Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to Him, “Are You the One who is to come, or shall we look for another?” Matthew 11:2-3 ESV¹

Read Luke 1:13-17, 39-45; Matthew 11:2-11; Mark 1:4-8 & John 1:6-7, 23-34

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, John knew Jesus was the Messiah from his very beginning. The angel Gabriel told John’s father, Zachariah, that John “would be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15b). Shortly after Mary became pregnant with Jesus, she went to visit her relative, Elizabeth, Zachariah’s wife, who was pregnant with John. “And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, [John] leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women and blessed is the Fruit of your womb! And why is it granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy’” (Luke 1:39-44). When John first “met” Jesus, he knew Jesus was special.

By the time John grew up and became the Baptizer, he was well acquainted with the Holy Spirit and obeying the instructions of God. He knew he was “‘the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, “Make straight the way of the Lord”’” (John 1:23). John told his followers, “‘After me comes He who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Mark 1:7-8). One “day [when John] saw Jesus coming toward him, [he] said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is He of whom I said, “After me comes a Man who ranks before me because He was before me”… And John bore witness, … ‘I saw the Spirit descend from Heaven like a dove, and it remained on Him … He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” And I have seen and bore witness that this is the Son of God’” (John 1:29-34). That day, and for many days following, John had no doubt Jesus was the Messiah.

Yet, when something difficult and unexpected happened, John’s faith began to falter. Was Jesus who John had been so sure He was? So, John “sent word by his disciples and said to [Jesus], ‘Are You the One who is to come, or shall we look for another’” (Matthew 11:2-3)? Why this sudden lack of faith from a man who was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb, a man who had loyally served and confidently believed God, a man who boldly testified that Jesus was the Son of God? Something happened which caused John, as faith-filled as he was, to question if he had heard God at all. “Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife because John had been saying to him, ‘It is not lawful for you to have her’” (Matthew 14:3-4). John, in passion for God, had confronted the king about his adultery, and this landed John in prison! Prison was a place where John had lots of time to wonder what went wrong.

When John’s disciples came to Jesus with John’s question, Jesus could have been visibly disappointed. He could have become verbally angry. He could have used John’s lack of faith as an object lesson to teach others never to distrust God. But Jesus did not condemn John for his misgivings. Instead, He gently encouraged John, through his disciples, to focus on truth. “Jesus answered them, ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them’” (Matthew 11:4). From his knowledge of the writings of the prophets, John would have known these were the very things the Messiah would do.

Jesus sent off John’s disciples to encourage John with those words. Then He turned to the crowd and commended John to the bystanders, saying “’Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist’” (Matthew 11:11). Jesus was not disappointed in John because John began to waver in a time of trouble. John had not forfeited all the good he had done in the past by this current uncertainty.

We too can be so bold and Spirit-filled at times. But other times when something happens which we did not expect, we begin to wonder, among other things, if we have done something wrong, if we are on the right path, and if God loves us. In times like these, don’t let your fear and doubt keep you away from Jesus. Run to Him, and ask Him for guidance and assurance. He will not push you away. In time, He will fully restore your confidence.

¹ Scripture quotations marked with ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All Scriptures are taken from the ESV unless otherwise noted. To aid in understanding, I have capitalized references to God.