Daily Devotional For Sunday, October 26, 2025
Good morning Southside and it is the day we all get out of bed, get dressed and go worship and praise the Lord. As you know we are making our way through Matthew’s Gospel. Today, we start chapter 11. Look at Matthew 11:1-6:
“Then Jesus had finished giving these instructions to His twelve disciples, He went out to teach and preach in towns throughout the region. (2) John the Baptist, who was in prison, heard about all the things the Messiah was doing. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, (3) ‘Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?’ (4) Jesus told them, ‘Go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen— (5) the blind see, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.’ (6) And He added, ‘God blesses those who do not fall away because of Me’” (NLT).
We see in verse 1 that Jesus went out to towns in Galilee to teach and preach. “Teach” – meaning to instruct with biblical guidance and “preach” – to challenge to receive the Gospel and Him as the Messiah. This may come as a shock to you that the forerunner for the Messiah, John the Baptizer, had some doubts about his cousin, Jesus, being the Messiah. We know from Matthew 4:12, that King Herod had put John in prison. King Herod was an evil man full of debauchery and sin. He had married his own sister-in-law and John had condemned that. Later, Herod would have John the Baptizer killed Matthew 14:1-12.
From Matthew 4 to Matthew 14, John has been in prison. It seems this horrible incarceration was causing him to have doubts. We know from other passages that John’s disciples remained loyal to him. John kept getting word of Jesus’ teaching, miracles, exorcisms and raising the dead. All of these proved that Jesus was the Messiah. This does give us a glimpse into the human side of John.
Afterall, it was John who had baptized Jesus in the Jordan River and had heard the voice of God the Father proclaim who Jesus was (Matthew 3:13-17). We are not told why John had doubts. Maybe it was the long imprisonment. Maybe he was frustrated that Jesus did not preach with more fire and brimstone. John had preached that when the Messiah came, He would preach and baptize with fire separating the “wheat from the chaff” (Matthew 3:11-12). Compared to John the Baptizer’s preaching, Jesus’ preaching was mild, compassionate, and loving. Pastor and author John MacArthur sheds some light on John’s disillusionment and disappointment with Jesus:
“Humanly speaking the career of John the Baptist had ended in disaster. He had been the fiery, independent, dramatic, confrontational, courageous man who preached exactly what needed to be preached, to whom it needed to be preached, and when it needed to be preached. He was fearless, aggressive, and faithful to the Lord in every way. He called sin sin and sinners sinners. And now he was in prison because of his faithfulness” (Source: John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Bible Commentary, “Matthew,” p. 24).
John’s question is not isolated to him alone. It is the question every person must ask and answer: Who is Jesus to you? It is not a sin to ask questions. God understands our doubts. If you have a question, ask God or ask your pastor. To live fully, we have to discover. No one lives without asking questions. Good questions imply good listening.
Jesus’ response to John the Baptizer’s question was to list what only the promised Messiah, whom John had preached, could do. Jesus quotes from Scripture that foretold what the Messiah would do (see Isaiah 35:5-6. The fact that the poor have good news preached to them reflects another Messianic promise in Isaiah 61:1. The poor and the afflicted are those who respond to the Gospel and they take no offense of Jesus and His message. They willingly accept Jesus as the promised Messiah. Pastor and author Chuck Swindoll writes this:
“There’s an all-too-familiar syndrome that poisons our expectations, leading to disappointment and doubt. It goes like this: We set our hearts on something we long for and think will occur. Perhaps we trust somebody to do something, to be something, or to say something. As we turn it over in our minds, we mentally see it playing out just as we hope. Our anticipation grows into confident expectation. In fact, we become so sure that it’s going to happen, nothing can dissuade us. It’s only a matter of time before the imagined scenario comes to pass.
But that’s a vulnerable place to be. Instead of mentally tapping the brakes and recalculating our perception, we allow our emotions free rein, which fuels further expectations. Finally, imagination gives way to reality. And things almost never turn out the way we expect once we have built them up in our minds. Those high expectations often crash and burn, leaving us under a cloud of disappointment. And if that cloud of disappointment hangs over us long enough, disillusionment sets in, which swings open the door to doubt. We’ve all been there, haven’t we?” (Source: Charles R. Swindoll, Swindoll’s Living Insights New Testament Bible Commentary, “Matthew 1-15,” Vol. 1A, pp. 209-210).
Have you ever been there or experienced this? As Jesus and His disciples were out teaching and preaching in Galilee, John sat in prison. Even though Jesus’ kingdom was being accepted, it was also being rejected with some of the earliest believers. We understand how the elite religious leaders rejected Jesus, but John the Baptizer? This is a hard pill to swallow. Doubts do not just come out of thin air; there is always a reason and a cause. When John’s own expectations of his cousin, Jesus the Messiah, were not met, he was filled with disillusionment and disappointment.
In verse 6, it uses the words “fall away.” This is the Greek New Testament word [σκανδαλίζω, skandalizo]. It is where we get our English word “scandal.” This word originally meant trapping or catching an animal. It was used metaphorically to refer to entrapment or a stumbling block to truth that became an offense.
Assignment: When has someone not lived up to your own expectations? How did you deal with that? When has God not met your expectations? How did you deal with that? Disillusionment and disappointment are two common enemies to us. We let our imagination take over, which then affects our feelings and emotions, and soon we are let down. Do you know anyone who has walked away from Christ due to disillusionment and disappointment in Him? Why did they do that and if given the opportunity, what would you say to them on the scale that Jesus said to John the Baptizer’s disciples about Himself to convince John?
Scripture To Meditate On: 1 Corinthians 2:14, “A person who does not have the Spirit does not accept the truths that come from the Spirit of God. That person thinks they are foolish and cannot understand them, because they can only be judged to be true by the Spirit” (NCV).
Prayer To Pray: “Lord, thank You that You can handle my doubts. I do not want to waver or doubt. I want to believe You and trust You. Please help me with times of disillusionment and disappointment. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! –Pastor Kelly