From human perspective, John’s ministry ended in tragedy. Up until the time he was arrested he was God’s number one man. He fearlessly and without partiality preached God’s message, enduring the hardships of the desert, confronting both the ordinary and the powerful, and deferring to none but God. Yet now he was in a hot, desolate prison, out of the limelight, away from the wide-open spaces he had grown accustomed to, seemingly to waste away and be forgotten. He hadn’t counted on that.

Do true believers ever have doubts about their faith? If a Christian has doubts does it mean that he or she is not a true believer? If a person today is struggling with the faith, what can be done to rectify the problem? These are some of the questions I would like you to consider this morning as we conduct our sixth study of the life of John the Baptist.

We’re coming to the end of this series of sermons. Lord willing, we’ll have this one this morning that I’m calling "The Prophet’s Doubts" and one more to look at the events surrounding John’s death.

The pinnacle of John’s ministry was his baptism of Jesus. We talked about that in the last message. If you recall, on that occasion John, though he did not at first recognize the Lord,(1) nonetheless, as God’s prophet, identified Him as "The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."(2) This was verified to John when the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove(3) and God’s voice from heaven said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."(4)

Immediately after John baptized Him, Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.(5) For forty days He endured all that Satan could throw at Him. But He did not sin. After Jesus recovered from the ordeal, He began His preaching.

Apparently there was a time after that when Jesus and His disciples taught and baptized in the region of Judea at the same time as John and his disciples taught and baptized in northern Samaria.(6) Jesus actually began to draw a bigger crowd than John. Some of John’s disciples got a little jealous when they heard the news about Jesus’ teaching and baptizing. John 3:26-30 holds the account. That’s where we’ll begin.

This sounds like a little protest, doesn’t it? Jesus was gaining popularity and John was losing it. It didn’t seem right to John’s followers. John had come first, so how was it that this new upstart could win the day? John gave the kind of selfless answer that shows us why God chose Him to be His prophet. Verse 27:

John reminds them that he told them from the beginning that he wasn’t the Christ. Then he borrows imagery from a Jewish wedding where the "main man" prior to the wedding day was the "friend of the bridegroom." It was this man’s duty to negotiate the details of the wedding on the groom’s behalf. Yet once the bridegroom came into the picture, the bride and the joy of the day, were his. The friend of the bridegroom faded from the scene, having accomplished his purpose. Even the "best man" at our weddings is to take a back seat once the wedding begins. Thus, John’s point in verse 30: "He must increase, but I must decrease."

We get a glimpse of John’s character in that statement. Many a man has entered ministry with the sincere intent of serving God, only to change so that years later his reluctance to turn loose of what God has loaned him shows a struggle with serving self.

Yet this statement, "He must increase, but I must decrease" proved to be the harbinger of difficulties to come for John. Not long after this he was arrested and imprisoned. Luke 3:19-20 give the account of:

Luke 3:19-20 says, "But when Herod the tetrarch was reproved by him on account of Herodias, his brother's wife, and on account of all the wicked things which Herod had done, he added this also to them all, that he locked John up in prison."

John was arrested for doing exactly what God called him to do – preach so as to expose the sins of men and call them to repent. He denounced the sins of both peasant and plutocrat without the least bit of partiality. "Herod the tetrarch" mentioned here was Herod Antipas, governor of Galilee, son of Herod the Great, the king who had slaughtered the infants of Bethlehem near the time of Jesus’ birth. Antipas was no more righteous than his father. The incident about his brother’s wife that Luke mentions refers to the time when Antipas, on a trip to Rome, took a liking to Herodias, the wife of his brother, Philip. After returning to Galilee, he divorced his own wife and married Herodias. In a gutsy public confrontation John said to the governor, as recorded in Mark 6:18: "It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife." Herod immediately had the prophet arrested and probably would have killed him, except that he feared the people.(7)

By the way, though it has in our day of loose living become very unpopular to do so, and many leaders in the church shrink from it, it is still the duty of those who preach God’s word to uphold His standards for marriage. If you are a Christian, you cannot divorce and remarry at will. More than once we in this church have had to say "no" to divorce and remarriage of our members when there was no biblical cause and more than once we have been criticized for it. We have even seen people leave us over the issue. All I can say to that is that "we must obey God rather than men."(8) It is always difficult when such an issue presents itself, but it will be much more difficult when church leaders stand before God and must give an account for why they did not uphold His standards. At least none of us has been thrown in jail for it yet.

