Luke's Gospel

Good evening. Thank you. Let me add my welcome. My name is Ben. I'm a member here at Cornerstone Church.

And yeah, it's good to see you. Thank you. For coming out tonight. I'm just gonna pray, again, before we dip into this a bit more. Heavenly father, we thank you that you are a speaking god and that you you have something to say to us.

So I pray by your spirit that you would help me now, and you would help us all, to listen in Jesus' name, amen. So I'm I'm sure everybody here has heard of a midlife crisis and generally knows what that's all about. I'm approaching 30 I'm turning 30 next year. So I've done my quarter life crisis. If you know what that is, if you've heard about that, don't know if you knew that existed.

I don't think I don't think it actually does exist, but that's what people sort of my age are saying, oh, I just had my cool life crisis. I think it's I think it's when you finish Uni and you look at your bank account and you see how much debt you're in for the rest of your life. And then you're I just get really depressed. Or, like, what happened to me in the last few years, the the tip the football team you support starts fielding players that were born when I was in year 6. And that there's always a little part of you that thinks, oh, I could still play for them that the football team that I support.

And then these guys who are like, 10 years old start running around. And now they're earning more a week than I do every year, so that's doubly depressing. So that was my quarter life crisis. I'm over that now. That's behind me.

But I can't I can't speak about a midlife crisis, but from what I know, and, from what I understand and what I guess, It's it's that life seems so promising when you're younger. You've kind of you've kind of got this unmapped journey ahead of you, and you could go and do anything accomplish anything, you've got hopes and dreams, you've got visions about what you wanna do, what kind of person you wanna be, what kind of lifestyle you wanna have, and it's all really bright and exciting. But then at some point in your life, you have like an internal review like a personal ofsted report. And it's like your younger self walks in the room with a clipboard to interview you. And they're like, so, Ben, these these great ideas and, and things that we were gonna do, how are we getting on with them?

And you're like, got a mortgage, and went out for Peter Express last night, so pretty good. Then your younger self just stares back in horror at you like, what did I do to you? So midlife crisis kicks in. And it basically comes down to expectations versus reality. What you were expecting and what you had in mind don't really match up with with what's in front of you.

And a similar thing I think can happen to us in our faith. We can get a kind of mid faith crisis or a quarter faith crisis, or put more simply, we can just get these kind of little doubts and niggles. Maybe the freshness and excitement that we had when we first believed has kind of merged into sort of a routine. And the closeness to god in kind of the awareness of his immediacy and lordship over all of our life, and the certainty which we which we held on to the truth of the gospel, it's kind of waned slightly. Maybe the zeal we once had to passionately take the gospel to our friends and our family has been tamed a bit by a string of rejections and and disappointments.

Perhaps the the love and affection that you once had for the church has has, kind of been worn away by people letting you down or or hurting you time and time again. I mean, do you remember at that time when serving was a joy? Maybe you're suffering with an illness, Maybe you've lost people that you love. Maybe you're just exhausted by a difficult relationship. Whatever it is, your expectation of a life of faith doesn't really match up with the life that you've got in front of you.

Perhaps you simply just find yourself standing in church as we sing these songs, just sort of looking around and asking, is is this it? Is there anything more to this, or is this as good as it gets? Maybe doubts start to emerge, you're not sure about things anymore. So you might start asking questions like what is god doing? You know, how long is this gonna last?

Why is it turned out this way? When will god answer my prayers about this thing? And where is he in all of this? So if any of those things are you, then then tonight, I want you to see that you're in good company, as we've seen with John. And there are 3 important things that I want you to, leave this building reminded of.

The first thing is this, that doubt is a normal part of the Christian life. It's not an unusual or surprising thing to happen. It's a normal part of the Christian life. Secondly, it's therefore not whether you doubt as a but how you deal with the doubt and address the doubt that actually counts, how you deal with it that counts. And thirdly, we're gonna see Jesus' response to doubt.

What does god have to say about our doubts? How does he respond when we doubt? And we'll see tonight it's actually very practical, which is really good. So let's leave reminded of those 3 things. So let's take a look.

Starting verse 18, John's disciples told him about all these things. So we're back with John the Baptist here. We had his birth foretold in chapter 1, by the angel Gabriel who said that he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he's born. And then his father prophet side about him said he will be called a prophet of the most high for he will go on before the lord to prepare the way for him. And then in chapter 3, we see this prophecy being played out he goes around preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins before Jesus begins his ministry.

