Sermon Tone Analysis

*Intro* – One guy was explaining his tough neighborhood.

He said one year 10 kids who sat on Santa’s lap got their pockets picked!

That’s a tough neighborhood!

Some of you are in a spiritually tough neighborhood this morning!

You feel like God has picked your pockets.

And a huge shadow of doubt is building.

I’m talking to believers.

Doubt happens – to Xns – all the time.

In theory we trust God, but in practice, not so much.

Marriage didn’t turn out to be what we thought.

Somebody stiffed us in a business deal.

The teacher treats us unfairly.

Pain, emotional or physical, is our constant companion.

So, where is God?

Perhaps He was there for Moses and Elijah, but not for me.

Somebody picked my pocket.

Paul Miller in A Praying Life tells of camping with 5 of his 6 daughters.

His wife was at home with severely handicapped 8-year-old Kim.

One day he found 14-year-old Ashley, all upset.

She had lost her contact lens and could not find it among the leaves and twigs.

Paul said, “Ashley, don’t move.

Let’s pray.”

Well, that really turned on the tears.

“What good does it do?

I’ve prayed for Kim to speak a thousand times and she isn’t speaking.”

Kim is autistic, and mute.

Five years of therapy had not helped.

All the prayer seemed to no avail.

So now Ashley had no expectation that God would answer a simple prayer to find a contact lens.

She felt like her pocket had been picked.

That’s not a good place to be, is it?

It’s a dungeon of despair – exactly where John the Baptist found himself – figuratively and literally.

John was the forerunner for Jesus, the first prophet in Israel in more than 400 years.

He had a meteoric ministry that lasted for a year, then declined as Jesus came on the scene.

We last saw John in Luke 3:18-20, “So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people.

19 But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, 20 added this to them all, that he locked up John in prison.”

Just like that, John goes from a highly successful ministry to being locked up in prison.

From his perspective this is a startling development.

Now the key to the passage is v. 23: “And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” “Offended” is the Greek σκανδαλιζω (skandalidzo) -- from which we get “scandalize.”

It means to lead into sin, to cause one to fall away – to fall into doubt.

It derives from the action that triggers a trap to close around the neck of a mouse or the leg of a bear.

They have been scandalized.

Jesus knows his own actions might cause some to go astray, to doubt because He is not what they thought.

He instructs, “Don’t let it happen.

Don’t let my person scandalize you.

Don’t fall away due to unmet expectations or because it is tough.”

John MacArthur paraphrases: “Honest doubt is not a bad starting point, but it is a bad finishing point.”

Got doubts?

Feeling discouraged?

Like God has picked your pockets?

Listen, you’re in good company.

But don’t stay there!

Don’t be scandalized and trapped there.

You may have to stay in the dungeon, but you don’t have to stay in doubt!

Now, what causes us to take offense?

To doubt?

This is critical.

Doubt results from a preconceived notion of what God should do, or when He should do it, or how He should do it.

[Repeat].

John had 2 out of 3 wrong.

Furthermore, doubt is almost always triggered by personal crisis – an unexpected hardship – adversity – suffering.

John had that too, and the combination laid him flat on his back.

We will all be there.

The important thing is that we get out before we are scandalized, trapped in doubt.

So, today the cause, next week the cure.

*I.

The Cause of John’s Doubt*

John got the “what” right.

He was expecting that Jesus was the King and that He was coming to establish His kingdom.

Guess what?

He was right on the money.

But John was miles off when it came to the timing and the method.

And personal adversity gave rise to doubt!

Even the best of God’s servants can get it wrong.

That’s why we want to approach every decision in life – whether personal, family or even church – by fervent prayer and seeking God’s will to get it right -- giving Him all the room He needs to do it His way.

We are most vulnerable when we are most sure of God.

It’s like golf.

Hit a couple of good shots and you think, “Hey, this is an easy game.”

Shortly thereafter, you will be brought back down to earth.

So, how’d John fail?

*A.

The Personal Problem*

Vv. 18-19: “The disciples of John the Baptist told John about everything Jesus was doing.

So John called for two of his disciples, 19 and he sent them to the Lord to ask him, “Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?” Question: how could John be so positive about Christ earlier and now he is one big question mark?

John is the one who told his disciples, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

John is the one who baptized Jesus, and saw the Spirit descending from heaven upon Him, and heard the Father say, “This is my beloved One in whom I am well-pleased.”

John is the one who pointed to Jesus one day and made the breath-taking pronouncement, “Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

If anybody got Jesus, it was John.

So what drives his doubt?

Well, he had a personal problem.

He had done all the right things – been faithful to the ministry, message and mission that God had assigned to Him.

He had taken a stand against sin in high places, and what did it get him?

It got him in jail.

Any time we do the right things for the right reasons, and end up facing even greater adversity, it gets hard to believe, right?

Seems like God is picking our pocket.

John was no different.

He was just as human as we are.

Why was John in jail?

Mark 6:17-18: “For it was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because he had married her.

18 For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”