John was imprisoned at an old fort named Machaerus, located five miles east and fifteen miles north of the Dead Sea. It was a hot, desolate place - a miserable location to be incarcerated. It was probably little more than a dark, stifling dungeon. So after some 18 months of preaching in the wide open spaces, John is confined to a miserable cell where he would live out his final days on earth. He would be there for as long as a year.(9)

In our modern day the common belief is that when you are doing things that please God, things will always go well with you. God will "bless" you with comfort and ease. Likewise, when you are doing things that displease God, He will take away your comfort and ease. This is a false notion. Notice here that John had done nothing wrong. Indeed, he had done great things for God. Yet the last days of his life were relatively miserable. I’ll have more to say about this in just a little bit, for we come now to an incident that has puzzled many students of the Bible. It may puzzle you. We’ll call it simply,

While John’s physical situation was turning downward, Jesus was experiencing wonderful results with the crowds who flocked to see and hear Him. He was preaching and healing and even raising the dead.(10) Perhaps you will recall that John had done no miracles.

Though he was in prison, John was allowed to have visits from his disciples who kept him informed about what was happening on the outside. We’ll resume the story in Luke 7:18-21. Verse 18 says,

The "things" Luke refers to were events happening as Jesus preached. He performed miracles. People were amazed at His teaching. It provoked a question from John, which he relayed to Jesus via two trusted disciples in verse 19. This is the part that is puzzling.

Whoa! Wait a minute? What was John asking? "Are You the Expected One, or do we look for someone else?" The phrase "Expected One" is a clear reference to the Messiah. But wasn’t John the one who pointed out Jesus as the Messiah at His baptism? What is going on here? Does he suddenly doubt his earlier proclamation?

What is going on here is the humanity of John. Yes he was the greatest prophet to ever live,(11) but he was still subject to human emotion and weakness. He was still a man. He still had free will which included the freedom to have misgivings and doubt. At this point in his life, he was perplexed. Perhaps he was thinking, "Have I misunderstood? Did I miss something? Was I mistaken? Why do things seem to be going so well with Jesus and I am here in this dungeon?" We don’t really know what John was thinking because it doesn’t’ say. I’m just mentioning some possibilities. Whatever it was, it is clear that he was perplexed.

The fact that the writers of scripture don’t whitewash their characters and report on their doubts as matter-of-factly as their accomplishments has long been proof to me that these stories were not made up in men’s imaginations. Made up stories don’t usually report the flaws of their heroes. They don’t cast their leading characters in bad light. Yet the Bible reports it all: King David’s mess with Bathsheba; Elijah’s time under the Juniper tree; the doubts of the Apostle Thomas; Peter’s three time denial of Jesus; even Jesus’ struggle with suffering in Gethsemane. If you were making up a religion that you hoped would capture the minds and obedience of millions of people, you wouldn’t want to say things that might cause them to wonder. Yet the Bible does just that. It is brutally honest with its characters, painting them "warts and all," or maybe it is better that we say, "Weakness and all."

So do true believers ever have doubts? Do those who have long served the Lord ever have seasons of discouragement and confusion about their faith? Apparently they do. There are several things that may have been at the root of John’s perplexity. I hope you’ll pay close attention to them because they are issues that true believers also face today. The first is that:

From human perspective, John’s ministry ended in tragedy. Up until the time he was arrested he was God’s number one man. He fearlessly and without partiality preached God’s message, enduring the hardships of the desert, confronting both the ordinary and the powerful, and deferring to none but God. Yet now he was in a hot, desolate prison, out of the limelight, away from the wide-open spaces he had grown accustomed to, seemingly to waste away and be forgotten. He hadn’t counted on that. And he was a young man – barely 30 years old. He had a lot of years left in him. He hadn’t lost his edge. There were still people in Israel who needed his message. After nearly a year of incarceration can we fault him for wondering if maybe he might have taken a left turn when he should have taken a right?

