We have come to chapter 11 of Matthew. When we go through a Bible book, we need to have a micro and macro view. We need to understand both the verse-by-verse details and also not forget the big picture of the whole book. It is like driving from one state to another state using Google Maps. We recenter and zoom in, kilometer by kilometer, as we are driving. Sometimes we need to zoom out and see from where we started and see where we are going.
Matthew in the first 10 chapters has been presenting Jesus Christ as the King of the Jews, Messiah, Christ, and Son of God. See the 10 chapters; each chapter is a witness that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Messiah. Chapter 1: the genealogy. Chapter 2: the virgin birth, how Old Testament prophecy was fulfilled. Chapter 3: the greatest man born of women, John the Baptist, gives the testimony. We have the Holy Spirit descending, and then the Father himself saying, “This is My beloved Son.” Chapter 4: In chapter 4, we have the testimony of power as Jesus Himself defeats the arch-enemy of God, Satan. Then, in chapters 5–7, we have the testimony of His words—the greatest sermon, the Sermon On the Mount—the truthfulness, holiness, the power, and the authority of what He said, verifying His claim. Then, in chapters 8–9, we see the testimony of His works: healing, casting out demons, raising the dead, and forgiving sin. All of these testify to His deity. Chapter 10: the way he prepared his disciples, showing they will be men who will change the world upside down. Now, chapters 11 and 12 mark a transition, a turning point of the Gospel of Matthew. Based upon all of this testimony, what is the reaction of those who have heard and seen? Matthew deals with that in chapters 11–12. Till now, we didn’t see much opposition to his ministry. Many marveled at His teaching, wondered at the miracles, and were amazed, astonished. But when we come to Chapter 11, the turning point, we find that Jesus began to experience opposition. In fact, Matthew lists for us the various kinds of reactions to the claims of Christ. The opposition escalates one level to another. For example, in Matthew 11:1–15 is the response of doubt, surprisingly from John the Baptist, ironically the first human witness, and the opposition started from him. From verses 16–19, we see the response of criticism, accusing him of being a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. From verses 20–24, there is the response of indifference, a lack of interest shown by Chorazin, Tyre and Sidon, and Capernaum, which saw all his works and words, but had no care. They felt their life is theirs. He curses them. Then the reaction gets very intense. Going to chapter 12, they blaspheme and say that he does all his works by the devil, and in 12:14, they all gather and plan how to kill him. That is the reaction. So that is where we are. We find that the people to whom He came did not receive Him. Chapters 11 and 12 lead to the total rejection of the Messiah. That is where we are.
Today’s passage talks about the feeling of disappointment with Jesus. Have you been disappointed with Jesus? Have you expected something but noticed he did not do what you expected? Today we are looking at chapter 11, where the whole nation was disappointed with Jesus. Up to chapter 10, they were all so excited with his ministry and marveled and amazed and wondered, but now opposition begins. Even members of His own family began to turn against Him, and the people of His own hometown rejected Him. We find that His teaching became more and more controversial in the minds of those who heard it. His authority became increasingly challenged. His actions became increasingly viewed as a threat to the religious culture of the day. The opposition against Him grew and grew, until, eventually, He was betrayed into the hands of wicked men, and He died alone upon a despised cross, with His few remaining followers having abandoned Him. If I may put it this way, with the utmost reverence, Jesus, at the end of His earthly ministry, proved to be a great disappointment to Israel, who expected so much from Him, and even to his disciples. But then, three days later, He rose from the dead, just as He promised; and now He ever lives as our Savior!
Before we begin our look at Matthew 11, let me share another story with you. Do you remember the story of the two disciples as they walked along the road to Emmaus, shortly after Jesus had been crucified? It’s found in Luke 24:19. As I read that story, I can’t help but notice the “disappointment” they felt over Jesus. Without their knowing it, Jesus had risen from the dead in victory; but their eyes were restrained, and they didn’t know that He had come alongside the road bodily and walked with them. They were mourning His death; and as they strolled along, this fellow traveler, Jesus Himself, asked them why they were so sad. And they were astonished at the question: “Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?” And when He asked what things they spoke of, they said, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.” (Luke 24:19–21). ‘We had been trusting that He was the One who would redeem Israel.’
