John had been thrown into prison for rebuking Herod for all the evil things he had done, especially for committing adultery with his sister in law. Josephus reports that John was imprisoned in the castle at Machaerus, in a remote area east of the Dead Sea. And all but a few faithful disciples apparently had forgotten him.

John Bevere in "The Bait of Satan" says, "Wait a minute. Why does John ask Jesus if He is the coming One, the Messiah? John was the one who prepared His way and announced His arrival: "Beholdl The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29)."

"He was the one who said, "This is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit" (John 1:33). He even said, "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30). John was the only person who really knew who Jesus was at that time. (It had not yet been revealed to Simon Peter.)"

"You have not even married in order to maximize the full potential of your call. You have lived in the desert eating locusts and wild honey and fasted often. You have fought the Pharisees and been accused of demon possession. Your whole life is spent preparing the way for this coming Messiah."

But now John is being kept like a bird in a cage at Herod's dungeon. For a man of fervor and action, being cramped up in a filthy cell must have been sheer torture. Some of the faithful few still visited and kept him informed of Jesus' ministry, but it must have been hard for John to understand what was going on.

John's disciples fasted often - Jesus and his disciples had banquets and feasts. John preached repentance and baptism. Jesus and his disciples associated with wineo’s, gluttons and sinners. John lived a life of austerity and want. Jesus and his disciples seemed to be well fed, and happy. Was this the behavior of a Messiah?

And here John was, after a lifetime of sacrifice sitting in a jail cell while Jesus and his disciples moved in the light of day. It would have been hard on anyone. Plus, he was almost certain to be facing a death sentence.

And it seems like John began to doubt a little what was going on here. Did he announce the wrong person as Messiah? Why hadn’t Jesus overthrown the Romans and brought in the kingdom?

Bevere says: "The temptation to become offended grows greater the longer you're in prison. "This man for whom I have spent my life preparing the way has not even come and visited me in jail! How can this be? If He is the Messiah, why doesn't He get me out of this prison? I've done no wrong."

Why didn’t Jesus just say, "Yes! I am the Messiah"? Why did He allow John’s disciples to wait and watch?

Jesus knew John needed more to ease his doubts than just a verbal "yes". He allowed the disciples to wait and watch so that they could SEE for themselves that prophecies about the Messiah were being fulfilled.

We don't know how long John's disciples stayed with Jesus, but long enough to see a variety of miracles. Now John's ministry only included the miracle of repentance, he was as a "voice crying in the wilderness". After John had cleared the way for Messiah by bringing the people's hearts back to God, then Jesus could do mighty works.

The choice of words to describe how Jesus healed , "cured", is a medical term in Greek: therapeuo {ther-ap-yoo'-o} meaning to serve, do service or to heal, cure, restore to health. This is our root word for therapy. How would you like for Jesus to be your therapist? Glory!

Diseases is nosos {nos'-os} in the Greek, meaning disease or sickness, translated infirmities in the KJV. This would seem to indicate short term, perhaps contagious diseases.

Sicknesses is mastix {mas'-tix} (through the idea of contact) meaning a whip or scourge, metaphorically a scourge, plague, calamity, affliction or misfortune, especially sent by God to discipline or punish, translated as plagues in the KJV. This would seem to indicate long term and chronic conditions, something that "plagues" you over a period of time, perhaps as a punishment as a result of a person’s disobedience.

Evil here is poneros {pon-ay-ros'} meaning full of labors, annoyances, hardships of a time full of peril to Christian faith and steadfastness; causing pain and trouble, bad, of a bad nature or condition, in a physical sense: diseased or blind, or in an ethical sense: evil wicked, bad. These kinds of demons bring all sorts of troubles within and without, specifically here they bring illnesses causing a lot of pain and annoyance.

What is an offense? The Greek word for offense is skandalon, our root word for "scandal" and in the original meant snare or trap. An offense is a snare or trap that the devil has set to entrap you, and if you fall for it, becomes an entry way for discouragement, unforgiveness, defeat and bitterness.

Offenses come in two flavors: intentional and unintentional. Intentional offenses are those things that people do to us to try to get us to react in anger: calling us names, talking about us behind our backs, even physically abusing us. These types of offenses are created to hurt us, and to create an occasion of unforgiveness so that we can fall.

Unintentional offenses are those occasions when someone offends us by a remark that we "take the wrong way" or by seeming to snub us, or something of that nature. We can also become offended when someone reprimands us for our good, or when someone’s righteous behavior reveals a sin or flaw in us that we are not willing to correct.

Did Jesus ever offend people? We have an image of "gentle Jesus meek and mild", always full of love and grace, never offensive, never assertive, etc. But is this a full picture of what Jesus is really like? We find in the Bible that at times Jesus DID offend people – but never to assert His own rights and never to deliberately entrap them into unforgiveness and bitterness. Let’s look at a few passages about this.

Bevere comments on this verse: "Jesus showed that offenses will actually purge those who are not truly planted by His Father. Some people may join churches or ministry teams but have not been sent by God or are not of God. The offense that comes when truth is preached reveals their true motives and causes them to uproot themselves… ‘

"Jesus would not be controlled by others. He would speak truth even if it meant confrontation and ultimately offense." So the Pharisees took offense at truth from the Son of God and revealed that they were actually not of God at all.

Bevere comments on this verse: "Can you hear these men and women of Nazareth saying, ‘Who does He think He is teaching us with authority? We know who He is. He grew up here. We are His elders. He is but a carpenter's son. He has had no formal training.’ "

"Again Jesus did not compromise truth in order to keep them from being offended. The townspeople were so angry that they tried to kill Him by pushing Him off a cliff (Luke 4:28-30). Even when His life was in danger He continued to speak the truth. How we need more men and women like that today!"

