Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION

2680 What Secular Books Say

The Encyclopedia Britannica uses 20,000 words to tell about Jesus, and never hints that He did not exist.

This is more words than the Britannica allows for Aristotle, Alexander the Great, Cicero, Julius Caesar, or Napoleon Bonaparte.

H. G. Wells blasphemed Jesus, yet he felt compelled to discuss Jesus on ten pages in his Outline of History and never questioned that a man named Jesus did live.

It is interesting to think that even with all that has been written about about him and all the evidence that has been preserved to point to his existence, many people still persist to doubt the reality of His person.

See Matthew 11:2-6

EXPLANATION

Imprisoned

John the Baptist has been falsely imprisoned.

I say falsely because according to The Lexham Bible Dictionary, “prison” in a biblical sense is a place of incarceration and “imprisonment” is the act of putting someone in prison or in jail as a lawful punishment.

Lawful punishment?

What was his crime?

Preaching!

His message: Truth, His audience: Power (Herod Antipas).

Being imprisoned can cause anxiety, doubt, and depression.

Though the text does not tell us exactly how long John had been incarcerated by Herod Antipas, it does suggest that it was enough time to affect the prophets opinion about Jesus.

He went from “Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29) to “Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?”1

1 New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Mt 11:3.

Doubt

Doubt.

A state of mind characterized by an absence of either assent or dissent to a certain proposition.

It is a suspension of commitment to belief or disbelief, either because the evidence pro and con is evenly balanced (positive doubt) or because evidence is lacking for either side (negative doubt, exemplified by the apostle Thomas).

Doubt is thus an integral part of each person’s belief system, since it is impossible for anyone to believe or disbelieve with complete certainty all propositions of which he or she is aware.

Yet in spite of the natural occurrence of doubt in human cognition, many people view doubt as a negative mindset to be avoided if at all possible.

Doubt is a topic of interest to scholars from three academic disciplines.

Philosophers study doubt because of its epistemological implications in relation to knowledge, truth, and awareness of existence.

Theologians are concerned with doubt because it often occurs as a prelude to belief or as a precursor of disbelief.

Psychologists investigate doubt because of the emotions that often accompany it (anxiety, depression, or fear) and because in certain pathologies doubt can become obsessional and debilitating.

Is this doubt that John the Baptist is exhibiting or is it plea for confirmation of what he already believes?

To put it another way: is his question philosophical, theological, or psychological.

When thinking about being imprisoned, I am reminded that there are people who have and continue to keep themselves prisoners of false guilt and shame.

What Is False Guilt?

False guilt is based on self-condemning feelings that you have not lived up to your own expectations or those of someone else.7

• False guilt arises when you blame yourself, even though you’ve committed no wrong, or when you continue to blame yourself after you’ve confessed and turned from your sin.

• False guilt keeps you in bondage to three destructive weapons … shame, fear and anger.8

• Ironically, confession does not resolve false guilt.

Revelation 12:10 says that Satan is the “accuser of our brothers.”9

He loves to burden believers with false guilt and condemnation.

Some of his favorite strategies are: bringing up the past, reminding you of your failures and making you feel unforgiven and unaccepted by God.

“The accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.”

(Revelation 12:10

APPLICATION

This text soothes our doubts and calms our fears today with the words our Lord spoke to the Baptist.

He says to us as well Here is what we should take away from the text today:

I. Pay attention to what you hear and see

a. the blind receive their sight

b. the lame walk

c. the lepers are cleansed

d. the deaf hear

c. the dead are raised up

d. the gospel is preached to the poor

II.

Stay faithful no matter what may come

11:6 In beatitude form Jesus encourages John, and everyone else with similar doubts, to remain faithful to him no matter what may come.

“Fall away” is from the key Matthean term skandalizō, which in various contexts can be translated take offense, stumble, or cause to sin and is cognate to our English be scandalized (see comments under 5:29–30).5

Understandably, many Christians have been embarrassed by John’s doubts and have tried to minimize them.

But we should recognize that “open and inquiring doubt was taken very seriously” by the early church and that “if faith is not simply assent to a proposition but life with God, then it can live only by increasing and decreasing, in experiences that strengthen or endanger it.”6

CONCLUSION

1496 Faith And Doubt

Doubt sees the obstacles.

Faith sees the way!

Doubt sees the darkest night,

Faith sees the day!

Doubt dreads to take a step.

Faith soars on high!

Doubt questions, “Who believes?”

Faith answers, “I!”

We can answer John’s question definitively today: “ You Don’t have to look any further; No doubt about it!

He is the One! God sent His Son, they called Him Jesus.

He came to love, heal, and forgive.

He lived and died to buy our pardon and an empty grave is there prove that he is the one.

See Psalm 40:7

Psalm 118:26

Isa 35:5-6

Revelation 5:1-6