It's Hard To Believe

Matthew 11:1-6 11/2/25 A.M. “It’s hard to Believe”

Have you all ever heard something that was just too hard to believe? It was too hard to comprehend. That happened to me a few weeks ago. I mentioned this to a few of you so you’re gonna know what I’m talking about but most of you won’t.

In 2017, it was revealed when the last Civil War Widow died. The last woman who was married to a Civil War soldier. It truly amazed me. Are you ready for the answer? In 2017, she wasn’t dead, she was still alive.

Her name was Helen Viola Jackson. In 2017 she was making her own funeral arrangements with her pastor and as they were going over her life he said, “Of course, you’ve never married.” And she said, “Well, actually I was.” And she told him this story that has been verified with court records as being true. In 1936, the Great Depression was RAGING and things were tight, money was hard to come by, and she was living in the Ozarks of Missouri. She was 17 years old and helping her elderly neighbor do his chores. His name was James Bolin and he was a 93 year old Union Veteran of the 14th Missouri Cavalry. She was a virtuous young lady and he was a well respected man of the community. She was a great help to him doing his chores so he devised a way to help her. He proposed that they get married so that when he died she could draw his monthly pension of $73.13. A lot of money back then. She agreed and they went to the courthouse, married, and then he went home and she went back to her parent’s house.

But here’s why no one knew until 2017. 3 years later in 1939 James died. He was 96 years old. But when he died his two daughters came to Helen and threatened to shame her if she filed for the pension. So respecting his memory and avoiding scandal, she never filed for the money. She never told anyone until 2017. That’s an amazing story.

So let’s take a few minutes and read from the Book of Matthew. We’ll look at Chapter 11 and read Verses 1-6.

“And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities.

2 Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples,

3 And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?

4 Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see:

5 The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.

6 And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.”

Now I want you to think about this for a minute. A fellow named John. He’s not John the Apostle. He’s John, the son of Zechariah and Elisabeth. He’s John the somewhat distant cousin of Jesus. He has become known as John the Baptist.

He has his own PREACHING MINISTRY. He’s VERY VOCAL. He’s VERY OUTSPOKEN. In fact, if he would have backed off a little bit, you know, TONED it down a little, he might have lived a longer life. And according to Matthew Chapter 3, Verse 2, this was HIS MAIN TOPIC.

“Repent ye: for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

Just a little side note here. I THINK he would have done a whole lot better if he would have preached HEALTH, WEALTH and PROSPERITY. He probably would have gotten enough money to BUY some BETTER CLOTHES and he could have EATEN a little better too. His diet was LOCUSTS and WILD HONEY. YUCK!!! That’s just my thinking anyway.

But no, John preached REPENTANCE because SOMETHING WILD. SOMETHING CRAZY. SOMETHING that was just TOO HARD to believe was fixin’ to happen. The KINGDOM of HEAVEN was at hand.

And so let’s go to the Lord in Prayer and then we’ll get into this message.

Brother ____, would you lead us?

And so, what was the Kingdom of Heaven that John was talking about here. What was he talking about when he said, “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand?”

Well, I think John knew that the Messiah was coming. I don’t know if he knew exactly when. I don’t know if he suspected that it was Jesus. I don’t know if he had been studying the prophecies of the Messiah.

I don’t know these things but I do believe that the Spirit of God had moved upon him and he was simply fulfilling what GOD told him to do.