Matthew 11:1 – 6

1 Now it came to pass, when Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples, that He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities.

2 And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples

3 and said to Him, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”

4 Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see:

5 The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.

6 And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”

Jesus had finished counseling His apostles and sent them on their way to do as He commanded them, go heal, raise the dead, cast out demons, and teach the Gospel of the soon coming kingdom. When He had finished with them then He left Capernaum and went out into the surrounding cities and continued his preaching.

John's imprisonment is mentioned in chapters 4, and 9, his death is remembered by Herod in chapter 14. He is in prison and sends two of his disciples to find Jesus and find out if He is the Son of God, the Messiah. Of course these two are followers of John and not yet followers of Christ.

Because of John's teaching it is not believed he sent these two disciples to Jesus to find out for himself if Jesus was truly the Messiah. John wants his followers to see the work of Jesus first hand so they can believe. In Luke's account of this event (Luke 7:21) he states “In that same hour he cured many of their infirmities,” this shows that John's disciples experienced the things that He wished them to witness.

Jesus tells them to go tell John because it is their mission to find Jesus and report their findings to him.

Verse 5 lists the things which Luke says Jesus did “in that same hour.” These all were events which required miraculous power except the preaching the gospel to the poor. Preaching the gospel would require the miracle of inspiration.

“Not to be offended because of Me.” means that He had shown so much evidence as to His authority that there should be no doubt as to Him being the “One that should come” and they would not need to “look for another.”

John prepared the way for Jesus and the coming of the kingdom, but he needed his followers to see the truth of the Messiah for themselves so they could take their allegiance from John to Jesus the true Messiah. John knew tha“Not to be offended because of Me.” means that He had shown so much evidence as to His authority that there should be no doubt as to Him being the “One that should come” and they would not need to “look for another.”t Jesus should grow in prominence and he, John, should decrease in prominence but some things must be experienced by the disciples themselves.