And then he actually baptizes Jesus in this, quite dramatic encounter. And then he recognizes that his he's he's kind of done his job. He says he must become greater. Now I must become less. But John eventually gets in trouble with herod, for rebuking him.

So he gets chucked into jail. He gets locked up in prison. And it's there in his prison cell that we pick him up again tonight. So that's where he is in this chapter. And because he's been in prison, He's been unable to follow what Jesus has been doing.

He's not been able to go around seeing and hearing these things. So his disciples, John's disciples, who have heard and seen these things Jesus has been doing, they've come back to him in his cell, and they're reporting all this stuff to him. So verse 18, John's disciples told him about all these things. And what are these these things? These these things that the disciples report back are the catalyst for the events that happen in the rest of this passage.

So I'll just remind us of some of these things that Jesus has done already, the things that John hears from his disciples. So Jesus has literally just raised a man from the dead, which is amazing. He's healed many people, including those with leprosy, He's taught love for your enemies in the upside down kingdom, where, happy, are the poor and hungry and woe to you if you're rich and satisfied. He's driven out demons. He survived a mob in his hometown who wanted to kill him.

He took him to the top of a cliff, and he just walked straight through the middle of he's eaten with sinners and tax collectors, and he's been tempted by the devil himself and prevailed. So with all those things in mind, John in prison, hearing about all the things Jesus has done, let's look back at verse 18. John's disciples told him about all these things. Call in 2 of them, he sent them to the lord to ask, are you the 1 who is to come, or should we expect someone else? Now when he says the 1 who is to come, that's just another way of saying the Messiah.

It's it's probably taken from Psalms like a hundred and 18 that say blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord So he's the 1 sent by god to come into the world and save god's people. So really, what John's asking here is quite simple. He's asking, Jesus, are you the messiah? That's what he's asking. And that's just what his disciples do.

He asked them to to go, and that's what they do. Verse 20. When the men came to Jesus, they said, John the Baptist sent us to ask you. Are you the 1 who is to come, or should we expect someone else? Now on the face of it, this question seems crazy, isn't it?

It's inconceivable to us when we hear it. Because how could you possibly hear a report about someone doing those things that Jesus has been doing? And then think there is anyone else who could be the messiah. Especially after everything that's happened in their lives with the baptism and the and the angel Gabriel, because if the disciples had come back to John and reported something along these lines. So John, since you've been in prison, Jesus has preached a few sermons, They were they were all right.

Nothing special. He's helped an old lady cross the road, and, he's gone on sabbatical for 6 months. Then you could, you know, you you could imagine John could be like, oh, maybe something's maybe something's up here. Perhaps Jesus isn't the Messiah. But with the report like the 1 that that he that he got, people are being raised from the dead.

People have been healed from sickness. Why Why is it that you would ask that question? Why would you doubt? So what's going on here? Well, John is having a kind of mid faith crisis He's doubting because his expectations are not matching up to what he can see in front of him.

He's clearly had a very different picture in his head about how things should look right now. So he's unsure whether Jesus is the 1 who is to come. Notice though his doubt is limited. It's not it's not a complete doubt. He he he doesn't doubt that god will send the Messiah.

He's certain about that. He's just asking whether it's Jesus. And so doubt can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. It's not always a kind of blanket uncertainty about everything. But he is doubting whether Jesus is the Messiah, and there are 2 reasons for his doubt that I wanna address, tonight.

2 reasons. First of all, his understanding of scripture and prophecies And secondly, his suffering in prison. So his understanding of scripture and prophecies and his suffering in prison. So his understanding of scripture, first of all, the scriptures are where John would have got his understanding about the Messiah and his expectations about what the Messiah would be doing. Which don't, for whatever reason, correlate to this report that he's heard about Jesus.

So if we go back to Luke chapter 3, we can see that John had a very clear idea about the Messiah who he was and what he'd be doing. So if you turn back a few pages to Luke chapter 3, and look at verse 15, we'll just look at that quickly. So luke chapter 3 verse 15. The people were waiting expectantly, and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. So here it's the people who are asking who the Messiah is.

They're not sure who the Messiah is, but see how confidently John answers this in this question in verse 16. Verse 16, John answered them all. I baptize you with water, but 1 who is more powerful than I will come. The straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

So John was expecting somebody powerful, somebody who would baptize with the Holy Spirit himself and with fire. He's got this apocalyptic picture of Jesus standing with his winnowing fork in his hand, ready to separate god's people. From those who are gonna be burnt up. It's a picture of Jesus coming in judgment is what John has in his brain, and he's got his he's got his judgment tool in his hand, and he's he's ready to to begin his work immediately. And shortly after that in verse 22, there's this dramatic baptism of Jesus where the Holy Spirit descends on him like a dove, and a voice from heaven says, you are my son, whom I love with you, I am well pleased.

