Are You the Expected One?

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
‘Make ready the way of the Lord,
Make His paths straight!’”...  ¹¹ “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹² His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

He baptized Jesus and witnessed the Holy Spirit coming upon Him. He heard the voice of God the Father speak of Jesus.

¹³ Then Jesus *arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him. ¹⁴ But John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?” ¹⁵ But Jesus answering said to him, “Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he *permitted Him. ¹⁶ After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, ¹⁷ and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”

John had walked in his high calling. He had seen, witnessed and proclaimed that Jesus is the Christ. In the Gospel of John 3, we read these words from John the baptist:

²⁷ John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven. ²⁸ You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him.’ ²⁹ He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full. ³⁰ He must increase, but I must decrease.

³¹ “He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.

Here though, in today's text, we read that This same John sends his disciples to ask Jesus if He truly is the Messiah. We don't know all that John was going through at the time. He was imprisoned and probably knew his days were coming to an end. So we can't be certain if his faith had really faltered to the point of doubt and uncertainty about all that he believed or if he just wanted to hear some reassurance that his life was not spent in vain. Either way or whatever the reason, I think we can all learn from John's response to what he was feeling. John went right to the source. He asked Jesus for a revelation of Jesus. Sometimes we can feel as though we are isolated, imprisoned in the depths of despair, unable to see past those prison walls of hopelessness and doubt. It is then that we should go to the source and ask Jesus to reveal Himself to us again. We should go to the Word of God and read the testimony of all that Jesus has done. When the question was asked of Jesus, are you the one or should we expect another? Jesus pointed to the miracles that were taking place,  the blind receive 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., as the evidence of who He is. When our faith falters we need to look to Jesus, to draw even closer to Him. It is okay for us to be at the place where like the father in this account in Mark 9 we answer honestly about our faith.

 ²⁰ They brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion, and falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. ²¹ And He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. ²² It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” ²³ And Jesus said to him, “‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.” ²⁴ Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief.” ²⁵ When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You deaf and mute spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again.” ²⁶ After crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out; and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said, “He is dead!” ²⁷ But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him; and he got up.

I do believe; help my unbelief. Is that the place where you find yourself? Are you needing that reassurance of who Jesus is? Go to the source. Ask Jesus, seek Him. Jesus says in Matthew 7:

⁷ “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

2 Timothy 2:13 says: If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.

Take courage my dear friends even if you find yourself in a place where you need assurance of your faith. This is the testimony that Jesus spoke of John in Matthew 11:11

 Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist!...

He finishes that verse with His testimony of you. 

Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.