Now think of the disappointment they expressed. They said, “But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.” They, like so many of that day, were expecting Jesus to be the conquering, victorious Messiah that the Jewish people were hoping for and had long been expecting. They were looking for Him to be a mighty military leader and political leader, one who would overthrow the Roman government, and bring a victorious end to their occupation of the land, and who would then take up His rightful place upon the throne of King David, and restore the earthly kingdom of Israel to its former glory and majesty. Instead, what happened? Jesus, the One upon whom they had pinned their hopes, was crucified on a humiliating Roman cross like a common criminal; and all their expectations of Him were abruptly cut short. Clearly, they still loved Him; but just as clearly, they were disappointed in their hopes of Him. And yet, ironically, there He was alive, walking along and chatting with them! And as we read on, we find that He even rebukes them for misunderstanding the situation as it really was. He says, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself (vv. 25–27). “Oh, you foolish men, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” 26. “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory?” 27. “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”
They were disappointed with Jesus, you see, because He hadn’t fulfilled the expectations that they had for Him. And yet, He rebuked them for not having the right expectations, and for not believing what the Scriptures had said would happen to Him! And so, He began speaking to them from the writings of Moses, and on throughout the rest of the Scriptures. Point-by-point, He proved to them that, in dying on the cross, He actually fulfilled everything that the Scriptures promised concerning the Messiah.
The Bible tells us that their hearts burned within them as He opened the Scriptures to them. I believe that they began to see that the problem wasn’t with Him, but with them and their whole nation and generation that had wrongly understood the scriptures! They had not believed what the Scriptures had said concerning Him; and so they had come to expect Him to do things that He had never promised He would do. And naturally, when He didn’t do what they expected Him to do, they were disappointed with Him.
This is the problem why the world doesn’t accept Christianity. This is a great problem for a believer when we have a wrong understanding of Christ not based on the Bible. That is why it is so important to know the scriptures and believe what the scriptures say, not what we think. These people had to humble themselves and repent of their misunderstanding and wrong expectations! When they did that, what joy they experienced when they rightly understood, and then He revealed Himself to them, and they realized that He truly had done what He had promised, and more than what they expected!
Now, let’s be honest this morning. Have you ever been disappointed with Jesus? Did you ever approach Him with a set of expectations, and find that He did not fulfill them? Have you ever felt as if Jesus had let you down? So many, many people live with this wrong, unbiblical set of expectations, and I should tell you the main reason for a Christian’s sadness is this: his wrong expectations. This is what makes millions to reject Christ and lose their soul.
One lady said, “I believed Christ, went to church for 20 years, read the Bible, prayed, and did all the Christian things, but I had only one little son, whom I loved more than my life. But my son got cancer, and you know how he suffered and suffered. His body all wasted, hair fallen, and terribly died.” In a bitter tone, she asked, “If there’s a God in heaven, then why let that happen to my son? If that’s your God, then I want nothing to do with Him.” I stopped going to church and believing in Christ. Very sad, but she’s not the only one. Many, many people like this get disappointed with Jesus because He didn’t do what they expected Him to do. Some folks expected that, if they asked, He would get them out of some particular situation or problem they had gotten into; and when He didn’t, they became disappointed in Him. There are many people sitting in a hospital disappointed with Jesus because they prayed and he didn’t heal them. There are people disappointed and bitter at a funeral because Jesus allowed someone they loved to die. There are poor people and people in debt disappointed with Jesus because some TV preacher said if you send money to him, he would make you rich. These stories break my heart. To all such, Jesus tells today in verse 6: “And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” “Blessed is he who does not stumble or lose heart because of Me.”
Jesus says to all such people: The problem is never with Jesus when He disappoints our expectations. The problem is always with us and our expectations of Him. We expected Him to do something that He never said He would do. We expect Him to fulfill our expectations on our call. Every true child of God knows: though he doesn’t do what we expected of him, when we trust him through all those terrible, painful circumstances, we can draw closer to him. He does everything that He promises to do in a way that exceeds my feeble expectations of Him!
