In 2012, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life conducted a survey including White, Black and Hispanic Catholic, Protestant and Non-Denominational Christians. In this survey was the following statement, “I never doubt the existence of God.” Survey results are as follows: 80% agreed with the statement leaving 20% (1 in 5) of which disagreed.
These are people who “belong” to some sort of church affiliation. They attend either a church, Christian fellowship or cathedral. They all support their various ministries financially. But yet one out of every five…doubt.
It’s almost as if their religious institution were asking a very pertinent question, “Do we believe?” and some would actually have to say, “Not really.” What about you? What about me? What is our response? “I agree.” “I disagree.”
“Do you believe?”
Yet, disagreeing with this statement seems almost illogical. After all, anyone who “belongs” to any Christian institution, whether Catholic, Protestant or Non -Denominational; anyone who goes to a church, a Christian fellowship or cathedral would actually have the misfortune of disagreeing that God exists.
The apostle John most likely would have issue with their belief. After all John, in his gospel account is excessive in his emphasis upon faith-believing. He uses the terminology “to believe” twice as often as the other three gospels, collectively.
It is in John’s gospel we find the most widely known passage of all scripture as spoken by the Christ to Nicodemus, John 3:16, reading from THE VOICE: “For God expressed His love for the world in this way: He gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him will not face everlasting destruction, but will have everlasting life.” To which Jesus adds: “Here’s the point. God didn’t send His Son into the world to judge it; instead, He is here to rescue a world headed toward certain destruction. No one who believes in Him has to fear condemnation, yet condemnation is already the reality for everyone who refuses to believe because they reject the name of the only Son of God” [John 3:17-18 THE VOICE].
John even records other statements spoken by the Christ concerning “believing” in Him:
“If you believe in Me, the Hebrew Scriptures say that rivers of living water will flow from within you.” [John 7:38 THE VOICE].
“Unless you believe I am who I have said I am, your sins will lead to your death” [John 8:24 THE VOICE].
“I am the resurrection and the source of all life; those who believe in Me will live even in death” [John 11:25 THE VOICE].
So, when John poses the question, “Do you believe?” he isn’t being facetious because he isn’t writing about something he, himself doesn’t believe. After all, he has been right there in the thick of things with Jesus. He has opportunity to hear Jesus teach His words of wisdom. He even experiences first-hand the performance of miracles at the hand of the Christ. He is there in the end as he comforts Jesus’ mother, Mary, as her son, Jesus, hangs upon the cross of Calvary and he is one of the two disciples who race to reach the empty tomb on that first Resurrection Sunday.
John is affirming that having faith in the Risen Savior is the substance of who we are in the Christ. It is impossible to be a Christian if one DOES NOT believe in the existence of an Almigh-ty God who has lovingly sent His Only-Begotten Son to die and shed His precious blood for the sins of all mankind.
If anyone of us here this morning DOES NOT believe – we are promised that we will die in our sins. Remember, this is exactly what Jesus promises. Faith-believing is crucial if you and I are going to declare that we are Christians, followers of the Christ. John believes this in such desperation that throughout all of his writing, he hammers it home.
Within John’s gospel we find a story of DOUBT; the story of Thomas after the death and resurrection of the Christ. Thomas, like John, has been one of the inner-circle of disciples. He, too, has had the same opportunities as those of John – hearing Jesus teach with his own ears and seen the miracles of the Christ with his own eyes. He, too, has walked with the Master, experiencing the love of this special rabbi, no matter what.
As a matter of fact, when Jesus discloses that He is heading toward Jerusalem and when He makes His arrival there that He will be arrested, condemned and killed it is Thomas who voices his personal feelings before the others, saying, “Let’s go so we can die with Him” [John 11:16 THE VOICE].
Later when Jesus unveils to His disciples that His “…Father’s home is designed to accom-modate” all of them and that “If there were not room for everyone…” He would make that known. He then discloses: “I am going to make arrangements for your arrival. I will be there to greet you personally and welcome you home, where we will be together. You know where I am going and how to get there” [John 14:2-4 THE VOICE].
It’s at this very point that Thomas inquires, “Lord, we don’t know where You are going, so how can we know the path?” [John 14:5 THE VOICE].
To which Jesus openly responds, “I am the path, the truth, and the energy of life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” [John 14:6 THE VOICE].
As we look at this biblical character, Thomas, we have before us a picture of a true follower of the Christ, in other words, a “Christian.” He is one who deeply loves Jesus for being much more than a mere man. He treads the same paths that his rabbi trods. He is even willingly open to suffer and dies right alongside this teacher, if necessary.
But yet, Thomas has a few uncertainties that bring about questioning his faith, his believing. Thomas has doubt. Does he really believe?
Now let me make one thing very clear this morning as we question ourselves about our belieing: Spiritual uncertainties, questions and even doubt are not necessarily corrupt.
