1. Matthew 11:3. What important lesson do we learn from John’s doubt?

Ever had a monumental experience with the Lord? A no-doubter? A moment of clarity so bright you just knew it would never “go away”. Then it “went away”? I have. And John certainly did. But as you see here in Herod’s jail, even the greatest of experiences can fade when confronted with other realities and ideas. Our enemy is real and clever. It is during these times of infiltration that it behooves us to seek God for even greater power, namely a Word from His Word that will chase out this latest intruder. Bad ideas can be eliminated best by good ideas. Darkness gives way to light.

2. Matthew 11:4-5. What is the lesson from Jesus’ response to John?

The proof of the reality of Who Jesus is must be tangible and visible. That is, the Word becomes flesh. Ideas turn into healings and new births and deliverances. Changed lives. We are not a people of words only, though words start everything as God’s Word created the world. But the Word must enter the human condition and do its work there. Then people know of the truth of the things of which we speak. Not all of our realities are future.

3. Matthew 11:11. How could the least in the Kingdom be greater than this great Prophet?

The common interpretation is that a Spirit-filled apostle or holy saint of Jesus is greater than any Old Testament saint who did not have access to the Spirit as do New Testament believers.

I have a little trouble with that. First, John was filled with the Spirit from His mother’s womb. The apostles did not receive Him until much later in his life. Though John worked no miracle, apostles did not turn an entire nation, Israel, toward God by preaching only, as he did.

Besides that, Old Testament saints, of which John was the greatest, are also Kingdom people. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will sit down in the Kingdom of Heaven just as surely as any church person. And we cannot forget the anointing given to remnant Israel in the book of Revelation.

Could it be that when Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of Heaven here, He spoke literally of the time when Heaven comes to earth during the Millennium? When these vile bodies, John’s with them, and that of every apostle with them, will be gloriously transformed into bodies like to Christ’s Himself? Could it be that Jesus has in mind here the angels and heavenly beings that populated Heaven even as he spoke? Is there a human anywhere today or in history that can compare in greatness, in power, in wholeness, to the beings of the coming Kingdom of Heaven?

4. Luke 7:29. What does Luke mean here that publicans and tax collectors “acknowledged God’s justice?”