Chapter 7 and verses 18 through 23.
And in our moments together this morning, we
just want to think about how Jesus deals
with doubt.
And if you're human, you have doubts and
concerns.
And doubt is one of those things that
attacks our faith.
And so in this passage, we see some,
some wonderful encouragement for us.
So look chapter 7 and verses 18 through
23.
The disciples of John, that's John the Baptist,
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?
When the man 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, that is the messengers
from John, go and tell John what you
have seen and heard.
The blind receive their sight, the lame walk,
lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead
are raised up.
The poor have the good news preached to
them.
And blessed is the one who is not
offended by me.
Lord, thank you for your word.
And we pray that you would indeed speak
to our hearts this morning.
And just encourage us, Lord, on this November
Sunday as we worship you through the word.
May your Holy Spirit take that word and
strengthen our lives through it in Jesus' name,
amen.
If you stop and think about John the
Baptist, he has done what God asked him
to do.
And he's in prison and he's got some
questions.
Do you ever run across people who have
some questions?
And when things don't go quite the way
that we think they should go, that's a
normal thing, isn't it?
We have some questions.
And so John the baptizer has some questions.
He's kind of looking around at his circumstances
and it doesn't all add up for him.
And so as he hears from his own
followers, his disciples, what's been going on in
the life of Jesus, he sends them to
Jesus and says, you need to ask him
this question for me.
Now, I want you just to remember a
few months back when we looked at the
beginning of the Gospel of Luke, because sometimes
we have the idea that it's only wimpy
people who have struggles with faith.
And it's really just somebody who's a backslider
who has struggles or doubts.
But if you remember back a few months
ago when we talked about John the Baptist
and his conception and the pregnancy of Elizabeth
and so on, do you remember what it
said about him?
It said that the baby leapt in Elizabeth's
womb through the Holy Spirit when Mary with
Jesus in her womb came into that house.
It said this man was filled with the
Holy Spirit from his birth.
It said that he went and preached the
word of God in the power of the
Holy Spirit, didn't he?
And I want you just to see the
frailty of our humanity.
There are times when we think that we
are strong, but you know, our strength is
pretty small.
When you consider this man and the ministry
and the power of God pulsing through his
veins, and yet as his circumstances change, and
as it feels as if he has been
set aside for a while.
You know, we don't do waiting well.
We just don't do it well.
And here is a perfect picture again of
that.
So John, in discouragement and in doubt, sends
his questions to who?
To Jesus.
And you know, if you don't hear another
word that I say in the next hour
and a half as I preach this message,
now you look really, just remember this.
That's all.
Thanks, Al.
I love you, brother.
Ah, man.
You just think about this.
In times of doubt and times of struggle,
in times when it doesn't seem to add
up, there is someone to go to, and
his name is Jesus.
And if we can just keep our focus
on him, it changes everything.
What a great lesson there is here for
us.
And we know that discouragement comes in a
variety of ways.
There's all kinds of things that can discourage
us.
You can lose five pounds and, you know,
somebody notices and you go up like a
rocket ship.
Woo-hoo!
And then the next comment that comes by
is, are you putting on weight?
Doesn't take very much sometimes to discourage us,
does it?
In John's circumstances, we're not lucrative.
He's in jail.
But I want us this morning just to
notice in these moments together how Jesus deals
with this.
And there's three things we want to focus
in on.
When the Lord starts to answer that question
that is asked, are you the one, or
should we be looking for another?
We see very purposefully how Jesus answers it.
And we see that what he's really saying
is, I am the sufficient one.
You don't need to look for another.
I am the sufficient one.
The first thing that we want to just
zero in on is that to the question,
Jesus gives an immediate reminder of his power.
There's a demonstration of the power of God
going on in our text as we see
what is happening here.
Right after that question in verse 20, it
says, in that hour, he healed many people.
Now, that means that in that hour, Jesus
didn't answer the question.
I like this because we're accustomed when somebody
asks us a question, we want an answer
right away.
Am I tying on straight?
We like that kind of thing.
Maybe, Al says.
But when they asked Jesus the question, in
that hour, he was doing healing.
He was healing the blinds.
And he's answering the question, not by what
he's saying, first of all, but by who
he is and what he is.
Here we see in that verse 21, the
wonderful power of God, the touch of those
who were in great need brought about immediate
change.
The lame are healed.
I like that.
Wouldn't it be nice if we never had
to have surgery again?
But he can use surgery too, and he
does.
But in this instance, it is an immediate
thing.
And you know, in times of doubt and
fear, it's good for us to be reminded
of what he does.
