Lesson 11 – The King’s Answers to Questioners
Read Matthew 11 – www.bible.com/bible/59/mat.11

Every leader will have those who may doubt or have questions about the way their leadership is presented to others. For Jesus there were basically three kinds of questioners or doubters. In this chapter we see how Jesus answered them.

First were the questions from John the Baptist, now confined to prison. Please note that Jesus knew exactly where His cousin John was and yet did nothing to either have him released, or, in just a short time, save him from death. Did this mean either that Jesus didn’t care or that John sinned by asking these questions? The answer to both is no. Throughout history we see the greatest growth of Christianity has always been in the blood of martyrs – no testimony is ever so true as when it is punctuated with a life freely sacrificed for Him.

From John’s questions, we find Jesus answering those who had studied the Scriptures of the Old Testament and thought they understood His plan of salvation. Even though the death of the Messiah is foretold in many places, these prophecies had been ignored or misunderstood – and Jesus’ answers to John through the men John sent to Jesus show Jesus’ love and care for those who had searched to find His plan in the Scriptures.


The second group of questioners and doubters is in verses 20-24. Here Jesus charges those who had witnessed the miracles He performed with coming judgment for their failure to believe their eyes. Many times people say if they could only SEE Jesus they would believe. Here these people had seen, and yet they chose to disbelieve. He says the judgment for those who have seen but choose not to believe will be worse than for those who have had no opportunity to see.

The last group is in verses 25-30 – these are people who want to follow Jesus, who believe in Him, but who are afraid of those who would hurt or kill them for believing in Jesus. Those who accept Him with faith, as a child has faith in his parents, have the privilege of coming to Him with all their cares and troubles, and He promises rest for all who come. He also promises His burden is a light one.

Do you have burdens today that feel too heavy for you to carry? Take them to Jesus and exchange your burdens for His. How do you do that? You give to Him the concerns of business or family or money or education or whatever is too heavy for you, and in exchange He will give you the much lighter burden of working alongside Him in His kingdom. Remember Matthew 6:33 – if we give ourselves to work in and for His kingdom, He will meet all our needs. We don’t need to worry about them at all.

*What is your heaviest burden today?
*What is Jesus asking you to do in His kingdom, to bring others to Him?