03 Nov Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another? Matthew 11:3. Locked In A Prison.

This was a question that John The Baptist found himself asking after being unjustly imprisoned, and would soon be later executed. A shocking ending for the man whom Jesus described in Matthew chapter 11 with the following words: “Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist“.

A fickle ending for a Man described as “great”. John The Baptist has been thrown in prison by King Herod. Not for abuse of the Law nor for breaking it, but for the truth. Speaking the truth is what landed him in prison. John found himself bound and shackled by a King who hated truth!

King Herod took his own brother’s wife to be his lover, and John rebuked his behavior. This put John in the cross hairs of the King’s wrath. Going about your life truthfully, will put you in the cross hairs of those who despise truth. While it will ingratiate you with some, it will stir up hatred in others.

But John was a messenger of God, and he found himself bound and in prison. This shows us that not all people that are in prison are in prison for being law-breakers. This is not my opinion, this is fact. The Bible is full of people who have been beating and imprisoned while yet committing no crimes.

These circumstances had no doubt probably confused John. He went from baptizing thousands of Men including Jesus himself, to now being imprisoned and having his life hang in the balance. The truth landed him in prison while at the same time it spared his life for the moment. Because the King wanted to kill John the Baptist, but was too afraid because the people revered John to be a prophet.

So the work of Jesus put him in prison and at the same time spared his life. But why did the work of Jesus have to land John in prison at all? Why couldn’t he just go about his “work” and escape going to prison? If God can do anything, surely he can do that.

When God gives us an assignment, he rarely ever gives us the ending. Jesus knew his ending from the beginning and agreed to the assignment. How many of us looking back on our lives, would have made different decisions in our lives if we knew what the results would have been before we made it?

Most of us go about our lives trying not to make bad decisions. We judge the quality of our decisions based on the results of those decisions. If we know the result is going to be “bad” or not “desirable” to us, then we will make a different decision or choice to get a better or more desirable result.

But here’s the thing, sometimes that “bad” or “undesirable” result is the result that God intended for you to get. It’s not the result you wanted, but it was the result God wanted. Some of your decisions that ended in a result you didn’t like was the result that God wanted for your life.

Take it or leave it God was in control of the result that you got. We don’t get to pick the result, we only get to pick the choice, and sometimes even the right choice leaves us with an undesirable result. You married what seemed to be the perfect woman, and 5 years later you’re questioning your decision, because you ‘re at a place now where you’re not satisfied and you’re questioning the results of the decision.

Her being messy or unorganized wasn’t that big of a deal at the beginning, but after 5 years of living together and occupying the same space, it’s taking a toll on you. “I wish she would just pick up after herself”! “How many times do I have to ask her”?

John is serving a God who can make his circumstances go away. So why hasn’t he? Why am I in prison? What was the point in me preparing a way for Jesus the Messiah, if at the end it was going to land me in prison? I’m sure John had envisioned something completely different for his life. Perhaps a life side by side with Jesus, working and serving.

When you get a calling like John had received, your mind runs wild. We would all envision a life side by side with Jesus. Learning from him, walking with him, seeing the miracles, seeing the faith, seeing the new kingdom being ushered in from a front row seated view.

John’s circumstances couldn’t be farther from what he was expecting. God had left out the part that you will be thrown in prison. He left out the part that you will not be side by side with Jesus. He left out the part that you will not get to see all the miracles that Jesus would perform. He left out the part that you will be beheaded.

Being inside a prison is a lonely experience. Even when you have many people on the outside who love you and care about you, it does not take away from the loneliness you feel on the inside. Think back to when you were going through a difficult time, or perhaps you are now. Though you have loved ones and people who care for you, it is you who’s feeling the brunt of it all.

Not the people at your Church, not your co-workers, not your parents, not your siblings, not your friends or your neighbors. It’s just you. And when it’s just you, It’s a very lonely place. Jesus never visited John the Baptist while he was in prison. Think about that for a second. I’m sure Satan was having a field day in John’s mind over such a thing.