And I love sometimes when there's stress and
pressure and you feel like you should be
reacting to it, I love just to stop
and say, God, I don't know.
I'm just gonna give you God and allow
him to work it in and through my
heart and life.
The power of God is at work here
to save and to cleanse and to heal
and to encourage.
And in our times of doubts and struggles
and discouragement, isn't that the first thing that
we need to be reminded of?
We have a Savior who has the power
to make a difference and to make changes
in life, in circumstances, in health, in all
of those things.
In John chapter one and verse three, if
you wanna keep your finger there in Luke
and just slip over to the beginning of
John's gospel, it makes a wonderful statement about
the power of God that Jesus is displaying.
All things were made through him and without
him was not anything made that was made.
Wow.
He is the creator.
Nothing was made unless he made it.
Now at a men's breakfast yesterday morning for
Heritage Alliance, Eugene Kelly, Dr. Kelly, was doing
the announcements and he said, I read lately
that Stephen Hawking says, the world was created
without God.
And the fact is nothing was created without
the Savior's involvement.
That's exactly what John 1 3 says.
And despite all of our human endeavor and
knowledge, we cannot go past the word of
God because it is so clear.
The power of a changed life.
What a statement to answer doubts and fears.
Somebody once said to me, there is no
hope for my life at all.
I've done so many wrong things.
I know preacher that you couldn't understand this.
And I remember saying, do you ever shoot
at anybody?
No.
Do you ever become involved in violent actions
against other people?
Well, I punched a guy once.
Said that wasn't quite what I had in
mind.
I had the joy of leading that man
to Jesus.
Because as he began to see the power
of a changed life, it makes a difference.
I've been rereading a little book called Memories
of Sandfields.
It's written by Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones's wife,
Bethan.
And there's a story in there of a
man who was a great young medical doctor,
a surgeon of great promise, a man who
was gonna go far in his field.
And God called him to go and preach
instead.
And at 27, 28 years of age, this
young man said, I'm done with medicine.
And his denomination said, you go to Aberavon,
a little community in Wales, and you become
the pastor of the Bethlehem Forward Movement Church.
How would you, would you like a name
change like that?
Glencairn Forward Movement Church.
People used to just call it the Forward.
And some people laughed and said, well, what
kind of difference is he gonna make?
Very educated man in a coal mining community.
Come on.
One of the men in that community was
known as Staffordshire Bill.
He would drink himself to oblivion.
Staffordshire Bill was sitting in the men's social
club one Sunday night, almost drunk.
And he heard two guys in the next
table say, I went to that forward thing
last Sunday night.
And you know, that little preacher over there
said, there is nobody who is hopeless.
Jesus can bring hope into any life, and
he can meet any need.
And you know, that man, Staffordshire Bill, sat
there in a bar, and those words went
into his heart and into his life.
And he said, could that be true?
Could there be hope?
Could it be even for me?
And he went out of there, half drunk,
across town to the Forward Hall, and got
to the gates, and they were singing inside.
And he said, I can't go in, late,
started.
And he went home.
And all week, he was in an agony
as the Holy Spirit brought those words in
that bar back to him.
There is no one so hopeless that Christ
can't touch them.
And the next Sunday night, he went again.
And as he got closer, he got this
uncomfortableness, and he got to the gate, and
people were going in.
And he walked on by.
And he spent another week in agony as
a conviction of the Holy Spirit brought him
back to those words.
There is hope in Christ Jesus.
And on the following Sunday night, now, I
attempt number three, if I have my math
correct.
He got to the gate, and people were
going in, and he stopped, and he just
stood there.
And one of the church members came over
in absolute shock and said to him, Bill,
why don't you come in and sit beside
me?
He was saved that night, washed in the
blood of Jesus, set free.
How surprising that the Lord would take the
least.
It's almost like the resurrection of Lazarus, isn't
it?
Oh, such an impossibility.
Somebody said to him on the way out,
Staffordshire Bill is born again.
Everything is new now.
And he said, don't call me that.
That's a bad old name for a bad
old man.
Call me Bill Thomas.
That's my name.
Through the week, he didn't realize it, but
his language was so perverse, he couldn't say
a word without a swear.
And so one morning, halfway through that first
week, he got up, and he's looking for
his socks.
And he said to his wife, where's my
socks?
I need them.
And then he realized what he said.
He went up to his bedroom, and he
laid down on the bed and said, oh
God, God, would you clean it up?
He never swore again from that day to
the day he went home to be with
Jesus.
