23 Jan

12/16/18      MATTHEW 11:2-11   “DON’T DOUBT: TRUST ME!”

I think that it’s very unfortunate that we live in a world where everything has to be proven.  This is probably alright in some cases but can also lead to a world where so many people think that they have their truth and I have mine and everything is ok.  So the question that I might raise is “How in the world can I prove anything to you if we all have separate truths?”  Of course the answer is that we can’t.  This would be another way of disproving the myth that we all have our own truths.  However, a value system like this where we all have our own truth will lead us to much doubt.  If you believe that the world is flat and I say its round, then we will doubt each other because we both know that our way is the truth.  Anyway it gets a little complicated and that isn’t my intent.  My intent is to introduce the concept of doubt.  I really think that today’s Scripture will hit most of us right in the heart.  There probably isn’t a person watching this that has not had a moment of doubt.  Unfortunately, some people live in a world where doubt rules, like those with their own truth, and there is little room for much else.  Today I would like to talk a bit about the doubt of John the Baptist and how we can combat doubt in our lives.

Dan Waite tells the story of a young pastor who had decided to quit the ministry.  He had enough of dealing with immature Christians.  He had enough of dealing with the politics of the church.  He had enough of the lack of spirituality of the church leaders.  He figured that if the church, which is supposed to be God’s ambassador, was this badly corrupted, then Christianity must be a lie.  His wife had to drag him to church and he resented her for it.  It was a time of spiritual lowness for this young follower of God.  Tennyson once wrote that ‘honest doubt is better than blind belief.’  This seemed that it might be beyond honest doubt.  It was more like bitter disappointment and angry rage.

But one night, and it was the middle of the night, a voice seemed to be calling him to read it one more time.  He thought he could reason away all the miracles as he read the Bible for what he thought the last time.  He found that he could dismiss the stories as myths like so many of our churches do today.  But when it came to the prophecies, he had no answer.  He had to ask himself, “How could people like Isaiah know so much about Jesus?”  This young minister came to the only logical conclusion possible.  The Bible had to be entirely true.  And he went back to be a minister.

This poor man had a mountain of doubt and of course the voice he heard was the sound of Jesus calling him to come back.  And this story isn’t much different than what we just read in the Scripture.  Let’s go back a little and look at the life of John the Baptist.

If you remember John the Baptist was a cousin or relative of Jesus.  They first met when John leapt when they were both still in the womb.  We read about this in Luke.  Isn’t it amazing how God can even work through unborn babies?  And to think that our society is trying to tell us that babies aren’t alive and viable until after they are born.  Anyway, do you remember how his father, Zechariah, was made mute until the circumcision of the baby-all because he had doubted that all this had and would happen!  There was a lot of doubt floating around at the time of the birth of Jesus.

And just like Jesus, we don’t hear much about John for the next 30 years.  We do know that he was probably kind of a rough character as I mentioned last week who traveled in a camel hair coat and leather belt.  He ate locusts and honey.  But most importantly he preached the word of God.  He was one of the last prophets as we know them in the Bible.  He told of the one coming that would be far greater than he, John.  He was a bold preacher who preached about the repentance of sin.

It is interesting to note that there are many preachers today that preach in the same fashion.  Their wardrobe is different today but they still have a fire and brimstone style of preaching.  You can turn on your TV and see these types of people calling us to repent or else.  These people use the harsh reality of what will happen if you don’t repent.

There is nothing wrong with this type of ministry.  Some people need this toughness in order to change their lives.  But contrast John the Baptist’s methods with those of Jesus.  Jesus preached the same message with love.  Jesus was gentle and not harsh.  He was caring and not so threatening.  Jesus showed us another way to preach the Word.  I think that many of the mainline churches try to be gentler than say some of the more Pentecostal churches.  This is where we get our pattern of ministering to people or serving the people first before presenting the Gospel.  I’m always adamant that people can’t hear us if they are hungry or hurting.   If we look around we can see many ways of presenting the Gospel.

Now, back to the story!  John baptized Jesus.  He didn’t know why because he knew who Jesus was and he knew he wasn’t worthy of doing it.  But he did it because he was told to do it.  And then his ministry began to fade as many of his disciples joined Jesus.  Prophets like John had many followers or disciples.  John is told that He will be less and Jesus would be more.  And John was ok with this because he knew this had to happen.

Today we read that John the Baptist is in prison.  All he had done to get there was tell the King that the King was committing adultery; that was all!  John was the type of man who would tell you that you were doing something wrong no matter what the consequences.  So we have John sitting in jail and having a moment of doubt.  After all, John knew that he was the forerunner of the Messiah.  If Jesus was the Messiah, and John was announcing Him, then what was John doing in prison?  Surely God would treat him better than this.  These are understandable thoughts.

These are the types of thoughts that have run through all of our minds at one time or another.  Norman Vincent Peale told the true story of famed violinist, Peter Cropper.  Someone had loaned him a 258 year old Stradivarius violin.  These are elite, expensive and irreplaceable violins.  Anyway, somehow Cropper fell on top of this priceless instrument and broke it.  He was inconsolable.  He found himself in the same type of mental prison that John was in.  After a bit, Cropper found a master craftsman who could fix the famous violin.  When he got done, you couldn’t tell that it had ever been smashed.  The master craftsman was that good.