While I was at camp week before last I saw a Christian friend that I had not seen in a long time. He and his wife have faithfully served God for many years. After a bit of "catch up" conversation, I learned that my friend, who has been a public school teacher for many years, had just lost his teaching position. I don’t know that whole story, but from his perspective someone who seemed to have an agenda railroaded him out his job because of his unapologizing stand as a Christian. My friend had not lost his faith, but he was perplexed. "I don’t understand what is happening. I never dreamed that anything like this would happen to me. I didn’t do anything wrong that I know of. I was simply living out my faith and trying to do what I know is right. I didn’t violate any laws. Now I’ve lost my job. I’ve had applications in all over the place, and due to the fact that I was fired, so far no one is willing to hire me. If things keep going this way we will lose our home and property and I don’t know where we’ll end up. He didn’t say it aloud but I suspect he was thinking to himself, "OK, God. You can deliver me anytime, now. I don’t need to be in this spot."

The same questions are asked sometimes asked by believers today who are stricken with cancer, who lose loved ones, and who see their children depart from the faith.

A few years ago Kathi and I received a call from a well-known preacher and friend. He asked if he could come to our home and spend a few days. When he arrived he told us that he was very discouraged. We let him talk and talked to him for three or four days well into the wee hours of the morning. We shared common experiences, talked about the scriptures, and just took it easy. Then he went back home and renewed his commitment to his work. I saw him awhile back and he told us that the time we spent together had put him back on track, though I cannot remember any profound, life-changing truth that came to light.

Had he done something wrong? No. Was there some sin in his life? No. He was simply overcome by circumstances and needed to regain his perspective. To combat it he sought the Lord and the Lord’s people.

Difficult circumstances can produce perplexity and doubt in true believers.

The Old Testament prophets, of whom John was the last, did not have a clear and complete picture of the unfolded plan of God like we do today. Even though they proclaimed the details of it by inspiration of God, their total grasp fell short. That is what Peter was referring to in 1 Peter 1:10-12:

Notice here that though God’s spirit was predicting the sufferings of Christ through the Old Testament prophets, they still were seeking to know (understand) its meaning. They didn’t have enough pieces of the puzzle, so to speak, to comprehend the big picture. Peter continues…

The full picture of the person and meaning and suffering of Christ was not revealed until it was preached by Christ’s Apostles on and after the day of Pentecost in Acts 2. Paul referred to it in Romans 16:25 as "…the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested…." Consequently, no one, not even those who were closest to Jesus prior to the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, fully understood the big picture. Remember the confusion of even the eleven disciples of Jesus just prior to His ascension? "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?"(12) Surely Jesus had shown them that He was not going to establish an earthly kingdom(13) but even after 3 years with the Lord, they still hadn’t put it all together. It wasn’t until the Holy Spirit came upon them on Pentecost in Acts 2 and He (the Holy Spirit) revealed to them "all things"(14) through inspiration that they finally put it all together.

So if Jesus’ closest men who had been with Him since the beginning of His ministry could not put it all together until after Pentecost, how could John have done so? Remember, we’ve already seen that being an Old Testament prophet did not grant John a full understanding of the big picture. Further, how much did he know of Jesus? He met the Lord briefly when He came to him to be baptized. At that time God witnessed Jesus’ identity with the Holy Spirit coming upon Him in the form of a dove and the voice from heaven. Then Jesus went on His way. The only further contact or knowledge John had of the Lord and His ministry was what came to him second hand through his disciples. No wonder the prophet was perplexed! If he didn’t know the big picture, he couldn’t possibly know how he fit into it. And not knowing fully how he fit into it, I don’t find it difficult at all to imagine how he could wonder how his languishing in prison could possibly have any meaning. Had Jesus forgotten Him? Had he misunderstood? No. He simply lacked the big picture and needed reassurance.