You know, there are things that we believe
can't happen in our lives.
Jesus gave John that demonstration of his power
because we need to trust him and to
know that he can do it.
He can, and he will.
Pastor, hurry up or we'll miss the game.
Okay.
Green is the color.
Thank you, Sharon, I love you too.
And we'll pray that they win, right?
Second thing that Jesus does here is he
gives an immediate word of encouragement.
Look at verse 22.
When he begins to answer, he answered them,
go and tell.
Here's what to say.
You ever fuss, what am I gonna say?
How am I gonna give an answer to
this?
Jesus says, you go and tell.
This is what to say.
The words that were being spoken, he talks
about all the things that are happening.
He says, the things that you have seen,
and we just dealt with those, and heard.
His word is what is being heard.
Keep your finger there in look and flip
over to John chapter 15.
And I just wanna read verses one through
three.
And then verse seven, John chapter 15, one
through three.
I am the true vine and my father
the vinedresser.
Every branch in me that does not bear
fruit, he takes away.
And every branch that bears fruit, he prunes,
that it may bear more fruit.
Already you are clean because of the word
that I have spoken to you.
You see that in verse three?
Already you are clean because of the word
I have spoken to you.
This word is so strong and so necessary.
In verse seven, in that same passage, it
says, if you abide in me and my
words abide in you, ask whatever you wish
and it will be done for you.
His word not only cleanses and encourages, but
it has a great deal to do with
our prayer life.
And that's why we often say, learn to
pray the word of God.
Because it is that word that gives us
effectiveness as we're praying according to his word
and his will.
Now, dear ones, this word is so vital.
And I wanna say this graciously because I'm
not mad at anybody except the devil.
But I often wonder if many of our
problems come from the fact that oh so
often there isn't time in families to read
the word of God together and to pray
together.
Now, I had an advantage as a little
child in my grandfather's farm once a week
when the family came together to see the
word read and prayer offered.
And that was only once a week, but
it made a difference.
And it ought to be so and it
ought to be true in our lives as
well.
The all powerful one, you know, is ever
with his own.
And he says, take my word and ask.
This word, he's telling them this is what
to say.
Nothing encourages us like the word of God,
does it?
Just think at the right time how this
word comes to us.
Let's take just a few instances from scripture
to encourage us this morning.
Abram takes Isaac to be an offering on
Mount Moriah.
And he gets to the place where he
has the knife in his hand to plunge
it into that son that God has given
to him in his old age.
And at just the right moment, there's the
word.
And that ram is there in the thicket.
God's timing is immaculate, isn't it?
You think about Gideon in the book of
Judges and he's only one of many.
Threshing out a little bit of grain hidden
behind a wine press in case somebody sees
him.
And the word comes, hail, mighty man of
valor.
Me?
No, it's you, Gideon, it's you.
That word, it comes at just the right
place and in just the right way.
Isaiah has gone to King Hezekiah and said
to him, put your stuff in order because
you're gonna die.
See ya.
One thing I discern as I read through
the prophets of old, they probably did not
have any courses in political correctness, anger management,
or those kinds of things that we see
around today.
They seem to be able to just stroll
in, say it, and go.
I think I might have been inclined to
say, how are you feeling today?
I, you know, I have something you might
need to think about.
You know, what if you don't get better?
But no, he just said, thus saith the
Lord, put your house in order, you're gonna
die.
But before Isaiah got out of that king's
palace, God spoke to him again and said,
you go back and tell Hezekiah, I have
heard your prayer, and I will add to
your life 15 years.
Woo-hoo!
Sorry, that was Hezekiah's Irish moment.
Talk about the right word at the right
time, and isn't that so often our experience
too?
That when we really go to the word
of God and ask him for something for
right now, in our discouragement and so on,
he will give it, he will bring it.
Think about Stephen dying as the rocks come,
and his bones are being broken.
But the scripture says that as he was
going down, he lifted up his eyes, and
who did he see?
Jesus.
Think about Paul in the prison cell, accused
and alone, and Jesus stands by him and
says, you're not finished yet.
Oh, friends, I love that concept, you're not
finished yet.
His word comes in just the right way
at just the right time.
December 7th, 1941.
You history buffs will know exactly where I'm
going with this, but keep it till later
and you can talk to me about it.
A preacher, Scottish preacher, who had grown into
the role of the pastor of the Church
of the Presidents in Washington, D.C., was
asked to drive out to the Naval College
of Annapolis, Maryland, and deliver a message to
all of the sailors who were in the
college at that time.
