Are you a skeptical person? Do you believe everything you hear, right away? Or does it take awhile before you believe something to be true? The other day I got an email from someone who said that they were my long lost relative. They were trapped somewhere in Nigeria, and needed me to send $5000 to the First Bank of Nigeria. Should I believe that email? Or should I be skeptical? Well, I hope it wasn't my long lost relative, because I deleted it.
A few months ago I received a postcard in the mail telling me that I could go to the Caribbean for free - this big postcard with a beautiful picture of a beach on it. Should I believe that postcard? There was some small print on the postcard about how the airfare wasn't free, and the hotel really wasn't free either.
Lots of people say lots of things - how much do you believe? How much do you doubt? For almost two thousand years, Christians have been saying that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. Do you believe it? A lot of people don't. A lot of people are skeptical - this is just another scam - the church just wants your money, just like everyone else. Is the resurrection of Jesus real? Maybe you believe it now. But will you believe it 20 years from now, 40 years from now. Could there be anything that happens in your life that would cause you to change your mind?
This morning, we're going to look at a part of the Bible where Jesus doubt is discussed. And we're going to see what the one and only cure for doubt is, as the Bible describes it. May God bless you with a firm belief in Jesus now, and throughout your whole life, as we study the Scripture together.
What typically happens at your house on Easter night? At our house, we put the kids to bed, and they are typically exhausted from waking up too early and eating too much candy throughout the day. Then we spend time finding all those little pieces of plastic green grass all over the house, and we try to clean things up.
For the disciples in the first century, the atmosphere was a little different. They were locked up in a house. They were afraid. Just a few days ago, they had witnessed Jesus executed, and now people were saying that he was alive. And then suddenly, Jesus stood among them. And everyone was overjoyed except for one disciple, and that was Thomas. He wasn't with them that night, and when he came back later and they told him that they saw Jesus alive, he wouldn’t believe it. He was skeptical.
I won’t believe it, he said. I need to see Jesus with my eyes. I need to touch Jesus’ wounds with my hands. I need physical proof. Otherwise, I won't believe.
Why was Thomas so skeptical? You see, Thomas didn’t want to get burned again. For 3 years, he had followed Jesus and thought he was the Messiah. He was a believer! But then he saw things and heard things that made him feel like something was not right. He saw Jesus arrested, even though he was all-powerful. He saw Jesus tortured and shouted at by the crowds, and crucified, even though Jesus was God and could walk on water and calm storms. He saw Jesus die, even though Jesus could raise people from the dead. None of this made any sense to Thomas. Everything he saw contradicted his beliefs. And he wasn't about to go through that again. That's why he was so skeptical.
Isn’t that why you and I sometimes doubt about what we believe? Last year I surveyed the students I teach in religion class. The number one thing they wondered about was if they believed the right thing. Is Christianity really the right religion? Are all these things I believe about Jesus really true? Sometimes, I have doubts, the students wrote. Do you ever have doubts?
What is the one thing that might cause you to doubt what you believe. It's trouble, isn't it? Real trouble that comes into your life. Did you realize that this is the number one objection to Christianity? A non-Christian will say, "The reason I am skeptical about Christianity is because of all the evil, all the trouble, I see in the world. How could God let that happen?
How could God let that happen? Your child is diagnosed with cancer. Someone dies that's not supposed to die. I just a student in my office the other day - his dad went to bed and never woke up. How could God let that happen? Have you ever had a moment in your life when you doubted the love of God? People fall away from God all the time - why? Because something bad happened?
Have you ever had a moment of doubt? What do you do? Where do you go? And if you haven't yet, you will? What should you do someday, when trouble comes into your life, and if it makes you wonder about everything you've ever believed in your life?
During the days of the Bible - the cure was simple - to spend time with the risen Jesus. A week after Thomas doubted, Jesus appeared to him, and said, if you want proof - here it is - stop doubting and believe. And just like that, Thomas' doubt went away. "My Lord and my God," he told him.
Wouldn't that be nice if Jesus did that today? But he doesn't. Instead, Jesus wants us to believe without proof - "Because you have seen me, you have believed," he said to Thomas. "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." He's talking about you in these verses - someone who doesn't get to see anything like Thomas, and yet still believes. And so for you and me today - what's the cure for doubt?
The answer is found right here - the most underrated place in the world to go, if you have doubts in your mind - it's the Bible - "these are written that you may believe (not have doubts and skepticism but believe) that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name."
The purpose of this book is that it would cause you to believe. That it would cause any doubts that you might have to slowly fade away. And if you are blessed right now to not have any trouble in your life, no questions or doubt whatsoever - this book serves another purpose - and that is to get you ready for when you are tested, when real trouble finds its way into your life and you start to wonder if everything you have ever believed is true. These are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
Those disciples would certainly be tested. Every single one of them experienced persecution as a direct result of their faith. They experienced death and pain and trouble beyond what any of us normally experience on a day to day basis. They had every reason to doubt that what they believed was true. But they had seen the risen Lord Jesus, and that filled them with an unshakable faith.
You have seen the risen Lord too, just in a different way. You have seen him here. There is no place in the world where you can see more clearly the love and compassion of God than right here, in the Bible. Just look at how Jesus treats Thomas with love and forgiveness, even though Thomas was doubting. He showed Thomas the very scars on his body that happened when he was paying for Thomas' sins. There is love, and there is forgiveness, and that's what we see too, when we look into the pages of Scripture.
Peace be with you, Jesus says to you. He forgives you and me for all of the times we've doubted his love in our lives. We see his scars as we look on the pages of Scripture. Receive the Holy Spirit, he says to us. Even when the rest of the world says that God hates you, the pages of Scripture tell you that God loves you, that God is for you, that you have nothing to fear - just look at what Jesus endured for you on the cross.
May God bless each one of us with the same kind of unshakeable faith. I've heard it said that "Those who doubt most, and yet strive to overcome their doubts, turn out to be some of Christ's strongest disciples." Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed.