That was the experience of John the Baptist in today’s passage. This passage may seem like a very boring passage about John the Baptist’s doubt, but the Lord graciously talks to everyone who has wrong expectations of him from this. After all, it tells us of how the man who was appointed by God to be the greatest witness for Jesus in His earthly ministry—the greatest man born of women, prophesied in the Old Testament Scriptures as the ‘forerunner’ of our Lord’s earthly ministry—expressed a growing sense of disappointment in Him. He had doubts. And yet, the Lord took his doubts seriously, and lovingly answered them. And what the Lord told Him in this passage gives encouragement to the rest of us who have those times of doubt, those times when Jesus seems to disappoint us.
We will see three headers: the problem, the answer to the problem, and then an encouragement in this passage. First, notice… I. THE PROBLEM: Jesus doesn’t fulfil our expectations. The setting of this particular story was the completion of Jesus’ commission to His twelve disciples. He was sending them out with orders to preach about Him to the cities of “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 10:6). Jesus gives them many instructions and warnings throughout Chapter 10; and then we read: “And it came to pass, when Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples,” “Now it came to pass, when Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples, that He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities” (Matthew 11:1). After sending them out, he doesn’t relax; there are so few laborers. He continues to preach and teach. He is now alone, sending out all of His disciples. Chapter 11 begins saying while the whole Jewish nation is going to reject, Matthew starts with the greatest Jewish man, the first human witness who introduced Christ to the nation. It shows that however great men are like JB (John the Baptist)—the greatest prophet, the greatest man born to women—yet they are all depraved creatures. How much we need the Savior to save us from our sins. It shows the danger of wrong expectation. The nation that waited for the Messiah for thousands of years, if not anybody, they should have understood him and accepted him, but they rejected him because of wrong expectations. But even this is according to the prophecy of the Messiah that he would be rejected by his people.
It suggests to us what was happening within the mind of John the Baptist during this time. John had been thrown into prison (Matthew 4:12). As to why, we will see in chapter 14. Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee, had paid a visit to his brother in Rome. When Herod went to see his brother, he took a liking to his brother’s wife, so he seduced her. When he returned home, he proceeded to divorce his own wife and then steal his brother’s wife, whom he had seduced, and take her as his new wife. John the Baptist heard about that, and do you know what he did? He did not write an anonymous article; he went in the public view, as if broadcasted on YouTube or on all the TV news channels, in the face of Herod Antipas, and told him he was a rotten, vile sinner who was an adulterer and if he doesn’t repent, he will burn in hell. This didn’t go over really big with Herod, who proceeded immediately to throw him in prison, and would have killed him, except he was afraid of the people, because the people thought he was a prophet. So John was in a terrible, difficult situation, and may have died any moment. It was a very difficult prison in those days.
(Matthew 14:4; Luke 3:19–20). Not just any prison, either. Five miles east of the northern tip of the Dead Sea, there was an old, Herodian palace that had become very old and had been turned into a fortress and prison. Its name was Machaerus. In the bottom of it was a pit, a dark, stifling, air-restricting, very less air—you cannot breathe—stuffy, hot, smelly sewage dungeon in the middle of that bleak desert. If what you are saying about Chennai hot is true, go and see Palestine. Go near the Dead Sea wilderness. It’s like hell. In that hellish place, inside a lightless, airless pit prison, John is chained with big chains. That’s where he put John. Not one day, week, or month, but more than a year in that place. How long can you be patient?
He was a famous preacher for one and a half years. John had been in the limelight, preaching, teaching, and proclaiming. The whole country was coming to him, and he was in the middle of the action. The crowds and the excitement were there, but now, for over one year, he had been in the blackness of a stifling pit without any fresh air. In modern times, the place is called Mukawir. John was the child of the desert. All his life, he had lived in the wide open spaces, with the clean wind on his face and the spacious vault of the sky for his roof. Now, he was confined within the four narrow walls of an underground dungeon. For a man like John, who had probably never lived in a house, this must have been an agony.