I've always been fascinated by Socrates' bold statement that "The unexamined life is not worth living." He doesn't mince words. He doesn't say that the unexamined life is "less mean-ingful than it could be" or "one of many possible responses to human existence." He simply and clearly says that an unexamined life, whether it be stimulating or boring “…is not worth living.”
Why does he make such strong, unequivocal statement?
Socrates believed that the purpose of human life was both personal and spiritual in its growth. We are unable to mature toward greater understanding of our true nature unless we take the time to examine and reflect upon life.
In other words, if we enter into faith blindly, where never ever examine what we actually do believe and exactly why we believe what we do, our faith will have a tendency to be feeble and frail.
One of my college professors noted that it actually irritated her when one of her students during an open discussion on a given topic would blurt out: “My high school teacher always said…” or “My Mom or Dad always says…” It is here that my professor would raise her voice a bit and say, “I don’t happen to know one of your high school teachers, personally. Neither do I know any of your parents. What I want to hear from you during this discussion is exactly what YOU believe.”
The problem in this situation was that we students often didn’t know what we believed. We only seemed to understand what someone else believed.
Our belief systems are inherited. Our belief systems are based upon someone else’s, not anything personal.
All of this is actually all right as far as it goes; for when it comes to spiritual matters it’s not all that uncommon among us humans. It seems the younger we are in our faith, our walk with the Christ, the more even our personal faith-beliefs are actually based upon the faith-beliefs of others.
So, if we don’t make an attempt to achieve a maturity in having our own personal faith-beliefs – in other words having faith-beliefs that is OURS and not someone else’s – our faith-beliefs will result in being downright doubt-filled.
How many here this morning has ever had an opportunity to read The DaVinci Code? If so, was your faith in any way a bit shaken? I know mine certainly was.
Being a demonically influenced book, a downright evil book, it has caused many who read the book to actually doubt their strong faith even though the accusations made within its pages are proven to be nothing more than lies and utter falsehood.
Talking a few years ago to several teens about the book, they had begun to question their faith-beliefs. They had become easy targets of the things shared by this sacrilegious book. One of these youngsters actually left the church to which he belonged and ultimately walked com-pletely away from his believing in the Christ.
Why did he allow this to happen to himself?
He walked away due to the fact that his faith and therefore his believing in the Christ wasn’t anything personal and allowed himself to begin to doubt.
We must be wary. Our world is filled with all sorts of false teachings, cultic ambitions and evil connotations that have great influence on our faith-belief as Christians.
Why?
It’s because our faith-beliefs are weak we, like the young man in the previous story, begin to doubt. We don’t actually know in what we believe and why we believe what we do. We do not have a personal faith. Instead, what we believe is what we have been taught by others and have not founded our own beliefs through our own personal discoveries.
The ultimate goal should be to have personal faith-belief systems that are based upon what we individually have received from an intimate relationship with the Christ. And upon this foun-dation we seek to discover what it means to be a true follower, to become Christ-like.
While taking journalism in college I learned of what are known as “Hey Martha” stories. Theses newspaper or magazine articles are so compelling that one can visualize a man gazing up from the article he is reading and saying, “Hey Martha – would you look at this!” or “Hey Martha – you gotta read this!” or even curiously asking, “Hey Martha – would you believe…?”
Therefore our goal in our faith-believing is to arrive at a point where, after discovering something deeply spiritual or so biblically profound that we can’t help but bursting at the seams by saying, “Hey Martha – would you look here at what God has to say!” or “Hey Martha – you outta read what Jesus has to say!” or inquisitively ask, “Hey Martha – Would you believe what the apostle Paul has to say?”
Now if you don’t mind there is something I do need to clarify at this point: My personal faith-belief in the Christ has been developed due to the faithful witness of others – great preachers and teachers, the deep faith of my mom and dad and through spiritual mentors I have come to respect and also my personal faith-belief has been influenced directly by the words of Scripture.
As a matter of fact, the apostle Paul tells us in his letter to the church of Ephesus, “You are being built on a solid foundation: the message of the prophets and the voices of God’s chosen emissaries with Jesus, the Anointed Himself, the precious cornerstone” [Ephesians 2:20 THE VOICE].
In other words, our faith and believing in the Christ can be developed via the faithful witness of other people. It is the basis of our personal faith-beliefs. But Thomas has the idea in his head to just skip over all this and ignore the witness of his closest of friend, Jesus.
If anyone here this morning has an inclination that Jesus is reprimanding Thomas in our text, you’d happen to be correct – he definitely is being a little stern. After all, Thomas’ reaction to the news of Jesus’ resurrection is a bit unwarranted.
I mean, looking into the story before us, Thomas is being encountered by the eyewitness accounts of ten very close friends with whom he has traveled with over the past three years during their rabbinical training with Jesus. Each one of them are extremely enthused and moti-vate by what they personally have experienced over the past few days. And they all seem to be challenging Thomas: “Do you believe?”