And all of this must have been incredibly exciting for John because it's kind of, you know, the messiah's been announced by god himself, and now the lamb of god's gonna begin his work taking away the sin of the world. Now we've got the benefit of knowing how this story ends. So we know that John was absolutely correct in his assessment of the Messiah. He is the lamb of god, who came to take away this into the world, and we have the book of Revelation where we see him coming back in judgment. I think the problem for John is that he was expecting those things to happen straight away.

Happen immediately. So when he was listening to this report from the disciples, Jesus has been driving out demons. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That sounds good.

That sounds great. He's raising the dead. Oh, yeah. Brilliant. That sounds that sounds really cool.

Eating with tax collectors. Hey? Eating with tax collectors. Hang on a minute. I thought Jesus came to came to judge people, not have dinner with them.

He's got the knife and fork out, but when does the winnowing fork come out? Clearly, the fact he hears this report, he hears this report from the disciples, and then he expresses his doubt. It shows clearly, doesn't it? That his expectations are out of whack with what Jesus has actually been doing. So he doubts.

That's the first reason, his understanding of of scripture. Second reason, he's suffering in prison. So he's suffering in prison. Remember, remember what John was like before this? He was a wild man.

He lived in the wilderness. He wore camel skinned, crazy guy. He ate wild honey and locusts. He was this kind of free man who could go around and and do what he wanted and go where he wanted. But now he's in a tiny cold bear prison cell on a basic diet.

He's gone from wild honey to probably stale bread. It must it must have been physically and mentally very difficult. I think we forget sometimes that these people in the bible were real people who who had kind of the real weaknesses and and, things that we do. And why is he in prison? What what wrong is this man committed?

What has he done to deserve this? Well, he's been faithful to god and to the truth. He's not changed his message of repentance for anybody. In Luke chapter 3, he has a go, he has a go at at the teachers of the lord. He says, you brooder vipers Yeah.

He doesn't change that message for anyone. So the same message he takes to the, to to herod. He doesn't like what he hears. And he's got the power to do something about it when he doesn't like what he hears. So he throws John in prison.

And I think this must have raised questions for John because he he is the prophet that pairs the way for the lord. What on earth is he doing locked up in prison? Surely, he should still be out there preaching and baptizing people. Especially when Jesus is doing the same. And he and he's locked up for being faithful to god and and preaching, preaching against sin.

Like, too often we think, if we obey god, we'll have a blessed life. And if we suffer, it's because we've done something wrong. But here is John, and he's faithful to god, and he finds himself imprisoned because of it. But what about Jesus? He's he sat there asking?

What about Jesus? Wasn't the Messiah meant to come and break the chains of his people? What is John still doing in prison all this time? In Jesus activity report, that John gets from his disciples. There's nothing about releasing captives from jail.

There's not even a hint that Jesus is gonna soon come and visit him on try and release him. Jesus must have known that John was in prison. So did he not care? Did he not have the power to save him? Perhaps Jesus is not the Messiah after all.

In John's gospel, following the baptism of Jesus in that account, John the Baptist says this. I have seen and I testify that this is god's chosen 1. Fast forward to where we are now in this cold prison cell, and he says, should we expect someone else? Suffering as a powerful ability to cause us to doubt. We see it with Peter as well when he walked on the water.

When he began to doubt and he took his eyes off Jesus, he began sinking. When his focus was on the lord, and he didn't see the wind and the waves around him, He was fine. He was confident in the truth. And then he he took his focus off Christ and looked at the the dangers around him and slowly began to sync with doubts. As it is with Peter and John, when our eyes are diverted from Christ, and we, and we focus instead on the suffering in our lives, because we all have suffering in our lives.

We can quickly lose confidence in what we were so sure about earlier. So 3 lessons from John. Before we look at the law's response, this, I wanted just to pick out 3 quick lessons for us, that we can learn from John's doubt. And the first 1 is this, which I've already said, It shows that doubt can happen to literally the best of us. If you, if you're back in, if you flick back to chapter 7, and look at verse 28, You'll see what Jesus has to say about John the Baptist.