What sin did he do? He was a true saint, a greatest prophet of God, a great, holy, faithful, selfless, loyal prophet. He never enjoyed any worldly comforts, eating locusts and honey, wearing camel hair. He never married, but lived alone for God, trained in the desert in communion with God. He had done exactly what God told him to do, and he had done it well. He had been filled with the Spirit since the time he was in his mother’s womb. He had taken the Nazarite vow, the highest level of spiritual commitment possible. Was this his reward? Was this it? Soon his head will be cut off. What is this? Where is God? Where is Christ? What is he doing?
In this terrible situation, try to think with me what might have been going on in John’s mind, as he sat in prison for being a faithful prophet of God. He knew that he had indeed been sent by God as “[t]he voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD, Make His paths straight'” (Matthew 3:3; see also Isaiah 40:3). He was to point Jesus out to the people and declare, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (v. 29).
And what’s more, He knew that this Coming One would be a conquering and victorious Messiah. He told the people who came to be baptized by him: “I indeed baptize you with water unto 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. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:11–12).
And yet, here he was languishing away in prison; and he couldn’t help but notice that the mighty ‘conquest’ does not seem to have happened yet. His disciples had apparently told him what Jesus was doing (Luke 7:18); but it wasn’t going the way he thought it was supposed to go.
He is healing the sick, preaching, casting demons. Is that all you are capable of doing? Is that all you will do? What about the nation of Israel? What about the Roman slavery? What about the political situation? What sufferings we are going through? What about sinful Herod’s sin? What about the injustice done to me, dying in prison? He doesn’t seem to do anything about that. There are so many problems in the world. He is sitting and preaching to his poor fishermen disciples. He has got doubts. Is he the right one? Did I say something emotionally?
He was preaching that the Messiah was coming to judge. Where’s the winnowing fan? Where’s the unquenchable fire against sin? Where is the axe that was to be laid at the root of the trees? This gentle Healer is not the theocratic judge of his warning prophecies. He is tending and nurturing, rather than felling, the barren trees. He preached that wrath is coming. And here came Jesus, with a little group of twelve totally inept characters, meekly wandering around Galilee. But they are not at all what John was expecting. He expected Jesus to be riding into Israel on a white stallion. Instead, it seemed as if He were strolling across the land with a first-aid kit! John just couldn’t figure it out. He sounds like the people under the altar in Revelation 6: “How long, O Lord, how long will you tolerate this?” He’s thinking, “If you’re the Messiah, what’s going on?” He has unfulfilled expectations.
John has been brooding about this. Did I speak too urgently, emotionally, without thinking? He was confused. Is he not the Messiah, but maybe another forerunner like me? He is doing everything I didn’t expect him to do, and not doing anything I expected him to do. Initially itself some confusion he had. Jesus surprised John. John apparently couldn’t tell that Jesus was the Son of God just by looking. It took an act of the Holy Spirit to identify Him to John (John 1:33–34; see also Isaiah 53:2). And then, when Jesus came to John to be baptized by him, John clearly didn’t expect it. “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” he said (Matthew 3:14). In fact, Jesus didn’t even act how John thought the Messiah should act. John’s disciples also were confused. They once came to Jesus and asked, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?” (Matthew 9:14).
With all this, you can relate to John’s doubts and growing disappointment when you read: So he sends the message of his doubt to Christ. How good he didn’t despair and leave Christ, but comes to Christ with his doubt. “And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, ‘Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?'” (Matthew 11:2–3). 2. Now when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples 3. and said to Him, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”
The Coming One is a title of the Messiah. John has a doubt: “Are you the Coming One, or should we expect another?” He had faith, but also doubt. Otherwise, why would he ask Jesus to tell him, “Are you the one?”
So, there’s the problem. We have expectations about Jesus, but He doesn’t always fulfill the expectations we place on Him. This leads us then to acknowledge something that we, ourselves, should always remember when Jesus disappoints our expectations.