“Where is he? If Jesus really loved you he would be here. Why hasn’t he come”! Where is he when you need him? “See, you can’t trust him “! “He’s no different than the rest”. John the Baptist is under intense pressure due to his circumstances and temptation, that he sends his servants to Jesus and ask “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else”?

Because I’m in prison, and you haven’t come to see me. I haven’t heard a word from you in regards to me getting out of here. I keep hearing about all the miracles you’re doing out there, can you do one that will get me out of here?? I’m stuck in prison and you’re raising people from the dead. You’re healing the cripple. Your healing the diseased. The blind is able to see. The lame is able to walk. But yet I’m stuck in here.

Are you really the one? Are the rumor’s I’m hearing really true? Are you really doing all these things? These are some of things John the Baptist is dealing with. He needs to know because right now, he’s at a breaking point. He’s hurt. He’s confused. He’s suffering. So he sends his servants to Jesus. Jesus knows John’s heart.

He can see all the things behind the question that John is asking. Are you the one? Jesus didn’t get mad. He told John’s servants, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the one who does not fall away on account of Me.”

I often teach you, that we are as much flesh as we are human. As much as we pray and read and study, we are spiritual beings in human bodies bound by human limitations. We do not have the ability to flee our natural state to take up a celestial form when things get tough down here. We are stuck. If your body is thrown in prison, you are thrown in prison with it. If your body gets sick, you are sick with it.

John has been isolated and cut-off from the world. He sits in prison with his faith and his feelings. Jesus has not come to see him. Jesus has not freed him. What is John to think? At his lowest, and when he would presume to need Jesus the most, he is absent as far as John can see and feel. No Angels came to service or encourage John. If that did take place, it has not been reported.

Imagine being at your lowest, the people who love you the most do not visit you. In fact, they could remove your circumstances but you don’t hear from them. What would you think? Brothers and Sisters, put yourself in Johns shoes. This was more then a wavering of Faith, this was a Man who was hurt.

Have you ever felt hurt by God ? Be honest. He can take it. John was hurt. John could not understand why Jesus would heal all these people, and leave him, his own cousin in prison to later on be beheaded. No Man who is capable and has the ability to to do that would do that. Jesus did something that is beyond the logical ways of thinking of any man.

When was the last time or the first time you’ve ever been hurt by God? Again, he can take it. What prisons have you felt God has left you in at one point or another in your life? We know God can do anything, So when he doesn’t respond to our “prison” situation, we respond like John.

I know I do. Guilty as charged! I’ll use myself as an example in case you are too shy. I do not know why Jesus left John in prison ultimately to be killed by King Herod. The Bible never says. What I can tell you and point out to you are two things I noticed. Number one: John the Baptist had his own disciples; and two: When John the Baptist is put in prison, Jesus ministry is in full swing.

The Bible says in Matthew 11:2: When John the Baptist had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” But why would John ask such a thing, when since being in the womb he knew who his cousin Jesus was? He’s been baptizing Men in preparation for Jesus’s arrival. He didn’t have any questions about who he was then. Why is he questioning who Jesus is now?

John did not send his disciples to ask Jesus to get him out of prison. No, John cuts to the chase. He knew Jesus already knew about his circumstances. He knew Jesus already knew about him being put in prison. He knew Jesus already knew he wanted to be free. No man likes being in prison. So he does not ask Jesus to get him out of prison, he asks him “Are you the one”?

I’m in prison and I haven’t heard a peep from you. I heard about all the miracles that you’re doing, so I know you can do anything! You’re raising people from the dead, but yet I’m stuck in prison. You can just say the word, and I would be free. So I must be in prison because it’s in your will for me to be here. So please tell me this, because I’m having a hard time understanding anything right now. ARE YOU THE ONE!

Pause right there. If you’re serving God and find yourself locked in a place you don’t want to be and you’re not able to get out under your own power and God has not released you, it’s because that’s where God wants you at the present time.

