Finding Assurance - John The Baptist

John the Baptist, who was in prison, heard about all the things the Messiah was doing. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?”

Matthew 11:2-3

A young man enduring a crisis of faith approached the well-known twentieth-century American clergyman Harry Emerson Fosdick one day and confessed that he no longer believed in God.

“So you are an atheist?” Fosdick asked. “Describe to me the kind of God you don’t believe in.”

The youth proceeded to do just that. Fosdick listened patiently, then replied, “My boy, that makes two of us. I don’t believe in that God either.”

Times of doubt can trouble a man who follows Jesus Christ, but you have a place to turn for assurance when you find yourself going through periods of doubt.

John the Baptist, one of the Bible’s courageous men of faith, had seen Jesus Christ up close. He had proclaimed him “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). He had baptized him and had heard God’s voice say, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy” (Matthew 3:17).

Yet as he sat in a prison cell for confronting Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee, about his unlawful marriage to his brother’s wife (see Matthew 14:3-4), John began to seriously doubt Jesus’ identity. Eventually, John sent his disciples to ask Jesus if he really was the promised Messiah. Jesus sent him back a message of reassurance, telling them to report to John the things they had seen and heard when they had visited him.

For centuries, people have wrestled with why John doubted and what those doubts meant, but why John doubted is much less important than what he did with his doubts. John didn’t just wallow in them; he took them to the Author and Finisher of his faith, Jesus Christ.

Where do you turn when you suffer moments of doubt? When you feel depressed, discouraged, or doubtful, turn to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of your faith. He will never allow those who believe in him to fall away.