to stumble out of our pursuit of the Lord Jesus. And, if this happens, if we end up believing a little more in the God of the Bible, we are blessed of God.
We know that later, Herod had John beheaded and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl who had danced for Herod on his birthday. John the Baptist was beheaded before the Lord Jesus died and rose from the dead. He never heard much of what the Lord taught and he never saw His power on display. And when he died, his disciples came to tell the Lord Jesus because He was John's Messiah.
Not all his questions were answered before John was murdered. The kingdom, however, had been previewed and John had gotten the message that all of this indicated that the kingdom had begun. Even though it's not yet in its final form, the kingdom is still in place and you and I are in it. And yet, we still struggle with our questions.