John is looking for a direct answer to a direct question. Now is not the time for a parable. Who are you really Jesus, and should I cast my hope in you? Because I’ve been trying to up until now, but I need to know because none of this is making any sense anymore. This is not how it was supposed to be. This is not how I envisioned it.

I got a King who is itching to kill me. ARE YOU THE ONE! Some of the prisons that we found ourselves in, isn’t because Jesus didn’t know about it or couldn’t help. It is because he chose not to. And that hurts. He sees that you’re suffering. He sees that you’re struggling. He sees you trying. He sees you crying. He sees all of it. But like John the Baptist, some of us will be left in a prison for reasons we can’t understand.

John had a calling on his life since he was in the womb. He was the forerunner for Christ. When John was put in prison by King Herod, his task had been completed. If it had not been, Jesus would have freed him. Jesus’s ministry was in full swing when John was in prison. This is the second point I want you to see.

The Bible said John sent his disciples to ask Jesus the question. So Jesus had disciples and John had disciples. We’re seeing two factions at play here, those following Jesus and those following John. John’s ministry was winding down after Jesus was baptized and received the Holy Spirit.

But just as the Jews had a difficult time letting go of the Law, there were Men who had a difficult time letting go of John to follow the messiah whom John was preaching about. Even with the many miracles Jesus had performed, the Bible tells us John still had disciples.

I believe that the death of John the Baptist helped usher in Jesus’s ministry a lot faster then it would have if John was still out there baptizing folk. I believe if John would have been allowed to continue on, it would have caused conflict amongst the people, not amongst Jesus or John. We see this in the book of 1 Corinthians 1:12. With some Men saying they are of the Apostle Paul, while others are saying they are of Apollos.

Jesus had only 3 years to complete his objective. Every minute of every second counted. As I’ve always said, God is a God of purpose. He does not do anything that does not have purpose attached to it.

He is forever productive. Things you do now, either have a temporal affect or eternal affect. Sin always has both. Temporal and Eternal. Writing a book can have an eternal effect. Instilling the gospel in your children can have an eternal effect.

We should be wise in using our time when we know how to separate our activities according to this principal. Three years of studying how to be a great film director would have a temporal affect, versus sitting and studying under the tutelage of a Godly Man.

This could have an eternal effect on not only yourself, but those around you as well as people you’ve never met. The word of God is described as living waters. It has the ability to give life long after your death. What we speak and what we do, has the ability to bless people for generations to come.

We see this with Abraham. We see this with Isaac. We see this with Jacob. Just because most people don’t practice it today, does not mean that God does not still honor such faith. What John the Baptist accomplished, will never be done by another Man, because Christ will never be slain again.

You cannot tell the story of Jesus without mentioning the work that John the Baptist has done. Some of you are in a circumstance or situation that feels like a prison.  Or some of you may be in prison or have been at some point.  Where you can’t escape on your own merit, and God has not freed you though you sought his face through tears.

You’ve tried to do all that God has laid out before you to do, and now you’re stuck in a place that you never thought you would be. A lonely place. A place where it’s just your thoughts and your faith. And yet while you are in this place, Jesus is out in the world performing miracles.

The blind are able to see; the deaf is able to hear; the dead are made alive; and the sick and diseased are made well. All this is taking place while you’re locked in a prison. You’re waiting for your miracle. When you look back on your journey, you will see when Jesus was performing miracles in your life, someone else was in prison.

Someone else was where you are. Wondering if Jesus was going to come visit them. If Jesus was going to free them. If Jesus was “the one”, or should they cast their hopes in something else. Some of us don’t have anyone to minister to us and uplift us in times like these.

John had disciples that he sent to Jesus to receive a good report. For some of us, the good report comes from Jesus himself through the Holy Spirit. I implore all of you, to gain the trust and friendship of two or three individuals who fear God. If you happen to find more, then you are truly blessed.