Chapter 7 verse 28, he says, I tell you, among those born of women, there is no 1 greater than John. Yeah? So this is this is the greatest man born of a woman ever. And here he is, with questions and doubts. So that's the first thing we can learn.

If you find yourself doubting, it's not because you're weaker than any other Christian. It means actually that you are a normal Christian. Secondly, doubt can attack the things of which we were once incredibly sure. That doesn't just kind of creep in and attack the things that are a bit murky anyway. Things that are a bit grey that you were sort of unsure of anyway.

You can really go for the jugular. Remember how John went from knowing with certainty, he said, I testify. This is the son of god, and then he went to, are you the messiah? And thirdly, to his credit here, to John's credit, he takes his doubts to the lord. He could have easily sat in his cell and wondered these things and kinda speculated them round and round in his head, or even with his disciples kind of had like a question time with them saying, what do you think?

Do you think Jesus is the Messiah? But he doesn't? He goes straight to Jesus. So take this lesson from him. Doubt that is kept from Jesus will will lead to more doubt.

But doubt that is taken to Jesus leads to faith. So go to him and say, I do believe help me overcome my unbelief. So those are 3 quick lessons from John. Doubt happens to all of us. It can attack the things that we're sure about, and we must take our doubt to the lord.

So the lord's response, how would you imagine that Jesus would respond to this? You know, this is this is the 1 chosen by god publicly appear and prepare the way for him. He's the greatest prophet because he's heralding Jesus himself. And here he is doubting. How do you think Jesus would respond?

Would he be indignant? Would he be shocked after everything that, John's been through in his ministry and even everything related to his birth, would he be angry that he would so easily doubt? Maybe heartbroken That such a question would ever be asked of him. Maybe he would turn his disciples away in disgust, or maybe he'd bring the winnowing fork out for John. And rebuke him as he did Peter on the lake.

But he doesn't. There's none of those things. How does how does he actually respond? Well, he doesn't seem to be surprised or angry, and a rebuke doesn't seem to be the appropriate response for John at the moment either. How does he respond?

You can clearly see the love that Jesus has for John. In his response. He's graceful, he's compassionate, and he actually dignifies this question with a response. And this is an important lesson that that we need to know. Jesus will dignify questions with a response when they're genuine.

Jesus welcomes questions when they are genuine. When the Pharaces asked Jesus a question, he knew they were trying to trap him. So he asked them questions back and exposed them for what they were. But here, he takes this question and John's doubts seriously. And he gives an answer.

Frenaline doesn't know. I grew up in a town called Petersfield in Hampshire, which is 50 minutes down the A3 towards Portsmouth, beautiful neck of the woods. And it's quite near the English Lebris. And if you don't know what Lebree is, Lebree was, started by a guy called Francis Schaeffer in the sixties, and Lebree is Swiss French for the shelter. Means the shelter.

And that's basically what it is. It's kind of, a shelter, a safe place for Christians or people who've got questions about Christianity or have doubts, or, or kind of working through things. And its slogan is this, honest, answers to honest questions, honest answers to honest questions. And that's brilliant because that mirrors exactly the attitude of Jesus. Those who have honest questions are gladly received by Jesus, and they receive honest answers in response.

So in verse 21, Jesus addresses this question. So look down 21. At that very time, Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses, and evil spirits. And gave sight to many who were blind. I know it looks like he's ignored the question and he's just turned his back to them and started doing random miracles in front of them.

We see actually he's he's starting to answer their question. So in verse 22, so he replied to the messengers Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy or cleanse, the deaf hear the dead erased, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. What an answer? He could have just had the question.

Are you the 1 who is Karmen said. Yes. Yes. I am. Now off you go, go back and tell John, but he doesn't.

He performs these miracles instead, which which answer the question while actually dealing with both of the reasons that caused John's doubt in the first place. It wouldn't have been enough for Jesus just to say yes, yes, I am, because the root cause of the doubt needed to be dealt and this is the wisdom of god. God knows exactly what we need. And here Jesus knows exactly what John needed to hear in order to answer this question. So first of all, his response aren't addresses his suffering in prison.

That was 1 of the the reasons that caused his, doubt. And Jesus, response addresses this. So the questions that arose in John's mind, does does Jesus not have the power to save me? Does he not know that I am suffering in prison? The answer comes back to John with a resounding, yes, I do know that you're in prison.

I'm sending your disciples back to you. Of course, I know that you're there. But also, yes, I do have authority and power over this world. I'm raising people from the dead. There is nothing, not even death that I am not sovereign over.

