The message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on Sunday, January 23, 2022. The Bible verses used are Matthew 11:2-19.
Have you ever had a time when
you really wanted something? I don’t mean just kind of casually hoping
for something. I mean really, really wanting something, wanting it so
much that you think about it almost every day. And then, you get the
thing you wanted, and--you have a hard time believing it. You think, is
this really true? Did this really happen? Do I really have this
thing that I wanted so much?
Well, we’ll come back to
that. Let’s look at our Bible reading for tonight. At this point in
Jesus’ life, he’s been in active ministry for probably a couple of years.
That means Jesus is starting to get a reputation. People are hearing
about these miracles he’s performed. They’re hearing about the people
he’s healed. They’re hearing about the things he’s been saying, too.
One of the people who heard about all this was John the
Baptist. This is the part of John the Baptist’s life we don’t talk about
too much. We talk about how John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way
for Jesus. We talk about how John the Baptist baptized Jesus. But
then, we just kind of let John the Baptist fall out of the story and focus on
Jesus instead.
That’s understandable. And of course, John the
Baptist himself said that Jesus was much more important than he was. But
still, after John baptized Jesus, he did not just go away and retire or
something. He was still an important person. He was still preaching
and he was still baptizing. He did not hesitate to speak his mind and he
did not hesitate to declare the need for people to repent of their sins.
And he did not hesitate to say that even the King, King Herod, was a
sinner who needed to repent of his sins.
That did not sit well with King Herod. So, Herod had
John the Baptist arrested and thrown in jail. And that was where John was
at the time of our Bible reading for today.
But as we said, John the Baptist heard about what Jesus was
doing and saying, even in prison. So, John sends some people to Jesus to
ask him one question. They ask Jesus, “Are you the one who was to come,
or should we expect someone else?”
Now, I don’t know about you, but when I read that, I think,
how can John ask that question? I’d have thought that if there was anyone
who knew who Jesus was, it was John the Baptist. I mean, by earthly
reckoning, they were related. Jesus’ earthly mother, Mary, and John’s
mother, Elizabeth, were related to each other. In fact, in the first
chapter of Luke, we read about Mary going to visit Elizabeth while she was
pregnant with Jesus. And Elizabeth instantly knew that Mary was going to
give birth to the Savior. Surely she must have told John about that,
right? So why would John send people to ask Jesus if he was the Savior?
He should’ve known that already.
And then, there’s the story of Jesus’ baptism. We
talked about that earlier in this sermon series. Jesus comes out of the
water, and a voice from heaven says, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I
am well pleased.” And of course, John is right there. You’d think
he’d have to have heard that. So again, why would John send people to ask
Jesus if he was the Savior? He should’ve known that already.
And that gets me back to the question I asked at the start
of this message. John the Baptist wanted the Savior to come. He
wanted it more than anything in his life. He’d spent his entire life
doing everything he could to prepare the way for the Savior to come. He
completely dedicated to getting as many people as possible ready for the coming
of the Savior.
And then the Savior came. And John the Baptist knew
he had come. He heard the voice from heaven saying so. He heard all
the reports of everything he was doing. And yet. And yet. He
still was not quite sure. He had wanted this so much, and yet now that it
had happened, he hesitated. He wanted to trust. He wanted to have
faith. But could he? Could he really trust that this was the
Savior? What if he’d gotten something wrong? What if he put his
trust in Jesus, and it somehow did not work out? John wanted this so
much, and yet, he was afraid to actually believe it had happened. He
could not quite bring himself to believe that the Savior, whom he had waited
for all his life, was actually here.
I think we all have times when that’s where we are.
We want to believe in Jesus Christ. We want to surrender our life
to him. And yet. And yet. We hesitate. We’re just not
quite sure. We want to trust the Lord. We want to have faith.
But can we? Can we really trust that Jesus is the Lord, the Savior?
What if we’ve gotten something wrong? What if we put our trust in
the Lord and it somehow does not work out? We want to believe.
Sometimes we really, really want to believe. And yet, we’re afraid
to actually believe. We cannot quite bring ourselves to believe that
Jesus Christ really is the Savior. We cannot quite trust him.
Jesus does not get mad at John for sending these people to
ask the question they asked. He does not criticize John the Baptist for
his lack of trust. He just tells them, look, go tell John what you’ve
seen and heard. Tell him everything there is to tell about me. Tell
him about all the people I’ve healed. Tell him about the things I’ve
said. Tell him what he’s heard is true. He’ll know what it means.
Just tell him.
What Jesus was telling John’s people to do, in effect, is
to remind John of what he already knew. And a lot of times, that’s what
we need to do--be reminded of what we already know. We know all the
things the Bible says about the Savior. We know the things it says he
said and did. We also know all the times when we’ve felt the Lord working
in our lives. We know all the times we were in a tough spot and the Lord
helped us out. We know all the times when it looked like things were
going against us and we did not know what to do and somehow it all still worked
out all right. We know all the times God has been there for us. We
know all the times God’s Holy Spirit has worked in and through us. We
know that we can trust the Lord. We just need to be reminded of it. Or,
sometimes, we may need someone else to remind us of it.
And sometimes, we need to be the ones who remind others.
Because we know there are a lot of people out there who are struggling
with their faith. If you and I, who are in church, struggle with truly
believing in Jesus Christ; if you and I, who are in church, struggle trusting
God enough to truly turn every aspect of our lives over to God; then how much
more are people going to struggle who are not going to church anywhere?
This is not said in a judgmental way. It’s not for me
to judge anyone’s faith. That kind of judgment is God’s job, not my job.
But there are lots of people out there who struggle with this.
There are a lot of people, right here in this community, who would say
they believe in God, who would say they believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior,
but who struggle with really trusting God enough to really surrender our lives
to him.
They’re afraid. They’re
scared. They don’t know what will happen if they really surrender their lives
to God. Often, they want to believe it would be something wonderful,
but--what if it’s not? And so, again, they hesitate.
They know they need God in
their lives. But they need to be reminded, just like we need to be
reminded. They need to be reminded of who Jesus is. They need to be
reminded of how much they need him. And if we don’t remind them, who
will? And I don’t mean we as United Methodists. I mean we as
Christians. If we, as Christians, don’t remind people of how much they
need God who will? If we, as Christians, don’t remind people of all the
things God has done, who will? If we, as Christians, don’t help people
get over their fear and get over their hesitation, who will? If we, as
Christians, don’t tell people everything there is to tell about Jesus Christ
and remind them of who Jesus is, who will?
That thing that we’ve always
wanted, that thing that we’ve been waiting for all our lives--it’s here!
It’s actually here! So let’s stop hesitating. Let’s stop
being scared. Let’s truly turn our lives over to the Lord, knowing that
God really can be trusted with our lives. And let’s help others turn
their lives over to the Lord, too. Let’s help them know that God really
can be trusted with their lives. Our salvation is here. Now.
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