So the disciples of John the Baptist come and the Lord Jesus does something before he speaks. ‘In that same hour.
See again this statement of John the Baptist: ‘Art thou he that should come, or look we for another?’ We could ask John, ‘What kind of Saviour are you looking for, John? What do you expect to see?’ And we can ask that question of ourselves. If there is to be a Saviour for the human race, what kind of a person, what kind of Saviour, Messiah, Deliverer, ought he to be? Well, first of all, we don't want a king. We don't want a king sent from heaven who would simply reign over people in this present world. John the Baptist didn't want that, to be sure. The scribes and the Pharisees wanted that. They wanted God to send a conquering king who would just set up their nation in great power and glory again. But what's the point of that? We have far deeper needs than the exaltation of our nation on earth. They wanted this present life to be made comfortable and prosperous. But that's not enough. We have deeper needs. We have spiritual needs. We have lost souls. We are cut off from God. We are under the condemnation of sin. We want to have the world ordered and sorted out. Well, that would be a great thing, but it wouldn't touch our deepest and our eternal needs. We need a Saviour who will deal with souls, and will deal with the problems that keep us from God and shut us out of heaven. We need a soul Saviour.