The Chatterbox - Week 5 Series

Crash the Chatterbox - 5

Matthew 11:1-11

May 25, 2014

The story of John the Baptist is fascinating. We know John and Jesus are related, we don’t know exactly how, but they are related and John is a few months older than Jesus. John was sent to announce the coming of the Messiah, Jesus. We really learn about John in the gospel of Matthew. In chapter 3 we learn about his ministry~

1 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea,

2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:

‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’”

4 Now John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.

5 Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him,

6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

So, that was what John wore, what John ate and what John preached. People were flocking to John as he preached repentance and told the people the Lord was coming. John’s message was both hopeful and frightening. He understood the gravity of sin and the consequences. He also had an expectation of what the coming Messiah was going to do. He told the people ~

7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.

10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

12 His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.” (Matthew 3)

Those were very strong words from John! He’s telling the people what he expects Jesus to do. He’s going to separate the good from the bad. He’s going to judge and His judgement is going to be harsh.

We need to understand the background, if we’re going to understand what John later said. John expected something from Jesus. And we’ll see what that is, as we jump ahead to Matthew 11. We’re in our 5th week of crashing the Chatterbox, and today, we’re just diving right in and looking to an area we need to crash. Then next week, we will finish talking about the chatterbox.

John was performing his ministry, at the end of Matthew 3, even though John didn’t feel worthy, Jesus told him to baptize Him and he did. After His time in the desert, Jesus began to heal the sick, calm storms, turn water into wine, raise the dead, and people were flocking to Jesus. In the meantime, John was now in prison. King Herod put John in prison, and John is hearing about Jesus’ ministry and he sent some of his followers to Jesus. In Matthew 11, we read ~

2 Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples

3 and they said to Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

4 And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see:

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

I want you to think about what John was asking! In chapter 3, John said, he was not worthy to carry Jesus’ sandals, he was unworthy to baptize Jesus, that Jesus was the One who was to come! Yet now we find John asking one of the all time questions – Are you the ONE, or should we look for another? WOE! That’s quite a question. That shows that as much faith as John had, he was wondering what was going on.

Do you see this? The one who boldly announced the ministry of Christ, is now questioning the ministry of Christ. What happened?! Did John no longer believe in the call of Jesus? Was he losing faith? I don’t believe the answer is no to either one. I believe what John was dealing with was something we all struggle with at various points in our lives . . .