We are like this also.  It is not hard for us to question God.  When we are ruined financially, we ask, “Where is God?”  When our worlds get turned upside by alcohol, drugs or divorce, we ask, “Where is God?”  When a dear loved one dies, we ask, “Where is God?”  Anytime we think that God is absent, He is much closer than we know.  Jesus is always there no matter what we do or what happens.  We are the ones who don’t see Him.  We are the ones in error.  God never promised that there would not be any hardships or trials in your lives.  He has promised, however, that He will be there to help you through them.  In your despair, in your darkest moments, the master craftsman will help to put you back together again.

This is where John is.  So he sends his disciples to ask Jesus if He, Jesus, is indeed the Messiah.  Jesus replies to them in a roundabout way which was the way that Jesus answered many questions.  Loosely translated, He says, “Tell John that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the Good News is preached to the poor.  And those will be blessed who do not fall away from me.”  He is telling John not to lose his faith.  He is telling him He is the Messiah and everything will be ok.  Plus He is quoting prophecies from the Bible.

We have times in our lives where we more than doubt.  We flat out sin.  One of the troubles with sin is that once you start to sin, you have to keep on sinning so that you aren’t found out.  We don’t want people to know that we are closet alcoholics.  We don’t want people to know that we cheat others in our business.  We want to hide our sin and doubt.  When we sin we are, in fact, doubting Jesus.

What Jesus is trying to tell us is that it’s ok to doubt.  He is saying, “Now come back to me.  Don’t lose the faith.”  He is God and He can do anything.  And the best thing that He does is that He forgives you.  This is one of the reasons that I try to tell you to pray and pray often.  It is your way of communicating to God through Jesus Christ.  It is your way of taking your sin to Him every day.  So if you have a life that is spinning out of control take it to Jesus.  Take your marital problems to Him.  Take your thought life to Him.  Take any and all sin to Him and the master craftsman will put you back together.  The first part of this passage is Jesus calling out to you, “Trust in me!  Trust in me!”  Jesus is the answer to all of your problems.  Trust in Him.

As we move on, Jesus goes on to tell the crowd about how great a man is John the Baptist.  As a matter of fact he is the greatest prophet that the world has ever seen.  He is the messenger that is told about in Malachi 3:1.  He is a prophecy come true.  And as great as John the Baptist was, as great as any of us will be, he and we will pale in comparison to the least in heaven.

Jesus isn’t trying to tell you that you don’t measure up.  No!  Instead He is trying to tell you that you do measure up but the wonders of heaven are beyond your wildest dream.  I recently read an article in Guidepost magazine about heaven.  The author was trying to tell us the same thing.  He tried to put it in modern terms and it went something like this.  Try to imagine your favorite good super hero with all of his powers.  Then take all of these powers and gifts and magnify them 100 times.  Then you will begin, just begin to get the idea of heaven.  The trouble when we think of heaven is that we don’t think big enough.  We try to put limits on heaven and we try to put limits on God.  They are both outside of the limits of our comprehension.

Jesus is telling the greatest person that ever lived, John the Baptist and us, not to worry.  Jesus has everything under control.  We are in the season of Advent.  This is a season where we look forward and prepare for the birth of Jesus.  However, just because we are in a season of celebration, doesn’t mean that life does not keep happening.

Some of you may find yourselves in the midst of death and sorrow.  Some of you may find that your depression if unbearable.  Some of you may find that you are caught in financial woes that are way beyond your means.  We seem to be in the midst an evil craze of mass shootings.  These have been taking place all across the country.  Our daughter and son in law were in the middle of one a year ago.  No one is immune.  They found themselves in a bad situation.  Some of you may find yourselves in a jail like John the Baptist.  Life will keep happening no matter what the season or circumstance.

Jesus is telling you today that He is there for you.  You can bring your deepest, darkest secret to Him and He will help you.  It doesn’t matter who you are.  If you think that you are the most unworthy person in the world, then you are definitely more than worthy to be talking to Jesus.

The beauty of His plan is that all are worthy in His sight.  One of the things to take away from today’s passage is that it is ok to doubt.  As a matter of fact, a little doubt may help to strengthen your faith.  It is ok to ask me the questions although I probably don’t know the answers.  But I know who does.  And it is also definitely ok to ask Jesus these same questions.  Jesus will try to help you to understand what you need to know.  Just come to Jesus.

Today we have seen how Jesus dealt with the doubt of one of the greatest men that have ever lived.  He didn’t pound on his desk.  He didn’t shout out, “What does it take for you to get it?”  He didn’t tell you that you are going to hell for not getting it.

No, instead He said, “Listen people, listen!  I love you!  Look at all I have done for you and for the world about you.  I know that you have your doubts from time to time and that is ok, but just trust in me.  Trust in me!  I will be there for you no matter what happens.”

I would like to close with a little quote from Corrie Ten Bloom.  If you remember she was a survivor of the atrocities of WWII.  She was part of the German underground until she was arrested in 1944.  She suffered greatly but she made it through due to her faith.  Anyway she once said this, “When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. No!  You sit still and trust the engineer.”

Sisters and brothers in Christ-don’t lose heart.  Come back from your doubt.  You have the greatest engineer in the world running your lives.  He is the master craftsman.  He knows exactly what He is doing and it will be absolutely right.  Trust in Him and praise the Lord.  And thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.