A sermon preached at Covenant Presbyterian Church of Fort Smith, Arkansas on January 26, 2025.
The disciples of John reported all these things to him. And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And when the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’” In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind he bestowed sight. And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me” (Luke 7:18–23).[1]
In the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, the writer walks us through what has become known as the Hall of Faith. Some in the Hall are expected, such as Abel, Enoch, Noah, and of course Abraham. Some are a surprise, such as Samson. And then there are the unnamed, who suffered and died for their faith. Based on the descriptions scholars have speculated as to who might be included among those “of whom the world was not worthy” (Heb. 11:38). There are some pretty good guesses, such as Jeremiah, but one I think certainly makes this list is one of my heroes of the faith, John the Baptist.
Of the Old Testament prophets, John was the last. He was also the greatest, as the forerunner of Christ (not to mention a unique diet, eccentric wardrobe, and stellar name!). Called before his conception, he was raised by a priest and godly mother, relatives of the virgin Mary. Eventually living on the outskirts of town in the wilderness, he made no attempts to assimilate into culture but lived a rather esoteric life, and yet when he preached, the people flocked to him. On the Jordan River’s bank, he called sinners to come, baptizing them with a baptism of repentance.
John was also a harsh critic of the religious establishment, resulting in disfavor with the Pharisees. And yet his ministry grew. At the peak of his ministry, he was seemingly fearless, even confronting the adultery of King Herod. And it was that, not his baptizing ministry, but a call for the morality of the one in authority that landed John in jail. And there he stayed, living out the remainder of his days in prison. And it was there, perhaps disappointed with his circumstance, discouraged by his ministry’s conclusion, and even doubting Jesus as the Christ, he sent a message to Jesus, asking a simple question: “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”
When in doubt …
When John asked, “Are you the one who is to come,” by “the one” he meant the promised Messiah, the Christ. The Old Testament prophets taught Israel to expect a Messiah to come, but their prophetic descriptions were sometimes hard to reconcile with reality. Isaiah, for example, describes the Messiah as a despised and rejected “man of sorrows,” “stricken,” “smitten,” and “afflicted” by God, “like a lamb that is led to the slaughter” (Isa. 53:3-7). He also describes him as one who would liberate the oppressed, pour out God’s vengeance upon Israel’s enemies, and “bring forth justice to the nations” (Isa. 61:1-2; 42:1). How do you reconcile those descriptions? Now, imagine you were a citizen of theocratic Israel living under the sovereign rule of the pagan republic of Rome: Which of Isaiah’s messianic prophecies would you gravitate toward? Perhaps your hope was built on visions of the heir of the Davidic throne overthrowing Roman rule, even executing the evil emperor. You probably wouldn’t be thinking about the Messiah being led like a lamb to the slaughter.
For John specifically, there was also his father’s prophecy. You may recall that John’s father, Zechariah the priest, had been rendered mute until the day of his son’s birth. But on that day, when he confirmed his son’s given name, his speech was restored, and he began to proclaim the immediacy of the Messiah’s coming, describing him as one who would show Israel mercy, fulfill God’s promises, and save them from all their enemies. And John, as his father prophetically announced, would be the forerunner of this mighty one to come.
And that’s what John became, the fiery, fearless prophet preaching in the wilderness, as those who heard rushed to repent and be baptized. And when he spoke of the one to come, he described him as one coming “with the Holy Spirit and fire,” who with his “winnowing fork” in hand would “clear his threshing floor and … gather the wheat into his barn” but burn “the chaff … with unquenchable fire” (Luke 3:16-17). That’s the Messiah John expected.
The problem was Jesus didn’t match John’s expectations. Jesus came meek and mild, forgiving sinners rather than torching them with unquenchable fire. Jesus wasn’t a zealot, determined to overthrow the government, but a teacher and preacher of the kingdom of God. He didn’t rally riots against the Romans or rebel against their taxes. He didn’t bear arms or build an army. The only sword Jesus knew was his Word, which didn’t slay the evil emperor but forgave sin, healed disease, cast out demons, and raised the dead. Jesus didn’t meet John’s messianic expectations, and so John wondered if there was another one to come.
I empathize with John, as I’m sure you do too. Surely the shame and squalor of imprisonment jaded his perspective. And then there’s his life’s work. John’s entire life had been directed toward one mission. (When all the other kids were wondering what they were going to do when they grew up, John didn’t wonder; he knew: prophet of God, forerunner of Christ.) Chosen by God before birth to serve as the forerunner of the Messiah, the prophetic fulfillment of the one serving in the spirit of Elijah, he was a great man of God-ordained purpose. But when John sent his message to Jesus, he wasn’t witnessing the re-establishment of the Davidic throne in Jerusalem and the sovereign rule of the Messiah’s reign. He was in Herod’s dungeon, where his life would tragically end.