If you are in a prison right now in your life, know that the Lord knows you’re there. Know that he hasn’t lost track of where you are. I think the scripture “I will never leave you nor forsake you”, has never really been explained in it’s complete context. It is not that God will never leave you in an undesirable situation or circumstance, it’s that if you find yourself in an undesirable situation or circumstance, he will not leave your side or forget that you are there.

Our understanding of being forsaken is being abandoned and left in a horrible situation. God’s meaning of not forsaken us means he will still be present with us when we are in a horrible circumstance or situation. He will be there with us in the suffering. But he may not necessarily rescue us from the suffering.

God did not deliver Jesus from the Cross, even when Jesus said “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” He did not deliver John the Baptist from prison; He didn’t deliver Stephen from being stoned. Jesus knew firsthand that sometimes God will is not to remove us from our prison.

It is in your prison where your faith will sustain you, because everything else will fail you. Your eyes, your emotions, your ears, your logic, your thoughts, even sometimes your friends.

I believe John needed to hear from Jesus at that moment. When you’re pressed on all sides, sometimes hearing the words of a friend is not enough. Sometimes praying is not enough. Sometimes it takes Jesus to speak to you, because he is the only one who is enough, and who can bring peace of mind and security to you, when it appears you have been abandoned and you have been forgotten.

When you feel like you’re on a sinking ship and you alone are the one trying to secure the breach and prevent the waves from overtaking the deck and destroying his life. John felt forgotten. John felt abandoned. How so much alike, are we to John. Even though we can feel this way at times in our lives, Jesus says something spectacular concerning John.

He says in Matthew 11:11 “Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet even the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he“. That means even when we come to a place where our Faith is challenged like John’s was, yet if you are the least in the kingdom of heaven you will be counted as greater then he!

How incredible is that! God is not partial even to the greatest messenger for Christ, down to the greatest of the Apostles. He doesn’t look at how much money you have or how much you don’t; How good looking you are or you aren’t; What color you are not or what color you are.

If you’re under the blood of Jesus, that is what he sees when he looks out at you. The blood of perfection.

I don’t know what prison you may be in in your life. It may be the prison of loneliness. I prayed and prayed for God to send me somebody and I’m still alone. I still don’t have anybody. All my friends are getting married and have families, and I’m still the single one out the bunch.

I’ve fasted, read my Bible, paid my tithes, prayed and I’m still alone. Or it could be the prison of battling an illness that doesn’t seem to go away. Cancer and ongoing cancer treatments. Just when I thought I was cured, it’s back again. I tried to move on with my life, and when I was moving on, it came back again!

It could be the prison of addiction. The struggle to stay sober. The struggle to get clean. It could be the prison of scarcity. Poverty and debt can feel like a prison. I’m not talking about a person who uses their money and resources foolishly, but a person who’s diligent and disciplined but still finds themselves drowning in what seems to be a never-ending cycle of not having enough.

How about a job you hate? It is a blessing to be able to work and receive pay, but let’s be honest, all jobs do not feel like that. And many jobs feel like a curse more than a blessing. I held a job before that I grew to despise. I prayed almost daily to be removed from that position. I was blessed to have the job, but I truly could not stand the job.

A struggling marriage can feel like a prison. When you do all you know to do, and you pray, and you fast, and you’ve cried, and you’ve submitted, and the person you’re married to is still acting crazy. They’re still being abusive. They’re still not respecting you. They’re still not caring about your feelings. They’re still behaving selfishly. They are still putting themselves and everything else ahead of you.

God sees you in your prison. He’s answered you. If you’ve been praying and you’ve been faithful and you’re still there, it’s because he wants you there at that particular time.

You’re in this particular season of your life for reasons we don’t understand. John the Baptist prayed while he was in his prison. He fasted. He sought God’s face. He tried to reason in his mind why he found himself in the place where he was at.

But God can’t be found within the walls of our reasoning. He cannot be found between the walls of our logic. That’s not where God lives. He resides in the secret unknown places beyond natural logic and reasoning.

