Matthew 11:2-3………Working

Matthew 11:2-3………Working

11:2 When John heard in prison (The prison dungeon of Machaerus near the Dead sea.-(See Map) John was thrown in prison calling King Herod out on his adulterous marriage to Herodias his brother’s wife.-{14:3-12}) what Christ was doing, (Healing people. Eating with tax collectors and sinners. Showing grace, mercy, and compassion.) he sent his disciples.-(Most likely Two) 3 to ask him, “Are you the one who was to come, (A common expectation of a coming Messiah.) or should we expect someone else?” (Not a lack of faith, having pointed Jesus out as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the word.-{John 1:29-34} But rather a lack of understanding of the type of Messiah Jesus would be who would bring judgment & fire.-(Matt.3:11-12).)

Continued From Book

“Teaches if the greatest Saints can have moments of doubt so can we. (Take comfort your in good company) “ ⇒ If John the Baptist can have a moment of doubt concerning Christ so can we. So take comfort when you have a moment of faith crisis or when you have a genuine concerning your life, your faith, and your walk with God.

“Teaches how Jesus is the right source to go to with all of our doubts, hurts, weaknesses, and struggles.” ⇒ John did the right thing, he was honest and transparent about his doubts by bringing them straight to the Lord. Don’t close the door to Jesus, run to Him and take your doubts with you. Remember God sees “doubt” not as a weakness, but the growing pains of an eager and seeking heart!

“Teaches rather than hold onto our expectations of the way things should go trust that God has a better plan.” ⇒ We often set our goals and map things out in our lives and then we pray “God bless my plans, and make it happen Lord.” Not realizing that God has something far better than we could ever have imagined. The opposite can also be true. Maybe we have right expectation but the wrong timing. We’re thinking the right things about God and His plans for us but the timing is not right. God gives us a vision for the future in what He wants to do through our lives. But we don’t see all of the time it will take between when He promises or shows us that thing and when it actually comes to fulfillment. Remember Abraham, God had said through your seed, your descendants, I’m going to bless the entire world. And what happens Abraham gets impatient in waiting for God to fulfill His promise and has a child through his maidservant Hagar.

“Teaches how often times God allows crises to bring us to a better place, which we wouldn’t have gotten any other way. (The safe place, the comfortable place, is not always the best place!)” ⇒ As believers we need to rethink our assumptions in the way God works. People often meet up with God when backed into a corner or when going through some crises or tragedy with no where else to turn.

“Warns against having faulty and unbiblical expectations of God. (No where in the bible does God promise us a life free of hardships and suffering.)” ⇒ Faulty and unbiblical expectations of God can lead us to be constantly anxious and depressed, often wondering why are things wrong and not lining up, when it’s not the case. Faulty expectations can rob of us of the joy and power of God and the calling that He has on our lives.

Even today, we can all struggle with doubt asking “If the Lord loves me why am I going through this difficult time in my life.” Maybe your faithfully serving the Lord in doing all your supposed to do and then one day your suddenly laid off. Or maybe your visiting the the doctor and he gives you some bad news you weren’t expecting. Or maybe your child sits you down one day and comes out to you. Or maybe it’s a thousand other things and your wondering where the Lord is, why has He allowed this to happen to me?

“This is not saying that doubt is a sin or sign of weak faith. Doubt is something that all of us experience at some point in our faith journey. Doubts are a natural part of believing. “Doubt is not the opposite of faith, it is an element of faith”. God sees doubt as a seeking and searching heart. Doubt can be a positive force in our lives. It can lead us to grow spiritually stronger in our faith.” ⇒ It’s been said; Devout believers wrestle with their faith. Developing believers reason through their faith. And Determined believers remain in their faith. So if your struggling with matters of faith as they call it. Wrestle with it, reason through it, and remain in it. The Bible tells us that doubt is the first step toward faith (Hebrews 11:6). Without doubt, we would never question our beliefs or push ourselves to grow spiritually. Doubt can also be a sign of humility. When we doubt our own ability to do something, it shows that we are willing to rely on God’s strength instead of our own. Ultimately, doubt is not a bad thing. It’s part of the human experience and it can actually lead us closer to God if we let it. So next time you’re feeling doubtful, remember that it’s okay to question things. And don’t be afraid to ask God for help along the way.

More Notes & Applications

Teaches how we can have great faith and integrity and still have all the warts that go with it as well. (Strong faith doesn’t mean were going to be invincible, that were never going to have a bad day!)

Teaches how sometimes it’s hard to accept the difficult things God allows in our lives. (See trials as God working a new thing in your life)

Teaches how sometimes we can misunderstand our calling and ministry work the Lord has for us.

Calls for seeing that we not allowing our sentiments or expectations to second guess God’s love and care. (Sentimentality often stills the love of God. We start to allow our feelings, expectations, and petty ways & passions to dictate how things should be, or how we think they must be. Instead we should focus on God and His will, and what He wants no matter the circumstance or what our feelings may say.)

Warns if not careful we can allow our trials and hardships to second guess our faith. (Will you trust that God is in control of things regardless of the circumstances?)

Teaches how all of us can have times of questioning, doubting, and impatience with God.

Teaches just as Biblical characters are full of flaws and misunderstandings and they don’t get them all worked out before they are used by God. So to with us, just as misunderstood, flawed, and confused we may be, we can still be mighty instruments of God.

Warns just like John the Baptist we can allow our struggles and hardships to cause us to lose sight of who Jesus is. Or wonder when God is going to make good on His promises. We think we’re do everything right, we try our best to follow Jesus, we obey God’s will, but then things don’t turn out the way we want them too. We want them to happen on our terms or we don’t want them at all.)

Warns when cut off and isolated from Church and Christian community doubt can arise and unbelief can begin to rear it’s ugly head. If your not going to church or in fellowship with other Christians your only allowing sin and doubt to fetster and grow.

Some commentators think John’s question had been for his disciples sake, allowing them to hear it straight from Jesus’ own lips of who He is. That John wanted his disciples to leave off following himself and follow Jesus. So he sent them to Jesus to see for themselves the great things Jesus was doing. (Note: Those who hold to this view: Ambrose, Luther, Calvin, Beza, Matthew Poole.) Many argue against this view due to the fact that Jesus tells John’s disciples to “Go back and report to John”. Therefore since the question comes from the John, the answer must go back to John. If it was just for John’s disciples they need not return, nor would they want to return, they would have started following Jesus that very moment.

Some people think that faith means never doubting. They think that faith means always being on top, and believing that the absolute best will come out of every situation. The truth is that faith often means living with doubt, and continuing to do the things that God has called us to do, day after day, and year after year, long after the novelty and adventure has worn off. One of the most important texts of scripture declares, “Let us not grow weary in doing good! (cf. Gal. 6:9)