Bevere again comments: "He was saying, "John, I know you don't understand all that is happening with you and many of My ways, but do not be offended with Me because I do not operate as you expected." He was urging John not to judge by his own understanding of God's ways in the past and in his own life and ministry. "

"John didn't know the whole picture or plan of God, just as we do not know the complete picture today. Jesus was encouraging him, saying, "You've done what was commanded of you. Your reward will be great. Just stay free from offense with Me!" "

So when offenses come, we need to be prepared in advance to know how to react. Ask yourself, why is this occasion offending me? Is this person deliberately trying to hurt me? The correct response to this is forgiveness.

Or, ask yourself, am I offended when am I being corrected for a flaw or sin in my life? If so, the correct response is repentance of sin and gratefulness that someone cared enough to try to help you.

Or are you being offended because someone is following the Lord and you are jealous? If so, the correct response is to ask forgiveness for pride and for help in becoming more like Jesus.

If someone is offended AT you, is it because you have been rude or hurtful? If so, then you should ASK for forgiveness.

Or, are they offended at you because you are trying to correct some flaw in them? If this is the case, then are you being critical of something yourself are guilty of? Then you should work on removing the plank in your eye FIRST, before you try to help someone with their speck of sawdust.

However, if you are in leadership and God has directed you to exhort or rebuke someone, be sure that first of all you do it in a loving and not a critical manner. Then stand firm in what God has directed you to do. They may be teachable and accept the rebuke as from the Lord and grow because of it. Praise the Lord.

Or they may take offense, rebel and blame you and gossip about you because of the rebuke. Keep your heart from anger and keep loving them, and one of two things will happen. They will eventually realize that they are in the wrong, repent and grow in grace. Praise the Lord.

Or they may continue to rebel and cause conflict, and when God’s patience has ended, He will deal with them in judgement. In either case, you have done your duty as a faithful servant of the Lord Jesus Christ and have sought to please God rather than man.

So John got his answer. But Jesus then turns his attention to the people listening to him and examines their motives. Why did they go out in the desert to see John? John was not swayed by every wind of doctrine, like some of the religious leaders. He was an unwavering, uncompromising, determined man who knew his calling and stuck with it. He denied himself earthly comforts to see that his task was accomplished.

So why did the people rush out to see John? Because they recognized that he was a prophet. And there had been no public prophet in Judea for 400 years! So they were excited about it and all hurried out to see John.

And then Jesus says that John was more than an ordinary prophet, because John was the one sent to prepare the way for the Messiah. As both the last Old Testament prophet and herald of the New Kingdom, John was an important link between the old and new. John’s message of sin, judgement and repentance was meant to soften the people’s hearts to receive Jesus’ offer of salvation.

The people knew and understood John’s ministry because the next verse tells that the ones who had been baptized by John believed God’s words that Jesus spoke. So they agreed with Jesus that among those born of women, none is greater than John.

But why would the "least in the kingdom" be greater than this mighty prophet? John was not "born again" as the members of the kingdom of God would be because of Jesus’ death and resurrection. That was what John’s ministry was pointing to – that was the purpose of the Messiah – to bring in God’s kingdom. John would die before it could be fulfilled.

John was a very different minister than Jesus. He was the forerunner of the Messiah, and he initiated the advancement of the kingdom of Heaven. What do you think "forcefully advancing" means? The devil was doing everything in his power to keep the kingdom from advancing, from trying to kill Jesus as a baby, to trying to tempt Jesus into disobeying God.

Jesus goes on to compare the rejecters of John to senseless kids who were upset because John did not "sing their song" and Jesus did not "dance to their tune". The flute and the dance were symbolic of the joy of a wedding feast. John was criticized because he was somber and mournful of sin.

Now Jesus was the opposite. He looked "normal" and although He also preached repentance, He did it in a different way than John. He socialized with tax collectors and sinners, because that is where the need lay. But Jesus was called a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of sinners. Jesus offended their standards of "holiness". And Jesus was also rejected.

Jesus had compared the generation of unbelievers to children of the world (marketplace) who rejected God’s word, no matter how it was sent. But the believers were children of wisdom who proved that God’s word was RIGHT, no matter how it was delivered.

Are you a child of the world or a child of wisdom? Does your thoughts and actions prove God right? Or do you make a fool of both John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus Christ? You can be so "religious" that you no longer hear the word of God. You can be so "holy" that you are too good to associate with those who need to hear the Gospel the most. Lord help us prove you wise in our every day living!

We’ve talked about a discouraged prophet who was in danger of being offended by Jesus because Jesus did not seem to be fulfilling prophecy the way John thought He should. It is often a test of our own faith when God does not do "our will, our way". Then we need to praise God for Who He is and not for what He gives.

John Bevere puts it this way: "Even if you are trained in many of God's ways, as John was, you are still likely to have an opportunity to be offended with Jesus. If you truly love and believe on Him, you will fight to stay free from offense, realizing His ways are always higher than yours."

We’ve also seen how doing God’s will can often bring us into conflict, not only with the world, but also with "religious" people who do not like our ministry style. We’ve talked about guarding ourselves against taking offenses, and how to handle it when others take offense against us.

Bevere says: "Also, if you are going to obey the Spirit of God, people will be offended by you… Some will not understand you as you move with the Spirit. Don't allow their unpleasant response to deter you from what you know in your heart is true. Don't abort the flow of the Spirit for the desires of men… When you live for the will of God, you will not fulfill the desires of men."