Art Thou He that should come?
John’s inquiry
I. The inquiry made by the baptist. It was suggested by the incredulous state of his disciples.
(1) Because if Jesus was Messiah He had not exerted His power for the deliverance of John from prison;
(2) Because they observed that our Saviour had as yet made no public claim to the title; and
(3) Because the manner of our Saviour’s life and conversation had less appearance of sanctity than the life of their master.
II. The reply made by the saviour.
1. AS to the manner of it. It is not direct and positive, but enables them to answer their question themselves.
2. As to the matter of it. Three things deserve to be weighed by us.
(a) The remarkable gradation and rise there is in the particulars there mentioned;
(b) The appositeness of it in relation to the inquirers;
(c) The general force and evidence of the argument contained in it. (Francis Atterbury.)
Marks of convincing miracles
I. They must be above the known powers of all natural causes.
II. They must he done publicly and in the face of the world, that there may be no room to suspect artifice and collusion.
III. The doctrines which they are brought to vouch must be every way worthy of God.
IV. They should carry marks of good-will and beneficence to men.
V. It is the more convincing if such miracles were foretold, and
VI. If there be no appearances of self-interest and design in the worker of such miracles. (Francis Atterbury.)
John’s message to Jesus
It will appear odd that John should entertain any doubt, or require any satisfaction about this matter … John sent this message, not from any doubt which he himself entertained of the matter, but in order that the doubts which his disciples had conceived about it might receive an answer and satisfaction from the fountain head. From our Lord’s answer we are entitled to infer that-
I. The faith which He required was a rational assent and faith founded upon proof and evidence. These were given in His miracles.
II. Our Lord’s miracles distinguished Him from John.
III. Our Lord distinctly put, the truth of His pretensions upon the evidence of His miracles.
IV. Our Lord fixes the guilt of file unbelieving Jews upon this article, that they rejected miraculous proofs which ought to have convinced them. (W. PaIey.)
Proving Jesus to be the Messias
I. The evidence which our saviour gives of his being the true messiah, and to prove this three things were necessary:-
1. To show that He was sent by God, and had a peculiar commission from Him, by the miracles which He wrought.
2. This will more clearly appear by the correspondency of the things here mentioned with what was foretold by the prophets concerning the Messias.
(1) It was foretold of the Messias that He should work miraculous cures (Isaiah 30:4-6);
(2) That He should preach the gospel to the poor (Isaiah 61:1);
(3) That the world should be offended at Him (Isaiah 8:14).
II. An intimation in the text that notwithstanding all the evidence Christ gave of himself yet many world be offended at him.
1. Consider how the poor came to be more disposed to receive the gospel than others. They had no earthly interest to engage them to reject the Saviour. They enjoy little of the good things of this life, and are willing to entertain good news of happiness in another.
2. What those prejudices are which the world had against Christ. That He wrought miracles by diabolical skill; that He kept company with sinners; that He profaned the Sabbath. (J. Tillotson, D. D.)
The Messiah
I. The prophets declared that the Saviour should be Himself the Everlasting God (Micah 5:2).
II. The family of the Messiah was foretold (Isaiah 11:1).
III. The prophets foretold the time at which the Saviour should be born.
IV. The place of the Saviour’s birth was foretold.
V. The character of the Messiah was the subject of prophecy.
VI. The offices the Messiah was to sustain for His people were foretold by the prophets.
VII. The prophets plainly foretold the manner of Christ’s death, resurrection, and exaltation. Application:-
1. To those who treat with unholy mirth this sacred season.
2. There may be some whose faith in the incarnate Son of God is assaulted by Satan, and perplexed by cruel doubts.
3. There are those who have been effectually taught by the Spirit to believe in Him who came in the flesh. “No man can say that Jesus is the Christ but by the Holy Ghost.” (E. Blencowe, M. A.)
Third Sunday in Advent
I. The word of the Lord stands firm. Forty centuries had passed since the promise of the seed of the woman had been given.
II. The work of the Lord goes on. Men may not understand it; His own servants may be perplexed about it. But there is the secure ongoing of the eternal plan.
III. The consummation cometh-all that pertains to Messianic work He will perform. God has no cause for haste. (J. A. Seiss, D. D.)
I. John’s doubt. The subject of the doubt-the Messiahship of Jesus.
II. John’s way of acting under the doubt.
1. What he did not do. He did not boast of His doubt. He was not content to remain in this state of-doubt without making an effort to rise out of it.