They affirm, “We have seen the Lord!” [John 20:25a THE VOICE].
But Thomas? He disregards their words, “Until I see His hands, feel the wounds of the nails, and put my hand to His side, I won’t believe what you are saying” [John 20:25b THE VOICE].
What especially catches my attention in all of this post-resurrection story are the last six words of his declaration: “I won’t believe what you are saying”
Let’s stop right there for a moment. What is he saying? “I won’t believe…” It’s not, “I have a couple of doubts here,” or “Wait a minute, I’m having a little trouble understanding what you’re telling me,” or “Whoa! You have to be trying to fool me right now.” No it’s three simple words, “I won’t believe…”
Be careful, Thomas! That’s a bit risky…that’s a daring way to respond. I mean, have some doubt may be one thing, but actually telling God what has to be done in order to have complete proof is something else altogether. Voicing those kind of demands on God and daring Him to meet your terms is a bit hazardous. Maybe instead of being called, “Doubting Thomas” he should be called, “Faithless…” or “Non-Believing Thomas.”
Therefore, Jesus scolds Thomas for his insolence: “Reach out and touch Me. See the punc-tures in My hands; reach out your hand, and put it to My side; leave behind your faithless-ness, and believe” [John 20:27 THE VOICE].
Now let’s pause here for a moment. If Thomas is being a bit demanding with the other disci-ples, with Jesus and with God, why should Jesus even take the time to be bothered to display to Thomas His wounds? Why should Jesus invite Thomas to place his finger inside the wound that had been made by the soldier’s spear? Why should Jesus even give Thomas an opportunity at any of this?
Well, the more I study this story, I must ask myself why did Thomas even make such a de-mand? I mean, when it comes right down to the truth of the matter, Thomas’ unyielding denial is so blatant! He seems to be so harsh and adamant in his demeanor.
Yet I do have to understand that in Thomas’ mind it has only been a little over one week since Jesus’ death. It also emerges that at this point in his life and all of the circumstances surrounding Jesus’ death, Thomas may be a little ticked and downright furious at what has happened to his Master.
After all, Thomas has been traveling with Jesus now going on three years. He was so ena-mored with Jesus that he had been willing to come here to Jerusalem and die for the cause. But then upon arrival in Jerusalem Thomas sees Jesus being betrayed by Judas, arrested by the temple guard, placed on trial before the Sanhedrin, brought before Pontius Pilate, beaten like a piece of meat, crucified like a common criminal and then die right before his very eyes. And on top of it all, neither he nor his comrades could do anything to stop any of these actions. None of them even made an attempt to do so! Instead, he and his closest friends ran away!
This may be the reasoning behind the fact that Thomas wasn’t with the other disciples the first time Jesus had appeared to them after the resurrection. I can’t imagine Thomas out doing errands or visiting a relative who’d stayed behind in Jerusalem after the Passover Feast. I believe Thomas is completely avoiding his friends altogether. After all, he is deeply hurt and awfully an-gry. He’s probably out somewhere hiding and sulking on his own.
Thomas isn’t acting cantankerous toward God and he’s definitely not attempting to be un-reasonable either. He is mainly confused about his feelings. On top of this he is definitely un-willing to accept such a concocted story.
Therefore, when Thomas final is confronted by Jesus, Jesus shows Thomas no sympathy. He instead grants Thomas what he has coming to him, right there, right then. What Jesus does is to assist Thomas moving beyond an intellectual belief system…to a personal belie system.
It is such an awe-inspiring occurrence for Thomas that he immediately collapses to his knees and wails, “You are the one True God and Lord of my life” [John 20:28 THE VOICE]. It is at this very point in Thomas’ life that he finally realizes he has a Savior and begins the greatest trans-formation of his life.
Jesus immediately divulges to Thomas, “Thomas, you have faith because you have seen Me. [John 20:29a THE VOICE]. But Jesus doesn’t end here. He goes on far beyond just Thomas and his lack of faith and believing. Jesus continues, “Blessed are all those who never see Me and yet they still believe.” [John 20:29b THE VOICE].
Here we are…let me repeat Jesus’ words: “Blessed are all those who never see Me and yet they still believe.” [John 20:29b THE VOICE]. This is not just for Thomas. It isn’t just for the other ten disciples in the room, either. It is for us as well!
If there is anyone here this morning who is not quite sure how you would answer the ques-tion “Do you believe?” then you need to fall at the feet of the Christ and seek an answer. What is it that God needs to do for you to convince you to say along with Thomas, “You are the one True God and Lord of my life.” Or are you considering to approach God with a few unreason-able demands, like Thomas, asking for an undoubted proof that He says who He is? Maybe you’re praying God will come to you in a quiet moment and show Himself to be real? So what or Who is it going to take for us to faithfully believe?
Jesus says the following in Mark’s gospel: “Anyone who believes…will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned” [Mark 16:16 NLV].
Let me end with a final question: “Do… you… believe?”