As he got closer and closer, he knew
that the message he had with him is
not what he was gonna preach.
And that morning, that Sunday morning, Peter Marshall
got up and preached on death, preached on
the fact that it comes to every single
one, preached on the fact that we must
have a relationship with Christ Jesus.
By the time that service was ending, news
was coming through of the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor, and the United States was in
the Second World War.
Look at the timing of that, and the
Word of God coming at just the right
time.
I think those young men going into battle
knew, wow, I'm facing death, but there is
a Savior whose name is Jesus.
Lastly and quickly, let's look at verse 23.
Jesus also gives an immediate proclamation of his
work.
Blessed is the one who is not offended
by me or in me, some versions say.
Don't be offended in the Lord and consider
his work.
It doesn't always happen the way we think
it should, but that doesn't mean that the
Lord is not at work in all of
these things.
Very quickly, keep your finger there and flip
back to Isaiah in chapter eight, Isaiah chapter
eight, and I just want to read 11
through 15.
You know, it's hard to read small print
when you have tears in your eyes, so
forgive me.
For the Lord spoke this to me and
with his strong hand upon me, and warned
me not to walk in the way of
this people, saying, do not call conspiracy all
that this people calls conspiracy, and do not
fear when they fear, nor be in dread.
But the Lord of hosts, him you shall
honor as holy.
Let him be your fear, and let him
be your dread, and he will 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 upon it.
They shall fall and be broken, and snared
and taken.
When you look at this, it is a
prophecy about the work of Jesus, but it
says so clearly what his work will be.
He did not do what people always expected
him to do, but he always did what
his father asked him to do.
Jesus is a sanctuary, and a sanctuary is
a place of peace.
That's what it says.
He will be a sanctuary.
Oh, that place of peace is so important
in the midst of this world, isn't it?
All the stuff that comes, all the pressures
and stresses, all the busyness of the Christmas
season.
I love looking at people's faces, and by
the time we get to December 24th, I
see an absolutely exhausted, overwrought bunch of people.
Joy to the world.
Thank God Jesus is a sanctuary.
He's a place to go and rest in
him, and to know the fullness of his
love and grace.
It says he is to be a stone
of offense to both houses of Israel, and
it was so true, because he didn't do
what they expected.
And you know, we should never fall into
the same trap.
Lord, your will be done in my life.
It says that he was that stumbling block,
and people are still stumbling.
How could it be that Jesus could do
all that is said of him?
But dear ones, he can do all and
far more.
Indeed, he can.
No wonder this morning, am I speaking to
someone, and you just need that fresh touch
from him, that place of sanctuary, that place
to draw aside, and know his hand upon
you.
That's what Isaiah says, the hand of God
was upon me, and God revealed these things,
these beautiful concepts of the coming Savior.
You know, he's really teaching the disciples of
John that we can trust in him, trust
that he will do what he says he
can do.
And you know, when you look in Luke
chapter seven at verse 28, Jesus says this
about John.
I tell you, among those born of women,
none is greater than John, yet the one
who is least in the kingdom of God
is greater than he.
And here's a whole bunch of greater than
John.
He's the end of the prophets, but you
are the kingdom if you are in Christ
Jesus.
May we pray together.
I wanna ask worship team, would you guys,
while I pray, just slip back up?
I'd like you to do that.
It is well with my soul as we
close this morning.
Dear Heavenly Father, when we look in your
Word, we see how honest, how raw it
is.
We recognize if even John can have struggles
with doubts, it can happen to any one
of us.
But we realize too, Father, that we have
a sanctuary in Jesus Christ, a place where
doubts and fears need not assail us, need
not overcome us, a place where we can
rest in Jesus.
And oh, Father, this morning, you know the
struggles that are going on in our hearts
and lives.
You know there's another week till the end
of the month.
You know the physical needs that we have.
You know the spiritual needs that we have.
Would you just touch us, Father, in the
power of your Spirit with the love of
God this morning?
And just as you did not forget John
in that prison cell, but sent him these
three very clear words, may they come to
our hearts this morning as well.
You are the all-powerful One.
I will give my situation to you.
You are the living Word of God.
I will trust what you have said.
You are the One who fulfilled the work
and the plan of the Father that I
might be saved for time and for eternity,
that we as brothers and sisters in your
church might walk together in unity and love
and the fullness of your Holy Spirit.
And Father, as we retire from the sanctuary
here this morning, may we each take the
sanctuary with us into this busy week.
May we know the presence of the living
Lord surrounding us.
For it is in Jesus' name that we
ask it.
Let's stand together as we sing.