II. ANSWER TO THE PROBLEM: Jesus Keeps His Promises in Greater Ways Than We Expected (vv. 4–5)
4 Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: 5 The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” 4. Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see:
5. The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”
Our Lord does not answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’ To do so might have stilled, but would not have removed, John’s misconception. A more thorough cure is needed. So Christ attacks it in its roots by referring him back for the answer to the very deeds which had excited his doubt.
It is amazing: Luke tells us that they were with Jesus “the very hour” that “He cured many infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits; and to many blind gave sight” (Luke 7:21). He does a big list of miracles as an answer and allows them to watch all that for a while. Imagine if Jesus had turned to them and say, “Now, boys; you had some kind of question for me from John. What was it?” How would it have been at such a time to say, “Lord, our master sent us to You with doubts in his heart. He sent us to ask, ‘Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?’ But now that we have seen for ourselves, how could we ever ask such a thing?” “Here, these are for John. Now go tell him.” It wasn’t second-hand. He just let the power fly, and then said, “You’ve seen it all, heard it all, go tell him.” He is in prison, but you have experienced my miracles. Go and share your experience and strengthen him in his faith. Clearly, those are the credentials of the Messiah.
5 The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.5. The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
He points to, or indeed, we may say, quotes, two prophetic passages (Isa. xxxv.5,6; lxi.1) which give the prophetic ‘notes’ of the Messiah. It is as if He had said, “Have you forgotten that the very prophets whose words have fed your hopes, and now seem to minister to your doubts, did foretell these events?” The report of these things would have been tremendously significant to any Jewish man or woman who knew the Old Testament promises about the Messiah. Every Jewish person who was truly paying attention, and who knew the Scriptures, would have remembered such passages as Isaiah 29:17–18 and its promise of the glorious days of the coming of the Messiah:
In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, And the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness (Isaiah 29:18).
Or perhaps they’d remember Isaiah 35:4–6:
“Say to those who are fearful-hearted, ‘Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, With the recompense of God; He will come and save you.’ Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, And the tongue of the dumb sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert” (Isaiah 35:4–6).
Or Isaiah 61:1–2, where the Messiah Himself prophetically speaks—words that Jesus once even clearly attributed to Himself during His earthly ministry:
“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD” (Isaiah 61:1–2a; see also Luke 4:18–19).
I believe that when the disciples of John went back and told John these things that they heard and saw, John remembered these promises; and his heart was encouraged that this, indeed, was the Messiah that he and his people had been waiting for. Jesus was truly doing what the Scriptures promised that the Messiah would do. It would have corrected his wrong understanding. It is not Christ’s work which is wanting in conformity to the divine idea; it is John’s conceptions of that idea that need enlarging.
And then, although we’re not told this, I believe that John even remembered more. I believe that the connection that he would have made in his mind to the promises in the Book of Isaiah would have also reminded him of another set of promises made there concerning the Messiah’s suffering. Perhaps John’s mind would have gone back to Isaiah 53, where it says this about the Coming One:
Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, And cut off from the land of the living…
We’re not told this, of course—I’m only speculating. But I suspect that John reflected on what was told him about the works of Jesus; and that he began to realize that this “Messiah-King” was so much more than what he had expected. He just didn’t come for a political change, but to deliver man from his greatest enemy, which is sin, and to bring a complete change of the heart and the man and the entire universe. His expectations of Jesus were biblical—but (if I may put it this way) not biblical enough. He now knew Jesus will prove to be the conquering King of kings; but that Jesus must first come to serve as the suffering Sacrifice for sinners, and truly be the Lamb of God. This encouraged him in the terrible prison condition.
I believe our doubts and disappointments with Jesus begin to disappear when we realize that He is so much greater than our expectations! He fulfills all His promises, but always does so in ways that are greater than we could possibly imagine.
John, you are doubting me. See what I am doing: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
Darkened eyes are flooded with light by His touch, and see a new world, because they gaze with faith on Him. Lame limbs are endowed with strength, and can run in the way of His commandments. And sin’s leprosy is cleansed from the sinner’s heart, and their flesh comes again, ‘as the flesh of a little child.’ Deaf ears hear the voice of the Son of God, and the dead who hear live. Good news is preached to all the poor in spirit. He who through the ages has been working such works… Don’t forget what I ought to be doing. See what I am doing. Don’t you see I am the Messiah? Have you ever heard or seen such things before? Have you heard of any man before and after doing these things? Yes, only in the scriptures. It is in the scriptures. Only the Messiah can do these things.
