Dealing with Doubt - Matthew 11:1-15

Doubt is one of the most prevalent hardships for Christians. If we got honest so many of us deal with doubts and questions but we will never express them. We feel as if we express doubts we are a weak Christian. No one has ever taught us how to communicate and pray through our doubts in questions. Instead of letting them drive us to the feet of Jesus we often let them pull us away. This was not God’s plan.

I cannot begin to write a comprehensive understanding of doubt, its importance, its hardship, or how to respond to it in totality BUT we do have numerous examples of men and women in Scripture who no doubt had questions… I think of David in many of the Psalms (you can see my other post addressing one of these times here), the questions that Mary, the mother of Jesus, undoubtably had, and… John the Baptist.

That’s right, John the Baptist, the man who BAPTIZED Jesus, SAW the Holy Spirit descend like a dove, and HEARD the voice of Father God speaking about Jesus doubted Jesus during a trial in his life. John the Baptist shows us how to Faithfully Pursue Jesus in our doubts.

This can be found in Matthew 11:1-15…

Set The Scene

John the Baptist was a man of God. He had been called and commissioned by God while in the womb to bear witness about Jesus, the coming Messiah (John 1:39-80). He was to point to Jesus… and that he did (Matthew 3:1-12). Then, on top of that, like I mentioned before, he BAPTIZED Jesus and had a real encounter with God Himself (Matthew 3:13-17).

John the Baptist had experiences with Jesus like none other would ever have again in all of history. This should mean he should never struggle in his faith… right? He spent his whole life pointing to the coming of Jesus the Messiah. But in Matthew 11 we see something very real to the human experience… trials. John is on his death bed in prison. He knows his time is coming to an end. He, just like us, wrestled with questions in trials. But John gives us some valuable insight on dealing with doubt and questions.

Matthew 11:1-15

1) John’s Question (v.2-3)

In verses 2-3 we see the question that John had in his heart. While he was in prison he sent his disciples to Jesus to ask Him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (v.3) In other words John is asking Jesus if He truly is the Messiah.

We may think this sounds crazy. After all, John experienced Jesus in a way no one else ever had… How could he doubt Him? I am not sure, but he did. Through John we learn something very valuable. It is not IF we have questions but WHEN we have questions. It does not make us WEAK if we have questions but the right response will make us STRONG. So, how did John respond?

2) John Went To The Source (v.2-3)

John did not sit on his questions… He did not try to just make it make sense in his own mind… He went straight to the source of Truth. He went to Jesus. Jesus Himself said that He is Truth (John 14:6). Truth does not come from INSIDE of us, Truth comes from OUTSIDE of us. John understood this. This has gotten harder to understand in our relativistic world.

John shows us how to responded to questions… Faithfully Pursue Jesus and what HE says to be true. Jesus never promises us that we will know everything, but He does promise us that we will know what we need to know. We are not God. He is. It may not always make sense in our human logic but it always makes sense in God logic. It is not about what we don’t know. It is about what we do know… what has been revealed to us. It may not always make sense but as we go straight to Jesus in a Faithful Pursuit of Truth it will always come together.

How?
….. Honest Prayer – Jesus can handle your questions.
….. Heartfelt Worship – Connect your heart to His.
….. Hungry Search for Truth – Spend time in God’s Word and Search.
….. Honor Him By Trusting Him – Trust what you find // see // He reveals in Scripture.
….. Healing By Talking With Others – Others are going through the same thing. Pursue Jesus together. Pray for each other. Talk about these hardships.

3) Jesus’ Response (v.4-6)

I believe that this is one of the most important things in this topic. Those of us who are struggling with doubt (as I did for a period in my life) feel guilt, shame, like we are less than, like God is looking down on us or that somehow Jesus is frustrated with us. BUT when we see the way He responded to John we know that is not true.

Jesus had every reason to be frustrated with John. I mean John baptized Jesus, saw the Holy Spirit rest on Him, and heard the voice of God the Father declaring this to be His Son. But Jesus was not frustrated. He told them to tell John what they see… that “the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.” (v.4-5) There was GOOD REASON to believe in Jesus… and there still is.

Here we learn that Jesus can handle our questions. He does not cease to be God. He is not worried. He is still on His throne even when we have questions. He is asking us to do the same thing: look at the world, look at Scripture, look at what God has done and is doing… Make the choice to trust Him regardless of what you feel. Truth is not what we FEEL… Truth is what is true REGARDLESS of what we feel. Jesus can handle our questions.

4) John’s Acceptance

This point is reading into the text a little bit but it seems that John accepted what Jesus said because there was no rebuttal. Too often we try to ARGUE with God instead of ACCEPT what He says. Look at how this turned out for Job (Job 38-42). We do this the most when we put ourselves in the position of God. When we grasp that God is God and we are not… that truth depends on HIM not on US… we will much easier accept what He says.

Yes, faith is mystical and is given to you by God (Hebrews 12:2) but it is also a choice and response by you. Though this may not make sense in human logic this does make sense in God logic. Choose to trust Him & rest in Him today.

5) Jesus’ Affirmation Of John (v.7-15)

Here is some more good news. Our doubt does not define our worth, value, identity, or if God is pleased with us. We can never earn more or less of His love. Even in his questions, John was declared by Jesus to be a great follower of God… one of the greatest born among women (v.11). Don’t run to Jesus in the midst of questions FOR affirmation but run to Jesus in the midst of questions because you are ALREADY affirmed if you have a relationship with God through Jesus.

Make the choice to let questions drive us to the FEET of Jesus not pull us AWAY from Jesus. Life is full of questions and not all of them have answers. The questions is will we trust Him regardless of feelings & answers. We must remember that answers don’t solve questions of God… Trust does. Answers are not our God. God is our God.

Knowledge does not = Faith // Faith = Faith // Choose Faith.

At some point in our Faithful Pursuit of truth we have to choose to rest and trust in what God has done. This doesn’t mean we don’t think critically or seek to understand this just means we are okay if we don’t. Make this choice today. Pray and lay questions at Jesus’ feet. He loves you. He cares for you. He wants you to have confidence in Him… both given and by choice. He is a good Father.