III. Christ’s answer to john’s doubt. John’s question is, in substance, the question of to-day. But the answer of Jesus is distinct, calm, dignified. (Dr. Ritchie.)
Doubting
I. That there is No sin in doubting. Some doubts are sinful, when born of irrational prejudices, or bred of unregulated life. But doubt, of its own nature, cannot be sinful. Must be hesitation till evidence be sufficient.
II. But faith is better than doubt. We are never encouraged in Scripture in cultivating an inner habit of intellectual or moral scepticism. Doubt is only a means to faith.
III. There may exist honest doubt, notwithstanding diligent efforts made to remove it.
1. In any attempt to subdue scepticism, regard should be had to the proximate cause of it, or to the real cause of it. Much perplexity has a physical cause. The gospel for the body: rest, change, ocean, may remove this. Doubt has intellectual cause; not to be forced down by acts of will, but by prayer for more light. There are doubts which have a moral origin. Let conscience speak and remove them.
2. That nearly all doubts concerning Christ or Christian truth, ought to be brought in some way before Christ Himself, and given as it were into His own hand for solution. Christ’s reply to the Baptist was clear, prompt, convincing. It is an argumentative reply; fresh evidence is presented. Christ’s work is always open to examination, and testifies to His Messiahship; if it does not then do not believe. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)
Doubt, a means to faith
What would be thought of a chemist who should conduct an experiment, day after day, making a number of little variations in his method, but always withholding the deciding element from the crucible, or else persistently refusing to look at the result? Or, what would be thought of a merchant, always reckoning up his figures, but never writing down the final sums? Or, what of a captain who should sail his ship in a circle? Or, of a traveller always on the road, never reaching home or inn? (A. Raleigh, D. D.)
Conflicts with unbelief.
Martin Luther, of a kindred spirit with the Baptist, and with a like task to perform, had many days of despondency, and passed through many conflicts of unbelief. He writes: “One may overcome the temptations of the flesh, but how hard it is to struggle against the temptations of blasphemy and despair.” Again: “Having all but lost my Christ, I was beaten by the waves and tempests of despair and blasphemy.” Bunyan, who, with his wonderful imagination, could body forth the things unseen and spiritual, as if he could see them with his eyes, hear them with his ears, and touch them with his hands, had many conflicts with unbelief. “Of all temptations I ever met with in my life,” he says, “to question the being of God and the truth of His gospel is the worst, and worst to be borne. When this temptation comes it takes my girdle from me, and removes the foundation from under me. Though God has visited my soul with never so blessed a discovery of Himself, yet afterwards I have been in my spirit so filled with darkness, that I could not so much as once conceive what that God and that comfort were with which I had been refreshed.”
Natural melancholy obstructs the sense of Divine comfort
As it is in clear water, when it is still and transparent, the sun shines to the very bottom; but, if you stir the mud, presently it grows so thick that no light can pierce into it. So it is with the children of God: though their apprehensions of God’s love be as clear and transparent, sometimes, as the very air that the angels and glorified saints breathe in heaven, yet if once the muddy humour of melancholy stirs they become dark, so that no ray of comfort can break into the deserted soul. (Bishop Hopkins.)
Morbid self-suspicions
Colton declares that in moments of despondency Shakespeare thought himself no poet; and Raphael doubted his right to be called a painter. We call such self-suspicions morbid, and ascribe them to a hypochondriacal fit; in what other way can we speak of those doubts as to their saintship, which occasionally afflict the most eminently holy of the Lord’s people!
Truth not afraid of the light
Here is One evidently, who is not afraid of the light. He will not seek the homage of superstition. Depend on it, Christ is glad of the science of to-day, and its investigations, when carried on in the spirit of reverence and earnestness. He is glad for the broadening light, and for every new coign of vantage whence we can look at Him. Shall we, then, be afraid of the light? When we take a rose, a lily out of the garden, we put it in the clearest light that all its beauty may be seen. We are not afraid of the light for it. We say, “Get the microscope, and let its lenses concentrate the rays upon these flowers of God, and they will glorify Him all the more.” Shall it not be so with this Rose of Sharon, this Lily of the Valley! Ask your question! Push your inquiry! Who is afraid of it? Not Christ. Not we. (J. Brierley, B. A.)