No man has healed a born blind man, made the lame to walk, cleansed lepers, made the deaf hear, or raised the dead. You are looking for a political revolution. Our Lord says, “John, do you realize the meaning and significance of what I am doing? You ask, ‘Is that all?’ Cannot you see its meaning, its glory? Do you understand the glorious salvation that I have come to bring? John, you have not realized the greatest need of man.”
Saving a nation may be great, but it is a thousand times more important is the saving of a soul, John, for the world and its empires are all passing away. Whether war or no war, men and women souls die and go into eternity.
You ask, “Is that all I am doing?” Is there anything greater than a man being reconciled to God, delivered form the world, the flesh, and sin, delivered from eternal hell, and made clean? I am saving men from sin. That is the message of the gospel. I am preaching to the poor. Kings and politicians have nothing to give them. I give them this great good news. Do you ask me, “Is that all?” What is a greater work than this? Have you seen this glory?
I am doing this. You look for no second Christ, but we look for that same Jesus to come the second time to be the Judge of the world of which He is the Saviour.
He didn’t come to change/judge the world the first time, but to save souls from this world. When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my riches and gain I count but loss. There he does the most glorious thing: the Creator of the universe is dying for me. It takes true, genuine faith to overcome all these cheap doubts and trust him.
Expectations and Encouragement
And I have to pause at this point and ask: Are you disappointed with Jesus? Has He failed in some way to fulfill your expectations? It is because you don’t understand your greatest need and have wrong expectations. Perhaps it’s because you have not really expected enough of Him! Perhaps you’ve only looked to Him to provide something for you that you “want,” but didn’t realize that He first comes to provide something that you “need.” Perhaps you have not yet trusted Him as what He first came to be—the Lamb of God, who sacrificed Himself for our sins on the cross. He wants to save you from your sins. Our sanctification is most important for him. He focuses on your sinful, depraved condition. Oh, the depth of our sinfulness! It is the ignorance of that condition that makes a man have wrong expectations from Christ. If we realize the depth of our depravity, we will not have wrong expectations. Whatever state our life is in—even in prison, diseased, poor—we will always realize the Lord is meeting our greatest need: to sanctify me, making me pure, make me holy.
This leads us to one final thing. It’s a word that Jesus spoke to John; but I believe it is intended to be an encouragement to all who have doubts and disappointments about Jesus:
III. THE ENCOURAGEMENT: Blessed is the One Who Is Not Offended Because of Him (v. 6)
6. “And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”
To John—and to all who have mistaken expectations of Jesus that He does not fulfill—He says, “And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me” (Matthew 11:6). The term “Blessed” refers to a deep and abiding inner happy, joyful, satisfied, fulfilled state.
He says all blessedness lies for us in recognising Him for what He is and that there is nothing of stumbling in him. If you see anything, it is not in his perfect character, but in your sinful being. Great woe and loss are involved in stumbling on this stone.
This is a negative beatitude. He could have said, “Blessed is he who believes,” as most of his beatitudes are positive. But negatively he says, **”**Who is not offended by me.”
The word that is used here is the Greek word skandalizō, and it means “to be caused to stumble” or to “be offended.” The New International Version translates it, “Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”
“Blessed is the man who is not trapped.” A trap was a crooked stick, and the bait was on the crooked stick, and when the animal grabbed the bait, the crooked stick fell, and the trap got him and he was dead. “If you want to be blessed, don’t allow anything I do or anything I say to lure you into the trap of doubt and make you stumble.” Don’t doubt. And I believe that truly captures the spirit of Jesus’ word of encouragement in this verse.
When Jesus disappoints someone’s wrong expectations of Him, it’s easy for them to turn away from Him. Maybe not outwardly, but from the heart. You begin to turn away from Jesus, stop worshiping, loving, and following him because he is not fulfilling what you expect. It’s easy for them to think that He has let them down; and so, they want nothing more to do with Him. Many, as you know, have said just that. It was the attitude that even John the Baptist was being tempted by. But here, Jesus encourages that man or woman not to give up.