Therefore, John, do not lose heart. God has not abandoned you. The dark situation that you are in at the moment in your life is not a result of an impotent or ignorant god. It is all within the lord's sovereign and loving grasp, so hold on. That's how Jesus addresses his suffering.

Secondly, the miracles that he just performed echo prophecies made about the Messiah, in the Old Testament. And he's trying to, realign John's expectations by by pointing him to scripture. So in Isaiah, 35, I've got it up on the, on the screen. It says this about god coming to save his people. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped, then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy.

And in Isaiah 61, it says, the spirit of the sovereign lord is on me because the lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. And here is Jesus in this passage saying the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, and good news is proclaimed to the poor. So these Isaiah passages would be ringing in the years of John as his disciples report these things back to him. And he would clearly hear Jesus saying, I am the 1 talked about in Isaiah. I am the Messiah.

Do not expect anyone else. I think as John hears this confirmation from Jesus, in this answer, and the tears well up in his eyes as it dawns on him that he's he's doubted his precious savior, then Jesus comforts him and reassures him through the very same passage he's just used to testify about himself. So as John is remembering these words from Isaiah 35, who will also remember these verses come just before, strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way. Say to those with fearful hearts be strong. Do not fear.

Your god will come. He will come with vengeance with divine retribution. He will come to save you. And that is just the sweetest message that John could have heard from Jesus. In his prison cell, his hands were feeble, His knees gave way.

He feared in his heart that Jesus was not the Messiah, but Jesus causes him to remember these words be strong, do not fear, Even though you've doubted, even though you have stumbled, your god will come to save you still. I mean, what joy must have filled John's heart in that moment in his cell? So much going on. Because really, this is the gospel. This is the gospel.

The moment we see how far we've fallen, when we come to our senses and we see our feeble hands and our weak knees and we see our fearful hearts. And then we see the cross. And then we see Jesus dying for us in. We see the great love that God has for us and the great grace he has for us. And we see him saying do not fear, your God will save you.

So as always, this report that Jesus sent back was for John, It happened in space time, real people, real message, answering a real question. But it's also for us today that we would see how Jesus deals with us and our doubts. So my question to you is have your hands been feeble? Have your knees been weak? Has your heart feared?

Jesus wants us to remember these verses as well. He is the Messiah, so be strong and do not fear, but your god will come and save you. So what's the application here? What can we take away from, from all of this, that we've seen? The thing the thing that has really stood out to me as I've been preparing this and thinking about it.

The thing that's really stood out to me is that Jesus does not add anything else to his testimony. That was not already there before. Because I think when we doubt or we struggle or we come to a mid faith crisis or whatever it is, We have a really strong instinct to look further, look beyond what's already there. Look for something else. We think, oh, there must be something else that I haven't discovered.

There's gotta be, some kind of new teaching, new interpretation, there's gotta be some hidden meaning that I didn't know before. Think especially when our culture moves and Christianity doesn't move with it, we can be tempted to doubt and, think, oh, there's gotta be another explanation. Truly god didn't mean that when he said that. The same thing happened to John. He asked, should we expect somebody else, something extra.

There must be something more he thought than what's already here. But here's the thing. This is the this is the the key thing. At the beginning of this passage in verse 18, the disciples came to John and gave him a report of all the things Jesus had been doing. And the report included things like this, the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, and good news is proclaimed to the poor.

And these are the things that cause him to doubt. But the report Jesus sends the disciples back with is this, the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. It's the exact same. Jesus is not adding anything new to his testimony. There's nothing new here that John didn't know already.

This is not a Scientology where you have different levels that you progress through as you get through. Like, oh, John has reached level 5 now of Christianity. I must give him the new revelation that he must believe. It's not like that. Everything you need to know is already in front of you.

So in other words, Jesus is saying to John, look again. Look again. Look afresh. Everything you need to know is already there. We just sometimes need to see it again.

So here's the application. Are you struggling with something? Are you doubting? Are you having a mid faith crisis? Then look again.

Look afresh. Don't give up on what we already have. Don't abandon this for new teachings or ideas or theories, stick with what's already here in the gospel. Look again at Christ, who he is, what he's like. Look again at the cross.

Look at what that means. God's love for you in sending his only son for you. So bring your doubts to Jesus as John did and see again. That's the application. Don't look for something new.

Please don't look. You won't find anything. Just look again at this. And so to finish with, there's a warning here as well about hiding behind doubt as an excuse not to believe. In Christianity, there are honest answers to honest questions, but there are many people who hide behind dishonest questions.