John had his doubts about Jesus. Maybe you do too. And so you should know: Doubting is not a sin. Some struggle more than others. The Westminster Confession of Faith says, “a true believer may wait long, and conflict with many difficulties before he be partaker of [infallible assurance].”[2] Perhaps you have known such waiting and difficulties. Whatever the case, the question I want you to think about is not whether you doubt or not, but what do you do with doubt? Jesus’ response to John’s question helps us with an answer.
Look and listen to the Word
Note that Jesus doesn’t take the easy way out, as if to say, “Yes. Yes, I am the one.” No. Ever the teacher, he tells John’s disciples to report back to John what they had seen and heard. What had they seen? Luke records that when John’s two disciples arrived, Jesus was healing “many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind he bestowed sight” (7:21). With their own eyes they witnessed what the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country had been talking about.
But that’s not all. Jesus was also doing what he had done from the beginning, preaching the gospel to the spiritually bankrupt, sharing the good news to sinners in need of salvation. He was teaching in the synagogues, astonishing the people with his authority, and preaching the Word of God. Jesus’ ministry was one of word and deed, and this Jesus told John’s disciples to report.
What is less obvious to us in Jesus’ response is his paraphrase of Isaiah, who first prophesied of the Messiah, “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” (Isa. 35:5-6a). Though Jesus wasn’t living up to John’s messianic expectations, he was clearly and miraculously fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy, as he reminded John: “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.” All of this, Jesus had done and was doing in that moment. Undeniable evidence was on full display.
But to his lesson, Jesus then added, “And blessed is the one who is not offended by me,” which almost sounds like an unempathetic challenge to John’s honest question. It wasn’t. Jesus was teaching, drawing again from Isaiah, who prophesied that the Messiah would “become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken” (Isa. 8:14-15). As the Messiah, Jesus came not as a “sanctuary” to all of Israel but only to those who believed. To most, he came as a “stone of offense.” Despite the witness of his works and word, many would stumble over Jesus. He wasn’t meeting the expectations of many, even after his death and resurrection. And so, Jesus was teaching John not to stumble over what did not align with his expectations, but to look and listen to the Word of God.
Believe and follow Him!
In fairness to John, while all the messianic prophecies are fulfilled in Christ, on our side of his first coming we know that he who was led like a lamb to the slaughter will come again to judge the living and the dead. We know that “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) reigns supremely as “the Lion of the tribe of Judah” (Rev. 5:5). But as John sat in Herod’s prison, Christ had not gone to the cross or resurrected from the dead. On this side of Christ’s cross, it is clear, but it wasn’t for John. As the writer of Hebrews reminds us, all of those listed in the “Hall of Faith” “did not receive what was promised” (Heb. 11:39), namely the complete revelation of Christ’s atoning death, conquering resurrection, glorious ascension, and promised return. Though it wasn’t clear at all to John, thankfully, he didn’t keep his doubts to himself. Instead, he took them to the source of truth: the Word of God.
What about you? Are you living with disappointment, discouragement, or doubt? Perhaps things in your life aren’t working out the way you had imagined. Is what you thought God would do not meeting your expectations? Do you wonder where God is in all of this? Was this really his plan?
Some think the answer is to run away: Stop reading the Word, forget about prayer, take a break from attending church, as if distance from God’s revealed will, divine intercession, and the fellowship of the saints is the answer. It’s not. It is a recipe for depression even disaster. When we are disappointed, or discouraged, or in doubt, like John, we must take our cares, concerns, and questions to Jesus. We must not run away but go to the Word of God, which is “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). Jesus will do his work in us by his Spirit if we are willing to look and listen to his Word.
When Jesus received John’s message, what he sent back in reply was in essence an arrow pointing to himself: “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard.” What they saw was the Lord Jesus Christ. What they heard was the Lord Jesus Christ. And that’s what John needed to hear. It’s what we need to hear too. If you build your life, including your hopes and dreams and expectations, on anything that is contrary to who Christ is for you and in you, you can be sure disappointment, discouragement, and doubt will follow. But if you believe and follow him, then even if confined to a prison cell, you “will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32).
[1] Unless referenced otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2001).
[2] “The Confession of Faith” 18.4, The Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms (Lawrenceville: PCA Christian Education and Publications, 2007), 82.
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