He says to the disappointed man or woman, “Hang in there, dear suffering one. Endure. Trust me. I will fulfil all my promises. I know I haven’t been what you expected Me to be. I know you think that I’ve let you down somehow. But the problem is not Me. The problem is the expectations you have laid upon Me. Realize that I am much greater than the little box you put Me into. Remember that I am not yours to command. Repent of your expectations. Believe what the Scriptures say about Me. Read my word and don’t allow the counsel of this ungodly world to lead you away from me. Trust Me to do, not what you want Me to do, but what I have pledged Myself in the Scriptures to do for you. And if you trust Me in that way, I will never disappoint you. You will find that I will have accomplished everything I said I would do, and more! You will find that I am far more than you ever thought I could be; and that you will, in due time, be eternally satisfied in Me.”
Practical Application: The Roots of Doubt
Did you come here this morning in some way “disappointed” with Jesus? Do you struggle with doubts about Him because He hasn’t done what you have wanted Him to do? Has He, in some deeply personal and painful way, grieved you by fallen short of your expectations? Then please know you are not alone. In fact, you are in good company. Even the great John the Baptist struggled in the same way. If that’s your experience this morning, then please know that Jesus loves you. And please allow me to offer you some counsel from this morning’s passage.
I recommend that, first, you step back and examine your expectations of Him. Have you been expecting Him to do something for you, or be something to you, that He never promised in the Scriptures? Remember, the disappointment never comes from Him. It comes from our wrong and unbiblical expectations about Him. Perhaps you have some “expectations” of Him that you have created in your own mind, or that you have been taught from those who misrepresented Jesus to you. Perhaps you have come here today with some expectations of Jesus that you need to repent of and let go.
Doubt can spoil faith. The first reason doubt comes is because of wrong expectations. Let me show you three more reasons for doubt as an application. Doubting is a danger to our spiritual life. What causes doubt?
1. Inability to Deal with Trials
Doubt comes from our inability to deal with trials: difficult circumstances. We see John’s difficult circumstance made him doubt. We have to be watchful during that. Lord has a plan why he allowed that, and we must never doubt him. We wonder: “If You’re the God of all comfort, and the Christ that cares, why am I going through this? It doesn’t square; I’ve been faithful.” Something really sad happens—some sickness, heart attack, accident, loss, even death of near ones. We begin to say, “God, is this what it’s supposed to be like when You care and love us?”
Once we start thinking that way, Satan gets behind it and uses it deeply to spoil our faith. In our selfishness, ignorance, and failure to see the whole plan of God, and in our constant problem of getting tied down to this passing world, we doubt God. John doubted because of difficult circumstances, and I understand that.
But he did the right thing with his doubt—consider how John handled his doubt: A) He admitted it. B) He sought help for it. C) He turned to Christ for an answer.
He went immediately to the Lord. That’s the place to go if you have doubt over those kinds of things; go to the Lord. Paul was in prison in Philippians 4, but he didn’t doubt. He said, “I rejoice. Rejoice always, and again I say, rejoice.” This was because he had right expectations and knew what God was doing, what was important, and saw the big picture: that the gospel was spreading because of his imprisonment.
Negative circumstances are tough, but all they need to do is drive us to the Lord, who will respond to those struggles by replacing our doubt with faith. He said, “You tell John that the blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” What is that list? That’s all the hurting, broken, crippled, crumbling people. And He’s saying, “John, if you think I don’t care about the people who are hurting, take a look at the kind of people I touch. I care. This, John, is only a preview of coming attractions in the Kingdom.” That’s what He’s saying: “I do care. Can’t you see that by the people I touch and reach out to?
2. Worldly Influences
The second thing that causes doubt is worldly influences. Worldly thinking, the counsel of the ungodly, is something we see so subtly comes to us. The world doesn’t accept Christ, you know. It is this thinking: “If he is the Son of God, why doesn’t he solve the problems of the world? Why he allows all diseases, so much suffering, pain, terrible, mentally retarded, physical suffering children, suffering, war, problems, accidents?”