He makes himself known to the unaware, and he hides himself from the confident. Jesus’s answer to John was “believe in the works”. It wasn’t “I’m going to free you from this prison”. What Jesus did was free John from another prison that he found himself in. The prison of doubt. The prison of questioning if Jesus really cared.

We all have a story that will be told about our lives. The Bible is full of the lives of Men who overcame great obstacles, as well as Men who succumbed to them. Succumbing to an obstacle does not mean you “missed the mark”. God predestines the steps of a Godly man, and is able to do so even when we make mistakes.

Like a wise Man once said: “God is bigger than your mistakes”. God can be the author of your failures and your mistakes. The man who walks with God finds himself in the place God has predestined for him to be. The Man who doesn’t walk with God, finds himself in a prison in need of escape. John’s incarceration was really a matter of perspective.

If God put him there, though it be a prison, he is not being bound by Men, he is being bound by God. If a sinful man is put in prison, he is being bound by Men and by God, but has not obtained grace.

We do not see the trials in our lives as God’s doing. That is an overarching view. We know he allows things, but what about when he does things? How do you differentiate between the two?

You cannot. We must learn to rest in the fact that he’s the one. That is the most certain thing I have ever written in my life. John went to his death not understanding why he was left in prison, but he knew he was the one.

John went to his death not understanding why his cousin Jesus was healing all those people on the outside, while at the same time leaving John in prison. But he knew he was the one. When we find ourselves in a prison like John had been, all we have to look back on are the miracles.

The things Jesus did in our lives. In the lives of our families. In the lives of friends. Those of us that have them. Don’t balk at that. Many of us think we have lots of friends, but if God was to change some circumstances in your life, you would be surprised to see who was left standing by your side.

In closing, Jesus Christ is the one. I know he doesn’t always come when you want him. It doesn’t always come when we feel we need him. Probably almost never because he can never get here soon enough. But God can never be late. Because he’s not bound by time.

There is no deadline for him to meet in order to fix your problems. In fact, problems and deadlines bend to his will and not the other way around. You better get this in your spirit right now. There is no problem you have right now that’s beyond his reach to fix; There’s no timeline or deadline that he needs to meet; There’s no rule or guidelines that he needs to operate in; They all have to bend to his will and not the other way around!

If you didn’t get married yet and your 40 years old, and he sends you a spouse at 42, it will be some of the best years of your life starting at 42. You didn’t miss out because you didn’t get married at 20. If you got married at 20 you would have had some of worst years of your life.

I know that because if God wants what’s best for you, then he would have married you at 20 and not 42. He’s not stupid. We are!

He’s the one. If you can’t see anything else right now because the pressure is on you: He’s the one. If you’ve been praying and fasting and praying and fasting and praying and fasting and nothing is changing as far as you can see: He’s the one.

He’s the one when you understand, he’s the one when you don’t understand. He’s the one all conditions and not just sometimes. I believe John the Baptist faith was renewed when he heard back from Jesus. Maybe he knew his time was up as well.

To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Though John never saw Jesus again in his Earthly state; the next time he saw him it was in his glorified state.

Brothers and Sisters, I pray this message was of benefit to you. I pray that I am of benefit to you. I also feel a burden to write to you. And feel bad that I have not been able to do it more frequently due to external circumstances.

But I pray that God will provide the time for me to pour into you what he as no doubt by grace has pulled into me. I love you as a brother loves and brother, and as a sister loves a sister. I pray that God will give me the opportunity to write to you soon.

I find it a blessing to be able to Teach, Preach, and Share with you. It is my pleasure, and my greatest honor, to be able to write to you and share what God has given to all of us. I pray for God’s blessing in your lives during these trying times.

Be a light. Be a light in these dark times. It’s easy to follow behind others. There’s safety in numbers. But what are numbers to God? Numbers to God are just a mathematical equation. It does not determine an advantage nor a disadvantage.

Be a light. The world needs lights right now. Not just people who want to go to Church on Sundays to say they did it.

Brothers and Sisters God bless.