Series: The Unfortunate Outcome of John the Baptist. Week 2: When the Faithful Start to Question
Matthew 11:1–15.
Doubt doesn’t disqualify you — God can use it to deepen you.
This is not a crisis of character. This is a crisis of expectation. John collided with what he expected God to do & what God was actually doing.
John sends his disciples with one question: Are you the one?
He is asking a deeply personal one: Did I get it right? Was it You all along? Because if it was—why am I here?
There is a crucial difference between doubt that brings us to Jesus & doubt that drives us away from Him.
Isaiah 35:5–6; 61:1.
Jesus: “Don’t focus on what I haven’t done yet—look at what I AM doing.”
Matthew 11:6.
“Stumble” is the Greek skandalizō — from which we get “scandal.”
Blessed is the one who does NOT find my way of working to be a scandal, a stumbling block, an offense.
The blessing is in not being offended by how I choose to work.
When God’s ways confuse us, the answer isn’t to demand our way. It’s to look at what He is actually doing.
The response Jesus invites is not denial—it’s looking.
Matthew 11:11.
Truth: the kingdom of God does not advance in this world unopposed.
Opposition is not evidence that the kingdom has failed. It is evidence that the kingdom is advancing.
Matthew 11:15.
1) Doubt is not the opposite of faith—it is the terrain through which faith grows.
2) Jesus does not shame questioners—He dignifies them with answers. (Hebrews 4:16).
3) Expectations can become idols. When our picture of how God should work becomes more important to us than God Himself, we have made an idol of our expectations.
4) The greatest in God’s kingdom are not those who never doubted, but those who brought their doubt to the right Person.
“Doubt doesn’t disqualify you — God can use it to deepen you.”
