Honest Doubts Don’t Bother Jesus When We Are Dedicated to His Design (v. 7-15)

This is fascinating because instead of ripping on John, Jesus publicly praises him. In Jesus’ view, the Baptist was a great man because he faithfully completed his part of the story that God is writing. He was the prophet out in the wilderness; he was Elijah who came before the Messiah; he did prepare the way for Jesus. He wasn’t double-minded at all — he was incredibly focused, but it was his expectation of what God was supposed to do next that caused him to doubt.

That wasn’t just a problem for John. It’s a problem for us too because often we’ve been told that if we just stay faithful to Jesus we’ll be able to avoid heartbreak, suffering and pain. Then something bad happens — cancer, divorce, a car wreck, a job loss — and we get disillusioned and begin to doubt.

I know of a Jordanian Christian who came to the United States, got his education and went back to his home country — an area of the world where there were very few Christians. He was having an incredibly effective ministry where a lot of people were coming to know Christ. So he and his wife came back to the US to recruit some more people and get some more resources. While they were here, it was discovered that she had throat cancer. They were forced to stay here and there was no one to return and work with the Jordanians. He said, “God this is crazy. This is nuts. This makes no sense.”

Those are the kinds of things that cause us discouragement and doubt. But in all honesty, I’m not sure if our doubts are the problem nearly as much as the fact that it’s so easy for us to forget what Jesus promises His disciples. In v. 12, he observes that ‘From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it.’ Jesus says, ‘The Baptist is going to suffer at the hands of violent men like Herod, who will cut his head off, and in a short time I’ll suffer at the hands of violent men who will nail me to a cross.’ The promise of being committed to Jesus is that we get a cross to bear — whatever that looks like for us.

9/11 was a day that changed all of our lives. While it’s been almost five years now, I would guess most of us can remember exactly where we were when we first got the news. I was driving to work when the report came over the radio. Later on that day we watched it on TV. I couldn’t believe what I saw even though they kept re-playing that horrible scenario of those planes flying into the Twin Towers. And I remembered something I had read just a few months before: “The safest place to be is in the center of God’s will.” That’s so beautiful, that’s so bright, and that is so unbiblical. I’d love to tell you, friends, that since we’re followers of Jesus that could never happen to us, that we don’t have anything to ever worry about. But I must tell us the truth: we have no control over how or when we die but we do have a lot of choice over how we live!