And what I mean by that is that there are people who have got legitimate objections and legitimate questions, but they've got no intention whatsoever of finding out the answers to them. Instead, they find them very convenient that they have this question, and instead they're going to use it as a wall to keep god out. It's kind of like a garden, like a very high garden fence so that they can keep their life nice and prim, and tidy, and separate. And if a wall gets damaged, if a if a panel comes out, then you just pick out another convenient question you have and stick it up to patch that to patch that wall without wanting to find out the answer. And we see that shown here in verses 31 and 34.

Have a look at verses 31. Jesus went on to say to what then can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? They are like children. Sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other.

We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance. We sang a dirge, and you did not cry. So in other words, people can put up intellectual arguments, but they're just like children. They're just playing in the marketplace. They're pretending to be questioners like, I've got these questions, but they're just playing.

They have no intention of finding out the answers because you give them 1 thing and they don't want it. So you give them the other, and they don't want that either. They're just finding excuses, and you see that here with the music. So we played the pipe for you and you did not dance. So we played happy music for you, and you didn't want that.

You came up with an argument as to why happy music's really bad for you shouldn't be played. So we played a sad song for you. But guess what? You didn't want that either. You're never pleased.

You you don't want 1 thing, but you don't really want the other thing either. It's just a facade, all of it. You don't really need any of it. And then we get an example of this from Jesus in verse 33. He really rubs it in.

For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say he has a demon. So these people won't listen to John because he doesn't eat bread. That's a bit weird though, to be honest, isn't it? Not eating bread. He doesn't drink wine.

So they think, oh, he's not normal. He must be a demon. He's gotta have a demon in him. That's it. He's possessed.

Yeah. Possess. It doesn't drink wine. We only listen to normal people who eat bread and drink wine. So do you see that?

It's kind of like a an argument they conveniently put up as a wall so they don't have to listen to him. He's mad. But then in verse 34, the son of man came eating and drinking, and you say here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. So they're never pleased. They won't listen to John because he doesn't eat eat bread or drink wine, but here is Jesus eating bread, drinking wine, and they still won't listen to him.

They call him a glutton and a drunkard. So do you see the difference between John's doubt and then this kind of question? You see the difference between an honest question and a dishonest question. 1 is asked with a magnifying glass and the other 1 is just put up as a wall. So what about you?

Which kind of questions are you asking? Are you asking with a magnifying glass? Are you are you treating doubt and questions seriously? Because you know what? There is no single greater question or more important question in the world than this 1 that John asked.

There is not a more important answer than this. Is Jesus the Messiah. The answer to that question changes absolutely everything. So if you have that question, as John did, wanting to know the answer, if you if you have that question in your mind, you don't know the answer, then then take it to the lord. And look again, look afresh.

And if you're building walls, if you're living in the shade behind these convenient unanswered questions, then please, will you take this question seriously? It is the most important question you will ever ask. Is is a matter of life and death. And if you ask this question trembling, then then good. You should, really, it's a question we should tremble that, but we should also see the cross, and we should see, that however feeble our hands have been or however fearful our heart has been, the cross is there in history.

It's not gonna move. So we should just look back and see it. See the cross, see how god can save us. So the 3 things I wanted us to leave the building reminded of for this: First of all, that doubt is a normal part of the Christian life. If you doubt, that's good.

You're normal. It's fine. Secondly, take your doubts to Jesus and and treat them seriously. And thirdly, Jesus willingly and lovingly gives honest answers to honest questions and he says this, look again. Look again at the cross.

Look again at at what I say and what I do. The last song we're gonna sing tonight in a minute is come behold the wondrous mystery. And it is, is basically an invitation to come and behold, come and look at the wondrous mystery that is Jesus. So we immediately have an opportunity to do this again. Is really cool.

We have another opportunity, to look at the lord in what he's done. So do that as we sing. Sometimes we sing songs, we know that we know the tune, so we kind of go into autopilot. But please look again at the lyrics as we sing. Look again, at, who Christ is and what he's done.

I could get at the wondrous mystery that is Christ. So let me pray. Our heavenly father, we thank you for the lord Jesus Christ who accepted this question from John and answered it in a way that satisfied his doubts. Thank you for the kindness that you show to us when we doubt. Please help us not to hide behind our doubts, but to bring them to you as John did.

And help us to look again at the lord Jesus Christ and see him afresh. That we would be confident that he is the Messiah in Jesus' name, amen.