That is the thinking that came to John. Notice that it says in verse 2 that John had heard about the works of Christ, and this confused him. What is he doing with small people? Why doesn’t he go to Jerusalem, do the big things, considering how much we are suffering under Romans, and bring about political changes, social changes? It confused him because the works of Christ, the things Christ was doing, did not parallel what the people thought the Messiah should do. John had become a victim of the thinking of his day, saying, “Isn’t it supposed to be this way?” Even the disciples were affected. He was saying it over and over, but their expectation was so different that they couldn’t hear what He was saying.
We face the same causes for doubt today; we doubt because we’re perplexed by the plan of God. I think the world imposes that on us. Have you ever heard this question? “If God is a God of love, why is the world so messed up? If Christ loves everyone so much, why do children die, why are there so many handicapped children, and people starve, or get diseases, and there is war and death? If your God is so loving, why doesn’t He make things right in this world; why is there so much injustice?” It’s a very emotional appeal that can subtly change our biblical balance. “Why Christ doesn’t heal them? We want a Christ who can heal all these people.”
We cannot become victimized by that, or we’ll begin to doubt. When you start letting the world dictate to you what God is to be and to do, and what Christ is to be and do, you’ll look at the Bible and wonder, and be perplexed. Slowly you will go away from biblical Christianity. Many have gone astray like that. It may take away from Christ, beware.
The world does not know God or His plan, or how he is going to get the glory from these things. The natural man does not understand the things of God, and if you begin to let the world force you to think that Christ must be who they say He must be, then you’ll start doubting. Again, the solution is to go to Him.
What will you find when you go? He says, “The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” What does that mean? He says, “Look! Can’t you see I’m the one who will make things right? I am reaching out to the poor, reversing disease and death. Can’t you see it?” Can’t you see He is the one who is going to make it right, who has the power to make it right and reverse the curse? It is only my kingdom that will permanently remove that. I have come to establish my Kingdom. Someday He will, in his Kingdom. These are previews of coming attractions, a taste of what He will do in the future.
3. Incomplete Understanding of God’s Word
So doubts come because of wrong expectations, difficult circumstances, worldly influence, and finally, doubts come because of incomplete revelation.
Fourthly, there is incomplete revelation. It says in verse 2 that John had heard. John had heard about Jesus and what was going on. His disciples had come back and said they had seen this and that, but he really doubted because he didn’t have the opportunity for a firsthand look. I think there is a sense of legitimate doubt here. He didn’t have the opportunity, like Peter said, to be an eyewitness of His majesty. He didn’t have a complete revelation; there was a lot missing and he was getting some stuff secondhand.
How does this relate to you? Do you know why a lot of people doubt? Not only because of negative circumstances and worldly influences, but a lot of people doubt because they just don’t understand God’s revelation, by regular submission of their mind to the word of God. If that doesn’t happen, Satan will influence you with ungodly counsel and draw you astray. It may seem very right. The more you get busy with the world, and the more far you are from the word of God, and don’t spend time reading it regularly, the more doubts you will have. I would promise you that your doubt is erased as you daily expose yourself to the revelation of God. Let God speak through His Word; that spells the end of doubt.
So doubts come from wrong expectations, difficult circumstances, worldly influence, and incomplete understanding of the word of God.
If you are struggling with doubt, I would urge you to go to the Scriptures and get to know Him better. Find out what He is really like. Learn what He has truly promised to do. He always surprises those who get to know Him. He is always greater than our expectations; and He always does far more exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or think. His word assures us that He always fulfills His own promises, and will always do so in ways that far exceed our greatest expectations of Him.
And third, remember His word of encouragement: “[B]lessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” If you are in a difficult situation, hang in there. Endure. Don’t give up. Hold on to Him and never let go. Admit that you don’t always understand Him, but that by faith you will cling to Him.
If you embrace Him with all your heart as the Suffering Savior who died on the cross for you, then you can rest assured that He will never prove to be a disappointment to you.
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 