My friends, nothing will get you through the difficulties and perplexities of this life more effectively than a good, comprehensive understanding of the word of God! We have in our Bibles today what John lacked. When you lack understanding of the scriptures or are operating with misunderstandings of the same, you are going to be vulnerable to the attacks of the devil because you won’t see any purpose in the difficulties that come upon you. Your faith will be weak. Your doubts will wreak havoc.

Romans 10:17 says, "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ." Our faith is built up as we hear and understand the word of Christ. Likewise, when we don’t hear the word, or we don’t pay attention to it, or we find many other things to do besides trying to learn what it means, our faith grows weaker.

Forgive me, please, as I make reference to my own experience. I do it only to help clarify my point.

I’ve been preaching now for 27 years. That is a lot of sermons and a lot of hours of study. Yet my faith has not gone away. The work I do has not grown old or boring or empty. Early on I had mentors to encourage me, but now many of those who mentored me are passing on or have passed on. Now I’m the mentor of others. A portion of my ministry is encouraging you through preaching. Here’s my question: Who encourages the encourager? Who supports the supporter? What is the root of the faith of the one who teaches others yet has no one to teach him? I can tell you most certainly that it is nothing in me. I can be just as discouraged by circumstances as anyone else – and I do have periods of low spirits sometimes. So what sustains me? Only one thing, and in this God gets all the glory. What sustains me is the living word of God. All those times preaching and those hours spent studying have allowed this weak and discourage-able man to remain encouraged. Here is what the word of God says about it in Romans 15:4: "For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."

If you are living a weak, tepid, compromising, defeated Christian life, then it is probably because you have an inconsistent or non-existent contact with God’s word. You’re either not hearing it in great enough quantity to help you or you’re not paying attention to it. Unless you do something to change that, it is very likely that your faith will be shipwrecked before you get into the safe harbor.

John needs this encouragement of the word, so let’s look quickly at what Jesus did.

Jesus could have immediately dropped what He was doing and rushed to the prison to encourage John. He could have simply given John a yes or no answer. But He didn’t do either. Instead He did what Luke recorded in Luke 7:21-23:

Jesus gave John the evidence he needed from Scripture. Right there before the eyes of the two inquiring disciples of John, Jesus did a series of miracles. Knowing that John was one of those prophets who, as Peter told us earlier, "…made careful search and inquiry, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow…," Jesus showed John that the Messianic prophecy of Isaiah(15) and others was being fulfilled, even as he was locked up in prison. "Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them."

In other words, Jesus said, in effect, "Go back and remind John of what the Scriptures say and tell him that you have witnessed it being fulfilled just as it is written. John’s role as the forerunner of the Christ was in the very center of God’s will. There was no mistake. There was no need to wait for another."

John’s physical circumstances didn’t improve. In fact, it wasn’t long after this that Herod sent to the prison and had the prophet beheaded. But I’m confident that John died full of the faith and hope that comes from knowledge of the Scriptures.

My friends, a living, active interaction with the living, active word of God(16) is what we need to sustain our faith. We need God’s word like we need food and water and exercise.

Satan works overtime to get us busy, to distract us, and to discourage us so as to get us away from the truths of this book. We must not let that happen!

Footnotes: Use your "back" button to return to your place.

1. John 1:33
2. John 1:29
3. John 1:31-34
4. Matthew 3:17
5. Mark 1:12
6. See Life Application Bible comments on John 3:22-23; also Barnes’ Notes Commentary comments on John 3:23.
7. Matthew 14:5
8. Acts 5:29
9. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, (c) Moody Press and John MacArthur, Jr., 1983-2002, article on Matthew 11:2-3.
10. Luke 7:1-17
11. Matthew 11:11
12. Acts 1:6
13. Luke 17:20-21
14. John 14:26
15. Isaiah 35:5; 61:1
16. Hebrews 4:12

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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